CHINESE LEXICOGRAPHY
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CHINESE
LEXICOGRAPHY
A History from 1046 bc to ad 1911
Heming Yong
Jing Peng
1
3Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, IndiaPrinted in Great Britainon acid-free paper by
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ISBN 978-0-19-953982-6
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contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xii
Preface xiii
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction 3
PART I I THE GENES I S AND EMERGENCE OF LEX ICOGRAPHICAL
CULTURE AND WORKS IN ANCIENT CHINA
(from the Zhou Dynasty, 1046 bc–256 bc
to the Han Dynasty, 206 bc–ad 220)
2 The emergence of lexicographical culture in China 15
2.1 The origin of Chinese characters and their formation 16
2.2 Ancient Chinese literature and exegetic interpretation
of characters 21
2.3 Theories on the origin of lexicography 25
3 The progress of exegetic practice and the advent
of lexicographical works in China 29
3.1 Language studies during the Pre-Qin Dynasties 30
3.2 Teaching and explaining ancient characters and the
emergence of lexicography 34
3.3 Literature in ancient times 37
3.4 The beginnings of Chinese lexicography 41
4 Historian Zhou’s Primer – the source of lexicographical
culture in China 44
4.1 The historical background to HZP’s birth 45
4.2 The background and motivation for HZP’s compilation 46
4.3 The format and style of HZP 48
4.4 The cultural and academic implications of HZP 55
5 The Ready Guide – the initiator of thesaurus dictionaries in China 59
5.1 The historical background to RG’s birth 59
5.2 The background and motivation for RG’s compilation 63
5.3 The format and style of RG 67
5.4 The cultural and academic implications of RG 73
6 The Dictionary of Dialectal Words – the beginnings of dialect
dictionaries in China 76
6.1 The historical background to DDW’s birth 76
6.2 The background and motivation for DDW’s compilation 80
6.3 The format and style of DDW 84
6.4 The academic value and cultural inXuence of DDW 90
7 An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters – the origin
of character dictionaries in China 95
7.1 The historical background to EDCC’s birth 96
7.2 The background and motivation for EDCC’s compilation 100
7.3 The format and style of EDCC 102
7.4 The academic value and cultural inXuence of EDCC 109
8 The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms – the inception
of etymological dictionaries in China 114
8.1 The historical background to DCCT’s birth 115
8.2 The background and motivation for DCCT’s compilation 118
8.3 The format and style of DCCT 120
8.4 The academic value and cultural inXuence of DCCT 128
9 Theoretical inquiries into lexicographical issues in ancient China:
a survey 134
9.1 The origin of lexicography 135
9.2 The advent of lexicography 136
9.3 The formation of macro-level styles for dictionary making 141
9.4 The formation of micro-level format for dictionary making 146
PART I I I THE EXPLORAT ION AND CULT IVAT ION
OF LEX ICOGRAPHY IN CHINA
(from the Wei Dynasty, 220–265 to the Yuan Dynasty, 1206–1368)
10 An overview of Chinese lexicographical culture during
the period of exploration and cultivation 155
10.1 The historical background 155
10.2 The academic background 159
10.3 An overall view between the Wei and Yuan Dynasties 165
v i contents
11 The development of Chinese character dictionaries 176
11.1 The historical background 176
11.2 The evolution of lexicographical theories 179
11.3 The development of format and style 185
11.4 A brief introduction to some representative
character dictionaries 192
11.5 The academic value and cultural implications 202
12 The development of Chinese word dictionaries 205
12.1 The historical background 205
12.2 The evolution of lexicographical theories 208
12.3 The development of format and style 210
12.4 A brief introduction to some representative
word dictionaries 213
12.5 The academic value and inXuence 221
13 ClassiWed dictionaries – the encyclopedic dictionary
in ancient China 223
13.1 The historical background to the birth
of classiWed dictionaries 223
13.2 The emergence of classiWed dictionaries 225
13.3 A brief analysis of some important classiWed dictionaries 228
13.4 The social and academic inXuence 235
14 Rhyme dictionaries – a special dictionary type in ancient China 237
14.1 The historical background to the birth of rhyme dictionaries 238
14.2 The burgeoning growth of rhyme dictionaries 243
14.3 A brief analysis of some important rhyme dictionaries 245
14.4 The social and academic inXuence of rhyme dictionaries 252
PART IV THE REFORM AND SHAPING
OF LEX ICOGRAPHY IN CHINA
(from the Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644
to the Qing Dynasty, 1616–1911)
15 An insight into lexicographical culture in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties 259
15.1 The historical background to the reform and shaping of
Chinese lexicography 259
15.2 The academic background to the reform and shaping of
Chinese lexicography 264
contents v i i
15.3 A survey of dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 268
15.4 The characteristics of dictionary making in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties 275
16 The formation of Chinese character dictionaries 280
16.1 The social and cultural background in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties 280
16.2 The development of character dictionary compilation
in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 282
16.3 The development of format and style in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties 286
16.4 A brief introduction to the masterpieces
of character dictionaries 290
16.5 The academic value and inXuence of character dictionaries
of the Ming and Qing Dynasties 293
17 The formation of Chinese word dictionaries 298
17.1 The historical background 298
17.2 The evolution of lexicographical theories in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 300
17.3 The development of format and style in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 301
17.4 A brief introduction to the masterpieces of word dictionaries
in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 304
17.5 The academic value and inXuence of word dictionaries
in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 313
18 The evolution and reformation of special and encyclopedic
dictionaries in China 319
18.1 The historical background in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 320
18.2 Lexicographical paradigm in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 321
18.3 The analysis of format and style in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 324
18.4 A short analysis of some representative dictionaries
in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 328
18.5 The academic value and inXuence of special and encyclopedic
dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 342
19 The evolution and formation of rhyme dictionaries in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 347
19.1 The historical background in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 347
v i i i contents
19.2 The development of lexicographical theories in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 348
19.3 The evolution of format and style in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties 352
19.4 The representative dictionaries in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties and their academic inXuence 357
PART V CHINESE B IL INGUAL LEX ICOGRAPHY:
A BR IEF OVERVIEW
(from the Tang Dynasty, 618–907 to the Qing Dynasty, 1616–1911)
20 The origin and emergence of Chinese bilingual lexicography 367
20.1 Buddhist preaching and the advent of bilingual lexicography 369
20.2 Buddhist sutras and the compilation of dictionaries
of sounds and meanings 370
20.3 Dictionaries of sounds and meanings and the
dawn of bilingual dictionaries 371
21 The archetype and evolution of Chinese bilingual dictionaries 372
21.1 Buddhist culture and the emergence of bilingual glossaries 372
21.2 Chinese socio-cultural life and the evolution of
bilingual dictionaries 373
21.3 The writing of history books and bilingual
glossary compilation 375
22 Ethnic minority languages and their bilingual dictionaries 376
22.1 Western Xia culture and Tangut bilingual dictionaries 377
22.2 Mongolian culture and Mongolian
bilingual dictionaries 378
22.3 Turkish culture and Turkish bilingual dictionaries 379
22.4 Tibetan culture and Tibetan bilingual dictionaries 381
22.5 History studies and bilingual dictionaries for history books 382
23 Religious preaching from the West and Chinese
bilingual dictionary compilation 384
23.1 Matteo Ricci’s contributions to Chinese
bilingual lexicography 384
23.2 Robert Morrison and the Wrst Chinese–English dictionary 386
23.3 Dialect studies and Chinese bilingual dialect dictionaries 388
23.4 The end of missionary compilation of Chinese
bilingual dictionaries 389
contents ix
24 Chinese government establishments and Chinese
bilingual dictionary compilation 391
24.1 Government establishments and bilingual
glossary compilation 392
24.2 Chinese–foreign language dictionaries
and their three versions 393
24.3 The spread of Western learning and the compilation
of specialized bilingual dictionaries 395
24.4 The compilation of Manchurian–Chinese bilingual
and multilingual dictionaries in the Qing Dynasty 396
25 The characteristics and inXuence of early Chinese
bilingual dictionaries 399
25.1 Early bilingual dictionaries and their characteristics 399
25.2 The socio-cultural inXuence of early bilingual dictionaries 401
Appendix I List of book titles from English to Chinese
with English titles arranged in alphabetical order 403
Appendix II List of book titles from Chinese to English
with Chinese titles arranged in Pinyin order 422
Appendix III 中国历代纪元表/ The chronology
of Chinese history 445
Bibliography 447
Websites 452
Index of Chinese names 453
x contents
illustrations
Plate 1 First Emperor of Qin Dynasty
Plate 2 Stone Drum Characters
Plate 3 The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms
Plate 4 Xu Shen
Plate 5 The Dictionary of Rhymes
Plate 6 The Dictionary of Rhymes
Plate 7 The Dictionary of Initial Consonants
Plate 8 The Beitang Collections of Copied Books
Plate 9 The Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Books
Plate 10 Li Shizhen
Plate 11 The Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature
Plate 12 The Compendium of Materia Medica
Plate 13 The Yongle Compendium
acknowledgements
Many people have kindly helped us, inspired us, and spurred us on to the
completion of this arduous and intricate undertaking and contributed in various
ways to making our long-cherished wish come true. We would particularly like to
thank the following people.
Our gratitude and sincerest thanks go to J. H. Prynne of Cambridge University,
who read the manuscript with keen observation, raised a series of thought-
provoking questions, discussed various academic issues in relation to the book
both in China and at Cambridge, and kindly accepted our invitation to write the
preface.
We would like to thank Huang Jianhua of Guangdong University of Foreign
Studies, who suggested the idea of writing a history of Chinese lexicography in
English and making it accessible to a wider readership and also discussed with us
a great number of issues concerning the project.
We would like to thank R. R. K. Hartmann of Exeter and Birmingham
Universities for his continuing interest in and kind attention to the book. His
helpful comments and warm encouragement have been a great inspiration to us.
Our thanks are also due to two anonymous reviewers for their favourable
comments and kind suggestions concerning the publishing proposal and the
manuscript, to Tian Bing, who helped in data collection in the initial stage, to
Huang Hua, who read through the manuscript and made many interesting
suggestions, to Luo Zhenyue and Xue Xue, who helped us with the index of
Chinese names, and to Ma Chijie, Zhang Xiangming, and Rong Yueting, who
helped in the search for and preparation of pictorial illustrations.
Finally, we are deeply indebted to John Davey of Oxford University Press, who
was always available to help and ready to make comments and oVer suggestions.
These have been extremely insightful and a valuable guide to us throughout the
preparation of the book.
Naturally, we, as authors, are responsible for any errors of fact, deWciencies in
coverage or content, and oversights that still remain in the presentation. We
would greatly appreciate our readers’ thoughts and recommendations regarding
the book. Your comments and suggestions will be most welcome. Please email us
at [email protected] or write to us at Guangdong University of Business
Studies, 21 Chisha Road, Guangzhou 510320, Guangdong Province, People’s
Republic of China.
preface
It is widely understood throughout theWestern world that the culture of China has
had an exceedingly rich and varied history, and is in fact one of the most
remarkable empires that ever existed: not merely an empire in the political and
territorial sense but as a coherent life-ordering structure for social continuity and,
as is also well recognized, the connecting basis for this intricate continuity is the
Chinese language. What is less well known, however, is that this near-unique
system of written and spoken practice generated over the span of successive
dynasties its own scholarly and descriptive self-consciousness, with well-developed
theories of language structure and usage, including analysis of a reWned literary
tradition as well as the idioms of administrative, philosophical, and mercantile
activity. Language in this historical context is an important philosophical con-
cept but is also a functioning system of expressive and communicative action.
And knowledge of this latter aspect is especially concentrated in the production
and use of dictionaries.
It can be said that a linguistic culture understands itself by means of its native
lexicography, both by analysis of current practice at the time of study and in
retrospect by historical investigation to deWne a tradition or indeed many part-
separate traditions linked to this common linguistic base. It is not so well known
that China has been extraordinarily rich in lexicographical activity, with layer
after layer of specialized compilation within a variously sophisticated philological
framework. In short the present synoptic history has the great ambition of
making a history of a history by bringing into orderly review the successive
stages within scholarly and practical enterprise of the making and using of
dictionaries of all kinds, at all levels, and from the earliest beginnings to a
point just short of the present day. We are dealing with a specialist historiography
that is also foundational; or a cultural philology in the Germanic sense but with
this diVerence that the perspectives of inquiry are also themselves fromwithin the
Chinese language and its culture, even if deeply retrospective, rather than from
the outside.
Despite its apparent compactness this synoptic history is an extremely ambi-
tious project, with little precedent on anything like this scale or with this degree
of concise scholarly detail. To my knowledge there is nothing like it in a Western
language, and only scattered segments of this work have yet been attempted in
Chinese. The nearest comparable existing enterprise would be the relevant
sections in Science and Civilisation in China by the late Joseph Needham and his
collaborators. The idea is to construe widely the category of reference works
codifying linguistic knowledge concerned with Chinese, including, for example,
word dictionaries, encyclopedias, teaching primers, manuals of calligraphy and
writing practice, rhyming dictionaries, text commentaries and indexes, dialect
dictionaries and phrasebooks, specialist subject glossaries and vocabularies,
works concerned with pronunciation and tone usage, dictionaries of synonyms,
medical, engineering, and technological handbooks, manuals of religious inter-
pretation (sacred texts), proper name lists and biographical records, bilingual
wordbooks (e.g. early Sanskrit–Chinese, Tibetan–Chinese, etc.), and many hy-
brid works whose status may be described in diVerent ways. The arrangement of
the material is chieXy historical and descriptive; but there are also well-controlled
and highly signiWcant parallel reasons for introducing new critical and compara-
tive methodologies, and for interpreting the function of such reference compen-
dia as part of an overall culture, ordering knowledge and promoting structures of
interpretation and understanding and practical use as integral to the fabric of an
educated community. These forms of analysis and larger inquiry very much
amplify the value of this work and its scope of usefulness.
This synoptic history is also extremely and valuably self-conscious concerning
matters of coherent and up-to-date critical methodology, and adopts many
criteria which may be thought to be more at home in Western academic research
than in the earlier styles of subject review practised in China. There is, for
example, a comparative review discussion of historical period segmentation
which brings to the fore the question of sequence ordering, rather than simply
assuming a traditional framework which would be a very usual Chinese practice.
This means that reading this synoptic history could be very instructive for a
Western-trained scholar because it is presented according to procedures which
will be in outline largely familiar, even though the material may be quite exotic
and challenging. Within the adopted period framework there are section formats
based on particular types of reference work, reviewing specialist compendia in
groupings of materials with similar functions or kinds of data – all well sign-
posted. The terminology for describing linguistic features and functions is a
pragmatic blend of traditional Chinese categories andWestern linguistic analysis;
a Western reader unfamiliar with the Chinese material will need to adjust, but the
general framework is quite recognizable and unfamiliar methods (e.g. descrip-
tions of character evolution and contemporary explanations) are demonstrated
with clear discussion of examples.
It is well known that China has a very long cultural and linguistic history, and
that its vigorous intellectual life has included many scholarly functions and
xiv preface
institutions of learning devoted to codifying the knowledge base of that culture.
The history of knowledge of the language is thus a baseline history of the entire
fabric of the Chinese experience; and this pioneering study measures itself against
this recognition. I would, on this ground alone, judge it a landmark work, likely
to be a pivotal reference in Western and Chinese scholarship alike. The functional
approach considers the apparently inert reference manual as a decisive node in a
pattern of communication practice: the intentions of a knowledge book can be
gauged by reconstruction of its user community, and the changes in presentation
can proWle changing patterns of use. Prefatory editorial statements and argu-
ments at the start of works of reference can prove highly informative concerning
context and function and assumed backgrounds of existing knowledge. All this is
for China a new kind of social history, and here too this work could initiate
several new trends.
The historical scope of the synoptic history runs from The Ready Guide (Erya)
of c.200 bc to almost modern times, just up to the threshold of computer-based
lexicography and international bilingual works responding to the new policy of
an open China. A vast number of individual works are listed and described: some
brieXy, but the major landmark works in much greater depth, with cited ex-
amples and discussion of purposes and use-patterns, as well as review of retro-
spective appraisals of earlier treatments made in successive waves of developing
practice. The ordering of presentational sequence, with interspersed reviews of
current method and with the subject-based sections incorporated within the
larger period units, is quite complex but very clearly managed. There is good
internal balance and proportion, and evidently a considerable economy of
treatment is required in order to accommodate this inclusive and synoptic
range within one reasonably-sized volume. A much more elaborate and extensive
treatment could have been mounted in many volumes, probably with specialist
authorship for various component parts; however, that would be a totally
diVerent project, and would lack the distinct virtues of the succinct, well-
informed, and well-proportioned overview which is oVered here. It is more
than possible that the publication of this pioneering synopsis, placing the long
rich tradition of Chinese traditional lexicography on a modern footing, will
stimulate a new phase of lexical and philological studies, together with more
informed comparisons across separate language systems, both in China itself and
in Western sinology. The work could thus become an agenda for a whole host of
specialist derivatives, and for collaborative reWnement of the methodologies
appropriate to speciWc segments of the larger task.
Not only is the structure clear and well laid out, with consistent nomenclature
and a well-managed narrative progression, it is also written in an English style
preface xv
somewhat remarkable for native Chinese scholars. To have assembled and con-
ducted this analysis of a complex language tradition in a foreign language is a
striking achievement, valuable for this reason over and above the content be-
cause, being written in a clear, readable English, it opens up all the material to
non-Chinese readers and scholars; most of this material has never before been
available (if not all of it) outside the Chinese-language domain. I have not been
able to ascertain how the authors have divided up responsibility for this collab-
orative study. Polishing this work to bring it to its present high level of Wnish
must have demanded exceptional eVorts. It is worth saying, also, that the
argumentation of this book is subtle and vigorous; the thought processes are
active, and the material is handled with intelligence rather than merely with
proWciency.
Within the Oxford University Press list it will indeed be a highly specialized
monograph with a well-focused though largely professional core appeal. But
because of its accessible discussion it should be read by many more than the
ranks of trained sinologists, comparative linguists, and historians of language; the
general style is lively and interesting and illustrated with many examples, and
obscure technical terminology is kept to a minimum; moreover, this work is not
likely to be superseded or overtaken in any great hurry. Most Western scholars
and general readers will have little idea of the richness and diversity of this
reXexive self-knowledge and analytic practice within the Chinese language system
and its long history; the book will display a previously almost unknown aspect of
Chinese cultural theory and practice. It will also bring some authoritative and
well-informed material into an area which for the West has been beset with much
folklore and half-ignorant conjecture about the nature of the Chinese language.
I contend that its landmark signiWcance will quickly be recognized and I believe
that it will attract positive reviews even though there will of course be some
critical points of view from specialists; indeed, to initiate diVerent lines of
discussion and divergent points of view will be one of the book’s distinctly
valuable functions.
I believe that this study will aVord the opportunity to grasp the full scope of
such diverse linguistic history running like a thread through the larger historical
record, and to recognize how the Chinese thought about their own language, and
what eVects these thought traditions had on their understanding and use of
language in every sphere of social life. It will massively extend our overall
knowledge and insight on a far more inclusive scale than ‘mere’ lexicography
might seem at Wrst to suggest. Dr Yong Heming and his collaborator have
established a landmark presentation that is both ambitious and judicious in its
balance of close descriptive scholarship with investigative analysis and at the
xv i preface
same time radically extending and testing the contentious tasks of productive
methodology. When Dr Yong Heming was my student (ever-industrious and
talented) at Suzhou University in 1991, I little imagined that such a culminating
and important achievement as this new publication was in prospect for the future
that then lay ahead. The important work presented here is without doubt
deWnitive: large-scale and organized with careful alternating contrast between
descriptive detail and wider evaluations of method and practice. It is indeed a
landmark publication, and it deserves to be closely and widely read.
J. H. Prynne
Gonville and Caius College
University of Cambridge
preface xv i i
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p a r t i
INTRODUCTION
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1
INTRODUCTION
THE history of Chinese civilization traces back to Yandi (also known as Shen
Nong, Divine Peasant) and Huangdi (also known as Xuan Yuan, Emperor
Huang), legendary rulers of China in remote antiquity and the commonly
recognized ancestors of the Chinese nation. The earliest dictionary in the
Chinese language, The Ready Guide (<尔雅>, also known as Erya), boasts a
history of around 2,200 years. However, a systematic and coherent probe into
the history of Chinese lexicography is something of a novelty, having started in
the last quarter of the twentieth century. A Narrative History of Lexicography in
China (<中国辞书史话>, 1979) by Fang Houshu (方厚枢) is the Wrst serious
monologue concerned with that part of dictionary research and with a wide
time span, initiating a whole series of articles and works. Their pioneering
endeavours, especially those studies on the classic wordbooks, have provided
illuminating insights into later research. However, there is still a great deal of
new ground to be covered and problems solved, some of which are fundamental
in nature. This introduction will give an overview of various aspects of dia-
chronic studies of lexicography in China, covering the status quo, the ap-
proaches to adopt, the methodology to employ, the segmentation of historical
periods, and the practical implications, paving the way for discussions that run
throughout this presentation.
The status quoChinese lexicography originated in quite remote times, when there appeared
what resembled a dictionary in the present-day deWnition, or further back with
the primers, for example character-learning books, compiled for children around
800 bc. The Ready Guide, written around 200 bc, is universally acknowledged as
the earliest dictionary in a real sense in the Chinese academic world. The
lexicographical culture in China has evolved and developed for more than two
millennia, and its broadness, uniqueness, profundity and analytical precision
have remained the admiration of the world academic arena. A general review of
diachronic studies on dictionary compilation and theorization in China, how-
ever, manifests some obvious drawbacks.
First, prior to the 1970s, relevant research, mainly introductory monologues,
reXective thoughts, and critical comments and reviews, was limited to various
wordbooks as front matter items, such as preface, introduction, and guide to use,
which summed up previous experiences, reviewed previous lexicographical
works, criticized citations of the literature, and provided additional information
concerning their motivation, initiation, organization, and compilation. The
systematic investigation of the history of Chinese lexicography has continued
for only three decades and signiWcant Wndings and achievements are still not
substantial. By the end of the twentieth century, there were only a few books
dealing exclusively with this subject, notably A Brief History of Chinese Character
Dictionaries (<中国字典史略>, 1983) by Liu Yeqiu (刘叶秋), An Introduction to
Ancient Dictionaries in China (<中国古代字典辞典概论>, 1986) by Qian Jianfu
(钱剑夫), Talks on the History of Ancient Word Books and Dictionaries (<古代辞书史话>, 1986) by Zhao Zhenduo (赵振铎), Lectures on Ancient Wordbooks (<古代词书讲话>, 1990) by Cao Xianzhuo (曹先擢) and Yang Runlu (杨润陆),
A Brief History of Dictionary Compilation in China (<中国辞书编纂史略>,1992) by Lin Yushan (林玉山), and Talks on the History of Chinese Dictionaries
(<中国字典词典史话>, 1998) by Zhang Minghua (张明华). Other research is
found in the academic periodicals of social sciences published by Chinese
institutions of higher learning and in the journals of lexicography in China,
particularly Lexicographical Studies (<辞书研究>), conference proceedings, andcollections of lexicographical articles. All the works listed above are limited to
ancient wordbooks, neglecting dictionary compilation and theoretical general-
ization in modern and contemporary times. The most recent publication Talks on
the History of Chinese Dictionaries covers the broadest time span, extending from
ancient times up to the present day, but unfortunately it provides only a meager
sketch of Chinese lexicography, overlooking some of the major works and even
some important periods. Geographically, none of the above works has taken into
consideration dictionary compilation and research in Hong Kong, Macao, and
Taiwan. Thus, there remains much work to be done in order to give a panorama
of the development of lexicography in China.
Second, those studies are, to some extent, defective in methodology. They
focus on individual wordbooks and fail to make analyses from societal, cultural,
4 introduction
and interdisciplinary dimensions. Dictionaries are the product of the evolution
of human civilization and the development of human society. The needs from
society and culture are the catalyst for the inception and development of lexi-
cography. Owing to the strong and persistent inXuence of ontological language
studies, previous research is mainly limited to dictionaries proper, and dictionary
compilation is viewed as a purely linguistic activity. Consequently, diachronic
studies of Chinese lexicography have not been approached from a socio-cultural
perspective and lack an interdisciplinary basis, resulting in both its separation
from what counts as the environments without which lexicography could not
evolve and develop, and its separation from dictionary use and other socio-
cultural needs. Lexicographical studies could go no further without some sub-
stantial modiWcation in methodology and an adoption of multiple perspectives.
Third, those studies are generally not comprehensive or systematic. It is
frequently apparent in their research that more emphasis is laid on the parts
than on the whole, that more attention is paid to the isolated analysis of cases
than to theoretical generalizations, and that more consideration is given to
accumulation of practical experiences than to formulation of lexicographical
theories. The works mentioned above are, to some extent, based on historical
context, overlook theoretical conWguration, and follow a well-beaten path: sub-
sequent to a brief survey of the development of ancient wordbooks, the whole
text is mostly devoted to the evaluation of several speciWc and representative
wordbooks and dictionaries, and no attempt is made to establish a theoretically
comprehensive and coherent framework incorporating all the Wndings and
various aspects concerning the history of lexicography in China. For instance,
the major parts of Liu Yeqiu (1983) and Zhao Zhenduo (1986) are evaluations of
such speciWc works as The Ready Guide, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters (<说文解字>, also known as The Origin of Chinese Characters) by Xu
Shen (许慎), The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms (<释名>) by Liu Xi
(刘熙), and The Dictionary of Rhymes (<广韵>) by Chen Pengnian (陈彭年).
Evaluations of these works are necessary but, if they are carried out separately, the
continuity of history, the systematicity of theory, and the integrity of research will
be greatly reduced and impaired.
Fourth, the majority of research focuses on Chinese monolingual dictionaries,
making little or no mention of bilingual dictionaries, special-purpose dictionaries,
or encyclopedic dictionaries. These dictionary types, however, also play an indis-
pensable role in the development of Chinese lexicography in modern and contem-
porary times. Their number is several times greater than Chinese monolingual
dictionaries. Any work on the history of lexicography in China without covering
those dictionary types is doomed to be incomplete and should be discounted.
introduction 5
Lastly, the lexicographical terms employed in the above works are inconsistent
and potentially misleading, which frustrates those interested, especially beginners
in lexicography. Lexicographical knowledge cannot be popularized and the
education of lexicography cannot be promoted if this situation remains un-
changed. It hinders the introduction of Chinese scholars’ achievements to the
rest of the world, in particular their western counterparts. There is still no work
on the history of lexicography in China written in English or other languages,
which renders Chinese lexicographical achievements over the past two millennia
inaccessible to scholars outside China.
ApproachesLexicography has evolved and developed in China for more than two millennia,
and it is impossible to cover such a long span of lexicographical activity within a
limited scope of presentation without a scientiWcally sound framework. A theor-
etically coherent framework must be established into which that long span of
lexicographic activity can be incorporated, reXecting the trajectory of lexico-
graphical development in China. The study of the history of lexicography in
China should start from and be based on what has been achieved and focus on
Wlling in the blanks. Diachronically, we cannot deal only with the ancient period
and leave modern and contemporary periods untouched. The ancient, modern,
and contemporary periods should all be treated in appropriate measure. Geo-
graphically, relevant discussions should not be conWned only to mainland China.
They should cover lexicographical studies and activities in Hong Kong, Macao,
and Taiwan as well. As to the typology of dictionaries, the studies should not
be conWned only to Chinese monolingual dictionaries. Chinese bilingual dic-
tionaries, special-purpose dictionaries (particularly specialized dictionaries)
and encyclopedic dictionaries should all be covered, and special types, such as
dictionaries for speciWc purposes (special-interest dictionaries) and dialect dic-
tionaries, should be taken into the lexicographical scene as well. Only when all
the relevant Wndings and achievements are collated, evaluated, analysed, and
incorporated can we embrace China’s over two millennia of dictionary making
and research and put them under one umbrella. Only then can we further portray
the trajectory and patterns of the evolution of Chinese lexicography against the
background of China’s social development. There should be a balance between
the ancient heritage and the reform and innovation in modern and contempor-
ary times. Emphasis should be laid not only on the evaluation and analysis of
representative dictionaries but also on historical continuity and the heritage of
lexicographical evolution. The systematicity of theoretical investigation and the
6 introduction
comprehensiveness and unity of diachronic explorations should all be emphasized.
Only then can we provide a relatively comprehensive holograph of the history of
lexicography in China, covering its development from ancient to contemporary
times and the status quo both in the mainland and in Hong Kong, Macao, and
Taiwan.
As our review of the literature shows, the existing works of the history of
lexicography in mainland China are mostly case studies of individual dictionaries
and wordbooks of ancient times. These studies are very signiWcant in their
historical and academic value, as these ancient dictionaries and wordbooks are
the roots of Chinese lexicographical culture and are priceless treasures for further
in-depth explorations. Nevertheless, the development of Chinese lexicography in
ancient times was slow and uneven over diVerent periods. It began to accelerate
only from the Ming Dynasty and reached its climax in modern and contempor-
ary times, particularly in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Therefore,
the study of the history of lexicography in China should incorporate both ancient
times and modern and contemporary times. A comprehensive and coherent
historical framework should be established to incorporate and faithfully reXect
the evolutional characteristics and patterns of Chinese lexicography over the past
two millennia.
A new policy should be adopted in writing the history of lexicography in
China. While emphasizing the scientiWc and academic nature of the undertaking,
adequate attention should be paid to its readability and popular appeal, avoiding
obscurity, lack of intelligibility or inconsistency in employing lexicographical
terms. The English version should adopt a style more appealing to western
readers and should manifest what is essential to the lexicographical culture in
China – the cornerstone dictionaries, the advanced experiences in dictionary
compilation, and the leading achievements in theoretical inquiry. In addition,
there should be indexes and appendixes to list and explain diYcult and obscure
terms. All this will make the work more enticing and friendly to its readers and
will greatly help popularize lexicographical knowledge and promote education in
this Weld.
MethodologyThe basic methodology in the study of the history of lexicography should be a
combination of sequence, evaluation, and generalization, following the dia-
chronic sequence as the main thread of inquiry and exploration, making object-
ive assessment of major lexicographical works, formulating theoretical
generalizations, and eventually establishing a coherent framework to incorporate
introduction 7
all the Wndings of such research. This is also applicable to the study of the history
of Chinese lexicography. In addition, some substantial breakthroughs will have to
be made in methodology in order to achieve the intended goal.
First, the investigations should not be conWned within the limits of the
dictionary-ontology paradigm. Socio-cultural dimensions will have to be taken
into account. In other words, two interwoven themes should run in parallel
throughout the whole study: socio-cultural evolution and lexicographical devel-
opment in China. The study of the history of lexicography in China should be
carried out against the background of China’s socio-cultural development. There
is undeniable evidence that the development of Chinese wordbooks and diction-
aries is contingent upon the prosperity or adversity of the nation, the develop-
ment of the society, the transmission of religion and culture, and the progress of
science and technology. Prominence must be given to the interactive relation-
ships between socio-cultural advancement and dictionary production and devel-
opment, and between socio-cultural demands and dictionary compilation and
use. Similar interactive relations and mechanisms exist between language and
dictionary, between society and dictionary, and between dictionary and culture.
Lexicographical culture is an essential part of the culture of a nation. The
historical trajectory of the evolution of a nation, whether it rises or falls, will
accordingly leave an imprint upon the development of lexicography of that
nation. In a sense, a history of lexicography is a history of the culture of a nation
and a history of the evolution of its civilization. Thus, it can be safely assumed
that the study of the history of lexicography should be societal, cultural, and
interdisciplinary. The mainstream patterns and characteristics of the develop-
ment of lexicography in China cannot be adequately described if inquiries into
Chinese lexicography are taken out of their socio-cultural context.
Second, the practice of separate case study and the unsystematic theoretical
generalization should be viewed, reWned, and elevated in the general context of
over 2,200 years of Chinese lexicographical experiences so that lexicographical
products and culture can be approached and evaluated under a more consistent,
coherent, integrated, and interrelated framework. The practical implication and
historical value of speciWc dictionaries will be better appreciated when they are
taken into the picture of the whole historical process in which they have evolved
and developed. A dictionary should be regarded as an outcome of the evolution
of a nation’s civilization, as a marked product of a nation’s culture, and as an
indispensable member of a nation’s dictionary family. Dictionary study should
not follow the ontological pattern for language study and be conducted for its
own sake. It should relate itself to the course of the development of a nation’s
culture and to the historical growth of its lexicographical culture. In so doing, the
8 introduction
diachronic inheritance in history, the systematic formulation in theory, and the
integration of sequence, evaluation, and generalization will become conspicuous
throughout this presentation. Moreover, the development of lexicography in
China should be studied and analysed against the wider background of world
lexicography and civilization so as to pinpoint the role that it plays in world
civilization and lexicographical culture and highlight the national features of
China’s lexicographical culture.
Third, the single-perspective mode in the diachronic study of dictionary compil-
ation should be re-evaluated and improved. Traditionally, Chinese lexicography and
its development have been examined mainly from a single perspective, i.e. the
compiler’s perspective. The general truth is that the history of lexicography in
China cannot be fully investigated without taking into consideration the socio-
cultural evolution of the Chinese nation. Thus, a communicative approach should
be introduced to establish a theoretical model for the study of the history of lexicog-
raphy: integrating the compiler, the dictionary, and the user into a trinity so that the
dictionaries and their development canbe examined froma threefold perspective–the
dictionary, its compilation, and its use. Such an approach can help free us from the
conWnements of the conventional practice of looking at dictionaries only from the
perspectiveof dictionary itself. Thus, the ‘trinitarian’ approachwill incorporate socio-
cultural andpsycho-cognitiveperspectives into the studyofdictionaryuse, dictionary
users, and their language needs. User needs and dictionary development, user
research and dictionary use, and dictionary use and language teaching can all be
investigated under and integrated into a uniWed framework. Dictionaries are the
product of the evolutionof human civilization and the product of the development of
human society. The need from society and culture is a catalyst for their birth and
development and user need is a direct driving force for their production and
expansion. Naturally, manifold perspectives should be adopted, and dictionary
evolution should be examined and analysed from the perspective of the dictionary,
the compiler, and the user, taking linguistic, socio-cultural, psycho-cognitive, and
other dimensions into account. The theory of the dictionary as communication (see
雍和明, Yong Heming, 2003; Yong Heming and Peng Jing, 2007) takes the process
school in communication studies as its basic theoretical framework and proposes a
theoreticalmodel for lexicographical communication.The communicativemodel for
lexicography shouldbe introduced into this study so that the analysis of speciWcworks
canbe conductedunder a general framework and canbe eventually incorporated into
it. It helps to examine the development of lexicography in China, work out method-
ologies and principles to reveal the regularities and patterns of dictionary develop-
ment, discover the mechanisms of dictionary compilation and use, and inquire into
the cognitive principles regulating dictionary use.
introduction 9
Historical SegmentationThe segmentation of historical periods is considered one of the most fundamen-
tal theoretical issues in the study of the history of lexicography in any language
and it is essential that the division of the history of the development of lexicog-
raphy into periods is made upon a scientiWc, distinctive, and objective basis.
A scientiWc and feasible way to divide history into periods will help the reader to
see how Chinese dictionaries have evolved from one phase to another in the
Chinese cultural setting, how they distinguish themselves via distinctive features,
and how various phases are interrelated to show the trajectory of their progress,
thus forming a clear panorama of the development of Chinese lexicography in
the mind of the reader.
There are diVerent viewpoints on the segmentation of the lexicographic
history in China among the scholars in the mainland. Liu Yeqiu (1983), repre-
senting one school of scholars, divides the history of Chinese lexicography into
Wve periods:
(1) the Emerging and Foundation-laying Period: 475 bc–ad 220 (Warring
States Period, Qin Dynasty, and Han Dynasty);
(2) the Inheriting and Evolving Period: 220–581 (Three Kingdoms, Jin Dyn-
asty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties);
(3) the Constructing and Developing Period: 618–1368 (Tang Dynasty, Song
Dynasty, and Yuan Dynasty);
(4) the Progressing and Booming Period: 1368–1911 (Ming Dynasty and Qing
Dynasty); and
(5) the Changing and Reforming Period: 1911–present.
This historical segmentation is strongly motivated by the evolutionary char-
acteristics of dictionaries, emphasizing some periods and their characteristics but
overlooking others. Its drawbacks are obvious.
Lin Yushan (1992), representing another school of scholars, proposes a six-
period division:
(1) the Emerging Period: c.2070 bc–221 bc (Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty,
Western Zhou Dynasty, and Pre-Qin Period);
(2) the Foundation-laying Period: 206 bc–ad 581 (Han Dynasty, Three King-
doms, Jin Dynasty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties);
(3) the Preliminary Developing Period: 581–1368 (Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty,
Song Dynasty, and Yuan Dynasty);
(4) the Further Developing Period: 1368–1911 (Ming Dynasty and Qing
Dynasty);
10 introduction
(5) the Maturing Period: 1911–1978 (modern times); and
(6) the Booming Period: 1978–present (contemporary times).
This division is speciWc and wide-ranging, and under this division the
general picture of the history of lexicography in China can be better delineated,
although there is still much room for improvement in terms of criteria for
division and characterization of each period. For instance, what are the dis-
tinctive features between ‘the preliminary developing period’ and ‘the further
developing period’? What are the criteria for identifying ‘the maturing period’?
And what are the indexes for maturing? Should the development of lexico-
graphical theories be taken into consideration in the historical segmentation of
lexicography? These questions are all fundamental and need further serious
study.
For a scientiWcally feasible, objective, and systematic segmentation of lexico-
graphic history, both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective should be
adopted in observing and describing the origin and progression of lexicography
over a relatively long period of time, and at a certain point of time as well.
SuYcient attention should be paid to both the general trends in the develop-
ment of dictionaries and the marked characteristics of dictionaries in the
synchronic state, especially the radical changes and reforms in dictionary
compilation and the breakthroughs in inquiries into fundamental issues and
theoretical generalization. Considering synchronically distinctive features of
each of the divisions above, the actual evolutionary patterns of Chinese lexi-
cography, and the merits of the propositions by both scholars, a four-period
division is put forth as follows:
(1) the Pioneering and Emergence Period: 1046 bc–ad 220 (Western Zhou
Dynasty to Eastern Han Dynasty);
(2) the Exploration and Cultivation Period: 220–1368 (Three Kingdoms to
Yuan Dynasty);
(3) the Reform and Shaping Period: 1368–1911 (Ming Dynasty to Qing
Dynasty); and
(4) the Depression and Booming Period: 1911–present (the twentieth century).
The present study will adopt this division of historical periods as the frame-
work for discussion and analysis and will be mainly devoted to the development
of Chinese lexicography from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 bc–256 bc) to the Qing
Dynasty (1616–1911). Twentieth-century Chinese lexicography, which is extremely
diYcult to encompass within this limited scope of presentation, is well worth a
separate study.
introduction 11
Practical ImplicationsFor various reasons, historical, political, and linguistic, no in-depth, comprehen-
sive, and consistent studies have ever been made of the history of lexicography in
China. It is no wonder that the achievements in dictionary making and lexico-
graphical cultivation in China are little known to the West, and, surprisingly, not
many Chinese are aware of their own lexicographical accomplishments over the
past two millennia. Therefore, such an undertaking is of great value in philology,
sinology, sociology, and cultural and historical studies, in addition to its far-
reaching signiWcance to lexicographical practice and theorization.
The history of lexicography in China is closely related to the study of the
Chinese language, its characters and history, to the socio-cultural history of
the Chinese nation, and to the progression of Chinese civilization. It is an
essential part of theoretical lexicography. Studies on the history of lexicography
will greatly contribute to theoretical explorations in lexicography, help formulate
principles guiding dictionary making, facilitate dictionary compilation and re-
search, and eventually enhance the development of lexicography as a whole. Such
studies will play a signiWcant role in pushing forward Chinese historical lexicog-
raphy, in promoting the association of dictionary compilation and dictionary use
with language teaching, and in reforming modes and patterns of Chinese and
foreign language teaching.
Robert Collison (1982:20) states: ‘Dictionary-making in China, for example,
was already well advanced some two thousand years ago, but the extent of this
achievement was not appreciated by the West for more than a thousand years.’
It is high time that a work on the history of Chinese lexicography be written
and published in English, presenting a panorama of its historical development,
and the status quo. It is hoped that this work will promote the development and
exploitation of lexicographical culture in China and facilitate the worldwide
awareness of the magniWcence of Chinese civilization and lexicographical culture.
It is also hoped that this work, written in English, will help to remove barriers
between Chinese and western lexicography, initiate new forms of comparative
research in the global context, and converge the history of Chinese lexicography
into the general Xux of the history of world lexicography.
12 introduction
p a r t i i
THE GENES IS AND
EMERGENCE OF
LEXICOGRAPHICAL
CULTURE AND
WORKS IN
ANCIENT CHINA
(from the Zhou Dynasty, 1046 bc–256 bcto the Han Dynasty, 206 bc–ad 220)
This page intentionally left blank
2
THE EMERGENCE OFLEXICOGRAPHICALCULTURE IN CHINA
THERE are numerous myths and legends about the origin of human beings.
In the West, it was popularly circulated that men were created by God.
A man was Wrst created and named Adam, and a woman was made from one
of his ribs and named Eve. They were pronounced man and wife and gave birth
to children that were the ancestors of human beings today. In China, there was
a diVerent story – human beings were created by Nuwa, a Goddess in the Chinese
legend, out of clay. She moulded clay Wgurines by mixing water with clay. After
making a number of them she stopped to blow breath and life into each of
them and they became the Wrst human beings on Earth. The development of
the means of production and the progress of science and technology provide
a better understanding of the origin of human beings and a scientiWc theory
of its evolution: human beings evolved from ancient apes and labour played
a decisive role in this process of evolution.
Over the last century quite a few fossils and relics of ancient human beings
have been discovered. These discoveries have justiWed Darwin and Engels’ theory
of the origin of human species. Judging from the discovery of Australopithecus
africanus, the earliest humanoid fossils, and stone tools, human beings must have
emerged two or three million years ago. In China, the unearthing of the Muddy
River Bay (Nihewan) Relics shows how human beings dined about two million
years ago: the ancestors of human beings could have walked out from the Muddy
River Bay, in the same way as they might have come out of Tanzania’s Olduvai
Gorge, known as the cradle of mankind and the birthplace of our human
ancestors. It had taken our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years to transform
themselves from apes into erect walking beings and primitive languages had
gradually evolved to meet their primitive labour needs.
2.1 the origin of chinese charactersand their formation
Language emerges, develops and changes as human society develops and changes.
The writing system, however, does not evolve simultaneously. Human beings have
a long history of communicating with each other in speech without a writing
system. The earliest writing system, conWrmed by archeological discoveries, has a
history of only 6,000 years, which is a mere drop in the ocean relative to the
evolution of human species. There are still a large number of languages in the
world that have only spoken forms, without having evolved to the stage of creating
a writing system.
Chinese characters are signs used to record the speech form of the Chinese
language. The Chinese writing system is among those that have had the longest
history and profoundest inXuence in the world. There is still a great deal of
controversy concerning when it originated and who created it. Scholars in the
Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220) proposed that Chinese characters had their origins
in knot tying – the earliest means by which people kept records of signiWcant
events in their primitive life, in the light of accounts from The Book of Changes
(<易经>, also <易>) that ‘in ancient times tribes were ruled by means of tying
knots, which was later replaced by using characters introduced by Man of God’.
Greater numbers of scholars tend to accept that Chinese characters were created
by Cang Jie (or Ti’ang Chieh,仓颉). In classic Chinese works, Cang Jie’s creation
of characters has been frequently noted:
When Cang Jie creates characters, self-conWnement is dubbed 厶(私) [private], and
turning one’s back to selWshness was being 公 [public], which manifests that Cang Jie
is already well aware of the contradiction between being private and being public.
It was alsomentioned inThe Lu’s Spring and AutumnAnnals (<吕氏春秋�君守>)that the Chinese writing system is ascribable to Cang Jie. In the Preface to An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which was compiled by Xu Shen in the
Eastern Han Dynasty, this was once again noted and further indication was given as
to ‘how’ – the inspiration for creating Chinese characters came from hunting: when
16 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Cang Jie examined the trails and marks left behind by animals and birds he came to
recognize which was which and could diVerentiate through careful inspection. Thus,
Chinese characters were created as a result of such reasoning and keen observation.
There are also legends and myths about Cang Jie’s creating Chinese characters. One
legend has it that Cang Jie saw a god fromHeavenwith a very odd face, which looked
very much like a painting consisting of characters. Cang Jie copied the picture of the
face and created characters. In another legend, Cang Jie’s character creation was
thought to be the leakage of secrets from Heaven, which induced the millet to fall
and the ghost to cry every night. In the eyes of scholars today, legends are just legends.
The creation of Chinese characters should be a product of collective endeavour and
gradual accumulation over a broad time span. Cang Jie, as the historiographer of
Emperor Huang, must have made indispensable contributions to the creation of
Chinese characters, especially in sorting and codifying, though he could not be
credited as the only creator.
The evolution of Chinese characters has a history of more than 6,000 years.
These characters evolved from the symbols and graphs for keeping memories of
signiWcant events in primitive life. The rudiments of characters are generally
thought to be those curves and sketches on the coloured earthenware of the late
Neolithic Age. The earliest mature Chinese characters discovered in archae-
ology are those inscriptions carved on tortoise shells and animal bones of the
Shang Dynasty (c.16th–11th century bc), from which the current Chinese
language has evolved. These characters are called Jiaguwen (甲骨文). There
are approximately 4,600 Jiaguwen characters discovered, a considerable pro-
portion of which are phonograms, fairly sophisticated words even by today’s
standards.
Since the appearance of Jiaguwen, the form and structure of Chinese characters
have undergone three main phases of evolution: from ancient writing called
dazhuan (大篆), which is a style of calligraphy with complicated strokes current
in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (c.1600 bc–256 bc), to xiaozhuan (小篆), which
stands for ‘fewer-stroke seal characters’ simpliWed from dazhuan by Prime Min-
ister Li Si (李斯) of the Qin Dynasty (221 bc–206 bc); from xiaozhuan to oYcial
script in the Han Dynasty (206 bc–ad 220); and from oYcial script to regular
script in the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and onwards. Since Jiaguwen characters are
symbols carvedwith sharp instruments, the strokes aremainly in square forms and
their structures look very delicate. The characters in the Shang andZhouDynasties
are inscriptions mainly found on bronze and copper wares. These inscription
characters were principally used to record important activities at that time:
oVering sacriWces to gods or ancestors, waging wars against enemies, conferring
awards on heroes for their accomplishments, or making treaties and agreements.
genesis of lexicographical culture 17
This can be taken as a window on the society of that time. These inscription
characters are very similar to Jiaguwen and it is evident that they have inherited
and retained many of the characteristics of Jiaguwen. In the late Zhou Dynasty,
these inscription characters changed to dazhuan. In 221 bc, Ying Zheng, the Wrst
Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, uniWed China for the Wrst time in Chinese history.
He promulgated the decree of ‘Writing Same Character’ (书同文) – promoting a
new writing system. This new writing system was based on the system formerly
used in Qin State and it also adopted some popularly used writing forms from
other states. Compared with the previous writing systems, the new system is
more convenient in that the new characters are greatly simpliWed and oYcially
codiWed. The new characters come to be called xiaozhuan. In order to popularize
the new writing system nationwide, the Emperor also ordered some of his
oYcials to write standard textbooks, including The Cangjie Primer (<仓颉
篇>), The Yuanli Primer (<爰历篇>), and The Scholarly Primer (<博学篇>).Up to the stage of xiaozhuan, the irregular form and structure of characters have
become relatively more regular and consistent straight or arched lines. The
characteristics of inscriptions, such as pictographs, have become much less
salient. Moreover, the basic structural parts of characters were becoming stabil-
ized, which has paved the way for Chinese characters to transform into ‘square
characters’.
Although xiaozhuan signiWes a great leap forward in the transformation of
Chinese characters, its structure is still rather complex and its writing not very
practical. What is to follow naturally is an essential reform in the writing system
of Chinese characters – the introduction of oYcial script in the late Han Dynasty.
Xiping Stone Inscriptions (<熹平石经>) in the Eastern Han Dynasty is the most
representative calligraphic work of the oYcial script. The basic structure has
undergone a revolutionary transformation from xiaozhuan to the oYcial script:
stroke lines have changed from arches and bends to squares and straight lines,
abandoning the distinctive pictographic features. The oYcial script has, to a large
extent, facilitated the process of turning ancient Chinese characters into signs
symbolizing modern Chinese characters. The Chinese characters have gradually
evolved into a more convenient writing system, and it was not until the Western
HanDynastythattheoYcialscriptbecamegenuinelyoYcialandcameintowideuse.
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the regular script was introduced, which was a
further simpliWcation and adaptation of the oYcial script, and that quickly
became the standard script. Between 220 and 420, it came to be used widely
and became the general script in early engraved printing. Ever since, regular
script has always remained the standard script for the Chinese language. Except
18 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
for some simpliWcation in strokes, the form and structure of Chinese characters
has not undergone much radical change since then.
The writing systems of the world generally fall into two categories: phonography
(e.g. alphabetic writing) and ideography (e.g. logographic writing). The former
consists of phonetic symbols such as phonemes or syllables. Usually, there exists a
correlation between the pronunciation and the spelling, and the pronunciation of
the word can be inferred easily from its formation, as in the case of English and
French. For the latter, the form of the character is employed to designate a word or
morpheme. The form and the meaning are to a certain extent relevant but the
pronunciation of the word cannot be inferred from its form, as in the case of
Chinese. The form and structure of the character are related to speciWc meanings
but not to its pronunciation, unlike the phonograph in alphabetic writing systems.
As far as the formation of Chinese characters is concerned, there are four
main types in its constitution: pictographic (象形法), self-explanatory (指事法),
ideographic (会意法), and pictophonetic (形声法). Of these four types, picto-
graphic formation is the earliest. In pictographic formation, the physical form
and property are depicted according to the things they designate. These earliest
characters mainly denote things common in everyday life. Due to the dramatic
changes in the form of characters, the original features of the pictographic
characters cannot be ascertained from the form and structure of the regular
script, but those characteristics of pictographic characters can be readily recog-
nized in Jiaguwen and inscription characters. For instance, in the inscription
characters 日 (the sun) was written as , 月(the moon) as , 水 (water) as ,
and 牛(cow) as . The pictographic characters evolved gradually, and they all
changed their original form and Wnally Wxed as square characters.
Self-explanatory formation uses symbols only or symbols coupled with some
deictic labels to designate meaning. There are two subtypes in this formation:
one using symbols only, the other using symbols plus some labels.一 (one),上
(above), and下 (below) belong to the Wrst subtype, and本 (root),末 (branch),
刃 (blade),甘 (sweet), 牟 (moo), and 血 (blood) belong to the second subtype.
The Wrst subtype might have been employed in the same period as the picto-
graphic method while the second subtype must have occurred some time there-
after. The pictographic method can only be used to designate some concrete
entities whereas the self-explanatory method can be used to refer to more
abstract meanings. It is apparent that the self-explanatory method is greatly
restricted and used only in a limited way. As a result, the number of self-
explanatory characters is not great. This is especially true of the symbol-only
ones – only several characters are identiWed as belonging to this subtype in the
Chinese writing system.
genesis of lexicographical culture 19
The ideographic formation, as indicated by its name, integrates two or more
extant character symbols to designate a new meaning. The ideographic characters
are all composite characters. According to the ancient scholars, the Chinese char-
acters can be classiWed into wen (文) and zi (字). Wen refers to single-element
characters and zi to composite ones. The pictographic and the self-explanatory
characters are mainly composed of single elements, thus falling into the wen
category. The ideographic characters are composed of two or more characters,
thus falling into the zi category. DiVerent symbols or pictographic characters plus
some deictic labels are combined to designate a new abstract meaning in the
ideographic formation. For instance,明 (bright) was written as , whosemeaning
is a composition of日 (the sun) and月 (the moon).旦 ( morning) was written
as , whose meaning is a composition of日 (the sun) and一 (horizon) – the time
when the sun rises from below the ground.
The pictophonetic formation refers to those characters that consist of two
elements, one indicating meaning and the other indicating sound. The meaning
element, also called the form element, indicates the category to which the
meaning (or the relevant concept) belongs while the sound element indicates
the character’s pronunciation. Numerous new characters can be created by means
of putting a sound element and a meaning element together to stand for a new
relevant thing or idea. For instance,爸 (dad) is a combination of巴 indicating its
pronunciation /ba/, and父 (father), its meaning. Similarly,芭 is a combination of
巴 andþþ, designating a kind of grass. Studies show that pictophonetic characters
account for 20 per cent of the total in Jiaguwen. The percentage of pictophonetic
characters increased dramatically in the Qin Dynasty and quickly took the
dominant position. Xu Shen’s An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters
brought together 9,353 characters, among which 7,697 are pictophonetic,
accounting for more than 80 per cent of the total. In contemporary Chinese,
pictophonetic characters account for approximately 90 per cent of its lexicon.
As to the form and structure of Chinese characters, there was the so-called ‘Six
Categories of Chinese Characters’ (六书, shortened to Six Categories) theory in
ancient times. This theory put forward six basic methods of creating Chinese
characters. In addition to the four methods discussed above, there are mutually
explanatory formations (转注法) and phonetic loans (假借法). According to
Dai Zhen (戴震) and Duan Yucai (段玉裁, 1735–1815), in the mutually explana-
tory formation, characters with the same or similar meaning can be mutually
used to explain lexical meaning. For instance, in An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters, the explication of 老 (old) is 考 (long life, aged), and the
explication of 考 is 老. Phonetic loaning refers to the method by which an
irrelevant character with the same or similar pronunciation is borrowed to
20 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
indicate a new meaning. For instance,来 originally refers to 麦 (wheat) but it is
loaned to indicate来 (come) as in来往 (come and go) in contemporary Chinese.
Similarly, 求 originally refers to 求 (fur), but it is loaned to mean 求 (request)
as in 请求 (plead, request). The phonetic loaning acts as a typical example
of phonograph, which indicates a substantial progress in the development of
Chinese characters. However, in essence, mutually explanatory formation and
phonetic loaning cannot be counted as methods of character creation. In actual
practice, there are only four ways of creating Chinese characters, namely, picto-
graphic, self-explanatory, ideographic, and pictophonetic.
The creation and adoption of writing systems mark a signiWcant advancement
in the history of human civilization. The Chinese writing system enjoys an
indispensably unique position for its distinctive features and charming callig-
raphy. More and more scholars using phonographic languages have come to
realize and appreciate the uniqueness of Chinese characters and started to
examine and study Chinese characters from linguistic, historical, and artistic
perspectives.
2.2 ancient chinese literature and exegeticinterpretation of characters
To have a language, i.e. language in its spoken form, is a prerequisite for characters
and words in their written form to evolve. And characters and words form the basis
for literature to be produced. The source of Chinese literature can be traced back
to the Xia Dynasty (c.2070 bc–1600 bc), though there is still no material data
unearthed of characters and literature produced at that time. The earliest literature
presently available is the oracle inscriptions on tortoise shells or animal bones
made by the kings and nobles in the late Shang Dynasty (c.1600 bc–1000 bc). In the
sixth century bc, six classics (六经) were compiled by Confucius (孔子 551 bc–479
bc), namely The Book of Changes, The Book of Ancient Texts (<书>, also <尚书>),The Book of Songs (<诗经>, also <诗>), The Book of Rites (<礼记>, also <礼>),The Book of Music (<乐>), and The Spring and Autumn (<春秋>). These six
classic works mark the real beginning of ancient Chinese literature.
Since the late Spring and Autumn Period, private schools prevailed and a
generation of scholars and theoreticians matured. There emerged a mix of
numerous schools of thoughts and a great number of scholarly works were
written. According to The Book of the Han Dynasty (<汉书�艺文志>), more
genesis of lexicographical culture 21
than 140 kinds of works survived the Burning Book Event launched by the
Wrst Emperor of the Qin Dynasty and remained in the Western Han Dynasty
(206 bc–ad 5). They were all written by the pre-Qin Dynasty scholars.
Themushrooming of classical literature in this period contributed a great deal
to Chinese culture. But, as time passed by, the characters themselves had
undergone changes in both form and meaning. Many characters and their
pronunciations were not generally intelligible. This is especially true of the
more scholarly and remote classics. The Wve Confucius Classics, namely The
Book of Changes, The Book of Ancient Texts, The Book of Songs, The Book of Rites,
andThe Spring and Autumn had been codiWed as textbooks. And the explanation
and interpretation of characters in these classics seemed to be an important and
urgent task. The explanation of characters and expressions in ancient books is
deWned as exegesis (训诂). The earliest citation of this term, spelled as诂训, may
be traced back to Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs (<毛诗诂训传>,shortened as Mao’s Exegesis <毛传>), a work by Zheng Xuan (郑玄, 127–200)
written in the Han Dynasty (206 bc–ad 220). Prior to that,训诂 (exegesis) was
split as诂 or训 in literature. According to The RectiWed Interpretation of Mao’s
Book of Songs (<毛诗正义>),训means describing the appearance of something
so as tomake it known to others, that is, explicating some characters or sentences
by means of explanation or description, whereas 诂 means expounding the
diVerences of characters in ancient and contemporary language and making
them intelligible, i.e. using contemporary language to explain ancient charac-
ters. Lu Deming (陆德明, 550–630) once stated: ‘诂means the diVerent expres-
sions between the classic and the contemporary; and训 means that characters
bear the signiWcance of their own.’ Huang Kan (黄侃), a prominent scholar in
the late Qing Dynasty, adopting a modern linguistic approach, summarized诂
as 故 (old, the original naming) and 训 as 顺 (sorting out, the extended
meaning). 训诂, so to speak, means using language to explain the meaning of
language. The practice of explaining the expressions in one region with the
expressions in another, or of using today’s words to explain those of the past,
is surely part of exegesis, but does not constitute fundamental principles. The
purpose of exegesis not only resides in explaining language with language but
also in revealing the patterns and laws for language use and exploring the
principles of linguistic meaning and the process of language evolution.
For every language in the world, if it is still in use, it will inevitably be in
constant change. Language changes with time and space, resulting in diYculties
for the new generation in understanding the language of the old. The funda-
mental reason for the birth of exegesis lies in the diVerences of language in time
and space. There has been a long tradition of Chinese scholars adding notes to
22 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
the classic works of ancient times. These explanatory notes centre around the
theme of the text, the understanding of sentence and character meaning. It is
generally accepted that the Wrst book with systematic explanatory notes began
with Zi Xia’s (子夏, also卜商, Bu Shang) adding notes for Confucius’ works.
During the pre-Qin Dynasty period, the addition of notes to works other than
Confucius’ classics also took place. The actual practice of exegesis emerged in the
late Spring and Autumn Period but was not called thus until the Han Dynasty.
Originally, exegesis concentrated on adding explanatory notes to diYcult char-
acters and words in ancient classic literature. It was during the Han Dynasty that
these explanatory notes evolved into systematic exegetic works. It is evident that
exegesis originated from the practice of adding notes, but with the development
of culture and the change in academic paradigms both exegesis and note-adding
involved into independent branches of learning in Chinese philology.
In the early Han Dynasty, the booming study of Confucius’ classics provided
impetus for the practice of adding notes, which turned into more systematic and
organized academic activity. Rigorous styles and terms came into being and were
gradually adopted consistently for note addition in one and the samework, thus训,
its style and particular methods for adding notes. From the late Western Han
Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty, textual research on characters in the
pre-Qin Dynasty classics prevailed as part of explanatory studies of Confucius’
works. Consequently, the practice of exegesis established itself as a formal branch
of learning. From The Book of the Han Dynasty, written in the early Eastern Han
Dynasty, we can see a diVerence between故 and训: the explanatory books entitled
故 or 训故 are mainly those identifying and discriminating ancient and current
character forms, and pronunciation in diVerent dialects and of diVerent regions;
whereas those entitled训 or训纂, though fewer in number, concentrate on explor-
ing and explaining the principles for meaning change. The so-called ‘collective
compilations (纂集)’, are actually accumulated collections of exegetic material.
These exegetic books had already displayed some of the features of character books
orwordbooksanddictionaries.This is the sourceof lexicographical culture inChina.
In the Western Han Dynasty, the achievements of exegesis, especially of the
collective compilations, are best embodied in The Ready Guide. There sprang up,
in the late Han Dynasty (206 bc–ad 220), numerous exegetic works of this type,
notably An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and Terms, The Dictionary of Popular Words (<通俗文>),and The Pocket Ready Guide (<小尔雅>). Interestingly, these specialized exegetic
works became the focus of exegetic works which were to come in later times. It is
the work of adding notes to andmaking explanations and interpretations of these
specialized exegetic works that laid the foundation for the development of
genesis of lexicographical culture 23
exegetic studies on lexical semantics of early historical literature and continued
throughout as the theme of research in traditional exegesis.
The exegetic study in the Western Han Dynasty was completely dependent on
the study of the Confucius’ classics. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the horizon
of exegetic studies was greatly widened, embracing historical works and literary
works other than the Confucius’ classics or pre-Qin Dynasty scholars’ works. From
the late Western Han to the early Eastern Han Dynasty, exegetic studies witnessed
unprecedented growth, marking the establishment of exegesis as a formal academic
discipline – having its principles and styles in investigating and explaining the
Chinese characters, the Chinese language and its dialects in historical literature.
The exegetes in this period paid more attention to bringing into full play collective
endeavours, following rigorously established work styles, and sticking persistently
to prescriptions handed down by their predecessors. Consequently, exegetic works
Xourished, especially the explanatory-note type and collective-compilation type;
themethodologies in exegetic studies becamemore systematic, and phono-exegesis
in Neoclassic studies and form-exegesis in Paleoclassic studies became more
naturally integrated, leading to the new pictophonetic perspective. Moreover, the
scholars in exegetic studies began to devote more attention to standardizing and
codifying the terms employed, which paved the way for the scientiWc development
of exegetic studies as an independent discipline.
