The Master's frequent themes of discourse were—the Odes, the History, and the maintenance of the Rules of Propriety. On all these he frequently discoursed.

15. THE JOY OF CONFUCIUS INDEPENDENT OF OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES. 饭, low.2d tone, 'a meal', also, as here, a verb, 'to eat'. 枕, up. 3d tone, 'to pillow', 'to use as a pillow'. Critics call attention to 亦, making the sentiment= 'My joy is everywhere. It is amid other circumstances. It is also here.' 不义云云,= 'By unrighteousness I might get riches and honours, but such riches and honours are to me as a floating cloud. It is vain to grasp at them, so uncertain and unsubstantial.'

16. THE VALUE WHICH CONFUCIUS SET UPON THE STUDY OF THE YIN. Choo He supposes that this was spoken when Conf. was about seventy, as he was in his 68th year when he ceased his wandering, and settled in Loo to the adjustment and compilation of the Yin and other king. If the remark be referred to that time, an error may well be found in 五十, for he would hardly be speaking at 70 of having 50 years added to his life. Choo also mentions the report of a certain individual that he had seen a copy of the Lun Yu, which read 假 for 加. Amended thus, the meaning would be—'If I had some more years to finish the study of the Yih, &c.' Ho An interprets the chapter quite differently. Referring to the saying, II.4,4, 'At fifty, I knew the decrees of heaven,' he supposes this to have been spoken when Conf. was 47, and explains—'In a few years more I will be fifty, and have finished the Yih, when I may be without great faults.'—One thing remains upon both views:—Confucius never claimed, what his followers do for him, to be a perfect man.

17. CONFUCIUS' MOST COMMON TOPICS.书, 'The History,' i.e., the historical documents which he compiled into the Shoo-king that has come down to us in a mutilated condition. 诗 also, and much less 礼, must not be understood of the now existing She-king and Le-ke. Choo He explains 雅 (low.2d tone) by 常, 'constantly'. The old interpr. Ch'ing, explains it by 正'correctly',—'Conf. would speak of the Odes, &c., with attention, to the correct enunciation of the characters.' This does not seem so good.