日講四書義解, 'A Paraphrase for Daily Lessons, Explaining the Meaning of the Four Books.' This work was produced in 1677, by a department of the members of the Han-lin college, in obedience to an imperial rescript. The paraphrase is full, perspicuous, and elegant.
御製周易折中; 書經傳說彙纂; 詩經傳說彙纂; 禮記義疏; 春秋傳說彙纂. These works form together a superb edition of the Five Ching, published by imperial authority
in the K'ang-hsi and Yung-chang reigns. They contain the standard views (傳); various opinions (說); critical decisions of the editors (晏) ; prolegomena; plates or cuts; and other apparatus for the student.
毛西河先生全集, 'The Collected Writings of Mao Hsi-ho.' See prolegomena, p. 20. The voluminousness of his Writings is understated there. Of 經集, or Writings on the Classics, there are 236 sections, while his 文集, or other literary compositions, amount to 257 sections. His treatises on the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean have been especially helpful to me. He is a great opponent of Chu Hsi, and would be a much more effective one, if he possessed the same graces of style as that 'prince of literature.'
四書拓餘說, 'A Collection of Supplemental Observations on the Four Books.' The preface of the author, Ts'ao Chih-shang (曹之升), is dated in 1795, the last year of the reign of Ch'ien-lung. The work contains what we may call prolegomena on each of the Four Books, and then excursus on the most difficult and disputed passages. The tone is moderate, and the learning displayed extensive and solid. The views of Chu Hsi are frequently well defended from the assaults of Mao Hsi-ho. I have found the Work very instructive.
鄉黨圖考, 'On the Tenth Book of the Analects, with Plates.' This Work was published by the author, Chiang Yung (江永), in the twenty-first Ch'ien-lung year, A.D. 1761, when he was seventy-six years old. It is devoted to the illustration of the above portion of the Analects, and is divided into ten sections, the first of which consists of woodcuts and tables. The second contains the Life of Confucius, of which I have largely availed myself in the preceding chapter. The whole is a remarkable specimen of the minute care with which Chinese scholars have illustrated the Classical Books
四書釋地; 四書釋地續; 四書釋地又續; 四書釋地三續. We may call these volumes-- 'The Topography of the Four Books; with three Supplements.' The Author's name is Yen Zo-ch'u (閻若璩). The first volume was published in 1698, and the second in 1700. I have not been able to find the dates of publication of the other two, in which there is more biographical and general matter than topographical. The author apologizes for the inappropriateness of their titles by saying that he could not
help calling them Supplements to the Topography, which was his 'first love.'
皇清經解, 'Explanations of the Classics, under the Imperial Ts'ing Dynasty.' See above, p. 20. The Work, however, was not published, as I have there supposed, by imperial authority, but under the superintendence, and at the expense (aided by other officers), of Yuan Yuan (阮元), Governor-general of Kwang-tung and Kwang-hsi, in the ninth year of the last reign, 1829. The publication of so extensive a Work shows a public spirit and zeal for literature among the high officers of China, which should keep foreigners from thinking meanly of them.
孔子家語, 'Sayings of the Confucian Family.' Family is to be taken in the sense of Sect or School. In Liu Hsin's Catalogue, in the subdivision devoted to the Lun Yu, we find the entry:-- 'Sayings of the Confucian Family, twenty-seven Books,' with a note by Yen Sze-ku of the T'ang dynasty,-- 'Not the existing Work called the Family Sayings.' The original Work was among the treasures found in the wall of Confucius's old house, and was deciphered and edited by K'ung An-kwo. The present Work is by Wang Su of the Wei (魏) dynasty, grounded professedly on the older one, the blocks of which had suffered great dilapidation during the intervening centuries. It is allowed also, that, since Su's time, the Work has suffered more than any of the acknowledged Classics. Yet it is a very valuable fragment of antiquity, and it would be worth while to incorporate it with the Analects. My copy is the edition of Li Yung (李容), published in 1780. I have generally called the Work 'Narratives of the School.'