Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/250

 CHAPTER IV

DICTIONARIES ENCYCLOPAEDIAS MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE

SEVERAL dictionaries of importance were issued by various scholars during the Sung dynasty, not to mention many philological works of more or less value. The Chinese have always been students of their own language, partly, no doubt, because they have so far never condescended to look at any other. They delight in going back to days when correspon- dence was carried on by pictures pure and simple ; and the fact that there is little evidence forthcoming that such a system ever prevailed has only resulted in stimulating invention and forgery.

A clever courtier, popularly known as " the nine-tailed fox," was CH'EN P'ENG-NIEN (A.D. 961-1017), who rose to be a Minister of State. He was employed to revise the Kuang Yun, a phonetic dictionary by some unknown author, which contained over 26,000 separate characters. This work was to a great extent superseded by the Chi characters. The latter was produced by Sung Ch'i, mentioned in chap, iii., in conjunction with several eminent scholars.

TAI TUNG graduated in 1237 and rose to be Governor

of T'ai-chou in Chehkiang. Then the Mongols pre-

�� �