with the earliest editions then available. Fortunately, two

versions of Sun T zfi, even older than the newly discovered work, were still extant, one buried in the 7‘ng Tim, Tu Yu’s great treatise on the Constitution, the other similarly enshrined in the T‘az' P‘z'ng Yii Lam encyclo- paedia. In both the complete text is to be found, though split up into fragments, intermixed with other matter, and scattered piecemeal over a number of different sections. Considering that the Kii_Lan takes usback to ithe Lear 285, and the T‘zmg Tim about zoo, years further still, to the middle of the T‘angfiynasty, the value of these early transcripts of Sun Tzfi can hardly be overestimated. Yet the idea of utilising them does not seem to have oc- curred to anyone until Sun Hsing-yen, acting under Govern- ment instructions, undertook a thorough recension of the text. This is his own account: ——

Because of the numerous mistakes in the text of Sun Tz‘fi which his editors had handed down, the Government ordered that the ancient edition [of Chi T‘ien-pao] should be used, and that the text should be revised and corrected throughout. It happened that Wu Nien—hu, the Governor Pi Kua, and Hsi, a graduate of the second degree, had all devoted them- selves to this study, probably surpassing me therein. Accordingly, I have had the whole work cut on blocks as a text-book for military men. 1

The three individuals here referred to had evidently been occupied on the text of Sun th’i prior to Sun Hsing- yen’s commission, but we are left in doubt as to the work they really accomplished. At any rate, the new edition, when ultimately produced, appeared in the names of Sun Hsing—yen and only one co-editor, 5% j\ Wu Jen-chi. They took the “original text” as their basis, and by careful comparison with the older versions, as well as the extant commentaries and other sources of information such as