I do not here enter on an exhibition of the scope and value of the Book. It gives the best account that we have of the Confucian philosophy and morals, and will amply repay careful study, and hold its place not only in China, but in the wider sphere beyond it. The writer had an exaggerated conception of the sage; but he deserves well of his own country and of the world.
Book XXIX. Piâo Kî.
The character called Piâo is the symbol for the outer garments, and is used to indicate whatever is external in opposition to what is internal; the outside of things, what serves to mark them out and call attention to them. Hence comes its use in the sense which it bears in the title of this Book, for what serves as an example or model. Callery renders that title by "Mémoire sur l'Exemple;" Wylie, by "The Exemplar Record."
Piâo is also used for the gnomon of a dial; and the Khien-lung editors fix on this application of the character in explaining the name of the Book. "Piâo," they say, "is the gnomon of a dial, by which the movement of the sun is measured; it rises up in the centre, and all round is regulated by it. The Fang Kî shows men what they ought to be on their guard against; the Piâo Kî, what they should take as their pattern." Then they add—"Of patterns there is none so honourable as benevolence (or humanity proper), and to aid that there is righteousness, while, to complete it, there is sincerity or good faith, and reverence is that by which the quest for humanity is pursued." This second sentence may be considered a summary of the contents of the Book, which they conclude by saying, they have divided into eight chapters after the example of the scholar Hwang; meaning, I suppose, Hwang Khan, who has been already mentioned as having published his work on our classic in A.D. 538.
That division into eight chapters lies on the face of the Treatise. We have eight paragraphs commencing with the characters which I have rendered by "These were the words
