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Rh us of Han Ying’s Illustrations of the She, of which I have given specimens in the proleg. to vol. IV. Choo He well asks what connexion the concluding portion of the Chuen after I. vi. 2 has to do with what precedes, and points out many reﬂections in other parts which cannot be considered as the utterances of a superior man but the speculations of a mere scholar. Lin Leih of the Sung dynasty and a multitude of other scholars attribute all these passages to Lëw Hin. They certainly seem to me to bear upon them the Han stamp.

[ii.] There is a host of passages which contain predictions of the future, or allusions to such predictions, grounded on divination, meteorological and astrological considerations, and something in the manner or deportment of the parties concerned;—predictions which turn out to be true. The following is a list of passages of the character spoken of:—on I. iii. 5; vii. after 4; II. ii. 4; ix. 4; III. i. at the beginning; xi. 3; xx. at the beg.; xxi. 2; xxii. 3; xxxii. after 1; IV. i. at the end; ii. after 3; V. ii. after 3; xi. after 1; xii. 3d after 1; xiv. 4; xv. 13; xxii. at the end; xxxi. 9; VI. i. 8; v. after 3; ix. 12; x. 3; xiv. 5; xv. 12; VII. iii. 4, 8; iv. last but one; xiv. 6; xv. last but one; VIII. xiv. 1; xv. 7; xvi. at the end: IX. xi. 8; xxiv. 5, and at the end; xxvii. 5; xxix. 2d and 4th after 1, 8; xxx. 7, and after 7; xxxi. at the beg., 2, 5, and after 7; X. 2, and 2d after 2, 4; vii. 4; ix. 3; x. at the beg.; xi. 2, 3, and after 3; xii. 3; xv. 2, and after 6; xviii. at the beg.; xx. at the beg.; xxi. at the beg., 1; xxv. 1; xxxi. 7; xxxii. 2, 4; XI. ix. 3; xv. 1; XII. ix. after 4. In the ,, this set of passages is touched on. It is said:— (on III. xxii. 3), (IV. i. at the end), , (VI. xiii. at the beg.), ,,, (V. xiv. 3), ,, (III. vii. 2),. Choo He often speaks very doubtfully about Tso's Chuen. E.g. ,, but this last insinuation is mere surmise. We may be sure that none of these were made at the time assigned to them in the Chuen. Some of them which had their fulfilment before the end of the Ch‘un Ts‘ëw period may have been current in Tso’s days, and incorporated by him with his narrative. Others, like the ending of the Chow dynasty after an existence of so many hundred years, the fulfilment of which was at a later date, were, no doubt, fabricated subsequently to that fulfilment, and interpolated during the time of the first Han.

But after deducting all these suspicious portions from Tso’s Chuen, there remains the mass of it, which we may safely receive as having been compiled by him from records made contemporaneously with the events, and transmitted by him with the graces of his own style. It is, in my opinion, the most precious literary treasure which has come down to posterity from the Chow dynasty.

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