Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/70

56 classes; one in which the raveled uses of characters are brought into order; one in which the doubts about certain words are discussed; and a last one in which the contents of the thirty-nine preceding chapters are summarized. The work is one of great learning and genius, but its theories and criticisms are too subtle and fanciful. Hsü Ch‘ie, it has been said, reverenced the "Shuo-wên" as a canonical book, and no one up to his time equalled him in the zeal and learning devoted to that work. His great treatise, as it has come down to us, has many errors and mistakes, partly due to copyists or printers and partly to the want of revision. A learned and critical examination of it has been made by a late scholar, who has pointed out and corrected the mistakes of Hsü Ch‘ie and his brother. This reviewer is Ch‘i Shun-fu (祁淳甫 al. 父), and his work in three chuan is now published as an appendix to the reprint of Hsü's "Shuo-wên Hsi-chuan." This last had, soon after it was originally published, been put out of fashion by the edition of the "Shuo-wen" which bears the name of the elder brother. This brother Hsüan (鉉) al. Ting-ch‘ên, (鼎臣), is known also as Ta (or Elder) Hsü, and he is quoted in literature as I-t‘ung (儀同) from the name of a public office which he held. He was born in the year 916, four years before Ch‘ie, and he lived until 991, surviving his younger brother seventeen years. These two brothers had like tastes and pursuits, and it was at the request of the elder that the younger compiled his phonetic edition of the "Shuo-wên," to which, when ready for publication, the elder brother contributed an introduction. They both entered the state service, but the elder, more fortunate than the younger, lived to enjoy public life at the capital, though the end of his career was clouded by official disgrace. His fame also rests entirely on his labours in connection with the "Shuo-wên." These were undertaken in obedience to the commands of the celebrated Emperor Tai Tsung, who appointed a commission to make a new and correct edition of the text of that work. At the head of this was Hsü Hsüan, and he had the co-operation of several distinguished scholars. The result of their labours was the treatise known as the "Hsü