Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/58

 says in a note that Confucius speaks of this Tâo in a way not unlike Lâo-jze in the Tâo Teh King, adding that "these two fathers of Chinese philosophy had on this mysterious Being ideas nearly similar." But a close examination of the passage, which is itself remarkable, shows that this resemblance between it and passages of the Tâoist classic does not exist. See my concluding note on the Book. If there were a Tâoist semblance in the phraseology, it would make us refer the composition of the Treatise to the time of Khin or the early days of Han, when Tâoism had taken a place in the national literature which it had not had under the dynasty of Kâu.

The title of this Book is taken from the four characters with which it commences. Confucius has returned from his attendance at the court of Lû, and is at home in his own house. Three of his disciples are sitting by him, and his conversation with them flows on till it has reached the subject of ceremonial usages. In reply to their questions, he discourses on it at length, diverging also to the subjects of music and the practice of government in connexion with ceremonies, in a familiar and practical manner.

He appears in the title by his designation, or name as married, Kung-nî, which we find also two or three times in Book XXVIII, which is received as the composition of his grandson Khung Kî, or Зze-sze. This Treatise, however, is much shorter than that, and inferior to it. The commentator Wang of Shih-liang, often quoted by Khǎn Hâo, says, that though this Treatise has a beginning and end, the style and ideas are so disjected and loose, that many of the utterances attributed to Confucius cannot be accepted as really his.