Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/759

* CHINESE LANGUAGE. 661 CHINESE LANGUAGE. "Book of Changes," probably the oldest of the 'Five Classics,' is ascribed to Wen Wang, found- er of the L'hou (or Chow) Dynasty in the Twelfth Century B.C. It consists of a series of apparently random deductions based upon the groupings of divided and undivided lines said originally to have been copied and arranged from the back of a tortoise by the chief l-"u Hsi. thirty-three cen- turies B.C. The eight diagrams of triplet lines (thus. =, = =, ^, etc.) were enlarged to sixty-four by doubling into se.tets, each representing some natural force or element and followed by a short essay ascribing to every line its highly fanciful and allegorical import. The text is followed by ten winy, or commentaries, long ascribed to Ccmfucius, but unquestionably of later origin. It is impossible to do more th.in guess as to the real purpose of this antique puzzle, foreign speculators calling it a philosophy, a vocabulary of pre-Chinese tribes, a calendar of the lunar year, etc.. while the natives persist in venerating it as divinely inspired, though tUey cannot interpret its true meaning. The "Book of History" embodies, like the Hebrew Scripture, fragments of vei"Ti' ancient documents: but its present form is the work of Confucius, who in- fused into its brief and rather monotonous rec- ords his ideas of virtue, statecraft, and phi- losophy. Though its text is not always beyond dispute, this record places China indisputably in the first rank of Asiatic nations for its au- thentic data on ancient times. Scarcely less im- portant in this respect, and as a sociological do<mment. is the "'Book of Odes," while its hu- man and literary interest far surpasses all the other ('hinf/. This poetical relic consists of 305 odes, chants, and ballads, said to have been gar- nered by the Sage from 3000 songs current in China at his time. They date from the Eigh- teenth to the Sixth Cent'jry B.C., and many if not most of them seem to have a religious use and meaning: but it is hardly possible to exag- gerate their interest to the scholar as true pic- tures of the life and thought of antiquity, or their value in illustrating the language, cvilts, and customs of old China. They have inspired eighty generations of Chinamen since Confucius expressed approval of them by declaring that "He who knows not the .S7n7i stands with his face toward a wall." The fourth classic, the "Book of Rites." does not properly belong to the Con- fucian period, being the compilation of two cousins named Tai, in the First Centurj- B.C. It got its present form after remodeling in the Second Century ..D., and until the Fourteenth Cen- tury was always joined with two older works — the C/io« [.i and / Li — both devoted, as it was, to ceremonial forms and usages. The "Spring and Autumn Annal.s" is the title of a brief rec- ord of Confucius's native State between the years 72'2-484 B.C., written by the Sage himself, a book upon which he considered his reputation would stand for all time. It is hardly more than a simple statement of events, devoid of comment or interest, bjit its dry annals were expanded by the illimiinating eommentarv of his disciple. Tso, who made it altogether one of the most read- able accounts we have of the remote past, earn- ing for its author the title of the Froissart of ancient China. The 'Four Books' are the works of three dis- ciples of the Sage and of Mencius, his great ex- positor, in the century following his death. The "Analects" gives some accounts of the habits and records the teachings of the great moralist as nearly as possible in his own words, thus forming an invaluable repository of information about Con- fucius and his moral system, in this is formu- lated the famous text of altruism, the Golden Rule in its Chinese form, "Wliat you would not others should do unto you. do not unto them;" and here arc expressed his ideas as to the nature of man, the necessity of education, of etiquette, of self-repression, of filial .surrender, and here his agnosticism stands out in bold relief. The "Book of Jleng tsz"," or Mencius. supplies at rather greater length the teachings of Confucius's greatest follower, a man who subordinated his whole doctrine to the system of his master, but who in breadth and strength of character seems to have been superior to the Sage himself. Like Socrates, he devoted himself to crushing the sophists of his time, and through his learning and influence in combating heterodox philoso- phers he may be said to have established the supremacy of the Confucian system in the mind of China. As third among the 'Four Books' comes the Ta llsiirh [or Uioh], the ''(Jreat Learn- ing," once constituting a chapter of the "Book of Rites."' It enlarges upon the regulation of the individual, the family, the State, and the Empire, and has conduced, theoretically at least, to the maintenance during successive ages of China's political solidarity under a system allow- ing consiiierable liberty of home rule. Lastly, the Chung Ytiny, also originally a section of the "Book of Rites." develops the idea of the prince- ly man who. basing his actions uikui the prin- ciple of rliiny, or uprightness, and submitting to tlie all-pervading }io, or harmony of the universe, never departs from the just mean. From this source come in great part the attitude of calm and the assumption of impartiality studiously cultivated by Chinese gentlemen. In a sense these classical works may be con- sidered the sum and substance of Chinese litera- ture, for not only have the example and ethical system of Confucius become supreme over the minds of his countr™ien, but forms of thought and style have ever been kept subservient to these early products of the national genius. Con- fucius did nuich for his people, but he has much to answer for in repressing original speculation, freedom of research, and imagination by a color- less formalism. Such was the idea of the 'First Emperor' Ch'in, who two centuries after the death of Confucius consolidated feudal China into a real empire and greatly extended its do- main. In order to combat the conservative lit- erati who resisted his violent and rapid reforms by preaching the doctrines of the dead past, he decreed in B.C. 213 the destruction of all books excepting those on science, agriculture, and divi- nation (the last saving the / chiny alone of the classics), and forbidding their reproduction or study. The edict, which was carried out v.-ith extraordinarj' thoroughness, brought death upon 4fi0 recalcitrant scholars, and forms an epoch in the history of Chinese letters. The tyrant's dynasty did not endure long, and within a half-century of his death the ancient learning was revived with double zest under the Han Dynasty (b.c. 200-a.d. 200). The new zeal also brought with it a harvest of forgeries of old works alleged to have been discovered in hiding- places, but really efforts of clever writers to