enforcing the Li Chi. Its other principal duty is to manage the workings of the examination system.[1]
The fifth classic, Chun Chiu, or 'Spring and Autumn Annals' is generally ascribed to Confucius himself, though not surely. It is a very brief record of the chief events between 722 and 484 B.C. in Lu, the native state of the sage. It seems to have been intended as a continuation of the 'Book of History,' but critics have shown that it is not only biased and unjust to the facts, but wilfully misleads. With it as it now exists there is associated the amplifying and vivifying commentary of Tso, a follower of Confucius, and without this, these annals, in spite of the fame of their reputed author, would not have merited and might not have received the attention that Chinese scholars have accorded them.
With these nine books the Chinese student saturates his mind in preparation for the examinations, and from them derives his training in sociology, ethics, political and other maxims, cosmogony, history, and historical romancing, poetry, and, by no means least, in manners. As Mr. R. E. Lewis has expressed it: "Though the curriculum is largely religious in its control, yet it provides practically no teaching of Theism. Though it is the permanent support of absolutism, yet it guarantees large liberties to the populace."
The classics which have been noted are by no means the whole of Chinese literature with which the aspirant for literary honors must be familiar. In order that his interpretation may be accurate as well as orthodox, he must consult some 1,120 commentaries on the 'Five Classics' and 170 on the 'Four Books.' For the scholar who has secured his first and second degrees there is the vast literature, over 3,000 volumes, of poetry, drama, romance and encyclopedic works covering with fluctuations in volume the stretch from 200 B.C. to the present time, though of course the later works are at a discount as compared with the more ancient. Professor Giles, of Cambridge University, has given an excellent review in his recent 'Chinese Literature' as has also Dr. Martin in his 'Lore of Cathay.'
- ↑ Both the examination system and the Board of Rites were abolished by imperial edicts of September and October, 1905.
