purpose. As he generally introduces them chronologically, at the time of their occurrence, he seems at times merely to increase the mass of indigested matter; but by and by we find what he has thus related to stand in the relation of cause to something subsequently chronicled. But his method with these additions to the text, which are yet connected with it, is very various. As Too Yu says, ‘Now he anticipates the text to show the origin of an affair; now he comes after the text [with his narrative] to bring out fully the meaning; now he lies alongside the text to discriminate the principles in it; and now he appears to cross the text to bring together things that differ:—thus various according to what he considered the requirements of the case.'[1] What is very surprising is that he does not appear to be conscious of frequent discrepancies between the details of his narratives and the things as stated by Confucius. Now and then, as on VI. xviii. 6, he says that the text conceals the nature of the fact; but generally he seems insensible of the untrustworthiness of the representation in it.
Let it be understood, however, that Tso does not give the details of every event which the Classic briefly indicates. We must suppose that where he does not do so, his sources of information failed him, and he was obliged to leave the notice of the text as it was. There is the erroneous or defective entry in III. xxiv. 9,—‘The duke of Kwoh.’ On it Tso says nothing. So on the five paragraphs of Chwang’s 26th year he has nothing to say, while he introduces brief narratives of two other things, for the latter of which only we can account as being given with an outlook into the future. Generally speaking, the information given in the Chuen is scanty or abundant in proportion to its distance from or nearness to the era assigned to its compilation. The 18 years of duke Hwan, B.C. 710–693, occupy in the following Work 37 pages; the 15 years of duke Ting, B.C. 508–494, 50 pages. The 32 years of Chwang, B.C. 692–661, occupy 59 pages; the 32 of Ch‘aou, B.C. 540–509, 173 pages. This certainly gives us for the Work one attribute of verisimilitude.[2]
- ↑ 傳先經以始事,或後經以終義,或依經以辯理,或錯經以合異,隨義而發;—see Too's preface.
- ↑ I take the opportunity to advert here to a question which has produced no end of speculation and discussion among the scholars of China—Why does the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw begin with duke Yin? Might we not have expected the sage to go back to the first origin of the State of Loo? I believe that the only reasonable answer to these inquiries is this—that the annals of the State previous to duke Yin's rule had been altogether lost, or were in such a miserable state of dilapidation and disarrangement that nothing could be made of them. We might have expected a sentence or two from the sage to enlighten us on the subject; but his oracle is dumb. Neither does the Chuen say anything about it. How different the practice of writers of history in the West!
29]
