There seems good reason to suppose that the literary
activity which so disgusted the destroyer of the books in 213 B.C.
did not really begin until after Confucius' death in 479;
moreover, that the avalanche of philosophical works which drenched
the royal courts of the Six Kingdoms was in part the consequence
of Confucius' own efforts in the literary line. In the pre-
Confucian days there is little evidence of the existence of any
literature at all beyond the Odes, the Changes, the Book, and the
Rites, which, after a lapse of 2500 years or more, are still the
"Bible" of China. The Odes, of which 3000 were popularly known
previous to Confucius' recension, seem to have been originally
composed here and there, and passed from mouth to mouth, by the
people of each orthodox state under impulse of strong passion,
feeling, or suffering; or some of them may even have been
committed to writing by learned folk in touch with the people.
Naturally, those songs which specially treated of local matters
would be locally popular; but it would seem that a large number of
them must have been generally known by heart by the whole educated
body all over orthodox China, It will be remembered that in the
year 1900, an enterprising American newspaper correspondent took
advantage of President Kruger's penchant for quoting Scripture,
and telegraphed to him daily texts, selected as applicable to the
event, for which the replies to be sent were always prepaid.
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