Doubts on the Classics

How old are the Chinese classics, and how did they grow? In essays written between 1917 and 1923, Naitō Konan, a founder of the Kyoto school of Chinese studies, argued that the canonical books did not come down whole from the sages but grew by addition, so that their layers can be dated by the ideas and the words they contain.

Here he tests that method on the Book of Documents, the Book of Changes, the ancient dictionary Erya and the geographical chapter "Tribute of Yu," and states his program in a short talk on method. An essay of 1897 on the "spiral" course of history, written when Naitō was still a journalist, completes the book.

Each piece is translated complete and unabridged from Japanese, including the classical Chinese passages Naitō quotes, with a translator's note, endnotes (Naitō's own notes among them) and source information.