Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/55

Rh also ascribed to its author. But others refer the first use of yun in this technical sense to Luh Chi or Luh Fa-yen. On this point the general statement is perhaps the correct one, to wit, that this use of the character yun began in the Chin Sung (or Chin Wei) period, or after the middle of the third century of our era.

Contemporary with the above was Luh Chi (陸機) al. Luh Shi-hêng (士衡), the ill-fated poet, soldier, and scholar. His life, which lasted only from 261 to 303, was one of worry and distress, yet he found time to write above 200 chuan, which were thought worthy to live. In one of his writings the word yun is found contrasted with wên, the spoken word with the written character. Some writers, as has been stated, regard Luh Chi as the first to use yun in its technical sense.

But the greatest among the students of the language at this period was Kuoh P'oh (郭璞) al. Kuo Ching-shun (景純). This man, who lived from 276 to 324, was a native of Wên-hsi (聞喜) in the present province of Shansi. He was the son of an official and scholar and followed his father's example. But it was more as an astrologer, and necromancer, and alchemist that he was celebrated during his lifetime than as an official or a scholar. He was from youth a lover of all curious learning, and a devoted student of early literature. He wrote several works on the ancient classics, but his fame now among native scholars rests mainly on his labours in connection with the "Urh-ya" and the "Fang-yen." He edited the text of the former and added an illustrative commentary giving the sounds and explanations of many of the characters. This commentary was afterwards incorporated in the edition of the "Urh-ya" produced by Hsing Ping of the Sung dynasty, and it is still an authority. The manuscript of the "Fang-yen" was put in order and published by Kuo, with notes which give the sounds and meanings of rare or difficult characters. Native students still regard this work as