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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1888.
other state occasions. Chow-kung wrote a part possessing their authority. On the other of the local songs, and the other portions of side, it should be said, that there are many these songs were made official by their recep- good moral statemente in this old book. As a tion into the royal collection. Whether Con- picture of what the Chinese thought in the fucius rejected some or not, is a debated twelfth century before Christ it is indeed inquestion. Yuen-mei says no. Chau-yi saye valuable. he rejected more than 200. Both of these This book and the others constitute the learned scholars belonged to the last century. Bible of the Chinese. The great credit of Legge thinks Confucius did nothing to the Confucius amongst his countrymen is based on book. But, however that may be, it has many bis repute as an Ezra in fixing the canon, sweet pictures of early manners. It has high besides being generally their chief guide in praise for sages and for the virtuous. It education, statesmanship and morality. If we sings of battles, of the harvest field, of the take this book which comes down or dates hunt, the banquet, and the sacrifice. It from the age of Eli and Samuel of Hebrew boasts of no epic grandeur, but it has idyllic history, and turn over its leaves,-a book, let it scenes, which please a refined taste in love with be remembered, which 200,000,000 of our felthe primitive and the antique. Confucius also low men regard as their most sacred treatise, discoursed on the importance of ceremonial what do we find? Let it be the forty-eighth observances for the king, the officer and the oracle. It is the oracle of the well. Under the private man. There are three classical works figure of a well the words are,-"When you on ceremonies. They describe in detail the change a city, you do not change the well. The laws, the grades and duties of office, the rules water grows no less nor does it increase. To for marriages and for funerals; in short, all those who come and those who go, the well is the ancient institutions and customs of the still the well. They draw up water. When the land. But how far Confucius had his hand rope is yet not at the top, if the bucket breaks it in them is not known. Nor can we now learn is unlucky.” In the figure itself, the idea is that what he did in preserving the ancient music. of wood going into water. The lesson drawn This, however, we know, that in one of the is the need of care in government to avoid a three classical books first mentioned there are catastrophe. Cities change, but monarchy and preserved a few notes of very ancient sacrifi- law continue to rule. Other ideas similar to cial melodies, enough to tell us that such these are drawn from the oracle. This exammusic as they then practised was slow and ple gives a very good notion of the most solemn, and consisted of four or five notes admired of the Chinese classics, of its antiquity, only. The lute, the panpipe, the bell and the and the style of comment with which for 3000 musical stone, were the favourite instruments. years the Chinese have been accustomed to disDancing accompanied the music, and this was course upon it. A good portion of this ancient also slow and solemn. The object of both was manual of divination is even older than 3000 to inspire all persons with reverential feelings years. It is, therefore, very full of interest, suitable to & religious service. Confucius since there is no country, except the land dishad to decide on all these things, and, lastly tinguished by the Christian revelation, which to edit the Book of Divination. When he has retained a literature fortified by historical grew old, he made this his chief study. It was and chronological data uninterrupted during supposed to contain the most profound results the flight of so many ages. This was the kind of the teaching of the sages. In it also there of book that Confucius studied when he was was much of a frivolous nature. This, how- advanced in age. Perhaps he admired in it ever, he allowed to remain. To tell for not so much its oracular ambiguity as the tanes by straws, is not a very dignified occu- clear moral sentences and a certain breadth of pation. Yet the sages of China had to view which the reader meets with here and countenance it, and to read with respect a there when the authors are throwing glances mraltitude of recorded instances of divina at the outer universe. A philosophy of nature tion, because they were enshrined in a here comes upon the scene which was destined book belonging to the ancient sages and to exert an immense influence and to have a
