the expressions ‘duke Chwang’ and ‘duke Hëen’ are retrospective, and not after the manner of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw.
With regard to the entry in III. vii. 2, that ‘at midnight there was a fall of stars like rain,’ referring, we must believe, to a grand appearance of meteors, Kung-yang tells us that the old text of the historiographers was—‘It rained stars to within a foot of the earth, when they re-ascended’? Certainly the text was not altered here by Confucius to express either praise or censure. And if Kung-yang was able thus to quote the old text, it is strange he should only have done it in this solitary instance. If it had been so different from the present, with his propensities he would not have been slow to adduce it frequently. I must doubt his correctness in this case.
After the first entry under the 14th year of duke Gae, with which according to all Chinese critics the labours of Confucius terminated, Tso-she gives no fewer than 27 paragraphs, bringing the history down to the death of the sage in Gae’s 16th year. Those paragraphs were added, it is said, from the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw of Loo by Confucius’ disciples; and I can see no difference between the style in them, and in the more than a thousand which passed under the revision of the master.
Is it a sign of my having imbibed something of the prejudice of native scholars, of which I spoke in the end of last section, that I do not like to express my opinion that Confucius did not alter a character in his authorities? Certainly he made no alterations to convey his sentiments of praise or blame;—the variations of style where there could be no change of sentiment or feeling underlying them forbid our supposing this.
SECTION III.
RECOVERY OF THE CH‘UN TS‘EW DURING THE HAN DYNASTY. WAS THIS INDEED THE CH‘UN TS‘EW OF CONFUCIUS?
1. Lëw Hin’s catalogue of the Works in the imperial library of the early Han dynasty, prepared, as I have shown in the proleg. to vol. I., p. 4, about the commencement of our Christian era, begins, on the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw, with two collections of the text of the Classic:—Evidence of Lëw Hin's Catalogue of the Han imperial library.‘The old text of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw in twelve p‘ëen; and ‘The text of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw
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