From the Three Kingdoms (220–280) to the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the ‘dual
noting’ developed quickly. Representative works include The Exegesis of the Book of
Rites (<礼记义疏>) and The Exegesis of the Analects of Confucius (<论语义疏>) byHuangKan (皇侃) in the LiangDynasty (502–557), andTheRectiWed Interpretation of
Five Classics (<五经正义>) by Kong Yingda (孔颖达) in the early Tang Dynasty.
The essence of ‘dual noting’ resides in semantic empiricism, i.e. reexamining the
meaning-exegesis of characters (or words) in the explanatory-note books. The
purpose of conducting reexamination is to explain the texts of certain historical
literature and the characters, words, or language in general historical literature as
well. Meanwhile, the emphasis of exegetic work shifted to noting and explaining the
specialized exegetic works and the exegetic material gradually became the focus of
the Erya Studies and the Shuowen Studies. The representative works in this period
include The Annotated Ready Guide (<尔雅注>) and The Annotated Dictionary of
Dialectal Words (<方言注>). The scholars in the Song Dynasty explicitly pointed
out that xiaoxue (小学, literally ‘little learning’, in ancient times, primary schools
started education from the Six Categories, hence its name) was extended to refer to
such branches of learning as the studies of characters, glossaries, prosodies, and
exegesis, suggesting that xiaoxue be renamed philology or philological studies. This
notion basically followed from The Book of the Sui Dynasty (<隋书�经籍志>) but
24 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
further speciWed the contents of the study of xiaoxue. Thus, exegesis became a
relatively independent branch of learning in xiaoxue as from the Song Dynasty.
As indicated above, xiaoxue originally referred to the elementary schools estab-
lished for the royal children in the Zhou Dynasty. For the educational system in the
Zhou Dynasty, six kinds of art (六艺) and six types of rituals (六仪) would be
taught. Later, the contents of teaching shifted to the theory of ‘Six Categories of
Chinese Characters’ – knowledge about the Chinese language and its characters. To
meet these new needs in ‘xiaoxue’, character glossaries were compiled, notably
Historian Zhou’s Primer (<史籀篇>) compiled in the Zhou Dynasty, and followed
by The Cangjie Primer, The Yuanli Primer and The Scholarly Primer at later times.
In the early Western Han Dynasty, great changes in politics, economy, ideology,
and culture spurred on semantic studies in the Chinese language and the number
of the Chinese characters increased dramatically. For instance, the basic vocabulary
of The Cangjie Primer, The Yuanli Primer, and The Scholarly Primer in the Qin
Dynasty amounted approximately to 3,300, whereas in the middle of the Eastern
Han Dynasty, the characters used in classical literature and collected in An Ex-
planatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters rose to 9,353. In the Western Han
Dynasty, the teaching of characters was emphasized, and this gave rise again to
the compilation of character glossaries and vocabularies, among which are The
General Primer (<凡将篇>) by Sima Xiangru (司马相如), The Instant Primer
(<急就篇>) by Shi You (史游), and The Yuanshang Primer (<元尚篇>) by Li
Chang (李长). The appearance of these character glossaries and vocabularies in
turn facilitated the development of Chinese philology, especially the study of Six
Categories. This laid the literature and academic foundation for the compilation of
character books or wordbooks, vocabularies and dictionaries.
2.3 theories on the origin of lexicography
There exist various theories regarding the origin of lexicography in China. Some
scholars hold that The Book of Changes should be regarded as the earliest
dictionary in China. Other scholars believe that the earliest textbooks for char-
acter learning should be considered as the fountainhead of Chinese lexicograph-
ical practice. Both theories will be clariWed and analysed in this section.
Liu Changyun (刘长允, 1985) proposes that The Book of Changes is ‘an ancient
dictionary’, i.e. a philological dictionary. His idea is that The Book of Changes is
compiled in the dictionary style, bearing the features of a dictionary – ‘a reference
book for explaining words in language and a textbook for guiding people to behave
genesis of lexicographical culture 25
in society’; it does not give abstract explanations but lists the senses of the characters
to be explained by means of giving corresponding citations, and ‘the arrangement
of head characters and entries is not in a Wxed fashion’. ZhouDemei (周德美, 1999),
however, approaches The Book of Changes from a diVerent perspective, treating it in
the form of literature. He holds that The Book of Changes ‘is a dictionary. It is a
dictionary for a special Weld, i.e. divination, not a dictionary for philology’.
Other scholars hold a conXicting point of view – The Book of Changes is not a
dictionary. For the Jing (经) part in The Book of Changes, there are eight trigrams
(八卦), which can be multiplied to form sixty-four trigrams. For each trigram,
there are six types of line, called yao (爻). Words and sentences are employed to
explain each of the trigrams or yaos. These words or sentences are called trigram
commentary (卦辞) or yao commentary (爻辞). Although the trigram and yao
commentaries are regularly arranged, bearing some features of the style of the
dictionary, as pointed out by Liu Changyun, these commentaries are all designed
to elaborate the truth (理) shown in the trigram symbols (卦象) and yao symbols
(爻象). Moreover, these signs of truth are all manifested in a symbolic way. This
is totally diVerent from the way a dictionary explains and interprets characters
and words in more readily intelligible expressions. In the commentaries of
trigrams and yaos, metaphors and inferences are more frequently used for the
trigram and yao symbols. These commentaries, which would not be understood
without further explanation and interpretation, are extremely rich and profound
in implication and may be interpreted in highly Xexible ways. So, what about the
Zhuan (传) part? Can that part be considered as a dictionary? This part of the
book mainly concentrates on explaining the general meaning of the Jing part. In
addition, the texts, ten altogether, are written and revised by many hands and
over a wide time span. The styles in these texts manifest great discrepancies,
which make it quite alien to the dictionary format.
Thus, it can be safely assumed from the perspective of dictionary compilation
that The Book of Changes is in all major aspects dissimilar to a dictionary.
Nevertheless, did it have any role to play in initiating lexicographical practice
in China? For instance, did it enlighten and incite those early pioneers to compile
a wordbook, a vocabulary, or indeed a dictionary? Or did it function as some-
thing of a model for dictionary makers to follow? So far no solid connection can
be forged between The Book of Changes and ancient dictionary compilation.
Further research needs to be carried out to answer these questions.
Another group of scholars hold the view that character glossaries and vocabu-
lary books in ancient times could be regarded as the archetype of the Chinese
dictionary. It was recorded in The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty (<周礼>) that:
26 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Bao Zhang criticized the evilness of the king and wanted to foster and train the children
in the kingdom with morals and virtues. Therefore, the children were taught six kinds of
classic art: Wrstly, Wve kinds of proprieties; secondly, six kinds of musical instruments;
thirdly, Wve kinds of archery; fourthly, Wve kinds of riding; Wfthly, Six Categories; and
sixthly, nine kinds of arithmetic. (Ruan Yuan, 1980:731)
Xu Shen, in the Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
reiterates that ‘according to the rites in the Zhou Dynasty, children enter school
at eight. Master Bao Zhang teaches them, beginning with the Six Categories’. It is
evident that the teaching of characters was formally introduced in education as
early as the Zhou Dynasty. To meet such a demand, more and more characters
were collected, sorted, and compiled into books to teach children from royal
families. The best-known is the textbook, Historian Zhou’s Primer, which was
compiled by Zhou (籀), the historian of Emperor Xuan (827 bc–782 bc). This
leads some scholars today to think that ‘word books can be traced back to as early
as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. As recorded in The Book of the Han Dynasty,
Historian Zhou’s Primer was a wordbook’ (Fang Houshu, 1979; Liu Yeqiu, 1983).
The original book was comprised of Wfteen texts but they are no longer in
existence now. According to the citations indicated in An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters, 223 characters can be attributed toHistorian Zhou’s Primer.
During the Warring States period, the seven states each had their own writing
systems, with peculiar variants for the same character. After State Qin defeated
the other six states and uniWed ancient China, the Wrst Emperor adopted the
proposal made by Li Si and enacted the character reform policy – ‘Writing Same
Character’. Mandates were issued to cease using those characters not suitable to
the writing system of State Qin. In order to promote a new type of character
writing system, i.e. xiaozhuan, in the Empire, Li Si compiled The Cangjie Primer
(seven chapters). Other books of this kind include The Yuanli Primer (six
chapters) by Zhao Gao (赵高), and The Scholarly Primer (seven chapters) by
Hu Wujing (胡毋敬). In the early Han Dynasty, some scholars combined these
three books into one and rearranged them into Wfty-Wve chapters, each dealing
with sixty characters. This combined book retained The Cangjie Primer as its title.
It is a pity that the book got lost as a result of war at the end of the Tang Dynasty.
Much work was done by scholars in the Qing Dynasty to restore the book. More
than two volumes had been restored for The Cangjie Primer, which shed a great
deal of light on how the book formulated its format and how it dealt with word
explanations. Some scholars thus conclude that The Cangjie Primer involved the
interpretation and explanation of single characters and compound ones and
demonstrated the prototype of a modern Chinese dictionary, though its style
genesis of lexicographical culture 27
and format were not particularly standardized and consistent to the eye of a
modern lexicographer.
The Cangjie Primer was originally compiled as a textbook for teaching children
to learn Chinese characters. After the uniWcation by the Wrst Emperor, it became
a model textbook for popularizing the newly codiWed writing system – xiao-
zhuan. In The Cangjie Primer, each sentence is made up of four characters and the
sentences are rhymed. This ensures that it is easy for children to recite. In The
Yuanli Primer, the sentences are also made up of four characters. For the original
textbook, there were no explanatory notes added to the diYcult characters and
words. The restored book, however, contained many interpretations and explan-
ations added to characters, words, or dialectal expressions, and obviously these
explanatory notes were added by scholars of later periods. In The Book of the Han
Dynasty, it was recorded that
The Cangjie Primer is Wlled with obsolete characters that are diYcult for ordinary
teachers to read. Emperor Xuan called for scholars that could pronounce them correctly.
Zhang Chang came and accepted the task. His work was passed on to his grandson-
in-law, named Du Lin (杜林), who completed the exegetic work. Thus both of them are
equally well-known to later generations.
It is probable that the great masters in the Qing Dynasty failed to make such
discriminations and considered the notes added by later scholars part of the
original texts.
NeitherHistorian Zhou’s Primer nor The Cangjie Primer can be claimed to bear
the distinctive features of a modern dictionary. They should be only taken as
textbooks aiming to teach children to learn Chinese characters. Nevertheless, it is
undeniable that they laid a solid foundation and initiated an enlightening start in
character standardization, corpus construction, and source material accumula-
tion for dictionaries to emerge in the foreseeable future.
28 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
3
THE PROGRESS OFEXEGETIC PRACTICEAND THE ADVENT OF
LEXICOGRAPHICAL WORKSIN CHINA
WHEN did man begin to inquire into language? There may be no
deWnite answers to this question despite serious research having
been conducted. It is generally believed that the history of man’s study of
language goes back about two or three thousand years. It is undeniable, however,
that man’s reXection on language must have evolved alongside the development
of language itself. The emergence of characters is undoubtedly the result of
man’s long-term thinking over language. When the development of human
thought and language reached a certain stage, a writing system would appear
inevitable. The continuous evolution of human civilization and the in-depth
and comprehensive study of language itself are the prerequisites for the creation
and development of characters. Without such prerequisites, the characters could
not have been shaped into such a perfect cultural vehicle, to say nothing
of designing and compiling diVerent types of dictionaries to meet extremely
varied user needs.
3.1 language studies during thepre-qin dynasties
The Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods (770 bc–221 bc) wit-
nessed upheavals in political and social life, prosperity in academia and culture,
and prevalence of theory construction and metaphysical argumentation. There
emerged numerous schools of thought and they argued on various topics among
which the relationship between ‘name’ and ‘content’ is the most essential and
most closely relevant to language studies. The great masters at that time, such as
Confucius, Mo Zi (墨子, also known as Mo-tse), and Xun Zi (荀子, ?335 bc–
255 bc), were all involved in the debate and aired their view on language and
characters. The majority of their discussions were philosophical reXections,
focusing on the relationship between ‘form’ (name) and ‘essence’ (physical
objects or contents), the origin of language and characters, and the relationship
between language and thought, etc. The argumentation on ‘form’ and ‘essence’ is
essentially one of a philosophical nature and one of great theoretical signiWcance
in lexicography as well.
Lao Zi (老子) was the pioneering advocate who initiated the debate on ‘form’
and ‘essence’. In DaoDe Jing (<道德经>, also known as TaoTe Ching), he put
forward this proposition: ‘The way that can be told of is not an unvarying way;
the names that can be named are not unvarying names. It was from the Nameless
that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten
thousand creatures, each after its kind.’ It is evident that things had been without
a name for a long time before they were given a name individually. He also
emphasized that
the essence or form instantiates as physical things in that it appears and disappears or it
moves and stops. If it stops and appears, its image can be perceived; if it moves and then
disappears, its physics can be identiWed. Its nature and spirit exists further and deeper
behind the image. What is much truer is not the image but the nature and spirit, which
makes it more believable. Since ancient times, its name has permanently adhered to it. As
to viewing the countless things in the world, how could we diVerentiate and identify
them in terms of their physical appearance? By their names. That is what we can rely on.
As can be seen, Lao Zi holds that there exist in essence the image, the physics,
and the spirit. The spirit is the most basic nature and therefore it is completely
believable, and the name originates from there. The fundamentals of the things
in the world can be perceived through their names.
30 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Confucius, following Lao Zi, advocates that ‘monarch be monarch; subject be
subject; father be father; and son be son’. This is what has been known as ‘clarifying its
name and broadening its meaning’. Yang Zhu (杨朱) argues that ‘the real content of
something has no name while the names have no real content. The so-called names
are actually the untrue . . . The real content is not what names originate from’. And
this is ‘non-nominalism’. The debate also involved some other well-known scholars,
such as Mo Zi, Gongsun Longzi (公孙龙子, ?325 bc–250 bc), and Xun Zi. Mo Zi,
representing the world of science, pays more attention to the actuality and he
criticizes the notion that gentlemen ‘should praise justice in name and not inquire
into the real situation’. He also formulates deWnitions for ‘name’ and ‘content’.
GongsunLongzi is aneminentphilosopher and thinker in the ideologicalhistory
of China. Of all his writings only six texts are still available today, mainly dealing
with philosophical issues like relativity, absoluteness, individuality, commonality,
and theory of knowledge. Of the six texts, only two are devoted to the debate of
‘name’ and ‘content’, namelyOnSubstance (<指物篇>) andOnNameandContent
(<名实篇>). He points out inOn Substance that ‘there is no object that cannot be
denoted and referred to . . . If there were no denotation and reference, there would
have been no object in the world that could be dubbed an object. If there were no
objects, then how could ‘‘referring’’ be referred to?’ Everything in the world has its
unique characteristic. An object that has no characteristics cannot be referred to as
an object. In addition, it is not possible to talk about characteristics without
referring to some actual objects. All the names have derived from these character-
istics and the names are just the symbols representing them. Since names were
originally in correspondencewith the contents, then ‘contents cannot be corrected’
without ‘correcting the names Wrst’. All names were created for contents but the
relationship between ‘name’ and ‘content’ was purely arbitrary before a name
was given to an object. ‘Thus, that that is that stops at that and this that is
this stops at this are acceptable; whereas, that that is this stops at that and at this
and that this that is that stops at this and at that are unacceptable. Therefore,
the name is what is used to refer to the content. Knowing that this is not this
and knowing that this is not at this, we would not be able to refer to it.’
Xun Zi was one of the greatest thinkers who recognized the relation-
ships between language and thought. His ideas on language and thought and
on ‘name’ and ‘content’ were more fully elaborated in On Name RectiWcation
(<正名篇>). In this text, after looking into the relationship between language
and thought, he came to grips with the demerits of ‘having no name’, stating that
the diVerence in form, shape, colour and texture depends on the eyes that perceive them;
the quality of the sound of human voices and that of the musical instruments depend
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 31
on the ears that hear them; the taste of sweet, bitter, salt, hotness, or sourness depends on
the tongues that taste them; the smell of fragrance, stink, stench, or odour depends on the
noses that smell them; the feeling of illness, itch, cold, hot, light, or heavy depends on the
physics of the body that feel them; the emotion of joy, anger, sadness, happiness, love,
hatred, or longing depends on the minds that construe them. In the mind, there are some
marks or cues that are perceived and construed. Once these marks or cues are recognized,
the sounds can be perceived and identiWed through the ears and the forms and shapes can
be recognized and diVerentiated through the eyes. Nevertheless, the marks and cues can
be construed only when the inherent faculties have fully developed.
To conclude, the experience of human emotions is realized through sense
organs of the human body. Our understanding of the world can only be realized
through the functioning of the mind, i.e. to form concepts through abstraction
and generalization about various complicated things and phenomena in the
world and to express them via words.
Howdoesmanwork out diVerent names to designate diVerent contents? XunZi
holds that ‘there exist diVerences in the means by which men perceive’. For men
of the same type and with the same feelings, the images they form in perceiving
the things in the outside world by employing their faculties are generally the
same. The common features of the things can be captured by comparison and
based on these common features a name can be given following the conventions of
the community. Nevertheless, in addition to the commonalities, the ‘innate
faculties’ also perceive the peculiarities of the things in the world. The form and
shape, the colour and texture, the taste and feeling will all be perceived through
sense organs and justiWed by the mind. ‘The mind has cues to perceive’ refers to
the cognitive process by which concepts form, and then names come into exist-
ence, hence the same name for the same thing and a diVerent name for a diVerent
thing.
If a single name suYces, then use this single name only; if it does not suYce,
use it in combination with another one on condition that they are not in conXict
and result in no chaos. Since diVerent names indicate diVerent contents, ensure
that things having diVerent contents bear diVerent names. This is what should
not be confused. It is also true that things of the same content should bear the
same name. As to the numerous things in the world, we sometimes want to refer
to them all, and we call them the same name ‘object’. By ‘object’ is meant a very
general name for the commonness of many things. The same name is extended to
cover those things that share common properties. Common names will cover
things where common features end. Sometimes we use ‘birds and beasts’ as
general names to diVerentiate things. ‘Birds’ and ‘beasts’ are diVerent names
and they should be applied to things where the diVerences are apparent. Thus,
32 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
names bear no inherent appropriateness and they are regulated by order.
If a name complies with the conventions of a community then it is appropriate.
If it violates the conventions then it is inappropriate. A name has no inherent
content but it is employed to name the content. If it has been conventionalized
then it is a real name. A name does not have inherent goodness. Ways have
changed but no violations result, then it is a good name . . . This is the key to
giving names.
The physical world is varied and complicated. People perceive the things in
the world and extract what they perceive to form abstract ideas. When people
convert these concepts into names they treat them diVerently: things of diVerent
types will form diVerent concepts which will be given diVerent names. If a single
name suYces, then this single name will be employed. If it does not, a complex
one will be employed. When language is employed to conduct abstract thinking,
human beings can employ concepts, judgements, and inferences to reveal the
patterns and laws of nature and society. Due to the diVerences in the range and
extent of abstraction and generalization, we have ‘big common names’, such as
‘object’, and ‘big diVerent names’, such as ‘birds and beasts’. Xun Zi’s comments
on the relationship between ‘name’ and ‘content’ are profound and concise,
highlighting the conventionality of name and the sociological nature of language.
There exist no natural or causal relationships between names and objects. Names
are merely the symbols human beings presumably use to label the things desig-
nated. This presumption, however, is not totally arbitrary, for which ‘name’ to be
chosen for which ‘object’ is completely determined by the conventions of the
community. It is remarkable that these basic principles of modern linguistics
were fully recognized, appreciated, and expounded by Xun Zi two millennia
ago. From this very instance it is not diYcult to see the uniqueness and pro-
fundity of ancient Chinese philosophy and philology. Nor is it diYcult to see
why Chinese classics, like Dao De Jing, passing down from generation to gener-
ation, have become so popular in the Western world and why the study of the
culture and academia of ancient China has become such an urgent issue.
The language studies by Pre-Qin Dynasty scholars greatly enriched the
culture of ancient China, promoted the development of diVerent branches of
learning, i.e. the study of language and character, and formulated basic theories
guiding and leading academic research, school teaching, and the exegesis of
Chinese classics. Alongside Chinese philological studies, there came the Xourish-
ing of textbook compilation for teaching children to learn Chinese characters and
exegetic explanation for characters and words in ancient Chinese classics, which
laid a good foundation for later work of revision and compilation of glossaries,
vocabularies, and dictionaries.
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 33
3.2 teaching and explaining ancientcharacters and the emergence of lexicography
In ancient China, there did not exist such disciplines as ‘philology’ or ‘grammar’.
Throughout the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, a lot of work
was done to explain ancient classics and ‘explicate the great import from the
minute words’, which was later called exegetic work or exegesis. For instance, The
Spring and Autumn, written by Confucius, described the history of Lu State.
Exegetic work on that book was carried out by Zuo Qiuming (左丘明), Gon-
gyang Gao (公羊高), Gu Liangchi (榖梁赤), and others. Zuo Qiuming, follow-
ing the doctrine of ‘explicating the Script with events’, made use of historical
events to add notes to that book, which eventually turned into a reference book
of historical studies. Gongyang Gao and Gu Liangchi, pursuing a diVerent
doctrine, i.e. ‘establishing the meaning from the Script’, added explanatory
notes to that book and produced a reference book of exegesis. In An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文�言部>),训 and诂 were explained and
deWned respectively: 训 means explaining characters and words in order to
cultivate and educate, while 诂 means interpreting the ancient language. In
other words, exegesis means explaining diYcult characters and words by means
of more readily intelligible words and simpler wording, or explaining ancient
characters and words in contemporary language. Lexicography in China origin-
ated from such exegetic works on ancient classics.
Of the Wve millennia of Chinese civilization, the period from the Spring and
Autumn through the Warring States is remarkable for its Xourishing in academic
thought and schools. Thanks to the rapid development of socio-cultural and
academic thought, researching language and characters was widespread, giving
birth to textbooks for teaching children to learn characters. In the time of Emperor
Xuan, Historian Zhou’s Primer was compiled by Historian Zhou. In the Qin
Dynasty, three well-known textbooks were compiled, i.e. The Cangjie Primer,
The Yuanli Primer, and The Scholarly Primer. These three books were later revised
and combined under one cover, keeping The Cangjie Primer as its title, simpliWed as
Three Cang Primer (<三苍>), with a coverage of 3,300 characters. In the Western
Han Dynasty, further textbooks were compiled, such as The General Primer, The
Instant Primer, The Yuanshang Primer, and Yang Xiong’s (扬雄) The Exegetic Primer
(《训纂篇>). During the reign of Emperor He (89–105), Jia Fang brought the
compilation of The Pangxi Primer (<滂喜篇>) to completion. From then on,
these textbooks were incorporated into one book, though not physically, with The
34 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Cangjie Primer (the former Three Cang) as the Wrst volume, The Exegetic Primer as
the second volume, and The Pangxi Primer as the third. These three volumes were
once again entitled the Three Cang Primer, which later came to be called the Latter
Three Cang. All these textbooks were lost, except for The Instant Primer and some
parts of The Cangjie Primer. In these textbooks, a lot of common characters were
collected and arranged in the light of the categories to which they belonged, which
actually acted as the catalyst for the birth of ancient Chinese dictionaries.
The rapid progress of exegetic studies hinged upon the popularization of
learning language and characters, the continuing of relevant research, and the
evolution of language. The Cangjie Primer, a textbook for teaching children to
learn characters in the late Qin and early Han Dynasties, could be read only with
the help of specialized annotations. As a character-learning textbook needed
special explanations to be understandable, it is not hard to imagine what obstacles
might lie in the way of reading ancient Chinese literature. To interpret the
characters and words in the classics, scholars began to add pronunciations and
explanatory notes in the margins, in between lines and below the text. As time
passed, explanations and annotations began to accumulate. For the convenience
of reading and consultation, these explanatory notes were collected and put at
the front or the end of the text. Later on, independent books were compiled,
specialized in interpreting and explaining ancient classics. Mao Heng’s Exegesis,
was presumably among the Wrst of this kind and was also the earliest one presently
extant.
The Book of Songs, the earliest of its kind, was a collection of folk songs and
poems extending over Wve hundred years, dating from the early years of the
Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 bc–771 bc) to the middle of the Spring and Autumn
Period. In the Zhou Dynasty, scholars had already begun to interpret the words
and phrases in The Book of Songs from diVerent perspectives. As time passed, this
book became more and more diYcult to read and interpretation became a must.
In the Qin Dynasty,Mao’s Exegesis was compiled; this was a synthesis of previous
works on the exposition of the contents of the poems and the meanings of
diYcult words, and its coverage of words was considerably expanded. According
to The Book of the Han Dynasty (<汉书·艺文志>), it originally had thirty
volumes, with 4,800 entries, among which 3,900 were explanations of lexical
meanings, approximately 80 per cent of the total (Fan Congjun, 1996), but got
lost later. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan wrote an epilogue
(笺) for Mao’s Exegesis, which greatly elevated its status in exegetic work.
In the Tang Dynasty, Kong Yingda wrote The RectiWed Interpretation of
Mao’s Book of Songs to further comment on Mao’s Exegesis and on Zheng’s
Epilogue (郑笺). In the Qing Dynasty (1616–1911), The RectiWcation of Mao’s
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 35
Book of Songs (<诗毛氏传疏>) by Chen Huan (陈奂) and An Epilogue to The
Standardized Version of Mao Heng’s Exegesis of Book of Songs (<毛诗故训传定本小笺>) (thirty volumes) by Duan Yucai were produced to make more exact
and comprehensive comments on it. These successive commentaries and sub-
commentaries on Mao’s Exegesis greatly strengthened its academically dominant
position in exegetic work and in Chinese philology.
Mao’s Exegesis is one of the most important sources of literature for interpret-
ing and studying The Book of Songs. The exegetic studies in Mao’s Exegesis are
extremely wide-ranging and fall into several categories, such as text and sentence
parsing, interpreting words, phrases, and clauses, and explicating the semantics
of characters, but those that focus on the explication of character meanings
account for the major part. The great part of the contents of Mao’s Exegesis is
ascribable to pre-Qin Dynasty scholars. For instance, the interpretations of既醉
and昊天有成命 are from The National Language (<国语>); the interpretationsof葛覃 and草虫 are from The Book of Rites; and the interpretation of淄帛五两
in行露 was taken from The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition, there are quite
a few sayings from The Analects of Confucius (<论语>) and Meng Zi (<孟子>).As far as the exegetic style is concerned, Mao’s Exegesis involves interpretation of
the whole text placed as the Wrst chapter or appended as the last chapter,
interpretation of function words, identiWcation of phonetic loans, the employ-
ment of contemporary words to explain ancient words, or the use of contem-
porary senses of a word to explain those of an ancient word. Among the text
genres of fu (赋, a literary genre very much in vogue through the six dynasties
from the Han to the Wei Dynasty, combining verse and prose, often for narration
and scenic description), bi (比), and xing (兴), only xing was labelled to indicate
the distinctive features of wording so as to help appreciate implied meanings of
the poem. Mao Heng’s analysis of poems usually started from the ethics and
morals of feudal systems and, as a result, the tenor of the poems was occasionally
distorted, which can be considered a demerit of Mao’s Exegesis. Zheng’s Epilogue
was largely based on Mao’s Exegesis, aiming at complementing and explicating
what was obscure or oversimpliWed or putting forward diVerent opinions from
those in Mao’s Exegesis.
The interpretations and explanatory notes for ancient classics laid a good
foundation for later lexicographers to trace etymology, analyse words, diVerenti-
ate senses of polysemous words, and classify deWnitions of senses in compiling
philological dictionaries. The exegetic predecessors inMao’s Exegesis can be traced
back to Zi Xia, a disciple of Confucius. He initiated the exegetic work The Book of
Songs, which was considered the earliest and the most comprehensive, focusing
on the whole book rather than on just several texts or on a few characters or words.
36 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
In interpreting and explaining the words and characters, hemade it a rule to Wnd a
synonym which could be further employed to explain other words or phrases. As
a result, multiple words were explained in terms of one single word. The inter-
pretation and explanation of characters and words in Mao’s Exegesis could be
regarded as the source of lexicographical deWnition in China. Its pioneering and
paradigmatic work in interpreting and explicating lexical semantics of characters
still provides useful insights and thoughts formodern lexicography.Mao’s Exegesis
marks the emergence of lexicography in China. The Ready Guide, the Wrst
dictionary in a proper sense, stemming evidently from the exegesis on The Book
of Songs, owes its inheritance toMao’s Exegesis.
3.3 literature in ancient times
The change and development of language and characters makes it necessary to
teach and explain characters and words, which is especially true when the ancient
classics are read. Exegesis, as a branch of learning, centres around lexical meaning
interpretation, especially for diYcult words and characters in the ancient classics.
This turns out to be a common traditional practice of lexicographical cultures
of all languages and the very fountainhead from which such cultures Xow. As
pointed out earlier, the earliest exegetic work only added comments and notes
between lines but when this practice gathered pace to a certain extent, there
emerged the necessity of sorting them and incorporating them into glossaries
and wordbooks. For lack of evidence, it is uncertain when the practice of inter-
preting and explaining characters and words Wrst took place in Chinese lexico-
graphical culture. But it becomes evident from the literature available at present
that the practice of adding interpretation and explanatory notes started as early as
the pre-Qin Dynasty. It can be safely assumed that ancient glossaries, workbooks,
and the earliest dictionary, The Ready Guide, were all the product of the practice of
interpreting and explaining characters and words of the ancient classics.
Ancient glossaries and wordbooks are valuable linguistic data for studying
Chinese characters in remote times, providing a window through which to
examine and apprehend the evolution of the Chinese language and its characters
over time and to track down the changes in ancient Chinese cultures. As early as
the pre-Qin Dynasty, there came into existence a considerable number of word-
books. They more or less all bore some of the features of dictionaries to be
compiled later, and could be considered as the precursors of Chinese dictionaries.
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 37
According to The Book of the Jin Dynasty (<晋书�束皙传>), in the year ad 281, a
large number of bamboo slips were unearthed in Ji County from a tomb of the
Warring States period. Among those slips there were three texts under the title of
名 (term), which was very similar to The Book of Rites and The Ready Guide. This
clearly indicates that at that time there were classiWed glossaries similar to The
Ready Guide. Another well-known book was Shi Zi (<尸子>), in which syn-
onyms or near synonyms were gathered together and explained in groups. This
arrangement of entries was very similar to that of The Ready Guide, suggesting
that there might exist an inherent relationship between the two.
Shi Zi was compiled by quite a notable rhetorician named Shi Jiao (尸佼,
c.390 bc–330 bc) in the mid-Warring States period. The Ready Guide adopted
a fair number of exegetic explanations of object names from Shi Zi. For instance,
the category of domestic animals in释畜 (Explaining Beasts) and the category of
auspiciousness in 释天 (Explaining the Sky) were the same as those in Shi Zi.
What is diVerent between them is greater precision in its explanation in the
former. In addition to Shi Zi, there were many other literary works that became
the data source of The Ready Guide. For instance, 比肩民 in 释地 (Explaining
the Earth) and 河山昆仑墟 in 释水 (Explaining Water) were taken from
The Shanhai Scriptures (<山海经>); 西王母 in 释地 and 小领盗骊 in 释畜
came from The Mutianzi Biography (<穆天子传>);扶摇谓之猋 in释天 and蒺
藜 (puncture vine, Tribulus terrestris) in 释虫 (Explaining Insects) came from
Zhuang Zi (<庄子>). The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals, which came out at the
end of the Warring States period, also provided lots of material for The Ready
Guide.星名 in释天, the五方 and九练州 categories in释地 apparently bear the
inheritance marks of The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals (see Hu Qiguang and
Fang Huanhai, 2001).
Ancient Chinese literature, especially exegetic literature, laid solid foundations
for the birth of lexicography. The contribution of exegetic works to lexicography
chieXy resides in the teaching and explaining of characters and words in classics.
Explicating the meanings of characters and words is also a key part of dictionary
making, i.e. sense deWnition in lexicography. In the history of world lexicography,
no dictionary has been compiled without recourse to previous works. The
beneWts that Chinese dictionaries derive from these exegetic works come not only
from the material for explicating word meaning but also the patterns for deWning
words and the implications generated from usage. In the exegetic works, what is
used to explain word meaning and to transcribe the pronunciation is Chinese
characters. There are two modes of speech sound transcription: direct notation
(直音) and fanqie (反切). Direct notation means using one character to indicate
the pronunciation of the other that shares the same pronunciation. The one used
38 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
as the indicator is usually the one more frequently encountered and much easier
to recognize, for instance 古 is used as an indicator for 蛊. In classic Chinese,
unfortunately, there was not always such a one-to-one pattern for all words. Very
many words did not match entirely in pronunciation, and it often happened that
words with similar but not identical pronunciation or with relatively low fre-
quency were employed to indicate pronunciations of other words. This mode of
notation was frequently questioned for its validity and precision. Towards the
end of the Han Dynasty, the second mode, i.e. fanqie, was invented; it was quickly
adopted and became the dominant means of pronunciation notation. Fanqie
indicates the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters, the Wrst
having the same consonant as the given character and the second having the same
vowel and tone. For instance, the pronunciation of 塑 (su) is indicated as 桑故
切, that is,桑 s(ang)þ故 (g)u, taking the initial consonant of the Wrst character
and the Wnal vowel of the second which shares the same tone – the fourth tone.
This mode of notation Wrst came into general use in Sounds and Meanings of the
Ready Guide (<尔雅音义>) by Sun Yan (孙炎) in the Three Kingdom period
(220–280) and has been in use up until modern times, as can be seen in Ci Yuan
(<辞源>) and in Ci Hai (<辞海>).It is apparent from extant Chinese classic literature that three modes were
adopted to interpret and explain characters and words, i.e. form interpretation
(形训), phonetic interpretation (音训), and semantic interpretation (义训).
Form interpretation means explaining the meaning of a character by analysing
and interpreting its formation – the shape and structure of the character. This
method relates the meaning of a character to its form so as to understand the
meaning from its form. The formal analysis of the structure of Chinese characters
began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. For instance, Zuo’s
Spring and Autumn Annals (<春秋左传>) made a record of 止戈为武, which
implies ‘military power means cease-Wre’. The formal analysis of the word 武
(military power), i.e. 止戈 (stopþ arms), reveals that a powerful state in its real
sense should know when to stop using arms rather than waging wars all the time.
This notion of military power unambiguously reXected the prevalent political
ideology of the warring states at that time – respecting the king, repelling foreign
invasion, and observing rites and morals. Phonetic interpretation means explai-
ning the meaning of a character by analysing and interpreting its pronuncia-
tion–the meaning of a word can be explained by using another word with the
same or similar pronunciation, for instance, 物生必蒙,故受难之以蒙。蒙者, 蒙
也 in The Book of Changes (<周易�序卦>),政者,正也 in The Analects of Confucius
(<论语�颜渊>), and仁者,人也 inThe Book of Rites (<礼记�中庸>). This practicehad its origin in the pre-Qin Dynasty classics. Semantic interpretation, without
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 39
recourse to the pronunciation or the form of the character, makes use of the context
and expounds themeaning of a character or aword bymeans ofmore common and
readily intelligible synonymous words or a short discourse. For instance,勤 (toil)
means ‘to labour’ (劳);肇 (commence) means ‘to start’ (始);康 (healthy) means
‘to be secure’ (安); 怙 (depend) means ‘to rely on’ (恃); and 享 (oVer) means
‘to oVer sacriWce’ (祀). In the pre-Qin Dynasty literature, the practice of semantic
interpretationmainly involved discriminating synonyms and generalizing the inter-
pretations and explanations of words and phrases.
In contemporary Chinese dictionaries no specialized terms can be found that
are exclusively used inwriting deWnitions. But in ancient exegetic literature the use
of this kind of term had developed into a convention to be observed. These terms
include 也 (as well), 者 (as), 曰 (stated as), 谓之 (called), 为 (regarded as), 之
(being),言 (said as),读为 (read as),读如 (read like),当作 (treated as), and古曰
(said in ancient terms as). These terms could be regarded as markers for exegetic
interpretations of the meanings of characters and words. The study of these terms
might help to reveal the relationship of heritage between exegetic interpretations
in ancient literature, in early wordbooks and glossaries, and in lexicographical
deWnition. Here is a passage quoted from Shi Zi (<尸子•广泽篇>):
墨子贵兼, 孔子贵公, 皇子贵衷, 田子贵均, 列子贵虚, 料子贵别囿。其学之相非
也数世矣,而已皆弇于私也。天、帝、皇、后、辟、公、弘、廓、宏、溥、介、纯
. . . . . . ,皆大也。十有馀名,而实一也。若使兼、公、虚、均、衷、平易、别囿一
实也,则无相非也。
(Mo Zi values mutuality (兼); Confucius values justice (公); Huang Zi values loyalty (衷);
Tian Zi values equality (均); Lie Zi values modesty (虚); Liao Zi values solitude (别囿).
The diVerences between them have existed for several generations and reside deeply in
themselves. 天 (heaven), 帝 (God), 皇 (Emperor), 后 (Queen), 辟 (inception), 公
(public), 弘 (grandeur), 廓 (extensiveness), 宏 (magniWcence), 溥 (broadness), 介
(uprightness), 纯 (purity) . . . all denote ‘greatness’. There are more than a dozen
names but only one meaning in essence. If兼,公, 虚, 均, 衷,平易, and别囿 are to be
identiWed with one essential meaning, then there would be no diVerence to be identiWed
in the world.)
The interpretations of words in this passage are basically the same as those in The
Ready Guide (<尔雅•释诂>). In Shi Zi (<尸子•仁意篇>), there was another
passage:
春为青阳,夏为朱明,秋为白藏,冬为玄冥。四时和, 正光照, 此之谓玉烛。甘雨时降,
万物以嘉, 高者不少, 下者不多, 此之谓醴泉。其风春为发生, 夏为长赢, 秋为方盛,
冬为安静, 四时和为通正, 此之谓永风。
40 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
(In spring, the plants become green and the sun warmer; in summer, the Xowers become
red and the sun bright; in autumn, the leaves turn white and the sun is hiding; in winter,
things die out and the sun is dark. When the seasons are in harmony, the sunlight comes
at the right time. This can be compared to a perfect candle. Good rain falls at the right
time and all things grow prosperously. Not insuYcient in high places and not Xooded in
lower places. This could be compared to a good spring. As to the wind, it begins in
spring, grows stronger in summer, prevails in autumn, and becomes mild in winter. In all
the four seasons, it behaves itself and can be dubbed ever present wind.)
As stated, this interpretation was roughly the same as that in The Ready Guide
(<尔雅·释天>). It is evident that deWnition styles in later Chinese dictionaries
originated from the exegetic interpretation of characters and words in ancient
literature, and this mode of deWnition has been evolving side by side with the
development of Chinese lexicography for approximately two millennia.
3.4 the beginnings of chinese lexicography
TheChinesepeople have a long traditionof respecting ceremonyandpropriety and
attachinggreat importance to education. In theXiaDynasty (2070bc–1600bc), the
heavenly order was revered; in the ShangDynasty (1600 bc–1046 bc), the gods and
ghosts were revered; and in the ZhouDynasty, the ritual systems were revered. It is
the prevalence of the practice of revering ritual systems in the Zhou Dynasty that
marks China out as the land of ceremony and propriety throughout the world. In
theZhouDynasty awholesome education systemwas established and teachingwas
consistent and systematic, which ranks China as the earliest country to have
introduced a programme of culture and education by the government. The Rites
of the Zhou Dynasty (<周礼�地官�保氏>) recorded Bao Zhang’s teaching royal
children six kinds of art and the Wfth kind was Six Categories. In one of his notes to
‘Mr. Bao’s teaching royal children Six Categories’ in the Preface to An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文解字�叙>), Duan Yucai comments that
‘the six categories are actually a synthesis of characters, speech sounds, and argu-
mentations’. It can be inferred that the pre-Qin Dynasty scholars had conducted
rather systematic studies on and investigation into the Chinese language and its
vocabulary from three perspectives, namely form, pronunciation, and meaning.
With the passage of time and the development of language itself, ancient Chinese
classics hadbecome almost unintelligible. Teaching and interpreting the characters
andwords became indispensable. Exegetic studies had become a distinctive feature
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 41
of language study in the Han Dynasty, which was well represented by large quan-
tities of both exegetic interpretations of and notes to the ancient classics and the
compilationof a seriesofmonographson languageandcharacters.Theseworks can
be divided into three categories (Liu Yeqiu, 1983:2–3): Wrst, dealing with the form
andmeaning of characters, as represented byAn Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters; second, exegetic dictionaries, as represented by The Ready Guide; and
third, dealing with the pronunciation and interpretation of ancient characters, as
represented by The Dictionary of Rhymes. Wordbooks and dictionaries compiled
later can all be classiWed as variations and derivations of them. An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters initiated the character dictionary in the Chinese
language and marked the establishment of Chinese philology. The Ready Guide
marked the actual appearance of Chinese lexicography, and The Dictionary of
Rhymes, the earliest extant rhyming dictionary, was completed as late as the Song
Dynasty (960–1279) though the predecessors of such rhyming dictionaries
appeared as early as the Three Kingdoms and JinDynasties, such asTheDictionary
of Initial Consonants (<声类>) by Li Deng (李登) and The Collection of Rhymes
(<韵集>) by Lu Jing (吕静).
From Historian Zhou’s Primer of Emperor Xuan in the Zhou Dynasty, to
The Ready Guide of the Qin Dynasty, to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and to The Jade Chapters (<玉篇>),which was compiled by Gu Yewang (顾野王) in the Southern and Northern
Dynasties (420–589), what can be easily perceived is not only a panorama of the
evolution of lexicography in China – from the textbooks for teaching children
to learn characters, to wordbooks, and to character dictionaries – but also its
interaction with language evolution, character education, and character reform.
Character education brought into being the textbooks for children for learning
characters inHistorian Zhou’s Primer and The Cangjie Primer. The exegetic studies
became the cradle for the birth of The Ready Guide. The popularization of xiao
zhuan in the Qin Dynasty promoted the codiWcation of Chinese characters,
which resulted in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. During the Jin
Dynasty, xiaozhuanwas replaced by regular script and The Jade Chapters emerged
as the times required. This interaction runs through the whole evolutional process
of Chinese lexicography and functions as the generator for its development and
Xourishing.
When Chinese history entered the Han Dynasty, China achieved unpreced-
ented uniWcation and social stability. There came tremendous prosperity in social,
economic, and cultural life. Language studies and literacy educationwere elevated
to a new level, which stimulated the demand for glossaries, wordbooks, and
dictionaries. Glossaries, wordbooks, and dictionaries in the true sense sprang up
42 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
in great numbers and in many forms. The forerunners representing each type
of dictionary are The Ready Guide – the Wrst word dictionary; An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters – the Wrst character dictionary; The Dictionary of
Dialectal Words (<方言>) – the Wrst dialect dictionary; The Dictionary of PopularWords – the Wrst folk dictionary; and The Dictionary of Chinese Characters
and Terms – the Wrst phonetic-exegetic dictionary. All these dictionaries, to
a greater or lesser extent, bear an inherent relationship with Historian Zhou’s
Primer, the Wrst reading primer for teaching children characters in ancient times.
exegetic practice and lexicographical works 43
4
HISTORIAN ZHOU’SPRIMER – THE SOURCE OF
LEXICOGRAPHICALCULTURE IN CHINA
THE role reading primers play in the advancement of world civilization and
their signiWcance to the study of the history of world civilization have not
attracted due attention or received serious study, but it is undeniable that the
evolution of any civilization is intimately related to reading primers, which
facilitate human progression, social development, and literacy education. As
pointed out by the American anthropologist Leslie Alvin White (1900–1975) in
The Science of Culture (1949), all human civilization relies on symbols. It is the
ability to produce and use symbols that makes it possible for culture to be created
and passed on. And it is the use of symbols that makes culture eternal. There
would be no culture without symbols and human beings would be identiWed with
animals without symbols. Only when human beings have had a Xuent command
of the language system can culture and civilization progress from one generation
to another. The children’s reading primers are the most primitive and direct tools
for the inception and initiation of human civilization and the activation of
language symbols. It is these textbooks that help make the language and culture
of a nation expand, extend, and prosper.
No lexicographical culture of any civilization in the world has developed
overnight but evolved and extended over a rather long period. The Middle East
is assumed to enjoy the longest history of lexicographical culture, roughly four or
Wve thousand years. The lexicographical culture of China, dating from The
Ready Guide, has a history of no less than two thousand years. Dictionaries,
whether in the East or the West, and whether with a long or short history, all
seem to have taken the same path in evolution: from inscribed clay plates (or
bamboo slips) to word and character reading primers, from word and character
reading primers to wordlists, glossaries, wordbooks, and vocabularies, and from
glossaries and wordbooks to character dictionaries and word dictionaries. This
is a universal pattern for the natural development of lexicographical culture
throughout the world. Presumably, dictionaries in any language of the world
originate from ancient character or word learning textbooks compiled in that
language, and there should be a direct or an indirect heritage relationship
between textbooks and dictionaries. The fountainhead of the lexicographical
culture of China is generally presumed to be Historian Zhou’s Primer (abbrevi-
ated to HZP hereinafter within this chapter) – the Wrst character learning
textbook in the Zhou Dynasty.
4.1 the historical background to hzp’s birth
As noted in the previous chapter, HZP was written at the time of Emperor Xuan
of the Zhou Dynasty. Emperor Xuan’s reign began after an upheaval during the
time of Emperor Li. He had ‘two premiers to assist in his administration,
following the examples of the great emperors such as Emperor Wen, Emperor
Wu, Emperor Cheng, and Emperor Kang, and as a result all the small kingdoms
came over and pledged allegiance. The reign of Emperor Xuan lasted for forty-six
years and is known as ‘Emperor Xuan’s Prosperity Period’. Times of prosperity
and peace are usually marked by more prominence and attention given to the
construction of civilization and culture. HZP was compiled at such a time.
At the time of Emperor Xuan of the Zhou Dynasty there was an oYcial
historian, named Zhou (籀). He was commissioned to take charge of surveying
and ‘tidying up’ the characters and words circulating in the country. He wrote a
reading primer, altogether Wfteen volumes, later known as Historian Zhou’s
Primer, aiming at ‘helping royal teachers to instruct royal children in learning
characters’. This is the direct background against which HZP was compiled.
To Wnd an eVective way to facilitate children’s learning and memorizing
Chinese characters, the educationists theorized the ‘Six Categories’ to account
for the formation and structure of Chinese characters before HZP had come into
historian zhou ’s primer 45
use. The theory of Six Categories was actually a course for children in the Zhou
Dynasty. What does ‘Six Categories’ really mean? Ban Gu (班固), a scholar in the
Eastern Han Dynasty, held that it is ‘the essence of character creation’. SpeciW-
cally, it refers to the Six Categories – pictographic, self-explanatory, ideographic,
pictophonetic, mutually explanatory, and phonetic loaning (Ban Gu, 1962:1720).
The theory of Six Categories has provided a solid theoretical basis for studying
Chinese characters, for analysing their formation and structure, and for compil-
ing dictionaries of the Chinese language.
4.2 the background and motivation forhzp’s compilation
Character primers in the general sense do not fall into the same category as
wordbooks and dictionaries, but HZP, the Wrst character primer in the history of
Chinese civilization shares quite a number of the features of a wordbook or
indeed a dictionary: it is a collection of characters, and it includes many implicit
explanations of the meanings of characters. In other words, it could be regarded
as the real source of lexicographical culture in China.
史籀 is a combination of a name and an oYcial title: 史 is the title of an
oYcial in charge of historical aVairs, and 籀 is the name of the oYcial of
Emperor Xuan, who actually compiled HZP. During the Zhou Dynasty, a wise
king would knight those of high morality and bestow valuable property on those
who achieve great feats. The rites would take place in the Big Temple. At that
grand ceremony, the Wrst thing was to oVer a sacriWce to Heaven. At this moment,
the king would usually stand next to the steps south of the altar, facing the south.
The one to be given the title or award would stand opposite the king, facing the
north. The oYcial historian stands on the right side of the king. He holds the
bamboo slips and makes the announcement on behalf of the king. The second
thing is for the receiver to kneel down, accept the slips, return home, and have
another formal rite at his own temple. It is easy to conclude from this ritual
ceremonywhat an important role an oYcial historian played in the ZhouDynasty.
It needs to be pointed out that in the unearthed inscriptions史籀 was sometimes
written as史留. These inscriptions give further evidence of what Xu Shen says in
his Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters: ‘Till the time of
Emperor Xuan, the Supreme Historian Zhou wrote Wfteen texts in dazhuan,
which was diVerent from the ancient characters in some aspects.’
46 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
In the Zhou Dynasty, an oYcial historian’s duty was to record historical events.
However, from the mid-West Zhou Dynasty (1046 bc–256 bc), the oYcial
historian had gained the power to announce orders on behalf of the king. The
role that an oYcial historian played was of a dual nature: on the one hand, he
enjoyed the right to prescribe and codify the characters, which required him to
have great accomplishments in literature, and on the other hand, the perform-
ance of his duties got him very much involved in the political life of the ruling
class of the state, which endowed them with very high political prestige among
the oYcials. Thus, HZP’s compilation by Historian Zhou at the time of Emperor
Xuan should be considered part of his oYcial responsibility, and an authoritative
textbook compiled on behalf of the government. HZP is no longer in existence
and what are left to us are those character forms retained in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. There are 223 characters explicitly noted as
Zhou characters (王国维, Wang Guowei, 1983:四, 256).
In the early years of theWestHanDynasty, ‘the students are not allowed to take an
oYcial examination until seventeen. Only those capable of reciting more than nine
thousand characters from HZP get the opportunity to be selected as candidates for
government positions’ (see the Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters). There is solid evidence that the number of headword characters origin-
ally collected inHZP is probably well over 9,000. The time span between the Wrst year
of the West Han Dynasty (206 bc) and the time of Emperor Xuan in the West Zhou
Dynasty is about 600 years, during which period new characters would have been
frequently created and added toHZP.The Cangjie Primer, whichwas compiled at the
beginning of the West Han Dynasty after the model of HZP, contained 3,300
characters. Yang Xiong’s The Exegetic Primer had 5,340 characters according to
The Book of the Han Dynasty (<汉书�艺文志>) and An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters collected 9,353 characters as headwords. There are altogether
4,972 inscription characters collected in A Collection of Inscription Characters of
the Yin and Zhou Dynasties (<殷周金文集成>, eighteen volumes)(张亚初,
Zhang Yachu, 2001:1478). The number of Jiaguwen characters unearthed at present
is 4,672 (The Archaeology Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences, 1965:
Preface). Taking all the above factors into consideration, the characters collected in
HZP suitable for children to learn should have amounted to roughly 3,500. Even as a
standard to be measured against what a student has to learn today, the number of
characters in HZP was of a very considerable size. There is every reason to consider
HZP as a standardized textbook for children to learn characters at that time.
HZP was designed and compiled for royal children to learn dazhuan charac-
ters. When regular script became the standard writing system for the Chinese
language, dazhuan soon became outdated. Moreover, characters will inevitably
historian zhou ’s primer 47
change, being modiWed and replaced by newly created ones. It is a natural process
for new forms of character to emerge and old ones to die out. That is why HZP
gradually went out of vogue and only some remnants were to be found in some of
the academic writings of the time. It was a change of environment and culture
that Wnally led to the demise of HZP.
4.3 the format and style of hzp
Principles for lemmata selection and coverageAs HZP was targeted at children learning characters, its scope of selection was
basically limited to ‘those naming things and people’. The characters for objects
and people that were frequently encountered in everyday life were candidates for
inclusion as headwords in the book, which means that these characters were
essential to and commonly used in everyday communication. These characters
were of two kinds: common characters and newly created ones.
Common characters refer to those already stabilized but still in contemporary
use. These words usually enjoyed a rather high frequency in everyday commu-
nication. For instance, in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, there
are the following characters:
1. 人,天地之性最贵者也。此籀文。象臂胫之形。
(人, man, the most noble between the earth and the sky; a Zhou character
in the shape of an arm and legs.)
2. 鸡, 知时畜也。从隹,奚声。籀文鸡从鸟。
(鸡, chicken, a kind of poultry that knows the time; categorized into隹 and
pronounced as奚; a Zhou character that falls into the category of 鸟.)
3. 车,舆轮之总名。夏后时奚仲所造。象形。籀文车。
(车, vehicle, any vehicle with wheels; invented by Xi Zhong (奚仲) at the
time of the post-Xia Dynasty; a pictographic character and the same as the
Zhou character.)
4. 西, 鸟在巢上。象形。日在西方而鸟栖, 故因以为东西之西。西, 或从
木、妻。古文西。籀文西。
(西, west, the direction in which birds are seen on the nest; a pictographic
character; when the sun is in the west the birds perch on the branches;
therefore, used to designate the direction of west; categorized into 木
(wood) or 妻 (wife); the same as the ancient character and the Zhou
character.)
48 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Common characters signifying ‘objects and people frequently encountered’,
such as 人, 鸡, 车, and 西, were already frequently used in everyday life in
the Shang Dynasty when Jiaguwen was the dominant writing system. Certainly,
these characters should be included in HZP. The inscriptions on the unearthed
bronze wares of the time of Emperor Xuan can also conWrm the existence of those
characters and their status, designating basic concepts to be conveyed in the
inscriptions. The following are some of the sample sentences from the inscrip-
tions (陈梦家, Chen Mengjia, 2004:318, 324, 328):
5. 唯九月初吉戊申。
(Only the Wrst of September is auspicious in the year of Wu Shen, which is
the Wfth of heavenly stem and the ninth of earthly branches.).
6. 王令我羞追于西,余来归献擒。
(The king disgraced me and I ran west to chase. I returned and oVered
what I had captured.)
7. 子子孙孙其永宝用享。
(His sons and grandsons will enjoy all these treasures forever.)
8. 王赐兮甲马四匹, 驹车。
(The king bestowed four horses and some foals and carts.)
9. 敢不用令。
(Dare not obey order.)
10. 其唯我诸侯百姓。
(Only my monarch and people.)
11. 折首五百,执讯五十。
(Five hundred were beheaded and Wfty were penalized and reproached.)
Newly created characters refer to those that were created during the time of the
West Zhou Dynasty (or Emperor Xuan’s time). These new characters should also
have a high frequency of use.
12. 城以盛民也。从土从成,成亦声。城, 籀文城从郭。
(城, city, town, a place created and used to hold its people; categorized into
土 ‘soil’ and 成 ‘completion’, with the latter also representing its pro-
nunciation; categorized into郭 ‘suburb’ in Zhou characters.)
13. 则等画物也。从刀从贝。贝, 古之物货也。则, 古文则。则, 亦古文则。
籀文则从鼎。
(则, ruler, a toolused forequaldivision indrawing; categorized into刀 ‘knife’
and贝 ‘shell’, which, in ancient times, was used as currency for the exchange
of goods; the same as its ancient form; categorized into 鼎 ‘pod’ in Zhou
characters.)
historian zhou ’s primer 49
14. 道所行道也。从辵从首。一达谓之道。古文道从首寸。
(道, road, way, a long narrow place for people to walk from place to place;
categorized into辵 ‘walk intermittently’ and 首 ‘head’; directly leading to
a place; its ancient form was categorized into 首 ‘head’ and寸 ‘inch’.)
The above characters 城,则, and道 were not found until the time of Emperor
Xuan and could be identiWed as newly created characters. One of the fundamental
indicators of the civilization of human society is city construction and conceptual-
ization. Of the divinatory symbols unearthed from the Ruins of the Yin Dynasty, the
character 城 was not found but the character京, which means ‘capital of a city’. It
was during the West Zhou Dynasty and with the standardization of town construc-
tion that some towns were gradually dubbed as城, which is clear from the citation:
15. 以乃族从父征,出城卫父身。(<班簋>)(Under the leadership of the father, the clansmen fought in war. They went
out of the city to act as bodyguards to the father.) (from Ban Gui)
In the Zhou character form,则 looks like a knife curved on the pod. Since the pod
was a kind of vessel frequently taken as an indicator of one’s social status, it was
naturally extended to refer to ‘system’, which was further grammaticalized as an
adverb or conjunction. In the Jin (金) characters, the main uses of则 are as follows:
(a) to cut or draw, e.g. 用明则之于铭。(When in wide use, it will be in-
scribed.)
(b) the soil, e.g. 王蔑段历, 念毕仲孙子, 命龏戒贻大则于段。(The king
belittled Duan Li but, after thinking of his second grandson, he ordered
Gong Jie to give a large piece of land to Duan.)
(c) as an adverb to indicate a completed action, e.g.牧牛则誓。(While herding
sheep and cattle, he swore an oath.)
According to the head character selection criterion of An Explanatory Diction-
ary of Chinese Characters (i.e. zhuan characters, which are to be contrasted with
ancient Zhou characters, form the focus for character selection), when deWni-
tional explanations contain such glosses as古文 ‘in the ancient form of . . .’, the
character whose xiaozhuan character bears the same form as the Zhou character
should be listed Wrst. Look at the following example in An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters:
16. 奭 盛也。从大, 从皕, 皕亦声。此燕召公名。读若郝。<史篇> 名丑。
奭,古文奭。
(奭meansXourishing; categorized into大 ‘bigness’ and皕 ‘double hundred’,
with the latter also indicating its pronunciation; Yan Zhaogong (燕召公)
bears the same name; pronounced as郝 /hao/; in the ancient form of奭.)
50 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
It can thus be deduced that the Wrst character form listed under the entry道 in
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters should also be the form of the
Zhou character. 道 was written as 衜 on the Raccoon Vessel, a bronze small-
mouthed and big-bellied wine vessel of the West Zhou Dynasty. More often than
not, the Jinwen inscription of the character 衜 was accompanied by 止 (stop,
stand still), symbolizing ‘foot in motion’. Taken as a whole,衜 forms a picture of a
person standing at the crossroads, trying to Wgure out which direction to take.
Consequently, 衜 was used to designate ‘road’ or ‘way’. The usage of 道 in the
West Zhou metal inscriptions could be illustrated in the following example:
17. 封于兽道, 封于原道, 封于周道。(<散盘>)(Sealed at the animal’s path, on the original road, and on Zhou’s way.)
(from San Pan)
After examining the speciWc usages of several newly created characters in the
unearthed literature of the West Zhou Dynasty before Emperor Xuan, it can be
tentatively inferred that HZP had already taken note of those newly emerged
characters and that they were given as supplemented entries.
AnExplanatoryDictionary of ChineseCharacters encompasses 540 radical sections
within its scope of headword coverage, which involves ‘heaven and earth, ghosts and
gods, mountains and rivers, grass and trees, birds and animals, insects and worms,
sundries, odd objects, the king’s ruling systems, and etiquette and rites. In aword, all
the things under the sun are recorded exclusively’ (Epilogue to An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters). The characters explicitly marked as Zhou char-
acters are also put under these 540 radical sections. For instance:
上部:旁 (the radical section of上:旁)
示部:祺、斎、禋、祷、祟 (the radical section of示:祺,斎,禋,祷,祟)
玉部: 璿 (the radical section of 玉: 璿)
牛部: 牭 (the radical section of 牛: 牭)
口部: 嗌、啸 (the radical section of口: 嗌, 啸)
食部: 饴、餔、饕 (the radical section of 食: 饴, 餔, 饕)
禾部:秋、秦、稯 (the radical section of禾:秋,秦, 稯)
米部: 糂、糟 (the radical section of 米: 糂, 糟)
女部:姚、妘、婚、姻、妣、娲、娈、娄 (the radical section of女:姚,妘, 婚,
姻,妣, 娲, 娈, 娄)
酉部: 酸、酱、醢 (the radical section of 酉: 酸, 酱, 醢)
If a comparison is made between HZP and An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters for their coverage, it is conspicuous that the latter has
broadened its scope and reinforced its contents, though the former has also
claimed to have ‘recorded all things under the sun’.
historian zhou ’s primer 51
LayoutHZP is no longer in existence, but what can be done is to restore it from The
Cangjie Primer. These two books took the shortest time to be compiled and
shared basically the same style. Since the Qin Dynasty was rather short-lived, the
textbook series for children to learn xiaozhuan characters, compiled by Li Si in
the light of HZP, lasted for only several dozens of years. Early in the Western Han
Dynasty, the textbooks handed down from the Qin Dynasty were under revision:
the teachers and learned people in the towns and villages combined The Cangjie Primer,
The Yuanli Primer, and The Scholarly Primer under one cover and segmented the book
into Wfty-Wve chapters, each chapter containing sixty characters. This new textbook
retained the original title The Cangjie Primer. (Ban Gu, 1962:1721)
As for The Cangjie Primer in the Han Dynasty, the character form was trans-
formed from xiaozhuan into oYcial script. The total number of entry characters in it
was 3,300, and it soon became popularized and widely recognized as the standard
textbook for character learning. From the unearthed bamboo slips of The Cangjie
Primer in the West Han period, we can see two outstanding features in layout:
1. Semantically grouped and radical-orientedIn The Cangjie Primer, the characters that were synonymous or related in some
meaning components were put together on the basis of radical classiWcation.
For instance, 开 (open), 闭 (close), 门 (door), and 闾 (town) all fall under the
heading of门, for their meanings are all related to the concept of ‘door’. Likewise,
病 (illness),狂 (madness),疵 (blemish),疕 (head sore),灾 (burn),疡 (sore) are
all semantically related to 病 and come under 疒 (the radical characterizing
characters denoting ‘illness’).
2. Four-character sentences that are rhymed and easy to reciteThe character textbook serves the purpose of character learning. Its headword
characters should be arranged in such a way as to facilitate character acquisition
and literacy education. Rhyming is conducive to recitation and memorization.
