Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 39.djvu/14

XIV PREFACE. [line] which appear in these volumes; and, as I could find time from my labours on 'The Texts of Confucianism,' I had written out more than one version of Lao's work by the end of 1880. Though not satisfied with the result, I felt justified in exhibiting my general views of it in an article in the British Quarterly Review of July, 1883. [tab]In 1884 Mr. F. H. Balfour published at Shanghai a ver- sion of 'Taoist Texts, Ethical, Political, and Speculative.' His Texts were ten in all, the Tao Teh King being the first and longest of them. His version of this differed in many points from all previous versions; and Mr. H. A. Giles, of H. M.'s Consular Service in China, vehemently assailed it and also Dr. Chalmers's translation, in the China Review for March and April, 1886. Mr. Giles, indeed, occasionally launched a shaft also at Julien and myself; but his main object in his article was to discredit the genuineness and authenticity of the Tao Teh King itself. 'The work,' he says, 'is undoubtedly a forgery. It contains, indeed, much that Lao Tzu did say, but more that he did not.' I replied, so far as was necessary, to Mr. Giles in the same Review for January and February, 1888; and a brief summary of my reply is given in the second chapter of the Introduction in this volume. My confidence has never been shaken for a moment in the Tao Teh King as a genuine relic of Lao-jze, one of the most original minds of the Chinese race. [tab]In preparing the version now published, I have used: - [tab]First, 'The Complete Works of the Ten Philosophers;' a Sû-kâu reprint in 1804 of the best editions of the Philo- sophers, nearly all belonging more or less to the Tâoist school, included in it. It is a fine specimen of Chinese printing, clear and accurate. The Treatise of Lâo-jze of course occupies the first place, as edited by Kwei Yû-kwang (better known as Kwei Kăn-shan) of the Ming dynasty. The Text and Commentary are those of Ho-shang Kung (Introd., p. 7), along with the division of the whole into Parts and eighty-one chapters, and the titles of the several chapters, all attributed to him. Along the top of the page,