( ^OO ) 
4. The ancient Kings, whofe Lives he pretends to 
have, are efteemed m China truly chimerical Men : 
Thefe pretended Lives have not been writ by contem- 
porary Authors. 
The Chronicle, which contains this Texture of 
Fictions, is the Work of a Perfon named Se ma 
who was born 146 Years before the vulgar Aira, 
more than xooo Years after the Time wherein 2 ''ao is 
placed, who is made firfl: Emperor. If fome Authors 
can be quoted for Warrantees of what this Se maffien 
advances, they were modern to the Time wlien h« 
wrote : thefe Authors oppofe each other : the Stile 
of fome of them is infinitely obfcure \ and in the Bot- 
tom Se ma as he himfelf acknowledges, had 
nought for the principal Ground-work of his naufeous 
Chronicle, but miferable Rhapfodies colleded at Ha- 
zard, or popular Traditions which he had gathered, 
without underftanding them, as he rambled over fome 
Provinces. This Work is in mod Points contradided 
by the Kings *, a Book truly ancient, and of great 
Authority. 
y. In fine, there is nothing that is certainly of Con- 
fucius to ferve as Proof for a Chronology manifeftly 
imaginary. It no where appears that he had ever exa- 
mined it. This Philofopherhas left nothing inWritingj 
for it is not worth while to reckon a fmall Chapter of 
a few Lines, which is afcribed to him without giving 
goodReafons why, and is in the Front of a Book en- 
titled, fa hio<t or Great Dodrine. All the reft that 
goes under the Name of Confucius^ is read in modern 
Treatifes, where he is made to fpeak*, Treatifes which 
appeared in the World many Ages after the Death of 
* Kang mou. 
