The Confucian Analects (1861) - Page 25

...again, there are passages which suggest the voice of a disciple or another narrator rather than the philosopher himself. There are, for instance, the opening sentences of Book III, Part I: "When Duke Wen of Teng original: duke Wăn of T‘ăng was crown prince, having to travel to Chu original: Ts‘oo, he went by way of Song original: Sung and visited Mencius (literally, the philosopher Meng). Mencius spoke to him about how the nature of man is good, and when speaking, he always made praising references to the ancient sage-kings Yao original: Yaou and Shun. When the crown prince was returning from Chu, he visited Mencius again. Mencius said to him, 'Prince, do you doubt my words? The path is one, and only one.'"

6. Perhaps the truth, after all, is as Sima Qian original: Sze-ma Ts‘een stated—that Mencius, along with some of his disciples, compiled and composed the work. It would have been in their hands and under their guardianship after his death, and they may have made some slight alterations to prepare it, as we would say, for the press. Yet, even allowing for this, there is nothing to prevent us from accepting the sayings and actions as those of Mencius himself, guaranteed by his own authority.

7. It now only remains for me to refer to the reception of Mencius' works among the Classics. We have seen how they were not admitted by Liu Xin original: Lew Hin into his catalogue of classical works. At that time, Mencius was considered only one of many scholars or philosophers of the orthodox school. The same classification is found in the bibliographies of the Sui original: Suy and Tang original: T‘ang dynasties; in fact, it was only under the Song original: Sung dynasty that the works of Mencius and the Confucian Analects were authoritatively ranked together. The first to explicitly proclaim this honor as due to our philosopher was Chen Zhizhai original: Ch‘in Chih-chae,^12^ whose words are: "Since the time when Han Yu original: Han, the Duke of Literature, delivered his eulogy—stating, 'Confucius handed the system of doctrine to Mencius, and upon Mencius' death the line of transmission was interrupted'^13^—the scholars of the empire have all associated Confucius and Mencius together. The Books of Mencius are certainly..."

12\. 陳直齋 (Chen Zhizhai). I take this name and account from the Supplemental Observations on the Four Books, article 1 on Mencius. I suspect that 直 (Zhi) is a misprint for 止 (Zhi), as the individual referred to is probably 陳傅良 (Chen Fuliang), a great scholar and official of the 12th century, also known by the names 君舉 (Junju) and 止齋 (Zhizhai). 13\. This eulogy by Han Yu is found subjoined to the brief introduction in the common editions of Mencius. The full passage quoted there is: "Yao original: Yaou handed the system of doctrine down to Shun; Shun handed it to Yu; Yu to Tang original: T‘ang; Tang to Wen original: Wăn, Wu original: Woo, and the Duke of Zhou original: Chow; Wen, Wu, and the Duke of Zhou to Confucius; and Confucius to Mencius, upon whose death there was no further transmission of it. In the works of Xun original: Seun, referring to Xun Zi and Yang original: Yang, referring to Yang Zhu there are snatches of it, but without careful distinction; they talk about it, but without definite detail."