Page:Horæ Sinicæ, Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese (horsinictran00morrrich, Morrison, 1812).djvu/21

Rh classic, viz. Kung-yung, Tso-shi, and Ko-leang.

When the six classics are understood, the ancient Tsi may be read, and their important parts collected together, and committed to memory. There are five of them; Siun, Yang, Wen-Chung, Lao, and Choang.

The King and Tsi being passed through, history may be read. It examines ages as they succeed one another; and by it are known the end and the beginning.

[History commences] from Fo-hi, and proceeds to Shun-nung and Hoang-ti, three emperors who lived in the highest antiquity.

The two emperors Tang or Yao, and Yu or Shun, both governed the empire well, and resigned the throne to worthy persons of their own family; the former to the latter, and he again to Hia or Yin, who left it to his own son Shang or Tang. Then followed the dynasty Cheu, under