It is hardly necessary to say more on the preservation of the Hsiâo King. In A.D. 996 the The work of Hsing Ping. second emperor of the Sung dynasty gave orders for an annotated edition of it to be prepared. This was finally completed in 1001, under the superintendence of Hsing Ping (932–1010), with a large critical apparatus, and a lengthened exposition, both of the text and of Hsüan Zung's explanation. This work has ever since been current in China.
Chapter III.
Criticism of the Hsiâo since the Thang Dynasty.
1. Notwithstanding the difficulty about one chapter which has been pointed out on p. 455, Hsüan Zung's text was generally accepted as the representative of that in modern characters, recovered in the second century B.C. There were still those, however, who continued to advocate Works on the old text by Sze-mâ Kwang and Fan Zû-yü. the claims of 'the old text.' Sze-mâ Kwang, a distinguished minister and scholar of the Sung dynasty (1009–1086), presented to the court in 1054 his 'Explanations of the Hsiâo King according to the Old Text,' arguing, in his preface and in various memorials, for the correctness of that text, as recovered by Liû Hsüan in the sixth century. Fan Zû-yü (1041–1098), a scholar of the same century, and in other things a collaborateur of Kwang, produced, towards the end of his life, an 'Exposition of the Hsiâo King according to the Old Text.' He says in his preface:—'Though the agreement between the ancient and modern texts is great, and the difference small, yet the ancient deserves to be preferred, and my labour upon it may not be without some little value[1].'
- ↑ In the Hsiâo King, as now frequently published in China, either separately by itself, or bound up with Kû Hsî's Hsiâo Hsio, 'the Teaching for the Young,' we find the old text, without distinction of chapters. The commentaries of Hsüan Zung and Sze-mâ Kwang, and the exposition of Fan Zû-yü, however, follow one another at the end of the several clauses and paragraphs.
