Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/62

48 These men seem to have taken a very extensive course of reading, and to have otherwise gone to work very earnestly. The employment of the 206 finals is by some attributed to the T‘ang editor Kuo Chih-hsüan, and no one seems to know who first invented the system or when it arose. The "Ch‘ie-yun," however, is generally spoken of as Luh's work, and is described as having been a treatise of great research and careful execution. It came to be largely used by later writers in the compilation of dictionaries and other works on the language.

To the Sui succeeded the T‘ang dynasty, which is counted as lasting from 618 to 906. In this period learning of various kinds was favoured and encouraged, and several of the Emperors were patrons and cultivators of learning and literature. Not only were the old native classics, especially the "Shi-ching," now studied with renewed enthusiasm, but the sacred and other books of the Indian Buddhists also became well known through translations. The native language also was now studied with great learning and ability, and increased attention was now paid to the tones and the sounds of characters generally. Both Chinese and foreigners now wrote on these subjects, and acquaintance with them was required from the competitors for the state degrees or literary titles by which official employment was obtained.

At the beginning of this period we find Luh YanYuan [sic]-lang (陸元朗), better known by his other name Luh Te-ming (德明), one of the greatest scholars of the T'ang dynasty. He was a native of Soochow and lived at the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. Among native scholars he is well known for his writings on the "Yi-ching," and for his treatise on the old language. This is called "Ching-tien-shi-wên" (經典釋文), An Explanation of the Terms and Phrases in the Classics. Dr. Legge says of it, "This is more a dissection of the classics, excluding Mencius, and including "Laou-tsze" and "Chwang-tsze," giving the sounds of characters, and the meaning