Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 203

1850.

The Shwoh Wan, or Etymologicon.

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Mau of Hokien, having obtained the perusal of Kú's copy, added his tes- timony, and immediately a copy was made ready with especial carefulness for the engraver. I myself was able to procure from Tsin Lienshuh, the Tonic Collection by the younger Sü, and thus this edition was made com- plete, ready for the press. Copies of the Etymologicon, prepared by Yu Yenchi, Li Jinfü, Wáng Pehliau, were published in the time of the Sung dynasty; but all these are now found to be very defective and much mutilated. Dur- ing the Yuen and Ming dynasties, there seem to have been no reprints. The present edition, therefore, being an exact transcript from Kú Tien-li's, will I trust be quite correct and free from errors. Still, should the lovers of antiquity discover such in it, by pointing out the same, they will help the student to a more thorough acquaintance with the work. Thus it will be- come more complete; its high aims more fully secured; and the design of Chin Lwán in publishing this edition realized. And thus too, my own hopes and expectations will be satisfied.

No. 5.-Postgramme by Sũ Kiái. (No date.)

THIS treatise, the Etymologicon, has a remote origin, having existed during nine successive dynasties, a period of seven hundred years. The efforts of our literary professors are now relaxed; our men of learn- ing are abandoning their pursuits; no sages make their appearance; and the divine will is darkened. Therefore, in a Supplementary form, I have given a General Explanation of Hü Shin's entire work extend- ing from Sects. i to xxx.

The radical characters, and those naturally derived from them, have been taken up and explained in consecutive order; and the res- pective classes extended so that all objects under heaven, properly fall- ing into them, have been traced out. Those of remote and obscure origin have not been brought into these series. Seizing, therefore, upon the principal idea of those which could be clearly traced, I have formed the Radical Series, in Sects. xxxi and xxxii.

Written characters are the means by which the sages were enabled to make researches the most profound, and investigatious the most minute; by which are drawn the lines of heaven and earth, of the sun and moon; by which the cardinal duties of fidelity, filial piety, humanity, and justice are illustrated, and the rules for the high and the low in the empirical defined, and all the laws and ordinances for the regulation of ceremonies and music prescribed. When able clearly to comprehend all these, the prince can keep in their proper place all the subjects of his wide domain, and bring the whole empire under just control. So the minister of state, when able clearly to com- prehend all these, can properly serve his prince and regulate his sub-

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