Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/67

Rh long been lost. It was originally in twenty-five chuan and was compiled about the middle of the sixth century by Yuan-ying (元應), called also Hsüan-ying (玄應), a monk who lived at Chang-an. The work is a glossary to the foreign, technical, and difficult words and phrases in the Buddhist canon. It gives the sounds and meanings of the Sanskrit proper names and terms of religion, and the different transcriptions which had been used. Important Chinese phrases are also explained and the pronunciation of characters given and illustrated. The compiler generally bases his statement or interpretation of Chinese expressions on standard native authorities. Thus he often quotes such works as the "Ts‘ang-chie-pien," the "Shuo-wên," the "Yü-pien," the "Kuang-ya," and the commentaries on the Confucian classics. Though native scholars quote this treatise freely it is not easy to consult, owing to the absence of an index and the want of a good arrangement. It is also pronounced to be faulty in the use which it makes of the Han writers and in the sounds which it assigns to characters. Two chapters were added some time afterwards by a subsequent editor. These were the work of Hui-yuan (慧苑), another Buddhist monk who lived some time after Yuan-ying, and they may be regarded as a sort of supplement to the first part of the latter's work. But they do not show the great learning and industry of the author of the "I-ch‘ie-ching-yin-yi."

To these may be added the names of a few other works composed by Buddhist monks of this period. The "Hsiang-wên" (像文) a treatise on the "Yü-pien," was compiled by Hui-li (慧力); the "Wên-tzŭ-shi-hsün" (文字釋訓) was by Pao-chih (寶誌); the "Yun-ying" (韻英) by Ching-hung (靜洪); and a useful supplement to the "Ch‘ie-yun" was contributed by Yu-chih (猷智).

In several respects the period of the T‘ang dynasty forms an era of great importance in the history of the cultivation of the language. It was the time in which China first began to have a popular literature, and the classical works of antiquity were now published in a form which made them accessible to all. In the