Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/54

40 writers assert that he was the first native author to adopt that method. This treatise was much used by subsequent editors of the "Urh-ya," but it cannot be said to have held a high place in native esteem.

The first addition to the "Shuo-wên" was made in this period by Lü Shên (呂忱), a native of Jen (任), a town in what is now the Prefecture of Yenchow, in Shantung. Lü Shên, who was a contemporary of Sun Yen, was an official and a scholar, but he is chiefly remembered as the compiler of the "Tzŭ-lin" (字林) or Grove of Characters. This is variously spoken of as in one, three, five, six, or seven chuan; or as in five chapters (pien). It was intended to be a supplement to the "Shuo-wên," and many characters were given in it which had been left out from the "Shuo-wên," either designedly or otherwise. These characters were derived from various sources, but mainly from the old tablets and those in the Great Seal writing, and they were new and unknown to the scholars of this time. The "Tzŭ-lin" soon came to take its place as an appendix to the "Shuo-wên," and to be regarded as a good authority. Some scholars have even maintained that the text of the modern editions of the "Shuo-wên," is indebted to this work. The first to enrich the "Tzŭ-lin" with notes and comments was a Buddhist monk, Yun Shêng (雲勝), but little is known of him or his work. The "Tzŭ-lin," however, has been often reprinted, and great additions have been made to the text, but it has long been hard to find.

A younger brother of Lü Shên, by name Ching (靜), was also a scholar and a writer on the language. He compiled the "Yun-chi" (韻集), called also "Chi-yun," or Collection of Finals, in five chuan. This book, which was founded on the "Shêng-lei" of Li Têng, had the characters arranged according to the five yin, or musical notes. It is in this work, according to some writers, that the expression Yun-shu (韻書), Book of Finals, first occurs; and the first use of yun in its restricted sense of final is