Page:Columbia University Lectures on Literature (1911).djvu/95

Rh work of its kind. The study of the Classics has given rise to quite a number of glossaries and dictionaries published from the beginning of our era down to the K'ang-hi period. In some of these special attention is paid to the structure of the ideograms representing the words to be explained, as in the Shuo-wön, published in 100 ; others are chiefly devoted to the description of sounds. The modern standard dictionary is that published by a commission of scholars under the emperor K'ang-hi, a philological compilation of undoubted authority somewhat like the "Dictionnaire de l'Academie" in France. Its definitions are supported by numerous quotations from the entire standard Literature. Still more detailed is another work, published by the same great emperor in 1711, the Pe'ï-wön-yun-fu, in more than a hundred volumes. This is a concordance of many thousands of passages arranged according to the rhyme of the last character in terms of two or more syllables serving as catchwords: it is of the greatest use to all students engaged in Chinese research work.

The second of the "Four Treasuries" is the one called Shï, or "Historians." It comprises works on the history of China and her neighbors in Asia, covering besides history in the proper sense a number of cognate branches such as biography, geography, etc. The historical works of Confucian origin, such as the Shu-king, the Ch'un-ts'iu and their commentaries, have been included among the Literature on classics and do not appear in the historical Treasury.

The first place in this division is given to the so-called "Twenty-four Histories" (ïr-shï-ssï shï), each of which is generally devoted to one of the several dynasties that have occupied the Imperial throne. Apart from the differences in style and arrangement these quasi-official histories are distinguished from other historical works mainly by their origin. They have all been compiled by government officials holding the position of state historiographers ad hoc; and the records on which they are based belonged to the secret archives to G