56 REV. PROFESSOR JAMES LEGGE, M.A., ON 
the Sovereign with whom these histories commence, began 
to reign in the 247th year of Noah’s life, and 353 years 
before the Deluge; according to Calmet’s arrangement of 
scriptural dates. According to that of Dr. Hales, the reign 
began nearly 150 years before the building of the tower of 
Babel, and 550 years before the birth of Abraham. I will not, 
however, now anticipate any judgment to which we may be 
brought in the course of cur inquiries, concernng Hwang 
Ti, whether he should be regarded as a real or simply a 
fabulous personage. My object will be to lay before you, as 
concisely as I can, the two schemes of Chinese chronology, 
and consider how far we must admit or deny the claims 
based on them for the extraordinary antiquity of the 
nation. 
Composition of the Dynastic Histories. 
2. At the outset, let me call attention to one circumstance 
in connection with the dynastic histories. The first of them, 
called the Shih Chi, or “ Historical Records,” was written by 
Sze-ma Ch’ien, who died in or near the year B.c. 85. It 
embraces the long period of about 2,600 years, from Hwang 
Ti to nearly the end of the reign of Wa, the sixth of the 
Han Emperors. It thus covers more than a century of the 
dynasty under which its author lived. But the other 
histories were all written after the dynasties which they 
commemorate had passed away; yet not long after. The 
rule is, that each succeeding dynasty shall commemorate the 
fates of that which preceded it. While the events may still 
be considered fresh, and all the important documents are 
accessible, a commission is issued for the compilation of the 
history. For instance, the latest of these histories is that of 
the Ming dynasty, extending from A.D. 1368 to 1643. As 
soon as the present Man-chaéu holders of the Empire thought 
they had sufficiently consolidated their rule, a commission 
was issued in 1679, appointing 58 men of literary eminence 
to compose the Ming history; and the result of their iabours, 
as we now have it, was laid before the Emperor of the 
Ch’ien-lung period in 1742.* This method is supposed to 
secure, and does no doubt secure in a great measure, impar- 
tiality of treatment, and access to contemporaneous docu- 
ments, all the archives of the Empire being open to the 
writers. 
* Wylie’s Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 19. 
