The Sacred Books of the East (China: THE TEXTS OF CONFUCIANISM, PART-I: THE SHU KING THE RELIGIOUS PORTIONS OF THE SHIH KING THE HSIAO KING)

While submitting here some prefatory observations on the version of the Shu King presented in this volume. It well to prefix also a brief account of what are regarded as the Sacred books of the religions of China. It has been said that Buddhism was introduced into China in the third century B. C., Its texts were translated into Chinese one portion after another, as they were gradually obtained from India; but it was not till very long afterwards that the Chinese possessed in their own language a complete copy of the Buddhist canon. Translations from the Sanskrit constitute the principal part of the Buddhistic literature of China though there are also many original works in Chinese belonging to it.