Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 3.djvu/485

Rh great state of Kin was broken up in the fifth century, tells us that the marquis Wăn received, in 407, the classical books from Pû ze-hsiâ, and mentions the names of two other disciples of Confucius, with whom he was on intimate terms of friendship. There remains the title of a commentary on the Hsiâo King by this marquis Wăn; and the book was existing in the time of hâi Yung ( 133–192), who gives a short extract from it in one of his treatises.

The recovery of our classic after the fires of Khin will be related in the next chapter. Assuming here that it was recovered, we look into it, and find a conversation, or memoranda, perhaps, of several conversations, between Confucius and his disciple ăng-ze. The latter, however, is little more than a listener, to whom the sage delivers his views on Filial Piety in its various relations. There are two recensions of the text;—one in eighteen chapters, and the other in twenty-two. As edited in eighteen chapters, each of them has a very brief descriptive heading. I have given this in the subjoined translation, but the headings cannot be traced back beyond the commentary of the emperor Hsüan.

The saying attributed by Ho Hsiû and others to Confucius would seem to indicate that he had himself composed the work, but the reader of it sees at once that it could not have proceeded from him. Nor do the style and method of the treatise suggest a view which has had many advocates,—that it was written by ăng-ze, under the direction of the master. There is no reason, however, why we should not accept the still more common account,—that the Hsiâo came from the school of ăng-ze. To use the words of Hû Yin, an author of the first half of our twelfth century:—'The Classic of Filial Piety was not made by ăng-ze himself. When he retired from his conversation (or conversations) with Kung-nî on the subject of Filial Piety, he repeated to the disciples of his own school what (the master) had said, and they classified the sayings, and formed the treatise.'