Korean Confucianism
Under the succeeding Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, Confucian ideas gained even more widespread prominence. During the Song Dynasty, the scholar Zhu Xi (AD 1130–1200) added ideas from Taoism and Buddhism into Confucianism. In his life, Zhu Xi was largely ignored, but not long after his death his ideas became the new orthodox view of what Confucian texts actually meant. Modern historians view Zhu Xi as having created something rather different, and call his way of thinking Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism held sway in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam until the 19th century.
Xu Shen
Xu Shen ( CE) was a Chinese scholar-official and philologist of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-189). He was born in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (today known as Luohe in Henan Province). During his own lifetime, Xu was recognized as a preeminent scholar of the Five Classics. He was the author of "Shuowen Jiezi", which was the first comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, as well as the first to organize entries by radical. This work continues to provide scholars with information on the development and historical usage of Chinese characters. Xu Shen completed his first draft in 100 CE but, waited until 121 CE before having his son present the work to the Emperor An of Han.
Xu was a student of the scholar-official Jia Kui 贾逵 (30-101). Under Jia, he established himself as a master in his own right and enjoyed a positive reputation. This education allowed him to hold several government offices at the prefecture level, and ultimately rise to a post in the royal library. Before undertaking the "Shuowen", he was already a prolific writer. Although lost, one of his better known early works was a commentary on the Huainanzi, an important sociopolitical work from the second century BCE.