The format is specially designed in each chapter of The Cangjie Primer so as to
have four characters in one sentence and keep the sentences rhymed. Here are
some of the sentence quotations from The Cangjie Primer :
18. 幼子承诏。(<说文解字�序>引<苍颉篇>)(The younger son was the one to be summoned by the Emperor.) (from
52 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
the Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters quoting
from The Cangjie Primer)
19. 汉兼天下,海内并厕,豨黥韩覆,畔讨灭歼。(颜之推, Yan Zhitui, 1980:438)
(The Han Dynasty annexes the whole world and all the kingdoms observe
its decrees. Its ruling will be like slaughtering the pigs and pulling down
the fences. For those kingdoms that disobey, they will be denounced, sup-
pressed, and destroyed.) (from Yan Zhitui of the Northern Qi Dynasty,
1980:438)
20. 苍颉作书, 以教后嗣。幼子承诏, 谨慎敬戒, 勉力风诵, 昼夜勿置。苟务
成史,计会辨治,超等轶群,出尤别异。(李振宏, Li Zhenhong, 2003:120)
(Cangjie creates characters for educating the young. The youth are sum-
moned and they should learn to be serious, cautious, respectful, and self-
disciplined. They should make up their mind and study hard and show
perseverence in reading and reciting day and night. If selected to serve as
oYcials in the government, they should be qualiWed in calculating,
accounting, discriminating good from evil, and ruling. They should be
trained to be the elites and the exceptional but not the deviants.) (from
Li Zhenhong, 2003:120)
These four-character sentences are just the right stuV for playful children to
recite and memorize. In the time of HZP’s compilation four-character-style
poems were prevalent, and it was probable for HZP and The Cangjie Primer to
inherit the prevalent style from poetry writing and for HZP to adopt the format
of four-character-style poems.
DeWnition and citationThere is now extremely limited source data directly obtained fromHZP, but there
is strong evidence from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters that
HZP did oVer word deWnitions, as in the case above of 奭. Here is another
example:
21. 姚 –虞舜居姚虚,因以为姓。从女,兆声。或为:姚,娆也。<史篇>以为:
姚,易也。
(姚 Yao, surname, Yu and Shun lived in Yaoxu, which they took for their
family name; categorized into女 ‘female’ and pronounced as yao ‘兆’; also
possible that姚 ‘yao’ means 娆 ‘enchanting’; HZP interprets姚 as mean-
ing易 ‘pleasant’.)
Some inferences can be made from the above citation. First, the chief means
of deWnition in HZP is to use synonymous characters or expressions. Second,
historian zhou ’s primer 53
there are some explanatory notes about the general usage of some characters in
HZP. For instance,奭 could be used interchangeably with丑 in HZP. HZP, as a
glossary of common characters of its time, manifests its inXuence on lexicog-
raphy of later generations chieXy in its arrangement of contents and layout. For
the majority of characters, there are no deWnitions or illustrative examples. This
is due to HZP’s function as a textbook. The responsibility of explaining
the meaning of characters and providing illustrative examples falls on the
teachers during the process of instructing pupils. It is no wonder that only a
limited number of deWnitions and examples are discovered in HZP and that they
usually take the form of annotations attached to their corresponding headword
characters.
PronunciationThere are some characters in HZP, though very few in number, whose pronun-
ciations are provided by means of indicative labels like 读若,与 . . . . . .音同,
and 音如, which mean ‘pronounced in a similar or the same way as . . .’. For
instance:
22. 匋, 瓦器也。从缶, 包省声。古者昆吾作匋。案: <史篇> 读与缶同。
(<说文解字>)(匋, pottery, earthenware; categorized into 缶 ‘fou, earthen utensil with a
large body and small opening’; pronounced as 包 /bao/, with a silent
consonant; in ancient times, Kun Wu was well known for making earth-
enware. Note: in HZP, it is annotated as being pronounced in the same
way as 缶.) (from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters)
Similarly, this style of giving pronunciation was also employed in The Cangjie
Primer. Let’s take痏, for example:
23. 痏,创也。音如鮪鱼之鮪。
(痏, trauma; wound from injury; pronounced like the character 鮪, as in
鮪鱼.)
The inXuenceofHZPonTheCangjiePrimer andTheReadyGuide is foundchieXy in
the arrangement of contents and themethod of deWning characters. On the one hand,
the arrangement of contents in both books is based on semantic relations and classiW-
cations. The contents of the Wrst version ofThe Cangjie Primer are classiWed, grouped,
andarrangedonasemanticbasis, i.e. inthe lightof theconcepts theydesignate,whichis
clearly a practice that originated in HZP. Characters with radicals sharing the same,
similar, or opposite meanings are normally treated in one chapter or section, for
54 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
instance, 寸 (inch), 薄 (thin), 厚 (thick), 广 (broad), 侠 (narrow), 好 (good), 丑
(ugly), 长 (long), 短 (short) (Wang Guowei, 1983: 4, 352). On the other hand,
characters are deWned according to their semantic classiWcation. The case of姚 above
is typical, fromwhose analysis we can see that姚 and易 are synonyms. It is apparent
that the method of deWnition in The Ready Guide was inspired by the practice of
synonym deWnition inHZP. Here are somemore examples fromThe Ready Guide :
24. 乔、嵩、崇: 高也。(<尔雅�释诂>)(乔, 嵩, and 崇 mean 高 ‘tall, high’.)
25. 怀、惟、虑、愿、念、惄: 思也。(<尔雅�释诂>)(怀, 惟, 虑, 愿,念 and 惄 mean 思 ‘thinking’.)
26. 颠,顶也。(<尔雅�释言>)(颠 means 顶 ‘summit, top’.)
To conclude, the deWning method in The Ready Guide, such as general explan-
ation (通训) and mutual explanation (互训), is the result of being inXuenced by
the semantic classiWcation style in HZP.
4.4 the cultural and academicimplications of hzp
HZP was intended to help children learning characters and to educate the
illiterate during the Western Zhou Dynasty, which necessitated its bearing
some characteristics of both an instructional textbook and a reference book
such as a dictionary (Yong Heming, 2003:25).
Prior to the time of Emperor Xuan, there had been no authoritative textbooks
for teaching and learning characters. There might have been teaching materials of
this kind in some oYcial schools and the materials were probably collected by the
teaching oYcials. Things became quite diVerent when the oYcial primer HZP
came into use, for it was authoritative and in wide circulation as a textbook in
oYcial schools. Since it was a standardized textbook of high quality, it would in
some way compensate for intellectual deWciency in the teaching staV and help the
students to review and preview. Consequently, it would dramatically increase the
eYciency and eVectiveness in teaching and learning characters.
As shown from the study of the oracle inscriptions unearthed from the Ruins
of the Shang Dynasty, the characters used in the Shang Dynasty were not very
standardized, as evidenced by profuse use of variants for the same character.
historian zhou ’s primer 55
These variations could be roughly classiWed into the following categories (徐中
舒, Xu Zhongshu, 1989:1499):
(a) A character may have both its original complex form and simpliWed form.
For instance, the simpliWed character车 (cart, vehicle) was used alongside
its original complex forms like 舆, 辕, 轭, and 衡. These complex forms
still retain the shape of two wheels in their formation, while the simpliWed
form 车 functioned only as a component of the original complex form
(Xu Zhongshu, 1989:1499).
(b) The position of certain radicals in a character may be arbitrary, i.e. either
placed on the right side or on the left. For instance, in the character 令
(order), the part which looks like ‘a man kneeling down’ could be written
either facing the right or the left (Xu Zhongshu, 1989:1000).
(c) The radicals on the upper and lower parts of a character could mutually
exchange their positions. For instance, in the character侯, the component
of ‘arrow head (矢)’ usually faces upwards, but it may also be written
facing downwards (Xu Zhongshu, 1989:583).
(d) The use of radicals was not conventionalized yet in cases where radicals
had the same or similar meanings. They could be used interchangeably.
For instance, in the character莫, the uppermost radical could either be艸
(grass) or林 (wood).
It can be deduced that one of the motivations for Emperor Xuan ordering his
oYcial historian Zhou to compile a primer was to standardize the form and use
of characters. These standardized forms and styles of character writing, as shown
in HZP, would be naturally reXected in its contemporary literary works and other
literature.
The term ‘Zhou character’ is used to refer to the particular style of form and
structure of character writing during the time of Emperor Xuan. In the period
from Spring and Autumn toWarring States, people in the Qin State still used this
type of character but the Oriental Six States were using ancient characters – the
type of characters used in the ‘books found in the walls of Confucius’ home’
(Wang Guowei, 1983:319). As for the use of the Zhou character by the Qin people,
the representative work is Stone Drum character (石鼓文) of Qin State. Stone
Drum characters refer to the poems carved on the drums – each drum with
one four-character poem depicting the grand scene of the king and monarchs
hunting and entertaining. This type of poem usually consisted of four lines,
each on one side of the stone drum. Its genre is very similar to that of the
poems in The Book of Songs with similar subjects. As is shown in the following
poem: 吾车既工, 吾马既同。吾车既好, 吾马既阜 (My carts are exquisitely
56 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
constructed, and my horses are equally chosen; my carts are among the best, and
my horses are among the loftiest).
During the time of the Wrst Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, xiaozhuan was
oYcially codiWed as the standard writing form. There came the need to rewrite
and recompile textbooks for teaching and learning characters. Naturally, HZP
was taken as an example for selecting the content materials and for making
decisions on the formats of the new textbooks. The Prime Minister Li Si and two
other Ministers, Zhao Gao and Hu Wujing, were authorized to compile the
textbook. Li Si wrote The Cangjie Primer (seven chapters), Zhao Gao wrote The
Yuanli Primer (six chapters), and Hu Wujing wrote The Scholarly Primer (seven
chapters). All these texts were written in xiaozhuan and the textbooks were
oYcially issued and circulated nationwide; and, as a result, HZP gradually
went out of vogue. There are, however, some characters that have retained the
form and structure of those Zhou characters but have been in continuous use up
until now.
HZP, as the Wrst textbook intended to teach children to learn characters in the
history of Chinese civilization, played an unprecedented role in initiating the
history of dictionary compilation. As pointed out earlier, a series of textbooks for
character learning, taking HZP as an example, were compiled in the Qin Dynasty.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the textbook for children to learn
characters was The Instant Primer, whose name 急就 (instant success) suggested
‘fast learning’, and the opening remarks made it all the more clear:
27. 急就奇觚与众异: 罗列诸物名姓字, 分别部居不杂厕, 用日约少诚快意,
勉力务之必有喜。请道其章。
(Quickly learn the rarely seendrinkingvessels andmanydiVerent things: listing
the names of objects, people, and family names; classify them into diVerent
sections so that they will not be easily mixed up. Occasional consultation will
deWnitely be a great delight – for it is quick to retrieve, and, if hard eVort is put
into it, there will surely be surprising rewards. Please follow the guidelines in
each chapter.)
It is certain that there were predecessors for The Instant Primer to model on.
For its stylistic features, it collected the characters with the same radicals together
and then divided them into diVerent chapters. For each chapter, the number of
characters in each line is Wxed: three characters, four characters, or seven char-
acters. The sentences are all in rhyme, which makes it easy to read and recite.
From the Northern and Southern Dynasty, there appeared some other popular
textbooks, such as One Thousand Characters Text (<千字文>), The Book of
Family Names (<百家姓>), and The Three-Character Primer (<三字经>). All
historian zhou ’s primer 57
these textbooks have displayed some noticeable trace of HZP in their compilation
styles and formats.
As HZP is no longer available today, all that can be ascertained about it comes
from relevant data sources serving as citations found in An Explanatory Diction-
ary of Chinese Characters and certain other dictionaries. The pioneering studies
of HZP are mainly the by-products of the studies on An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters. Among studies on HZP, Wang Guowei’s The RectiWcation of
Historian Zhou’s Primer (<史籀篇疏证>) ranks among the most comprehensive
and systematic works. Wang Guowei conducted thorough textual research into
each one of the 220 characters explicitly marked as Zhou characters in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and went on further to verify
them against the unearthed materials. It is his opinion that the character 籀 as
in史籀 should be interpreted as ‘read’ and史籀 should not be taken as a person’s
name but an abbreviation of the Wrst four characters 太史籀书 (literally, the
oYcial historian reads books), which is actually the Wrst sentence in HZP
(Preface to The RectiWcation of Historian Zhou’s Primer). Wang Guowei’s study
on HZP still remains one of the monumental works in this Weld.
As far as the history of human civilization is concerned, all the textbooks, like
HZP, which are oriented towards enlightenment, have played an indispensable
role in cultivating the thoughts of a nation, especially those of the younger
generation. In the meantime, these textbooks, bearing some of the features of
a dictionary, have played an equally important role in sustaining a nation’s
culture and handing down the accomplishments of human civilization from
generation to generation. The concept of ‘big uniWcation’, as manifested in 汉
兼天下, 海内并厕 (Han annexes the whole world and all the kingdoms observe
its decree) in The Cangjie Primer, has been inherited by every generation since
very remote times through textbooks in the course of teaching and learning
Chinese characters.
58 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
5
THE READY GUIDE – THEINITIATOR OF THESAURUSDICTIONARIES IN CHINA
T HE Ready Guide (abbreviated to RG hereinafter within this chapter) enjoys
a very remarkable position in the history of philological and linguistic
studies in China. It is the Wrst work of exegetic studies conducted on a systematic
basis and the Wrst thesaurus dictionary of an encyclopedic nature. It aims to
explain the meaning of ancient words and a great variety of object names and
serves as the starting point from which other classic works can be justiWably
interpreted. That partly explains why RG has always been placed into the category
of ancient Chinese classics rather than ancient Chinese dictionaries. This chapter
will concentrate chieXy on the role it plays as the initiator of dictionary compil-
ation in ancient China.
5.1 the historical background to rg’s birth
When Historian Zhou’s Primer and The Cangjie Primer were used for teaching
and learning characters, there also emerged the need to explain the meanings of
the characters collected in them that changed over time as language evolved. RG
was compiled to meet this need. So, what does the title尔雅mean? According to
Confucius’ interpretation, ‘RG assists in understanding and analysing ancient
classic works and suYces to diVerentiate between words and expressions’, which
is further collaborated by the remark that ‘the so-called standard speech, as
Confucius suggests, alludes to the classic works and the justice and courtesy
advocated in them. Only these can be ranked as standards’ (from The Analects of
Confucius, <论语�述而>). In a note to The Book of the Han Dynasty Zhang Yan
(张晏) states that ‘尔 means近 (close, approximate) and雅 means 正 (justice,
standard)’. In the light of this explanation,尔雅 can be interpreted as attempting
Wrst to understand the character’s meaning as accurately as possible and then to
interpret it in actual use. Moreover, the character雅 itself was a fashionable word
in the Western Zhou Dynasty, as is shown in The Book of Songs, which contained
characters like风,雅, and颂. In RG, there is an illustrative citation of张仲孝友,
which contained the name of a Wgure in Emperor Xuan’s time –张仲, strongly
suggesting that RG was used as supplementary teaching material for Historian
Zhou’s Primer. To conclude, it is very probable that RG was compiled as a
‘teaching material’ book.
Between the Qin and theHanDynasty, The Cangjie Primerwas used for teaching
and learning characters, and a reference book was needed to assist and facilitate not
only the learning of characters but also the appreciation of the conceptualmeanings
and cultural connotations attached to the characters. And in the periods of the
Spring and Autumn and the Warring States, private schooling was becoming
popular and the mix of numerous schools of thought had created a favourable
academic atmosphere for studying and analysing language and characters. RGwas a
natural outcome of such a time. It was compiled to broadly identify the actual
references of words and expressions, to make a record of the songs and ideals of the
poets, to collect and sort the archaic words of previous times, and to discriminate
the words with diVerent labels but in essence with the same content.
The Book of the Han Dynasty did not classify RG into the category of Chinese
philology but into the category of works which promoted Wlial devotion. During
the reign of EmperorWen, people with the title of ‘doctor’, which roughly approxi-
mates to the title of professor, were assigned to teach The Analects of Confucius, The
Book of Filial Virtues (<孝经>),Meng Zi, and RG (钱穆, QianMu, 2001:193). These
studies were already established courses in the school syllabus. For those pupils in
school, they were compulsory courses. Only when they had passed these courses
were they entitled to enrol for advanced courses, such asThe Book of Songs, The Book
of Changes, The Book of Rites, and The Spring and Autumn. It can be concluded that
RG should have been Wnished no later than the time of Emperor Wen’s reign.
Generally speaking, it takes time for an academic work to get initiated, circulated,
established and codiWed, especially in ancient times. This wasmore than true of RG.
The Wrst draft of RG should have been written at the turn of the dynasty (i.e. from
the Zhou to the Qin Dynasty) but came to its completion early in theWestern Han
60 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Dynasty. It can thus be safely assumed that RGwasWrst drafted in between the Zhou
and the Qin Dynasty and was completely Wnalized in the Han Dynasty.
‘Nine states (九州)’ in RG refers to the administrative regions in China in early
ancient times. A comparison will show that the actual names of the nine states in
RG are diVerent from those in Yu Gong (<禹贡>) but roughly approximate to
those in The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty, but are most like those in The Lu’s Spring
and Autumn Annals. In The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals, the state names are
冀,衮,青,徐,扬,荆,豫,雍, and幽 while in RG they are冀,衮,营 (青),徐,扬,
荆,豫,雍, and幽. The only diVerence lies in the change of the name of one state,
i.e. from 青 to 营. RG states that ‘齐 (the state of Qi) was called 营 (the state of
Ying)’. As is known to all, it was only twenty-two years between the birth of The
Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals and the Burning Book Event by the Wrst Emperor
of the Qin Dynasty. Thus, the Wrst draft of RG should have been completed at the
turn of the dynasty, subsequent to The Spring and Autumn.
The Wrst draft of RG was just an embryo – there was much to develop, improve,
and supplement, especially in content, wording, and format. The early part of the
WesternHanDynasty wasmainly a time for revision. From the time of EmperorHui
of the Han Dynasty, several new chapters of RG were in circulation, together with
the original version of RG. A comparison of the two versions of RG displays great
diVerence in wording. The following citations from Supplements to the RectiWed
Broad Ready Guide (王念孙, Wang Niansun, <广雅疏证补正>) will show some
changes in diction in deWning妻父: (1)妻父曰外舅 (‘Wife’s father’ means ‘father-
in-law’) (from The Book of Rites); and (2) 妻之父为外舅 (‘The father of wife’ is
called ‘father-in-law’) (The Standardized Ready Guide, <尔雅>定本). The revision
of RG consists of three types of editorial work: Wrst, notes or comments were added.
For instance, in RG, a note was added to explain五方 (the Wfth direction), i.e.此四
方中国之异气也 (the alienated from the four directions of China); second, special
explanatory notes were written for some chapters and sections, and some chapters
were reordered; and third, the number and names of classiWcation were revised and
modiWed. For instance, in The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals (<吕氏春秋�有始览>), there was said to be nine pools in the swampland, whereas in RG (<尔雅�释地>), the number of pools was changed to ten. The Wnalization of RG should be
subsequent to the revision of The Book of Rites but obviously prior to the appoint-
ment of the teaching doctor for RG by Emperor Wen in the Han Dynasty. For only
when RG had attained perfection and exquisiteness in literary and editorial style and
gained suYcient authoritativeness would it be possible for the Emperor to accept it
oYcially and to award an oYcial doctoral title to carry out its teaching.
RG was mainly devoted to explaining and interpreting linguistic and concep-
tual meanings of characters, words, and expressions. Linguistic problems, though
the ready guide 61
intricately involved, could be reduced to one – how the sound and meaning are
combined. The prerequisite for linguistic communication is the creation and
universal acceptance of meaning by the speech community and the meaning of a
word will be acceptable only after it has established itself in competition with other
temporary meaning constructions of words and expressions in the same typical
contextual situation. In Guo Pu’s opinion, RG is a book for ‘diVerentiating those
words with the same essence but diVerent names’ and ‘by means of which a more
broad range of things can be embraced without confusing them with each other’
(Preface to The Annotated Ready Guide). Thus, the theoretical core of giving
explanatory notes in RG was ‘to diVerentiate so as to eliminate confusion about
semantic categorization of words and expressions and to have a better understand-
ing of the charactermeaning. For instance, the parameters for RG for diVerentiating
between虫 (insect) and豸 (worm) and between禽 (bird) and兽 (beast) are ‘foot’
and ‘feather’:有足谓之虫,无足谓之豸 (If the creature has feet, then it is虫; and if
it does not, then it is 豸);二足而羽谓之禽, 四足而毛谓之兽 (If the animal has
two feet and feathers, then it is a bird; if it has four feet and fur, then it is a beast).
Generally speaking, the diVerentiation of names and objects is based on those
relationships, which are closely related to the names and objects or form contrasts
between them, and properties referring to the attributes, physical shapes of dispos-
ition, status, capacity, inXuence, etc. In RG, ‘foot’, ‘feather’ and ‘fur’ are taken as the
parameters to mark out the semantic categories in the animal world in that both of
them are themeans bywhich diVerent animals acclimatize themselves to their living
conditions and the markers by which they can be easily recognized.
The principle of ‘diVerentiation without confusion’ is best illustrated in the
Wrst explanatory note of RG (<尔雅�释诂>):初,哉,首,基,肇祖,元,胎,俶,落,
权舆,始也。In this entry, all the deWned characters are explained with the same
character始 (beginning, inception), but each character focuses on one aspect or
component in the meaning of 始. The following analysis will show how these
characters can be diVerentiated:
1. 初, 裁衣之始。(初: starting to cut cloth in dressmaking.)
2. 哉, 即才, 草木之始。(哉: the same as 才, beginning of grass or tree’s
growth.)
3. 首,人体之始。(首: beginning of human body.)
4. 基, 筑墙之始。(基: beginning in building a wall.)
5. 肇,开门之始。(肇: beginning in opening a door.)
6. 祖,人类之始。(祖: Wrst ancestors of human beings.)
7. 元,即人头,也是人体之始。(元: the same as人头 (human head), also the
beginning of human body.)
62 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
8. 胎,生命之始。(胎: beginning of a human life.)
9. 俶,动作之始。(俶: initiating of a motion or an action.)
10. 落,木叶陨坠之始。(落: (of leaves) beginning to fall from trees.)
11. 权舆, 草木迂曲出土,即植物生长之始。(权舆: (of grass or tree) coming
out of soil, i.e. the beginning of the growth of plants.)
The derivation of the principle ‘diVerentiation without confusion’ in RG
developed into a pattern of naming ‘large’ and ‘small’ objects. Generally speak-
ing, ‘large’ objects could be pre-modiWed with such characters as 大 (big), 戎
(helmet), 王 (king), 牛 (cow), 马 (horse), 虎 (tiger), and 鹿 (deer). Look at the
following examples:
12. 魾,大鳠: bagarius; ‘big’ hemibagrus (from <释鱼> – Interpreting Fish)
13. 菺, 戎葵: sunXower in the Shu State: helmet sunXower (from <释草> –
Interpreting Grass)
14. 蟒, 王蛇: boa; king snake (from <释鱼> – Interpreting Fish)
15. 终, 牛棘: cow thorn (from <释木> – Interpreting Wood)
16. 蝒, 马蜩: big black cicada; horse cicada (from <释虫> – Interpreting
Worm)
17. 欇, 虎櫐: maple; tiger vine (from <释木> – Interpreting Wood)
18. 蔨, 鹿藿。其实莥: hyssop; deer hyssop, i.e. wrinkled giant hyssop (from
<释草> – Interpreting Grass)
By contrast, for small objects, the following characters will be used: 小 (little),
叔 (uncle), 女 (woman), 羊 (sheep), 狗 (dog), 鼠 (mouse), 雀 (sparrow), etc.
Look at the following examples:
19. 蘻, 狗毒: a kind of grass; dog poison (<释草> – Interpreting Grass)
20. 蘥, 雀麦: a kind of cattle grass; sparrow wheat (<释草> – Interpreting
Grass)
21. 遵, 羊枣: date; sheep date (<释木> – Interpreting Wood)
22. 楰, 鼠梓: catalpa; mouse catalpa (<释木> – Interpreting Wood)
5.2 the background and motivationfor rg’s compilation
As early as the middle and late West Han Dynasty, that is, when Liu Xiang and
Liu Xin compiled The Miscellaneous Collection (<别录>) and Seven Strategies
the ready guide 63
(<七略>), the author of RG was unknown to them. That is why when he
discussed RG in The Book of the Han Dynasty, Ban Gu claimed that there were
three volumes, twenty chapters altogether in RG, but he did not mention its
author. Thus, the author of RG could only be deduced from its contents. A
relevant work is Shi Zi, by Shi Zi, a well-known scholar in the Warring States
Period. In Shi Zi (<尸子�广泽>), a number of entries could be identiWed with
those in RG (< 尔雅�释诂>). Look at the following entries from Shi Zi:
23. 天、帝、皇、后、辟、公:皆君也。(<尸子�广泽>)(天, 帝, 皇, 后, 辟, and 公 are all used to refer to the monarch.) (from
Shi Zi)
24. 弘、廓、宏、溥、介、纯、夏、幠、冢、晊、昄: 皆大也。十有余名, 而
实一也。(<尸子�广泽>)(弘, 廓, 宏, 溥, 介, 纯, 夏, 幠, 冢, 晊 and 昄 are all used to mean ‘big,
large’.) (from Shi Zi)
25. 天神曰灵, 地神曰祗, 人神曰鬼。鬼者, 归也。故古者谓死人为归人。
(<尸子卷下>)(The god in heaven is called 灵 ‘spirit’, the god on earth is called 祗
‘reverence’, and the human god is called鬼 ‘ghost’. The ghost is the returned
soul. So the ancient people called the dead the returned soul.) (from Shi Zi)
According to The Book of the Han Dynasty, ‘Shi Zi has twenty chapters. The real
name of Shi Zi is Jiao. Hewas born in Lu State (now in Shandong Province) andwas
once taught by the Prime Minister, Shang Yang (商鞅), of Qin State. When Shang
Yang died he Xed to Shu State (now in Sichuan Province).’ As a teacher of Shang
Yang it was natural for Shi Zi to include exegetic interpretations of such characters
as君 (monarch) and大 (big) in his book. Therefore, it could be inferred that the
author of RG was possibly an educator.
If the deWnitions of RG texts are scrutinized, some aspects of the author’s life and
work would surface by themselves. RG is permeated with strong local colour, as is
evidenced, Wrst of all, by the centrality of Qi State and Lu State in the Chinese nation.
For instance, in RG, there is中有岱岳 (泰山),与其五谷鱼盐生焉 (In the centre
there isMount Tai, where corn,Wsh, and salt are all produced), and inRG, there is齐,
中也 (Qi State, which is the centre of the nation). Second, the author harbours a
feeling of great reverence for the Western Zhou Dynasty and preaches the ideals
advocated in The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty. For instance, when The Rites of the Zhou
Dynasty mentioned Da Ye (大野), a place in Lu State, it was placed in Wfth place,
whereas RG rankedDaYe in Lu State as theWrst of theTenMarshes. Third, the author
had a hostile attitude towards Qin State and Chu State. In the tomb of Zeng Houyi
(曾侯乙), whichwas unearthed in 1978 in Sui County, Hubei Province, a picture was
64 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
found depicting a diagram of a black dragon and white tiger with twenty-eight
constellations. After comparison, it was found that some obvious stars, like ‘With
Ghost’ (与鬼) [of Qin State], and ‘Wing’ (翼) and ‘Vehicle’ (车) [of Chu State] were
deliberately unrecorded in RG because they indicated the boundaries between Qin
State and Chu State. Thus, a tentative conclusion was reached that the author of
RG would be a Confucian scholar from Qi State or from Lu State, which conforms
to the legend that he was a disciple of Confucius – a rather improbable coincidence.
The author would not be something of an eclectic, like the author of The Lu’s
Spring and Autumn Annals, but a specialist in Confucian and other classic works.
It is a general practice for The Book of the Han Dynasty (<汉书�艺文志>) toprovide some background information about its author when recording the works
handed down from ancient times. If only the title of a book is provided, without any
comments or introduction about its author, then the book must have been written
anonymously. It is also possible that Ban Gu himself could not identify its author.
It is evident that the compiler of RG was intentionally not revealed to the public
for some special reason right from the time when it was initially circulated so
that it became well known for its contents rather than for its author.
The question is, why did the compiler of RG deliberately have his name hidden
from the public? The humanity background against which it was compiled has to
be taken into account to oVer a feasible explanation. This dictionary was com-
piled during the time of great social reform – roughly between the Qin and the
Han Dynasties. The situation could thus be reasonably assessed in the light of the
following quotations from The Records of the Historian (<史记�秦始皇本纪>):
非博士官所职, 天下敢有藏 <诗>, <书>, 百家语者, 悉诣守, 尉杂烧之。有敢偶语
<诗>, <书>者弃市。以古非今者族。吏见知不举者与同罪。
(If someone is not an oYcial and keeps The Book of Songs, The Books of Ancient Texts, or
the works of various other schools, he shall be arrested by the local government and have
those works burned; if someone dares to occasionally comment about these books, he
shall be thrown to the market for public condemnation; if someone dares to commend
the ancient times and belittle the contemporary ruling, he shall be executed together with
his family members and relatives; if an oYcial knows someone perpetrating such a crime
without informing the authorities concerned he shall be charged with the same crime.)
Over that period in history, only the books on ‘medicine, divination, and
forestry’ were excluded from the list of books that were oYcially ordered to be
burned. RG certainly did not fall into those three categories. Its author was
certainly concerned about being suspected of ‘commending the ancient times
and belittling the contemporary ruling’, though its only purpose was actually to
serve as teaching material for those learning to read and write, like The Cangjie
Primer. When the author of RG taught pupils to learn characters he was probably
the ready guide 65
not an oYcial appointed by the government. It would have been very dangerous
for him to have written such a book falling into the category of ‘works of various
other schools’. Understandably, he chose to keep his name a mystery.
According to The Book of the Han Dynasty, RG comprises three volumes,
twenty chapters, only nineteen of which are available today. RG would have
contained a preface originally but it was later lost. The general principle for
compiling RG is that ‘things are sorted by their classiWcation and grouped
accordingly’ (from The Book of Changes). RG set a precedent for the arrangement
of its lexicon according to the meanings they designate and classiWed its 2,000
or so entries into nineteen semantic categories:
<释诂> (Interpreting Exegesis) mainly focuses on the explanation of syn-
onymous archaic words by means of contemporary words;
<释言> (Interpreting Words) mainly focuses on explaining words;
<释训> (Interpreting Rhetoric) mainly focuses on explaining alliteration and
vowel rhyming words;
<释亲> (Interpreting Relatives) mainly focuses on kinship terms, which are
further classiWed into four types: relating to father, mother, wife, and marriage;
<释宫> (Interpreting the Court) mainly focuses on the names of palaces and
the relevant roads and bridges;
<释器> (Interpreting Utensils) mainly focuses on explaining various imple-
ments and utensils, such as vessels used in sacriWcing ceremonies, implements
used in farming and Wshing, writing utensils, metal tools, and weapons;
<释乐> (Interpreting Music) mainly focuses on explaining musical terms and
musical instruments;
<释天> (Interpreting the Heavens) mainly focuses on explaining astronomy,
the calendar, and weather, further classiWed into twelve sections, involving
four seasons, omen, calamity, the droughts and Xoods in a year, the diVerent
names in a year, the weather in a month, the diVerent names in a month, rain
and wind, star names, fetes, warfare, Xags;
<释地> (Interpreting Earth) mainly focuses on geographical names, involving
nine states, ten lakes, nine prefectures, Wve directions, Welds, and four poles;
<释丘> (Interpreting Mounds) mainly focuses on explaining the high lands
naturally formed, which are subdivided into two types: hills and cliVs;
<释山> (Interpreting Mountains) mainly focuses on explaining the names of
mountains;
<释水> (Interpreting Water) mainly focuses on explaining the names of
springs and rivers, involving four types: sources of natural water, islets,
meanders of rivers, and nine rivers;
66 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
<释草> (Interpreting Grass) mainly focuses on explaining various grasses and
their forms and properties;
<释木> (Interpreting Woods) mainly focuses on explaining various woods and
their forms and properties;
<释虫> (Interpreting Creatures) mainly focuses on explaining the names
of various worms and insects and their dispositions;
<释鱼> (Interpreting Fishes) mainly focuses on explaining the names of
various Wshes, their physical features and dispositions;
<释鸟> (Interpreting Birds) mainly focuses on explaining the names of vari-
ous birds, their physical features and dispositions;
<释兽> (Interpreting Beasts) mainly focuses on explaining the names of
beasts, further classiWed into four types: those residing in the house, rats,
deer, and those with palpus; and
<释畜> (Interpreting Livestock) mainly focuses on explaining the names of
livestock, covering six domestic animals: horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, chickens,
and pigs.
Of the nineteen chapters, the Wrst three are philological in essence and mainly
concentrate onwords and expressions in ancient classic works and the other sixteen
are of an encyclopedic nature, covering a wide range of subjects in both social and
natural sciences. It is a small-sized linguistic and encyclopedic dictionary.
5.3 the format and style of rg
RG is the Wrst dictionary with a relatively consistent and systematic format in the
lexicographical history of China. Its compilation style has had direct and far-
reaching inXuence on subsequent dictionaries.
Principles for entry selection and coverageRG shares the same principles as Historian Zhou’s Primer and The Cangjie Primer
in selecting characters, i.e. focusing on characters in common use. The most
prominent diVerence between them is that RG focuses to a greater extent on the
more confusable characters in reading and writing.
Previously, 3,300 characters were collected and treated inHistorian Zhou’s Primer,
and the great majority of them were in common use. Since RG served as teaching
material, there would be no necessity to explain those characters whose meanings
the ready guide 67
are apparent and easily understood, such as人 (human),男 (man),日 (sun), 山
(mountain),木 (woods),马 (horse),车 (vehicle), and一 (one). Consequently, the
number of entries inRG are far fewer than those inHistorianZhou’s Primer, totalling
only 2,091 entries and covering 4,300 characters, among which 623 are common
words and expressions. In the Wrst three chapters of RG,more than 2,000words and
expressions are dealt with, accounting for almost half of its total number. As to the
sources of these words and expressions, the majority of them come from the pre-
Qin classics, except for a few taken from dialects and folklores.
RG has three distinctive features in its entry coverage. First, it puts greater
emphasis on comprehensiveness. For the nineteen chapters in RG, the Wrst three
deal with general words and expressions in language, and the remaining sixteen
chapters deal with terms of an encyclopedic nature. Second, more attention is
paid to frequency in the use of diYcult words. Word frequency study, which
started in the Wrst half of the twentieth century, became one of the focal points of
modern lexicography. RG, however, had already made use of frequency counts in
selecting entry words around 200 bc. As mentioned previously, the linguistic
principle of interpretation adopted in RG was ‘to diVerentiate without confu-
sion’. In other words, what were diVerentiated were those synonyms, near
synonyms, or diYcult words that were likely to be confusing. In the Preface to
RG (<尔雅�序篇>), there is such a remark: Interpreting Exegesis and Interpreting
Words are to relate ancient characters to contemporary ones and see how they
diVer; Interpreting Rhetoric deals with the form and structure of characters.
Ancient characters had been diVerent from what they are in contemporary
times. They were more likely to puzzle language learners. These three chapters
aimed to help learners see more clearly the diVerences between these commonly
encountered confusable words so as to get a good command of the Chinese
language. According to relevant statistics, these Wrst three chapters diVerentiated
623 groups of words, involving more than 2,000 words and expressions, which
should fall into the scope of core vocabulary. As the number of the most common
words in a language usually stands at around 3,000, inference can be made that
most of the words RG chose to explain were in common use at the time of its
compilation. Third, more than half of the characters interpreted in RG are from
The Book of Songs. Almost all the headword characters in the Wrst three chapters
are from The Book of Songs and Interpreting Rhetoric is a direct interpretation of
the four-character poems in The Book of Songs. Why did RG concentrate so much
on The Book of Songs? This is possibly attributed to the strong instructive role that
The Book of Songs played at that time – A word can revive a nation; if one fails to
study one has no say in any matter, and all elegant language is in The Book of
Songs (from The Analects of Confucius).
68 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Features of entry arrangementRG naturally follows the compilation style established in Historian Zhou’s Primer
andThe Cangjie Primer as they are the pioneers of similar endeavours. Entries in RG
are arranged according to themeanings they designate: words that are synonymous,
near synonymous, or related are collected and put in one chapter, or sometimes
even in one semantic group. So the arrangement of words in RG, to a certain extent,
reXects the structure of the knowledge and culture during the period of the Qin and
Han Dynasties. For instance, people at that time thought that roads and bridges ‘all
start from the court and they should be put under Interpreting Court’. In the present
day, however, roads, bridges, and the court are all classiWed into the Weld of civil
engineering. Unfortunately, the notion of civil engineering had not been concep-
tualized and lexicalized at that time. The practice of putting祭名 (sacriWcing),讲武
(warring aVairs), and旌旂 (banners and Xags) under the title of Interpreting the
Heavens is ascribable to the fact that they are the grand events related to the king’s
activity though they do not belong to things in heaven. In sacriWcing, whole cattle
are roasted like burning a Wre in heaven; warring aVairs are like the behaviour of
God; and waving banners and Xags will aVect the normal movement of the sun and
moon. All these things cannot be dealt with under other titles but can only be
attached to Interpreting theHeavens. These features indicate that the arrangement of
entries in RG is an epitome of the notion that ‘the heaven and the human are one’.
Mode of deWnition in RGThough used as an instructional aid, RG was actually an indispensable explanatory
complement toHistorian Zhou’s Primer, inwhich explanatory notes were regretfully
missing. RG aimed at explaining fully the diVerences between ancient and contem-
porary words and expressions and diVerentiating adequately the physical properties
and appearances of objects. All the diVerent modes of deWnitions in RG are
built upon this principle. They include direct interpretation (直训), general inter-
pretation (通训), separate interpretation (分训), mutual interpretation (互训),
factorial interpretation (递训), antonymous interpretation (反训), phonetic inter-
pretation (声训), delimiting interpretation (设立界说), and descriptive (描写)
or analogical (比拟) interpretation. Hu Pu’an (胡朴安, Hu Pu’an, 1937, 1983)
summarized RG’s deWnition modes as follows:
(a) Identical characters with diVerent interpretations The same character in
diVerent texts is interpreted diVerently but these interpretations are in
essence the same. Interpreting Exegesis contains entries like 幠, 厖: 大也
and 幠, 厖, 有也, in which 幠 and 厖 are interpreted as either 大 (big)
the ready guide 69
or 有 (possessive). The Book of Changes (<易�杂卦>) has the statement
of大有,众也, in which大 and有 are interpreted as众 (many). Thus,大
and有 both have the meaning of ‘rich and abundant’.
(b) DiVerent words with identical interpretations Interpreting Exegesis con-
tains entries like 皇、王:君也, in which 皇 (emperor) and 王 (king) are
interpreted as君 (monarch). In other words, 皇 and 王 are just the same
in meaning. In Hong Fan (<洪范�五行传>), there is an expression 王极
(king’s extreme power) as in建用王极, which is sometimes phrased also
as 皇极 (royal power).
(c) Identical interpretations with diVerent meanings Interpreting Exegesis
contains entries like 治、肆、古, 故也, in which 故 has two meanings.
According to Wang Yinzhi (王引之, 1766–1834), 治 and 古 should be
interpreted as故 as it is used in久故 (long-lasting and old) and肆 should
be interpreted as 故 when it is used for 语词 (words and expressions)
(from The Interpretation of Classics and Scriptures, <经义述闻>).(d) DiVerent interpretations with identical meanings Interpreting Exegesis
contains entries like 俶, 始也 and 俶, 作也, in which 俶 is interpreted
diVerently, either as始 (commencing, beginning) or as 作 (original). In
The Book of Songs (<诗经�駉>), there is 思马斯作, in which 作 is
interpreted as 始, as in 作, 始也 (from Mao’s Exegesis). Thus, 始 and
作, used to interpret俶, have the same meaning ‘original’.
(e) Antonymous interpretation Interpreting Exegesis contains entries like 愉,
乐也, and 愉,劳也, in which 愉 is explained with two words opposite in
meaning:乐 (happy) and劳 (laborious).
(f) Self-interpretation The contemporary character is employed to interpret
its ancient counterpart. Interpreting Exegesis contains an entry like于,於
也, in which于 is interpreted as於. According to Duan Yucai, whenever
于 is used in The Book of Songs and The Book of Ancient Texts,於 is used
correspondingly in The Analects of Confucius.
(g) Phonetic interpretation Words are interpreted with words of similar or
identical pronunciation. Interpreting Exegesis contains entries like 序, 绪
也, and晋,进也, inwhich序 (order, sequence) is interpreted as绪 (mood)
and晋 (promotion) as进 (progression).序 and绪 are pronounced in the
same way as /xu/, and晋 and进 as /jin/. The deWning character and the
deWned character share the same pronunciation. Likewise, Interpreting
Words contains an entry like幕,暮也, in which幕 (screen) is interpreted
as暮 (dusk) and they are both pronounced as /mu/.
(h) Circular interpretation Interpreting Exegesis contains these two entries:
法、则、刑、范、矩、律,常也 and刑、范、律、矩、则,法也. In the
70 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Wrst entry,法, along with several other characters, is interpreted as常 and,
in the second entry, 法 is used as the deWning character to explain other
synonymous characters:刑、范、律、矩、则.
In addition, there are two special cases in relation to RG’s modes of deWnition.
One is the so-called ‘two deWnitions in one entry (二义同条)’, as in the case of
台、朕、赉、畀、卜、阳, 予也 in Interpreting Exegesis. According to Wang
Yinzhi,台、朕、阳 should be interpreted as予 (for), like予 in予我 (for me),
and赉、畀、卜 as予 (to), like予 in赐予 (grant to) (from The Interpretation of
Classics and Scriptures). The other is to employ an adjacent character in an
expression for interpretation. For instance, Interpreting Exegesis contains an
entry like 惄, 饥也, which could be traced back to one line in The Book of Songs
–惄如调饥.饥 is adjacent to惄 and饥 is used synonymously to interpret惄.
Illustrative citationsRG’s citations are chieXy quotations from those classic works. They serve as
conWrmation and veriWcation of the interpretations of characters in the texts and
supplement illustrative citations in textbooks, such as Historian Zhou’s Primer.
One distinctive feature of the illustrative citations in RG is that they are
implicitly embedded in the deWnitions. The practice was a direct consequence
of the ‘Burning Book Event’. Most of the citations were taken from the classic
works in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, which had been included in the list of books to be
burned. The educationists who were familiar with these classic works had to
resort to this covert means to cover up citation sources. The citations from The
Book of Songs account for approximately one tenth of RG’s total citations. For
instance, in Interpreting Exegesis, there are citations like:
26. 是刈是濩, 濩, 煮之也。
(In是刈是濩, 濩 means 煮 ‘boil’.)
27. 有客宿宿, 言再宿也。
(If there is a guest coming, then there is a need to talk about asking him to
stay for another night.)
28. 其虚其徐, 威仪容止也。
(其虚其徐 means ‘to behave elegantly in the extreme’.)
In Interpreting the Heavens, there are citations like:
29. 是类是祃,师祭也。
(是类是祃 means ‘to oVer sacriWces to one’s teacher’.)
the ready guide 71
30. 既伯既祷, 马祭也。
(既伯既祷 means ‘to use horses as sacriWces’.)
31. 乃立冢土, 戎丑攸行: 起大事,动大众,必先有事乎社而后出,谓之宜。
(‘乃立冢土, 戎丑攸行’ means ‘In order to initiate a big event or to
mobilize the masses, the Wrst thing to do is to sacriWce before taking
action. This is called ‘‘appropriateness’’ ’.)
32. 振旅阗阗:出为治兵, 尚威武也;入为振旅,反尊卑也。
(振旅阗阗 means ‘when out, discipline the soldiers for a show of mighti-
ness; when in, heighten the spirit of the army in order to challenge the
social classiWcation’.)
And in Interpreting Livestock, there is a citation like:
33. 既差我马, 差,择也。
(In既差我马, 差 ‘to diVerentiate’ means择 ‘to pick out’.)
The other major citation sources in RG are Shi Zi, The Songs of Chu (<楚辞>), Zhuang Zi, Lie Zi (<列子>), The National Language, and Huai Nan
Zi (<淮南子>).
The major compiling practices in RG, such as arranging headwords on the
basis of their semantic categorization, deWning words in multiple ways, and
adopting illustrative citations from classic works, have come down all the way
to the present day and have become established in modern dictionary compil-
ation. In the history of lexicography in China, under the inXuence of RG, there
have been a series of no less than one hundred dictionaries with the character雅
in the title, e.g. <小尔雅> (The Pocket Ready Guide, compiled in the name of
Kong Fu (孔鲋) at the end of the Qin Dynasty), <广雅> (The Broad Ready
Guide, compiled by Zhang Yi (张揖) in the Three Kingdoms period), <埤雅>(The Augmented Ready Guide, compiled by Lu Dian (陆佃, 1042–1102) in the
Song Dynasty), <通雅> (The General Ready Guide, compiled by Fang Yizhi (方
以智) in the Ming Dynasty) and <比雅>(The Contrastive Ready Guide, compiled
by Hong Liangji (洪亮吉) in the Qing Dynasty). These dictionaries have inher-
ited and capitalized upon RG’s deWnition modes, and stylistic rules and layout.
They have made a timely supplementary record of newly coined words and
expressions and met the needs of their society and times. Speaking from the
perspective of language learning and dictionary standardization, The Contem-
porary Chinese Dictionary (<现代汉语词典>) compiled by the Language
Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, can be assumed
to be a continuation of RG in terms of its format and compilation style, its
function for standardization, and its role in instructing students to learn Chinese
characters.
72 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
5.4 the cultural and academicimplications of rg
As indicated above, RG was originally compiled as a teaching aid. But, in the time
of Emperor Wen’s reign, RG itself was considered as a textbook and, in the Tang
Dynasty, it was further elevated and ranked among the scriptures. From the
perspective of lexicography, it is the Wrst comprehensive dictionary in Chinese
civilization that is semantically oriented, that is, in order to diVerentiate the
meanings of commonly used characters in literary language. From a functional
perspective, it bears the distinctive features of a scholarly dictionary in the sense
that ‘the linguistic data of a scholarly dictionary usually come from literary
sources or documentary recordings in the development of a language’ (Yong
Heming, 2003:62).
Since RG was intended for teaching assistance, its chief function was Wrstly to
help solve children’s puzzles in learning Chinese characters. After the compilation
of RG, people formed a new habit – ‘in reading ancient books, keep an RG handy
so as to understand the diVerences between ancient words and expressions and
their contemporarycounterparts’ (TheBook of theHanDynasty).RGwas especially
beneWcial in helping children to appreciate meaning classiWcation and categor-
ization in the Chinese language, for instance, ‘to know more about the names of
birds, beasts, grasses, and trees’ (from Guo Pu’s Preface to The Annotated Ready
Guide).
The second function of RG was to help to interpret ancient scriptures. In other
words, it is ‘surely the ford to wade across the river and the keys to play musical
instruments’ (from Guo Pu’s Preface to The Annotated Ready Guide). It is in this
sense that Qian Daxin (钱大昕, 1728–1804) made the statement that ‘in order to
fully appreciate the essence of the Six Classics one must begin with RG ’.
From a linguistic perspective, RG should be regarded as the forerunner
of exegetic works in the philological history of China. The name of 训诂学
(exegesis) simply came from the subtitles of the chapters in RG, namely, 释诂
(Interpreting Exegesis) and 释训 (Interpreting Interpretation). The exegetic values
of RG lie in its interpretation of linguistic data from the classic works in the
Pre-Qin Dynasties and its preservation of the semantics of ancient characters and
their evolution. These linguistic data are priceless assets for scholars of later
generations to conduct further textual researches. For instance, 宫 bears the
meaning of ‘surround’ in the Pre-Qin times but this usage became extinct
after the Han Dynasty. Without such knowledge, it is highly likely there would
the ready guide 73
be a misunderstanding of the meaning of the character 霍 as in大山宫小山, 霍
(霍: big mountains surrounded by small mountains, from Interpreting Moun-
tains). For another instance, in Interpreting Relatives, there are entries like ‘妻之
父为外舅, 妻之母为外姑’ (The father of wife is uncle-in-law, and the mother
of wife is aunt-in-law) and ‘妇称夫之父曰舅, 称夫之母曰姑’ (The father of
husband is called uncle, and the mother of husband is called aunt). How could
we interpret these seeming misuses of the titles of ‘aunt- or uncle(-in-law)’? This
stems from a special Chinese marriage custom in ancient times, during which
period socialization was very limited and a young man could be permitted to
marry the daughter of his uncle or his aunt and a young girl could also gain
permission to marry the son of her uncle or her aunt. Considering such a
marriage arrangement, one would not be surprised to have ‘mixed’ uses of titles
for relatives.
The study of RG started in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor
Wen, the position of doctor was assigned to conduct RG studies and there were
scholars interested in adding explanatory notes to it. Great achievements were
made in the study of RG from the Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. The most
prominent accomplishment is Guo Pu’s The Annotated Ready Guide, whose
inXuence is profound and far-reaching. This landmark work has several features:
Wrstly, it contains a great number of citations; secondly, it serves as a bridge
between the contemporary and the ancient and describes the origins of words
and their evolutional changes; thirdly, it summarizes the modes of deWnition.
Xing Bing’s (邢昺) The RectiWcation of the Annotated Ready Guide (<尔雅注疏>)is notable for its abundant citations and its good use of the phonetics of
characters to interpret their meanings, which is a valuable addition to Guo Pu’s
The Annotated Ready Guide.
The study of RG reached an unprecedented peak in the Qing Dynasty. The
research of scholars of this period involve collation, recollection of lost literature,
addition, revision and correction, phonetic interpretation, semantic rectiWcation,
textual research, and deWnitional citation. The most outstanding attainments are
The RectiWed Exegesis of the Ready Guide (<尔雅正义>, compiled by Shao Jinhan
(邵晋涵,1785) and The Exegesis of the Ready Guide (<尔雅义疏>, compiled by
Hao Yixing (郝懿行, 1825). An inXuential contemporary work on RG is The
Contemporary Annotated Ready Guide (<尔雅今注>) compiled by Xu Zhaohua
(徐朝华, 1987), whose notes are written in contemporary Chinese. This work
embraces the achievements of scholars both of the past and present. Its utilization
of the newly unearthed Jiaguwen and Jin scriptures to seek the semantics of
ancient characters is especially impressive and is an advantage never enjoyed
before. In a sense, the philosophic ideas of conceptual categorization embedded
74 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
in the classiWcation of names and objects in RG have exerted direct inXuence
upon the politics and academic undertakings of ancient China. For instance, the
hierarchy of monarchs and the teacher-apprentice system in academia have also
been the dominant philosophic ideals prevailing in the Welds of politics and
academic research.
In deWning names and objects, RG adopted a policy of giving general portraits.
This aim of diVerentiating things on a level of generality and integrity has
inXuenced the development of art and medicine in the particular Chinese
tradition. Western arts are good at description and traditional Chinese arts are
good at capturing the image which lies between the likeness and the unlikeness.
Concrete descriptions are likely to neglect the expressiveness of the image, which
can only be appreciated by capturing the general eVects. Moreover, Chinese
medicine pays more attention to dialectical balance (like yin and yang),
the unity of the human system functioning as a whole, and diagnostic compre-
hensiveness, whereas Western medicine focuses on individual symptoms, the
analytical diagnosis of separate parts, and diagnostic empiricism.
Finally, the values embedded in RG have inXuenced the thinking and behav-
iour of the Chinese in later generations. For instance, Interpreting Exegesis
contains the citation ‘张仲孝友, 善父母为孝, 善兄弟为友’. In this quotation,
孝 is interpreted as ‘being Wlial to parents’ and友 interpreted as ‘being good to
brothers’. These moral implications of Wlial piety and brotherliness have always
been dominant in diVerent walks of social life in the history of China.
the ready guide 75
6
THE DICTIONARY OFDIALECTAL WORDS – THEBEGINNINGS OF DIALECTDICTIONARIES IN CHINA
SOCIOLINGUISTICS, as an interdisciplinary branch of learning, emerged in
the 1960s in America. Its principles and research methodology have been grad-
ually established over the past few decades. In terms of regional dialect studies,
however, there is still much virgin territory to be cultivated. The Dictionary of
Dialectal Words (hereinafter abbreviated to DDW) is the Wrst dialect dictionary
in the history of Chinese lexicography and is thought to be the Wrst of its kind in
the history of world lexicography. This dictionary will deWnitely provide new
insights into dialect studies, the compilation of dialect dictionaries and other
types of language dictionaries, and also the general study of sociolinguistics.
6.1 the historical background to ddw’s birth
China is one of the countries that has the richest resources of dialects and the
longest history in the study of dialects. In remote times, in the region of the
central plains, the Chinese people lived divided into tribes. They would basically
use the same language so that they could communicate without the help of
a translator. A good account of this situation is provided in the following
quotation from The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals: ‘In the nations where people
wear hats and belts and where carts and boats can reach, there would be no need
for interpreters. However, all around the central plains there lived people of
various nationalities. A glimpse of their life and living conditions could be had
from the following description: In the East lived the Yi (夷) people who had their
hair unbound, their bodies painted, and their food uncooked; in the South lived
theMan (蛮) people who had their foreheads inscribed, feet crossed in sleep, and
their food uncooked; in the West lived the Rong (戎) people who had their hair
unbound, body covered with hides, and no grains cooked as food; and in the
North lived theDi (狄) people whowore feathers, lived in caves, and had no grains
to eat’ (王文锦, Wang Wenjin, 2001:176). It would never be possible for the
Chinese tribes to communicate with those ‘exotic’, ‘foreign’, or indeed ‘barbarian’
people without the help of interpreters. In the Zhou Dynasty, there were special
departments and oYcials to take charge of foreign aVairs, including translation
and training of interpreters. The head of the department was called 象胥 (inter-
preting oYcial), whose duty was succinctly described in the following quotation
from The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty : ‘The interpreting oYcial is in charge of
foreign aVairs in the small kingdoms of Man, Yi, Min (闽), Hao (貉), Rong, and
Di. He is responsible for conveying the imperial edict issued by the Emperor to
these small neighbouring kingdoms and announcing it to them so that peaceful
relationships can be maintained. When messengers from these kingdoms arrive,
he will cooperate and negotiate with them before they meet the Emperor at an
appropriate ceremony; when they leave he will take charge of the gifts to be
presented to them and hold ceremonies to see them oV in accordance with certain
rites.’ The division of labour among the interpreters was speciWc and detailed. As
to the function of translation, it has been pointed out in the following description:
People from diVerent regions speak diVerent languages and have diVerent cus-
toms, likes and dislikes, and they cannot communicate with each other or
understand one another. To make what they think and what they want under-
standable, the indispensable means is interpretation, which is called ji (寄) in the
east, xiang (象) in the south, diti (狄鞮) in thewest, and yi (译) in the north (Wang
Wenjin, 2001:176). No later than the Zhou Dynasty, a common language, called
Standard Language (雅言) was gradually taking shape in the Yellow River basin
and formed something of a contrast to the dialects spoken at the time. The dialects
of the Chinese language, according to The Book of Songs, were already classiWed
into Wfteen regions. According to Ban Gu (1962:1640):
All people have the endowed nature of Wve constant virtues. They may instantiate as rigid
or gentle, quiet or tempered, which will further manifest as the diVerences in their
the dictionary of dialectal words 77
accents. This aspect is closely related to the water they drink and the land they farm and
live on. It is thus called feng (风, disposition). The other aspect is related to attitude: to
like or dislike, to take or discard, to move or wait. These things are closely related to the
mood of the Emperor or the nobles. It is thus called su (俗, customs, conventions).
One outstanding manifestation of language diVerences on the part of the people
from diVerent regions is their pronunciation – a major part of dialect study. In 221,
after the Wrst Emperor united China, ‘Writing Same Character’ was adopted as a
national language policy for the standardization of Chinese characters. Language
(inclusive of dialects) and characters were considered independent notions and
linguistic facts in language studies. As a result, only one of the variants of a character
was chosen as the standard form and allowed into oYcial use, while the other
variations were to be eliminated. The situation of dialects, however, had not been
visibly aVected until the Han Dynasty when the country became more powerful
politically and economically. Material exchange between diVerent regions increased
enormously and the communication between people in diVerent regions became
more popular and frequent. In addition, migration alsomade its contribution to the
trendintheformationanddevelopmentof theChinesenation.ThediVerencesamong
the diVerent dialects would hinder or even prevent eYcient and eVective communi-
cation. A new type of dictionary was called for in which the vocabulary of diVerent
dialects would be collected under one cover and explained in the standard language.
Every year in August throughout the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, the central
government would send ‘post-cart oYcials’ to make a survey of the dialects in
diVerent regions. ‘Post-cart’ refers to a kind of light cart especially designed for the
oYcial surveyors of dialects. The reason the central government conducted such a
dialect survey was that the (post-cart) oYcial had the duty to investigate popular
folk songs andcustoms indiVerent regions andacquainthimselfwith the similarities
and diVerences between them. He took charge of phonetic and musical inquiries
nationwide so that the Emperor would be well aware of customs without having to
leave the court (The Huayang National Annals, <华阳国志·卷十>). We can learn
from this that dialect survey had been a traditional practice of the government. Its
purposes were mainly to investigate language use in diVerent dialectal regions, to
learn social customs and conventions, and to keep the central government in close
touch with the local governments. The records of the Wndings of these surveys were
‘kept in the courts of the Zhou and Qin Dynasties’, but were abandoned with the
vanishing of the QinDynasty (Duan Yucai et al., 2001:1434). There are records in the
literature of theHanDynasty about peoplewhoonce hadaccess to these surveys. For
instance, as mentioned in one of Yang Xiong’s letters to Liu Xin, two scholars,
namely Yan Junping (严君平) in Chengdu and Linlu Wengru (林闾翁孺) in
78 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Linqiong, had seen some of ‘the memorials from post-cart oYcials’. Unfortunately,
the materials they gained access to were limited. Yan Junping only had access to
material of approximately 1,000 characters, and Linlu Wengru only had the chance
to examine the styles and outlines of these memorials. In The Book of the Han
Dynasty, there are also records of oYcials being commissioned to travel around and
examine customs, including dialect investigations. Such missions were intended to
help the Emperor learn about the life of his subjects. Without doubt, language
investigation was part of their mission.
In the history of dialect studies in China, DDWwas the Wrst to put forward the
notion of dialectal region in a systematic way. To demarcate dialectal regions,
what must be done Wrst is to draw isogloss lines, and then dialectal regions can be
identiWed according to the distribution of these lines. DDW’s dialectal region
demarcation was done on a lexical basis and the methodology employed was the
so-called ‘central area induction’. As the central areas were normally capital cities
or economically important cities of ancient kingdoms, the delimiting lines of
dialectal regions would occasionally overlap. Generally speaking, the delimiting
lines of dialectal regions fall into three categories in DDW:
First, big dialectal regions are usually marked by关 (pass) (e.g. Han Gu Pass),
山 (mountain) (e.g. Mountain Xiao, Mountain Hua),河 and江(river) (e.g. the
Yellow River, the Yangtze River). DDW uses such expressions as 自关而东 (east
to the Pass), 自山而西 (west to the Mountain), 自河而北 (north to the Yellow
River), and 自江而北 (north to the Yangtze River) to designate big dialectal
regions.
Second, sub-dialectal regions are marked by the boundaries of small kingdoms
in the Zhou Dynasty or the boundaries of provinces and counties in the Han
Dynasty. The following is a list of the names of the kingdoms in the Zhou
Dynasty (1) and the names of provinces and counties in the Han Dynasty (2):
1. 秦、晋、赵、魏、韩、燕、郑、宋、齐、鲁、陈、楚、吴、越 (古国名)
(秦,晋,赵,魏,韩,燕,郑,宋,齐,鲁,陈,楚,吴, and越 are all the names of
ancient kingdoms.)
2. 冀、青、幽、徐、雍、梁、益、荆、扬、蜀 (州郡名) (冀, 青, 幽, 徐,
雍,梁,益,荆,扬, and蜀 are the names of ancient provinces and counties.)
Third, small dialectal regions are generally marked by river basin areas or
ancient place names. Here are some river names (3) and ancient place names (4):
3. 淮、泗、沅、澧、湘、瀑、汝、洌水(河名) (淮, 泗,沅, 澧, 湘, 瀑,汝,
and 洌水 are ancient river names.)
4. 周南、召南、郢、宛 (地名) (周南,召南,郢, and宛 are ancientplacenames.)
the dictionary of dialectal words 79
In the light of the above three dividing lines of regional dialects, DDWdivides
China’s Han Dynasty territories into fourteen dialectal regions (林语堂, Lin
Yutang, 1933:35–44): Qin and Jin Dialectal Region; Dialectal Region west of
Liang and Chu; Zhao and Wei Dialectal Region north of the Yellow River; Song,
Wei, and Wei Dialectal Region; Zheng, Han, and Zhou Dialectal Region; Qi and
Lu Dialectal Region; Yan and Dai Dialectal Region; North Bi and Korean Dialectal
Region; East Qi and Xu Dialectal Region; Chen, Ruyin, Jianghuai, and Chu
Dialectal Region; South Chu Dialectal Region; Wu, Yang, and Yue Dialectal
Region; West Qin Dialectal Region; Qin, Jin, and North Bi Dialectal Region. All
the dialectal words or expressions collected in DDW fall into the domains of these
fourteen dialectal regions. The conceptualization of dialectal regions and their
demarcation laid a sound theoretical foundation for the compilation of DDW.
6.2 the background and motivationfor ddw’s compilation
Yang Xiong (53 bc–ad 18, with Zi Yun as his alias), the compiler of DDW, was born
in Chengdu, Sichuan Province today. According to Yang Xiong’s biography in The
Book of the Han Dynasty, he loved reading when he was still a child. He had no great
interest in couplets or articles and his learning in exegetic studies was not very
remarkable, but his extensive reading was especially distinguished, with almost
nothing under the sun not being embraced by him. It was said that he was a
stutterer and was not good at communication but that he was often seen lost in
deep thought. He lived a quiet, easy, and simple life without any addiction to
materialism. He would never claim to do something to gain renown. His property
was nomore than ten liang (equal to 0.5 kg) of gold and the grain in the barnwas no
more than a hundred jin (equal to 50 kg). He did, however, lead a pleasant and
happy life. He was magnanimous to others. He was fastidious about reading and
was fond only of masterpieces. He did not like to make friends with people of high
social status if it was against his own inclination. In all his life, Yang Xiong remained
an oYcial of low rank. He had not been promoted throughout the reigns of three
Emperors until the rank of ‘senior oYcial (大夫)’ was conferred upon him, merely
because he was senior in oYce. He seldom involved himself in aVairs of state. He
was regarded as a man of letters, a philosopher, and a linguist in the Western
Han Dynasty. His major literary works include The Sweet Spring (<甘泉>), Eastof the River (<河东>), andThe FeatherHunting (<羽猎>) in the formof a fu-poem
80 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
(赋, a poetic style of essay). The Deepest Mystery (<太玄>), Standard Words
(<法言>), Collections of Cangjie Exegesis (<仓颉训纂>), and DDW are among
his best-known academic writings.
