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Rh men generally would in his days speak of them. What is really perplexing is that in the same account the same individual is now called by his name, now by his honorary epithet, and now by his designation, or by one or other of his designations if he had more than one, so that the narrative becomes very confused, and it requires considerable research on the part of the reader to make out who is denominated in all this variety of ways. To give only one example—in the account of the battle of Peih, in the 12th year of duke Seuen, of the leaders on the side of Tsin, we have, 1st, Seun Lin-foo, who by and by is styled Hwan-tsze; 2d, Sze Hwuy, who is variously denominated Woo-tsze of Suy, Suy Ke, and Sze Ke, while elsewhere he is called Woo-tsze of Fan; 3d, Sëen Hwoh, also called Che-tsze, and elsewhere Yuen Hwoh, or Hwoh of Yuen; 4th, Seun Show, called also Che Chwang-tsze and Che Ke; 5th, Han Keueh, by and by Han Hëen-tsze; 6th, Lwan Shoo, by and by Lwan Woo-tsze; 7th, Chaou Soh, by and by Chaou Chwang-tsze; and 8th, Keih K‘ih, by and by Keih Hëen-tsze. Similar instances might be quoted in great number. Chaou Yih says that such a method of varying names and appellations was characteristic of the style of that time. If, indeed, it was characteristic of the time, I must think that Tso possessed it in an exaggerated degree. The confusion produced by it in his Work seems to have led to its cure. Sze-ma Ts‘ëen and the writers of the Books of Han are careful, at the commencement of their biographies, to give the surname, name, and designation or designations of their subjects, so that the student has none of the perplexity in reading them, which he finds with Tso’s Chuen.

The other two points regarding the Work, which I indicated are of more importance, and I will consider them together. Have we reason to receive Tso’s narratives as reliable, having been transcribed by him from pre-existent records with merely such modifications of style as suited his taste? Or did he invent some of them himself? Or were they added to by writers in the Ts‘in dynasty and that of 32]