e preceding
tale. It consists mainly of conversations between the kings and their
ministers, in which the principles of the patriarchal Chinese government
form the leading theme. "Do not be ashamed of mistakes, and thus make
them crimes," says one of these practical ministers.

The _Le-ke_, or "Book of Rites," compiled from a very ancient work, lays
down exact rules of life for Chinamen, which are still minutely obeyed.
The _Chun Tsew_, or "Spring and Autumn Annals," embraces a mere
statement of events which occurred in the kingdom of Loo, and contains
very little of historical and less of any other value. The "Book of
Odes," on the contrary, possesses a great literary value, in preserving
for us the poetic remains of ancient China.

Literature in that country, as elsewhere, seems to have begun with
poetry, and of the songs and ballads of the early period official
collections of considerable value were made. Not only at the imperial
court, but at those of the feudal lords, there were literati whose duty
it was to collect the songs of the people and diligently to preserve the
historical records of the empire. From the latter Confucius compiled two
of the books already named. There also fell into his hands an official
collection of poems containing some three thousand pieces. These the
sage carefully edited, selecting such of them as "would be serviceable
for the inculcation of propriety and righteousness." These poems, three
hundred and eleven in number, constitute the _She King_, or "Book of
Odes," forming a remarkable collection of primitive verses which breathe
the spirit of peace and simple life, broken by few sounds of war or
revelry, but yielding many traces of family affection, peaceful repose,
and religious feeling.

These are not the only remains of the ancient Chinese literature. There
are four more books, which, with the five named, make up the "Nine
Classics." These were written by the pupils and disciples of Confucius,
the most important being the _Mang tsze_, or "Works of Mencius." They
are records of the sayings and doings of the two sages Confucius and
Mencius, whose remarkable precepts, like those of the Greek sage
Socrates, would have been lost to the world but for the loving diligence
of their disciples.

All this is not history in the ordinary sense. But the men described,
and particularly Confucius, have had so potent an influence upon all
that relates to Chinese life and history, that some brief