34 BOTANICON SINICUM.. 
This classic has never been completely translated into any — 
European language. The translation of the Li ki by Callery into — 
French, 1853, is only an abstract of the work. 4 
THE #8 FE Ruy YA. 
‘This seems to be at first sight the most interesting among the — 
classics for our purposes of research. It is a Dictionary of terms — 
used in Chinese ancient writings generally ascribed to JR ZS 
Chou kung, the Duke of Chou, about 1100 B.C. It was com- — 
pleted by | BH sz’ Hia, a disciple of Confucius, nearly 700 | 
years later, and remodelled into its present shape by 3 J¥ Kuo — 
P‘o in the 3rd century. It seems that the Rh ya was principally | 
intended to explain terms occurring in the Shi king (of which, as _ 
is known, a considerable part has been lost.) In his commentaries _ 
Kuo P‘o frequently quotes the Book of Odes and also the Li sao, — 
the famous poetical production of Ki Yiien, 4th cent. B. C. and — 
the Kuang ya, an ancient dictionary, the author of which lived in 
the middle of the 3rd. cent. (See alph. list Nos. 445, 383.) 
The greater half of the matter in the Rh ya, arranged under 
19 sections (#¥ shi, properly : explanation), treats of natural objects. 
The names of plants are found in the 18th and 14th sections — 
under the heads of i ts‘ao, Herbs and 7 mu, Trees. Nearly 
300 plants are enumerated there and in other sections as many 
animals. In some editions the text is accompanied with drawings. — 
In the preface of the illustrated edition of 1802 it is stated that 
these wood-cuts originally date from the time of the Sung dynasty — 
and that they have been carefully reproduced from a manuscript | 
copy made by one who lived in the time of the Yiian or Mongol 
period (18th or 14th cent.). According to the History of the 
Sui dynasty (section on literature, book 32) there existed in the 
Liang period (6th cent.) two volumes of drawings illustrating the 
Rh ya, which were made by Kuo P%o, but they had been lost.”) 
Subsequently to the time of Kuo P‘o ¢y jf Kiang kuan prepared 
9 An excellent account of the Rh ya by E. ©. Bridgman is found in the Chinese 
Repository XVIII (1849), p. 169, aon : 
10 The earliest original drawings of plants extant in European collections are those 
accompanying a manuscript copy of Dioscorides’ Materia medica, dating from the 5th 
century and preserved in the Great Vienna Library. 
