Page:Columbia University Lectures on Literature (1911).djvu/98

84 bamboo tablets, the old style of writing, it was called the "Bamboo Book" annals. But the most important work in the "Annals" style is the "Mirror of History" by Ssi-ma Kuang, who died in 1086 a.d. A century after him it was republished with copious amplifications and commentaries under the title T'ung-kién-kang-mu. The substance of this work has been reproduced in Father de Mailla's celebrated French "Histoire de la Chine."

These are the principal divisions of the historical section, which is, of course, very far from being exhausted by the few works I have named. The Imperial Catalogue contains hundreds of titles of books of great importance, though not included in the standard histories, works on biography and geography, descriptions of ancient capitals, and accounts of foreignsforeign [sic] nations. Among geographical works China can boast of thousands of local gazetteers, resembling each other in general arrangement, the so-called ch&iuml;. Provinces, prefectures, magistracies, famous hills, lakes, and rivers, even convents and temples, have their ch&iuml;, giving accounts of their history, topography, antiquities, local literature, etc. The water-courses of the empire in its widest extent are represented by detailed accounts, one of the best known among which is the Shui-king, or "Water Classic," with its commentary, a most valuable source of historical geography in about 500 A.D. Reports on their journeys by celebrated Buddhist devotees, such as Fa Hién and Hüan Tsang, each of whom spent about fifteen years in India in the fifth and seventh centuries respectively, also appear among historical books. So does the political cyclopedia of 800 A.D., the T'ung-tién, and its continuation by Ma Tuan-lin, the W&ouml;n-hién-t'ung-k'au of 1322. Works on government and law, the several catalogues of public and private libraries, together with quite a long list of works on stone and bronze inscriptions, contain titles of great importance.

The third Treasury is that of the Philosophers (tzï). This