To the Editor of the Sm,—I have read with much int the article in your paper of the 18th instant referring to M. de la Couperie's ideas on Chinese generally and more particularly to his remarks on the Chan sin, Unfortunately 1 have not M. de 1a Couporie's works by me, so can scarcely enter on the whole subject. There is however little need for mystification regarding the Ch'un 'T'sin, and the queries of the Chinese commeutators and their European followers seem ona little quiet investigation sadly out of place. Tu this matter, as in many others, the nearer we approach the fountain-head the plainer the evidence becomes; and if, instead of trying to manipulate the very questionable statements of Chu-hi who lived some seventeen hundred years after Confucius, and hi successors who have still furth the affair, we look buck to the i successors of Confucius, we shall matters. much simplified. The carlie: mention we Gnd of the Chun T'sin is in Mencius IV. 2, XXL When the impro of the Royal sway of Chow was effaced, the art of ballad-making was forgotten, and annals came to be made, The of Tsin, the Tfaou-wuh of Ts", and the Ch'un Ts'iu of Lit were all of the one character."
The decay of the regal state of Chow is referred to B.C. 770, when the Lurks took the ancient capital, killed the King, and forced his son to re-establish his capital at praservod the memory of events; but abuse Loh. Up to this time ballads and mimes
quently the states tode to scoring their Annals, and the Ch'un T'stin and the other works mentioned were the result, The existence of the Ch'un Ts'in before Cent dus may therefore be looked upon as settled fact, and we have to harmonise this. statement with that made (Mencius IL, ig the share ut Confucius Mencius there tells us "Confucius in fear and trembling made the Ch'an sti, referri it did) to Imperial matters. It was on this account that he said if L have attained notoriety it is on account of the Clfan Tstin, iL ant punished it is for the same ensue.?? Again in the same chapter the author tells us, When Confucius completed the Ch'in nnd disloyal suns were afraid." The remains of Mencius ently the stamp of authenticity to permit us to disbelieve the connexion of Confucius with the Ch'un Tstin but what was that connexion? A little study of the life and doings of Confucius while resident in Lat will I think solve the difficulty, If we-are to attribute to him the composition of the Ch'un Ts'iu, as s0 known to us, we must make him out to be a forger, who attempted to palm off as the genuine Ch'un Ts'it of Lit a composition of his own. Fortunately there is no occasion to accuse him of such a crime, He was very careful that he should be known, not inventor, but as a transmitter, and to his care we owe most of what we know of ancient China, The man whose example ensured the handing down to a subsequent generation of the ancient ballads of China was not likely to put forward as his om
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.