Yang Xiong was a master of the standard national language. He was in a good
position to diVerentiate the dialects in diVerent regions as he had convenient
access to the Wrst-handmaterials of dialectal surveys. In his early forties he moved
from his hometown to the capital city of Chang’an. From then on, he held an
oYce and lived there. This provided him with the opportunity to become
familiarized with the standard language andmake frequent contacts with oYcials,
soldiers, and ordinary people from all over the country. He would keep a writing
implement handy to note down the ‘foreign’ languages whenever he met people
from other regions. He sorted these materials, put them into diVerent classes, and
added necessary explanatory notes. As there had been no special symbols, he
employed characters to notate pronunciation, which demanded a good command
of a great many characters on the part of the investigator. Sometimes he was
required to create new characters for those dialects without a writing system.
Thus, he acquired a Xuent mastery of weird characters of ancient times, for
instance, the variants of characters of the Six States during the Warring States
Period.Moreover, he had the experience of writing a textbook for children to learn
characters – Collections of Cangjie Exegesis. His accomplishments in exegetic
studies and his experience in investigating dialects endowed him with almost all
the necessary qualiWcations to write the monumental DDW.
From the viewpoint of dialect investigation, DDW’s compilation is not acci-
dental but a continuation of traditional practice in the investigation of dialects in
the Zhou and Qin Dynasties. As far as Yang Xiong’s academic interest was con-
cerned, it is not surprising to Wnd that his fondness for imitation was a part of his
nature. As illustrated in The Book of the Han Dynasty, he was really interested in
the ancient classics and scriptures. He was determined to make himself known to
later generations by writing good articles. He regarded The Book of Changes as the
greatest scripture and thus wrote The Deepest Mystery; he considered The Analects
of Confucius as the greatest biography and wrote Standard Words; he took The
Cangjie Primer to be the best history book and wrote Collections of Cangjie
Exegesis; he took Yu Didactics (<虞箴>) to be the best of its type and wrote
State Didactics (<州箴>); as for the fu-poem, he considered Li Sao (<离骚>) themost profound, though its profundity made it less popular, and he believed that
the most beautiful wording of a fu-poem was to be found in Sima Xiangru’s
writing, so he wrote prose in such a genre. He started by fully appreciating the
essence of all these writings and wrote accordingly following his own inclination.
He paid more attention to internal things, often neglected by his contemporaries,
the dictionary of dialectal words 81
and less to external forms and superWcial features. When it came to dictionaries,
he believed that there was no better dictionary than The Ready Guide and so he
compiled DDW, which was only one of his series of imitational works. Let us
compare two entries from these two dictionaries:
5. <尔雅�释诂>:佥、咸、胥, 皆也。
(佥,咸 and胥 all mean 皆 ‘all, altogether’.) (from The Ready Guide)
6. <方言>: 佥、胥, 皆也。自山而东五国之郊曰佥, 东齐曰胥。(卷七) (佥
and 胥 mean 皆 ‘altogether’. The outskirts of the Wve states east of the
mountain use佥, and East Qi use胥.) (Volume 7)
From the above two entries, we can see that DDWdoes not completely follow the
same pattern asThe ReadyGuide in deWning皆. InThe ReadyGuide,皆 is deWned by
means of synonyms or near synonyms, which are put together and interpreted as a
whole;whereasDDWprovidesnotonly synonymsornear-synonymexplanationsbut
alsomore detailed information concerning dialectal use and other language varieties:
whichwords and expressions belong towhich regional dialects, which is the standard
expression in the common language, and which are archaic and which have under-
gone changes in the Western Han Dynasty. As early as the Wrst century, Yang Xiong
conducted such comprehensive and in-depth linguistic analyses of complicated
languagephenomena,which is a clear indicationof the sophisticationof his linguistic
observation, analysis, and reasoning. To conclude, DDWimitated and wasmodelled
onThe ReadyGuide. It was, however, notmerely a product of imitation but a creative
work with features that made it distinct fromThe Ready Guide.
Dialectal vocabulary occupies a prominent position in DDW. How did Yang
Xiong obtain the necessary data of regional dialects? In 11 bc, when he was an
oYcial in Chang’an, he implored Emperor Cheng for leave to concentrate on
academic research with ‘no salary for three years’. The Emperor not only granted
him permission but also gave an order to retain his normal salary, in addition to
granting ‘an award of sixty thousand qian for purchasing pens and ink and a
special passport to the stone houses to read books stored there.’ From that time
on, Yang Xiong began purposefully to collect dialectal vocabulary nationwide.
Carrying his writing brush and oil-soaked silk cloth with him, he inquired into
diVerent regional dialects and kept the Wndings of his survey on record. The
subjects of his investigation were people from diVerent dialectal regions, that is,
the oYcials who would report to the central government, students taking oYcial
tests, and soldiers relieving garrisons. A general picture of how he carried out his
survey can be seen from a letter he wrote as a reply to Liu Xin, which states, that
when the student candidates vying for oYcial positions came from various places
to the capital to take the oYcial examination and the soldiers to relieve garrisons,
82 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
he would call on themwith his three-inch brush and a four-foot-long piece of oil-
soaked silk cloth. He would ask them the ‘foreign’ words and expressions in their
native tongues. When he returned he would write what he had learned on the
wooden tablets. His investigation lasted for twenty-seven years. As is described
above, Yang Xiong’s investigations were diVerent from those oYcial surveys
carried out in the Zhou and Qin Dynasties. His investigations were mainly
face-to-face interviews with the subjects speaking dialects as their native tongues
and were all conducted by himself. His work procedures included collecting the
data and checking them, then sorting them and classifying them into diVerent
categories, and Wnally deWning them and Wnalizing the writing.
In sociolinguistic investigations of modern times, great emphasis is laid upon
collectingdata fromactual languageuse, followedbyquantitativedata analyses and
systematic and rigorous argumentation. The methodology developed by William
Labov, theAmerican sociolinguist, has attracted a lot of attention andhas gradually
gained popularity in today’s sociolinguistic survey. If a comparison is made
between Labov’s method and that of Yang Xiong’s, it is easy to see that they have
adopted basically the same methodology, but the time gap is almost 2,000 years.
Taking this time gap into account, one could not help marvelling at Yang Xiong’s
ingenuity and creativity – in spending twenty-seven years carrying out a nation-
wide dialectal investigation by scientiWc and rigorous means entirely by himself.
DDWwasoriginallydesigned inWfteenvolumes, butunfortunatelyonly thirteen
were completed. Ayear or two before Yang Xiong died, Liu Xinwas ordered by the
Emperor to compile a catalogue called Seven Strategies. He wanted to include Yang
Xiong’s DDW in his new book and asked Yang Xiong to show him his manuscript.
Yang Xiong declined his request and said: ‘Its wording may still include contra-
dictory expressions and needs to be reconsidered and revised. There aremore data
to be collected and sorted andmore doubtful questions to be clariWed.’ Obviously,
when Liu Xin asked for themanuscript of DDW, the book was not complete. So he
asked Liu Xin to wait and promised to send the book to himwhen it was Wnalized.
Unfortunately, he died shortly afterwards. Through careful examination ofDDW’s
contents, we would be inclined to accept Yang Xiong’s excuse for not lending his
book to Liu Xin. In terms of DDW’s compilation style, it is easy to see that the
contents of the last two volumes were rather poorly written and edited. Look at the
following citations from the last two volumes of DDW:
7. 赵、肖, 小也。(十二卷)
(赵 and肖 mean 小 ‘small’.) (Volume 12)
8. 吹、扇,助也。(十二卷)
(吹 and扇 mean助 ‘assist’.) (Volume 12)
the dictionary of dialectal words 83
9. 裔、歴、助也。裔、旅,末也。(十三卷)
(裔 and歴mean助 ‘assist’, whereas裔 and旅mean末 ‘end’) (Volume 13)
10. 惧,病, 惊也。(十三卷)
(惧 and病 mean 惊 ‘panic’) (Volume 13)
Quite contrary to DDW’s style in previous parts, there were only brief deWni-
tional explanations in each entry, without provision of further detailed informa-
tion, for example, which regional dialects those expressions belonged to. This
oversimpliWed way of explanation was inconsistent with what had been given in
the previous eleven volumes. In a sense, this conWrms what he said to Liu Xin.
DDW was in fact an unWnished or at the very least unWnalized lexicographical
work, though it had come very close to completion.
6.3 the format and style of ddw
DDWoriginally comprised Wfteen volumes and had a selection of roughly 9,000
characters. The version available today consists of thirteen volumes and brings
together over 11,900 characters, distributed in 658 entries. There seems to be no
rigorous standards to go by in dividing the volumes, and the division is roughly
based on semantic categorization. Like The Ready Guide, DDW’s Wrst three
volumes are devoted to the explanation of words and expressions. Volume 4
explains garment terms; Volume 5 hardware, furniture, and farming implements;
Volumes 6 and 7 words and expressions again; Volume 8 animal terms; Volume 9
terms for carts, boats, and weapons; Volume 10 words and expressions again;
Volume 11 names of insects; and Volumes 12 and 13 words and expressions again.
It is apparent that DDW took its semantic classiWcation from The Ready Guide.
Principles for character selection and coverageSpeaking from the perspective of time and location, there are three guidelines for
DDW’s selection of characters as headwords. First, the words and expressions of
the Pre-Qin Dynasty are to be selected and are divided into two subcategories:
those out of use and those still in use. Consider the following citations:
11. ‘追,随也。’ ‘即, 就也。’ ‘冲,动也。’ (卷十二)
(追 ‘chase’ means 随 ‘follow’; 即 ‘right away’ means 就 ‘at once’; 冲
‘charge’ means动 ‘motion’.) (Volume 12)
84 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
12. ‘爽,过也。’ ‘惧, 惊也。’ ‘捞,取也。’ (卷十三)
(爽 ‘complete’ means过 ‘Wnished’; 惧 ‘fright’ means 惊 ‘panic’; 捞 ‘grab’
means取 ‘take’.) (Volume 13)
Second, selection is made of the words and expressions in contemporary
speech which are supposed to originate from diVerent regions, especially the
dialects of the Chinese language. Words and expressions from the Qin and Jin
dialects, which appear 109 and 107 times respectively, occupy a signiWcant
position.
Third, the words and expressions of some minority languages are also
recorded, for instance, the words and expressions of Korean, Manchurian,
Mongolian, Miao, Tujia, Zhuang, and Dong nationalities.
The words and expressions treated in DDWare taken mainly from Wve sources.
The Wrst is General Language (通语), also called Ordinary Language (凡语), or
Ordinary General Language (凡通语). General language diVers from Standard
Language in that the latter refers to the common language used mainly by the Six
States to the east of Mountain Taihang during the periods of the Spring and
Autumn and the Warring States. General Language, however, refers to the
common language used in the Western Han Dynasty, which was based mainly
on the regional dialects of Qin and Jin and had Chang’an dialect as its standard
pronunciation. Look at the following citations:
13. ‘胶, 谲,诈也。诈,通语也。’ (卷三)
(胶 and 谲 mean诈 ‘deceit’.诈 is General Language.) (Volume 3)
14. ‘箭: 自关而东谓之矢,江淮之间谓之鍭,关西曰箭。’ (卷九)
(箭 ‘arrow’ is called 矢 in the regions east of the Pass, 鍭 between the
Yangtze River and the Huai River, and 箭 in the regions west of the Pass.)
(Volume 9)
Second, some words and expressions are taken from General Language in wide
use or from General Language used in a certain region. Look at the following
citations:
15. ‘庸、恣、比、侹、更、佚, 代也。齐曰佚, 江淮陈楚之间曰侹馀, 四
方之通语也。’ (卷三)
(庸, 恣, 比,侹,更 and佚 mean代 ‘replace, change’,佚 in Qi state, and
侹馀 in the Chen and Chu regions between the Yangtze River and the
Huai River. They are General Language in all locations.) (Volume 3)
16. ‘昲,晒,干物也。杨楚通语也。’ (卷十)
(昲 and 晒 mean干物 ‘dry’. They are General Language in the Yang and
Chu regions.) (Volume 10)
the dictionary of dialectal words 85
Third, the great majority of words and expressions in DDW are taken from
every single dialectal region. Consider the following citations:
17. ‘冯,齘、苛: 怒也。楚曰冯, 小怒曰齘,陈谓之苛。’ (卷二)
(冯, 齘 and苛 mean 怒 ‘anger’, which is冯 in Chu State, 齘 in the region
of Xiaonu, and苛 in Chen State.) (Volume 2)
18. ‘班,彻,列也。北燕曰班,东齐曰彻。’ (卷三)
(班 and彻 mean列, which is 班 in the northern part of Yan State and彻
in the region of Eastern Qi.) (Volume 3)
Fourth, DDW also lists ‘transferred words’ or ‘substitutive words’, that is,
dialectal words that have undergone phonetic changes resulting from tribal
migration and time change. For instance:
19. ‘庸谓之倯,转语也。’ (卷三)
(庸 means 倯, and they are interchangeable.) (Volume 3)
In some places,庸 is dubbed倯 since they were vowel-rhyming and shared the
same meaning – ‘laziness’. 嫞 and庸 were generally interchangeable, which can
be conWrmed by the following citation from The Jade Chapters:
20. <玉篇>: ‘嫞,嬾女也。’
(嫞 is deWned as嬾女 ‘sluggish or lazy girl’.)
In contemporary Chinese, 倯 is written as 悚. The following conWrmative
citation is found in The Dictionary of Rhymes:
21. <广韵•钟韵>: ‘倯, 倯恭, 怯貌。’
(倯 and 倯恭 mean 怯貌 ‘frightened appearance’.)
The Wnal group of DDW’s selected words and expressions are ancient words or
ancient dialectal words whose usage is highly restricted in contemporary Chinese
language, which is a typical imitation of the compilation style of The Ready
Guide. Look at the following citation:
22. ‘敦、丰、厖、幠、般、嘏、奕、戎、京、奘、将, 大也。凡物之大貌
曰丰;厖, 深之大也;东齐海岱之间曰,或曰幠;宋鲁陈卫之间谓之嘏,或
曰戎;秦晋之间凡物壮大谓之嘏,或曰夏;秦晋之间凡人之大谓之奘,或
谓之壮;燕之北鄙,齐楚之郊或曰京,或曰将,皆古今语也。初,别国不相
往来之言也,今或同,而旧书雅记故俗语,不失其方,而后人不知,故为之
作释也。’ (卷一)
(敦,丰,厖,幠,般,嘏,奕,戎,京,奘 and将 are all deWned as大 (big). The
bigness of an object is called丰 whereas厖means the bigness of being deep,
86 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
which is also called幠 in the area between Eastern Qi and Haidai. In the area
of States like Song, Lu, Chen, and Wei, it is called 嘏 or戎. In both Qin and
Jin, the bigness of objects is called嘏 or夏, and the bigness of a man is called
奘 or壮. On the northern boundary of Yan and the overlapping area between
Qi and Chu, it is called京 or 将. These words are all from ancient sources
but still in current use. They resulted from lack of communication between
states. They may be similar to current characters but were treated as being
colloquial in old books. They had their ownmeanings, whichwere not known
to later generations, hence the need to deWne and explain them.) (Volume 1)
In ancient times, communication between diVerent regions was extremely
diYcult. They each had their own dialects and later those dialects might become
identical. The ancient books kept a record of those dialectal words and expres-
sions, but they were unfortunately unknown to later generations, which made it
necessary to add interpretative notes to them.
The deWnition style of DDWGenerally speaking, regional dialects diVer in three aspects: pronunciation,
vocabulary, and grammar. What DDWaims to do is to ‘look into the diVerences
between names and objects, without commenting on whether it is the right or
wrong pronunciation’ (Yan Zhitui, 1980:473), a spirit of descriptivism coming
into form only in the twentieth century. Evidently, it inherited the interpretative
tradition from The Ready Guide. The basic mode of deWnition in DDW is to list a
set of synonyms, then to use a common word to explain, and, Wnally, to explain
the diVerent names in diVerent regional dialects. Three deWnition modes are used
in DDW:
First, a common word is given at the Wrst place and then the diVerent names
in diVerent dialectal regions are explained accordingly. Look at the following
citation:
23. ‘布谷, 自关东西梁楚之间谓之结诰, 周魏之间谓之击谷, 自关而西或
谓之布谷。’ (卷八)
(布谷 ‘cuckoo’ is called ‘结诰’ in the area from the west of Guandong to
Liang and Chu,击谷 in the area between Zhou and Wei, and occasionally
布谷 in the area to the west of the Pass.) (Volume 8)
Second, a set of synonyms is listed at the Wrst place; then, a common word is
used to explain; and, Wnally, the diVerent names in diVerent regional dialects are
explained accordingly. This is the principal mode of deWnition in DDW and
the dictionary of dialectal words 87
approximately nine out of ten entries are written in such a mode. Consider the
following citation:
24. ‘咺、唏、灼、怛:痛也。凡哀泣而不止曰咺,哀而不泣曰唏。于方:则
楚言哀曰唏, 燕之外鄙, 朝鲜洌水之间少儿泣而不止曰咺。自关而西
秦晋之间凡大人少儿泣而不止谓之唴, 器极音绝亦谓之唴, 平原谓啼
极无声谓之唴哴, 楚谓之噭咷, 齐宋之间谓之喑,或谓之惄。’ (卷一)
(咺,唏,灼 and怛 all mean ‘hurt’ (痛). For a sad person, if he is weeping and
cannot help himself, it is called咺. And if he is sad only and is not weeping,
then it is called唏. As for regional dialects,哀 (sad) is called唏 in Chu. And
in the remote area of Yan and in the area between Korea and Lieshui,咺 is
used to refer to children’s non-stop crying. In the area from the west of the
Pass and between Qin and Jin, 唴 refers to the non-stop weeping of adults
and the non-stop crying of children.唴 is also used for musical instruments
when their sounds are so high-pitched that they produce no sounds. In the
plain area, when someone cries in such a high-pitched voice as to produce no
sound, it is called唴哴, while in Chu it is called噭咷; in the area betweenQi
and Song it is called喑 or惄.) (Volume 1)
Third, common words are employed to explain uncommon words. This mode
of deWnition evidently follows the example of The Ready Guide. Look at the
following citations:
25. ‘箇,枚也。’ (卷十二)
(箇 means枚 ‘a unit noun’.) (Volume 12)
26. ‘帍裱谓之被巾。’ (卷四)
(帍裱 is called 被巾 ‘blanket, bedclothes’.) (Volume 4)
In these two citations, the words to be deWned are at the front, but in some
cases the deWning words are placed at the front.
Although DDW copies from The Ready Guide in several ways, it bears some
distinctive features of its own. While The Ready Guide aims to explicate the
similarities and diVerences between the ancient and the contemporary words,
DDW concentrates on those aspects of words displaying regional diVerences.
Consider the following citations to illustrate the contrast:
27. <尔雅�释言>: ‘逆,迎也。’
(逆 means迎 ‘against, towards’.) (from The Ready Guide)
28. <方言�卷一>: ‘逢、逆,迎也。自关而东曰逆,自关而西或曰迎,或曰逢。’
88 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
(逢 and逆mean迎 (against, towards), which is逆 in the region east of the
Pass, and is also迎 in the regionwest of thePass; itmay alsobe逢.) (fromThe
Dictionary of Dialectal Words, Volume 1)
In The Ready Guide the synonyms listed in a deWnition all fall into the
vocabulary of the same language source, while in DDW, the synonyms fall into
the vocabularies of diVerent regional dialects. Look at the following citations:
29. <尔雅�释诂>: ‘如、适、之、嫁、徂、逝,往也。’
(如,适,之, 嫁,徂 and逝 mean往 ‘to, from’.) (from The Ready Guide)
30. <方言�卷一>: ‘嫁 逝 徂 适, 往也。自家而出谓之嫁, 由女而出为嫁
也。逝,秦晋语也。徂,齐语也。适,宋鲁语也。往,凡语也。’
(嫁,逝,徂 and适mean往 ‘to, from’. If one leaves home or if a girl ismarried
out of a family, it is called 嫁,逝 in the Qin and Jin dialects,徂 in the Qi
dialect, and适 in the Song and Lu dialects.往 is used inOrdinary Language.)
(from The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, Volume 1)
In the Wrst citation from The Ready Guide, all the deWned words, like如, 适,
之, 嫁,徂, and逝 are taken from the so-called Standard Language, while in the
second citation, except for嫁, which is from the Standard Language, all the other
words are taken from various dialectal sources, like the Qin and Jin dialects, from
which 逝 comes, the Qi dialect, from which 徂 comes, and the Song and Lu
dialects, from which 适 comes. The deWning word往 comes from the so-called
Ordinary Language.
Pronunciation notationIn DDW, some General Language characters were employed as phonetic symbols
to denote dialectal characters. These characters were referred to by later gener-
ation scholars as ‘odd characters’. As early as 2,000 years ago, Yang Xiong
employed General Language characters as phonetic symbols to denote the pro-
nunciation of dialectal words in his dialect investigations, which was highly
original and was a clear reXection of his creative thought in linguistic philosophy.
Look at the following citations from DDW:
31. ‘凡大人少儿泣而不止谓之唴’ (卷一)
(If adults weep and kids cry without stop, it is called 唴.) (Volume 1)
32. ‘釥、嫽,好也。青徐海岱之间曰釥,或曰嫽’ (卷二)
(釥 and嫽mean好 ‘Wne, lovely’. It is釥 between Qingxu and Haidai, and
it may also be 嫽.) (Volume 2)
the dictionary of dialectal words 89
33. ‘劋、蹶, 狯也。秦晋之间曰狯。楚谓之劋, 或曰蹶。楚郑曰蒍, 或曰姡’
(卷二)
(劋 and 蹶 mean 狯 (crafty, cunning). It is 狯 between Qin and Jin,劋 in
the state of Chu, and it may also be 蹶. It is 蒍 in the states of Chu and
Zheng, and it may also be姡.) (Volume 2)
In contemporary Chinese, 唴 in the Wrst citation is now written and pro-
nounced as呛,釥 in the second citation as俏, and姡 in the third citation as猾.
Illustrative citationsOne of the principles for DDW’s scope of coverage is to encompass words and
expressions popular in contemporary spoken Chinese in the Han Dynasty.
However, since the dominant target language in academic research was classical
Chinese, the colloquial and dialectal characters were not in keeping with the
fashionable trend of academic studies at that time. Naturally, illustrative ex-
amples for DDW’s deWnitions were taken mainly from those well-written classic
texts. No citations were collected and presented from dialectal speech. From the
perspective of modern linguistics, the principles of DDW’s compilation are
highly representative of descriptivism and the principles of illustrative citations
would have to be viewed as being prescriptive.
6.4 the academic value and culturalinfluence of ddw
The chief purpose of the compilation of DDW is ‘to investigate the words and
expressions all over the Chinese territories and recover archaic words as far back
as six dynasties’ (from Guo Pu’s Preface to The Annotated Dictionary of Dialectal
Words). In other words, DDW lists words and expressions on both diachronic
and synchronic bases. Viewed from a lexicographical perspective, DDW should
be classiWed as a decoding dictionary (Yong Heming, 2003:25).
The linguistic value of DDWSynchronically, the linguistic value of DDW lies, Wrst of all, in the recording of
General Language current in the Han Dynasty. According to the compilation
style of DDW, General Language was employed to interpret and deWne the
90 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
vocabulary of diVerent dialects. Occasionally, some vocabulary of General Lan-
guage was also deWned or interpreted.
Second, its value resides in its fairly precise description of the geographical
distribution of the diVerent dialectal words in the Han Dynasty. The function of
DDWas a lexicographical work for deWning diVerent dialectal words may be well
illustrated by the deWnition of ‘cicada’ and its various names and interpretations
in diVerent dialects: 蝉 (cicada) is referred to as 蜩 in Chu, as 螗蜩 in between
Song andWei, as蜋蜩 in between Chen and Zheng, as蝉 in between Qin and Jin,
as 蛴 in Haidai; the big cicada is called 蟧 or 蝒马, the small one is called 麦蚻,
the one with patterned stripes is called 蜻蜻, the female cicada is called 尐, the
big black one is called 蛅, and the black and red one is called 蜺.
Third, DDW implies in its description diVerences between dialectal regions
or sub-regions of the same dialect and their mutual inXuence. In DDW, when
Wei appeared ‘to the north of the Yellow River’ or ‘to the north of the basin area
of the Yellow River’, there would be no mention of Chu. In other words, the
inXuence of Chu on Wei went no further beyond the Yellow River. Owing to
the obstacle of the Yellow River, the northern part of Wei, that is, to the north of
the Yellow River, was never inXuenced by the Chu dialect, whereas the southern
part was exposed to the Chu dialect. As far as the Chu dialect is concerned, Chu
appears 133 times, among which it appears forty-Wve times individually; Southern
Chu is mentioned sixty-two times, among which it appears thirty-six times
individually. Chu and Southern Chu occur numerous times, and they occur
individually, also numerous times, but they never co-occur in DDW, which
indicates that they were separate dialectal regions. Diachronically, DDW’s lin-
guistic value lies in its description of lexical variations in diVerent dialectal
regions and over diVerent historical periods. Consider the following citation
from DDW:
34. ‘剑、薄,勉也。秦晋曰剑,或曰薄。故其鄙语曰薄努, 犹勉努也。南楚之
外曰薄努。自关而东周郑之间曰勔剑。齐鲁曰勖兹。’ (卷一 )
(剑 and薄 mean勉. It is剑 in the Qin and Jin regions, and it may also be
薄. So it is薄努 in substandard language, just like勉努. It is薄努 in regions
other than the southern part of Chu. It is勔剑 in the region east of the Pass
between Zhou and Zheng. It is勖兹 in the states of Qi and Lu.) (Volume 1)
In this citation,薄努, a word of Southern Chu, is identical with the slang word
in Qin and Jin regions. This might be attributed to the migration from Qin and
Jin to Southern Chu in previous times, which could be further supported by the
account from The Book of the Han Dynasty: After the Qin Dynasty uniWed China,
the South China region was also stabilized and Guilin, Nanhai, and Xiangjun
the dictionary of dialectal words 91
were established in order for the migrating people to live harmoniously with the
Cantonese people.
Through comparison, the regional distribution of some dialect lexical items
coming down from the Zhou Dynasty to the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties
or even to the Jin Dynasty can be described. Let us Wrst compare the vocabulary in
classic works with those in DDW.Here is a citation from Li Sao:路曼曼其修远兮,
吾将上下而求索 (The road ahead is long and arduous, but I will explore far and
wide). In DDW, a relevant deWnition can be found:
35. ‘修、骏、融、绎、寻、延, 长也。陈楚之间曰修。海岱大野之间曰寻。’
(卷一 )
(修,骏,融,绎,寻, and延mean长 ‘long’, which is修 between Chen andChu,
and is寻 betweenHaidai andDaye.) (Volume 1)
It can be seen from comparison that修 is a dialectal word in Chu during the
Warring States period, which started to permeate into the northern regions in the
Western Han Dynasty.
Second, let us compare DDW’s vocabulary with that used by Guo Pu in his
notes to DDW. Some dialectal words in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties
developed into a part of the vocabulary of General Language in the Jin Dynasty.
Look at the following citations:
36. ‘娥,嬴,好也。赵燕魏代之间曰姝。’ (卷一 )
(娥 and嬴 mean好 (good), which is姝 in between Zhao, Yan Wei, and
Dai.) (Volume 1)
37. 郭璞注:姝‘亦四方通语。’
(姝 is common General Language.) (from Guo Pu’s Annotation)
It is clearly stated in the Wrst instance that姝 is a dialectal word in Zhao, Yan,
and Wei, whereas Guo Pu’s note indicates that it is a common word in General
Language. Even for some common words in Modern Chinese, their etymo-
logical information could be ascertained from DDW. Look at the following
citation:
38. ‘党、晓、哲: 知也。楚谓之党,或曰晓, 齐宋之间谓之哲。’ (卷一)
(党, 晓 and 哲 mean 知 ‘know, beware’, which is 党 in the state of Chu,
and it may also be晓; and it is哲 in between Qi and Song.) (Volume 1)
In this example, there is 党, clearly stated as a dialectal word in Chu, which
could be further identiWed as 懂 in Modern Chinese. Let us look at another
example from DDW: ‘茫、矜、奄, 遽也。吴扬曰茫’, in which 茫 is a dialectal
92 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
word in Wu (吴) and Yang (扬), which can be identiWed with 忙 in Modern
Chinese.
The exegetic value of DDWDDW provides insights into the meanings and connotations of numerous words
and expressions in Pre-Qin literary works. Consider the following citations:
39. <诗经•蓼莪>: ‘母兮鞠我。’
(It is mother who brings me up.) (from The Book of Songs)
40. <诗经•鸳鸯>: ‘富禄艾之。’
(Prosperity and fortune foster it.) (from The Book of Songs)
41. <方言>: ‘台、胎、陶、鞠,养也。陈楚韩郑之间曰鞠。汝颖梁宋之间曰
胎,或曰艾。’
(台, 胎, 陶 and 鞠 mean 养, which is 鞠 in between the states of Chen,
Chu, Han, and Zheng, and is 胎 in between Ru, Ying, Liang, and Song.
It may also be艾.) (from The Dictionary of Dialectal Words)
The 鞠 in (39) and艾 in (41) could be reasonably interpreted as养 (foster) in
(41) from the deWnition in DDW.
DDW also holds a unique position in the study of dialects worldwide. In
Europe, the systematic and comprehensive investigation into language and
dialects began at the end of the eighteenth century or early in the nineteenth
century. Yang Xiong’s investigation into dialects predates that of modern linguists
by almost 2,000 years, with speciWc procedures and sophisticated techniques of
dialectal investigation formulated, except that no dialect maps were drawn. There
is every reason to believe that Yang Xiong’s DDW can be regarded as the earliest
dialectal work representing the highest academic level of dialectal studies and
studies in geographical distribution of dialects of its time. It will be highly
rewarding for a modern linguist to spend time probing into its methodology
and philosophy of linguistic thought.
DDW not only initiates the compilation of dialect dictionaries but also lays the
foundation for dialect inquiries. Quite a few works on dialect modelled upon
DDW were compiled. One category of such dialectal works is devoted to Wnding
more dialectal words and expressions to compensate for and augment what is
missing in DDW. Scholars of the Qing Dynasty are particularly outstanding
in this respect. Their major works include The Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal
Words (<续方言>) by Hang Shijun (杭世骏), The Manuscripts of the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<续方言稿>) by Dai Zhen, The RectiWcation
of the Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<续方言疏证>) by Shen
the dictionary of dialectal words 93
Ling (沈龄), Supplements to the Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words
(<续方言补>) by Cheng Jisheng (程际盛), The Miscellaneous Record of Dialectal
Words (<方言别录>) and New Supplements and RectiWcations to the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<续方言新校补>) by Zhang Shenyi (张慎仪).
The other category of dialectal works is devoted to recording dialectal or collo-
quial words and expressions restricted to a certain region. The major works
include The RectiWcation and Standardization of Chinese Characters (<匡谬正
俗>, 4 volumes) by Yan Shigu (颜师古), a Tang Dynasty scholar, The Records
of Hard Learning (<困学记闻>) by Wang Yinglin (王应麟), a Song Dynasty
scholar, The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect (<蜀语>) by Li Shi (李实), a Ming
Dynasty scholar, The Dictionary of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect
(<吴下方言考>) by Hu Wenying (胡文英), a Qing Dynasty scholar, The New
Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<新方言>) by Zhang Binlin (章炳麟), a scholar of
modern times, and The Dictionary of Chao-shan Dialect (<潮汕方言>) by Weng
Donghui (翁东辉), again a scholar of modern times.
There have also been scholars who are interested in adding notes and making
amendments and augmentations to DDW since its publication. Guo Pu, a
philologist of the Jin Dynasty, was the Wrst to add notes to DDW. The best-
known works include The RectiWcation of the Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<方言疏证>) by Dai Zhen, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, whose work has made a
rare edition of DDWavailable to later scholars, Supplements to the RectiWcation of
the Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<方言疏证补>) byWang Niansun (1744–1832)
of the Qing Dynasty, and The Annotated Interpretation of the Dictionary of
Dialectal Words (<方言笺疏>) by Qian Yi (钱绎), also of the Qing Dynasty,
and The RectiWed Interpretation of the Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<方言校
笺>) by Zhou Zumo (周祖谟), a scholar of modern times, whose work is a rare
collection of previous studies.
To conclude this chapter, one more point must be emphasized, that is, Yang
Xiong’s creation of research methodology, which attaches great importance to
Weld work for recording original speech. His methodology and the ideas of his
linguistic philosophy have enlightened and inspired his followers as well as
modern scholars. His theories have been leading dialect studies in Chinese
philology for almost 2,000 years. He is undoubtedly the pioneer of modern
empiricism in dialect investigation and research.
94 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
7
AN EXPLANATORYDICTIONARY OF CHINESE
CHARACTERS – THEORIGIN OF CHARACTERDICTIONARIES IN CHINA
CHINESE characters rank among the oldest writing systems in the world. In
modern times, people who are devoted to the study of Chinese characters
will have to seek help from Xu Shen and his An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters (hereinafter abbreviated to EDCC, also known as The Origins of
Chinese Characters). Without this monumental work, it would be impossible
to read and interpret the zhuan scripts in the Qin and Han Dynasties, to
say nothing of the Jiaguwen in the Shang Dynasty, the Jin inscriptions in the
Shang and Zhou Dynasties, or the ancient texts in the Warring States Period.
EDCC is a precious collection of ancient classic texts, scriptures and exegetic
studies, tracking the origin of Chinese characters, manifesting evolutional
changes of diVerent scripts, and encompassing words and expressions from all
walks of life. Subsequent generations hold its author in greatest esteem and
commend him as ‘the father of Chinese characters’, ‘the sage of Chinese charac-
ters’, and ‘the great master of culture’. EDCC is simply an inexhaustible gold mine
that has attracted numerous generations of explorers. The studies of EDCC
have become a relatively independent discipline of academic inquiry under the
bigger umbrella of ‘Shuowen Studies (说文学)’ or ‘Xu Studies (许学)’. EDCC is
generally accepted as the earliest character dictionary in the history of Chinese
lexicography.
7.1 the historical backgroundto edcc’s birth
During the Han Dynasty, there were two schools of thought that were very much
dedicated to studying Confucian Classics, namely the Neo-classic School and the
Classic School. The Classic School focused on those classic works written in the
pre-Qin style characters, whereas the Neo-classic School focused on those written
in the oYcial script popular in the Han Dynasty. It is the struggle between these
two schools of classic studies that had promoted philological studies in the Han
Dynasty. That is the general background against which EDCC was compiled.
Throughout the Western Han Dynasty, the Neo-classic School dominated
academic life in China. This school, which was represented by the studies in
Gong Yang (<公羊>) written by Dong Zhongshu (董仲舒), advocated the
pragmatics of studying classic works. Later, with more and more classic works
unearthed, especially those recovered from Confucius’ Mansion, people grad-
ually became aware of the great discrepancies between the Neo-classics and those
newly discovered written in pre-Qin characters. The newly discovered classics,
including The Book of Ancient Texts, The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty, The Analects of
Confucius, The Book of Filial Virtues, were diVerent from the Neo-classics not
only in character form but also in content. Since then, more and more scholars
have been passionate about studying and interpreting these more original Con-
fucian works and there gradually formed a new school of thought – the Classic
School. Scholars of this new school made every eVort to probe into the form and
structure, the phonetics, and the exegesis of Chinese characters; thus was laid the
foundation for this school of Confucian studies. In the reign of Emperor Ai in the
Western Han Dynasty, Liu Xin, a well-known scholar of the Classic School,
attempted to have it ranked among the oYcial branches of learning. This attempt
met Werce opposition from the Neo-classic School. Liu then fought back and
wrote a famous article which ushered in the chronic struggle between these two
schools of Confucian studies. The disputes between these two schools could be
summed up as the Neo-classic School laying emphasis on rational argumenta-
tions and being more philosophy-oriented and the Classic School focusing rather
on textual research and being more history-oriented.
96 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, however, the Classic School gradually gained the
dominant position and there were many well-known scholars identifying them-
selves as belonging to this group, such as Du Lin, Ban Gu, Jia Kui (贾逵), Xu
Shen, Ma Rong (马融), and Zheng Xuan. The Classic School followed the
tradition of The Ready Guide and Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs,
interpreting the classic works according to how the language was actually used
in everyday life and in the particular texts when they were created. It was in this
sense that An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters was said to be an
integral part of the academic research of its time.
Xu Shen’s Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters oVers a
clear picture of his wisdom in linguistic philosophy, his reXections on and
inquiries into the form and structure of Chinese characters, their evolution, and
their classiWcation – the theory of Six Categories. Xu Shen believed that human
cognition comes from people’s perception of the world and their interaction with
the environment around them. They observe the phenomena in the sky and seek
the laws on earth. They observe the activities of living things, such as animals and
birds, and study their appropriateness to their surroundings. They ponder upon
themselves and make analogies with things far away. To cope with social activities
they invent the method of tying knots to keep a record of important daily events.
Characters are created to construe experience through meaning.
The question of how Chinese characters came into being has been the object of
serious discussion and study since remote times. Xu Shen provided his answer. He
proposed that the creation of characters came from the need for social and cultural
development. In primitive society, the tribal chiefs needed rules as a means to
exercise control over the tribes. In the early history of Chinese civilization, Paoxi
(庖牺) created the Eight Trigrams (八卦) to help explain and regulate the phe-
nomena in the world. Shennong began the custom of tying knots to help keep a
record and manage his governing aVairs. When all this seemed insuYcient, other
means were to be found. It was not until the reign of Huangdi that a man called
Cang Jie was designated the responsibility of creating characters. The revelation for
creating characters came from the profession of hunting. When he caught sight of
the trails and marks left behind by animals and birds he knew whichwas which and
could discriminate between them by carefully examining, sorting, and diVerentiat-
ing.When initially creating characters, Cang Jiemade use of pictographs to stand for
various types of things and called these pictographs wen (文), which depicted the
essence of things designated and thus were not further analysable. Later, new ways of
creating characters were invented, for example, by combining two existing characters
to form a new character – one as the form element standing for themeaning, and one
as the sound form (element) standing for the pronunciation. This composite form of
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 97
character was called zi (字), and was analysable. Zi was therefore productive and
could proliferate, according to Xu Shen.
In EDCC, every character is semantically analysable and given in a rather
standardized fashion.However, EDCC is designed to analyse the form and structure
of the Chinese characters and reveal their meanings through such analysis rather
than explaining the semantics of characters. Xu Shen endeavoured to answer why a
character should be spelled in such a way and what its original meaning was. He
intended to answer these questions within the theoretical framework of the Six
Categories. Before Xu Shen, some scholars such as Liu Xin, Zheng Zhong (郑众),
and Ban Gu had speciWed what ‘Six Categories’ meant. Xu Shen, however, was the
Wrst scholar to apply the theory to the systematic analysis of the form and structure
of the 9,353 Chinese characters and had identiWed most of the original meanings of
these characters in a more consistent and scientiWc fashion.
Of the six categories of characters, the Wrst is the self-explanatory category,
in which characters are easily recognizable only after examination, for instance,
上 (above) and 下 (below); the second is the pictographic category, in which
characters resemble what the things look like in the physical world, for instance,
日 (the sun) and月 (the moon); the third category is the pictophonetic category,
in which characters depict the things or events by analogy, for instance江 (river)
and 河 (river); the fourth is the ideographic category, which is appropriately a
combination of two characters, and what the combination refers to can be readily
comprehensible. 武 (power) and信 (faith) are two example characters; the Wfth
is the mutually explanatory category, which refers to things of the same type and
can be regarded as synonyms, such as老 (old age) and考 (long life, aged); and
the sixth is the category of phonetic loans, in which characters are originally non-
existent but the pronunciations of other characters are borrowed to refer to
diVerent things, such as令 (order) and 长 (older, elderly).
This was the Wrst time in the history of classic philology in China for the theory
of Six Categories to be expounded – having its name, deWnition, and illustrative
characters put together in one model, in one theoretical framework. According to
Zhu Junsheng (朱骏声), a Qing Dynasty scholar, Xu Shen classiWes the characters
in EDCC into four types: 364 characters are pictographic; 125 are self-explana-
tory; 1,167 are ideographic; and 7,697 are pictophonetic. One of the most im-
portant contributions Xu Shen made to the theory of Six Categories is its
application to the practice of analysing the meanings of characters in the forma-
tion of a more coherently incorporated theory.
Xu Shen approached the evolutional motivation of the form and structure of
characters from a diachronic perspective, that is, analysing evolutional causes
against the historical humanity background. That could be thought of as a rather
98 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
advanced and scientiWc method considering the period this method was proposed
and applied. As shown in archaeological research, regional variants of characters
had been in circulation among the feudal states since the mid Spring and Autumn
Period. The Qin State in the West was still using the standard style characters
established in the Zhou Dynasty, while six other states in the East were using a
diVerent variant type of Zhou characters – the style of character employed to write
the Six Scriptures by Confucius and The Spring and Autumn Exegesis (<春秋传>)by ZuoQiuming. During theWarring States Period, the princes and powerful dukes
all established their own kingdoms. They disliked the decrees and rituals of the
tradition and custom, and consequently wanted to abandon the classic works.
There gradually formed seven powerful States: they had diVerent measurement
systems for dividing farm lands, diVerent traYc systems, and diVerent stipulations
formaking vehicles, diVerent laws and decrees for administration, diVerent dressing
styles, diVerent ways of articulating and spelling characters.
As to Qin’s uniWcation of the character-writing system, its main work was the
simpliWcation of the writing style of Zhou characters – Wnally standardized as
xiaozhuan. The adoption of the writing style of the oYcial script was to meet the
need both for recording more things and for recording them more eYciently. In
the Qin Dynasty, the Scriptures were burned and the Codes destroyed. A great
number of slave soldiers were enrolled and sent to defend the frontiers. The
oYcials thus had countless documents and Wles to write and to deal with. It was
under such circumstances that the writing style of OYcial Script was created –
simply for ease of use. And consequently, the writing style of ancient characters
became extinct.
The Qin Dynasty and the early period of the Eastern Han Dynasty were two
important periods for the transformation of character writing from the ancient
to the contemporary style. The ancient writing style was characterized by its
complicated appearance and intricacy in internal structure. Xu Shen classiWed the
ancient writing fashions into ‘eight styles of Qin writing’, which are dazhuan,
xiaozhuan, seal script (刻符), worm script (虫书), imperial seal script (摹印),
inscribed board script (暑书), inscriptions on weapons (殳书), and the oYcial
script, and ‘six styles of Eastern Han writing’, which are ‘ancient character (古文)
script found in Confucius’ Mansion, odd character script (奇字, variation
of ancient characters), zhuan script (篆书, xiaozhuan, created by Cheng Miao
(程邈) under orders of the Wrst Emperor of the Qin Dynasty), zuo script (佐书,
the oYcial script in the Qin Dynasty), miuzhuan (缪篆, used for imperial
copying and imitating), and Wnally bird-worm script (鸟虫书, used for writing
on Xags and for letter writing). In fact, they stood for diVerent writing styles
developed from xiaozhuan and the oYcial script to meet practical purposes.
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 99
To sum up, it is the notions of Xu Shen’s linguistic philosophy that constitute
the theoretical basis for the formal analysis of Chinese characters and the
macrostructural design of EDCC.
7.2 the background and motivationfor edcc’s compilation
In the Western Han Dynasty, the Neo-classic School Xourished greatly. Most of
the scholars in this school went to such extremes as to believe in whatever was
said in the Confucian classics. Some even held that ‘every word of the Saint bears
some truth in it’. As everyone knows, however, language and its constituents have
their own laws and regulations governing their behaviour, which cannot be
interpreted arbitrarily. Unfortunately, this was just what some of the scholars
in the early Eastern Han Dynasty did. They interpreted the original meanings of
characters according to the form and structure of the prevailing style of writing
(i.e. the oYcial script) of that time. The judicial sentences of some legislative
cases were even inXuenced by this trend of character meaning interpretation. Xu
Shen showed strong dislike for this fashion for philological studies and was
motivated to write a book to change it. The motivations for compiling EDCC
are fairly well reXected in the remark that ‘it will help to clarify the classiWcation,
to correct the mistakes, to inform the scholars, and to reach the spiritual world of
the ancient Saints’. EDCC was compiled to serve this need.
All the explanations in EDCC focused on exploring the original meaning of
characters and on reasoning about the relationships between the structural form,
the phonetics, and the semantics of characters. In other words, ‘to relate charac-
ters according to the radicals they share, to seek how new senses extend and
proliferate, and to trace back to the origins’ (Xu Shen, 1963:319). The ultimate
goal for Xu Shen in compiling EDCC is to help interpret the scriptures, which Wts
well with his linguistic philosophy concerning the function of character stand-
ardization – ‘as far as character is concerned, it is the essence of the Scriptures
and Arts and the source of wise emperors’ administration. It is the means by
which the predecessor can pass on ideas and the successor can appreciate what
happened in the past.’
Xu Shen lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty. According to scholars in the Qing
Dynasty, he was born in 58 and died in 148. He was a disciple of Jia Kui, who was
not only a well-known master of the Classic School of Confucian studies but also
100 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
an expert in Neo-classic studies. Xu Shen’s scholarship was also highly praised by
Ma Rong, another well-known master of the Classic School. According to The
Book of Late Han Dynasty (<后汉书>), Xu Shen, also known as Shuzhong, was
born in Runan, Henan Province. He was a serious scholar and was highly
knowledgeable as a young man. There was a saying popular among the scholars
of his time that ‘no one has a better comprehension of the Confucian works than
Xu Shuzhong’. In his early academic years, he came to realize that there were
enormous discrepancies between various commentaries on Confucian works,
which led him to write the monologue The Interpretative Dictionary of the Five
Classics (<五经异义>) and later to compile EDCC. Both works were handed
down to later generations. It is evident that Xu Shen’s scholarly learning in
language and in Confucian studies was essential to his writing of EDCC.
According to the statistics of The Book of the Han Dynasty, prior to Xu Shen’s
compilation of EDCC, there were already ten scholars’ compilations of philo-
logical studies, namely Historian Zhou’s Primer, The Cangjie Primer, The Yuanli
Primer, The Scholarly Primer, The General Primer, The Instant Primer, The
Yuanshang Primer, The Exegetic Primer, The Character RectiWcation (<别字>),The Biography of Cang Jie, Collections of Cangjie Exegesis, Du Lin’s Collections of
Cangjie Exegesis, and The Exegesis of the Cang Jie Primer (<苍颉故>) (Ban Gu,
1962:1719–20). The character books and literatary sources provided essential
materials for Xu Shen to write his monumental EDCC.
In 114, Xu Shen was ordered by Emperor An to join in a group of over Wfty
scholars led by Ma Rong and Liu Zhen (刘珍) to check and annotate the
scriptures and the other great works written in the Spring and Autumn and
Warring States periods. This assignment gave him the opportunity to systemat-
ically read and study the classic works and to have access to the newly unearthed
literature. This experience in checking and annotating the classic works enabled
him to write The Interpretative Dictionary of the Five Classics and The Annotated
Huai Nan Zi (<淮南子注>), both of which were lost later, and the experience of
writing these two works and of rectifying and annotating classics prepared Xu
Shen well for his compilation of EDCC: he had acquainted himself with the
linguistic materials of the classic works, which paved the way for him to apply the
theory of Six Categories to analysing the form and structures of characters, to
deWne characters, and to select illustrative examples to match and supplement
deWnitions.
EDCC comprises Wfteen volumes, each of which consists of two parts. Volumes
I to XIV form its main part. Part I in Volume XV is the Preface and the list of
radicals, and Part II is the Epilogue. According to the Epilogue, EDCC includes
9,353 headwords of zhuan characters (in addition to 1,163 variants). These head
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 101
characters are arranged according to what radical sections the components of a
character belong to. There are 540 radical sections, the division of which is based
on semantic classiWcation. These sections are ‘semantically related on the basis of
the form and structure of the characters’ and are arranged from the simplest to
the most complex, that is, starting with一 and ending with亥. As far as the form
of the character is concerned, the dominant form for the entry character
is xiaozhuan, collocated with variants of ancient characters, like zhou characters,
xiaozhuan, or other styles of writing.
It is known from a memorial concerning EDCC to the Emperor by Xu Chong
(许冲, son of Xu Shen) that in 100 Xu Shen began ‘to write EDCC. He sought
consultation from various scholars and checked with his teacher, Jia Kui’. In 121,
shortly before leaving this world, he entrusted the EDCCmanuscript with his son
and asked him to present it to the royal court. It took him twenty-two years to
complete this monumental work.
7.3 the format and style of edcc
Radical arrangementPrior to EDCC, the organization of a glossary or a word book was to a great
extent random and even chaotic, little better than putting characters together to
form sentences and make them rhythmic, thus making character arrangement
rather disorderly and unsystematic. Xu Shen, however, worked his way out of this
diYcult situation by organizing headword characters according to the radicals
they share: the characters are classiWed into 540 radical types, commanding 9,353
characters. In the Epilogue to EDCC, the principles for identifying radicals and
establishing the sequence of the radicals in the dictionary are clariWed as follows:
From which to start? To start from 一 (one). Things are sorted and grouped together.
Vertically, to arrange them according to the families they belong to and the inherent
properties they share. Horizontally, the various properties will not be violated and the
semantic relationships will be explicated according to their structural forms and radical
components. The patterns for sense extension and proliferation will be sought out and
traced back to their origins. Where to end? To end at亥, which is the last of the twelve
Earthly Branches. This will help to understand the change and the profound relation-
ships behind it.
Thus, Xu Shen became the Wrst scholar to Wnd a reasonable way to arrange the
540 radicals, which also reXects the ideal ‘the grown child gives birth to another
102 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
child, which will start a new cycle of giving birth from one’. Since the majority of
Chinese characters are pictographic and their meanings are closely related to
their radical components, the principle of ‘relating characters according to their
radical components’ is of fundamental signiWcance to the compilation of the
Chinese character dictionary.
In each radical section of EDCC, the characters are sub-arranged on the basis of
the following principles. First, the characters used in the names of the emperors in
the Eastern Han Dynasty are always put at the beginning of each radical section.
For instance, characters like秀,荘,祜, and肈 are used in the names of Emperor
Guangwu, Emperor Ming, Emperor An, and Emperor He respectively, and are,
therefore, put at the beginning of each corresponding section. Second, characters
expressing something good are put in the Wrst place and characters for something
bad next; characters for something physical Wrst and characters for something
spiritual or abstract next. For instance, in the radical section for示, characters like
礼,禧,禄,祥,祉, and福, which share the semantic features of ‘lucky’ and ‘happy’,
are put in the front and characters like祲,祸, and祟, which share the semantic
features of ‘disastrous’, are put at the end. In the radical section for水, characters
designating proper names are put in the front and characters indicating the status
or physical properties of water are put at the end. Third, the characters which are a
repetition of the radical itself or in contrast to the radical itself are put at the end of
the section; for instance, characters like磊,聶,祘, and亍. Fourth, for characters
denoting plants, natural kinds are put in the front, followed by artiWcial ones, the
bigger things Wrst and the smaller ones next. For instance, the radical section for
木 puts the names for the species of plants in the Wrst place, like木,桔,橙柚,梨,
梅; the names for the structures of trees and wood next, like 枝, 条, 枚, 果;
and then come the names for wooden products, like 柱, 楹, 椽, 床, 椟. The
arrangement of radical sections and the characters in each section of EDCC reXect
the traditional culture and customs of the Chinese people at the time of its
compilation.
Principles for character selection and coverageIn terms of the formal structure and style of writing, the general principle for EDCC
for selecting headword characters is that, while zhuan characters are described, they
will be matched and conWrmed with ancient zhou characters. In other words, the
standard style for the headword is the xiaozhuan of the Qin Dynasty and other
character forms, such as ancient characters, zhou characters, are all taken as variants.
The sources for identifying writing styles, such as xiaozhuan, ancient charac-
ters, and zhou characters, are listed as follows: the main sources for xiaozhuan are
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 103
The Cangjie Primer, The General Primer, The Exegetic Primer, and inscriptions from
the carved stones of the Qin Dynasty; the main source of ancient characters is ‘the
books found in Confucius’ Mansion’ and the number of characters noted as
belonging to this type is 479 in EDCC; zhou characters are mainly those taken
from Historian Zhou’s Primer and its number is 213. If temporary style variants
(或体字) and odd and folk style characters are taken into account, there are 1,163
variants altogether in EDCC. These variant characters are a treasure for later
generations of scholars for studying the patterns of evolution and change of
character form and structure as well as the phonology of characters in ancient times.
Second, in terms of frequency of use, the characters included in EDCC are
mainly those in everyday circulation (黄侃, Huang Kan, 1980:50), in addition to
some rare and uncommon ones.
Third, in terms of the context of character use, the majority of the characters in
EDCC are taken from the classic works with a long period of circulation.
Occasionally, some dialect characters and folk characters are also included.
DeWnition theory in EDCCThe theory of Six Categories forms the basis for Xu Shen’s analysis of the form and
structure of Chinese characters. In the Preface to EDCC, examples are provided for
its users to illustrate how the theory of Six Categories is adopted to analyse the
formal structure of characters, like上,下,日,月,江,河,武,信,考,老,令, and长.
If sub-classiWed, that theory can also include such deWning devices as亦声 (same
pronunciation),省声 (pronunciation omission), and省形 (form omission). Look
at the following citations from EDCC:
1. 坪, 地平也。从土,从平,平亦声。
(坪means地平 ‘Xat land’; categorized into土 ‘soil’ and平 ‘Xat’ which also
indicates its pronunciation.)
2. 融, 炊气上出也。从鬲, 蟲省声。籀文融不省。
(融 means ‘ascending cooking steam’; categorized into 鬲 and pronounced
in the same way as 蟲 ‘with pronunciation omission’; in the form of zhou
character, pronounced in the samewayas融withoutpronunciationomission.)
3. 曐,万物之精,上为列星。从晶,生声。一曰: 象形。从口,古口復注中,故
与日同。曐,古文星。星,曐或省。
(曐means ‘the essence of the things in the world’ and the upper part of the
character means ‘a group of stars’; categorized into晶 and pronounced in
the same way as生. According to another interpretation it is a pictographic
character, categorized into 口 ‘mouth’ and in the ancient period it was a
double mouth (日) and so the same as日 ‘the sun’. In ancient texts,曐 was
104 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
星, which was possibly simpliWed from 曐, that is, with two components
(日日) omitted.)
DeWnition pattern in EDCCFor each character entry in EDCC, xiaozhuan is always put at the very beginning
as the head character, followed by its corresponding style of oYcial script, and
then comes the explanation of its meaning, its classiWcation into one of the six
categories of characters, and its variations if there are any. Generally speaking, in
analysing and explaining its formal structure, examples are always taken from
characters in the same radical section and then from other relevant sections.
Consider the following example from EDCC:
4. 旦,明也。从日见一上。一, 地也。
(旦 means ‘brightness’; categorized into 日 ‘the sun’ rising above ‘the
horizon (一)’. Note:一 means 地 ‘the horizon’. )
There are, however, exceptions. For instance, when the expression 从某某 is
used, it usually indicates that themeaning should be interpreted from the context in
which the character is used in collocationwith other characters. In this situation, the
character taken as an example to illustrate is not conWned to the characters in the
same radical section, which usually fall into the ‘ideographic’ category.
There have evolved from EDCC’s deWnition pattern two types of dictionaries: the
ordinary type which focuses on explicating the meaning of characters, such as The
Jade Chapters and The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi (<康熙字典>), and the ancientcharacter dictionary which focuses on collecting diVerent writing styles of characters
rather than explaining the meaning of characters, such as Collections of Jiaguwen
Characters (<甲骨文编>) and Collections of Jin Inscriptions (<金文编>).
The deWnition style in EDCCIn EDCC’s entry arrangement, the explanation of the meaning of the character
comes Wrst, followed by the analysis of its form and the indication of its
pronunciation, next its variants if there are any, and Wnally illustrative citations,
if necessary, from the literature or from the works of the contemporary scholars.
In deWning themeaning of the character, more emphasis is laid on explicating its
basic meaning. The explication of meaning is well grounded on the diachronic
analysis of the form and structure of the character so as to make clear how the
meaning of a character evolves. The major methods employed in EDCC for
deWnition are:
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 105
(a) direct interpretation, e.g. ‘干, 犯也’ (干 means 犯 ‘commit’);
(b) mutual interpretation, e.g. ‘走, 趋也。’ ‘趋, 走也’ (走 means 趋 ‘move
towards’;趋 means走 ‘go towards’);
(c) factorial interpretation, e.g. ‘论,议也。’ ‘议,语也。’ ‘语,论也’ (论 means
议 ‘discuss’;议 means语 ‘remark’, and语 means论 ‘comment’);
(d) identical interpretation, which means using the same word to explain the
meanings of several words which are synonyms or near synonyms, e.g. ‘把,
握也。’ ‘持, 握也’ (把 means 握 ‘grasp’; 持 means 握 ‘grasp’);
(e) phonetic interpretation, e.g. ‘户,护也’ (户 means护 ‘care’);
(f) delimiting interpretation, e.g. ‘枕,卧所荐首者’ (枕 means ‘pillow’, some-
thing used to rest one’s head on when sleeping);
(g) etymological explication, e.g. ‘婚, 妇家也。礼: 娶妇以昏时, 妇人阴也,
故曰婚’ (婚means ‘a woman is married to a man’;礼means the rites and
formalities one needs to go through when marrying a woman. As a woman
is female, so it is婚, a combination of the radical女 and the character昏);
(h) descriptive or analogical means, e.g. ‘狼, 似犬, 锐头, 白颊, 高前, 广后’
(狼 means ‘wolf ’, like a dog with a sharp head, a white neck, a protruding
forehead and a broad rear).
Among these eight methods of interpretation, the Wrst four are used to deWne
(near-)synonymous words. Phonetic interpretation and etymological explication
are employed to demonstrate how the senses of a character originate and evolve.
EDCC also employs two unique means of deWning characters. One makes use
of从某 ‘following the category of’ to label the properties of words and expressions
and to indicate the coordination of two characters. The other makes use of ‘direct
explanation’ or ‘analogical explanation’ to explicate the meaning of the character. In
addition, in the deWnitions of EDCC, there also appear expressions like一曰 ‘one
explanation being’,或曰 ‘or explained as’ or又曰 ‘also explained as’ which are used
to co-record diVerent interpretations, actually the primitive indications of sense
demarcation. Look at the following examples from EDCC: ‘祝, 祭主赞词者。从
示, 从人、口。一曰: 从兑省。<易>曰: ‘‘兑为口为巫’’ ’, which is an example of
co-recording the twodiVerent interpretations of thewriting style of祝; and ‘昌:美言
也。从日,从曰。一曰:日光也。<诗>曰: ‘‘东方昌矣’’ ’, which is an example of co-
recording the two diVerent interpretations of the meaning of昌.
The deWnitions in EDCC can be traced to two other sources: one is ‘to widely
collect data from the works of those generally-learned scholars. The validity
of the data collected is to be conWrmed or veriWed with more evidence. Only
after veriWcation and justiWcation can the data be used in writing EDCC’. By
‘generally-learned scholars’, Xu Shen meant ‘those scholars who are learned in
106 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
both ancient andmodern knowledge’, including those great masters of the past and
great scholars of the contemporary period as well. The former includes Confucius,
King Zhuang of Chu State (楚庄王), Han Fei (韩非), Sima Xiangru, Dong
Zhongshu, Liu Xin, and Yang Xiong, among others. The latter includes scholars
of the Eastern Han Dynasty, such as Du Lin, Ban Gu, Fu Yi (傅毅), Wei Hong (卫
宏), Zhang Lin (张林), Wang Yu (王育), Tan Zhang (谭长), Guan Pu (官溥), Jing
Fang (京房), and so on. The second source of deWnitions for EDCC is the
explanations of character meanings in other classic works, which involve The
Book of Changes, The Book of Ancient Texts, The Book of Rites, The Book of Songs,
The Spring and Autumn, and The Analects of Confucius, etc.
Illustrative citationsThe classic literature from which EDCC extracts its illustrative citations is mainly
the Five Confucian Scriptures, in addition to other classic works, such as The
Analects of Confucius,Meng Zi, Lao Zi, Mo Zi, The Book of Filial Virtues, The Book
of Rites, The Shanhai Scriptures, and Huai Nan Zi. So, EDCC’s illustrative
citations are either taken from the Pre-Qin Dynasty classic works or from over
forty kinds of dialectal materials as supplementary evidence.
Pronunciation notationThe pronunciation annotation in EDCC falls into two categories: one is to use
the ‘sound’ radical in the pictophonetic characters to show the pronunciation;
the other is to make use of markers such as 读若 ‘pronounced as’ – to use a
more familiar character bearing the same or similar pronunciation as the
indicator.
For more than 7,000 pictophonetic characters in EDCC, Xu Shen uses the
markers like某声,亦声, and 省声 to label their pronunciations in the course of
analysing their forms and structures. Note that the pronunciations annotated by
Xu Shen should be the original ones when they were initially created. In other
words, Xu Shen has preserved the original pronunciations by this unique method
of annotating the phonetics of Chinese characters in EDCC. Certainly, due to the
inevitable changes in the phonetics of language, there must exist diVerences
between the original pronunciations and those during the period of the Western
and Eastern Han Dynasty.
EDCC uses读若 to show the pronunciation of a rare or easy-to-mispronounce
character with a commonly used character sharing the same or similar pronun-
ciation, chieXy for the purpose of constructing the phonetic system of the
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 107
Chinese language during the Han Dynasty, which makes it diVerent from the
phonetic marker of某声 ‘sound like’.
