tones—P‘ing, Shang, Ch‘ü, and Ju. The pronunciation of the first of a group of characters is given by the fan-ch‘ie or syllabic spelling. But the sounds thus given are not those of the eleventh century, but of a period at least two or three centuries before. The meanings which it gives are few and unsatisfactory, often putting one off with such stuff as "name of a place," or "name of a person." The number of characters of which the "Kuang-yun" gives explanations is 26,194, but many of these were, even in the eleventh century, obsolete or archaic. This dictionary has a value as the earliest one extant in which the sounds of characters are given systematically. But it has never stood high with native scholars, some of whom do not hesitate to speak of it as a Dodder-garden Book, a treatise dealing with the petty affairs of low occupations. It has, however, been often re-edited and republished, and it is still occasionally reprinted.[1]
About the same time that Ch‘ên Pêng-nien was engaged in the compilation of the "Kuang-yun" he was also busy with a new edition of the "Yü-pien." In this work he was assisted by Ch‘iu Yung and Wu Jui (吳銳). The additions and alterations which had been made by previous editors were carefully examined, and those which were approved were retained. But substantially the new edition was only a corrected reprint of that by Sun Chiang in 674, with a few additions. It bears the title "Ta-kuang-i-hui Yü-pien," and is still the received text of the "Yü-pien." [2]
The "Kuang-yun" was quickly followed by the "Chi-yun" (集韻), another treatise of the same kind. This work was begun apparently in 1034 and finished in 1039. It also was undertaken by Imperial orders and on the petition of certain scholars who found the "Kuang-yun" faulty and untrustworthy, and the object with which it was compiled was to correct the faults and supply the defects of its predecessor. Like it, the "Chi-yun" also was to a large extent a reproduction of the "Ch‘ie-yun," and for the meanings of words it was chiefly indebted to the "Shuo-wen."
