Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 195

THE

CHINESE REPOSITORY.

VOL. XIX.-APRIL, 1850.-No. 4.

ART. I. Shwoh Wan Kidi-tsz', Sû shí Hi-chuen, Sz'-shih kiuen ;

說文解字 徐氏繫傳四十卷 or The Etymologicon

[of Hũ Shin] with a Supplementary Commentary by Sũ, in forty sections. By PHILO.

[To the Editor.-Sir, before troubling you with any more Diversions, allow me to introduce to the notice of your Readers, the ETYMOLOGIcon of Hü Shin, the ablest lexicographer that has ever written on the Chinese lan- gnage. The edition before me, in eight handsome octavos, was printed in 1839 at the Golden Tombs, or Kinling-as the old Southern Capital is called in classic style; it comes recommended by one of the most erudite members of his Imperial Majesty's present Cabinet; and may therefore, I presume, be accepted as one of the best now extant. As a vade-mecum for the native studenį, it is valuable indeed; and when translated, as it ought to he, it will be a most acceptable addition to our present apparatus for acquir- ing a knowledge of the Chinese language. I send you a short notice of this book arranged in a series of numbers, which will give your readers a general idea of its plan and contents. Your's, &c.—Philo.]

No. 1. Philo's Synopsis of the Work.

PERHAPS it may save the reader some trouble, if by way of preface, I give a summary view of the eight volumes. The first

The first opens with an Introduction by the principal editor, Chin Lwán, and a recom- mendatory Preface by Kí Tsiuentsíu, the then literary chancellor of Kiángsú, now assistant chief minister of the Cabinet, president of the Board of Revenue, &c. We have next what forms the body of the book, a list of 13,296 characters, of which 1762 are duplicated in either an ancient or altered form, thus giving a total of 14,054: all these, as they are explained and illustrated, fill up twenty-eight sec- tions, and are arranged under five hundred and forty-one radicals, thus:

VOL. XIX. NO. IV.

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