Very little mention of ancient writing or education--Baked inscribed bricks unknown to the _loess_ region--Cession of land inscribed upon metal--The Nine Tripods--Ts'u claims them-- Instances of written grants and prayers--Proof of teaching--A written public notice--Probable use of wood--Conventions upon stone--Books in sixth century B.C.--Maps, cadastre, and census records--A doubtful instance--A closed letter--Indentures--A military map--Treaties--Ancient theory _of_ juvenile education for office--Invention of new-written script 827 B.C.--Patriarchal rule inconsistent with enlightenment--Unification of script, weights, measures, and axle-breadths by the First August Emperor Further invention of script and first dictionary--Facility of Chinese writing for reading purposes-- Chinese now in a state of flux. CHAPTER XVIII _TREATIES AND VOWS_ Treaties and imprecations--Smearing with blood of victims-- Squabble _re_ precedence in the treaty-making--Shuh Niang's philosophy--Confucius' tampering with history condoned--Care of Chinese in preserving first-hand evidence--Emperor ignored by treaty-makers--Form of a treaty, with imprecation--Mesne lords and their vassals--Negotiations and references for instructions-- Ts'u's first protectorate in 538--Ts'u's difficulty with Wu--The Six Families of Tsin--Sacrificing cocks as sanction to vows-- Drawing human blood as sanction--Pigs for the same purpose--Kwan- tsz's honourable behaviour in keeping treaty--Confucius not so honourable: instances given--Casuistry backed up by a proverb. CHAPTER XIX _CONFUCIUS AND LITERATURE_ Life-time of Confucius--Secret of his influence--Visit of the Wu prince to Confucius' state--Lu's "powerful" family plague--Lu's position between Tsin and Ts'u influences--Ts'i studies the ritual in Lu: Yen-tsz goes thither--Sketch of Lu history in its connection with Confucius--What were his practical objects?-- Authorities in support of what Confucius' Annals tell us--Original conception of natural religion--Spread of the earliest patriarchal Chinese state--No other people near them possessed letters--The way in which the Chinese spread--Lines of least resistance--The spiritual emperor compared with some of the Popes--Lu's spiritual position--Confucius of Sung descent, and at first not an influential official in Lu--Lu's humiliation--Ts'i's intrigues to counteract Confucius' genius--Travels of Confucius and his history--His edited works. CHAPTER XX _LAW_