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The Chinese text is that approved by the famous Chû Hsî in his “Collection of Comments” on all the portions of the Ch'û Ts'ze. I have taken it from the Hû-pei edition of his Work in 1876. In studying the poem, I have made constant use of the Lî Sâo Ching, Chang Chü by Wang Yî of our second century, and a minister of the later Han dynasty, as published in the Ch'ang-sha or Hû-nan edition of 1882, with which is incorporated the “Supplemental Commentary” of Hung Hsing-tsû of our twelfth century. My earliest study of the poem, however, was from a reprint of the Wăn Hsüan, or “Selections of Literary Compositions,” by Hsiâo T'ung, with the posthumous title of Châo-ming, eldest son of the founder of the Liang dynasty (A.D 502 to 556), containing also the commentary of Lî Shan, a functionary of the T'ang dynasty.

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It has often been said that there is no Grammar in Chinese; and the statement is true. When we speak of “grammar,” with reference to the written characters, or even to the spoken language, of the people of China, the term must be understood in a peculiar sense. Grammar, as the Greek derivation shows, has to do with words, and is applicable only to languages that have an alphabet; whereas the Chinese written characters were at first pictures and ideagrams, and they have continued to be so substantially during all the millenniums of their use, down to the present day.