Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern
The book Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern was written by author Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900 Here you can read free online of Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern book, rate and share your impressions in comments. If you don't know what to write, just answer the question: Why is Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern a good or bad book?
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It was not, however, \intil the time of Confucius that the foundations of the national literature may be said to have been laid. From constant references in the early histories it is obvious that before that period a literature of a certain kind existed. The Chi- nese have an instinctive love of letters, and we know from the records that to the courts of the various princes were attached historians whose duty it was to collect the folk-lore songs of the people of the various States. "If a man w...ere permitted to make all the ballads of a nation, he need not care who should make its laws," said Sir An- drew Fletcher of Saltoun. So thought the Chinese legislators, who designed their enactments with direct regard to the dispositions of the people as displayed in their songs. At the time of Confucius (B. C. 551-479) a large collection of these ballads existed in the archives of the sovereign State of Chow ; and as is generally believed, the sage revised the collection, and omitting those he considered 3632 THE LITERATURE OP CHINA unworthy of preservation, formed an edition containing three hun- dred and five pieces.
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