Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/251

 vailed, and Tai Tung, unwilling to serve them, pleaded ill-health, and in 1275 retired into private life. There he occupied himself with the composition of the Liu Shu Ku of Six Scripts, an examination into the origin and development of writing, which, according to some, was published about A.D. 1250, but according to others, not until so late as the year 1319.

From the rise of the Sung dynasty may be dated the first appearance of the encyclopaedia, destined to occupy later so much space in Chinese literature. Wu SHU (A.D. 947-1002), whose life was a good instance of " worth by poverty depressed," may fairly be credited with the production of the earliest work of the kind. His Shih Lei Fu dealt with celestial and terrestrial phenomena, mineralogy, botany, and natural history, arranged, for want of an alphabet, under categories. It is curiously written in the poetical-prose style, and forms the foun- dation of a similar book of reference in use at the present day. Wu Shu was placed upon the commission which produced a much more extensive work known as the Tai P^ing Yu Lan. At the head of that commission was Li FANG (A.D. 924-995), a Minister of State and a great favourite with the Emperor. In the last year of his life he was invited to witness the Feast of Lanterns from the palace. On that occasion the Emperor placed Li beside him, and after pouring out for him a goblet of wine and supplying him with various delicacies, he turned to his courtiers and said, " Li Fang has twice served us as Minister of State, yet has he never in any way injured a single fellow-creature. Truly this must be a virtuous man." The T'ai P l ing Yu Lan was reprinted in 1812, and is bound up in thirty-two large volumes. It was so

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