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Rh expression of praise or blame, is no better than the gropings of a man in a dream. In this I fully agree with him, but as he has said that the ‘slip-notices of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw’ should not be inconsistent with the facts in a detailed narrative of the events to which they refer, he seems to push the point as to the colourlessness of the notices to an extreme, when he adds the following illustration of it on the authority of a brother of his own:—‘The deaths of princes and great officers recorded in the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw took place in various ways; but they all appear under the same form—“died.” Thus in V. xxiv. 5 it is said that “E-woo, marquis of Tsin, died,” the fact being that he was slain; in X. viii. 2 it is said that “Neih, marquis of Ch‘in, died,” the fact being that he strangled himself; in II. v. 1 it is said that “Paou, marquis of Ch‘in, died,” the fact being that he went mad and died; in XI. xiv. 6 it is said that “Kwang, Viscount of Woo, died,” the fact being that he did so of wounds received in battle; in XI. iii. 2 it is said that “Ch‘uen, Viscount of Woo, died,” the fact being that he burned himself to death; in III. xxxii. 3 it is said that “the Kung-tsze Ya died,” the fact being that he was compelled to take poison; in X. iv. 8 it is said that “Shuh-sun Paou died,” the fact being that he was starved to death; in X. xxv. 7 it is said that “Shuh-sun Shay died,” the fact being that he did so in answer to his own prayers; and in X. xxix. 3, it is said that “Shuh E died,” the fact being that he did so without any illness. The one word “died,” is used in such a variety of cases, and it is only one who knows profoundly the style of the text who can explain the comprehensive meaning of the term.’⁵ But there is no meaning in the term beyond that of dying, and the conclusion of the mind is that the death indicated by it was a natural one. It is not history in any proper sense of the term which is given in such an undiscriminating style.

7. The reader has now a suﬂiciently accurate idea of what all the annals that went under the name of Ch‘un Ts‘ëw were, of what especially the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw still existing and with which we have to do is. It only remains for me in this section to inquire whether we have reason to believe that Confucius made any changes in the style of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw of Loo.

On this point, as on so many others connected with the Work, we have not sufficient evidence to pronounce a very decided opinion. We are without a single word about it from Confucius himself, or from any of his immediate disciples; and from later scholars and 13]