 The Qing Dynasty commentator Bi Yuan (畢沅; 1730–1797), who published the 1789 "Shiming shuzheng" (釋名疏證; "Exegetical evidence for "Shiming"") critical edition, believed that the work was begun by Liu Zhen and completed by Liu Xi who added his preface.Another Qing scholar Qian Daxin (錢大昕; 1728–1804) concurred that Liu Xi was the author based upon studies of his students' biographies.Based on internal evidence, Bodman (1954