读若 has manifested itself in several forms:
(a) 读若某,读若某同 or读与某同 ‘read in the same way as’, which directly
indicates the pronunciation of a certain character;
(b) 读若某之某 ‘read as . . . as in . . .’, which is used to speciWcally indicate
a certain pronunciation of a polyphonic character;
(c) 读若经典中某字 ‘read as . . . in a certain classic work’, which indicates a
speciWc character in a certain classic work;
(d) 读若某方言俗语 ‘read as . . . in a certain dialect’, which indicates
a speciWc character in a certain dialect and register.
Three practices initiated in the compilation of EDCC have had a profound
and far-reaching inXuence on lexicography in later times. First, Xu Shen has
classiWed the 9,353 Chinese characters into 540 radical sections to further
investigate their ‘formal and structural relationships’, which inspired him to
establish a retrieval system for EDCC, especially applicable to the Chinese
language. Second, he has standardized the Six Categories theory, applied it to
the analysis of the form and structure of Chinese characters, and established a
working procedure for deWning characters. Third, he has systematically cited
examples from widely circulated classic works to illustrate the deWnitions in
EDCC.
EDCC has established itself as a paradigm for later lexicographers to copy.
Its style was plain to see in and adequately inherited by such well-known
dictionaries as The Character Forest (<字林>) by Lu Chen (吕忱) in the Jin
Dynasty, The Jade Chapters in the Northern and Southern Dynasty, The ClassiWed
Chapters (<类篇>) in the Song Dynasty, The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chi-
nese Characters (<字汇>) by Mei Yingzuo (梅膺祚) in the Ming Dynasty, The
RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<正字通>) by Zhang Zilie (张自烈,
1564–1650) in the Ming Dynasty, and The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi by Zhang
Yushu (张玉书) and Chen Tingjing (陈廷敬) in the Qing Dynasty. These
dictionaries have all modelled their styles on EDCC, although they might have
made some changes in the number of radical sections and/or their order in
arranging them. Even in modern times, there are still quite a few Chinese
dictionaries that have borrowed the compilation style of EDCC: the Wrst infor-
mation item in a deWnition is the original meaning and the illustrative citations
are almost exclusively fromwritten works, in spite of the reduction in the number
of radical categories.
108 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
7.4 the academic value and culturalinfluence of edcc
The study of Chinese characters has established itself as an independent branch
of learning in China since the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Xu Shen Wnished his
compilation of EDCC. Xu Shen was among the Wrst in China to have fully
realized the signiWcance of character studies and conducted theoretical explor-
ations in this connection. His contributions lie especially in revealing the evolu-
tional nature of Chinese characters and the role they play in social development
and cultural life. Quite a few of the thought-provoking theories he advocated
have turned out to be innovative and scientiWc. The methodology Xu Shen had
established and applied to his investigation into Chinese characters was essential
to his accomplishment of EDCC, characterized by his perspective of develop-
ment, his coherent philological thinking on Chinese characters, his systematic
application of the ‘Six Categories’ theory to EDCC’s compilation, the promin-
ence given to data collection, and his unusual emphasis on reliable evidence for
veriWcation and justiWcation.
In compiling EDCC, Xu Shen made every eVort to integrate the knowledge of
‘generally-learned scholars’ from various branches of learning into his book. In
this sense, EDCC can be viewed as an encyclopaedia, under whose umbrella are
‘heaven and earth, ghosts and gods, mountains and rivers, grass and trees, birds
and animals, insects and worms, sundries, odd objects, king’s ruling systems,
etiquettes and rites. In a word, all things under the sun are recorded exclusively’
(Epilogue to EDCC).
EDCC lists xiaozhuan characters as its headwords, as many as 9,353, and it has
always been the most comprehensive dictionary with the widest coverage of and
the best preservation of xiaozhuan characters in the Qin Dynasty. This dictionary
serves as a bridge to help explore the original meanings of the Jiaguwen charac-
ters and the Jin Inscription characters and to help track down the evolutionary
path of oYcial and regular scripts that appeared after it. Let us look at the
following citation from EDCC:
5. 育,养子使作善也。从,肉声。<虞书>曰: ‘教育子’。育,或从每。(育means
raisingandcultivatingachild; categorized into, andpronouncedas肉.TheYu
Book (<虞书>) has the statement ‘to educate and foster the son’, and育was
possibly categorized into每.)
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 109
EDCC keeps the temporary style of the character育, which is 每. This is very
helpful for interpreting the character育 in Jiaguwen. The form of育 in Jiaguwen
looks like a woman giving birth to a baby. That is to say, its original meaning is ‘to
bear or to produce’ rather than ‘to educate’, which is an extended meaning.
EDCC diVers from the dictionaries of later times notably in that it gives only one
deWnition for each character. What Xu Shen pursues in making deWnitions is to
reveal the ‘essential purport’ of each character. In other words, he tries to Wnd out
the basic or original meaning of each character through analysing its form and
structure and its pronunciation so as to restore the situation under which it was
created. In comparisonwith its contemporaries, EDCC achieved a lot in this regard,
though there is still a great deal of room for improvement, or possibly evenmistakes
in the case of some characters. Look at the following citation from EDCC:
6. 自, 鼻也。象鼻形。
(自 means 鼻 ‘nose’, in the form similar to 鼻.)
There has been no literature available except for EDCC that provides such a
deWnition, which implies that the basic meaning of自must have been abandoned
a long time ago. However, in the Ruins of the Yin Dynasty, there are such
descriptions as 有疾自, 惟有它 (祸), which means ‘(asking a fortune-teller)
whether there will be a misfortune in the event of an illness on the nose’.
EDCC has provided two types of material sources for studying ancient phon-
etics, that is, data concerning the homophonic system of pictophonetic charac-
ters and materials concerning phonetic interpretations in deWnitions. A rhyming
book of the remote period could be compiled if only a systematic study could be
carried out of the homophonic system of pictophonetic characters in EDCC.
Similarly, phonetic interpretations in EDCC’s deWnitions could provide valid
evidence for conWrming what had been learned about the phonetics and rhymes
in early ancient times.
The birth of EDCC has brushed away some old ideas and practices in the
analysis of Chinese characters and in philological studies, and new trends and
thoughts have gradually surfaced in academic circles. EDCC has become an
essential reference work for reading and studying classic works. EDCC has been
frequently and enormously quoted by later works, such as The Exegetic Interpret-
ation of Classics (<经典释文>) by Lu Deming in the Tang Dynasty, The Anno-
tations of Selected Works (<文选注>) by Li Shan (李善) in the Tang Dynasty, and
Sounds and Meanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures (also Sounds and Meanings
of the Whole Canon, <一切经音义>) by Xuan Ying (玄应) and Hui Lin (慧琳,
736–820) in the Tang Dynasty. The signiWcance of EDCC to later scholars lies in
(a), (b), and (c):
1 10 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
(a) The diVerent writing styles listed in EDCC could be employed to interpret
the meanings of characters in other ancient books. Consider the following
citation:九月叔苴 (from The Book of Songs). What does叔 mean in this
quotation? In EDCC, we could Wnd the deWnition:叔,拾也,从又术声。汝
南名收芋为叔, from which we know that叔 should be interpreted as拾
(to pick up).
(b) From EDCC, the semantic evolution of ancient characters could be more
readily tracked down. For instance, in The Book of Secret Prescriptions
(<医经方>) (unearthed from King Ma’s Tomb in Hunan Province in
1973) can be found the following citation:
7. 日一洒, 傅药。
(It is to be washed every day, before ointment is applied.)
What does 洒 in the citation mean? EDCC provides the following deWnition:
8. 洒, 涤也。从水西声。古文为灑埽字。
(洒 means涤 ‘wash, cleanse’; categorized into水 and pronounced as西; it
was 灑埽 in ancient texts.)
Thus, 洒 in the above citation should be interpreted as ‘to wash’. Further
deWnitions could be found in EDCC for 灑 and汛:
9. 灑,汛也。从水麗声。
(灑 means汛 ‘Xood, tide’; categorized into水 and pronounced as 麗)
In early ancient times, when people washed their hands or when they cleaned
the Xoor, they ‘sprinkled water to remove dirt’. So, 洒, 灑, and 汛 all bear the
notion of ‘sprinkling water’. Later, with a change of utensil for washing hands
and the change in the mode of living, it is natural for the meanings of the
characters to have undergone corresponding alterations. In contemporary dic-
tionaries, 洒 [灑] is pronounced ‘/sa/’ and means ‘to sprinkle water’;汛 means
periodic Xooding; and 涤 means ‘to wash dirt oV ’.
(c) From EDCC, data can be obtained for studying phonetic loaning. Look at
the citation:顾问其诊及其病能。(<素问•风论>) (Consultation is made
to diagnose and inquire into his illness. From Simple Questioning). What
does能mean in this citation? From EDCC, we get能,熊属. How could病
能 be related to熊属? From EDCC, we can further Wnd態,意態也。从心
从能, 態, 或从人. According to Duan Yucai (2001:519), 能 could be
interpreted as 心所有能必见于外, which means that our state of mind
will always be manifested externally, i.e. 態 (bearing). To sum up,病能 is
the same as病态, which means ‘conditions of illness’ or ‘morbidity’.
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 111
According to The Book of the Sui Dynasty, the earliest research on EDCC comes
from The Studies in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<演说文>,one volume) by Yu Yanmo (庾俨默) in the Northern and Southern Dynasty) and
The Phonetic Studies in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文音隐>, four volumes) by an anonymous author, but, unfortunately, both books
were lost in later times. During the reign of Emperor Shu in the Tang Dynasty, Li
Yangning (李阳冰) rectiWed and republished EDCC (thirty volumes). Unfortu-
nately, this version is no longer in existence either. In the period of Southern
Tang, Xu Kai (徐铠) wrote The Comprehensive Studies in An Explanatory Dic-
tionary of Chinese Characters (<说文解字系传>, forty volumes), which has been
known as Junior Xu’s version. That book corrected the mistakes in Li Yangning’s
version. In the reign of Emperor Taizong in the Song Dynasty (986), Xu Xuan (徐
铉), Xu Kai’s elder brother, received an imperial order to check and revise EDCC,
which has been known as Senior Xu’s version. These two brothers have made an
indispensable contribution to studies on EDCC: their versions have popularized
the dictionary and ruled out the possibility of it being lost.
The Qing Dynasty reached a peak in the study of EDCC. According to
statistics, there are over three hundred pieces of research on EDCC. Such great
masters as Duan Yucai, Gui Fu (桂馥), Wang Yun (王筠), and Zhu Junsheng
were all involved in this Weld. Their studies on EDCC bear their own distinctive
features. Duan Yucai’s The Annotated Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Charac-
ters (<说文解字注>, thirty-one volumes) focuses on revealing its style, correct-
ing its errors, marking the ancient rhyme of each character, and further sorting
and updating the explanations in EDCC based on new data from research in the
Welds of phonetic rhyming and exegetic analysis. Gui Fu’s The RectiWed Explana-
tory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文解字义证>, Wfty volumes) aims at
verifying and justifying the deWnitions in EDCC and it is a very valuable reference
book for studies on ancient characters.
The two representative masters of modern times are Zhang Binglin and Huang
Kan. In their studies, greater attention is paid to formal change and proliferation
in relation to meaning and pronunciation. It is during this period of investigation
that this branch of learning gained its independence from the study of Confucian
classics. In addition, there is another very inXuential reference book compiled at
this period – The Modern Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文解
字诂林>) by Ding Fubao (丁福保), an exhaustive collection of the photocopies
of the textual research and explanatory notes on EDCC from the Xu Brothers of
the early Song Dynasty up to the 1930s.
EDCC focuses on analysing the form and structure of Chinese characters, in
investigating their original and basic meanings, and identifying and diVerentiating
1 12 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
their pronunciation and phonetic features in ancient classic works. It holds a
signiWcant position in studying academics and ideology in ancient China. First, it
was considered a compulsory subject in the Royal Academy during the Tang
Dynasty, which means that it was of the same importance as that of the Confucian
classics. Second, it was the true forerunner of traditional philology in China. In
EDCC, what is emphasized in linguistic investigation is the notion of character
ontology – whose main ideas involve the origin of Chinese characters, their original
radical components, and the analysis of their form and structure, that is, the
Six Categories theory. Since EDCC, character ontology has enjoyed a dominant
position in the history of the linguistic investigation into the Chinese language.
Furthermore, owing to the academic position of EDCC, the philosophy of ‘charac-
ter thinking’ has been inXuencing the speech and behaviour of Chinese scholars
generation after generation.
an explanatory dictionary of chinese characters 1 13
8
THE DICTIONARY OFCHINESE CHARACTERS
AND TERMS – THEINCEPTION OFETYMOLOGICAL
DICTIONARIES IN CHINA
IN the Western world, the practice of providing etymological information in a
dictionary started in the middle of the seventeenth century when Thomas
Blount published Glossographia in 1656. Blount is one of the earliest lexicog-
raphers who attempted to provide etymological information in a systematic
fashion. Bailey later observed the practice in making his dictionary – AUniversal
Etymological English Dictionary. Bailey’s dictionary paid enormous attention to
etymology and treated it consistently, purposefully, and strictly (Landau 1989:45,
99), though in the eyes of modern etymologists much of it might be wild
guesswork. Considering the fact that it was compiled a century before great
strides had been made in the study of Germanic philology, the value of this
dictionary should not be underestimated. The practice of providing etymology in
a dictionary reached its peak with the compilation and publication of The Oxford
English Dictionary.
Western lexicographers have every reason to be surprised to Wnd that the
Chinese compiled the Wrst etymological dictionary in China in 230 – The
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms (hereinafter abbreviated as DCCT).
Its contribution to etymological studies of the Chinese language and to lexico-
graphical studies in China and worldwide is highly commendable.
8.1 the historical background to dcct’s birth
Scripture studies held a dominant position in the academic research in theWestern
andEasternHanDynasties.The impactof Scripture studieson the feudal reignof the
HanDynasty was felt in almost every aspect of its administration: inmanaging state
and judicial aVairs, in bringing rivers under control, in selecting, awarding and
punishing oYcials, and in dealing with relationships between the emperor and
oYcials, father and son, and the central and local governments. Since Emperor
Wu’s adoptionof thepolicyof ‘dismissingahundredother schools but respecting the
Confucian school only’, Confucian studies had been elevated to an unprecedented
height, leading not only to its oYcial recognition but also to its wide circulation and
popularity. LiuXin’smemorial to the throne triggeredoV theWerceWght between the
Neo-classic and the Classic studies on Confucian Scriptures, which lasted for about
two centuries, extending into the EasternHanDynasty. In the fourth year (i.e. 79) of
Emperor Zhang’s reign, some well-known scholars were summoned to the court.
The Emperor discussedwith them the Five Scriptures in theWhite Tiger Temple. ‘Li
Yu (李育), representing theNeo-classic School, questioned JiaKui aboutGongYang.
They argued back and forth with reasoning, evidence, and justiWcation, showing
their full understanding and appreciation of the Confucian classics’ (范晔, Fan Ye,
1965:2582). After these arguments, the two conXicting schools began to merge into
one and thismade it possible to foster an atmosphere for scholars to incorporate the
achievements of both camps. ZhengXuanwas one of their representatives. He based
his research mainly on the works of the Classic studies. He ‘collected exhaustively
diVerent opinions; he deleted the wrong ones and corrected the mistakes; he added
new Wndings and further edited the works systematically. Since that time, scholars
have begun tounderstand the essential principles andmethodsof this study’ (FanYe,
1965:1213), and Confucian study, as a school, Wnally achieved unity and became one.
The thorough and comprehensive interpretation of the Confucian Classic works by
Zheng Xuan formally ended the Werce struggle between the Neo-classic and Classic
studies of Confucian classic works.
In themiddle of theEasternHanDynasty,when theNeo-classic andClassic studies
were still in the process of merging there came the representative accomplishment of
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 1 15
the Classic study – An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. Its author, Xu
Shen, was a disciple of Jia Kui, ‘from whom he learned ancient studies’. Then he
‘broadly consulted the generally learned scholars and wrote Presenting a Memorial
for An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters’ (Xu Cong,许冲 <上<说文解
字>表>). The Wnalized version of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters
was published in 121. About one hundred years later, the representative achieve-
ment of the Neo-classic study appeared – DCCT. As far as the research approach
was concerned, the Classic scholars were good at exegetic interpretation, focusing on
character analysis and empirical evidence; whereas the Neo-classic scholars were
good at sentential and textual research, focusing on meaning and reasoning. Li Yu,
in contrast to JiaKui, was especially expert at semantic analysis and reasoning.DCCT
adopted this research path in carrying out its inquiry and investigation. What
its author ‘intended to discuss and point out’ is ‘what the general public frequently
refer to but have little idea of their inherentmeanings.’ The ‘meanings’ are embedded
in ‘what thenamesdesignateandwhat semanticcategorizationsarebasedon’ (Preface
to DCCT). ‘Semantic categorization’ simply means meaning and reasoning. Thus,
it can be concluded that DCCT was a representative work of Neo-classic study
when the two conXicting groups of Confucian scholars were still in the process of
merging into one united school in themiddle of the EasternHanDynasty.
DCCT is designed to make use of phonetic interpretation so as ‘to discuss and
point out the reference’, ‘to answer diYcult questions and explain easily confus-
able words’, and ‘to explore the source and origin of expressions’. Phonetic
interpretation originated in the Pre-Qin Dynasty. At that time scholars had
already subconsciously made use of the means of phonetic interpretation, al-
though its objective was to make truths explicit rather than to interpret their
linguistic meanings. Look at the following examples:
1. <论语�颜渊>:政者, 正也。子帅以正,孰敢不正?
(政 means正 ‘to be just’. If you play a leading role in doing justice, is there
anyone who dares to commit injustice?)
2. <礼记�中庸>: ‘仁者,人也,亲亲为大 ;义者,宜也, 尊贤为大。’
(仁 means 人 ‘humane’, and to love the family member is the most
important thing;义 ‘loyal’ means宜 ‘appropriate’, and to respect virtuous
people is the most important thing.)
3. <庄子�齐物论>: ‘庸也者,用也;用也者,通也 ;通也者,得也。’
(庸 means用 ‘useful’; and用 means通 (useful for general purpose); and
通 means得 ‘suitable’.)
Thus, phonetic interpretation during the Pre-Qin Dynasty bears the noticeable
features of being spontaneous and subordinate.
1 16 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Dong Zhongshu, the initiator of Neo-classic study in the Western Han Dyn-
asty, was the Wrst to examine phonetic interpretation and make theoretical
inquiries from the perspective of the relationship between name and essence
and between heaven and humankind. Most certainly, Dong Zhongshu’s theory
was established to advocate his political ideals and feudal ideology. He stated:
Names are born from truths. If it is untrue, then it cannot live up to its name. Names are
what sages recognize as the true things. When names are used in speech, they become
concrete. . . . For the saints in ancient times, if they tell and follow what the heaven and
earthmanifest to them, this is called ordering. If they have it announced and executed, this
is called naming. To name it in words is to announce and execute; to order it in words is to
tell and follow. To tell and follow the heaven and earth’s manifestation is to order. And to
announce and command is to name. Name and order have diVerent pronunciations but
the essence is the same. And they are all to advocate the will of heaven. The heaven cannot
speak and it enables human beings to tell it; it cannot do by itself and it enables human
beings to act in it. Names are the revelations of heaven through the mouths of the saints
and they need to be observed profoundly and thought in depth. (苏舆, Su Yu, 1992:285)
By ‘names are born from truths’ is meant that ‘name’ is determined by ‘truth’.
‘Truth’ is what the saints ‘announce and execute’ in that the saints could ‘understand
the will of heaven’ and the heaven makes the saints ‘express its will’. In essence,
‘name’ is the explicit expression of ‘heaven’s will’ and ‘heaven’ is the ‘ruler’. Under
the inXuence of Dong Zhongshu’s theory, scholars were inclined to use phonetics to
interpret semantics in the Han Dynasty. Consider the following citation:
4. 女者,如也;子者,孳也。女子者, 言如男子之教,而长其义理者也。故谓
之妇人。妇人者,伏于人也。(<大戴礼�本命>)(女 ‘woman’ means如 (obeying); and子 (child) means孳 (producing). By
woman ismeant followingwhat is told to thembyman and their faithfulness
and reasoning would thus be increased. So they are called woman. Woman
just refers to those yielding to man.) (from The Dadai Book of Etiquette)
The use of ‘obeying’ to explain the naming of ‘woman’ is to base the explor-
ation of etymology on the implication of the feudal political system, which easily
led to indeWniteness of deWnition in using phonetics to interpret meanings of
words or even worse to invoke the interpreter’s arbitrariness. In the Han Dynasty,
the theory and practice of phonetic interpretation reached its peak and it
embodied well the convergence of linguistic theory, political governing, public
circulation, and the arbitrariness in application.
By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the data of phonetic interpretation,
through several centuries’ accumulation, had become abundant enough for
works of phonetic interpretation to appear. DCCT, an integration of the major
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 1 17
achievements in this Weld, emerged as its time had come. The principal diVerence
between the theory of phonetic interpretation in DCCT and the principles of its
predecessors lies in its transformation from doctrines for political governance
into the Weld of linguistic inquiry. It is held in DCCT that ‘meanings’ are
embedded in ‘what the names designate and what semantic categorizations are
based on’, and ‘even the implements and utensils that the peasants use bear their
meanings’. DCCTmakes use of linguistic investigations to explore the sources of
the names of the objects. In other words, it aims ‘to discuss and point out the real
reference of the names’ (Preface to DCCT).
If DCCT’s interpretations are to be compared with those in the works of its
contemporaries, the diVerence is discernable. Let us have a look at the citations of
the diVerent interpretations of天:
5. <春秋说题辞>: ‘天之为言镇也。’
(What is meant by天 is 镇 ‘suppression’.)
6. <说文解字>: ‘天, 颠也, 至高无上。从一大。’
(天 means 颠 ‘summit, supreme’; categorized into大 ‘grand’.)
7. <释名�释天>: ‘天, 豫、司、兖、冀以舌腹言之。天, 显也, 在上高显也;
青、徐以舌头言之。天, 坦也, 坦然高而远也。’
(The characters天,豫,司,兖, and冀 are all pronounced with the back of the
tongue.天 means显 ‘apparent, supreme, and lofty’ and is pronounced with
the tip of the tongue in Qing and Xu.天means坦 ‘Xat, high, and far away’.)
In (5), 天 ‘heaven’ is interpreted as 镇, which means ‘suppression’. From this
interpretation, we could see that it is interpreted from the viewpoint of the ruler. In
(6), it is interpreted as颠, meaning ‘summit’, that is, ‘extremely high, with nothing
above it’, which clearly shows the interpreter’s adoration for the Emperor’s power.
And in (7), it is interpreted as ‘(a) distinguished; noticeable because of its high
position; (b) Xat and broad; Xat and broad because it is high and further away’. For
the third interpretation, that is, the interpretation in DCCT, it clearly falls into the
category of linguistic study, though you may not agree with how it is interpreted.
8.2 the background and motivationfor dcct’s compilation
The Book of the Sui Dynasty states that ‘DCCT has eight volumes and it is written
by Liu Xi’. The identity of the author of DCCT is therefore Liu Xi, known as
1 18 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Chengguo. He was born in Beihai, today’s Shandong Province. He lived between
the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Wei Kingdom. It was recorded that he once
made lecture tours to Jiaozhou (in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces today). At
the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the struggles between diVerent political
factions were Werce and warfare was frequent in the drainage areas of the Yellow
River. Jiaozhou, however, enjoyed a relatively long period of peace and stability
since it was far away from the vortex of political struggle geographically. In
addition, the governor of Jiaozhou was Shi Xie (士燮), who had a very good
reputation for being generous and showing respect to scholars. Many scholars
swarmed to Jiaozhou to escape from warfare. Liu Xi Xed there probably at least
partly for the same reason and he took this opportunity to popularize his
academic ideas and exchange information with others. In the Kingdom of Wu,
there were some well-known Confucian scholars, such as Cheng Bing (程秉) and
Xue Zong (薛综). Liu Xi enjoyed a very high reputation among these scholars
and Xue Zong was actually a disciple of his. His great academic accomplishments
were the basic requirements for writing DCCT.
Liu Xi not only had an admirable degree of learning himself but also cultivated
very close relationships with high-ranking oYcials. For instance, Cheng Bing was
the teacher of the prince, Xue Zong was a grade-four oYcial and later promoted
to the position of governor of Hepu and Jiaozhi (交趾), and Wei Yao (韦曜) was
an oYcial in the court, in charge of document management. Liu Xi, however, did
not hold any oYcial positions in the Kingdom of Wu. It seemed that he was a
hermit but he might actually have his own agenda, possibly getting ready for
writing DCCT. According to The Annals of the Three Kingdoms (<三国志�吴书�韦曜传>), Liu Xi was reportedly said to
be writing DCCT. I [Wei Yao] believe that there are many good articles in it but owing to
its broad scope there are still many things to be further looked into and much room for
improvement and revision. He declined the invitation to hold oYce so as not to get
involved in too many activities.
Judging from the cycle of academic research, his rejection of an oYcial
position would give him suYcient time to collect data and maintain the con-
tinuity of planning and writing the voluminous DCCT. DCCT’s Preface provides
clues to Liu Xi’s motivation for writing the dictionary. In the Preface, he writes:
since the Creator made implements and established the laws, objects and artefacts have
become numerous. Until the present time, things have been made either according to
codes and rituals or by the hand of the general public and they are given either formal
titles or folk names, resulting in enormous diVerences between diVerent regions.
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 1 19
As for ‘the implements used by the general public’, ‘people use these names
without much knowledge of what they actually designate, that is, their meanings’.
Liu Xi wrote DCCT in twenty-seven chapters altogether with intent ‘to discuss
reference and designate origin’ and ‘to provide answers to diYcult questions and
diVerentiate between confusable words’, which is probably his principal motiv-
ation for writing DCCT.
The time of writing DCCT is usually identiWed as around the establishment of
the Wei Kingdom (220). According to The Annals of the Three Kingdoms, Xu Ci
(许慈)
is a disciple of Liu Xi. He has done scholarly research in The Book of Changes, The Book of
Ancient Texts, The Book of Three Rites (<三礼>),Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs,
and The Analects of Confucius. During the period of Jian’an, he, together with Xu Jing
(许靖), went to the Kingdom of Shu.
The time of Xu Ci’s coming to Shu, according to the historical record, was
prior to the Wfteenth year of Jian’an (196) and, presumably, the time of Liu Xi’s
teaching at Jiaozhou would be around the Wrst year of Jian’an. Considering the
average time it takes for a scholar to accumulate knowledge in order to be well
qualiWed in philology, Liu Xi would be around thirty when he began his teaching
career. In 273, Wei Yao reported to Sun Hao (孙皓), the king of Wu, that he saw
Liu Xi’s DCCT when he himself was ‘writing the chapter Interpreting OYcial
Titles and the chapter On DiVerentiating Terms, and he intended to submit to the
Emperor for royal examination’ (The Annals of the Three Kingdoms). In the light
of the above three points, the time for Liu Xi’s writing of DCCT could be more
reliably identiWed as around 210 (the Wfteenth year of Jian’an) and the book was
Wnalized in 230 when Liu Xi was roughly in his sixties.
8.3 the format and style of dcct
DCCT comprises eight volumes, twenty-seven chapters altogether, covering 1,502
entries. The volumes are arranged in the following sequence:
Volume 1: Interpreting the Heavens (释天), Interpreting Earth (释地), Inter-
preting Mountains (释山), Interpreting Water (释水), Interpreting Mounds
(释丘), and Interpreting Roads (释道);
Volume 2: Interpreting States and Provinces (释州国), Interpreting Physical
Shapes (释形体);
120 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Volume 3: Interpreting Postures and Appearances (释姿容), Interpreting
Seniority (释长幼), Interpreting Kinship Terms (释亲属);
Volume 4: Interpreting Language (释言语), Interpreting Food and Drink
(释饮食), Interpreting Silk (释采帛), Interpreting Ornaments (释首饰);
Volume 5: Interpreting Garments (释衣服), Interpreting Court and Palace
(释宫室);
Volume 6: Interpreting Beds and Curtains (释床帐), Interpreting Letters and
Contracts (释书契), Interpreting Classics and Arts (释典艺);
Volume 7: Interpreting Implements (释器用), Interpreting Weapons (释兵
器), Interpreting Army (释兵), Interpreting Vehicle (释车), Interpreting Ves-
sels (释船);
Volume 8: Interpreting Diseases (释疾病), Interpreting Funeral Systems (释
丧制).
The mode of classiWcation adopted by DCCT is diVerent from that in previous
dictionaries and is rarely encountered in the dictionaries subsequent to it. The
chapter entitled ‘Interpreting Language’ in Volume 4 is equivalent to the language
dictionary today and the remaining chapters are what are treated in encyclopedic
dictionaries of our times. In fact, the original texts in DCCTwould be more than
twenty-seven chapters. According toThe Annals of the Three Kingdoms, ‘the ranks of
nobility’ was discussed in DCCT. Unfortunately, there is no such interpretation of
the ranks of nobility in the book available today. There is, however, solid evidence
that the original version of DCCT contained a chapter whose title was ‘interpreting
the ranks of nobility’, which was quoted by the Tang and Song scholars.
Criteria for word coverage and rangeThe target words of DCCT are the common words that ‘common people use for
reference in everyday life’. This could be justiWed bywhat LiuXi says in the preface to
DCCT. Names and their referents in the physical world all fall into diVerent
semantic categories. The common people, however, do not know what meanings
the names convey when they are used in everyday life. DCCT is compiled to discuss
the reference and origins of names, involving heaven and earth, lunar and solar, the
four seasons, states and their regions, cities and counties, vessels, funeral cere-
monies, and even the implements and utensils that the peasants use. While An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters lists single characters from the literary
works in written form, DCCT, however, is oriented towards the language that
common people use in everyday communication. The chief unit for an entry in
DCCT is the word – bi-syllabic words and words of dialect and folk speech.
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 121
The bi-syllabic characters in DCCT account for approximately 20% of the
total. In terms of word structure, they fall into four main types: (a) coordinates,
e.g. <释宫室>:宗庙 (‘ancestor’þ ‘temple’, ancestral temple); (b) subject–predi-
cates, e.g. <释丧制>: 寿终 (‘life’þ ‘end’); (c) subordinates, e.g. <释天>: 彗星(‘broom’þ‘star’: comet); and (d) predicate–objects, e.g. <释丧制>:弃市 (‘aban-
don (to)’þ ‘market’). Among the four types, the subordinate type holds the
dominant position. In addition, there are also quite a few alliterative and
rhyming compounds, like 摩挲 ‘stroke’, 匍匐 ‘crawl’ (<释姿容>) and 箜篌
‘konghou, plucked stringed music instrument’,枇杷 ‘loquat’ (<释乐器>).In terms of word meaning, the bi-character compound words also involve two
types: synonyms and antonyms. Take Interpreting Language as an example. There
are 172 entries in which synonyms and antonyms are deliberately put together to
form contrasts. There are twenty-eight groups of synonymous two-character com-
pounds, such as 言语 ‘language and speech’, 翱翔 ‘hover’, 委曲 ‘grievance’, 踪迹
‘trace’,扶将 ‘foster’,覆盖 ‘cover’,威严 ‘awe-inspiring’,艰难 ‘diYcult’,断绝 ‘sever’,
骂詈 ‘curse’,佐助 ‘assist’,祝诅 ‘pray’,名号 ‘name and alias’,盟誓 ‘oath’,念思 ‘miss’;
and forty-three groups of antonymous compounds, such as是非 ‘right and wrong’,
善恶 ‘good vs. evil’,好丑 ‘good vs. bad’,缓急 ‘unhurried vs. urgent’,巧拙 ‘deft vs.
cumbersome’, 燥湿 ‘dry vs. humid’,厚薄 ‘thick vs. thin’,逆顺 ‘adversity vs. tran-
quility’,贵贱 ‘noble vs. humble’,进退 ‘forward vs. backward’,出入 ‘entry vs. exit’,
贪廉 ‘corrupt vs. honest’,往来 ‘back vs. forth’, 粗细 ‘thickness vs. thinness’,吉凶
‘auspicious vs. ominous’,安危 ‘safe vs. dangerous’,甘苦 ‘sweetness vs. bitterness’.
Dialectal words and folk expressions are also included in DCCT. Look at the
following citation:
8. <释衣服>: ‘齐人谓草屦曰屝, 屝, 皮也,以皮作之。’
(草屦 is called 屝 by people in the state of Qi, which means leather and is
made of leather.)
To sum up, main entries in DCCT are taken from various sources and cover a
wide range of word formations. What is particularly worth mentioning is that the
majority of headwords belong to the everyday use of language.
Features of DCCT’s layoutThe inXuence of The Ready Guide on DCCT in layout is clearly discernable from
its text arrangements. They both adopt the technique of semantic categorization
and classiWcation, that is, grouping words on a semantic basis. Certainly, DCCT
diVers from The Ready Guide in its layout in several ways. First, DCCT has
further classiWed some categories in The Ready Guide into sub-categories. For
122 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
instance, the section on Interpreting Hardware in The Ready Guide was sub-
classiWed into smaller groups, such as Interpreting Silk, Interpreting Ornaments,
Interpreting Beds and Curtains, Interpreting Implements, Interpreting Army, Inter-
preting Vehicle, Interpreting Vessels.
Second, new categories were added, such as Interpreting Physical Shape, Inter-
preting Postures and Appearances, Interpreting Language, Interpreting Food and
Beverage, Interpreting Garments, Interpreting Letters and Contracts, Interpreting
Classics and Arts, Interpreting Diseases, Interpreting Funeral Systems.
Third, some categories in The Ready Guide were deleted, such as Interpreting
Exegesis, Interpreting Words, Interpreting Rhetoric, Interpreting Grasses, Interpret-
ing Woods, Interpreting Birds, Interpreting Creatures, Interpreting Fishes, Interpret-
ing Beasts, and Interpreting Livestock.
It is clear from the above that the range of coverage was greatly reduced in DCCT
but that the classiWcation became Wner and more reasoned, though further alter-
ations and adjustments could be made by the modern lexicographer. For instance,
in Interpreting Physical Shape, in addition to the Wner classiWcation, more detailed
information was provided in its explanations. The words in this category involved
人 ‘human’, 体 ‘body’, 躯 ‘stature’, 形 ‘form’, 身 ‘Wgure’, 毛 ‘feather’, 发 ‘hair’, 皮
‘skin’,肌 ‘muscle’,肉 ‘Xesh’,筋 ‘tendon’,骨 ‘bone’,血 ‘blood’,汗 ‘sweat’,头 ‘head’,面
‘face’,额 ‘forehead’,眼 ‘eye’,鼻 ‘nose’,口 ‘mouth’,颊 ‘cheek’,舌 ‘tongue’,齿 ‘tooth’,
耳 ‘ear’,唇 ‘lip’,髭 ‘moustache’,须 ‘beard’,颈 ‘neck’,胸 ‘chest’,腹 ‘belly’,心 ‘heart’,
肺 ‘lung’,肾 ‘kidney’,胃 ‘stomach’,肠 ‘intestine’,脐 ‘navel’,肋 ‘rib’,膈 ‘diaphragm’,
腋 ‘armpit’, 肩 ‘shoulder’, 背 ‘back’, 臂 ‘arm’, 肘 ‘elbow’, 腕 ‘wrist’, 掌 ‘palm’, 脊
‘spine’,臀 ‘buttock’,股 ‘thigh’,膝 ‘knee’,脚 ‘foot’, etc. Names were basically matched
to the anatomic terms of the human body and organs. Consistency could be found
in other texts, characterized by a gradual transition from macro-level terms to
micro-level ones and from more general terms to more subtle ones.
The theoretical underpinnings of deWnition in DCCTAs to ‘naming things with words’, there are two diVerent schools of thought in the
history of language study in China. One school holds that there exist no natural
relationships between the names and the objects in the physical world and that it
is through social convention that a word is used to designate an object. Xun Zi is
the representative of this school of thought, as can be seen:
A name is given to a thing by order rather than natural endowment; its appropriateness
comes from how well it has been conventionalized. If it is well conventionalized then it is
appropriate and if it deviates from the convention then it becomes inappropriate.
A name has no constant essence but it is agreed upon to designate the essence of
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 123
something. A name well established through conventionalization is a real name. (from
Xun Zi, <荀子>)
The other school holds that a word and the thing it designates have a certain
natural relationship – ‘A name originates from truth’ in Dong Zhongshu’s words.
And the representative of this school in the Eastern Han Dynasty is Liu Xi, who
does not think that naming is arbitrary but that there exists a causal relationship
between the name and its designator – ‘A name and the essence it designates fall
into their own semantic categories’ (from Preface to DCCT). The ‘semantic
categories’ of the ‘name’ and the ‘essence’ are what a name of an object is
based on. He also points out that the inherent relationship of semantic category
is substantiated by phonetics, which makes it possible for phonetic interpretation
to be employed in the exploration of ‘the meaning on which a name is estab-
lished’ (from Preface to DCCT). Look at the following citation from Interpreting
Ornaments in DCCT:
9. 梳, 言其齿疏也,数言比。比於梳,其齿差数也。比,言细相比也。
(梳 ‘comb’ is pronounced in the same way as 疏, indicating its teeth are
loose, in contrast to the number of teeth on 比, a Wne-toothed comb. 比
forms a contrast when it comes to the tight teeth on it.)
In Liu Xi’s interpretation, 梳 (comb) has the same pronunciation of /shu:/ as 疏
(loose),which indicates that the teethon the combare loose, in contrast to thenumber
of teeth on a比[篦] (aWne-toothed comb).比 refers to the type of combonwhich the
teeth are ‘tightly collocated’. Thus, Liu Xi argues that there exists a common semantic
category, that is, ‘being loose’, between梳 and疏.When梳was named, it was natural
forpeople to associate itwith疏, thanks to the samepronunciation they share – /shu:/.
Likewise,比[篦] was so named because its teeth bore the semantic feature of ‘tight vs.
loose’, and 比 and 篦 fell into the semantic category of ‘tight’, hence the same
pronunciation. This well illustrates the guiding principle for phonetic interpretation
adopted inDCCT. Liu Xi was the Wrst scholar to have applied phonetic interpretation
systematically in deWning words in the ancient history of Chinese philology.
DeWning features in DCCTThe Ready Guide adopted the semantic interpretation as its fundamental prin-
ciple for deWning characters – explaining the meaning of ancient words in
standard formal language. Its work of deWnition centres around ‘deWning
names and objects’. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters adopted
the formal and structural interpretation as its principal methodology to seek the
source meaning of the original character. DCCT, however, deviated noticeably
124 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
from these two dictionaries in adopting phonetic interpretation as the chief
means to explore the etymology of words. The deWnitions in these three diction-
aries do indeed share some common features, but their dissimilarities are im-
portant and noticeable in the sense that the authors are diVerently motivated and
their methodologies fundamentally diVerent. Consider the following citations
that illustrate how跽 has been deWned diVerently in the three dictionaries:
10. <尔雅�释言>: ‘启 (跽),跪也。’ [晋]郭璞注云: ‘小跽。’
(启, also 跽 ‘kneeling’, means 跪 ‘kneel’. According to the annotation by
Guo Pu, it means ‘short kneeling’.) (from The Ready Guide)
11. <说文解字>: ‘跽, 长跪也。从足,忌声。’
(跽means ‘long kneeling’, categorized into足 ‘foot’ and pronounced as忌
/ji/.) (from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters)
12. <释名�释姿容>: ‘跽,忌也。见所敬忌不敢自安也。’
(跽 is interpreted as忌, meaning ‘feeling uneasy when seeing somebody or
somebody respectful or awesome’.) (from DCCT)
It can be seen from the interpretation in DCCT that Liu Xi takes it that the
meaning of跽 is from忌, designating the psychology towards an elder – ‘feeling
uneasy’. Let us see how Duan Yucai analysed the diVerent interpretations from
the three dictionaries above:
13. ‘长跽乃古语。人安坐则形驰,敬则小跪耸体,若加长焉’故曰长跽。’ (Duan
Yucai, 1981:81)
(长跽 is an archaic expression. When someone sits quietly, he looks
relaxed. To show respect, he would have to keep straight and kneel slightly,
which looks as if he ‘grows taller’ and thus is 长跽 ‘long kneeling’. (from
Duan Yucai, 1981:81)
Thus,The Ready Guide andAn Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters both
interpreted 跽 from the perspective of the conWguration of an action; DCCT,
however, interpreted it from a psychological perspective. It is apparent that The
Ready Guide laid more emphasis on ‘diVerentiating the essence of names’. Xu Shen
based his interpretation mainly on the analysis of the character form and the
external physical properties of objects. Liu Xi paid greater attention to pronunci-
ation, throughwhich the naming of an object could be explained etymologically. To
conclude, the discrepancies between the three dictionaries were a result of the
diVerent perspectives they adopted in observing things and the diVerent modes
they established and employed in interpreting and explaining themeaning ofwords.
The second feature of deWnition in DCCT is the simultaneous use of semantic
interpretation and phonetic interpretation. A name is interpreted not only with a
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 125
character sharing identical or similar pronunciations but also semantically or by
means of explaining why it is phonetically interpreted. The interpretations in
DCCTare usually arranged in either of the sequences of ‘phonetic interpretation
before semantic interpretation’ (see 14) or of ‘semantic interpretation before
phonetic interpretation’ (see 15).
14. ‘月,阙也, 满则阙也。’
(月 ‘moon’ is pronounced in the same way as阙 ‘lacking’ /que/; when the
moon is full it begins to wane. )
15. ‘山顶曰冢。冢,肿也, 言肿起也。’
(The top or summit of the mountain is called冢.冢 is pronounced in the
same way as肿, meaning ‘swell up’.)
The third feature of deWnitions in DCCT is to use semantic interpretation
directly. This might be the last choice that the author had to resort to when no
appropriate phonetic interpretation could be worked out, as in (16) and (17) in
the following citations:
16. ‘日月亏曰食, 稍稍侵亏如虫食草木叶也。’
(The wane of the sun or the moon is called 食 ‘eclipse’, meaning the slow
disappearance of the sun’s or the moon’s light when the earth passes
between the sun and the moon, just like an insect eating up blades of
grass or the leaves of the tree.)
17. ‘流星,星转行如流水也。’
(流星 ‘meteor, shooting star’ means the stars travel through outer space
like Xowing water.)
The deWnitions of such a mode amount to approximately 15% of the total in
DCCT.
Phonetic interpretation rules in DCCTThere are three phonetic interpretation rules observed in DCCT. The Wrst rule is
the identical character interpretation in which the interpreter and the interpreted
are the same character. This rule applies to the cases where the character in
question is polysemous. In other words, the diVerent senses of a single character
could sometimes be used for mutual explanation. Look at the following two
citations:
18. ‘布,布也。布列众缕为经,以维横成之也。’
(布 means 布 ‘cloth’, which is made of the vertical texture 经 ‘longitude’
and the horizontal texture 维 ‘latitude’.)
126 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
19. ‘寝,寝也。所寝息也。’
(寝 is寝, which means ‘a place to sleep’.)
In (18), the ‘cloth’ sense of 布 is used to interpret its ‘distribution’ sense,
followed by a more detailed description of how a piece of cloth is made in
weaving and what its texture looks like. In (19), the noun of 寝 (bedroom) is
interpreted with its verb form ‘to sleep’. One obvious disadvantage of this mode
of identical character interpretation lies in its ambiguous meaning description,
which makes it impossible to become a major mode of interpretation.
The second rule is the use of a homophone to interpret, applying to the cases
where the interpreter and the interpreted share the same initial consonant and
vowel. The tone could be the same or diVerent. Consider the following citations:
20. ‘水草交曰湄。湄, 眉也。临水如眉临目也,水经、川归之处也。’
(湄 means the place where water and grass meet, ‘river bank’. 湄 has the
same pronunciation as 眉, meaning the river bank overlooking water like
the eyebrows overlooking the eyes. It is the place where water passes and
rivers meet.)
21. ‘径, 经也,人所经由也。’
(径 has the same pronunciation as 经, meaning the path man walks on.)
In (20),湄 and眉 share the same initial consonant, vowel, and tone. In (21),径
and 经 share the same initial consonant and vowel but the tone is diVerent.
The third rule is to interpret with a character sharing a similar pronunciation,
which applies to the cases where the interpreter and the interpreted do not
necessarily share the same initial consonant and vowel. The initial consonants
and vowels may be similar or very close.
Phonetic notation in DCCTThe scholars before Liu Xi generally adopted the methods of 直音 (direct
phonetic notation) and labels like 读若 (pronounced as). In DCCT, however,
Liu Xi began to make tentative use of the position and the manner of pronun-
ciation to describe the pronunciation of a character. His method is very close to
the descriptive phonetics today. Look at the citations from DCCT:
22. ‘天, 豫、司、兖、冀以舌腹言之。天, 显也, 在上高显也。青、徐舌头言
之。天, 坦也, 坦然高而远也。’
(天,豫,司,兖, and冀arepronouncedwith thebodyof the tongue.天 isdeWned
as显 ‘apparent andhighup’ and is pronouncedwith the tipof the tongue in the
regions of Qing and Xu, where天means坦 ‘Xat, high up, and distant’.)
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 127
23. ‘风, 兖、豫、司、冀横口合唇言之。风, 汜也, 其气博汜而动物也。青、
徐言风, 踧口开唇推气言之。风,放也,气放散也。’
(风,兖,豫,司, and冀 are pronounced by expanding the mouth and closing
the lips.风 is deWned as汜, meaning the air Xows and disturbs things.风 is
pronounced by contracting the mouth, opening the lips, and blowing air out
in the regions of Qing and Xu, where风means放 ‘releasing the air’.)
The terms used to describe the pronunciations in the above citations involve
舌腹 (the body of the tongue), 舌头 (tongue blade), 横口 (expansion of
mouth),合唇 (close lips), 踧口 (contraction of mouth), and开唇 (open lips).
All these terms are employed to describe the process of the articulation of a
character from the perspective of position andmanner of articulation. Owing to
the substantial drawbacks of science and technology of his time, Liu Xi’s
exploration in phonetic notation of Chinese characters was destined to be
primitive and pre-scientiWc, as he failed to accurately portray the sound values
of Chinese characters. His insights into phonetic description, however, are of
great signiWcance to scholars of later generations, especially to those compiling
character and word dictionaries.
8.4 the academic value and culturalinfluence of dcct
DCCT has it as its guiding principle and major objective to cover common
words and expressions that ordinary people use in everyday communication but
whose meaning and reference they fail to appreciate. It aims to deWne them and
‘make explicit their essence and reference’, and to fulWl the function of ‘under-
standing diYcult words and dissipating confusion’ (Preface to DCCT). It fol-
lows that DCCT embodies an adequate exposition of the three features of an
instructional dictionary. First, ‘a pedagogical dictionary usually adopts the
synchronic principle, for it is oriented to teach how to use the language, to
help solve the problems of speciWc words in use, and to facilitate linguistic
competence and performance.’ Second, the language materials in a pedagogical
dictionary are ‘mainly about the basic vocabulary of a language’. Third, the
corpus used in a pedagogical dictionary is ‘mainly contemporary, keeping a
good balance between the written and the spoken language’ (Yong Heming,
2003:63). Thus, DCCT falls into the category of a pedagogical dictionary.
128 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Academic Value of DCCTThe value of DCCTmay be considered from diVerent perspectives, that is, from
the angle of its function as a dictionary, from a linguistic dimension, and from a
sociological dimension.
First, from a user’s perspective, it fulWls the function of making explicit the
confusions surrounding the naming of many things and facilitating the analysis
of the regularities in naming objects. Look at the following citation:
24. ‘简, 间也。编之篇篇有间也。’
(简 is deWned as 间 ‘space, interval’, that is, between chapters.)
From Liu Xi’s description we can glean knowledge about how ‘books’ were
made during his time, corroborated by the discovery of bamboo slips from the
Han Dynasty. Here is another citation: 薜荔拍兮蕙绸 (from The Songs of Chu,
<楚辞�九歌>). According to the annotation byWang Yi (王逸), ‘拍means搏壁,
and 绸 means 束缚 ‘‘bind’’ ’. What does 搏壁 mean? This question puzzled
scholars for centuries. Then DCCT provided the answer:
25. ‘搏壁,以席搏著壁也。’
(搏壁 means ‘using matting to cover and decorate walls’.)
From the interpretation of 搏壁 in DCCT, the citation from The Songs of Chu
can be appropriately interpreted as ‘the bedroom is decorated with matting made
of climbing Wgs, which is bound up with Faber cymbidium’.
Secondly, scholars today can take advantage of the materials used in DCCT for
phonetic interpretation to study the phonetics of Chinese characters in the
Eastern Han Dynasty. A large number of illustrative examples represent how
the phonetic system actually functioned during Liu Xi’s time. Moreover, these
examples are also valuable data for the studies of ancient speech sounds. Look at
the following citation:
26. ‘车,古者曰车,声如居,言行所以居人也。今曰车,声近舍。车,舍也,行
者所处若居舍也。’
(In ancient times,车 ‘cart’ was pronounced as 居 /ju/, indicating ‘a place
to live in while travelling’. Today, it is pronounced as舍 /she/, indicating ‘a
place that seems to the traveller to be a house’.)
Liu Xi was a resident in Qing Province and it could be inferred that at that time
车 and舍 shared roughly the same pronunciation.
Thanks to DCCT’s preservation of intact phonetic interpretation materials,
several important Wndings have been achieved in the area of Chinese phonology:
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 129
(a) There were no light labials in ancient times according to Qian Daxin. Look
at the following citations:
27. ‘邦, 封也。’ (邦 is pronounced 封, meaning ‘seal’.)
28. ‘负,背也。’ (负 is pronounced背, meaning ‘back’.)
29. ‘法,逼也。’ (法 is pronounced逼, meaning ‘force’.)
In the above citations, the interpretative characters and the interpreted ones share
the same or similar pronunciation, which justiWes the statement that there had been
no diVerentiation of light and heavy labials by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
(b) In ancient Chinese phonology, 娘, 泥, 二 and 纽 were classiWed into the
category of泥, according to Zhang Binglin. Consider the following citations:
30. ‘男,任也。’ (男 is pronounced like任 ‘appointment’.)
31. ‘入,内也。’ (入 is pronounced like内 ‘inside’.)
In the above citations,任 and入 fell into the category of泥 in ancient times,
but falls into the category of日 in modern times.
(c) In ancient times, there was no diVerentiation between apical and dorsal,
according to Qian Daxin. Have a look at the following citations:
32. ‘达,彻也。’ (达 means彻 ‘completely’.)
33. ‘幢, 童也。’ (幢 means 童 ‘childhood’.)
In the above citations,彻 and幢 are ‘dorsal’ while达 and 童 are ‘apical’. These
two types had not been diVerentiated by that time.
Third, DCCT can serve as a tool showing in eVect how civilization developed
throughout the time itwascompiled.ThedeWnitionsofnamesandobjects, inessence,
area summaryofhumanknowledgeandwisdomaccumulatedatacertain stage in the
processofcivilization. In theEasternHanDynasty, themostoutstandingscientists are
ZhangHeng (张衡), Cai Lun (蔡伦), Zhang Zhongjing (张仲景), andHua Tuo (华
佗), whose achievements are marked by scientiWc sophistication. DCCT contains a
rich collectionof human thought andknowledgeof its time,which generally includes
(a)historicalknowledgeabout scienceandtechnology; (b)clothing, food, shelter, and
means of transport; (c) implements; (d) social customs; and (e) values.
Here are some citations from DCCT:
34. ‘脚,却也。以其坐时却在后也。’
(脚 means 却 ‘foot’, indicating the posture of sitting on the shanks with
feet remaining behind.)
When DCCT interprets脚 (foot), the posture of sitting is described, from which
it can be inferred that the same way of sitting as previously, that is, kneeling down
130 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
on the ground, had remained unchanged, but a fuller description of the posture
is provided.
35. ‘法,逼也。人莫不欲从其志,逼正使有所限也。’
(法 ‘law’ is pronounced as逼, meaning ‘force’. All people want to follow
their own inclination, but laws set limits on their conduct.)
36. ‘律, 累也。累人心,使不得放肆也。’
(律 ‘law, regulation’ is pronounced累 ‘fatigue’. Laws and regulations make
people feel fatigued at heart, eventually without becoming wanton and
unbridled.)
37. ‘口上曰髭。髭,姿也。为姿容之美也。’
(The hair on the upper part of the mouth is called 髭 ‘moustache’. 髭
means姿 ‘looks, appearance’, indicating the beauty of one’s looks.)
38. ‘颐下曰须。须,秀也。物成乃秀,人成而须生也。’
(The hair on the lower part of the mouth, the jaw, is called 须 ‘beard’. 须
means秀 ‘handsome’. When things grow bigger they look elegant. When
men grow the beard will appear.)
Examples (35) and (36) denote interpretations of ‘law’ and ‘regulations’, from
which it is clearly seen that the core meanings lie in execution by force – ‘make
someone not dare to be unbridled’. In the last two instances, the meanings of
‘beard’ and ‘moustache’ are explained and their aesthetic role for the people in
the Eastern Han Dynasty can be well appreciated.
Cultural InXuence of DCCTThe inXuences of DCCT can be seen mainly in annotative studies on DCCT, in
its implications for the ‘right radical theory’ (右文说) and etymological studies,
and in its indispensable role in the history of academic studies.
First, as far as annotative studies on DCCT are concerned, the Qing Dynasty
scholars have made the greatest contributions. The most inXuential work is Supple-
ments to the RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms (<释名疏证补>)by Wang Xianqian (王先谦). This work bears two distinctive features: one is its
exhaustive collection of generations of studies on DCCT. The main resources of
Wang Xianqian’s work come fromThe RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters and
Terms (<释名疏证>) by Bi Yuan (毕沅). It also includes supplementary annota-
tions by Cheng Rongjing (成蓉镜) and Sun Yirang (孙诒让) and materials from
other works that were scrupulously selected. The other distinctive feature is the direct
expression of the author’s analytical thoughts, which served as revision to those of
other scholars.
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 131
Second, from the linguistic perspective, DCCT initiated eVorts in etymological
studies. The linguistic philosophy in DCCT is of great signiWcance to scholars of
later generations, especially in the formation of the investigation mode – ‘to seek
meaning from the sound’. Liu Xi interprets a character with its sound symbol that
is a character by itself, as in ‘趾, 止也’, ‘颊, 夹也’, and ‘智, 知也’, interprets the
character of sound symbol with one of its proliferations, as in ‘阴, 荫也’, ‘皮, 被
也’, and ‘委, 萎也’, and interprets a character with a character having the same
sound symbol, as in ‘帐, 张也’, ‘慢, 漫也’, and ‘根, 跟也’. All these modes of
phonetic interpretation were original and exemplary and furnished the basis for
the development of the ‘right radical theory’.
Let us turn once again to the ‘right radical theory’. YangQuan (杨泉), a scholar of
the Jin Dynasty, says in hisOn Physics (<物理论>) that坚 (hard) applies to metal;
紧 (tight) applies to grass and wood; and贤 (virtuous) applies to human beings.
The three characters share roughly the same pronunciation and the same essence –
‘rigid, solid, and tight’. Wang Zishao (王子韶), a scholar of the Song Dynasty,
specialized in studying Chinese characters. His explanation of the ‘right radical
theory’ goes as follows: The classiWcation of characters is represented by the left part
of a character and the meaning by the right part, as in the case of the category of木
(woods, trees). The left part of the characters in this category is always木. The so-
called ‘right character’ stands for its meaning, as in the case of 戋, which means
‘little, small’. ‘Little water’ is thus浅 (shallow); ‘a small piece of money’ is钱 (cent);
‘little badness (歹)’ is残 (incomplete); and small shell (贝, used asmoney in ancient
times) is 贱 (cheap). All such words share the meaning of 戋 (‘small’ or ‘little’)
(from The Mengxi Collection of Written Dialogues, Volume 14, <梦溪笔谈>).Etymological studies advanced by leaps and bounds in the mode established by
Liu Xi in the Qing Dynasty. Duan Yucai, in his The Annotated Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, put forth the notion of ‘seeking semantics
from phonetics’. In the evolution of language, as he views it, the phonetic form
would come Wrst and the characters in written form, used to record the spoken
form, would come later. Thus, he concludes that when An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters states that a pronunciation comes from a certain character,
then the character that stands for the pronunciation should have the same
meaning as the character that is denoted, which is illustrated by the following
citation from Duan Yucai (1981:731):
39. ‘力者, 筋也。筋有脉络可寻, 故凡有理之字皆从力。阞者, 地理也; 朸
者,木理也;泐者,水理也。’
(力means筋 ‘veins’. Veins can be traced by their textures. Thus, all charac-
ters designating things with a texture will always have a component – 力
132 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
(force). Likewise,阞 designates the structure of landform;朸 designates the
texture of wood; and泐 designates the structure of a river system.)
Subsequent to DCCTemerged another signiWcant work exploring the etymol-
ogy of Chinese characters – Interpreting Bigness (<释大>) by Wang Niansun. His
contribution to the theory of ‘seeking semantics from phonetics’ is well em-
bodied in the following quotation from The RectiWed Broad Ready Guide (<广雅疏证>): ‘In seeking the ancient meaning from ancient pronunciation, attention
should be given to how meaning is extended by analogy, not to be conWned by
form and structure’.
Etymology had not become a relatively serious and systematic branch of learning
until Zhang Taiyan (章太炎) published The Beginnings of Chinese Characters (<文始>) andWang Li published The Cognate Dictionary of Characters (<同源字典>).All this progress in etymological study can be traced to the basic framework laid
down by Liu Xi in his DCCTand can be thought of as extensions of his etymological
endeavours.
Finally, from the perspective of academic history, DCCT, as a pedagogical
dictionary, embodies, to some extent, a summary of the scientiWc investigations
of its time in its explanations, marking the knowledge level the people in the
Eastern Han Dynasty had reached. At the same time, it also functions as a bridge
to facilitate the passing on of civilization from one generation to another.
the dictionary of chinese characters and terms 133
9
THEORETICAL INQUIRIESINTO LEXICOGRAPHICAL
ISSUES IN ANCIENTCHINA: A SURVEY
THE earliest dictionaries in the world originated about 4,000 years ago in the
Middle East. They were mainly bilingual glossaries. About one thousand
years later in ancient India dictionaries were also compiled in the form of bilingual
glossaries for explaining the diYcult words in Veda. The earliest dictionary in
China can be traced back to The Ready Guide, a monolingual dictionary compiled
2,200 years ago. Lexicography, a branch of learning with such a long history, has
made brilliant and indispensable contributions to world civilization and at the
same time has formed a culture of its own. Viewed from a diVerent perspective,
lexicography can also be considered a newly emerging discipline whose theoretical
generalization and methodological formulation are still in the process of being
matured and perfected, with the deepening of lexicographical investigations and
the constant interaction between dictionary compilation and language studies.
The Chinese character dictionary is a unique product of lexicographical
culture in China. The term 字典 (character dictionary) was coined before the
Tang Dynasty, which can be justiWed by the fact that it occurred nine times in
Sounds andMeanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures (<大藏音义>) by Hui Lin (seeQian Jianfu, 1989). After the publication of The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi the
term ‘character dictionary’ began to become popular. The term 辞典 (literally
‘diction dictionary’ or ‘word dictionary’) is said to have been introduced at the
end of the Qing Dynasty into Chinese from English via Japanese, which also uses
Chinese characters to translate Western words. Lexicography was rendered into
Chinese as 词典 (or 辞典 or 辞书) 编纂法 before 1978, relying heavily on its
deWnition in English and strongly suggesting an over-emphasis on the practical
side of lexicography. As lexicography progresses in modern times, theoretical
inquiries are beginning to gain more and more prominence. Since 1978 the term
词典学 has been established as the standard translation for its English equivalent
‘lexicography’, for it has attained gradual recognition as a relatively independent
discipline, embracing whatever aspects are concerned with dictionary making
and related theoretical research.
9.1 the origin of lexicography
The lexicographical culture in China evolved from the compilation of character-
learning textbooks and wordbooks. In remote times, all the work relating to
textbook or wordbook compilation would have to be started from scratch –
specifying the purpose, establishing principles and methods, delimiting the
coverage, choosing the most appropriate mode and procedure for deWning
word senses, and designing the scientiWc and standard criteria for regulating
compilation. As far as compilation is concerned, all the above aspects need to be
considered systematically before a wordbook or dictionary project can be initi-
ated. It must have taken a great deal of time and wisdom for the style of
wordbooks and dictionaries in ancient times to be transformed into the scientiWc
and standardized style of modern lexicography, during which process ancient
lexicography in China started to take shape, gradually growing and maturing as
these crucial questions were taken into consideration.
Chinese characters started to emerge and evolve about 6,000 years ago and the
literature of Chinese characters began to appear and develop from the Xia Dynasty.
According to The Book of the Han Dynasty, even after the Burning Book Event in
the Qin Dynasty, there were still over 140 categories of Pre-Qin works that survived
to the Western Han Dynasty, including immortal works like Zuo’s Spring and
Autumn Annals, The National Language, and The Spring and Autumn. These re-
sources provided not only valuable data for compiling wordbooks and dictionaries
but also an inspiration for creating new stylistic prototypes.
Chinese lexicography can be traced back to the earliest textbooks compiled for
children to learn characters. In the Zhou Dynasty, the oYcial historian was in
charge of education and the earliest textbook of such a kind available today is
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 135
Historian Zhou’s Primer. In the Qin Dynasty, Li Si, the Premier in the Wrst
Emperor’s reign, wrote The Cangjie Primer, and there were two other textbooks,
namely The Yuanli Primer and The Scholarly Primer. In the Han Dynasty, there
appeared some other well-known textbooks, such as The General Primer, The
Instant Primer, The Yuanshang Primer, The Exegetic Primer, and The Pangxi
Primer. Based on these textbooks and the achievements in textual research and
exegetic interpretations of ancient classics, dictionaries of various types came
into being, the thematic dictionary such as The Ready Guide by scholars in the
early Han Dynasty, the philological dictionary such as An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters, the dialectal dictionary such as The Dictionary of Dialectal
Words, and the phonetically interpretive dictionary such as The Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and Terms. The characters in these textbooks, wordbooks, and
dictionaries underwent great changes in their forms and structures – from
dazhuan to xiaozhuan, the standardized style of writing in the Qin Dynasty,
and to the oYcial script, the standardized style of writing in the Han Dynasty. The
coverage of those books was ever-increasing. There is a strong heritage link among
these books, such as the style of compilation, the scope of coverage and entry
selection, the style of deWningwords, citation and phonetic notation, format setting,
and so on. A successive and consistent inheritance is clearly detectable from one to
the other among these textbooks, wordbooks, and dictionaries.
