end
with the same word form one of a number of groups which appear under
the same Rhyme, the Rhymes themselves being distributed over five
Tones. Thus, to find any phrase, the first point is to discover what
is its normal Rhyme; the next is to ascertain the Tone of that Rhyme.
Then, under this Tone-group the Rhyme-word will be found, and under
the Rhyme-word group will be found the final word of the phrase in
question. It will now only remain to run through this last group of
phrases, all of which have this same final word, and the search--so
vast is the collection--will usually yield a satisfactory result. The
_P'ei Wen Yuen Fu_ runs of course to many volumes; a rough estimate
shows it to contain over fifteen million words.

Yuan Lo Ta Tien.

_Encyclopaedias._--In their desire to bring together condensed, yet
precise, information on a large variety of subjects, the Chinese may
be said to have invented the encyclopaedia. Though not the earliest
work of this kind, the _T'ai P'ing Yue Lan_ is the first of any great
importance. It was produced towards the close of the 10th century
A.D., under the direct supervision of the emperor, who is said to have
examined three sections every day for about a year, the total number
of sections being one thousand in all, arranged under fifty-five
headings. Another similar work, dealing with topics drawn from the
lighter literature of China, is the _T'ai P'ing Kuang Chi_, which was
issued at about the same date as the last-mentioned. Both of these,
and especially the former, have passed through several editions. They
help to inaugurate the great Sung dynasty, which for three centuries
to follow effected so much in the cause of literature. Other
encyclopaedias, differing in scope and in plan, appeared from time to
time, but it will be necessary to concentrate attention upon two only.
The third emperor of the Ming dynasty, known as Yung Lo, A.D.
1403-1425, issued a commission for the production of a work on a scale
which was colossal even for China. His idea was to collect together
all that had ever been written in the four departments of (1) the
Confucian Canon, (2) History, (3) Philosophy and (4) General
Literature, including astronomy, geography, cosmogony, medicine,
divination, Buddhism, Taoism, arts and handicrafts; and in 1408 such
an encyclopaedia was laid before the Throne, received the imperial
approval