indicators, and even when the indicator to a character is satisfactorily
ascertained, it still remains to search through all the characters under
that particular group. Printing from movable types would have been
impossible under such a system.

In the modern standard dictionary, published in 1716, under the
direction of the Emperor K'ang Hsi, there are only 214 indicators
employed, and there is a further sub-arrangement of these groups
according to the number of strokes in the other, the phonetic portion of
the character. Thus, the indicators "hand," "wood," "fire," "water," or
whatever it may be, settle the group in which a given character will be
found, and the number of strokes in the remaining portion will refer it
to a comparatively small sub-group, from which it can be readily picked
out. For instance, 松 "a fir tree" will be found under the indicator 木
"tree," sub-group No. 4, because the remaining portion 公 consists of
four strokes in writing.

Good copies of this dictionary are not too easily obtained nowadays. The
"Palace" edition, as it is called, is on beautifully white paper, and is
a splendid specimen of typography.

A most wonderful literary feat was achieved under the direction of the
before-mentioned Emperor K'ang Hsi, when a general Concordance to the
phraseology of all literature was compiled and published for general
use. Word-concordances to the Bible and to Shakespeare are generally
looked upon as no small undertakings, but what about a
phrase-concordance to all literature? Well, in 1711 this was
successfully carried out, and remains to-day as a monument of the
literary enterprise of the great Manchu-Tartar monarch with whose name
it is inseparably associated.