Preface to Volume II
This volume contains the translation of
chapters III-XVII, XIX-XXXIX, XLI-XLIII, and a summary of the Fragments of the
Po hu t'ung.
The text used is that edited by Lu Wên-ch'ao;
in the headings of the paragraphs the references are to the pages of this
edition.
I have endeavoured to keep my notes within
reasonable limits, my chief aim being to make the text comprehensible, and
thereby to avoid irrelevant excursions into adjacent fields.
The Fragments, for which Lu Wên-ch'ao's and
Ch'ên Li's editions were used, are not offered in literal translation; I have
only indicated the subjects which are under discussion, and the titles of the
works quoted as 'proofs'. Neither have I utilised Liu Shih-p'ei's supple-
mentary material (for which see Volume One, pp. 4 and 62). The state of these
Fragments is still fragmentary, and new material may be expected from sources
hitherto unexplored by the Chinese scholars interested in the subject. As it
is, I think that, after the full translation of the 43 chaptes of the current
edition of the Po hu t'ung, it is not necessary to
extend the laborious work to the Fragments: it would not, in any case, improve
our knowledge of the nature of the Po hu t'ung.
My thanks are due to the 'Nederlandse
Organisatie voor Zuiver Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek' at The Hague for its
liberal grant, which has made the publication of this book possible, and to
Messrs. E. J. Brill for their readiness to be its publishers.
I have also to thank Professor J. J. L.
Duyvendak, who went through the whole work in manuscript. As in the case of the
first volume I have again greatly benefited from his corrections and
suggestions. Mrs. Duyvendak has put me under great obligatioin by taking the
trouble of correcting the mistakes of my English.
Leiden, April 1952
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