The evolution from Historian Zhou’s Primer to The Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Terms implies something more important than simply the passing
on and development of compilation styles. The theoretical generalization and
progression of lexicography gained from dictionary making in ancient China and
the establishment of prototype dictionaries – the thesaurus dictionary, the
dialectal dictionary, the etymological dictionary, and the Chinese character
dictionary have laid a solid foundation and paved the way for the fundamental
development of future dictionary research and compilation.
9.2 the advent of lexicography
Lexicography is an endeavour in which practice usually precedes theory. Dic-
tionary making can be traced back about 4,000 years from a worldwide perspec-
tive and over 2,000 years in China, but the systematic theoretical investigations of
dictionary making did not start until the twentieth century, though fragmentary
probes started almost simultaneously with the emergence of the Wrst stream of
136 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
dictionaries in the history of Chinese lexicography. The relatively short history of
modern lexicography does mean that the basic notions, principles, and method-
ologies of lexicography have been formed and developed in quite recent times,
though some fundamental notions and concepts can be traced back to when
dictionary or wordbook making started in ancient times. These important
notions and concepts were mainly pre-theoretical ideas which had not under-
gone systematic generalization, due to time limitation or other conceivable
factors. They were mainly embodied in the dictionaries or wordbooks them-
selves, in their organization and treatment of each entry word. Only when the
compilers felt it necessary would they discuss these lexicographic issues collect-
ively in the front or back matter, such as the preface, foreword, introduction, or
epilogue. In the Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, a
rather systematic and comprehensive discussion was conducted of the guidelines,
nature, function, structure, and methodology of dictionary making. It could be
viewed as the earliest literature on lexicography dealing with the theoretical
questions concerning the macrostructure of a dictionary. In the Preface to The
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms, the name-essence theories of the pre-
Qin scholars, especially the rectiWcation theory by Xun Zi, were employed in
dictionary making for the Wrst time to seek the nature of naming object words
and their origins. Certainly, it could be viewed as the Wrst literature on lexicog-
raphy dealing with the exegetic interpretation of words from the perspective of
etymology. These two important monologues mark the birth of lexicographic
ideas, the inception of theoretical formulation in ancient Chinese lexicography.
Dictionary function is a fundamental issue in lexicographical theorization, and
it is also a practical question for the compilers before they start their dictionary
projects. Lexicographers usually adopt a much broader vision than practical
compilers do, for they have to take the dictionary as a whole to investigate its
macro-level functions and to investigate its socio-cultural values against an even
broader socio-cultural background. Dictionary compilers, on the other hand,
will mainly concern themselves with practical issues concerning dictionary mak-
ing and concrete values of individual dictionaries.
The traditional research on dictionary function has long been under the
inXuence of the ideology of language ontology. Thus, a dictionary is taken merely
as a tool for people to retrieve and consult information. This view of the
dictionary as a tool has dominated the research on dictionary function for
many centuries. It is undeniable that retrieval and consultation should be the
most primitive and practical function of a dictionary. However, the function of a
dictionary cannot be limited to providing linguistic information only no matter
how complicated the information is, especially for the well-educated (see Bejoint,
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 137
1994:115). Many scholars (see Zgusta, 1971; Bejoint, 1994) have conducted a great
deal of research into the practical use of the dictionary. In the light of their
studies, dictionary functions can be summarized into three categories: descrip-
tive, didactic, and ideological. A dictionary can aim at describing all or part of the
words of a language, and, consequently, the lexicon of a dictionary may be the
vocabulary of one speciWc language, the terms of one speciWc branch of learning,
or the concordance of a speciWc writer or even a speciWc work of a writer. The
dictionary can also have a pedagogical purpose, that is, to provide information
concerning the semantics and usage of words so that the user can beneWt by
improving their intra-cultural and intercultural communication. The dictionary
can perform ideological functions as well, as ideological weapons for defending
‘social morals and values’ (Bejoint, 1994) so as to enhance the unity and integrity
of a linguistic community. In a word, retrieval and consultation are the principal
functions of the dictionary but this represents only part of the dictionary
function. No description of dictionary function can be said to be complete
without the incorporation of the three categories mentioned above.
It is a long evolutionary process for the dictionary to formulate the three
general functions above. For instance, the descriptive function of a dictionary has
been realized in modern times. At an early stage, the function of wordbooks and
dictionaries was mainly pedagogical, with a strong Xavour of standardization or
prescriptivism. Later, with the development of the social function of a dictionary,
the ideological function was strengthened. In the periods of the Spring Autumn
and the Warring States, China possessed vast territories and was enjoying an
ever-increasing economic prosperity. Consequently, social communication be-
came more frequent and the drawback of having numerous dialects was acutely
felt both by the general public and the educated. Wordbooks and glossaries,
because of their own limitations, could no longer bear the burden of enlighten-
ment, pedagogy, and standardization, hence The Ready Guide came into being.
The didactic and standardization functions are still dominant in many dic-
tionaries today. To realize such functions through dictionaries is by no means a
novelty but an important contribution to Chinese lexicographic culture made by
scholars of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties. The dictionaries of the Han Dynasty
also played an ideological role in helping ‘to interpret the classic works, to
advocate Confucian ideas, to maintain the sovereign, and to consolidate the
foundation of the government’, in addition to ‘interpretative’ and ‘corrective’
functions of ‘rectifying misinterpretations and facilitating understanding of the
Classics’. The ideological function has its roots in a naıve and embryonic under-
standing of the roles and characters of language in the social community of
ancient times. Characters are ‘the foundation of scripts and arts’ and ‘the source
138 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
of His Majesty’s sovereign’. Only when the ‘source’ is inexhaustible can the
‘streams’ have enough water for navigation. Similarly, characters and writing
are the prerequisites for ‘enlightenment, education, and civilization’. Speech
‘makes direct communication possible for people in the same linguistic commu-
nity’ and ‘the invention of characters promotes the transmission of civilization in
a more stable and accurate fashion’. Dictionaries record the characters and their
behaviour and keep them as standards for later generations. Thus, they will, from
a historical point of view, function as ‘a mirror to the past’ and as ‘a milestone for
guiding later generations’.
Dictionaries in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties were the product of scholars’
investigation into and reXection upon dictionary typology, functions, and their
interactive relationships. Actually, dictionary making in the Han Dynasty man-
ifested an apparent evolutionary process – from simple character lists to charac-
ter lists with interpretative notes, and then to wordbooks and dictionaries. With
regard to the pioneering primers and glossaries of the pre-Qin period, the
progress was steady, the number of characters listed was constantly on the
increase, and the expansion of interpretative notes was conspicuous. There was,
however, no apparent diVerentiation in dictionary types. The purpose of those
early primers was simple: to solve the problems of learning characters and
reading classic works. The progression from The Ready Guide to The Dictionary
of Chinese Characters and Terms portrays a picture of the major dictionary
prototypes of modern times. In terms of its arrangement of entries, The Ready
Guide can be classiWed as a thesaurus because its entries are arranged according to
the semantic relations of the characters rather than their spelling. But in terms of
its scope of coverage, it can be considered an encyclopedic dictionary. This binary
feature is a universal attribute of the dictionary in the early stage of dictionary
making worldwide. The entry arrangement characterized by semantic categor-
ization is the most convenient when there is no other more appropriate method
available. As to its encyclopedic nature, this would be the simplest means of entry
selection when the dictionary makers had not yet formulated a clear picture of
what to cover, what function to perform, and what principles to follow.
Purposes for which dictionaries are compiled to serve will inevitably change
with the development of the society. Dictionary functions become more and
more speciWc, and the types of dictionary become reasonably diversiWed. For
instance, there appeared The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, a dialect dictionary
for interpreting a great variety of characters used in diVerent regional dialects,
The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms, an etymological dictionary for
‘discussing and pointing out’ the reference of expressions and for ‘exploring the
source and origin of expressions’, and An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 139
Characters, designed to seek the meanings of characters, analyse their form and
structure, and inquire into their origins. The diVerent purposes of dictionary
making are to be instantiated as diVerent functions, which are bound to bring
about a stream of new types of dictionary.
Some important ideas on dictionary making in the Zhou, Qin, and Han
dynasties were also embedded in the discussions on the theory of Six Categories.
The Six Categories refers to the six ways of analysing the form and structure of
Chinese characters. As early as in the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was oYcially
recognized as one of the six subjects in formal education. In The Rites of the
Zhou Dynasty, it was only a general term and was not speciWed. From the Zhou
to the Eastern Han Dynasty, relevant discussions and explorations into the
Six Categories had formed a sound basis for ancient studies of Chinese characters
and philology.
It was Zheng Zhong, a scholar of the Han Dynasty, who gave a speciWcation
of the terms for Six Categories in his notes on The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty:
‘pictographic (象形), ideographic (会意), mutually explanatory (转注), event-
denoting (处事), loaning (假借), and sound-matching (谐声)’. In The Book of
the Han Dynasty, Six Categories refers to pictographic (象形), event descriptive
(象事), meaning descriptive (象意), sound descriptive (象声), mutually ex-
planatory (转注), and loaning (假借), which are taken as ‘the fundamental
ways of creating Chinese characters’. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters not only oVers a further explication of the theory of Six Categories
but also takes it as the theoretical framework for investigating and interpreting
ancient characters, exploring their origins, and analysing the changes in the
form and structure of characters from ancient times to the investigator’s time,
or analysing the patterns in the form and structure of those newly invented
characters. This explains why its Wndings are more reliable, more consistent,
and more coherent.
In his Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, Xu Shen
puts forward a systematic explication and discussion of the theory of Six Cat-
egories. His discussion of the Six Categories theory has some distinct features. For
instance, the sequence of the Six Categories is diVerent: in Ban Gu and Zheng
Xuan’s sequence, ‘pictographic’ goes before ‘event-denoting’, whereas, in Xu
Shen’s sequence, ‘event-denoting’ is put at the front, which is not a simple
theoretical dispute but represents their diVerent aesthetic notions about Chinese
characters. It is also a manifestation of Xu Shen’s more thorough and profound
thinking on Chinese characters and philology, and his theoretical probe into
some basic lexicographical issues. Such a sequence has, at least in theory, paved
the way for constructing a stylistic manual and for establishing the principles
140 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
of deWnition. In other words, Xu Shen introduced the theory of Six Categories into
the semantic interpretation of Chinese characters in dictionary making, and for
the Wrst time turned the principles of character analysis into a speciWc compilation
style, that is, interpreting the (basic) meaning of a character from analysing its
form and structure, and, to a certain extent, having strengthened themethodology
of character interpretation.
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters attempted to analyse diachron-
ically the form and structure of one type of Chinese character, i.e. xiaozhuan, and
trace the origins of Chinese character creation. It is the Wrst successful attempt
to design and establish the megastructure of a Chinese character dictionary on
the basis of the theory of Six Categories. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters has become a monumental landmark for its comprehensive and com-
plete classiWcation of Chinese characters from the time the First Emperor of the
Qin Dynasty united China. The Six Categories theory has become a theoretical
foundation stone for making dictionaries of the Chinese language ever since.
9.3 the formation of macro-level stylesfor dictionary making
The main body of the dictionary is where lexicographical information resides,
thus the core of a dictionary. As for the general structure of modern dictionaries,
two main interconnecting threads can be found linking entries together and
weaving them into a coherent whole. These two threads are the vertical paradig-
matic structure, i.e. the macrostructure, and the horizontal syntagmatic struc-
ture, i.e. the microstructure. The former forms the backbone of a dictionary and
the latter constitutes the basic unit of a dictionary – the entry. In modern
dictionary making, the backbone falls into two main types: the alphabetical or
radical arrangement and the thematic arrangement. The alphabetical or radical
arrangement emphasizes the formal features of the language or its writing
system, while the thematic arrangement is based on the semantic relations
between lexical items. It takes about 1,000 years for the alphabetical arrangement
to evolve and mature, for example, in English lexicography, from The Leiden
Glossary to Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language. For the radical
arrangement to mature, it takes about 1,500 years, for example, in China, from An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters to The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi.
For the thematic arrangement, it also takes about 1,000 years to mature in English
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 141
lexicography, for example from The Leiden Glossary to Thesaurus of English Words
and Phrases (1852) and in China about 2,300 years, for example from The Ready
Guide to The Thesaurus of Chinese Words and Expressions (<同义词词林>, 1983)compiled by Mei Jiaju (梅家驹) et al. and published by the Shanghai Lexicograph-
ical Publishing House.
Thematic arrangementThematic or thesaurus arrangement, which appears earlier than alphabetical or
radical arrangement, is very common for the macrostructure of a dictionary. The
main feature of thematic layout is the classiWcation or grouping of words
according to their semantic relations. The method of thematic layout is estab-
lished on the theory of semantic Weld but is not derived from this theory. It had
been practised for several hundred years before serious theoretical investigation
was carried out. Based on the literature currently available, Chinese lexicog-
raphers are the pioneers who Wrst applied the thematic method of entry arrange-
ment to dictionary making, preceding their Western counterparts by over 2,000
years in Romanic alphabetic arrangement and by at least several hundred years in
radical arrangement.
Thematic arrangement can be traced back to the glossaries compiled during
the Qin and Han Dynasties but its actual beginning is in The Ready Guide. The
Ready Guide is the initiator of the arrangement of entries on the basis of semantic
categorization, though its categorization and thematic conceptualization are
rudimentary. A look at the arrangement of entries in The Dictionary of Dialectal
Words will reveal the same characteristics of semantic division and grouping. This
dictionary has thirteen chapters. Apart from the Wrst three chapters and the last
two, each of the remaining chapters deals with one class of words and characters.
For instance, Chapter 4 deals mainly with garments and Chapter 5 with utensils
for everyday use. Therefore, the style of layout in The Dictionary of Dialectal
Words is a reXection of the idea of ‘seeking dialectal words according to their
categories’, though the dialectal words and expressions are extensively drawn
from diVerent dialectal regions.
The practice of thematic ordering in both The Ready Guide and The Dictionary
of Dialectal Words is the basis for the Wnal formation of the compilation style of
‘seeking dialectal words according to their categories’. This partly explains why
The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms looks much more mature than
The Ready Guide in entry arrangement. The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and
Terms comprises twenty-seven major categories in total, but there are still ‘things
not included’. To compensate for this defect, Liu Xi proposes this principle for
142 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
entry arrangement: ‘for those items not included, wisdom has to be resorted to in
order to seek according to the classes they belong to’. The Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Terms has set a very good example for later Chinese dictionaries
to follow in semantic categorization and grouping. Its contribution to the theory
and compilation of thematic dictionaries is unique and permanent. If The Ready
Guide is taken as a pioneer in thematic dictionary making, The Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and Termswill be the landmark in the theoretical formation of
thematic arrangement in the sense that its thematic arrangement is more sys-
tematic, the principle of ‘seeking according to the classes they belong to’ is
adequately expressed and practised. The coherent and systematic summarization
and reXections concerning the development of thematic ordering from The
Ready Guide to The Dictionary of Dialectal Words is a good illustration of
the emergence of the theoretical conceptualization of thematic arrangement
in the history of Chinese lexicography.
In the history of English lexicography, thematic arrangement was Wrst found in
the earliest four bilingual glossaries, and The Leiden Glossarywas among them. This
practice was further developed in the Latin–Old English glossaries of around the
tenth century. In the eleventh century, the practice gained yet further development
and this could be seen in a Latin–Anglo-Saxon glossary. This glossary consists of
eighteen parts and their titles are as follows: (1) God, heaven, angels, archangels, sun,
moon, earth, sea; (2) man, woman, the parts of the body; (3) terms of consanguin-
ity, professional and trades people, artisans; (4) diseases; (5) abstract terms, e.g.
impious, just, prudent, etc.; (6) terms for parts of the year, days of theweek, seasons,
weather; (7) colours; (8) birds; (9) Wshes; (10) beasts; (11) herbs; (12) trees; (13) house
furnishings; (14) kitchen and cooking utensils; (15) weapons; (16) parts of the city;
(17) metals and precious stones; (18) general – both abstract and concrete terms
(Starnes 1946). A comparison betweenThe Ready Guide and the Latin-Anglo-Saxon
glossary will display surprisingly similar items in semantic categorization. In both
books some of the themes (or subtitles), such as trees, birds, beasts, Wshes, herbs,
kitchen and cooking utensils, are exactly the same; some with a little variation; and
the rest are completely diVerent due to diVerences in the authors’ socio-cultural
background and in their preferences. The semantic categorization in this bilingual
glossary, which appeared 1,300 years later than The Ready Guide, is generally not as
comprehensive or well-focused as that of The Ready Guide, to say nothing of The
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms.
Thematic arrangement is based on semantic categorization and meaning
grouping. Before adopting the methodology of thematic ordering, the compilers
must carefully examine the data collected and classify them into diVerent cat-
egories. These classiWcations need to be further divided into sub-categories.
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 143
Due to insuYcient theoretical and technological support at the time of compil-
ation, there remains a great deal of room for improvement in semantic categor-
ization and lexical grouping in The Ready Guide and The Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Terms.
Classifying characters into diVerent sectionsThe Han Dynasty experienced the transition of Chinese dictionary making from
wordlists and glossaries to character dictionaries and word dictionaries. The
macro-level stylistic format of the Chinese dictionary undoubtedly originated
from and was inspired by the arrangement of entries in wordlists and glossaries.
The earliest discussion of entry layout in Chinese literature is found in Shi You’s
The Instant Primer:
Quickly learn the rarely seen drinking vessels and many diVerent things: enumerate the
names of objects, people, and families; classify them into diVerent sections and they will
not be easily mixed up. Occasional consultation will deWnitely be a pleasure – for it is
quick to retrieve, and if enormous time and energy is put into it, there will surely be
surprising rewards.
The practice of classifying into diVerent sections without confusion can be
traced back to The General Primer, compiled 500 years earlier than The Instant
Primer, but the latter generalized the practice into a compilation principle that
guided the making of early wordbooks and glossaries. Shi You claimed that it is a
text for enlightenment and that the words collected are all-embracing; they are
sensibly classiWed into diVerent sections; there is no redundancy or repetition;
therefore, it will be time-saving and much beneWt will accrue if the heart and soul
is put into it.
Classifying into diVerent sections without confusion becomes a principle rigidly observed
by later dictionary compilers whether they follow radical arrangement, thematic arrange-
ment, or rhyming arrangement. This principle and the criteria andmethods derived from
it are still dominant in Chinese dictionary making today. (Qian Jianfu, 1989)
In The Ready Guide, the words are semantically classiWed into nineteen cat-
egories, such as Interpreting Exegesis, Interpreting Words, Interpreting Rhetoric,
and Interpreting Relatives. These speciWc classiWcations are not found in the
wordbooks or wordlists compiled earlier and should be regarded as a creation
of The Ready Guide. The entry arrangement in The Ready Guide bears at its root
the idea of ‘classifying into diVerent sections without confusion’, which becomes
an important thread running through the evolution of the macro-level dictionary
layout in Chinese lexicography.
144 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Relating characters by the radicals sharedIt took centuries for the entry layout to evolve from ‘classifying characters into
diVerent sections’ to ‘relating characters by the radicals they share’. In the case of
early character lists, glossaries, and even The Ready Guide, consultation was
extremely cumbersome, though a good deal of work had been done in semantic
categorization and lexical grouping. Lexicographers had to Wnd a new way.
‘Classifying characters into diVerent sections without confusion’ considerably
helped to facilitate the process of looking up the target character but with low
eYciency. Xu Shen invented a new system for retrieval and consultation through
analysing the form and structure of Chinese characters, which started from 一
and ended end at 亥 and arranged characters according to the families they
belonged to and the inherent properties they shared. That helped users to get to
know the change and the profound underlying relationships.
‘Relating characters by the radicals they share’ was an innovation in entry
arrangement. In essence, it was to arrange the entry characters according to the
radical components they share, that is, to start from the simplest radical 一 to
the last radical 亥. There are 540 radicals altogether, each governing a set of
characters sharing the same radical component. About 10,000 Chinese characters
could thus be ‘classiWed into diVerent sections without confusion’. The guiding
principle of such a classiWcation is that ‘things are to be sorted and grouped
together’ and the basis for classiWcation is ‘to relate characters by the radicals they
share’. The radicals identiWed by Xu Shen have some deWciencies, or even defects,
which have undergone constant improvement from The Jade Chapters to The
Imperial Dictionary of Kang Xi. It is undeniable that the radical ordering, char-
acterized by ‘relating characters according to the radicals they share’, marks an
important breakthrough in the exploration of entry layout in the lexicographical
history of China. It was an innovation that had, generally speaking, captured the
characteristics and patterns of the form and structure of Chinese characters. Even
today, it is still popular and remains an indispensable way for systematically
arranging entry characters and eYciently retrieving character information in the
Chinese dictionary.
Note that ‘relating characters according to the radicals they share’ is a very
general principle adopted by Xu Shen to guide his arrangement of entries. ‘Form’
is the dominant thread linking entries and at the same time the semantic relations
are taken into consideration – the entries are arranged in a similar way to the
structure of a tree: the trunk having branches and the branches having leaves. In
such an arrangement, the relationships are clearly sorted and presented in a
coherent mode. To sum up, the macrostructure of Xu Shen’s arrangement of
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 145
character entries bears some distinctive features: the form is dominant and the
meaning subordinate, characters are related according to the radicals they share,
and the meanings are obtained by analysing the forms and structures of the
corresponding characters.
‘Meaning-categorized arrangement’, ‘classifying characters into diVerent sec-
tions’, and ‘relating characters according to the radicals they share’ are the key
notions of entry arrangement developed in the Han Dynasty, representing the
important stages of serious theoretical research in this regard in the early period
of Chinese lexicography. These notions indicate the advent of serious theoretical
investigations into dictionaries and dictionary making in ancient China.
9.4 the formation of micro-levelformat for dictionary making
The macrostructure of a dictionary represents how the entries are linked together
vertically, while the microstructure of a dictionary represent the way individual
entries are organized and diVerent information about the entry is arranged
horizontally. Basically, microstructure consists of two parts: the ‘formal descrip-
tion’ (the left core structure) and the ‘semantic interpretation’ (the right core
structure). These two parts can be regarded as the ‘comments’ on the ‘topic’
introduced by the headword. In the left core structure, the ‘formal description’
involves types of information, such as spelling, morphology, syntax, and phonetics.
In the right core structure, the ‘semantic interpretation’ involves types of informa-
tion, such as deWnition, usage, and etymology. So the head character represents the
topic to be discussed and developed. Normally, an entry starts with the head
character, followed by diVerent kinds of information arranged in such a sequence
as spelling, phonetics, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and semantics. The entry
ends with etymological information, especially in large-size dictionaries. In the
microstructure of a dictionary, semantic information is usually core information,
thus the most essential part of an entry. In an entry, the semantic information is
likely to be accompanied by illustrative citations; this aims to show the context for
its appropriate or typical use or to help the user to understand the deWnition. This
is a general summary of the structural features and informational contents of the
modern dictionary, which is the result of evolution over twenty or thirty centuries.
What follows is a survey of the evolution of the microstructure of ancient Chinese
dictionaries, involving coverage, deWnition, citation, and phonetic notation.
146 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
CoverageFor wordbooks, glossaries, or dictionaries of ancient times, either monolingual
or bilingual, either in Chinese or other languages, there exists an inevitable
tradition, that is, the diYcult word tradition, which still exists today. One
possible reason is that the grammar and vocabulary of a language are mainly
imparted orally, through the teacher’s voice, from generation to generation
(Murray, 1900). For the early dictionary makers, the words and expressions
used in everyday life seldom posed any diYculties to people but it is the diYcult
words of the classics, which are hard to remember and use that deserve special
attention and treatment. For instance, what are recorded in The Ready Guide as
headwords are mainly characters from ancient classics whose meanings are
obsolete or ancient characters whose meanings are still in everyday use. As
pointed out by Zheng Xuan, ‘The Ready Guide . . . is aimed at interpreting the
Six Arts’ (The RectiWcation of the Interpretative Dictionary of the Five Classics,
<驳五经异义>). It is a common feature of early wordbooks and dictionaries to
pay special attention to diYcult words and overlook the words and expressions
used in everyday communication.
As far as the unit of the entry is concerned, it is generally believed that what are
included in ancient wordbooks and glossaries are monosyllabic words as all the
words in ancient books are monosyllabic. It follows that dictionaries are all in fact
character dictionaries. This is not what it was for dictionary making in ancient
times in China. Judging from the character lists and workbooks compiled during
the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties, what are included as headwords involve not
only monosyllabic words but also a certain number of bi- or multi-syllabic
compound and complex words. The Cangjie Primer is a good case in point (see
Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters). In The Ready Guide,
The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, and An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, the majority of the entries are headed by monosyllabic words, but
compound and complex words also occasionally appear in the macrostructure.
Names of objects are mostly compound and complex words. In addition to
monosyllabic words, The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms, by its
nature, deals mainly with compound and complex words. To sum up, the
headword unit of the entry in ancient dictionaries in China is in most cases the
monosyllabic word, but the occurrence of bi- or even multi-syllabic words is by
no means rare and is a necessary complementary part of the macrostructure.
In terms of the attributes of the entry word, there has been a long-lasting
tradition of embracing both general names (general linguistic words) and proper
names (encyclopedic terms) in wordbooks and dictionaries in ancient China.
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 147
This tradition had its roots in ancient character textbooks or reading primers.
The Ready Guide and the dictionaries subsequent to it not only followed suit but
also carried it further. In his Preface to The Annotated Dictionary of Dialectal
Words, Guo Pu states:
It is heard that in compiling The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, [its author] travelled
to numerous states and made an extensive collection of dialectal words from diVerent
speeches. Where the carts converge and where people ever set their feet on, [its author]
would reach there and make a record of their speech and have them described in
his book.
The Dictionary of Dialectal Words lists words and expressions in diVerent
places, and naturally general terms and proper names should also be included
in its coverage. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Charactersmust also ‘record
all the names of the objects ever seen by human beings’ and its extensive coverage
requires that both general and proper names be embraced.
The inclusion of both ancient and contemporary words, standard, colloquial
and/or slang words in dictionaries compiled in the Han Dynasty was an import-
ant feature of entry coverage. It is pointed out in the Preface to The Ready Guide
that the objective of Interpreting Exegesis and Interpreting Words is ‘to bridge
ancient characters with modern ones’, and naturally it records those ‘words that
are diVerent in ancient and contemporary times’. The Dictionary of Dialectal
Words regards it as one of its main aims to interpret dialectal words in the Qin
and Han Dynasties that are unintelligible to later generations.
To summarize, scholars in the Qin and Han Dynasties established a multidi-
mensional and multilevel entry setting system characterized by ‘vertical and
horizontal crosscutting, embracing ancient and contemporary, with spatial and
temporal relationships also considered’. Based on this system, they also developed
a model for entry layout and entry coverage. This model is highly functional and
is followed by later dictionary makers.
Word/character meaning interpretationThe theories of semantic interpretations of words and characters developed in
the Han Dynasty are based mainly on philosophic epistemology – language is the
expression of thought. As early as in the Pre-Qin period, it was acknowledged
that ‘what should be treasured in speech is the meaning it entails’ and that ‘only
when the meaning is conceived can the word be popularized’ (Zhuang Zi), a
proposition successively discussed by many scholars, such as Yang Xiong, Xu
Shen, and Liu Xi. They all believe that words with meaning are ‘the sound of
148 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
thinking’, ‘the inner ideas beyond the word form’, and the result of ‘the outward
expression of inner thought’. When this philosophical epistemology was applied
to meaning interpretation in dictionary making by the Han Dynasty scholars, the
principles for meaning interpretation in dictionary compilation were beginning
to take shape in the minds of lexicographers:
investigating the meaning of characters from a diachronic perspective, using citations to
justify the meanings of characters interpreted, making a rational interpretation and
diVerentiation of meanings of characters, with a view to matching the words (the
name) and their contents (the essence). (邹酆, Zou Feng, 2001:231)
The establishment of the principles for interpretation of meaning in lexicog-
raphy is an important achievement in theoretical inquiries into deWnitions in the
Qin and Han Dynasties.
Lexical semantics and word deWnition in the Chinese language did not origin-
ate from the practice of compiling wordbooks and dictionaries but, in more
remote times, from textbook compilation for children to learn Chinese charac-
ters. The great majority of works classiWed as being of a philological nature in The
Book of the Han Dynasty contain explanatory notes explicating the meaning of
some characters and expressions. For instance, the notes in Historian Zhou’s
Primer are frequently quoted by Xu Shen in writing An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters. Supplement to Sounds and Meanings of all the Buddhist
Scriptures (<正续一切经音义>) contains some restored materials of The Cang-
jie Primer, fromwhich it can be inferred that there are not only interpretations on
the content of words and expressions but also the extensive use of some methods,
which come to be recognized as phonetic interpretation (声训), formal inter-
pretation (形训), and semantic interpretation (义训) in traditional Chinese
philology. Moreover, interpretations on extended meanings or multiple mean-
ings of the same word or character are also found in The Cangjie Primer, for
instance:
1. ‘剧:病笃也,又云增甚也。’
(剧 means病笃 ‘serious illness’, also 增甚 ‘aggravate’.)
2. ‘措: 置也,又安也,亦施也。’
(措 means 置 ‘handle’, also安 ‘arrange’, and also施 ‘implement’.)
‘Phonetic interpretation’, ‘formal interpretation’ and ‘semantic interpretation’
are methods established in traditional exegetic studies in China. These methods
have been in continuous use since the Qin and Han Dynasties and a notational
system for ‘formal interpretation’ has come into existence. The Ready Guide and
The Dictionary of Dialectal Words mainly employ ‘semantic interpretation’. The
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 149
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms makes extensive use of ‘phonetic
interpretation’, but the inventor of this method is not ascribable to Liu Xi.
Citations can be found in some works much earlier than The Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and Terms, for example:
3. ‘政者, 正也。’ (<论语�颜渊>)(政 means 正 ‘correct, rule’.)
4. ‘洚水者, 洪水也。’(<孟子�滕文公下>).(洚水 means 洪水 ‘Xood’.)
In addition to adopting the methods of ‘phonetic interpretation’ and ‘semantic
interpretation’, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters is more frequent
in its use of semantic interpretation that ‘starts from analysing the form but ends
with meaning interpretation’. The notational system of ‘formal interpretation’
is for the Wrst time established by Xu Shen for Chinese dictionaries. In this
system, pictographic and self-explanatory characters are annotated as 象 . . .
之形 or 指事 directly; ideographic characters are annotated as 从 . . . 从 . . . ;
and pictophonetic characters as 从 . . . , . . . 声. He also designed a common
notational marker, i.e. 凡 . . . 之属皆从 . . . for pictographic, self-explanatory,
and ideographic characters (Zou Feng, 2001:232). Notational markers of this kind
can relate the form of the character to its meanings, refer the character to its
antecedents, and clarify the hierarchical relationships. Moreover, these innov-
ations serve as precedents and incentives for lexicographers, exercising a pro-
found impact on notation marking and co-reference in compiling wordbooks
and dictionaries. Xu Shen’s exploration in interpreting the form and meaning of
Chinese characters is enlightening and shows great initiative, and his experience
accumulated through long-time lexicographical practice is an extremely rich
repertoire with highly theoretical and academic implications and signiWcance.
Zou Feng (2001:233), on the basis of the number of characters employed in
deWning characters in dictionaries compiled in the Han Dynasty, identiWed three
deWning modes: Wrst, one character is used to deWne another character, in which
case two synonyms are used to deWne each other. This is not an ‘exegetic
interpretation’ in the strict sense and it is ‘frequently used to relate ancient
characters to current ones or to relate standard characters to slang or colloquial
ones’. Secondly, one character is employed to deWne a set of characters. This
mode originated from the Pre-Qin period, as found in Shi Zi, and was Wrst
established in The Ready Guide. It is ‘usually used to interpret the meaning of a
set of synonyms, highlighting the common semantic components of these syn-
onyms’. Thirdly, one character is deWned with several characters. This mode was
150 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
Wrst employed in The Ready Guide to explain the meaning of object names and
was extensively adopted by dictionary makers in later times.
DeWnition is based on sense demarcation and identiWcation of word meanings.
Sense diVerentiation of polysemous words is complicated. Dictionary makers of
earlier periods usually relied on their intuition in deciding how many senses to
divide. Their analysis of word meanings, in most cases, lacked a scientiWc basis,
and, as a result, their sense division implied a great deal of arbitrariness. But the
division of words into diVerent semantic segments marks an important break-
through in both the practice and theory of dictionary making. In the history of
lexicography in China, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Charactersmade the
Wrst attempt to demarcate word meanings and arrange the demarcated senses in a
regular fashion – generally, the original or basic sense goes Wrst, followed by
indications of its changed meaning and/or extended meaning, and thus listing all
the senses demarcated. The notational marker for sense demarcation is usually
一曰 (interpreted as), 或曰 (or interpreted as), and 又曰 (and also interpreted
as). In usual cases, two or three senses are listed, such as:
5. ‘场,祭神道也。一曰:田不耕。一曰:治谷田[地]也。从土,易声(土部)’.
In some cases, four or Wve senses may be listed, such as:
6. ‘妍, 技也。一曰: 不省录事。一曰: 难侵也。一曰: 惠也。一曰: 安也。从女,
扦声。读若研 (<女部>)’.
Before computer technology was applied to establish a large-scale language
corpus, the data collected for dictionary making were usually obtained manually.
Therefore, the manually compiled corpus was inevitably highly restricted. Sense
demarcation built upon such a corpus was certainly more reliable and objective
than that made according to mere subjective judgement, but its deWciencies were
apparent and inevitable due to gaps in data collection, and a complete and
scientiWc analysis of the semantic conWguration of polysemous words was almost
beyond anticipation. These kinds of deWciencies can also be found in An Ex-
planatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. However, it is surprising that Xu
Shen’s sense division two millennia ago could reach such a high standard of
theoretical sophistication. Unfortunately, his pioneering work and his lexico-
graphical accomplishments are not known to the Western world even today.
Phonetic notationIn ancient Chinese dictionaries, such as The Ready Guide and The Dictionary of
Dialectal Words, no phonetic notation is provided because direct phonetic
theoretical inquiries in ancient china 151
notation is almost impossible without the creation of fanqie. Phonetic inter-
pretation is employed throughout The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and
Terms, using concurrent phonetic notation, that is, alliteration or vowel rhym-
ing, with the latter being most prevalent. The underlying assumption is that
‘similar pronunciation is likely to indicate identical or similar meaning’. The
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms went to extremes in this aspect.
In An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, phonetic notation became
an important part of its stylistic format. There are four modes of phonetic
notation used:
(a) Using pictophonetic characters as the notational symbol to indicate how
the headword was pronounced at the time of its creation. The pictopho-
netic characters take a lion’s share in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and they are all notated in this fashion;
(b) Using读若 (pronounced as) or读与某同 (pronounced in the same way
as) as notational symbols;
(c) Using亦声 (also pronounced as) or省声 (omitting its pronunciation to)
as notational symbols;
(d) Using other special devices to indicate the pronunciation of the character.
As for the position of phonetic notation, it usually appears at the end of the
deWnition in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, but it is put
between the headword and the deWnition in dictionaries subsequent to The
Jade Chapters and has remained so ever since.
CitationsEither no citations or very few are found in ancient wordbooks, glossaries, or
dictionaries. There was no change until the appearance of An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. There is no citation in The Dictionary of
Dialectal Words and The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms. What is
found in The Ready Guide can hardly be considered illustrative citations, and
their number is very limited. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
however, goes against the tradition of using few or no citations by quoting
extensively from classic works and their relevant interpretive notes, though its
citations contain errors. These errors are ascribable to those people who copied
the book rather than to the author himself. Considering that the work is of such
an enormous size and that the whole work had to be done by hand, errors should
be taken as inevitable, even though some could also be identiWed as its author’s.
152 genesis and emergence of lexicographical culture
p a r t i i i
THE EXPLORATION
AND CULTIVATION
OF LEXICOGRAPHY
IN CHINA
(from the Wei Dynasty, 220–265 tothe Yuan Dynasty, 1206–1368)
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10
AN OVERVIEW OF CHINESELEXICOGRAPHICAL
CULTURE DURING THEPERIOD OF EXPLORATION
AND CULTIVATION
THE period from theWei Dynasty (220–265) to the Yuan Dynasty (1206–1368)
is a period of exploration and construction for Chinese lexicography. Prior
to the Western Han Dynasty, the prototype of lexicographical culture had already
taken its form – major types of dictionary had appeared and the general styles
and formats of dictionary compilation had begun to take shape and established.
It is over the next span of about one millennium, that is, from the Wei to the
Yuan Dynasty, that dictionary making in China came into its own in almost all its
major respects, particularly in style and format, methodology, theorization and
practice, and technological development; the preliminary foundations were laid
for the formation and evolution of Chinese lexicographical culture with a strong
Eastern Xavour.
10.1 the historical background
From the Wei Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, China experienced dramatic changes
in social, political, economical, and cultural life. There occurred many important
events whose impacts upon the history of the Chinese nation were profound and
far-reaching. In this section, we will mainly focus on those directly relevant to the
evolution of Chinese lexicographical culture, hoping to pave the way for later
discussion.
Invention of the engraving technology in printing and its preliminaryapplicationBuddhism is a widespread Asian religion founded in India in the Wfth century bc,
and it was not until the beginning of the Tang Dynasty that the newly introduced
Buddhism started to Xourish, attracting a great number of followers in China. In
neighbouring countries, such as Korea and Japan, Buddhismwas also popular and
many adherents came to China to study Buddhist scriptures. The need for
scriptures was enormous and manual copying could not suYce. After the revela-
tion of seal cutting and inscription rubbing, some wiser monks engraved charac-
ters on wooden boards. Imitating the way of cutting seals and the procedure of
rubbing inscriptions, they achieved what was necessary in a more eYcient way to
meet the needs of the believers of Buddhism. This technology of printing was later
dubbed ‘engraved printing’. Thanks to this invention, the pictures of Buddha and
the scriptures became available more readily in great quantities. The pictures and
scriptures could also be printed page by page and bound up into volumes. The
earliest printings in China were almost all about matters of Buddhism, such as
scriptures, prayer, and Wgures of Buddha. Subsequent to the reign of Changqing
(821–824) in the Tang Dynasty, objects for popular use, such as calendars, had also
been printed in addition to material for religious use. With the prosperity of the
non-governmental printing industry, the number of objects printed grew tremen-
dously, to include ‘essays on Yin and Yang, divine interpretation of dreams,
physiognomy . . . , in addition to wordbooks and philology. There are numerous
things printed since the invention of paper-making and the engraving technology’
(Liu Pin,柳玭: Preface to The Teachings of the Liu Family<柳氏家训>). With the
passage of time, the Sichuan and regions south of the Yangtze River gradually
became the main centres of the rising industry of printing.
Imperial examination system of the Sui and Tang DynastiesThe imperial examination system in China started in the Sui Dynasty and fully
developed in the Tang Dynasty. It is a system for training and selecting elite
scholars and oYcials through strict examinations at diVerent levels carried out by
the government. It is the longest and the most inXuential one of its kind in the
history of China. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, elite selection relied mainly on
156 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
the examination results rather than on a person’s morality as recommended by
others in the Han Dynasty or on a person’s family rank as prevalent in the Wei
and Jin Dynasties. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, elites were selected mainly
through recommendation, assisted by testing, whereas the reverse was true
afterwards, that is, testing took priority over recommendation. The subjects
were examined at diVerent levels, by the county, province, state, and Wnally, the
Emperor himself, and the contents of examinations would cover the scriptures,
legislation, character, calculation, etc. The examination methods mainly included
an oral test, scripture interpretation, policy questioning, and poetry compos-
ition. DiVerent examination methods were adopted to test diVerent kinds of
abilities and qualities of the aspiring oYcials and how well they had mastered the
knowledge required. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the elite selection system
and the school education system were mainly disjointed. With the introduction
of the imperial examination system, both systems became integrated. As a result,
teaching activities in school were oriented toward the examinations in the
new elite selection system and school education naturally became a prerequisite
for elite selection. In a sense, the new system greatly motivated people’s enthu-
siasm for the pursuit of knowledge and promoted the development of school
education. Meanwhile, a favourable environment for academic research and
exchange of thought was created and further guaranteed oYcially.
Copying books popular in the Tang DynastyAlthough engraving technology was invented for printing, its signiWcance was
not fully appreciated by those in power. Themajormeans for passing on culture in
the Tang Dynasty was still copying, which became a very popular practice. First,
book copying was an oYcial activity. From the early to middle Tang Dynasty,
there were Wve oYcially organized large-scale copying events, among which
the fourth used the greatest amount of manpower and Wnancial resources –
‘when the books are Wnished, the oYcials from all the diVerent ministries are
summoned to have a look, and they are all amazed at the broadness of their
coverage.’ Second, copying books became a non-governmental activity. The
Emperor’s zeal in book-copying enhanced its popularity among the general
public. Even adolescents became experts in the subject. For instance, Zheng’s
Annotated Analects of Confucius (<论语郑氏注>), which was unearthed in Xin-
jiang Province in 1969, turned out to have been the work of a twelve-year-old boy
named Bu Tianshou in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, there were also bookstores
whose major business was to copy books for other people. Third, it became a
fascinating activity in the world of Buddhism. When Buddhism became more
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 157
popular in the TangDynasty, the number of its followers increased dramatically and
more scriptures needed to be translated and copied for them. For instance, among
the books discovered inDunhuang (敦煌), except for a small proportion of printed
books, themajority of the scriptures of the Tang and Five Dynasties (907–960) were
copied by hand. The fascinationwith copying books was certainly the reason for the
wide circulation of copied books in society. It was in the Tang Dynasty that the
number of books, both in private and public collections, reached a new high. In the
period of Kaiyuan (713–741) in the Tang Dynasty, the number of books in oYcial
collections amounted to over 70,000 volumes.
Academies of classic learning in the Song and Yuan DynastiesThe name 书院 (academies of classic learning) appeared in the Tang Dynasty.
Academies of classic learning were established in various localities from the time
of the Tang Dynasty for study and for lectures. They were initially used as a
branch of governmental institution whose major function was to store, collate,
and classify books or as places where people could get together to read, study, and
exchange ideas. In the Song Dynasty, academies became important educational
institutions, and some well-known academies were established, such as White
Deer Cave Academy (白鹿洞书院), Yuelu Academy (岳麓书院), Yingtianfu
Academy (应天府书院), Songyang Academy (嵩阳书院), Stone Drum Academy
(石鼓书院), and Maoshan Academy (茅山书院). These academies had some
remarkable features. First, they were established as educational institutions. For
instance, White Deer Cave Academy had already established its own educational
aims and principles of teaching. Second, they promoted the development of the
Confucian school of idealist philosophy in the Southern Song Dynasty and
fostered the growth of academic activities. For instance, well-known scholars,
such as Zhu Xi (朱熹), Lu Jiuyuan (陆九渊), Zhang Shi (张栻), and Lu Zuqian
(吕祖谦), frequented these academies and advocated their thoughts through
lecturing to their followers and the public. And, consequently, these academies
became indispensable places for diVerent schools to meet, discuss, and debate.
Third, they were beginning to be oYcially institutionalized. In the Yuan Dynasty,
the governmental control over the academies was strengthened. Policies were
formulated to protect them, promote their development, and regulate their ways.
The government’s control over the academies involved nominating their staV,
restricting recruitment, deciding examinations, guiding the assignment of gradu-
ate students, and demarcating the land that an academy could own and manage.
Despite all this, these academies played an indispensable role in general educa-
tion, talent training, and academic study and exchange of thought.
158 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Printing in the Song DynastySince the invention of engraving technology in printing, book printing had enjoyed
prosperity in the Song Dynasty. Many places in the Song Dynasty established their
own printing houses and formed book centres, such as Hangzhou in Zhejiang
Province, Jian’an in Fujian Province, and Chengdu in Sichuan Province. Book
printing in the Song Dynasty fell into two categories: governmental and non-
governmental. The books printed by the central and local government were dubbed
‘oYcially printed’. For the central government, the Imperial Academy was in charge
of the business of printing books, whose range included Classics, histories, phil-
osophy, and anthology, in addition to the scriptures of Taoism and Buddhism. The
books printed by the Imperial Academy had absolute authority. The Emperor
ordained that for the books printed by the Imperial Academy the non-governmen-
tal printing houses may have the right to rectify the misspellings in them but have
no right to duplicate them. Non-governmental books could be further classiWed
into two subtypes: those printed by big bookstores or printing houses and those
printed by individuals, such as Zhao Qi (赵淇), Han Chun (韩醇), Yue Ke (岳珂),
Liao Yingzhong (廖莹中), and Wang Gang (王纲). Some printing houses in the
Song Dynasty had already been aware of ‘copyright’ – for instance, in Brief Stories in
Eastern Capital (<东都事略>) there was a rectangular seal with thewords ‘Printingby Cheng from Mountain Mei. OYcially permitted and reproduction prohibited.’
Thanks to the popularization of the engraved printing industry, a great number of
books began to circulate in the community and scholars and general readers alike
could have easier access to books. Book printing in the Song Dynasty played a key
role in the transmission of culture and in creating a favourable environment for
academic research and exchange of thought.
10.2 the academic background
From the Wei Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, China experienced a frequent
alternation between war and peace, and prosperity and depression in the econ-
omy. Academic studies, however, progressed at this time.
Academic studies from the Wei to the Northern and Southern DynastiesThe time between the Wei Dynasty (220–265) and the Northern and Southern
Dynasties (420–589) in Chinese history is a period of upheaval, full of misery,
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 159
suVering, and distress. But it is also a period of academic progression, a period
active in intellectual thought and in which theoretical exploration and inquiry
Xourished. As is well known, literature and the classics preserved and created in a
period are the most direct and reliable data by which to examine the state of
academic inquiry. Apart from the works and literature of Taoism and Buddhism,
The Book of the Sui Dynasty collected 36,708 volumes in 3,127 categories. The
majority of these works were written by the scholars of the period. There are a
number of special reasons for the prosperity of academics in this period of
upheaval, which started with the collapse in a central imperialist government
of absolutism, and the barrier built to defend Confucian ideals was also broken
down. As a result, the political conditions and academic environments became
relatively more credible, self-awareness more fully realized, and individuality
could Wnd more outlets in society at large. During this period, it became more
diYcult for intellectuals to take the normal route to becoming a ‘scholar oYcial’,
and many scholars gave up their Confucian studies and turned to Buddhism and
Taoism. Moreover, some big families with political inXuence and economic clout
fostered academic research with their own ‘family’ styles. This turned out to be
one of the important means of promoting and passing on the heritage of
traditional academics. Another result of the political upheaval was the drift of
intellectual brains from the capital city to other places, helping to establish new
regional centres of academic research and exchange, which greatly facilitated the
writings on the natural conditions and social customs of diVerent places, chor-
ography, geography and geology, and other works of natural sciences.
Every historical period has its own mainstream academics. In the period of the
Wei (220–265) and Jin (265–420) Dynasties, academic circles focused on ‘metaphys-
ics’ (玄学), a branch of learning based on the studies of Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, and The
Book of Changes. The basic feature of this philosophical study is its emphasis on and
adoration of ‘profundity’. Its manifestation in speech is its ‘profound words’ and
‘profound talks’; in writings, its ‘profound argumentation’ and ‘profound notes’;
and in thinking, its ‘clear consciousness’ and ‘essential interpretations’. In essence,
the basic academic theme of this school is the diVerentiation of artiWcial naming
from natural being, to provide an ultimate solution to theoretically reinterpreting
and settling the controversy over the relationship between naming and objects in
nature. In addition, the transmission of Buddhism, which started from the Han
Dynasty, came naturally into conXict with Confucianism and Taoism. With the
passage of time, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucian came to absorb each other’s
ideas and became partially integrated in some respects. This unique academic
atmosphere exerted a far-reaching impact upon the formulation of new ideological
concepts and academic achievements of that time and in subsequent periods.
160 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Lexicographical works are one of the signs of the academic achievements of an
epoch in human civilization. Over the period from the Wei to the Southern and
Northern Dynasties, there came into being a new form of lexicographical work,
i.e. the rhyming dictionary. Thanks to the great progress in translating Buddhist
classics, the invention of fanqie, and the diVerentiation of the four tones in the
Chinese language, the Wrst rhyming dictionary was compiled. According to the
historical records available, the earliest rhyming dictionaries include The Dic-
tionary of Initial Consonants by Li Deng of theWei Kingdom and The Collection of
Rhymes by Lu Jing. Pan Hui (潘徽), a scholar of the Sui Dynasty, states:
Previous works like Three Cang Primer and The Instant Primer have merely retained some
texts and quotations; those like An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The
Character Forest only focus on diVerentiating the form and structure of characters. As for
the study of speech sounds and rhymes, there is much doubt and confusion. Either
through speculation on ancient characters or interpretation of contemporary ones, the
investigations have mostly missed the target. It is in The Dictionary of Initial Consonants
and The Collection of Rhymes that the voiceless is diVerentiated from the voiced and the
tones are demarcated in Wve scales. (from The Book of the Sui Dynasty, <隋书·潘徽传>)
It was on the basis of rhyme books produced between the Wei and Southern and
Northern Dynasties that Lu Fayan (陆法言) was able to compile The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes (<切韵>), an epoch-making dictionary of rhymes.
The academic conXuence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoismin the Sui and Tang DynastiesThe reuniWcation in the Tang Dynasty put an end to the independent develop-
ment of academic studies in the northern and southern regions of China and
merged them into the study on Classics – how to understand and interpret the
Classics. In the period of the Wei to the Northern and Southern Dynasties the
ritual ceremonies were mostly abandoned. Metaphysics Xourished and the dom-
inant position of Confucian studies was undermined. With the entry of Chinese
history into the Tang Dynasty, the conXuence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and
Taoism in the Sui Dynasty was inherited and Confucianism regained its domin-
ance, which became the foundation of China’s national policies. Under the elite
selection system in the TangDynasty, the Confucian Classics were the textbooks in
schools and what were tested in the imperial examinations. It was against such a
background that Yan Shigu et al. were summoned and authorized by the Emperor
to rectify and revise The Standard Five Classics (<五经定本>) and Kong Yingda
et al. to compile The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics, and Lu Deming
compiled The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics at this time. Moreover, The
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 161
RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics, symbolizing the reuniWcation of academic
studies and the study of the classics, is regarded as a standard in both public and
private schools in the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, it gradually degenerated and
eventually became the shackles conWning the thinking of intellectuals.
Speaking of the ancient academic history of China, it is customary to mention
four schools of thought in the same breath – studies on Confucian Classics in the
Han Dynasties, Metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Buddhism in the Sui
and Tang Dynasties, and the Confucian school of idealist philosophy in the Song
and Ming Dynasties. Thus, Buddhism was the gem of academic studies in the
Tang Dynasty. With the introduction of Buddhism into China, the classic works
of Buddhism needed to be translated, interpreted, and expounded. There grad-
ually formed the enormous volumes of Buddhist Classics. DiVerent interpret-
ations of the basic doctrines of Buddhism were responsible for the formation of
diVerent Buddhist factions, such as the Tiantai or Tendai sect (天台宗), the Fa-
hsiang (法相宗) sect, the Huayan (or Kegon) school (华严宗), Zen Buddhism
(禅宗), and the Esoteric or ‘True Word’ sect (密宗). For each faction, there was
an important team of dignitaries to advocate their academic ideas through
adding notes to the Buddhist classics or by means of writing their own books.
In the Tang Dynasty, it was very popular to compile classiWed dictionaries
(类书), that is, reference books with entries arranged in the form of a dictionary
according to classiWed or categorized subjects, with materials taken from various
sources as the basis for compilation. Functionally speaking, classiWed dictionaries
resemble encyclopaedic dictionaries because they combine to some extent the
characteristics of encyclopaedias and concordances, embracing the whole Weld of
literature and bearing an inherent relationship with encyclopaedic dictionaries of
modern times. There are some important classiWed dictionaries passed on to the
present time, such as The Beitang Collection of Copied Books (<北堂书钞>), TheClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works (<艺文类聚>), and The ClassiWed
Dictionary for Beginners (<初学记>). The compilation of books of classiWcation
and the appearance of such valuable works well illustrate the academic environ-
ment and the level of academic research in the Tang Dynasty.
Starting from the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (武则天) in the Tang Dynasty,
Esotericism (密教) became popular and more and more people began to learn
and practice Siddham (悉昙). Siddham is a textbook for learning Sanskrit. From
the enlightenment of the spelling system of Sanskrit, Chinese scholars came to
work out the initial consonant system of the Chinese language and invented the
thirty-letter alphabet for the initial consonants. From The ClassiWcation of the
Thirty-letter Alphabet (<归三十字母例>), unearthed in Dunhuang, the thirty-
letter alphabet is known as follows:
162 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
端透定泥、审穿禅日、心邪照、精清从喻、见溪群疑、晓匣影、知彻澄来、不芳并明。
ShouWen (守温), a scholar monk in the late Tang Dynasty, further studied the
thirty-letter alphabet and rearranged the letters according to their position of
articulation into Wve categories: labial, lingual, front dental, back dental, and
laryngeal. The invention of alphabets for notating speech sounds of the Chinese
language laid the scientiWc foundation for phonetic notation, macro-structuring,
and format-setting in future dictionary making.
The exploration of truth and meaning in the academics of the Song andYuan DynastiesStrictly speaking, Song Studies (宋学) refers mainly to working out ways of
interpreting the Classics. This school of learning was initiated by Hu Yuan (胡
瑗) and Sun Fu (孙复), earnestly advocated and practised by Fan Zhongyan (范
仲淹), Ouyang Xiu (欧阳修), Wang Anshi (王安石), and Sima Guang (司马
光), and consequently Wrmly established as a serious branch of learning. The
methodology of Song Studies is characterized in two ways. First, seeking the
truth and meaning of the classics. Getting rid of the strictures of sentential and
textual research in the Han Dynasties, the scholars of Song Studies began to
interpret and expound the argumentation andmeaning of the classics according
to their own understanding and interpretation. This is the most outstanding
feature of Song Studies. Second, enhancing the practicality of the classics. In
other words, the objectives of Song Studies are essentially practical. Thus, the
pursuit of truth and meaning as well as that of practical objectives are the two
basic features of Song Studies and they form the essential spirit of academic
research in the Song Dynasty.
Song Studies is also considered by some scholars to be a Confucian school of
idealist philosophy, inquiring into the origin of the universe and the laws
regulating the development of human societies. This school of idealist philoso-
phy owed its formation to the Song Dynasty and its progress in seeking ‘truth’
could be roughly divided into three phases. In the period of the Northern Song
Dynasty, diVerent parties proposed the initial interpretations of what ‘truth’ is.
Cheng Yi (程颐), for the Wrst time, proposed the argument that ‘The Heaven is
the Law’, that is, the Heaven is the truth and the Supreme Entity. This is well
illustrated by his own words: ‘I have been studying hard and I have learned
something but the heavenly truth can only be approached through intuitively
perceiving and reXecting by oneself ’. In the period of the Southern Song Dynasty,
Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan had diVerent understandings of ‘truth’. They diVer in
two respects. First, where does ‘truth’ reside? Zhu Xi believes that it is Heavenly
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 163
truth and that it is in the Heavens; whereas Lu Jiuyuan believes that it is
‘Psychological truth’ and it resides in the ‘mind’ of each individual. Second,
how can one seek and grasp ‘truth’? Zhu Xi holds that ‘truthmust be inquired into
through physical things’, that is, through studying physics; whereas, Lu Jiuyuan
holds that it should be sought, Wrst by ‘simple means’, in order to get to know the
essence and the mind, and second by reXection to grasp the profound meaning of
‘truth’. Scholars at the end of the Song Dynasty and in the period of the Yuan
Dynasty had been making great eVorts to reconcile the theories proposed by Zhu
Xi and Lu Jiuyuan. The majority of the idealist philosophers in the Yuan Dynasty
no longer focused on either of the two schools but tried to ‘concoct’ (i.e. produce
something unusual by combining things in a new way). And consequently ‘con-
coction’ becomes a distinctive feature of the idealist philosophical study in the
Yuan Dynasty, represented by Xu Heng (许衡), Wu Cheng (吴澄), and Zheng
Yuwu (郑玉吴). It is noteworthy from the developmental stages of the idealist
philosophy in the Song and YuanDynasties that the reason for disputes are mostly
based on establishing ‘who is the orthodox school’. Actually, there is only one
orthodox school – the school of Cheng and Zhu, though there were numerous
schools of academic studies in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
Scholars of the Song and Yuan Dynasties had to resort to the language itself
and use it as a tool when they tried to explain and argue about the meanings
and truths that had been interpreted and expounded from the classics, which,
to a certain extent, motivated the study of language and its basic unit –
characters, and further facilitated the compilation of dictionaries. Moreover,
great emphasis had also been laid upon rectiWcation and diVerentiation, and
their Wndings far surpassed those of their predecessors in attainment, advance-
ment, and scope. As for the methodology adopted in the research, the pursuit of
meaning and truth and the practice of rectiWcation and diVerentiation formed
the ‘two wings’ of academic approaches in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. For
instance, The Collection of Ancient Records (<集古录>) by Ouyang Xiu, repre-
sentative of epigraphy in the Song Dynasty, is not only a product of rectiWcation
and diVerentiation but also an indication of the advent of archaeological
studies in modern times. Viewed from the diachronic perspective of lexicog-
raphy, the four most prominent books of classiWcation in the Song Dynasty,
namely The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign (<太平御览>, The Imperial
Records of the Taiping Reign (<太平广记>), The Academic Elites (<文苑英华>), and The Historical Records of Cefu (<册府元龟>), along with local
chronicles and clan pedigrees, are all the fruits of academic endeavours with
respect to Song Studies.
164 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
10.3 an overall view between thewei and yuan dynasties
The period between theWei and the YuanDynasty, characterized by exploration and
cultivation in the history of Chinese lexicography, is noteworthy for the following
four highlights. First, the invention of fanqie solved the problem of phonetic
notation in dictionary making and enabled lexicographers to formulate and stand-
ardize dictionary formats and styles; second, on the basis of dictionaries of the Han
Dynasty, dictionary families began to take shape and continued to Xourish, notably
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and its derivatives, and The Ready
Guide and its derivatives; third, new dictionary types had come into being and were
added to these dictionaries; and Wnally, new retrieval systems were created, that is,
referring to dictionary information by means of phonetic sequence.
Basic features of lexicographical theories during this periodAs the practice of dictionary making went further, scholars between the Wei and
Yuan Dynasties began to make serious eVorts to theoretically generalize about
lexicographical issues. These theoretical generalizations were mostly given in the
front matter, such as the preface, explanatory notes, pronunciation guide, etc., of
various wordbooks and dictionaries. This research into dictionaries and diction-
ary making involved the nature and function of the dictionary, the principles of
compilation, styles and formats, among many other things. Dictionary making
was speciWcally targeted in some lexicographical theories. For instance, in the
Northern Wei (386–534) period, Presenting a Memorial for Ancient and Contem-
porary Characters by Jiang Shi (江式) is one of the most important monologues
dealing with lexicographical issues, subsequent to the Preface to An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and remains one of the landmark theoretical
generalizations of the history of Chinese lexicography. In the Tang Dynasty, the
Preface to The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics by Lu Deming is the Wrst
monologue discussing ways to deal with words and expressions gleaned from
the classics in dictionary compilation. In the Song Dynasty, ‘Nine Cases’ in The
ClassiWed Chapters by Sima Guang set a precedent for lexicographers to work out
ways to establish and standardize dictionary formats and styles. No dictionaries
prior to the Wei Dynasty included explanations concerning dictionary formats
and styles in the front matter, but things started to change when the history
of Chinese lexicography entered the period of exploration and cultivation.
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 165
It became customary for dictionaries of this period to include discussions
regarding formats and styles, though these discussions were still rather elemen-
tary, and no consistent and standardized systems had yet come into being.
Almost all relevant discussions were hardly touched upon in the preface or
constituted a small separate section of it. No independent sections concerning
dictionary formats and styles were found in The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics,
The Collection of Rhymes, or The ClassiWed Chapters, but their prefaces contained
discussions or explanations concerning dictionary formats and/or styles and
were more speciWc, comprehensive, and to the point than previous ones. The
Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters included only a
simpliWed exposition of its macro-structural arrangement:
From which to start? To start from 一 (one). Things are sorted and grouped together.
Vertically, to arrange them according to the families they belong to and the inherent
properties they share. Horizontally, the various properties will not be violated and the
semantic relationships will be explicated according to their structural forms and radical
components. The patterns for sense extension and proliferation will be sought and traced
back to their origins. At which to end? To end at亥, which is the last of the twelve Earthly
Branches. This will help to get to know the change and the profound underlying
relationships.
In The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics, however, its preface included an
independent section dealing with the principles and methodology of its compil-
ation. The whole section is as long as 1,500 Chinese characters, much more
detailed than its predecessors. The Preface to The ClassiWed Chapters also in-
cluded a separate part explaining issues relating to its compilation.
Dictionary compilation in the Song and Yuan period underwent a transition
from form-meaning combination to phonetic-meaning combination. Conse-
quently, the issue of how to relate speech sounds to word meaning became an
important focus in dictionary research during this period. This issue also had a
great deal to do with the studies in the Welds of phonology and phonetic
semantics. The great achievements in phonological studies over this period
mostly resulted from further in-depth explorations in how to scientiWcally add
phonetic notations in dictionary compilation. The Wrst evidence of progress was
embodied in the revision and augmentation of The Dictionary of Rhymes and the
improvement of The Collection of Rhymes upon The Dictionary of Rhymes in
phonetic notation. The second piece of evidence was embodied in the attempt to
achieve breakthroughs in the paradigm set by The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes
and to establish the phonology of Northern speech based on the dialects of
Kaifeng and Luoyang, the then capitals of the Northern Song Dynasty, when
166 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Zhou Deqing (周德清) compiled The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and
Rhymes (<中原音韵>) in the Yuan Dynasty.
