The orthodox collection of Twenty Four Dynastic Histories began with the great exampler of Chinese historlography, Shih Chi, Historical Memolrs of Ssuema Ch'ien (ud century BE.) and ended with the Ming, 1644. But the annals of the Ching dynasty were carefully collated during the reigns of its Emperors. In the early years of the Republic, Historlographical Commission 1 poured on these records, ultimately producing the Ching Shin Kao or Draft History of the Ch'ing Dynasty. Only a comparatively few sets of this valuable compilation have fallen into the hands of the public. For agons of slate, its further distribu-Hon has been forbidden. Tt now proves, nevertheless, in the few Copies accessible, one of the most valuable sources for the study of China, and particularly her international' relations in the past two centuries, Western historians have very largely completed their examination of the material in the archives of the Foreign Offices of Occidental governments; they must turn now to these avallable Chinese sources. I must hot omit mention of a large collec tion of government documents T Wu Shih Mo, Beginning and End of Barbarian Affairs, which throws much new light on China's relations with Foreign Powers In the eatly XIXTH century. Our histories of China of the past two centuries now require some very fundamental rewriting!
Of all the historical works, exclusive of the dynastic histories, that of the distinguished and versatile Sung statesman Ssti-ma Kuang, claiming descent from Sima Chuen, is doubledly the greatest. This is the Tei Chih Trung Chien, "General Mirror for Help in Government," a work comprising 204 books, which took the author nineteen years 10 complete. Tt commences with the fourth century B.C. and carries China's history down through the Five Dynasties, which just preceded the Sung era." Ssi<na Kuang con-Unued to Work over this material, publishing additional works unfit the end of his active life (A.D. 1086). The great Sung historian thus completed the history of China from the semifabulous period of Fu Hsi and ending with the year A.D. 1067.
So great was the interest aroused by Ssti-ma Kuang's monumental work that others continued to write exegetcal works and extensions on it A century after the historian's death. the Neo-Confucian philosopher Chu Hsi superintended the reconstruction and condensation of the Tung Chien Into the even more celebrated Tung [Chien Kang Mu. Professor 0. Franke, the learned German sinologist, assigns to Ss-ma Kuang the intention to justify conservatism and orthodoxy in Chinese thought by his interpretation of his country's long history. This theory finds confirmation in the fact that Ssi-ma Kuang was a leader in the Yuan Vu party which bitterly opposed the Sung Innovator. Wang An-Shih.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.