Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/38

24 first part of the book as compiled during this period. We find Confucius and his disciple Tzŭ-Hsia credited with the composition or enlargement of the treatise. It was plainly not the work of one man or one time, and there may have been in early times a small beginning to which Confucius and others long afterwards made great additions.

This treatise is not, properly speaking, a dictionary, but rather a Thesaurus or vocabulary. It gives the terms and phrases used in the old classics and also those of common life, though it does not represent the store of words in existence at the time (or times) of its compilation. The subjects are classified under nineteen categories, to each of which there is a chapter. TheseThe subjects [sic] are explanations of old terms, synonyms, buildings, music, heaven, earth, water, birds, plants, and other indefinite genera. From the study of the work we learn that at the time it was composed the language was rich in some departments, and that it contained many terms which were nearly or quite synonymous though different in origin. Many of the words in it have long ago fallen out of use, and some were, perhaps, only peculiar to dialects. The phrase Urh-ya means "approaching the perfect," that is, an attempt to give the correct or standard terms and phrases of the language. But the work is not in any degree critical. Its value lies chiefly in the view it gives of the vocabulary in existence at the time of its compilation, and in its being an early attempt to reduce the language to order. Wylie, however, who dignifies the title by the translation "Literary Expositor," says itthe book [sic] "is a dictionary of terms used in the classical and other writings of the same period, and is of great importance in elucidating the meaning of such words." Its usefulness has been much increased by the labours of a series of learned commentators, some of whom will appear below. It was long ago made a Ching (經) or canonical work, and regarded as a sort of appendix to the classic on Filial Piety. Though not so highly prized now, it is still treated with respect and quoted as an authority by native scholars.

In the reign of king Hsüan (B.C. 827 to 782) the court