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The author is glad to be able to publish his fifth volume in less than twelve months after the publication of the fourth. There remain now only the Le Ke and the Yih King to be translated and annotated, and then the task which he undertook will be fully accomplished. As he must return to England in the course of next year, he cannot say when the publication of those two Works may be looked for. He will certainly not allow anything to interfere with the completion of his labours upon them; but the Le Ke is so very voluminous, and the Yih King is so entirely sui generis, that this will yet require some years. It will then have to be considered whether he can get them printed in England, or must return once more to Hongkong for that purpose. Moreover, the publication of them must depend in a good measure on the sale which the volumes already issued may continue to have.

The present volume contains not only the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw of Confucius, but also the Commentary on it by Tso K‘ëw-ming. Had the author been content to publish merely the text of the Classic, with a translation of it, the volume would have been of small compass. But without the narratives of Tso the annals of the Sage would have given a most meagre and unsatisfactory account of the period covered by them. He did not therefore shrink from the great additional labour required to translate the whole of Tso’s Work; and he believes it will be acknowledged that he has thereby rendered an important service to students of Chinese literature and to his readers generally. From the narratives of Tso there may be gathered as full and interesting an account of the history of China, from B.C.721 to about 460, as we have of any of the nations of Europe during the Middle Ages.