2. The edition of Wang-Pi (王弼). This man was the author of the Lao-tzu-liao-lun (老子略論), according to Chʽao. He was a native of Shan-yang (山陽) in the time of the Chin dynasty, which reigned over China in the third and fourth centuries of our era.[15] His style was Szu-fu (嗣輔), and he was an early and devoted student of Lao-tzŭ. Besides this, and that he wrote a commentary on the Tao-tê chin, and one on the Yi-ching, and died at the early age of twenty-four, much regretted by his sovereign, we know little about Wang-Pi. The text which he gives in his edition is very good, and his notes are very brief. They are, however, in some cases almost as difficult to comprehend as the passages they are intended to explain; though their author is regarded by many as a better student of Lao-tzŭ than Ho-shang-kung, and Mr. Wylie says that his commentary is “generally esteemed for its depth of thought and chasteness of diction.”[16] He also divided the work into eighty-one chapters. In the 40th year of Chʽien-lung, or in 1775, a revised edition of this work was printed in the palace, under the care of three mandarins, who have written a neat little preface to the book. This edition is valuable as giving the variations of Wang-Pi’s notes which appeared in the great Encyclopedia known as Yung-lo-ta-tien (永樂大典). 3. The Tao-tê-ching-shi-yi (道德經釋義). This was the work of Lü-yen (呂嵒), better known as Lü-Tʽung-pʽin or Lü-tsu, a famous Taoist of the Tʽang dynasty. His commentary is very diffuse, and does not tend very much to give a clear conception of Lao-tzŭ’s views. Many Chinese scholars, however, believe that the genuine work is not extant, and that all the editions purporting to be from his pen are spurious. Lü-yen was also the editor of a Taoist book written by a celebrated individual of the Han dynasty, and he was the author of a number of original pieces. He was promoted to the rank of a Genius, and he is enrolled as one of the Pa-hsien (八仙) or Eight Genii, under the style Shun-yang-chên-jen (純楊眞人); and in the 29th year of Kʽang-hsi, Mou-Mu-yuen (牟目源) published an edition of the Tao-tê Ching purporting to be a revised edition of this man’s work. It is a very useful book, giving in addition to the commentary a list of various readings, the sounds of the rare or doubtful characters, and other valuable information. This is the edition, apparently, to which Julien refers as a work “publiée en 1690 par Chun-yang-tchin-jin qui renferme toutes les rêveries des Tao-sse modernes.”[17] I cannot understand, however, how a sinologue of M. Julien’s erudition could mistake the date of the famous Lü-Tʽung-pin or forget that he was identical with Shun-yang-chên-jen, A new edition of Mou-Mu-yuen’s book was published in the 14th year of Chia-chʽing (1809) by Tsou-Hsü-kʽun (鄒學鯤).