own historiographers, and that the preservation or loss of its Annals had nothing to do with Confucius.
Of all books in which we can put our trust, there is none like the “Discourses.” It contains the teaching of the Sage; and taken together with the Canons of History, Poetry, the Book of Rites, and the Canon of Changes,―in regard to which last Confucius said that were his life prolonged for fifty years, he would devote them all to its study,―it may be said that not one of these works makes the slightest reference to the Annals.
When Han Hsüan-tzŭ was invited to the Lu State, he saw the Canon of Changes with its diagrams, and also, the Annals. In the “Records of the Ch'u State” we read of Shên Shu-shih, tutor to the Heir Apparent of king Chuang, teaching his pupils the Annals and in the “Records of the Chin State” we read of Yang-shê Hsi being celebrated for his familiarity with the Annals. That is to say, before the age of Confucius all the various States had for a long period written Annals of their own.
There is a possibility that Confucius, on his return from Wei to Lu, in moments spared from his work on the “Odes,” may have read the Annals and perhaps have made some improvements. Whether Kung-yang or Ku-liang[1] quoted from the unimproved text or not, we cannot know; what is certain is that Confucius did no “writing.”
- ↑ Two writers of commentaries on the Annals of Lu. Inasmuch as their works were not committed to writing until perhaps two hundred years after the death of Confucius, their value is reduced considerably. Specimens of both have been given.
