Postface of the Shuo-wen Chieh-tzu .

The First Comp·rehensive Chinese Dictionary

WISCONSIN CHINA SERIES, NO. l

By K. L. Thern

ABOUT THE COVER - On the right, a rubbing from a brick dated the 11th year of Yung-yi..ian (99 A.DJ, just one year before the date of the postface of the Shuo-wen Chieh-tzu. The rubbing was printed in Ch' ien-pi-t' ing ku chuan t'u shih by Lu Hsin-yiian.

The other two rubbings are from the Wu-ying Palace collection.

The seal scri�t inscription, on the top-l"eft, dates from the

Former Han period. It appeared on a family chung belonging to the Marquis of Nan-p'i. The other rubbing is from a Chou dynasty

tripod.

I

26 SEP\968

Published and Distributed by

The Department of East Asian Languages and Literature

The University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

1966

-8�

2 aO POSTFACE OF THE SHUO-WEN CHIEH-T'lU

2.10 The Origin and Early Development of Writing

"In ancient times, P 1 a.o Hsi2 )[?., i�- came to rule the world a Looking

up, he contemplated the phenomena in the sky, and looking down, the pat­

terns on the earth. He observed3 the markings on birds and animals and

their adaptations to the eartha From nearby, he took some hint from his

own body, and elsewhere from other thingsa Then he began to make the

eight trigrams4 of the Changes, to pass on to others the regular patterns

in the world a

Later, when Shen Nung5 it.j7 � made knots in rope to direct and reg­

ularize activities, all kinds of trades and professions were multiplied,

and then artificial and refined things sprouted and grewa

Ts' ang Chi eh /it, JR , scribe for the Yellow Emperor, on looking at the

tracks of the feet of birds and animals, realizing that the patterns and

2Alternate name: Fu hsi l,}( t , the legendary emperor whose ac­cession was traditionally attributed to 2852 B.C 0

3certain works in which this quotation occurs have slightly different wording. Eag.: the T'ang shih ching .$ . .fl#:!£. has� instead of ,?J{; Cfa also, for this passage in I J& , James Legge, tra, The Sacred Books of China, the I Ching, Vol XVI of The Sacred Books of the East, ed. F. Max Muller (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899. Reprint, New York: Dover Publica­tions, Inca, 1963), pa 382 a Also cfo Richard Wilhelm, tr., The I Ching or Book of Changes, transa Cary F. Baynes (New York: Pantheon Book Inc a , )9500 Repri�ts 1952, 1955, 1961), Po 353a

4This passage also occurs in the f. Cf. Legge, pa 382 and Wilhelm,p O 353 0

5The legendary emperor, 2737 B.C., inventor of agriculture.