THE SHE KING; OR, THE BOOK OF ANCIENT POETRY

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12 THE SHE AFTEK CONFUCIUS. THE SOURCES OF THE ODES AS A COLLECTION.
digest of the differences between its text and those of the
other three recensions, at the command of the emperor
Ming (A.D. 58 75). Ma Yung (A.D. 69 165) followed
with another commentary; and we arrive at Ch'ing
Heuen, or Ch'ing K'ang-shing, who wrote his " Supple
mentary Commentary to the She of Maou," and his
"Chronological Introduction to the She." The former
of these two Works complete, and portions of the latter,
are still extant. That the former has great defects as
well as great merits, there can be no question; but it
took possession of the literary world of China, and after
the time of Ch'ing the other three texts were little heard
of, while the names of the commentators on Maou's text
and his explanations of it speedily become very numerous.
Maou's grave is still shown near the village of Tsun-fuh,
in the departmental district of Ho-keen.
5. Returning now to what I said in the 2nd paragraph,
it will be granted that the appearance of three different
and independent texts, immediately after the rise of the
Han dynasty, affords the most satisfactory evidence of
The different t^le recovery of the Book of Poetry, as it had
texts guarantee continued from the time of Confucius. Untho
integrity of ,, ,
the recovered tortuiiately only fragments of them remain
Blle' now; but we have seen that they were dili
gently compared by competent scholars with one another,
and with the fourth text of Maou, which subsequently
got the field to itself. In the body of the larger Work
attention is called to many of their peculiar readings;
Thetextswere and it is clear to me that their variations
^fi'iS'from from ne another and from Maou's text arose
citation. from the alleged fact that the preservation
of the odes was owing to their being transmitted by re
citation. The rhyme helped the memory to retain them,
and while wood, bamboo, and silk were all consumed by
the flames of Ts'in, when the time of repression ceased
scholars would be eager to rehearse their stores. It
was inevitable that the same sounds, when taken down by
different writers, should in many cases be represented by
different characters. Accepting the text as it exists, we
have no reason to doubt that it is a near approximation
to that which was current in the time of Confucius.
CHAPTER II.
THE SOURCES OF THE ODES AS A COLLECTION; THEIR
INTERPRETATION AND AUTHORS; THE PREFACES
AND THEIR AUTHORITY.
APPENDIX A CH-EOKOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE ODES.
1. IT has been shown in the first section of last chapter
that the Book of Poetry existed as a collection of odes
before the time of Confucius. It becomes a question of
some interest whether we can ascertain how the collection
came to be formed, and account for {he gaps that now
exist in it, how there are no poetical memorials at
all of several of the reigns of the Chow kings, How wore the
and how the first Part embraces only a por- tii^nr
tion of the States of which the kingdom was g ^
Composed. incomplete?
2. Sir Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun tells us the opinion
of " a very wise man," that " if a man were permitted to
make all the ballads of a nation, he need not care who
should make its laws/' 1 The theory of Chinese scholars
is, that it was the duty of the kings to make themselves
acquainted with all the odes and songs current in the
different States, and to judge from them of The theory of
the character of the rule exercised by their Sbout^a^oUec-
several princes, so that they might minister fo^govenTment-
praise or blame, reward or punishment, ac- ai purposes.
cordingly.
1 See Fletcher's account of " a Conversation on Governments." Sir
John Davis (The Poetry of the Chinese, p. 3o) adduces the remark of a
writer in the Spectator (No. 502) : " I have heard that a minister of
State in the reign of Queen Elizabeth had all manner of hooks and
ballads brought to him, of what kind soever, and took great notice how
much they took with the people ; upon which he would, and certainly
might, very well judge of their present dispositions, and of the most
proper way of applying them according to his own purposes."