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70 THE ANALECTS : INTRODUCTION.
disciples of the Sage, but to the disciples of Ts6ng and Yu.
To the disciples of these men Ch'_ng Tz_ _ -_, Chutz_'s
Master, whom Chutz_ approvingly quotes, ascribes the
book, or at least its final compilation. " The Book,of the
Conversations," says he, " was completed by the disciples
of Yu Tz_t and TsSng Tzfi, hence these are the only two
.styled 'philbsophers' in its pages."* In this statement
however there is an apparent error, for ]an-tz_ is twice so
styled ; VI. 3 and XIII. 14 ; but not as uttering any maxim.
Even Ch'6ng-tzft'_ wise inference is not entirely satisfactory,
for, without some recorded foundation for their
work, these disciples of disciples could never have produced
the book with which we are dealing. The theory
the present writer would propound, a theory he considers
sufficiently attested by the internal as well as the historical
evidence, is that the disciples of Ts_ng Tzft and Yu Tz_
merely edited records already existing in the hands of
their masters, the sayings attributed to those masters being
their own addition. In other words that there was a
compilation already in existence, possibly unarranged and
formless, which they edited and brought into its present
order. The variety of matter contained in the book, and
the explicitness of its detail, indicate that the editors of our
present version had material, and probably written material,
for their self-imposed task'.
As to the date of such editorship it seems likely that it
took place after the death of Ts_ng Tz_, if as the text