Tus extraordinary amount of interest which seems to lave been aroused in philological circles ut home in what may be considered the wont recondite and axprowising of Chinese "clusion! works ought to bring encourngomont to students here in Chin The battle of the 'Yi Chivg' has not only been holly waged in the Adkencum and the Academy between the rival interpreters themselves; the Saturday has rushed into the fray, and in taking up the cudgels on belulf of M. Terrien do La Couporio and Mr. Douglas has most severely belnboured the venerable Dr. Legge. The shoulders of the Chinese Professor at Oxford, to whom we owe 80 much assistance in the study of the Confucian books, are, however, broad enough to bear the onslaught, and we hear that a vigorous retaliation may be expected from him ere long. The Doctor has a heavy responsibility attaching to the position he has taken up, for hie is one of the Inbourors: in the grent work edited by Max Miller, whose series of the Sacred Books of the Bast las a claim to be considered the Authorised Version of the texts now presented to English renders for the present, at any rate, they constitute a standard of orthodoxy, and the man who assails their genuine. ness does so at the risk of being called: a heretic. Happily, however, for the interests of research, there are niauy heretics, and it is to be hoped that as years pass on we shall Lave new and independent translations of the Confacian books. It has always been a matter of much regret to us that Sir Thomas Wade has never elaborated his own translation of the Analects, By publishing that version he would meet De. Legge upon his own ground, and ench would find in his opponent champion worthy of his steel.
We have spoken of the Confucian classics as constituting the special province of the Oxford Professor of Chinese, The fact that he has given us transla. tious of the Sze Shu, the Wa Ching, and several-minor scriptures of the Jo-chia, fairly entitle Lim to the position which he now holds in Chinese scholarship. Bat Dr, Legge, not contented with this, has looked abroad for fresh fields of cou-quest. Ho has recently written a valuable article in the British Quarterly Review upon the Tno-t6 Ching, a trans. lation of which he is now preparing for the series of Sacred Books, and we have been able to form some idea of the probable leading characteristics of that translation from the rendering given by the Doctor of certain well. known pussnges in the paper now under consideration. The key-word of the Taoist system be gives as 'Course,' and appropriately translates the second word of the title by 'Attributes.' We here a distinct advance upon the inadequate and indeed misleading term 'Virlue,' hastily adopted even by Stan.
8 Julien, and unguestioningly accepted by Dr, Chalmers. Both scholars seem to have overlooked the real rela. tions existing between the lao and the lutte expressing simply the aoling-out of the former; one is the principle, the other is the principle in operation. Its senso is thnt of dovayuc, and it can only be construed aperu when its application is extended to ethic Bat in most other instances, and with the exception of matters of Lhe merest detail, De. Legge seems inclined to follow largely in the footsteps of hia predecessors. We believe we are cor rect in stating that all existing: trans lations of the Tao-te Ching are based mainly if not entirely upon Cor facing commentaries. The question as to whether this was fair to the author seems never to have ocourred to those who adopted the system. The Confucian scholar tukes up the Tao-l6 Ching as the handbook of a heterodox philosophy, unrecognized by Goverument examiners, and at variance on many essential points with the tench~ ings of his own Mustor, The result is that his commentaries are those of a geammarian rather than the exposition of an adept. He deals with an obs scute sentence in the Tao-te Ching exactly as he deals: with an obscure sentence in the Lun-vii; gives what to him the most likely rendering accord ing to the syntactical construction, and mistakes the-opparenty-obvio
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.