Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/73

Rh composed the "Tzŭ-yuan" (字源) in one chuan. The meaning of the title is "Source of Characters," that is, of those in the "Shuo-wên," the book being an attempt to explain the classifiers of that dictionary. The mention of Mêng-ying suggests his critic Kuo Chung-shu (郭忠恕 al. Shu-hsien 恕先). This learned and eccentric genius wrote several treatises, to one of which he gave the name "P‘ei-hsi" (佩觽). This means "Portable Piercer" and the book was intended to be an "unraveler" of the knots of confusion into which the written language had been forced.

About the end of the tenth century was compiled the first edition of the celebrated dictionary "Kuang-yun," the Yung-hsi edition mentioned above. We read indeed of a "Kuang-yun" published during the T‘ang period, but nothing seems to be known of that work; nor, indeed, is much known of the "Yung-hsi Kuang-yun." The edition which has come down to us is the revised and enlarged edition of 1008. The full title of this is "Ta Sung Ch‘ung-hsiu-kuang-yun" (大宋重修廣韻), that is The [sic] second revised "Kuang-yun" of the Great Sung Dynasty. This title was given to the treatise by the Emperor Chên Tsung, who had ordered it to be compiled. For this purpose he had appointed a commission, the chief members of which were Ch‘ên Pêng-nien (陳彭年), a native of Nan-ch‘êng in Kiangsi, and Ch‘iu Yung (丘雍), men of learning and repute. The names of these men, however, were not given in the published work. It is acknowledged that the "Kuang-yun" is based on the "T‘ang-yun" and "Yü-pien," and some have not hesitated to assert that it is a combination of these two books, or merely a reprint of the "T‘ang-yun" or the "Ch‘ie-yun." One writer states that in his time the "T‘ang-yun," "Ch‘ie-yun," and "Kuang-yun" were simply one book under different names. This is perhaps overstated and incorrect, but as the last is the only one of the three which has survived, it is not possible to decide from a comparison. The "Kuang-yun" is a phonetic dictionary arranged according to the 206 finals beginning with tung (東). In this arrangement the characters to be described are distributed under the four