After it replaced knotted cords, written language began to flourish. The Book of the Three Legendary Kings recorded the deeds of Fu Xi and the Divine Husbandman, but as the records were made in the distant past, they no longer exist. The times of Tang and Yu marked the real flourishing of writings. King Shun composed a song to express his heart-felt feeling. Bo Yi and Hou Ji, Shun’s ministers, introduced court memorials. King Yu ruled in Xia. At that time, the state affairs were administered in good order and duly exalted, and the king’s noble deeds and virtues multiplied. By the Shang and Zhou dynasties,literary grace surpassed simplicity. The influence and glory of The Odes and The Hymns increased daily. Furthermore, while in captivity, King Wen wrote interpretations of the lines and hexagrams in the Book of Changes. His language was splendid, subtle in expression, and profound in meaning. After him, his talented son Zhou Gong Dan carried on his noble cause by writing his own poetry and compiling works from various hands. Then came Master Confucius, who followed in the steps of earlier sages but outshone them all,By revising and editing the six classics, he brought together the best works up to his time. In the cultivation of human nature and the skilful use of language, his teachings reverberated a thousand li like the sound of the wooden bell-clapper. The virtue of his writings resounded for countless generations. By transmitting the glory of heaven and earth, they opened up the horizons of the people.

Following in the footsteps of the earlier sages, the master Confucius was nonpareil. He it was who put the Six Classics through, as it were, the smith’s furnace, the potter’s wheel, so that they became resonant, like the chime of jade, the bell of gold. It was as if human nature was carved and sculptured anew, human eloquence made to pass through unsullied meshes. The pedagogue’s wooden clapper was sounded and answer was heard throughout the land; the treasures on the lectern were made available to all posterity. The effulgence of earth and heaven was given out and humanity was awakened.