Moreover, there appeared for the Wrst time in the history of Chinese lexicog-
raphy a number of academic articles that were attached as appendices to the
dictionary, e.g. the seven appendices in Xi Zhuan (<系传>) by Xu Kai and The
General Interpretation of Six-category Chinese Characters (<六书通释>) by Dai
Tong (戴侗). They all aimed to intensify dictionary functions and promote the
quality of the appendices and the academic values of the dictionary. Among these
appendix essays, A Systematic Account in Xi Zhuan (<系传�系述>) is the Wrst
academic article studying appendixes in the dictionary. The academic implica-
tions of appendix essays and their correspondence with the body of the diction-
ary gave rise to the practice of writing appendix essays to match the body of the
dictionary, hence the megastructural conWguration of the dictionary representing
the unity of the main part with its appendixes.
Major achievements in styles and formats of dictionary makingGenerally speaking, the megastructural conWguration of the dictionary consists
of two aspects – macrostructure and microstructure. Macrostructure refers to the
ways that the entries in a dictionary are arranged. It is vertical in the structure of a
dictionary and the spine of its main body. Microstructure, however, refers to the
ways that diVerent kinds of information are organized in an entry. It is horizontal
in the structure of a dictionary and encompasses the contents of the entry text.
Naturally, the major achievements in dictionary styles and formats from the Wei
to Yuan Dynasty were displayed in both macrostructural and microstructural
conWguration.
During the period from the Wei through the Yuan Dynasties, the entries in a
dictionary were usually arranged in alphabetical or thematic order. The macro-
structure of the dictionary in this period was characterized by further improve-
ments on ‘formal ordering’, represented by The ClassiWed Chapters, by the
emergence of ‘phonetic ordering’, represented by The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes,
and by ‘scientiWc standardization’, represented by The Broad Ready Guide. As was
stated in the Preface to The ClassiWed Chapters, ‘the things in the world are
numerous but, if well treated, each will be set in its proper place’. ‘To be set in its
place’ is simply another way of indicating how themacrostructure of the dictionary
should be designed. The Preface to The ClassiWed Chapters held that ‘if well treated,
unity will be achieved’ according to the principles of dictionary making. Thus,
presently, the characters that are popularly used in the world are numerous in number.
But, thanks to their pronunciation, they can be treated according toThe Rhyme Dictionary
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 167
(<集韵>) and each of them can Wnd their proper place in a dictionary in terms of the
phonetic features they share. As for the forms of the characters, there are also some
common features that they share and that is why they can be treated according to The
ClassiWed Chapters. The majority of the characters follow the principles of formal order-
ing. In addition to formal and phonetic arrangements, there is semantic arrangement as
well: for those characters that cannot be further analysed into diVerent parts, they could be
semantically grouped. (from the Preface to The ClassiWed Chapters)
The ClassiWed Chapters, for the Wrst time, established a new set of principles,
i.e. dual arrangement: by radicals at the Wrst level and by rhymes at the second. An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, on the other hand, arranged its
headword characters following ‘formal ordering’ only, that is, according to the
radicals they share. This arrangement is rather complicated and is not user-
friendly in retrieval. The ClassiWed Chapters is designed to co-refer to The
Rhyme Dictionary, dividing the 540 radical sections of An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters into Wfteen volumes and rearranging the head characters in
each radical section according to the rhymes they share. The explication in The
ClassiWed Chapters centres around the pronunciation and meaning of the char-
acter. The head characters in each radical section are taken in their entirety from
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters but rearranged in terms of the
rhymes they share. For each character entry, its pronunciation is notated by
means of fanqie, followed by deWnitions or explications. In so doing, the compiler
made it very convenient for the user to consult.
Second, the macrostructure of The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes is organized
according to ‘phonetic ordering’. Lu Fayan divided the 193 rhyme sections into
Wve volumes on the basis of the four tones shared by the rhymes, thus incorp-
orating more than 10,000 characters into these volumes, which are ‘Wnely ana-
lysed and discriminated’ (from the Preface to The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes).
Third, the macrostructure of The Ready Guide is ‘to group semantically’. When a
proposal was put forward in the Wei Dynasty to compile The Broad Ready Guide,
which was ‘to compensate for what is missing in The Ready Guide’, it was natural
for it to model after The Ready Guide in style and format. The Ready Guide was
thus recognized as ‘a stepping-stone to academics and a model for every intellec-
tual’ (from Presenting a Memorial for The Broad Ready Guide by Zhang Yi). It is to
be highly commended that ‘for the ancient meanings of characters still used in the
Qin and Han Dynasties, it [The Ready Guide] can be used as a yardstick to judge its
correctness; for those no longer in use, it can be used as a basis for deduction and
inference’ (from the Preface to The RectiWed Broad Ready Guide byWang Niansun).
Thus, there was formed a new branch of academic learning – ‘the Erya Studies’,
which is an extension of the macrostructure of The Ready Guide.
168 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
As for the microstructure of a dictionary, its core component is made up of
semantic information which is further manifested in phonetic notation, deWni-
tion, and illustrative examples. Firstly, under the inXuence of fanqie and the four-
tone theory, The Jade Chapters abandoned the traditional labelling of ‘read as’ or
‘pronounced as’, which was used as a major form of phonetic notation in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. The phonetic notation in The Jade
Chapters ‘uses fanqie as the principal form coupled with direct notation’. The
phonetic notation bylaw set down by Jiang Shi for Ancient and Contemporary
Characters (<古今文字>) stated that ‘the pronunciation to be notated is what is
used in the region of Chu and Xia and the characters will be notated one by one’.
This was the Wrst direct speciWcation of how to notate the sounds of words in a
dictionary in the history of Chinese lexicography and the practice of notating the
phonetics of words one by one has come down to the present day. Secondly, the
paradigm of form–meaning combination set up by An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters as a major means of deWning words was broken down and a
new combination, that is, phonetic–meaning combination, was established and
advocated. Jiang Shi held that the principles for deWnition in a dictionary should
be ‘to follow the principles of exegesis and loaning and all the meanings can be
interpreted from the contexts where they occur’. ‘To interpret from the context’,
as a guiding principle for deWnition, has a twofold implication: on the one hand,
words and characters are the objects to be deWned in the dictionary; on the other
hand, as a general principle, the meaning of a character, phrase, or text should be
determined and explicated or interpreted from the context in which it occurs.
Thirdly, illustrations play an indispensable part in a dictionary, although they are
usually attached to the deWnitions. The principle of illustrative citations in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters is ‘to cite examples to make the
meanings of words understandable when they are not apparent’. In other words,
Xu Shen cited examples only in cases where the meaning of a character was
unclear or unknown. The remaining parts of The Jade Chapters clearly show that
under each headword character there are almost always one or more illustrative
citations, and illustrative examples, which are taken from the classics and scrip-
tures, form the backbone of The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics.
To sum up, a great deal of progress was made during this period in terms of
dictionary layout, entry coverage, phonetic notation, and sense deWnition. As far
as dictionary layout is concerned, The ClassiWed Chapters followed the model of
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in its classiWcation of radical
sections, but within each section the head characters were arranged to the order
of rhyme sequences, which was obviously an innovation found in no previous
dictionaries. Such an arrangement makes it very convenient for users to consult
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 169
dictionary information. In terms of headword coverage, dictionaries of this
period attempted to be much wider and more comprehensive. For instance,
The ClassiWed Chapters, on the one hand, retained the tradition of An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The Jade Chapters in treating headword
characters with greater prominence given to the description of their ancient
pronunciations and meanings and their evolution in form and structure; and,
on the other hand, greater notice was taken of the newly emerged characters
which were created to meet the developing needs of the society of the time. The
Rhyme Dictionary had the widest coverage of vocabulary, i.e. 53,525, which is
42,005 characters more than in The Dictionary of Initial Consonants. There was
also much improvement in phonetic notation. In The Dictionary of Rhymes, for
instance, when a group of characters shared the same pronunciation, phonetic
notation was given only for the character in the Wrst place, and the rest of the
characters in the group would follow the Wrst character. Such a method of
phonetic notation helped considerably with phonetic diVerentiation. The de-
scription of sense deWnition became more detailed and speciWc than in the
previous period. The ClassiWed Chapters, for instance, had not only cloned the
deWnition of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters but also added its
own annotation and explication – for those with variations in pronunciation or
meaning, necessary explanations and phonetic notations were provided after the
deWnitions. In Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures, no judgements
would be given before rigorous textual research had been carried out and
meticulous comments added. In The Augmented Ready Guide, detailed informa-
tion was given to each animal or plant name, describing their shapes, properties,
and functions with quotations from ancient books as evidence of textual re-
search, and, if necessary, quotations were also given of popular sayings with
annotations added. For instance,鲨 (shark) only has a synonym deWnition鮀 (a
kind of small Wsh) in The Ready Guide, but a deWnition of 179 characters was
provided in The Augmented Ready Guide.
Major dictionaries of the periodThe history of Chinese lexicography experienced a long period of exploration subse-
quent to the Wei and Jin Dynasties and a period of rapid progress following the Sui
and Tang Dynasties. The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<干禄字书>) byYan Yuansun (颜元孙), a Tang Dynasty scholar, enjoyed wide circulation and great
popularity. The TangDynasty witnessed the appearance of a series of dictionaries and
character glossaries whosemajor functionwas to codify and standardize, hence falling
into the category of ‘codifying character dictionary’. In the period of the Southern and
170 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
NorthernDynasties, the oYcial script in theHanDynasty began to decline in use, and
scripts like the running hand (行书, a style of Chinese calligraphy between the cursive
hand and regular script), the cursive script (草书, a form of Chinese calligraphy with
characters executed swiftly and strokes Xowing together), and the regular script were
created and adopted in formal writing. They became so popular that there was much
confusion in Chinese scripts and handwriting; so it was inevitable to codify and
standardize Chinese characters and the forms of writing them, a number of diction-
aries being compiled to serve the purpose, namelyTheCharacterModels (<字样>) byYan Shigu, The Collection of Characters from Five Classics (<五经文字>) by ZhangShen (张参, 714?–786?), and The New Collection of Character Models from Nine
Classics (<新加九经字样>) by XuanDu (玄度). This new type of dictionary played
a key role in character codiWcation and standardization. In the Tang Dynasty, there
appeared another new type of dictionary, the special-purpose dictionary – the earliest
and most comprehensive of its kind – dedicated to annotating Buddhist scriptures
and sutras, i.e. The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics by Lu Deming, and Sounds and
Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures by Hui Lin. In the Song Dynasty, there also
appeared some inXuential character books and character dictionaries, namely The
ClassiWed Chapters byWang Zhu (王洙) andHuXiu (胡宿) et al.,The Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters (<六书故>) by Dai Tong, The ClassiWed Characters of
Banma (<班马字类>) by Lou Ji (娄机). In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, some
progress was also made in the compilation of thematic dictionaries, namely The
Augmented Ready Guide by Lu Dian, The Extended Ready Guide (<尔雅翼>) by LuoYuan (罗愿), and The Essentials of Augmented Ready Guide (<埤雅广要>) by NiuZhong (牛衷).
There also appeared quite a number of rhyme dictionaries in this period. The
Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes by Lu Fayan is the earliest of its kind still extant. In the
Song Dynasty, the compilation of rhyme dictionaries enjoyed great popularity. The
Tang Dictionary of Rhymes (<唐韵>) was revised by Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong
(丘雍) and was renamed The Dictionary of Rhymes. It integrated almost all the
achievements in the studies of the rhyme dictionary series following The Dictionary
of Chinese Rhymes and is the most comprehensive one still extant. Ding Du (丁度)
and Song Qi (宋祁), together with other scholars, were summoned by the Emperor
to revise The Dictionary of Rhymes, which was later known as The Rhyme Dictionary.
Other rhyme dictionaries include The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes (<韵略>) byQiu Yong and Qi Lun (戚纶), The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the Ministry of
Rites (<礼部韵略>), a revision of The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes by Ding Du
et al., The Comprehensive Five-sound Rhyme Dictionary (<五音集韵>) by Han
Daozhao (韩道昭) of the Jin (金) Dynasty, The Comprehensive Dictionary of Ancient
and Contemporary Rhymes (<古今韵会>) by Huang Gongshao (黄公绍) between
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 171
the Song and Yuan Dynasties, The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary
Rhymes (<古今韵会举要>) by Xiong Zhong (熊忠) of the Yuan Dynasty, The
Central PlainsDictionary of Sounds andRhymes byZhouDeqing of theYuanDynasty,
and The ClassiWed Dictionary of Zhongzhou Yuefu Rhymes (<中州乐府音韵类编>)by Zhou Congzhi (周从之) of the Yuan Dynasty.
Subsequent to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, considerable achievements were
made in compiling classiWed dictionaries. The Beitang Collection of Copied Books
by Yu Shinan (虞世南) et al. between the Sui and Tang Dynasties is the earliest
classiWed dictionary presently available. The ClassiWed Collection of Art and
Literary Works by Ouyang Xun (欧阳洵), The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners
by Zhang Yue (张说) and Xu Jian (徐坚) et al., and The Sources of Rhyme Ocean
(<韵海镜源>) by Yan Zhenqing (颜真卿, 709–785), which were all compiled in
the Tang Dynasty, are the earliest classiWed dictionaries whose entries were
arranged to the order of rhymes. In the Song Dynasty, a large team of scholars,
such as Li Fang (李昉, 925–996) and Hu Meng (扈蒙), were put together by the
central government to compile large-scale classiWed dictionaries. The outcome of
such eVorts included The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign, The Imperial
Records of the Taiping Reign, The Historical Records of Cefu by Wang Qinruo
(王钦若) and Yang Yi (杨亿) et al., The Jade Sea (<玉海>) by Wang Yinglin, The
Miscellanies of Argumentations Concerning ClassiWed Dictionaries (<类林杂说>)by Wang Mingshou (王明寿) of the Jin (金) Dynasty, and The Compendium of
Scriptures and Classics (<经世大典>) by Zhao Shiting (赵世廷) of the Yuan
Dynasty. In addition, there are also some important dictionaries compiled in the
Song and Yuan Dynasties, for instance, The Language Assistant (<语助>) by LuYiwei (卢以纬) in the YuanDynasty andThe GemDictionary of Rhymes (<韵府群
玉>) by Yin Shifu (阴时夫) at the turn of the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
Between the Wei and Yuan Dynasties, several landmark lexicographical works
stood out among language, rhyme, and classiWed dictionaries. The Broad Ready
Guide, which is representative of general dictionaries dealing with vocabulary and
special terms as well as thematic dictionaries in the middle ancient period (from
the third to ninth centuries), became the initiator of ‘the Erya Studies’. The Jade
Chapters, representative of character dictionaries in the middle ancient period,
inherited and developed the tradition and style of An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters, with remarkable innovations – its head characters were
printed in regular script forms and its deWnitions occupied the dominant place
in the entry. The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes, an early model for phonetic
ordering dictionaries as well as homophone dictionaries, is the earliest rhyme
dictionary with a rather systematic compilation format and style. The Exegetic
Interpretation of Classics, representative of a new dictionary type in the middle
172 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
ancient period, adopted the collective interpretation method to deal with the
meanings of characters from diVerent classics and scriptures. It could be clas-
siWed as a hybrid dictionary – a combination of collective interpretations of
classic works and exegetic explication of ancient characters. The Ganlu Dictionary
of Chinese Characters, the Wrst dictionary designed to diVerentiate character
formations, displayed some noticeable innovations though it originated from
The Character Models.
The dictionaries compiled between the Wei and Yuan Dynasties can be generally
classiWed into the following categories: (1) character dictionaries, such as The Exegesis
of Ancient and Contemporary Characters (<古今字诂>) by Zhang Yi of the Wei
Dynasty, The Character Forest by Lu Chen of the Jin (晋) Dynasty, The Jade Chapters
by Gu Yewang of the Liang period of the Southern Dynasty, and The ClassiWed
Chapters by Sima Guang and Wang Zhu et al. of the Song Dynasty; (2) deWning
dictionaries, such as The Broad Ready Guide by Zhang Yi of theWei Dynasty, Sounds
and Meanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures by Xuan Ying and Hui Lin of the Tang
Dynasty; (3) bilingual dictionaries, such as The Complete Turkish Dictionary, (<突厥语大词典>) by Mahmud Khashgari (麻赫穆德•喀什噶里) of the Song Dynasty;
(4) specialized dictionaries, such as The Botanic Compendium (<全芳备祖>) byChen Jingyi (陈景沂) of the Southern Song Dynasty; (5) classiWed (or encyclopedic)
dictionaries, such as The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works, oYcially
compiled in the Tang Dynasty, The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign, also oYcially
compiled in the Song Dynasty; (6) special dictionaries, such as The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes by Lu Fayan of the Sui Dynasty, The Dictionary of Rhymes by Chen
Pengnian et al. of the Song Dynasty, The Rhyme Dictionary by Ding Du et al. of the
Song Dynasty, and The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes by
Huang Gongshao of the Yuan Dynasty.
Academic values and inXuenceThe period of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties is a very
important period in Chinese history, characterized as a melting pot of diVerent
nationalities and cultures. The inXux of foreign cultures, especially the introduc-
tion of Buddhism, brought forth innovations in the format and style of diction-
ary compilation, in particular the birth of the rhyme dictionary. This new type of
dictionary is designed in a format of rhyme sequencing. Its target user includes
those people interested in composing rhyming prose, and it can help them Wnd
characters that share the same rhyme. Rhyme dictionaries can be divided into
two types according to their format and style. For the Wrst type, characters are
Wrst classiWed according to their diVerent tones, and then further classiWed
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 173
according to their rhymes. Characters sharing the same essential vowel or tail
vowel are put in the same rhyme section. For each rhyme section a common
character will be chosen as a signpost. As for the second type, characters are
classiWed into diVerent rhyme sections; all the characters sharing the same
essential or tail vowel are put in the same rhyme section without considering
their diVerences in tone. For each rhyme section, two characters are chosen as the
signpost. Generally speaking, every character in a rhyme dictionary is given some
simple explanation of meaning, which is why ancient rhyme books are generally
classiWed in the ‘dictionary’ category.
The early rhyme books in the history of Chinese lexicography are represented
by The Dictionary of Initial Consonants by Li Deng of the Three Kingdoms Period
and The Collection of Rhymes by Lu Jing of the Jin (晋) Dynasty. For later rhyme
books, The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymesmight as well be called the compendium
of all rhyme books over the Six Dynasties, namely the Wu, Eastern Jin, Song, Qi,
Liang, and Chen between the downfall of the Han Dynasty in ad 220 and the
reuniWcation of China in ad 589. This dictionary established the basic format and
style of ancient rhyme books in China, ‘gained recognition by both scholars and
the common people, and was accepted as a standard paradigm’, exercising direct
inXuence upon rhyme books and dictionaries to come, such as The Dictionary of
Rhymes, The Rhyme Dictionary, and The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the
Ministry of Rites, The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes,
and Hongwu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes during the Ming Dynasty. From the
Yuan Dynasty on, there came a Xowering of drama and opera, as a result of which
quite a number of rhyme dictionaries were compiled to meet the needs of
playwrights, such as The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes and
The Taihe Dictionary of Rhymes (<太和正音谱>). With the introduction of The
Mirror of Rhymes (<韵镜>), new advancements were made in the format and
style of rhyme books and dictionaries – the application of phonological prin-
ciples, such as the rhyme table (等韵图), to the compilation of rhyme books and
dictionaries. The rhyme table locates initial consonants and vowels of a syllable in
their own positions, and diagrams are drawn to illustrate their relationships.
DiVerent rhyme sections can easily Wnd their places in the diagrams, which
certainly beneWts users greatly.
There appeared in the Tang Dynasty two new types of dictionary: character
model books (字样书) and sound-meaning books (音义书). The former deals
with the models, writing styles, formations, and structure of Chinese characters.
The dictionaries of this type include The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
The Collection of Characters from Five Classics, The Collection of Characters from
Nine Classics (<九经文字>) from the Tang Dynasty and The Pei Xi Dictionary
174 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
(<佩觿>), The General Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<字通>), and The
Dictionary of Ancient Character Exegesis (<复古编>) from the Song Dynasty.
The latter refers to collections of meaning explanations and phonetic annotations
of characters from classic works and scriptures, such as The Exegetic Interpret-
ation of Classics and Sounds and Meanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures, which
was compiled by Xuan Ying and Hui Lin of the Tang Dynasty.
To summarize, the values and inXuence of dictionary making and research
between the Wei and Yuan Dynastics are manifold and manifested chieXy by
greater in-depth theoretical generalization concerning lexicographical issues, the
emergence of new dictionary formats and styles, the standardization and con-
ventionalization of these formats and styles, a greater variety of dictionary types,
close interaction with contemporary academic research, and Wnally the far-
reaching impact upon theoretical inquiries of lexicographical issues, dictionary
format and style design and innovation. All these aspects and related issues will
be discussed in the following chapters.
lexicographical culture from wei to yuan 175
1 1
THE DEVELOPMENT OFCHINESE CHARACTER
DICTIONARIES
WHETHER viewed from a functional perspective and from the angle
of dictionary format and style, Chinese character dictionaries underwent
an important stage of exploration and cultivation during the period from theWei
to the Yuan Dynasty. New types of dictionaries emerged, new theories concerning
dictionary compilation appeared, and new incentives for development material-
ized. All this formed a strong driving force for Chinese lexicography to progress
and prosper.
11.1 the historical background
In the period of the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasty, what lay behind
the development of Chinese character dictionaries was the codiWcation of char-
acter variants, which was instrumental in the birth of ‘character model’ diction-
aries. During the period of the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasty,
separatist regimes were set up nationwide, and Southern China was cut oV from
the North. The oYcial script was dropping out of use and the regular and running
scripts were becoming more and more popular instead. Consequently, it was not
uncommon for single characters to be written with wrong strokes or with several
variants being used simultaneously, especially by ordinary people. This period
was a time ‘when prevailing habits and customs are discarded and characters
changed – seal characters are frequently misspelled and the oYcial script has lost
its true look’ (from The Book of the Wei Dynasty, <魏书>).
In the North, it was nothing but a time of rebellion and unrest. The writing system began
to deteriorate, which was further worsened by the constant coinage of new characters.
The situation of language use in the North was more disappointing than that in the
South. For instance, 忧 (worry) was interpreted as 百念 (with numerous ideas), 变
(change) as言反 (say what is contrary),罢 (cause to halt) as不用 (no longer in use),归
(return) as追来 (run after, chase),苏 (wake up) as更生 (revive),老 (old) as先人 (one’s
ancestor). Such inconsistencies are numerous and frequently encountered in the printed
classics. (from The Teachings of the Yan Family, <颜氏家训>)
It became inconvenient for students and scholars to learn and study the classics
and diYcult for the government to issue orders and decrees. Such a situation called
for the birth of a new type of dictionary – the ‘character model’ dictionary – to
codify and rectify misspelled characters and character variants.
Whenever a society goes from unrest to peace, its ruler will make policies to
strengthen his rule, among which language policy is usually an important
element. During the Tang Dynasty, policies were open and wise and its society
was stable and at peace. It was during the period of Zhenguan (627–649) in Tang
Taizong’s reign that Yan Shigu was put in charge of the Ministry of Secretary. The
duty of the Ministry of Secretary was to authoritatively print the classic works, to
collate the styles of characters, to check and proofread the texts, and Wnally to
produce a standard model textbook that could be taken as a yardstick for the
printing industry and as the Wnal resort when disputes arose, which led to the
appearance of a book entitled Yan’s Manual of Character Models (<颜氏字样>).He produced another book, called The RectiWcation and Standardization of
Chinese Characters. Other dictionaries of the kind included The New Manual of
Character Models from Classics and Scriptures (<群书新定字样>) by Du Yanye
(杜延业), The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The Dictionary of Meticu-
lously RectiWed Characters from Classics (<经典分毫正字>) by Ouyang Rong
(欧阳融), Sound and Meaning of Kaiyuan Characters (<开元文字音义>) by
Xuan Zong (唐玄宗), the Emperor himself, The Collection of Characters from
Five Classics, and The New Collection of Character Models from Nine Classics.
In the Preface to The Jade Chapters Gu Yewang states:
Even though easily confusable words came to extinction, the meaning might be errone-
ous as well. It followed that a lot of disputes and disagreements remained unsettled in the
Five Classics and the Writings of the Three Emperors. For the six kinds of writing script
and the eight styles of writing, there remained wide variations between the ancient and
development of character dictionaries 177
the contemporary: on some occasions, the same interpretation is suitable for diVerent
characters, and, on other occasions, the same character allows for diVerent interpret-
ations – there is much confusion in interpretation among numerous schools of thought.
For the character books and other printed dictionaries, errors are numerous. They are
diYcult to consult and confusion and doubt may easily arise.
Actually, the background to the birth of The Jade Chapters is touched upon
here. First, there appeared ‘diVerent interpretations’ of the classic works; sec-
ondly, character forms underwent dramatic changes from the seal character and
oYcial script to the regular script and caused ‘great discrepancies in writing
between the ancient and the contemporary’; thirdly, ‘there is much diVerence in
interpretation’ of the meaning of characters; and Wnally, errors proliferated in
classic works in circulation and character consultation became more diYcult.
Under such circumstances, a new dictionary type became a must – to codify the
font style, specify the character meaning, rectify errors and facilitate consultation.
Thus, Gu Yewang made an eVort ‘to integrate the achievements of diVerent
wordbooks, to proofread the many classic works and Wnally to establish his
own system – a comprehensive interpretation of the meaning of characters in
the Chinese language’. He beneWted greatly from his predecessors and formed his
own system by relying purely on his own judgement in making decisions as to
what to include and exclude, and how to, in his dictionary.
In the period from the Han to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, character
books and dictionaries were many in number and outstanding in quality. There
appeared some great lexicographical works, such as An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters, The Ready Guide, The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, and The
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms. In the period from the Sui to the Yuan
Dynasty, dictionary making and research developed further. In the early Tang
Dynasty, there appeared quite a number of character books of considerable size.
As recorded in the section on ‘Classic Works’ and in the section of ‘Art and
Literature’ in both the old and the new versions of The Book of the Tang Dynasty
(<唐书>), there are The Guiyuan Collection of Characters (<桂苑珠丛>, 100volumes) by Zhuge Ying (诸葛颖) in the Sui Dynasty and The MagniWcent
Character Dictionary (<字海>, 100 volumes) by Empress Wu Zetian, which are
grandiose achievements. It could be speculated on the basis of these two diction-
aries as to how prosperous and vigorous dictionary making and lexicographical
culture might have been. After a lapse of only a short period of time, there came
another even more miraculous lexicographical work The Sources of Rhyme Ocean,
which comprises 360 volumes. Unfortunately, these dictionaries are no longer in
existence.
178 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
11.2 the evolution of lexicographical theories
Philological studies are the theoretical underpinning of the compilation of the
Chinese character dictionary. In the period from the Wei to the Yuan Dynasty
philological studies concentrated mainly on theoretical inquiries into and the
sorting of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, research into the
theory of ‘Six Categories’, and the promotion of epigraphy.
For about four centuries after the birth of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, very scant research was conducted in relation to it. That situation did
not change until the Sui Dynasty. The most outstanding research on An Explana-
tory Dictionary of Chinese Characters was carried out by Li Yangning in the Tang
Dynasty and the Brothers of Xu Xuan and XuKai (徐锴) at the turn from the Tang
to the Song Dynasty. Li Yangning, a Tang Dynasty scholar from County Zhao, was
expert at zhuan script. His expertise in the zhuan script was considered second to
none and he once praised himself as ‘the direct successor to Li Si (the creator of the
xiaozhuan script in the Qin Dynasty)’. It was recorded in Xu Xuan’s Preface to The
Revised Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<校定说文>) that Li
Bingyang ‘reprinted An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters with major
revision and rectiWcation of strokes and techniques of character writing. He was
widely respected and admired by scholars and there came a revival of the zhuan
script and zhou script’.
Xu Kai was the author of The Comprehensive Studies in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文系传>), which was later known as JuniorXu’s Version. It comprises forty volumes, divided into eight sections:
(a) General interpretations: adding interpretative words immediately following
the original texts, with indicative labels as ‘Xuan’s word’ or ‘Xuan’s note’;
(b) Section comments: analysing semantic relations between various sections;
(c) General comments: listing more than 140 characters classiWed into the
categories of ‘heaven and earth, king and subjects, rites and ceremonies,
Wve xing (the Wve elements of metal, wood, water, Wre, and earth), life and
fate, father and mother, wife and sons, good and evil, wise and stupid, etc’
and discussing the origin of these characters and their form and meaning
relations;
(d) Removal of deceitful statements: especially for disproving the arguments
of Li Bingyang;
(e) Categorized gathering: words of the same kind are grouped together and
their formal structures and semantic relations are analysed;
development of character dictionaries 179
(f) Sorting: (the analysis of word meaning is used) to deduce the tenor of ‘Six
Categories’ theory, verify it against the behaviour of human beings, and
fully explicate its signiWcance;
(g) Suspended senses: pointing out the characters missed or suspected mean-
ing in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, in addition to
those with diVerences from the zhuan script;
(h) Direct comments: those by the reviser.
As analysed above, Xu Kai is the Wrst scholar who has systematically studied An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters from the diachronic perspective of
lexicography in China. In the Wrst year of Yongxi (i.e. ad 976) during Tai Zong’s
reign in the Song Dynasty, Xu Xuan, together with Gou Zhongzheng (句中正),
Ge Tuan (葛湍), Wang Weigong (王惟恭), and others, was summoned to collate
and revise An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. The revision was
completed in 986 and was later known as Senior Xu’s Version, which is the most
popular version of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters available
today. As was stated in its Preface, Xu Xuan and others did a great deal of work
towards the improvement of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
conducted a great deal of research on diVerent versions and editions, added what
had been ‘left out’, supplemented the newly coined, diVerentiated the popularly
misspelled, added notes and explanations, and adopted the phonetic system of
fanqie as employed by Sun Mian (孙愐) in The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes.
Thanks to the Xu brothers’ excellent work, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters became popular again and, an epoch-making event, the Shuowen
Studies gradually evolved as an independent branch of learning.
Since the ‘Six Categories’ theory was put forward in the Eastern Han Dynasty,
there has not been much research concerning its application to analyze the form
and structure of characters. In the Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi wrote The Char-
acter Dictionary (<字说>), which attempts to embrace the truths of all things
between heaven and earth, in keeping with what followed from The Book of
Changes. The characters in The Character Dictionary are arranged in rhyming
order, roughly the same four-tone sequence as in The Dictionary of Rhymes. The
head characters are printed in the style of the zhuan script, through which the
meaning of characters is analysed and interpreted. The form and structure of a
character is analysed as a prerequisite for interpreting its meaning and then the
relationship between form and meaning can be further expounded. For instance,
from the analysis of the formation of the character美 (beautiful), we can see that
‘the upper half of the character is 羊 (sheep) and the lower half is 大 (big).
A ‘‘sheep’’ is ‘‘beautiful’’ when it is ‘‘big’’ ’. When interpreting the meaning of a
180 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
character, Wang Anshi often takes into account how it is pronounced, that is,
phonetically interpreting the meaning of a character. For instance,
桧 (Chinese juniper) has the leaves of a柏 (cypress) and the trunk of a松 (pine), and its
leaves and trunk are all in curves (曲). 枞 (Wr), however, has the leaves of a 松 but the
trunk of a柏, and its leaves and trunk are all straight (直). For a枞, we will ‘comply with’
从 in that it is straight, but for a桧, we will have to ‘cut or break’ (会¼刽) in that it is in
the shape of a curve. Because of its straightness, we will have to follow 从 and it is
pronounced从 as in从容 (with ease). Because of its curve, we will have to cut it (会) oV
and it is therefore pronounced会 as in会计.
Wang Anshi also adopted the method of direct phonetic notation to help users
to understand its meaning through its pronunciation. For instance,柽 (Chinese
tamarisk) can predict when it is going to rain and reveals the law of heaven.
Though its nature is sacred it is still a kind of tree. Awood is divine and it cannot
be secularly named. Its pronunciation is赪 indicating ‘full-bloodied (赤) faith-
fulness (贞)’. Wang Anshi believed that for a character, ‘when seeing it you can
know it, when hearing it you can think about it and its meaning is natural.’ ‘As
Confucian scholars have been constantly arguing, the crux of the dispute is the
relationship between name and essence. When this relationship is clariWed, the
universal lawof theworld can be grasped’ (fromTheCollectedWorks ofWangAnshi
(<王文公文集>), Volume 8). He also composed a poemwhich goes like this: ‘All
things have been correctly named since Emperor Xuanyuan. Why should we force
ourselves to discuss this in vain? What we could do is Wll up the wine glass for our
friends but not to order the ghosts to cry at sunset’ (from Notes to Wang Anshi’s
Poems, <王荆文公诗笺注>, Volume 41). It is clear that his motivation for com-
piling The Character Dictionary is to correct the names of objects for practical
purposes. In his analysis, greater emphasis is laid upon the characteristics of formal
features and the functions and dispositions of things in order to explicate the
names of objects, discriminate the diVerences, identify the mainstream and the
branches, and explore the patterns and principles underlying the meanings.
Aware of the changes and developments in language, Wang Anshi analysed
some newly evolved meanings and extended meanings that had not been dis-
cussed in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. For instance, 除 is
deWned as ‘殿陛也 (the steps in front of a palace)’. In The Character Dictionary,
the extended meaning of ‘renewal’ is discussed: it comes from the ‘change or
alternation’ in moving up ‘the steps in front of a palace’. The Character Dictionary
is comprehensive: embracing the ideas and Wndings of the Confucian, the Taoist,
and Buddhist studies, in addition to all other minor schools of thoughts.
Its interpretations are basically well-grounded. Its language is simple but the
development of character dictionaries 181
meanings expounded are profound. One of Wang Anshi’s purposes in the
compilation of The Character Dictionary is to supplement what had been missing
in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. The Character Dictionary is a
rather systematic sorting of the lexical semantics of the Chinese character system.
Having fully recognized the role of ‘sound component’ of a character in express-
ing meaning, Wang Anshi began to use the principle of ‘similar pronunciation
indicating common meaning’ in analysing the features of the ‘sound component’,
which greatly promoted the study of Chinese characters. ‘Though not free from
exegetical explanation, Wang Anshi has succeeded in dissecting how the form of a
character is related to its meaning and in helping to achieve an easier under-
standing of meanings of Chinese characters. His contribution should be fully
appreciated.’ (胡道静, Hu Daojing, 1956).
The Character Dictionary functions as a bridge connecting the present to the
past in the lexicographical history of China. Its inXuence on dictionary making is
far-reaching and its academic value and signiWcance in theoretical exploration
are remarkable.
Zheng Qiao (郑樵)), a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, initiated the Six
Categories classiWcation in his work The Succinct Explication of Six-category
Chinese Characters (<六书略>). He reclassiWed the 540 sections of An Explana-
tory Dictionary of Chinese Characters into 330 sections. In his book, Zheng Qiao
not only provided illustrative examples for each of the Six Categories but further
classiWed them into twelve categories. His classiWcation and his method for
classiWcation were, to some extent, inherently defective in that they were
restricted by the ‘Six Categories’ theory. Dai Tong, a Yuan Dynasty scholar,
wrote The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, which used the Six Cat-
egories theory for analysing Chinese characters. He abandoned the sections used
in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and formulated a system of
his own, which comprised nine sections: numerals, astronomy, geography,
human beings, animals, plants, engineering, miscellany, and unsettled things.
These nine sections were further divided into 479 subsections in thirty-three
volumes. He made many original analyses of the meaning of characters but these
were not free from defects, such as making forced analogies and overemphasizing
the past while disregarding the contemporary. Yang Huan (杨桓), also a Yuan
Dynasty scholar, wrote The General Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters
(<六书统>, twenty volumes), which made use of ancient characters to deduce
and seek the original meaning, with the Six Categories theory governing his
analysis of Chinese characters. Unfortunately, his analysis was strongly conWned
within the limits of the Six Categories theory and illustrative examples in his
dictionary were numerous but jumbled.
182 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
The Emperor’s fondness for bronze vessels and the great number of such
vessels unearthed brought epigraphy into existence and enabled it to progress
and spread quickly. From a linguistic perspective, epigraphy in the Song Dynasty
broadened the horizon of philological studies and provided new methodologies.
The scope of the study on ancient characters expanded from the xiaozhuan script
to inscriptions on bronze, from literature passing from generation to generation
to literature newly unearthed. For over 400 inscriptive characters unearthed in
the Song Dynasty, the majority of the interpretations by the Song Dynasty
scholars were correct. The methodologies employed by the Song Dynasty
scholars were contrastive analysis, character component analysis, deduction,
conWrmation from literature passed down, etc., which were the basic methods
for interpreting ancient characters and are still being used today. From a lexico-
graphical perspective, epigraphy in the Song Dynasty established the format for
compiling specialized dictionaries. For instance, The Pictorial Dictionary of
Archaeology (<考古图>) by Lu Dalin (吕大临), was the earliest dictionary that
provided a systematic record of ancient vessels, with illustrative sketches. This
dictionary comprises ten volumes, divided according to the classiWcation of
vessels. For each vessel, there is a descriptive diagram or sketch, the name of
the vessel and/or its manufacturer, its size, weight and capacity, in addition to
textual research and record of its owner or place of unearthing. This dictionary
sets a good precedent for later lexicographers to follow in format and style.
In the period of the Sui to YuanDynasty, inquiries into lexicographic issueswere
given in the dictionary prefaces or other articles. Their achievements, however,
were signiWcant. As pointed out in his Presenting a Memorial for Ancient and
Contemporary Characters, Jiang Shi held that characters and language serve the
function of ‘when it is announced in the Palace, it would be passed among the
diVerent trades in the world; when it is written down and printed in ten thousand
copies, all things would be clearly identiWed.’ For Xu Shen, it was his ‘disgust of the
ill-treatment of characters’ that motivated him towriteAn Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters. It is evident that one principal function of a dictionary is the
standardization and codiWcation of language for a community. Lu Deming made
some insightful comments on dictionary coverage. He held that ‘embracing both
the ancient and the contemporary’ should be a general principle for dictionaries of
every type. The principle for rhyme dictionaries was represented in The Tang
Dictionary of Rhymes, which assumed that its coverage would be ‘exhaustive and
supplementwhat has been left out inTheDictionary of Chinese Rhymes’, embracing
‘names of states and counties’, ‘tales and legends, origins of family names, local
produces, names ofmountains and rivers, grasses and woods, birds, beasts, worms
and Wsh’. As for phonetic notation and deWnition, Lu Deming pointed out that the
development of character dictionaries 183
pronunciation of a character in a dictionary should be ‘put in theWrst place’so as to
‘help the user to compare usage’. A dictionary ‘should add phonetic notation,
deWne the character, trace its origin, and analyse and explain the diYcult points or
confusions’ (from the Preface to Sounds andMeanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures
by Xuan Ying). Lu Deming believed that the citations should be ‘taken from both
the ancient and contemporary literature’ and the compilers should ‘extract out the
fundamental and essential elements’. The citations for each character would be
‘plain but not crude, abundant but not chaotic’.
Lu Deming also established a bylaw for The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics –
‘meaning interpretation coupled with discrimination’. In other words, a diction-
ary should not only interpret the meaning of a character but make further
discrimination from some related characters as well when necessary. The most
outstanding feature of semantic interpretation for a dictionary in this period was
marked by the breakthrough in the paradigm of form–meaning combination laid
down in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in the period of the
Qin and Han Dynasties. A new paradigm, that is, the combination of sound–
meaning, emerged as a result of the Xourishing phonological studies of the Sui
and Tang Dynasties. With the introduction of Buddhism and the thriving
translation and interpretation of Buddhist scriptures, the role of phonology in
the textual research of scriptures and in meaning interpretation of characters
in dictionary making was recognized and the theories of phonetic–meaning
combination naturally evolved. Xuan Ying stated that ‘to collect and sort the
scriptures is to add phonetic notations and to interpret their meanings’ (Preface
to Sounds and Meanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures). The Jade Chapters also
adopted the paradigm of phonetic–meaning combination, that is, phonetic
notation followed by semantic interpretation; whereas, The Dictionary of Chinese
Rhymes put semantic interpretation in front of phonetic notations (丰逢奉, Feng
Fengfeng, 1992). In the Song Dynasty, the works written since the Han and Tang
Dynasties were called into question and scholars wished to get rid of them and
reinterpret the argumentations and ideologies in the traditional classic works.
The movement of reinterpreting the classic works and elucidating their funda-
mental argumentations motivated the compilation of character dictionaries.
In this period, the studies in the Welds of phonetics, grammar, and semantics
had all made great headway, which accelerated the progress of lexicography in
cultural development, knowledge propagation, and language teaching. Diction-
ary making achieved some signiWcant breakthroughs in format and style, such as
formal and phonetic sequencing, in phonetic notation, in phonetic–semantic
combination, in sense deWnition, and in formal analysis. The quality of diction-
ary making and the level of lexicographical research were noticeably enhanced.
184 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
11.3 the development of format and style
After the academic disputes and cultural evolution in the period from the Wei to
the Southern and Northern Dynasties, dictionary making began to undergo a
process of multi-dimensional development from the Sui to the Yuan Dynasties,
which was a result of eVorts to meet various lexicographical needs from all walks
of life in society. In terms of functions, there appeared various kinds of diction-
aries to serve the purposes of codiWcation: those for codifying the form and
structure of the character in use, such as The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, those for codifying the pronunciation, such as The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes, those for codifying the meaning, such as The Broad Ready
Guide, those dealing with all three aspects, that is, form, pronunciation, and
meaning, such as The Jade Chapters, those for interpreting multiple scriptures,
such as The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics, and Sounds and Meanings of All the
Buddhist Scriptures, and those for interpreting a speciWc scripture, such as Sounds
and Meanings of the Avatamsaka Sutra (<华严经音义>). In terms of styles and
formats, there emerged formal ordering dictionaries, such as The Character Forest
and The Jade Chapters, phonetic ordering dictionaries, such as The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes, semantic ordering dictionaries, such as The Broad Ready Guide,
or dictionaries that were arranged according to the sequence of the chapters and
sections from which characters were collected and interpreted, such as The
Exegetic Interpretation of Classics or Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist
Scriptures. This indicated that dictionary making reached a rather high standard.
The dictionaries compiled in this period were generally socially motivated and
more user-friendly, with ease of consultation.
The character dictionaries in the early Wei and Jin Dynasties followed the
example of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in increasing its
coverage of characters and adding those left out by previous compilers, or of The
Ready Guide in augmenting their contents. Although xiaozhuan and the ancient
oYcial script of the Han Dynasty were not still in use, the most popular style of
writing in this period was the regular script, that is, the modern oYcial script,
and this trend was becoming more and more apparent. Consequently, more and
more dictionaries compiled in this period started to adopt the regular script as
the standard style of head character and were breaking away from the conWne-
ments of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The Ready Guide in
content and format. In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, these new-style
dictionaries were very popular. This trend in the evolution of dictionary making
development of character dictionaries 185
was also a natural response to the need of society and certainly in keeping with
the general patterns of lexicographical practice.
In the early Wei Dynasty, three character dictionaries, i.e. The Augmented
Cangjie Glossary (<埤仓>), The Broad Ready Guide, and The Exegesis of Ancient
and Contemporary Characters, were compiled by Zhang Yi. They were all subse-
quently lost except for The Broad Ready Guide, which will be dealt with later. It is
evident from its name that The Augmented Cangjie Glossary was compiled to
supplement Three Cang Primer. A more inXuential character dictionary than The
Exegesis of Ancient and Contemporary Characters was The Character Forest by Lu
Chen in the Jin Dynasty. Lu Chen collected many rare and odd characters or
character variants to supplement what had been left out from An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. In Jiang Shi’s opinion,
It generally follows the example of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. It
cites extensively and identiWes and diVerentiates ancient characters, characters of
the zhou style, odd characters, and characters easily confusable. Its writing style is the
standardized oYcial script of the Han Dynasty. It has, to a large extent, captured
the essence of xiaozhuan.
In other words, the oYcial script was dominant in this book and its style of
character writing did not violate that of xiaozhuan.
The Character Forest had become popular in the Southern and Northern
Dynasties. Yan Zhitui, a scholar of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577), wrote
that once, accompanying the Emperor, he went to a village, named Lielu. It is in
Shang’ai County, dozens of miles to the east of the frontier pass of Jingjing. Later,
he went to another place, near the town of Kangqiu, about a hundred miles to the
east of Jinyang. It is unknown to them what these two places were originally. He
tried hard to seek answers through the books, both ancient and contemporary,
but none was forthcoming. When he came to the character dictionaries, i.e. The
Character Forest and The Collection of Rhymes, the riddle was immediately solved
(from The Teachings of the Yan Family). It is the character books that helped him
Wgure out the diVerent names of two places and the pronunciation of three
archaic characters. It is evident that The Character Forest would be popular in
everyday life for its consultative value. Yan Zhitui was also well aware of the
signiWcance of language and characters. He stated:
Words and characters are fundamental. For students nowadays, they rarely have a better
knowledge of characters: when they read the Five Classics, they follow Xu Miao (徐邈)
rather than Xu Shen, and when they practise writing fu-poems, they believed in Chu’s
(褚) interpretations but neglected Lu Chen’s.
186 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
He held that it was wrong to ignore the role of the character dictionary. And
here, when he mentioned the name of Lu Chen, what Yan Zhitui referred to was
The Character Forest he compiled, which served as a transition between the
foregoing An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and the subsequent
The Jade Chapters.
Jiang Shi, a well-known scholar of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was endowed
with a profound knowledge about Chinese characters. He was born into a family
acknowledged for its academic study of the diVerent writing styles of Chinese
characters. Jiang Qiong (江琼), his ancestor from the Three Kingdoms period,
was a disciple of Wei Qu (卫觊) and was expert at writing in the ancient zhuan
style and in exegetic studies. Jiang Qiang (江强), his grandfather, also good at the
ancient zhuan style, held the title of senior academic consultant for the govern-
ment and donated about one thousand books he had collected. Jiang Shaoxing
(江绍兴), his father, was appointed as an oYcial of the royal library and had been
in charge of writing the national history for more than twenty years. Jiang Shi
inherited a great deal from his family. He was good at writing diVerent character
styles, especially the style of xiaozhuan. His writings could frequently be seen on
the signboards of important buildings in the capital city. In the Northern Wei
Dynasty, he presented a memorial to request permission to compile a character
dictionary – Ancient and Contemporary Characters. This memorial discussed the
origin and evolution of Chinese characters, the merits and demerits of character
books compiled since the time of the Qin Dynasty in their content, format and
style. That was an important article on the study of Chinese characters and in the
history of lexicography in China. As far as the format and style of this character
book was concerned, it exempliWed An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Char-
acters: for each head character, the writing style of xiaozhuan is presented Wrst,
followed by its oYcial script form, and, for its diVerent writing styles, such as the
zhou script, odd variants and vulgar ones are listed after the xiaozhuan style with
some comments on their diVerentiation. For each character, pronunciations are
added, which are further diVerentiated as dialectal and standard ones. That
dictionary comprised forty volumes. The memorial Jiang Shi presented showed
that it was comprehensive, embracing both the ancient and the contemporary.
The xiaozhuan and oYcial scripts were contrasted and the variants were exten-
sively collected. For each character, its pronunciation was noted by using fanqie
and the diVerences in pronunciation between diVerent regions were examined.
Therefore, that dictionary is noteworthy for its unprecedented coverage and
combination of features and advantages found in many others, especially The
Dictionary of Dialectal Words and An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Charac-
ters. Jiang Shi himself once commented on the dictionary that ‘it has removed
development of character dictionaries 187
redundant characters’. It proved highly beneWcial for exegetic studies and dia-
lectal investigations of later generations. The pity was that it was an unWnished
work and has not been handed down to the present time.
The Jade Chapters diVers from those compiled under the guidance of the Six
Categories theory in format and style and is characterized as follows. First, its
head characters are in the form of the regular script. The head characters in
dictionaries compiled before The Jade Chapters are all in the style of xiaozhuan
and the oYcial script, for instance, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Char-
acters, The Exegesis of Ancient and Contemporary Characters, The Character Forest,
and Ancient and Contemporary Characters. The Jade Chapters is the earliest
dictionary found to have head characters in the form of the regular script. Its
coverage is over 22,000 characters, including some newly coined characters and
variants, which gives an authentic and comprehensive description of language
change in this period: a more fully developed language system, dramatic increase
in the number of Chinese characters, and the variation of the writing style of
Chinese characters.
Second, reform in the components and radicals of Chinese characters was well
under way. The Jade Chapters removed ten radical sections, such as the radical
sections of 哭, 眉, 后, and 弦, from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and added twelve new sections, such as those of 父, 兆, 索, 单, and
丈. The ordering of radical sections was also changed from ‘formal ordering’ to
‘semantic ordering’. This change resulted from the change of the writing style
from xiaozhuan and the oYcial script to the regular script, and from the
motivation to make dictionary consultation a more user-friendly activity.
Third, fanqie became the dominant form of phonetic notation, assisted by direct
notation. The phonetic notation inAn Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters
was rather imprecise in that a character is usually notated by means of using labels
such as某声 (pronounced as) and读若某 (pronounced like). The Jade Chapters
adopted the method of fanqie, which was a rather substantial advance in phonetic
notation. It not only made dictionary consultation an easier and more pleasant
activity but also reXected the progress in lexicography of its time.
Fourth, deWnitions became more detailed and speciWc. The deWnition in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters was oriented towards analysing the
form and structure of Chinese characters and inquiring into their original
meanings. The Jade Chapters, however, laid more emphasis on interpreting the
meanings of characters rather than on analysing their formal features on the
understanding that when someone comes to a dictionary he usually wants to
know its pronunciation or meaning rather than its formal structure and original
meaning. Look at the following citation from The Jade Chapters:
188 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
夫, 甫俱切。<说文>云: 丈夫, 从一大, 一以像簪, 周制八寸为尺, 十尺为丈, 人长
八尺,故曰丈夫。又,夫三为屋,一家田为一夫也。又音扶,语助也。
(夫: pronounced with the combination of the initial consonant of甫 /pu/ and the vowel
of 俱 /ju/. An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters says:丈夫 ‘husband’ comes
from the combination of 一 ‘one’ and 大 ‘big’ in which 一 stands for a hairpin. In the
Zhou Dynasty, eight inches make one foot and ten feet make one yard ‘丈’. The height of
a man is usually eight feet, roughly a yard. And a man is usually dubbed as ‘one yard
person’. Also,夫三为屋. The size of the farmland of a family ‘家’ is made suitable for a
single man. Also, it is pronounced as扶, used as an exclamation expressing the mood.)
Fifth, in the process of meaning interpretation, the compiler’s ideas and
opinions were often added as notes. In The Jade Chapters, ‘Yewang’s note’ was
used to indicate that opinions and comments came from the compiler himself.
The notes involved the compiler’s analysis and reXections about the form,
meaning, and pronunciation of the speciWc character in question. As for the
formal aspect, it identiWed its variants, examined those characters sharing more
similarities in formal features, described how a character underwent diVerentia-
tion and/or combination. As to the semantic aspect, semantic analysis and
interpretation became the dominant method instead of formal or phonetic
interpretation. For deWnition, semantic analysis was more suitable and meth-
odologically more scientiWc than formal and phonetic analysis, for it was more
compatible with the users’ reading habits. The methods adopted in The Jade
Chapters for semantic interpretation are:
(a) description: such as 缆 (mooring rope): Yewang’s note: 缆 refers to thick
rope for mooring.
(b) contrast: 呼: Yewang’s note: air out is 呼 ‘exhale’, whereas air in is 吸
‘inhale’.
(c) generalization: 服 ‘garments’: Yewang’s note; 衣, for covering the upper
part of the body, and 裳 for the lower part. In general, both of them can
refer to服 ‘clothes, garments’.
(d) synonym:伞 ‘umbrella’: Yewang’s note: it is a shield or shelter.
Sixth, the appendix ofMinute DiVerences in Character Formations (<分毫字样>)was attached to the end of the dictionary, which was an invention on the part of
Gu Yewang. He listed a large number of pairs of characters identical in form. For
each pair, he provided phonetic notations and deWnitions to help consultants to
discriminate their diVerences in form, pronunciation, and meaning. For in-
stance, the pair 帷 and 惟: the pronunciation of the former is described as ‘the
combination of the initial consonant of 于 /yu/ and the vowel of 眉 /mei/, its
development of character dictionaries 189
deWnition is帷幔 (curtain)’, whereas the latter is described as ‘the combination of
the initial consonant of 以 /yi/ and the vowel of 佳 /jia/, its deWnition is 辞也
(functional character)’.
In the Song Dynasty, Ding Du, along with others, compiled The Rhyme
Dictionary. In comparison with The Jade Chapters, it manifested a large increase
in coverage but it is a pity that it did not co-refer to The Jade Chapters. Some
other rhyming characters excluded from The Rhyme Dictionary were gathered
into a new dictionary – The ClassiWed Chapters. For these two dictionaries, ‘those
characters phonetically related are all included in The Rhyme Dictionary while
those formally related are all included in The ClassiWed Chapters’ (Preface to The
ClassiWed Chapters). Therefore, The Rhyme Dictionary and The ClassiWed Chapters
are complementary. The compilation of The ClassiWed Chapters was carried out
successively by Wang Zhu, Hu Xiu, Zhang Cili (张次立), and Fan Zhen (范镇),
and Wnally edited by Sima Guang. That dictionary project started in 1039 and was
completed in 1066.
The Rhyme Dictionary falls into the category of rhyming dictionaries while The
ClassiWed Chapters is a character dictionary. They are, however, complementary
in terms of function. The latter consisted of Wfteen parts and each was further
divided into three volumes. The section divisions in The ClassiWed Chapters were
basically the same as those in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, i.e.
540 sections altogether. Because each of the four sections艸 (grass),食 (food),木
(wood), and 水 (water) actually had two subsections there were 544 sections in
The ClassiWed Chapters. The table of contents of the dictionary was given at the
end as an appendix. Its coverage was 31,319 characters, more than twice the size of
The Jade Chapters. It followed the example of An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and The Jade Chapters, the main focus being laid on form
and semantics, on investigations into the origin of characters, on analysis of
ancient pronunciations and senses, and on evolution of the writing style. The
ClassiWed Chapters had a rigorous format and spared no eVort in making up what
was left out of The Rhyme Dictionary and in eliminating what was redundant in
The Rhyme Dictionary. In each character entry, its fanqie notation was given in
the Wrst place, then the exegetic explanation. When the character had a diVerent
pronunciation or meaning, they would be indicated as appropriate. The charac-
ters identiWed as having multiple pronunciations and/or senses in The ClassiWed
Chapters far surpassed those in The Jade Chapters. The policy adopted by The
ClassiWed Chapters to deal with these characters was to list the pronunciations
and senses in rhyming order. Like The Jade Chapters, more emphasis was laid
upon pronunciation and meaning rather than on the analysis of the formal
structures of each character. Where there existed a variant or variants this
190 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
would be noted after the character and sometimes its xiaozhuan formwas indicated
as well. In The ClassiWed Chapters there was a new type of note, i.e.凡 �之类皆
从� (all those like . . . are categorized as . . . ), indicating that semantic categories
had already been considered in working out the format. The writing style of
characters became standardized after it underwent several stages of evolution, and
the theory of ‘Six Categories’ was no longer applicable to the analysis of characters.
The ClassiWed Chapters elaborated nine ways to compensate in its Preface, which
were clearly a summary of its style and format and a reXection ofmany of its unique
characteristics:
. For characters with the same pronunciation but diVerent forms, they are co-
referred;
. For characters with the same meaning but diVerent pronunciations, they are
not co-referred;
. When its original meaning is lost, keep its original explanation, i.e. follow-
ing the traditional method of treatment;
. When the ancient meaning has changed to a new one, keep the new one;
. When the ancient meaning was lost without a new one, keep the ancient
one;
. For those newly coined characters without evidence, give no ‘see special
note’ (i.e. give no new separate section);
. For those losing their original evidence but where their meanings are self-
evident, clarify their motivations;
. For those left out of The Rhyme Dictionary, they are fully treated in this
dictionary;
. For those without a clearly identiWable section, group them according to
their semantic categories.
Since the time of its birth, more and more defects and shortcomings of The Jade
Chapters have come to light, for instance, its listing of characters which is chaotic in
parts, its cumberrome consultation, over-proliferation and disorderliness in section
identiWcation, limitation of lexical coverage, the strictures imposed by An Explana-
tory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and its misclassiWcation of some characters.
Han Daosheng (韩道升) criticized it for ‘selection with the best being missing and
imperfection with many being left out’ and ‘for its classiWcation, being redundant
and sophisticated’. In the 1180s, Wang Yumi (王与秘) revised it by arranging the
characters according to their number of radicals and renamed it The MagniWcent
Chapters (<篇海>). And in the 1190s, Han Xiaoyan (韩孝彦) further revised it –
‘The Jade Chapters is reorganized according to the Wve scales, and its greatest
excellence lies in choosing characters from the thirty-six initial consonants. This
development of character dictionaries 191
new method surprises the whole academic world’ (Han Daosheng: Preface to The
MagniWcentChapters). In 1208, HanDaozhao, the second son ofHanXiaoyan,made
an even further revision and combined the sections into 440 sections. Its coverage
was also greatly enlarged and the dictionary was re-entitled The MagniWcent Chap-
ters: with Augmentations of Five Scales and Categorizations of Four Tones (<五音增
改并类聚四声篇海>), comprising Wfteen volumes with a coverage of 54,595 char-
acters. The indexing system adopted in both The MagniWcent Chapters and The
Dragon Shrine Character Manual (<龙龛手鉴>) is phonetic ordering but the
speciWc format and arrangement are diVerent. The MagniWcent Chapters arranges
the characters in the sequence of the thirty-six initial consonants and, for each initial
consonant, four scales are further diVerentiated.
11.4 a brief introduction to somerepresentative character dictionaries
Among the character books and dictionaries compiled in the Southern and
Northern Dynasties, the most important is The Jade Chapters, the Wrst regular
script character dictionary in the history of Chinese lexicography. Gu Yewang,
born in Wu County, Wu Shire, Liang State in the Southern Dynasty, was a
prodigy. He could read the Five Classics when he was seven and started to
write articles such as The Sun (<日赋>) when he was nine. When he grew up
‘he read all the scriptures and historical books extensively. His knowledge
involved astronomy, geography, divining and astrology, diVerent writing scripts
and rare characters’ (The Book of the Chen Dynasty, <陈书>). He died at sixty-
three. His academic achievements include The Jade Chapters, which was completed
when he was twenty-Wve, and The Stemmata of the Gu Family (<顾氏谱传>), inaddition to a collected work of twenty volumes, and various other works.
Regarding the time of its writing and completion, there is a record in the Song
Dynasty version of The Jade Chapters that ‘on 28March, the ninth year of Datong
in the Liang Dynasty, Gu Yewang wrote it.’ According to The Biography of Xiao Kai
(<萧恺传>) in The Book of the Liang Dynasty (<梁书>), ‘before that, Doctor GuYewang at the Imperial Academy had been ordered to write The Jade Chapters.
Taizong was dissatisWed with it and employed Xiao Kai (萧恺) to revise it because
Xiao Kai was known for his broad knowledge and expertise in philology.’ It is
therefore evident that the writing of The Jade Chapterswas not directly ordered by
the Emperor but by the prince – Taizong. In the ninth year of Datong in Emperor
192 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Liangwu’s reign, the twenty-Wve-year-old Gu Yewang presented the completed
version of The Jade Chapters to Prince Xiao Gang (萧纲, Emperor Jianwen). In
548, Xiao Gang ordered Xiao Kai, the son of Xiao Zixian (萧子显), to take charge
of the revision of The Jade Chapters. It is thus clear that the compilation of The
Jade Chapters started in 538 and was completed in 543. It was revised by SunQiang
(孙强) in the Tang Dynasty (674) and by Chen Pengnian and others in the Song
Dynasty (1013). After all these revisionsThe Jade Chapterswas not what it had been
when it was compiled by Gu Yewang. The most popular version of The Jade
Chapters currently available is the revised edition by Chen Pengnian et al. and it is
renamed The Immensely Augmented Jade Chapters (<大广益会玉篇>).The present version of The Jade Chapters, i.e. The Immensely Augmented Jade
Chapters consisted of thirty volumes. The number of characters totalled ‘158,641
in the old version and 51,129 in the new version, 209,770 characters altogether.
The explanatory notes were 407,530 characters. The number of characters covered
in the dictionary were actually a little over 22,000. Thus, the present version is
neither what it was like when Gu Yewang wrote it nor when Sun Qiang revised
and expanded it.
The Jade Chapters basically adopted the section segmentation system of An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, with 542 sections, two sections
more in number. It deleted some sections of Xu Shen’s dictionary, such as the
radical sections哭,延, 杀, 眉, 白 [actually 自 ‘self ’, not 白 ‘white’], 饮,后,弦,
etc., added some new sections, such as the radical sections父,喿,处,兆,盘, 索,
床,单, and丈. The character书 was just a character in Xu Shen’s dictionary, but
it was established as a separate section in The Jade Chapters, and the section画 in
Xu Shen’s dictionary was downgraded as part of the书 section. The sequence of
the sections was also diVerent from that in Xu Shen’s dictionary as a result
of adjustment and rearrangement. For instance, the thirteen sections involving
such characters of interpersonal relations as人,儿,父,臣,男,民,夫,予,我,身,
兄,弟, and女 were collectively treated in Volume III, which made it fundamen-
tally diVerent from Xu Shen’s dictionary insofar as the sections were arranged
according to the ‘formal ordering’ principle based on the Six Categories theory in
Xu Shen’s dictionary, whereas in The Jade Chapters, they were treated according
to the semantic relations they bear. It is hard to pass judgement on this treatment,
but for those users who are not familiar with the Six Categories theory, it is more
convenient.
