20 BOTANICON SINICUM. 
CHAPTER I. 
PLANTS MENTIONED IN THE fff HE Ph ya. 
The Rh ya, of which an account has already been given in — 
Part I, p. 34, is a relic of the Chou dynasty. It is the — 
earliest Chinese attempt to compile a dictionary. The — 
authorship is ascribed to EF Tsz Huta, a disciple of — 
Conrvctus. It is, however, believed that a part of the work — 
was written by the famous Duke of Chou in the 12th century 
B.C. Tsz H1a was born B.C. 507 and lived to a great age, for — 
we find him [B.C. 406] at the court of Prince Wen of Wei, 4 
to whom he gave copies of some of the classical books. [See _ 
Leaar’s Classics, I, Prol., p- 118.] 
The Rh ya is a dictionary of terms used in Chinese classical 
and other ancient writings, the words being arranged in 
categories with regard to affinity of subjects. Its present 
shape dates from the third century of our era, when Kuo P‘0, a 
— celebrated scholar and commentator who lived A.D. 276-324, 
remodelled the matter and added commentaries. It is 
divided into 19 sections, of which seven (comprising about 
two thirds of the whole work) treat of natural objects 
herbaceous plants, trees, insects, fishes, birds, quadrupeds an¢ 
domestic animals. But the original text of the Rh ya, as far 
at least as natural objects are concerned, is generally nothing 
more than a list of names and synonyms. Some of 
editions of the Rh ya are illustrated with plates, rudel; 
executed cuts. As is stated in the preface, these dra ) 
date from the Sung period, but they may have been based 1 
the woodcuts appended, as the ancient catalogues ral 
Kuo P‘0’s edition of the Rh ya? 
_, , 3 Im 1882 a new edition of the Rh ya, in 12mo, was published. at Shar 
It is accompanied with the illustrations and is well printed. 
