gu jing ji (古鏡記) questions

I'm starting on the 古鏡記 and have a question on the very first line.

The line is 隋汾陰侯生，天下奇士也。

My question is with the first phrase of that sentence. In modern Chinese 生 means born. So I think it means after 汾陰侯 was born. Is that right?

If that's correct, the line would translate loosely to: After the Marquis FenYin of the Sui dynasty was born, strange people (existed) all across the land. It's essentially giving date and location to the beginning of the story.

Thank you! Especially for all the references! I would have recognized it in the form using 之.

Reading this one story is going to take me all year! I had thought it wasn't as good a choice as a history selection, but it's clear I have so much to learn it doesn't matter what I start with.

隋汾陰侯生：Hou-sheng from Fenyin county in the Sui dynasty. 生 is the title for an educated man 儒生. The structure "NP1, NP2 也" is a declarative sentence, affirming NP1 is NP2.

I had figured out that Hou-sheng was a proper name, but not that 生 was a title. Thanks.

It used to be a standard practice to underline the proper names in Chinese publications, which would be very helpful. Though it is rare now, you still can find them in recent critical editions of classical texts. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_name_mark

Actually, now that you point it out, this text does have the underlines for proper names. I feel pretty stupid...

隋（朝代） 汾陰（地名） 侯生（姓侯的青年知识分子），天下奇士也。

If you have time and inclination I have lots of questions.

承日照之，则背上文画，墨入影内，纤毫无失。

What does 纤毫无失 mean? The characters disappear without a trace? I think the whole thing loosely means when sunlight shines on it, the characters on the back are activated.

宜其见赏高贤，自称灵物

I'm starting to work on the phrase 宜其见赏高贤? I can find the phrase 高贤见赏 but I don't think it means the same thing when flipped.

1. 承日照之，则背上文画，墨入影内，纤毫无失。

when sunlight shines on it, the characters on the back appear in the shadows, without any blur
纤毫无失 means 丝毫不差 / Exactly

2. 宜其见赏高贤，自称灵物

the mirror is suit to be appreciated by wise man, so it should be a miraculous thing.
the right sequence of 宜其见赏高贤 is 其宜见赏高贤，put the predicate 宜 in the front to express strong emotion like admiration or exclamation.

Thank you! Now that you have explained it, I can see how to decipher it.