This etext was prepared by Rick Davis of Ashigawa, Japan, with
assistance from David Steelman, Taiwan.
A note from the digitizer
This is a text file that can be read on any computer with anyChinese-capable word processor or text editor. If you have the Big5 character set for Chinese installed, choosing that set from yourfont menu will display the Chinese characters properly. Even ifChinese is not installed on your computer, the English will bedisplayed properly, even though the Chinese will appear asgarbage characters.
This digitized version preserves the original page breaks. Thetext of each page is followed by its footnotes. Note referencenumbers in the text are enclosed in square brackets. In this textversion, all diacriticals have been omitted.
In a few places I have substituted the character forms availablein the Big 5 character set for rare or (what are now considered)nonstandard forms used by Legge. Characters not included in theBig 5 character set in any form are described by their constituentelements.
This file contains only the Prolegomena; the other parts of
Legge's work are in separate files.
with a translation, critical and exegeticalnotes, prolegomena, and copious indexes
by
James Legge
1. The Books now recognised as of highest authority in Chinaare comprehended under the denominations of 'The five Ching [1]'and 'The four Shu [2].' The term Ching is of textile origin, andsignifies the warp threads of a web, and their adjustment. Aneasy application of it is to denote what is regular and insuresregularity. As used with reference to books, it indicates theirauthority on the subjects of which they treat. 'The five Ching' arethe five canonical Works, containing the truth upon the highestsubjects from the sages of China, and which should be received aslaw by all generations. The term Shu simply means Writings orBooks, = the Pencil Speaking; it may be used of a single character,or of books containing thousands of characters.2. 'The five Ching' are: the Yi [3], or, as it has been styled,'The Book of Changes;' the Shu [4], or 'The Book of History;' theShih [5], or 'The Book of Poetry;' the Li Chi [6], or 'Record of Rites;'and the Ch'un Ch'iu [7], or 'Spring and Autumn,' a chronicle ofevents, extending from 722 to 481 B.C. The authorship, orcompilation rather, of all these Works is loosely attributed toConfucius. But much of the Li Chi is from later hands. Of the Yi,the Shu, and the Shih, it is only in the first that we find additionsattributed to the philosopher himself, in the shape of appendixes.The Ch'un Ch'iu is the only one of the five Ching which can, withan approximation to correctness, be described as of his own'making.'
1 五經.2 四書.3 易經.4 書經.5 詩經.6 禮記.7 春秋.
'The Four Books' is an abbreviation for 'The Books of theFour Philosophers [1].' The first is the Lun Yu [2], or 'DigestedConversations,' being occupied chiefly with the sayings ofConfucius. He is the philosopher to whom it belongs. It appears inthis Work under the title of 'Confucian Analects.' The second isthe Ta Hsio [3], or 'Great Learning,' now co