Born in
成都, he won fame at court with fu in the grand manner of
司马相如, then turned against the form as a boy's craft of carving insects, the origin of
雕虫小技. He went on to write the 《
太玄》 on the model of the Book of Changes, the 《
法言》 on the model of the Analects, and the 《
方言》, the first Chinese dictionary of dialects.
