CHAPTER I

1. In the Announcement to K'ang it is said, "He was able to make his virtue illustrious."

CONCLUDING NOTE.

It has been shown in the prolegomena that there is no ground for the distinction made here between so much king attributed to Confucius, and so much 傳,or commentary, ascribed to his disciple Ts?ng. The invention of paper is ascribed to Ts'aeLun (蔡倫), an officer of the Han dynasty, in the time of the emperor Hwo (和), A.D.89—104. Before that time, and long after also, slips of wood and of bamboo (簡), were used to write and engrave upon. Greg Mark for the record of infringement of copyright just in case. We can easily conceive how a collection of them might get disarranged, but whether those containing The Great Learning did do so is a question vehemently disputed.右經一章, 'the chapter of classic on the right'; 如左, 'on the left';—these are expressions=our 'preceding', and'as follows', indicating the Chinese method of writing and printing from the right side of a manuscript or book on to the left.

COMMENTARY OF THE PHILOSOPHER TSANG. THE ILLUSTRATION OF ILLUSTRIOUS VIRTUE.

The student will do well to refer here to the text of'The Great Learning', as it appears in the Le-ke. He will then see how a considerable portion of it has been broken up, and transposed to form this and the five succeeding chapters. It was, no doubt, the occurrence of 明, in the four paragraphs here, and of the phrase 明德, which determined Choo He to form them into one chapter, and refer them to the first head in the classical text. The old commentators connect them with the great business of making the thoughts sincere.

1. See the Shoo-king, V. x. 3. The words are part of the address of King Woo to his brother Fung (封), called also K'ang-shuh (康叔; 康, the hon. ep.) on appointing him to the marquisate of 衛(wèi). The subject of 克 is king W?n, to whose example K'ang-shuh is referred. —We cannot determine, from this par.,between the old interpretation of 德, as= 'virtue', and the new which understands by it,—'the heart or nature,all-virtuous'.

2. See the Shoo-king, IV. v. Sect. I.2. Choo He takes諟 as=此, 'this', or 審, 'to judge', 'to examine'. The old interpr. explain it by 正, 'to correct'. The sentence is part of the address of the premier, E-yin, to T'ae-k??,the 2d emperor of the Shang dynasty, B.C. 1752-1718.The subject of 顧 is T'ae-kea's father,

2. In the T'aeK??, it is said, "He contemplated and studied the illustrious decrees of Heaven."

3. In the Canon of the emperor Yaou, it is said, "He was able to make illustrious his lofty virtue."

4. These passages all show how those sovereigns made themselves illustrious.

The above first chapter of commentary explains the illustration of illustrious virtue.