Excerpt from Confucius and the Chinese Classics: Or, Readings in Chinese Literature Recently there has been an unusual call for books on China. The increasing commerce between this country and that ancient and wealthy kingdom has attracted the attention of all intelligent men of business, while the close proximity of our western coast to China has awakened a desire among a large portion of our people to gain a more thorough acquaintance with our neighbors: especially has this been found to be the case since the establishment of the line of mail steamers by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, by which both commerce and travel are destined to be greatly augmented. The presence of many Chinamen in our own country is another reason for the strong desire that has been observed to obtain books which may enable one better to understand the character, social habits, and religious beliefs of this strange people. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.