classic, viz. Kung-yung, Tso-shi, and Ko-leang.
When the six classics are understood, the ancient Tsi may be read, and their important parts collected together, and committed to memory. There are five of them; Siun, Yang, Wen-Chung, Lao, and Choang.
The King and Tsi being passed through, history may be read. It examines ages as they succeed one another; and by it are known the end and the beginning.
[History commences] from Fo-hi, and proceeds to Shun-nung and Hoang-ti, three emperors who lived in the highest antiquity.
The two emperors Tang or Yao,[1] and Yu or Shun, both governed the empire well, and resigned the throne to worthy persons of their own family; the former to the latter, and he again to Hia or Yin, who left it to his own son Shang or Tang. Then followed the dynasty Cheu, under
- ↑ The first word is the epithet assumed on ascending the throne; the second is the proper name.