Unlike An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which analyses the
form and structure of the character according to the Six Categories theory, The
Jade Chapters focuses on phonetic–meaning relations in deWnition. After each
head character, it is the phonetic notation by fanqie, followed by an explanation
development of character dictionaries 193
of its meaning. Some explanations are supported by citations and there are also
situations where citations are directly employed as ‘deWnitions’. For those char-
acters with diVerent spellings, the ancient spelling or its variants are listed
afterwards. For example, 堆 is in section 土 of Volume 2. It is deWned and
explained as ‘堆, 都回切, 聚土也。<楚辞> 云: 陵魁堆以蔽视。’ (堆 is notated
in fanqie as 都回. It means 聚土 ‘earth piling up’. In The Songs of Chu, there is
陵魁堆以蔽视 ‘The biggest mausoleum is piled up and the horizon is
obstructed’.) The citation from The Songs of Chu is used directly as a deWnition.
Let us look at another example: 垂 has an entry ‘垂,时规切。<说文>云:远边
也。’ (垂 is notated in fanqie as时规. And in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, it says远边也 ‘faraway’.).
It is obvious that there is no further explanation of it since An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters has already deWned it nice and clearly. For a few
characters, direct phonetic notation is employed rather than fanqie. For instance,
茵 in示 section is notated 音因 (pronounced in the same way as 因).
The present version of The Jade Chapters includes a preface written by Gu
Yewang, which points out that the purpose of its compilation is to research and
discover similarities and diVerences between ancient and contemporary charac-
ters in their formal structure and semantic interpretation and to help solve the
users’ confusions and diYculties in these respects. He aims to ‘comprehensively
study and integrate the many texts, compare and verify the diVerent books, and
form a scheme of his own’. The explanations of characters in it, however, are on
most occasions highly simpliWed. This might be a result of revision and deletion
by later scholars. According to The Book of the Sui Dynasty, The Jade Chapters
comprises thirty-one volumes, possibly counting the preface as one volume.
The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters was compiled by Yan Yuansun, a
Tang Dynasty scholar, and comprises only one volume. Yan Yuansun, known as
Yu Xiu, was born in Wannian (Xi’an today). Yan Shigu, Yan Yuansun’s ancestor,
had been ordered by Emperor Taizong to ‘verify and authorize the Scriptures.
Thus [he] has recorded the writing styles of characters as samples to verify the
writing style of regular scripts. These sample writings are very popular and
entitled Yan’s Manual of Character Models’ (Preface to The Ganlu Dictionary of
Chinese Characters), on the basis of which Yan Yuansun compiled The Ganlu
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. By 干禄 ‘Ganlu’ is meant ‘seeking a position
earning salaries’. This dictionary was intended to help diVerentiate the diVerent
styles of character writing, especially for oYcials to recognize and correctly use
the characters in government documents, such as memorials, letters and corres-
pondences, court verdicts and legal charges. It is the Wrst character dictionary to
diVerentiate the formal features of Chinese characters. Though originating from
194 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Yan’s Manual of Character Models, it ushered in a new epoch of character
dictionary compilation and a new dictionary species – the Chinese character
dictionary with a focus on formal description and diVerentiation. The characters
in the dictionary are Wrst divided into four sections according to the four tones in
pronunciation and are then further arranged according to the radicals they share.
For each character entry, there is a split into three styles, namely popular, general,
and standard, according to their diachronic sequence and diVerence in areas of
use. Listing is also made of some popularly used simpliWed characters with
elaborate sense diVerentiation. As meaning explication is not done character by
character, and deWnitions, if there are any provided, are usually rather rough and
ready, this dictionary can only be used as a general character glossary for
checking character variants. In 774, Yan Zhenqing, Yan Yuansun’s nephew and
also a great master of calligraphy, copied it and had it inscribed on stone tablets.
According to Chen Zhensun (陈振孙), a Song Dynasty scholar, there is a sequel
of The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which is entitled The Extended
Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<广干禄字书>, Wve volumes) by Lou Ji
in the Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, it is no longer in existence.
The Collection of Characters from Five Classics was written by Zhang Shen in
the Tang Dynasty. It consists of three volumes. In June 776, he started to collate
and verify the words and characters in the Five Classics on imperial order. When
he ‘had Wnished collecting the diVerent versions of the Five Classics, all the walls
of the room were piled up with books’. Then, he began to collect confusable
characters and interchangeable variants. Based on the Xiping Stone Inscriptions of
the Han Dynasty and other wordbooks and dictionaries, such as An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The Character Forest, and The Exegetic Inter-
pretation of Classics, he identiWed 3,247 characters (3,235 characters according to
his Preface). These characters are further classiWed into 160 radical sections. For
each character, phonetic pronunciation is notated, mainly by means of fanqie,
but sometimes direct notation is also employed. In terms of character formation,
diVerentiation is made in the evolution of the writing style of the character, the
variants of a character, the characters bearing resemblance in form, and the
misspelled characters. In terms of pronunciation, diVerentiation is made in
characters with divergent pronunciations and characters easily mispronounced.
In terms of character meaning, loaned meanings are further identiWed, and the
deWnitions are more speciWc and precise than those in An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters. Moreover, new senses or existing senses left out of An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters are added, and the characters newly
added are also well treated in terms of their sense deWnitions. This is a special
wordbook about diVerentiating the formal structure and phonetic pronunciation
development of character dictionaries 195
of characters in the classics and scriptures in the tradition of Yan’s Manual of
CharacterModels,TheNewManual of CharacterModels fromClassics and Scriptures,
and The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters. In a word, the collection of
characters is rich in content, with careful discrimination of their writing styles in
the classics, good illustration of the diVerences in spelling between the ancient and
the contemporary, and eVective correction of mistakes. Furthermore, the work has
preserved many ancient pronunciations and exegetic interpretations, making it an
important contribution to the standardization of Chinese characters.
The New Collection of Character Models from Nine Classics was written by Xuan
Du in the Tang Dynasty, consisting of one volume only, and was based on co-
textual research of other classics to rectify the errors in character writing styles in
The Collection of Characters from Five Classics. It also identiWed 421 characters
missing from The Collection of Characters from Five Classics and classiWed them
into seventy-six sections. It focused on investigating and codifying the form and
style of characters, notating the pronunciation, and interpreting the meaning of
characters. It followed the same pattern as The Collection of Characters from Five
Classics in format and arrangement, but not in phonetic notation. It employed
direct phonetic notation rather than fanqie, and if no character sharing the same
pronunciation is available, it would oVer indirect notation by using two characters
with one sharing the same initial consonant and the other the same vowel.
Functionally speaking, The New Collection of Character Models from Nine Classics
can be virtually treated as a supplement to The Collection of Characters from Five
Classics, aiming to discriminate and codify the form andwriting style of characters
in the classics, help the user understand the diVerences in spelling between the
ancient and the contemporary, and preserve a number of ancient pronunciations
and exegetic interpretations. It is extraordinarily rich in language data and par-
ticularly beneWcial for studying the ancient classics.
The Five-scale Compendium of Chinese Characters: with Revisions and Four-tone
ClassiWcations (<改并五音类聚四声篇>), is generally abbreviated to The Five-
scale Compendium (<五音类聚>) and variously known as <改并四声篇海>,<五音篇海>, <篇海集韵>, <五音聚韵>, and <五音聚韵>. It was compiled
by Han Daozhao, a Jin (金) Dynasty scholar. Han Daozhao, known as Bo Hui,
was born in Songshui of Zhengding (Zhengding County in Hebei Province today).
It was completed in 1208, based on The Four-tone MagniWcent Chapters (<四声篇
海>) andwithmuch revision, amendments, and augmentation. Themotivation for
writing the book is clear from the Preface by his cousin, Han Daosheng:
Daozhao has extensively collected previous literature to discover their principles and
paradigms. After thorough comparison and consideration he concludes that the literature
196 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
on phonetic notation of Chinese characters is good enough but the information is not
speciWc enough and the classiWcation of sections and entries are rather wordy and
redundant . . . So he starts to recast the regulations and patterns, to revise, combine,
and add new information, to specify the underpinnings and look into the origins.
The Five-scale Compendium had a coverage of 56,001 characters and had been
the most comprehensive collection of regularized Chinese characters in the
history of Chinese lexicography. Its entry characters are in the form of the regular
script. It has 444 radical sections, the number coming from The Book of Changes,
i.e. the 384 yao plus sixty – a cycle of years, indicating its foursquareness and
conventionality. It has established a new format based on the classiWcation of Wve
kinds of pronunciation, i.e. front dentals, tongue-sounds, labials, back dentals,
and laryngeals. Its phonetic notation is mainly by means of fanqie, with direct
notation occasionally. As for its deWnition, it has basically kept the style and
features of The Jade Chapters and The ClassiWed Chapters and is a collective
integration based on The Jade Chapters and The ClassiWed Chapters, hence a
large-scale character dictionary with a relatively complete adoption of the Chi-
nese character system from the time of the Han Dynasty. It has provided a general
picture of the evolution of the Chinese character system since the compilation
of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. It has also recorded
many variant and rare characters and has well preserved the reading materials
with pronunciation notated and the earliest meanings of some characters and
rarely seen materials as well as the names of the rhyme books later lost. There is
a great deal it can contribute to sorting the character books of today, studying
the evolution of the writing styles of Chinese characters, tidying up character
variants, and studying the cultural history of China and the history of the
regularization of Chinese characters.
Once the writing style of the zhuan scripts had become outdated and the
oYcial and regular scripts ever more popular, the great discrepancy between
ancient and contemporary characters was more apparent. There was also a
dramatic increase in the number of newly created characters and variants of
character spelling, drawing the attention of more scholars to research in this Weld.
Since the time of the Song Dynasty, a number of character books and dictionaries
had been compiled, some focusing on discriminating the standard writing form
and style of popular characters, some on the evolutional deterioration of picto-
phonetic characters, and other on inquiring into the evolution from oYcial script
to regular script with An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters as its basis.
The most famous character books and dictionaries of this kind include The Pei Xi
Dictionary, The Dictionary of Ancient Character Exegesis, The General Dictionary
development of character dictionaries 197
of Chinese Characters, The Dragon Shrine Character Manual, and The Character
Mirror (<字鉴>).The Pei Xi Dictionary was written by Guo Zhongshu (郭忠恕) in the Song
Dynasty. It has three volumes. The Wrst volume deals with the objectives of
compilation and the author’s opinions on the evolution and change of charac-
ters. The second and third volumes divide the characters into ten sections
according to the four tones of the Chinese characters. The easily confusable
characters are arranged together in pairs and their diVerences in pronunciation
and meaning are notated and explicated. It includes an appendix that diVerenti-
ates and rectiWes the misspelled characters. This dictionary sets an example for
discriminating easily confusable characters and between characters similar in
form, pronunciation, and meaning.
The Dictionary of Ancient Character Exegesis was written by Zhang You (张有)
in the Song Dynasty. It has two volumes and its lexical coverage is 3,000 characters
or so. These characters are divided according to their tones. The mistakes in the
popular use of characters are identiWed according to the standard set by An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. For each character entry, the head
character is of a zhuan-script style, coupled with variants in the vernacular and
popular style. The characters similar in form and strokes are discriminated one by
one to guarantee freedom from misuse. This dictionary proves to be of value to
the study of the change in the form of characters in ancient times.
The General Dictionary of Chinese Characters was written by Li Congzhou
(李从周) in the Song Dynasty. It has only one volume, aiming to explore the
origin of characters. It makes use of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters to explain the radicals of regular script in popular use. It covers 601
characters, which are further divided into eight-nine sections, or 89 sections
according to the strokes of regular scripts. The head character is in the style of the
zhuan script, included with notes in regular scripts. The phonetic notation is in
the Wrst place, followed by its deWnition. The exegetic interpretations all follow
what is said in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. This dictionary is
important for the study of lexicographical theories concerning dictionary com-
pilation in the Song Dynasty.
The Dragon Shrine Character Manualwas written by Seng Xingjun (僧行均) in
the Liao Dynasty and was completed in 997. It was originally entitled The Dragon
Shrine Character Mirror (<龙龛手鉴>, originally <龙龛手镜>), and was re-
named as such because the last character (镜) in its original title bore the same
pronunciation as the second character (敬) in the name of the Emperor’s
grandfather Zhao Jing (赵敬). This book was intended for studying the Buddhist
scriptures and its characters are arranged according to the radicals and the four
198 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
tones that the characters share. There are 240 sections in the book and they are
further classiWed into four volumes according to the four tones. Its format has
integrated the advantages of both radical and phonetic ordering and it is an
innovation with respect to the traditional format. The characters covered in each
section have become roughly Wxed. The book has over 26,430 entry characters
and more than 163,170 notated characters, 189,610 in total size. Under each
character entry are listed its standard style, folk style, ancient style, contemporary
style, general style, and variant style. Each entry character is phonetically notated
and semantically deWned. The pronunciation is notated in fanqie or directly
notated. The deWnitions are usually very simple. The book has a ‘miscellaneous
section’ (list of characters diYcult to retrieve). It has provided a workable way for
using radical ordering in dealing with diYcult characters. The book has also
collected a large number of folk-style and variant-style characters prior to the
Tang Dynasty, which are important materials for studying the change and
evolution of ancient characters. It is especially valuable for the study of and
research on the scriptures in Dunhuang grottos. Meanwhile, its innovation in
format has also provided direct evidence for studying the format and style of
character dictionary compilation in the Liao Dynasty.
The Character Mirror was written by Li Wenzhong (李文仲) in the Yuan
Dynasty. It has Wve volumes and the characters are arranged according to their
tones and the 206 rhyme sections. The comments on the misuses and errors of
folk style are usually given after the phonetic notation and semantic interpret-
ation. It takes An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters as its standard in
making judgements regarding character spelling, eliminating misprints, and
correcting mistakes in using characters in the past.
In addition to the dictionaries for rectifying the errors in character use, there
are also those specializing in diVerentiating characters from historical works,
such as The ClassiWed Characters of Banma, which was written in 1181with the aim
of collecting and dealing with the ancient and rare characters used in The Records
of the Historian by Sima Qian (司马迁) and The Book of the Han Dynasty by Ban
Gu. The characters are arranged according to their tones. The book covers 1,800
characters in Wve volumes. In 1264, Li Sengbo (李僧伯) revised it and added
1,239 characters, which were attached to the sections they belong to. The diction-
ary is based on co-textual research on the two historical books for diVerentiation
of character meanings and pronunciations. For entry characters in the book, a
great deal of information is provided in relation to sense discrimination and
pronunciation diVerentiation, and there is also a detailed and exhaustive listing
of loan characters and ancient and contemporary character variants. This dic-
tionary is not only useful for reading The Records of the Historian and The Book of
development of character dictionaries 199
the Han Dynasty but also very important for studying the compilation of special
dictionaries in the Song Dynasty.
The Dictionary of Characters from Classics and Scriptures with Phonetic Dis-
crimination (<群经音辨>) was written by Jia Changchao (贾昌朝, 997–1065) in
the Song Dynasty with a view to phonetic codiWcation. It has seven volumes. The
Wrst Wve volumes are designed to diVerentiate characters ‘similar in formation
but diVerent in pronunciation’, Volume 6 to discriminate character pronunci-
ations in voicing and rhyming, and characters whose pronunciations are con-
fusable, and Volume 7 to deal with the merits and demerits of exegetic
interpretation. It is the Wrst dictionary dealing with the transformation of parts
of speech and character senses in the history of Chinese lexicography, which
identiWes both the change in meaning and the change in part of speech according
to their pronunciations. In a sense, it can also be regarded as the Wrst morpho-
logical dictionary in the history of Chinese character dictionary. Special attention
should be paid to its achievement in using the change in phonetic tones to index
the change in meaning and in part of speech. Zhu Yizun (朱彝尊), a Qing
Dynasty scholar, holds that ‘the dictionary is specialized in phonetic discrimin-
ation, dealing with the characters with the same spelling but diVerent pronun-
ciations. The pronunciations are collected from the classics and the diVerent
dialects nationwide.’ Thus, he ordered Zhang Shijun (张士俊), his disciple, ‘to
print it and let it pass down from generation to generation’.
In the Song Dynasty, there was another dictionary worthy of special mention,
i.e. The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, literally ‘Six Categories’
Interpretation, which was written by Dai Tong. Dai Tong was born in Yongjia,
today’s Zhejiang Province. The dates of his birth and death are unclear. It is also
unclear when the dictionary came to fruition, but according to The General
Interpretation of Six-category Chinese Characters, that book took him thirty years.
The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters explicates the meanings of
characters in the light of the ‘Six Categories’ theory. The main parts of the
book are an introduction, table of contents (including explanatory notes),
general explanations, and the body of the text. ‘General Interpretations’ is an
expatiation on the author’s philological theories. The main body has 33 volumes,
dealing with 7,603 entries. The principles for selecting entry characters are: (a) no
unusual characters, i.e. rarely used characters; (b) no deteriorated character
form, i.e. only the original form of the character; (c) no characters without
citations from the ancient or contemporary books. According to the principle
of ‘things are sorted by their classiWcations and grouped together’, the characters
are classiWed into seven types, namely ‘number, astronomy, geography, human
beings, animals, plants, engineering’, in addition to a ‘miscellaneous’ type. For
200 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
those characters whose formations are unidentiWable and their derivatives, he
identiWed 222 characters for them and classiWed them into a separate section and
attached it to the end of the book as an appendix of ‘Questionable Types’.
In The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, none of the entry characters
is used to head the radicals. Instead, the bronze inscription is employed as the
base character. If the inscription does not suYce, then xiaozhuan is employed to
reinforce. Therefore, The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters diVers in
format from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. In the main body,
each character is normally treated in one separate entry. The original character
form is given in Wrst place, then phonetic notation, followed by deWnition. The
phonological system of The Dictionary of Rhymes is adopted for this book and the
mode of phonetic notation is in fanqie, coupled with four tones and direct
notation of homophones. The deWning methods are semantic signposts, analogy,
and direct interpretation, etc. The meanings abstracted from citations are also
employed and glossed as supplementary means for meaning interpretation:于书
传为某某之义 ‘meaning . . . according to the annotation from a certain book’,
说见某下 ‘for annotations, see below a certain character’,义见某下 ‘ for mean-
ing, see below a certain character’, 详见某下 ‘for details, see below a certain
character’,义不待训 ‘for meaning, further interpretation needed’, and义不待释
‘for meaning, further explanation needed’. By these means, the compiler aims to
achieve concision and avoid redundancy. The features of this book are as follows:
It not only concentrates on the original meaning but also points out the extended
meanings and loaned meanings. It contrasts the contemporary with the ancient and
compares the standard with the popular. It lays more emphasis on citations and textual
research, combining the features of notating, researching, and discriminating. It contains
abundant knowledge of ancient culture. Its value also lies in its employment of the
technique of ‘seeking meaning by sounds’ and the method of using bronze inscriptions to
attest the characters.’ (刘斌, Liu Bin, 1988)
Under the inXuence of The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, there
appeared a series of dictionaries named after六书 (Six Categories), such as The
General Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, The Original Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters (<六书本义>), The Overall Exegesis of Six-categoryChinese Characters (<六书总要>), The Origins of Direct Phonetic Notations
of Six-category Chinese Characters (<六书溯原直音>), The Learned Exegesis
of Six-category Chinese Characters (<六书通>), The Standardized Exegesis of
Six-category Chinese Characters (<六书准>), and The Phonological Exegesis
of Six-category Chinese Characters (<六书系韵>). The best-known dictionary
is The General Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, written by Yang Heng
development of character dictionaries 201
(杨恒) in the Yuan Dynasty. It has twenty volumes and its compilation is
governed by the theory of ‘Six Categories’. It aims to rectify the writing style of
xiaozhuan in accordance with ancient characters, dazhuan, and bronze inscrip-
tions. For each character entry, the ancient character form and dazhuan form are
listed Wrst, followed by the bronze inscription character, and Wnally the xiaozhuan
form. For the categories of pictographic, associative, pictophonetic, and mutually
explanatory characters, it mainly follows The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese
Characters with some amendments and supplements. As to the other two cat-
egories, i.e. self-explanatory and phonetic loaning, they are mainly based on the
research conducted by the compiler himself.
11.5 the academic value andcultural implications
The academic values of Chinese character dictionaries in the period from the Wei
to the Yuan Dynasties are mainly evident in the improvements in dictionary
format and style established in the Han Dynasty. In terms of macrostructure, it is
principally a question of the widely used radical system as the basis for the
arrangement of head characters, and, in terms of microstructure, phonetic
notation becomes more accurate, senses to be deWned are more selective, and
citations are somewhat more standardized. The sociological value of character
dictionaries in this period is evident in the codiWcation and standardization of
Chinese characters and their use. The wide circulation of dictionaries has facili-
tated the process of the standardization of Chinese characters.
The Jade Chapters diVers, to some extent, from An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters in format and style. The 542 sections in The Jade Chapters
basically result from revisions and amendments of the 540 sections in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, but its deWnition style is quite
diVerent. The head character in The Jade Chapters is in the form of the regular
script, and therefore it does not have to resort to the Six Categories theory in
analysing the form and structure of characters. It focuses on providing exact and
comprehensive deWnitions of the deWned characters. In this sense, The Jade
Chapters surpasses An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in terms of
practicality and ease of consultation. Its inXuence on dictionaries of later gener-
ations is profound and far-reaching in their megastructural design, in their
format and style, and in their theoretical explorations.
202 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
The ClassiWed Chapters is a direct heritage of both An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and The Jade Chapters. It has provided helpful experience for
later dictionary compilation. The nine items its Preface elaborates upon in
relation to dictionary compilation are still thought-provoking for today’s dic-
tionary makers in entry selection and arrangement. It has followed the model set
by An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The Jade Chapters, giving
great prominence to etymological inquiries, extensive collection of homophones,
homographs, and homonyms, and elaboration of transformation in writing
styles from the ancient to the contemporary forms. Its lexical coverage, however,
is not conWned to that of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and
The Jade Chapters. It has taken in a great number of newly created characters and
archaic characters and is, therefore, commended by Huang Kan as ‘the most
comprehensive character dictionary ever compiled’. Its lexical coverage is exten-
sive, precise, and meticulous. It is a treasure house of Chinese characters, having
preserved valuable reference materials for tracing the development of Chinese
characters. The ClassiWed Chapters provides labels for homophones, homographs,
and homonyms if there are phonetic and semantic variations. It has established
a new system of character arrangement and retrieval – radicals used as the basis
for its macrostructure and rhyme segmentation as supplementary retrieval
means. Where characters have various pronunciations and senses, their phonetic
notations and deWnitions are, as a rule, arranged in the order of their rhyme
segments. The arrangement of all entry characters in the dictionary follows the
order of rhyme segments rigorously, which is unique in the history of Chinese
lexicography.
The contribution of The Four-tone MagniWcent Chapters to Chinese lexico-
graphical studies lies in radical simpliWcation and stroke-based character arrange-
ment. It is a trend in the development of Chinese character dictionaries to reduce
the number of radical sections. It has reduced the number from 542 in The Jade
Chapters to 444. In the same radical section, characters are arranged according to
the number of strokes. Its wide selection of Chinese characters tempted the
compilers of The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi to take serious note of it and
adopt quite a number of entry characters from it, which is solid proof of its great
academic value and its profound impact on later generations of dictionaries.
The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters by Dai Tong was compiled to
contest the phenomenon of ‘name-essence chaos’ in traditional philology and
exegetic studies, with the aim of achieving ‘a name matching its reality’. In The
General Interpretation of Six-category Chinese Characters, he states:
development of character dictionaries 203
During the decline of the Zhou Dynasty, oYcials were forgetting what they should obey
and the scholars were forgetting what they should learn. To the time when books were
burnt in the Qin Dynasty, the good deeds of former kings had become extinct. From
zhuan script to bafen (a type of oYcial script), and to cursive script and regular script,
errors and falsehoods were widely circulated and passed on. And today, the chaos and
disorder in character use have gone to extremes and the use of names is even worse.
Name, a big thing for ruling; character, a big thing for naming. When characters are in
disorder, the names will be in chaos too; and when the names are in disorder, the realities
are easily distorted; when names are in disorder and realities distorted, the people will be
deluded, orders confused, laws disobeyed, and rites and ceremonies violated. Conse-
quently, the whole of society will be in disorder. If a country is to be well governed, it
should start from name rectiWcation.
In the Preface to The Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters, he also points
out:
The theory of Six Categories is the entrance to learning and the ancestor of all scholars . . . It
is a general interpretation of all the scholarly works. If the theory of Six Categories is
mastered, one can read all the books under the sunwithout the assistance of any explanatory
notes. If it is not grasped and if one possesses erroneous explanatory notes, he could only
expect to be puzzled and lost.
Having recognized the extreme importance of the Six Categories theory, Dai
Tong aims to compile a dictionary to help scholars study the classic works
‘without resorting to explanatory notes’. It is not hard to imagine that The
Exegesis of Six-category Chinese Characters holds an important position in the
lexicographical history of China. It is a cultural treasure and plays an indis-
pensable part in helping to read ancient literature and in conducting ancient
lexicographical research. Certainly, it has its limitations. For instance, it has
exaggerated the role of the Six Categories theory. For some characters, their
arrangement is problematic. Moreover, there are also some mistakes in its
explanatory notes in the text. But, most deWnitely, the presence of Xaws will
not obscure the splendour of the jade.
204 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
12
THE DEVELOPMENT OFCHINESE WORDDICTIONARIES
BETWEEN the Wei and Yuan Dynasties, the Confucian classics and their
studies continued to hold a uniquely signiWcant position in China’s academic
world. Consequently, Chinese dictionary compilation over this period still at-
tached great importance to the exegetic explanations of Confucian classics,
represented by such word dictionaries as The RectiWed Interpretation of Five
Classics, The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics, and The Broad Ready Guide.
Starting from the time of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism had become
widespread within the Chinese territories, and the exegesis of Buddhist scriptures
turned out to be another focus of dictionary compilation during this period,
represented by Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures and its sequel.
12.1 the historical background
Human history is divided into periods in all civilizations, and each period is
culturally marked and academically led by the mainstream of its human needs.
The evolution of lexicography in the period of the Wei to Yuan Dynasty is
naturally directed and spurred by the mainstream humanity need of the period.
On the one hand, the upper class was chieXy dominated by the Confucian
ideology in classic knowledge, ways of thinking, and religion. The representative
dictionaries of this period are The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics by Kong
Yingda et al. and The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics by Lu Deming. On the
other hand, the lower class was increasingly inXuenced by the gradual eastward
penetration of Buddhism in their everyday life, ways of thinking, and regional
religion. The representative dictionary is Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist
Scriptures by Buddhist monks in the Tang Dynasty.
Since the time of the Han Dynasty, the Confucian School had gradually
assumed the dominant position – enjoying the power of advocating the truth.
And, naturally, the Confucian works became the authoritative classics in the
ideological world of China. These classics were thought to have contained all the
knowledge and thought in the world. The process of interpreting, expounding,
and adding explanatory notes to these classics was thought to be a process of
seeking the ‘meaning’ beyond them. The addition of notes to the classics meant
starting from the analysis of words and characters so as to construe the meaning
of the classics; to preach the classics was to advocate the meaning in them, but it
must start from interpreting the meaning of each name and object that a
character or word designates. For each scholar or oYcial, reading and studying
the classics had become compulsory. For a united empire, there was also a need
for a uniWed interpretation system for classic works. Such a system would be
helpful in integrating the ideology of the people, educating young children in
school, and putting scholarly oYcials to the test. Education played an important
part in laying a sound foundation of knowledge and thought for young people,
and oYcial selection would promote the common knowledge and thought in a
community and ensure that it was oriented in a desirable direction. For the
government, when facing such a situation of confusion and disorder in know-
ledge and thought resulting from the enormous explanatory notes on the classics
accumulated over centuries, a rational decision had to be reached as to the
establishment of a uniWed interpretation system for classic works.
Since the time of Southern and Northern Dynasties, the study of Confucius
and the preaching on Confucianism had become prevalent, which resulted in
various schools and extremely diversiWed interpretations. In the eyes of Lu
Deming, it was a time ‘when minute words have lost their colours and the
great imports have deviated and become absurd. With the intention of attacking
diVerent opinions, some scholars have even come to inventing interpretations’.
He undertook to compile The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics ‘to save the
classics from dying out’ (from the Preface to The Exegetic Interpretation of
Classics). This dictionary was intended for the codiWcation of language and
characters and for the satisfaction of the need to read and interpret the classic
works. In the Tang Dynasty, against the new socio-cultural background, scholars
206 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
began to reconsider the textual meanings of the Pre-Qin Dynasty classic works in
order to appreciate the traditional culture contained in them. Dictionaries were
produced to help interpret and understand the Pre-Qin Dynasty classics and to
rectify mistakes in the exegetic interpretations of classics in previous dictionaries,
for instance, The RectiWcation of Classic Interpretations (<刊谬正俗>, eight
volumes) by Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty. This dictionary cited extensively
from ancient classic works, aiming to rectify errors in interpreting and under-
standing the words and phrases of the Six Classic Books. Look at the following
example:
渚: The Ready Guide says: ‘a small洲 (islet) is called渚 and a small渚 is called沚.’ They
all refer to small pieces of land on the river that people can live on. In The Book of Songs,
there is ‘鸿飞遵渚’, which means geese Xying over the islets. But in On Destiny (<辨命论>), Liu Xiaobiao (刘孝标) says ‘三闾沉骸湘渚’ (San Lu OYcial, i.e. Qu Yuan,
drowned himself between the islets in the Xiang Jiang River). Note: Qu Yuan went to the
Miluojiang River to drown himself. The water there had to be very deep. It could not be
between the shallow islets.
Buddhism was introduced into China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the
Buddhist scriptures were becoming numerous and voluminous. As time passed,
the language of the Buddhist scriptures became more and more diYcult to
comprehend, which was completely out of keeping with the popularization of
Buddhism among the general public. Meanwhile, errors occurred in the copying
and circulation of the scriptures. The situation was adequately described by Liu
Yu (柳豫) as follows:
The Buddhist scriptures are voluminous and the argumentations in them are profound.
They are aZicted with errors and misspellings, and their phonetic notations and seman-
tic interpretations are often rough and neglectful. Days and months are spent in studying
and sorting them. There is some progress, but concerns are inevitable. ReXections on
them often come to nothing. All the scholars of good will would be troubled by them.
(from The Compendium of China’s Buddhist Sutras, <中华大藏经>, Volume 59:510)
Against such a background, dictionaries emerged that were oriented towards
facilitating the understanding and interpretation of the sounds and meanings of
Buddhist scriptures.
In the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there emerged aca-
demic works on phonetic notation and semantic interpretation of Buddhist
scriptures. For instance, Dao Hui (道慧), a monk of the Northern Qi Dynasty,
compiled Sounds of All the Buddhist Scriptures (<一切经音>). With the intro-
duction and translation of Buddhist scriptures, the Indian and Chinese cultures
development of word dictionaries 207
began to converge and exert inXuence upon each other, which promoted inter-
cultural communication. There were some new words introduced from Bud-
dhism into the Chinese language, such as 因果 (cause and eVect), a free
translation, and 浮屠 (Buddha), a transliteration. These new words call for
special dictionaries of Buddhism and general dictionaries to deal with them.
The Tang Dynasty brought with it general dictionaries for interpretations of
Buddhist scriptures, such as Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures
by Xuan Ying and Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures by Hui Lin.
At the time of the Liao Dynasty, there appeared a sequel to Hui Lin’s Sounds and
Meanings of all the Buddhist Scriptures – The Extended Sounds and Meanings of All
the Buddhist Scriptures (<续一切经音义>).
12.2 the evolution of lexicographical theories
The theoretical underpinnings of Chinese dictionary making are the semantic
studies of the Chinese language and serious probing into the Chinese lexicon. In
the period from the Wei to the Yuan Dynasties, the focus of the semantic studies
shifted to an investigation into phonetic–semantic relations in the Chinese
language, which is manifested by preliminary explorations from the phonetic
and the lexical semantic perspectives. The most inXuential school of thought is
the ‘right radical theory’.
The ‘right radical theory’ is explained by Shen Kuo (沈括, 1031–1095), a
Northern Song scholar, in The Mengxi Collection of Written Dialogues as follows:
Wang Shengmei (王圣美) was interested in the study of characters. He developed a
theory that the meaning of a character resides in its right radical. For the ancient
character books, all the focus was on the left radical of the character. For Chinese
characters, the left radical indicates the category it belongs to and the right radical
indicates its semantics. For instance, for all the characters related to wood, their left
radicals are all木 (wood). As to the right radical, let us have a look at戋, which means小
(small, little). When there is little water, it is浅 (shallow); when there is little ‘gold’ (金),
it is 钱 (coin); when there is little badness (歹), it is 残 (defect); and when 贝 (shell,
meaning ‘money’ in ancient Chinese) is small, it is贱 (cheap). For all the characters of
this type, their meanings are related to and based on the right radical戋 (small, little).
The left and right radicals refer to the formal and phonetic components of the
Chinese character respectively. The ‘right radical theory’ diVers from phonetic
interpretation in that phonetic interpretation focuses on the pronunciation but
208 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
overlooks the meaning. Moreover, the criteria used in phonetic interpretation are
rather vague. The focus on phonetic components in the ‘right radical theory’ is
motivated by the fact that for pictophonetic characters, phonetic components are
also ‘meaning-embodied’.
In the Song Dynasty, Zhang Shinan (张世南) and Wang Guanguo (王观国)
made similar proposals to the ‘right radical theory’. Zhang Shinan states:
SinceAnExplanatoryDictionary of Chinese Characters, the left radical of a character has been
used as an indication of its category and The Jade Chapters follows suit. It is not known to
them that the right radicals normally also fall into categories. For instance, 戋 means
‘shallow’ and ‘small’. So the water that can be waded through is called 浅 (shallow). The
defects caused by illness are called残 (handicapped); goods that are not expensive are called
贱 (cheap); and types of wood that are light and thin are called 栈 (plank). Let us look at
another instance. 青 (green) has the meaning of essence and brightness. The sun with
nothing to cover it is called晴 (Wne); the cleanliness and clearness of water is called清 (clean
and clear); bright eyes are called睛 (bright eye), and the polished rice is called精 (reWned).
From these two examples we can see the general pattern. (from The Travels of a Tourist
OYcial, <游宦纪闻>, Volume 9)
Wang Guanguo proposed a similar theory, called the ‘proto-character theory’.
He states:
卢 is a kind of proto-character. Adding金 (metal) to it, it is鈩 (furnace); adding火 (Wre)
to it, it is炉 (stove); adding瓦 (tile) to it, it is ‘卢瓦’ (stile); adding目 (eye) to it, it is矑
(eyeball); adding黑 (black) to it, it is黸 (black). When it is necessary to omit some part
of a character, it will be the radical part rather than the proto-character. When the bare
proto-character is used, its meaning is still complete in cases where it is used to substitute
part of the characters sharing the proto-character. Let us see another example.田 (Weld;
farmland) is also a proto-character. It can be used as畋 (Weld) in畋猎 (Weld hunting);
and it can also be used as佃 (till) in佃田 (till the farmland). When there is a need to use
the simpliWed form, 田 can be used instead. This applies generally to other similar
situations. (from The Scholarly Circles, <学林>, Volume 5)
Dai Tong, a Yuan Dynasty linguist, laid special emphasis on exploring the
relations between phonetics and semantics. He proposed that the meaning of a
character should be sought from its pronunciation. He held that the character, its
radical included, comes from its pronunciation. Pronunciation comes Wrst, and
when a form is given a pronunciation a character comes into being. For the
meaning of a pictophonetic character, if it is sought from its pronunciation, it
can be obtained, but if it is sought from its character or its radical, one will be
confused. For 昏 (dizziness), it originally refers to 昏 (dusk, evening) of a day.
The昏 of the mind or eye is analogical to that of the day, and心 (mind) or 目
development of word dictionaries 209
(eye) needs to be added to it. As for ‘marriage’, it usually takes place at dusk and it
is also called昏 and女 (female) needs to be added to it (from The Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters).
12.3 the development of format and style
Compared with the period of the Han Dynasty, the format and style of word
dictionaries in the period of the Wei to the Yuan Dynasties had the following
features. First, in macrostructure, the entries are arranged according to their
formation and structure and their phonological and semantic systems. Second,
fanqie is usually adopted in phonetic notation and it is relatively more precise.
Third, the focus of deWnition has shifted from the original meaning to the
multiple meanings simultaneously: rational meaning, denotative meaning, social
meaning, aVective meaning, reXective meaning, associative meaning, and the-
matic meaning. Fourth, more attention has been given to etymological investi-
gation. Fifth, as to the controversial deWnitions, diVerent opinions are collected
and presented together, which calls into play ‘sense sorting’ and ‘set explanation’.
Finally, the scope of citation has been expanded. In addition to the classic works
of Confucian and the Taoist schools, quotations are also given from books
concerning history, philosophy, Buddhism, and other sources.
Let us Wrst examine the diVerent ways etymological information is treated by two
lexicographers and show how the organization of an entry has beneWted from
previous lexicographers and what this implies for future lexicographers. Kong
Yingda, in dealingwith sense relations of Chinese words, proposed that ‘themeaning
of a character exists in its pronunciation’ and that ‘a borrowed pronunciation carries
with it its meaning’. He was the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty scholars who
advocated that ‘the meaning of a character can be sought from its pronunciation’.
The principle of the meaning of a character residing in its pronunciation applies to
cognates. Let us have a look at the following example: InMao Heng’s Exegesis of the
Book of Songs, there is ‘韩侯取妻,汾王之甥’. As for the meaning of汾,Mao Heng’s
Exegesis of the Book of Songs interprets it as大 (large). In The RectiWed Interpretation
of Mao’s Book of Songs, Exegetic Interpretation (<释诂>) interprets 坟 as大. Mao
Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs reasons that坟 and汾 are identical in pronun-
ciation and therefore infers that they should share the same meaning of大. In Kong
Yingda’s reasoning,汾 has the same pronunciation as坟. Since坟means大, thus,
the meaning of汾 should also be大.
210 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
The principle of borrowed pronunciation carrying its meaning with it applies
to those phonetically loaned characters. Let us have a look at the follow-
ing example: In Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs, there is ‘周公遭变者,
管蔡流言, 辟居东都’. As to the meaning of 辟, The RectiWed Interpretation of
Mao’s Book of Songs has it that in ancient times,避,辟,譬, and僻 were the same.
The others had all borrowed its pronunciation and carried with them its meaning
respectively. Zheng reads辟 as避 according to such an interpretation.
Let us turn to Hui Lin’s interpretation of etymological information. Firstly, he
looks into where the term comes from. Here is an example: In ‘绰袖:上昌若反,下
囚就反’, what does 绰袖 mean? ‘Note: 绰袖 refers to a coat with a large sleeve.
Probably a fad word: when someone with a large sleeve passes by, this will create a
gentle breeze. It is thus called绰袖.’ (from Volume 37:12)
Secondly, he goes back to its source. Look at the following example: For 摩挱
(massage), The Dictionary of Initial Consonants says ‘摩挱, like caressing and
touching’ (from Volume 37: 2). It is evident that摩挱 came into use no later than
the period of the Three Kingdoms.
From the analysis of the format and style of The Exegetic Interpretation of
Classics, we can also see a similar relationship of heritage for its microstructure –
learning from the previous and with implications for the future. The format and
style of The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics concerns three aspects – character
codiWcation, phonetic notation, and sense deWnition. In character codiWcation,
work is done as follows: (a) for apparent erroneous ones, write the correct one
directly, and in the note, use the label ‘. . . 字或作某’ to indicate the erroneous
one; (b) use a character with similar spelling to substitute one with a diVerent
meaning, and they are both taken as correct; (c) for those folk characters that are
already widely accepted in popular use, make no change or comments; (d) for
some variants, notate the proper one; (e) for those ancient-style characters in The
Collection of Characters from Ancient Books (<古文尚书>), notate their contem-
porary counterparts; (f) for those deviational characters resulting from circula-
tion or copying, collate them and identify the proper one. In phonetic notation,
work has been done to the diYcult characters, those with diVerent pronunci-
ations, those phonetically loaned characters, and those confusable characters. In
sense deWnition, part of the tradition from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters has been kept and there are also some innovations by Lu Deming
himself: (a) list the correct deWnition at the Wrst place but still keep the diVerent
interpretations for reference; (b) the data for deWnition come not only from
the masters’ notes to the scriptures and character books compiled from the
Han to the Six Dynasties, but also from the dialects and customs; (c) in
addition to sense deWnition, there are also explanatory notes to grammatical
development of word dictionaries 211
phenomena. It is certain that quotations from the dialects and explanations
of grammatical phenomena did not fall into the scope of previous word-
books and dictionaries.
What is especially worth noting is the appearance in the period of theWei to the
Yuan Dynasties of a new type of dictionary, such as The Dictionary of Characters
from Classics and Scriptures with Phonetic Discrimination, which, for the Wrst
time in the history of Chinese lexicography, deals with the transformation of
parts of speech and lexical meanings. It was written by Jia Changchao of the Song
Dynasty. This dictionary comprises seven volumes: the Wrst Wve diVerentiate
between characters that are the same in formation but diVerent in pronunciation;
the sixth discriminates character pronunciations – their diVerences in voicing,
rhyming, and characters whose pronunciations are confusable; and the seventh
deals with problems in exegetic interpretation. Generally speaking, the tone
conversion and the change of voicing dealt with in the dictionary fall into four
categories. First, the level tone, the rising tone, and the voiceless tone have
converted to the falling tone, the entering tone, and the voiced tone respectively;
second, the falling tone, the entering tone, and the voiced tone have converted to
the level tone, the rising tone, and the voiceless tone respectively; third, the level
tone, the rising tone, and the voiceless tone have remained unchanged; and
fourth, the falling tone, the entering tone, and the voiced tone have remained
unchanged. All these four categories of change can bring about a change in part of
speech and lexical meaning. The changes fall into 11 patterns:
(a) N! V:*1 rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume 6
there is ‘枕, 藉首木也, 章荏切。首在木曰枕, 章鸠切’. *2 level tone to
rising tone, Category III. 3) entering tone to falling tone, Category IV.
(b) V! N:*1 rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume 2
there is ‘数,计也,色主切。数,计目也,尸故切’.*2 falling tone to level tone,
Category II.
(c) V ! Adj.: *1 rising tone to entering tone, Category I. For instance, in
Volume 2 there is ‘数, 计也, 色主切。数, 屡, 色角切’. *2 falling tone to
level tone, Category II. 3) level tone to rising tone, Category III.
(d) Adj.! V:*1 rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume
1 there is ‘近, 迩也, 真谨切。近, 附也, 其靳切’. *2 falling tone to level
tone, Category II. 3) falling tone to entering tone, Category IV.
(e) N!Adj.:*1 rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume 1
there is ‘跛,足疾也,波我切。跛, 偏任切,彼义切, <礼>: 立无跛’. *2 fall-
ing tone to level tone, Category II.
212 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
(f) Adj. ! N: *1 level tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in
Volume 2 there is ‘敦, 厚也, 都屯切。敦, 器也, 都队切, <礼>: 珠盘玉
敦’. *2 falling tone to level tone, Category II.
(g) Num. ! Partitive nouns: rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For
instance, in Volume 6 there is ‘两, 偶数也, 力奖切。物相偶曰两, 力让
切, <诗>: 葛履五两’.
(h) Intransitive Verb! Transitive Verb: rising tone to falling tone, Category I.
For instance, in Volume 6 there is ‘远,疏也,于阮切,对近之称。疏之曰
远,于眷切, <论语>:敬鬼神而远之’.
(i) Nouns without a change in part of speech but with a change in tone: *1level tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume 1 there is
‘牙, 牝齿也, 五加切。牙, 车輮也, 五驾切, <礼>: 牙也者以为固抱也’.
*2 falling tone to level tone, Category II.
(j) Verbs without a change in part of speech but with a change in tone: *1 level
tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, inVolume 1 there is ‘分,别也,府
文切。分,限也,扶问切’.*2 level tone to rising tone, Category III.
(k) Adjectives without a change in part of speech but with a change in tone:
rising tone to falling tone, Category I. For instance, in Volume 1 there is
‘少, 鲜也,书沼切。少, 稚也,施诏切’.
The above discussions are all concerned with the transformation of parts of
speech and lexical meanings brought about by the change in phonetic tones,
which all belong to the morphological changes of classical Chinese philology. It is
in this sense that The Dictionary of Characters from Classics and Scriptures with
Phonetic Discrimination is regarded as the earliest morphological dictionary in
the history of Chinese lexicography.
12.4 a brief introduction to somerepresentative word dictionaries
The word dictionaries of the ancient Chinese language in the period from theWei
to the Yuan Dynasties fall into two major classes: the interpretation of Confucian
Classics, represented by The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics, The Exegetic
Interpretation of Classics, The Broad Ready Guide, and the interpretation of
Buddhist scriptures represented by Xuan Ying’s and Hui Lin’s Sounds and Mean-
ings of All the Buddhist Scriptures.
development of word dictionaries 213
The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics was compiled by Kong Yingda, Yan
Shigu, and others in the Tang Dynasty. In the third year of Zhenguan, i.e. 629, Yan
Shigu was recommended by Wei Zheng (魏征) to take charge of the revision of
The Book of the Sui Dynasty. The following year, when he realized the numerous
errors in the classic works resulting from long-time circulation and manual
copying, Emperor Taizong ordered Yan Shigu to collate and rectify The Five
Classics (<五经>). The Confucian scholars were not satisWed with the rectiWed
version of The Five Classics by Yan Shigu and the book met with Werce criticism.
The Emperor ordered Fang Xuanling (房玄龄) and other Confucian scholars to
examine and assess the book. Yan Shigu answered one by one the various
questions and censures he faced. His citations came from a variety of contem-
porary and ancient books and his argumentation was logical and convincing.
Later, when Kong Yingda et al. were ordered to compile The RectiWed Interpret-
ation of Five Classics, Yan Shigu was also invited to participate in the project. The
Five Classics codiWed by Yan Shigu was oYcially issued nationwide. It was used in
the Imperial Examination and scholars read it scrupulously and respectfully. For
centuries it had not met with criticism or opposition. ‘RectiWed interpretation’ in
the title of The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics comes from ‘rectifying the
notes and interpretations identiWed by previous scholars’. The dictionary com-
prises 180 volumes, containing The RectiWed Interpretation of the Book of Changes
(<周易正义>, fourteen volumes), The RectiWed Interpretation of the Book of
Ancient Texts (<尚书正义>, twenty volumes), The RectiWed Interpretation
of Mao’s Book of Songs (forty volumes), The RectiWed Interpretation of the Book
of Rites (<礼记正义>, seventy volumes), and The RectiWed Interpretation of Zuo’s
Spring and Autumn Annals (<春秋左传正义>, thirty-six volumes). In the com-
pilation of The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics, the principle is strictly
observed that ‘emphasis should be Wrst laid upon interpreting and sorting the
text and that the notes given by previous scholars should not be readily dis-
carded’. Where disputes arose, they would be judged against the many notes
added by scholars in the Han and Wei Dynasties. Thus, The RectiWed Interpret-
ation of Five Classics is also a book surveying and summarizing the achievements
accomplished in the period of the Han to Jin (晋) Dynasties.
The characters and their meanings in the Pre-Qin Dynasty classic works under-
went major changes: as for the pronunciation, there were great discrepancies
between the ancient and contemporary and, as for the form of characters, they
were subject to the transitional changes from the zhuan script to the oYcial script.
The use of phonetically loaned characters had also given rise to the abuse of variant
and simpliWed characters. These changes and transformationsmade it very diYcult
for people to read Pre-Qin classic literature. After a survey of various opinions
214 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
from 230 diVerent schools and a careful examination of their similarities and
diVerences, Lu Deming compiled The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics. It is an
important work for studying the notes on Pre-Qin Classic works. Lu Deming was
born in Suzhou, today’s Jiangsu Province. He was a Confucian scholar and his
other academic works include The Exegesis of Words and Sentences from the Book
of Changes (<周易文句义疏>, twenty-four volumes), The Exegesis of Lao Zi
(<老子疏>, Wfteen volumes), and The Exegesis of Words and Sentences from
Zhuang Zi (<庄子文句义>, twenty volumes). The compilation of The Exegetic
Interpretation of Classics came to fruition in 583 when he was teaching at the
Imperial College. The book has thirty volumes, the Wrst of which is the Preface
and Contents; the remaining twenty-nine volumes deal with the words and
sentences of fourteen classic works, namely The Book of Changes, The Collection
of Characters from Ancient Books, Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs, The
Rites of the Zhou Dynasty, Etiquette and Rites (<仪礼>), The Book of Rites, Zuo’sSpring and Autumn Annals, Gongyang’s Spring and Autumn Annals (<春秋公羊
传>), Guliang’s Spring and Autumn Annals (<春秋榖梁传>), The Book of FilialVirtues, The Analects of Confucius, Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi, and The Ready Guide. These
classic works are arranged in chronological order and the quotations for inter-
preting meaning and pronunciation are clearly identiWed by their sources. As for
the treatment of words and characters in The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics,
some are phonetically notated only, some are semantically interpreted only, and
some are simply collated without any treatment of pronunciation or meaning.
The earliest exegetic dictionary subsequent to The Ready Guide is The Pocket
Ready Guide by Kong Fu of the Han Dynasty. Its coverage, however, is limited. Of
the Erya (i.e. The Ready Guide) dictionary series, the most important is The
Broad Ready Guide by Zhang Yi of the Three Kingdoms Period. In its title, ‘broad’
means ‘broaden its use’. Zhang Yi left behind no autobiography. According to the
biography of Jiang Shi in The Book of the Wei Dynasty, ‘In early Wei Doctor Zhang
Yi from Qinghe county wrote The Augmented Cangjie Glossary, The Broad Ready
Guide, and The Exegesis of Ancient and Contemporary Characters.’ Yan Shigu also
mentioned Zhang Yi in The Style Guide to the Book of the Han Dynasty (<汉书叙例>) when he was commenting on scholars with expertise in explanatory
notes from the time of the Western Han Dynasty. He says that ‘Zhang Yi, known
as Zhi Rang, came from Qinghe, or Hejian according to another source. In the
period of Taihe (ad 227–ad 232) inWei, he was appointed Doctor.’ In his Presenting
the Memorial for The Broad Ready Guide, Zhang Yi spoke highly of The Ready
Guide but, at the same time, he pointed out its defects and shortcomings: its
coverage of exegetic interpretation on characters and its scope of things discussed
are not complete. So he read and collected extensively to embrace what was not
development of word dictionaries 215
included in The Ready Guide. There were extensive citations from ancient
character glossaries and the notes and commentaries added by Confucian
scholars of the Han Dynasty to classic works. It recorded ‘characters with
identical formations but diVerent meanings, characters whose pronunciations
are lost because of phonetic changes, special expressions from diVerent regions,
and names of common objects which changed over time’. In other words, it made
an eVort to take in what had been left out in The Ready Guide – the exegetic
interpretations that had been left out and newly emerged characters, words, and
phrases. His Memorial for The Broad Ready Guide stated that The Broad Ready
Guide had three volumes and 18,150 characters. Later, in the process of circulation
and copying, it was subdivided into four volumes and then into ten further
volumes, but the number of entry characters was less than that of the original.
The number of semantic categories, represented by chapters, in The Broad Ready
Guide was the same as The Ready Guide, i.e. nineteen categories. The mode of
interpretation and explanation remained the same. The Wrst three categories, i.e.
Interpreting Exegesis, Interpreting Words, and Interpreting Rhetoric, dealt with
general words and expressions. The following sixteen categories dealt with
words of an encyclopedic nature. For each chapter, there were new supplements.
For instance, Interpreting Mountains in The Ready Guide stated that ‘Taishan is
East Mountain, Huashan is West Mountain, Huoshan is South Mountain, Heng-
shan is North Mountain, and Central Summit is Mid Mountain’, whereas in The
Broad Ready Guide the wording was: ‘Daizong is called Taishan, Tianzhu
Huoshan, Huashan Dahua, and Changshan Hengshan’. For the four big moun-
tains, each of their diVerent names was given, which was what The Ready Guide
had failed to do. A note added to ‘Huoshan is South Mountain’ in The Ready
Guide by Guo Pu said ‘that is Tianzhu Mountain, where water comes from’. It is
clear that in the period from the Wei to the Jin (晋) Dynasty, Huoshan had
already been called Tianzhu.
In the Preface to The RectiWed Broad Ready Guide, Wang Niansun, a Qing
Dynasty scholar, commented on The Broad Ready Guide stating that it [The Broad
Ready Guide] had broadly embraced the great masters’ interpretations of The Book
of Changes, The Book of Ancient Texts, The Book of Songs, The Book of Three Rites
Texts, and Three Annals (<三传>, that is Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals,
Gongyang’s Spring and Autumn Annals, Guliang’s Spring and Autumn Annals), the
annotations on The Analects of Confucius, Meng Zi, Hong Lie (<鸿烈>), andStandard Words, the appreciation and explanations of The Songs of Chu and Fu-
poems of the Han Dynasty, the records of divination combined with the mystical
Confucian belief in the Qin andHan Dynasties and the diVerent theories contained
in The Cangjie Primer, The Exegetic Primer, The Pangxi Primer, The Dictionary of
216 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Dialectal Words, and An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. For the
meanings of ancient characters retained from the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties,
it could be used to rectify them and for those lost as a basis to look into them. Its
signiWcance to exegetic interpretation and explanation is enormous. The data
sources of The Broad Ready Guide are so extensive that it has well preserved the
exegetic studies of the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties. It is the most important
exegetic dictionary since The Ready Guide.
The word dictionaries in the Song Dynasty had generally followed the example
of The Ready Guide. The Augmented Ready Guidewas written by Lu Dian between
1078 and 1085. The Extended Ready Guide by Luo Yuan was completed in 1174.
They are mostly amendments to works on The Ready Guide – further additions to
the contents and more detailed interpretations and deWnitions. In the Yuan
Dynasty, the main thematic dictionaries were The Essentials of Augmented
Ready Guide by Niu Zhong and The Phonetic Interpretation of the Extended
Ready Guide (<尔雅翼音释>) by Hong Yanzu (洪焱祖).
埤 in埤雅, the Chinese title for The Augmented Ready Guide, means ‘beneWcial
increase’, so The Augmented Ready Guide aimed to beneWcially augment, amend,
and supplement The Ready Guide. Early in the Southern Dynasty Liu Yao (刘杳),
a Liang scholar, compiled a dictionary called The Augmented Ready Guide (Wve
volumes), and in the Tang Dynasty Liu Bozhuang (刘伯庄) compiled Supple-
ments to the Ready Guide (<续尔雅>, one volume). However, unfortunately,
both of them were lost. The version of The Augmented Ready Guide available at
present was compiled by Lu Dian, a Song Dynasty scholar. Lu Dian was born in
Shanyin in Yue State (today’s Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province). He was an
oYcial scholar and was known for his expertise in the study of The Book of Rites
and the research in exegetic interpretations of names of objects. He had written
242 volumes of academic works, such as The Proprieties (<礼象>), The Later
Spring and Autumn Annals (<春秋后传>), The Taoshan Collection (<陶山集>),and Talks on Poetry (<诗讲义>), and all of them are lost. The works still available
are The New Meanings of the Ready Guide (<尔雅新义>, twenty volumes) and
The Augmented Ready Guide. The Augmented Ready Guide was originally entitled
The ClassiWcation of Things and Objects (<物性门类>), consisting of InterpretingFishes (thirty entries), Interpreting Beasts (forty-four entries), Interpreting Birds
(sixty entries), Interpreting Creatures (forty entries), Interpreting Horses (Wfteen
entries), Interpreting Woods (thirty-one entries), Interpreting Grasses (sixty-four
entries), and Interpreting Heavens (thirteen entries). The Augmented Ready Guide
had eight chapters and twenty volumes. It deWned not only the Chinese lexicon
but the names of objects as well. It consisted of 297 entries, among which ninety-
Wve were plant names, 189 were animal names, and thirteen were astrological
development of word dictionaries 217
terms. The dictionary was over 100,000 characters in size and had diVerent
versions in the Song and Ming Dynasties. The features of The Augmented
Ready Guide were as follows: when interpreting the names of objects, it gave
some brief descriptions of their shapes and features, some explanations of the
features, and explorations of their origins. Moreover, quotations were extensively
given from a variety of sources. It provided exegetic interpretations and explan-
ations of both words and expressions and encyclopedic terms, and linguistic
information was usually provided in dealing with the names of objects. It was
slanted towards practical usage and user-centered in solving problems and
confusions. As to the diYcult characters, phonetic notations and brief deWnitions
were usually provided. It manifested a spirit of seeking truth from the facts and
its emphasis was on investigation. It provided valuable lessons for future re-
searchers of exegetic interpretation to learn. Unfortunately, there were some
conjectures cited from The Character Dictionary by Wang Anshi in interpreting
character meanings and far-fetched interpretations could occasionally be
encountered. Another defect is found in its citations whose sources were not
directly labelled, which is inconvenient for users since they have to refer back to
the original sources.
Supplements to the Ready Guide was written by Luo Yuan in the Song Dynasty
and aimed to interpret the names of objects in The Ready Guide, involving the
names of grasses, trees, birds, animals, creatures, and Wshes. It was compiled as
an extension to The Ready Guide, hence the name. It has thirty-two volumes
and 407 entries. The names of objects fall into six categories: grasses, woods,
birds, beasts, creatures, and Wshes. The objects sharing similarities in properties,
functions, or performances are grouped into the same volume.
With regard to the format and style, it diVers slightly from The Ready Guide, with each
character explained in one paragraph as one entry. It describes the object for what it is
and it is done through careful and detailed examination. For the citations, they are
veriWed against their sources before they are Wnally adopted in the book. Its content is
extensive and profound, good enough to explain the doubts away and to answer the
questions fully. (from Essentials of the Well-known Chinese Academic Works: Language
and Characters Volume, <中国学术名著提要•语言文字卷> 1992:167)
Buddhism was introduced into China in the early Eastern Han Dynasty and
was prevalent in the Tang Dynasty. In order to help the believers to study the
scriptures of Buddhism, especially help them to overcome the diYculties in
learning the pronunciations and capturing the meanings of characters, a series
of dictionaries were compiled to phonetically notate the pronunciations of
characters and semantically deWne their senses. There are dictionaries for one
218 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
speciWc Buddhist scripture, such as Sounds and Meanings of the Lotus Sutra (<妙法莲华经音义>, eight volumes) by Kui Ji (窥基, also known as大乘基), Sounds
and Meanings of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Hui Yuan (<慧苑>), and Sounds and
Meanings of Maha Parinibbana Sutta (<大般涅槃经音义>, two volumes) by
Yun Gong (云公); there are also dictionaries for a set of scriptures, such as the
two versions of Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures by Xuan Ying
and by Hui Lin respectively, The Extended Sounds and Meanings of All the
Buddhist Scriptures by Xi Lin (希麟), etc. The term 一切经 (all the scriptures,
all the sutras) Wrst came into use in the Sui Dynasty, also known as 大藏经,
referring to all the classic scriptures or the whole canon of Buddhism. The term
音义 refers to ‘notating the sounds of characters and interpreting their meanings’,
that is, by means of extensively citing from ancient character books, rhyme
books, and other classic works to interpret the meaning of characters and notate
their pronunciations.
With regard to the life story of Xuan Ying, mention was made in a postscript to
The Continuation of Biographies of Great Monks (<续高僧传>), which states that
‘Xuan Ying is a monk in a temple in the capital. He has won wide respect for his
accomplishments in philological studies. He is a master of the study of the
phonetic system of Buddhist scriptures.’ In The Records of Internal Classics of the
Tang Dynasty (<大唐内典录>), there is also an account of him, which states that
Xuan Ying, a Master in the Temple of Da Ci’en Temple, was summoned several times by
the Emperor to collect and sort Buddhist scriptures and phonetically notate and seman-
tically interpret characters from them. He cited quotations from various classic works to
support his interpretations. The book can help its users to readily understand the
scriptures. It is a pity that his works stopped at that, without going further.
Xuan Ying Wnished his Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures at the
end of the Zhenguan period during the reign of Emperor Taizong. It consists of
twenty-Wve volumes and the characters treated in the book involve 454 Buddhist
scriptures. In format and style, it follows the example of The Exegetic Interpretation
of Classics by Lu Deming – in each character entry phonetic notation with fanqie is
given in the Wrst place, then its deWnition. The Buddhist names and terms are also
given phonetic notations and comments are given on their translation. The book
has the function of both a Buddhist dictionary and a general-purpose dictionary. Its
defects lie in its lack of a co-referential network for the characters treated, in
frequently encountered unnecessary repetitions, and in the imbalance of the treat-
ment between diVerent characters in notation and interpretation.
With regard to the life story of Hui Lin, there is a relatively detailed record in
the Wfth volume of The Biographies of Great Monks of the Song Dynasty (<宋高僧
development of word dictionaries 219
传>卷 5). Hui Lin was born in Sule State in the West Territories (today’s Kashi in
Xinjiang Province) and his family name was Pei. He was a disciple of a great
master named Bu Kong in ‘True Word’ Sect. He was a monk of Xi Ming Temple
in Chang’an (today’s Xi’an, Shanxi Province). He ‘inwardly strictly observes the
regulations and outwardly studies the Confucian Classics. He has a profound
knowledge of Indian philology and exegetic studies.’ It is recorded that he started
to write Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures in 788 and Wnished it
in 810 (according to another account it started in 783 and Wnished in 807). It is
also known as <大藏音义>, abbreviated to <慧琳音义> (Hui Lin’s Sounds and
Meanings). It has 100 volumes, covering 31,000 entries and the characters indi-
vidually treated came to 6,000 in total. The words and phrases interpreted and
notated in the book are cited from over 5,700 volumes of the 1,300 diVerent
Buddhist scriptures, with a total of about 600,000 characters in size. In order to
notate and interpret the sound and meaning of the character in Buddhist
scriptures, he has broadly cited from various ancient rhyme dictionaries, such
as The Interpretative Manual of Rhymes (<韵诠>), Rhyme Essentials (<韵英>),and The RectiWcation of Initial Consonants and Vowels (<考声切韵>), and
from various character glossaries and dictionaries, such as An Explanatory Dic-
tionary of Chinese Characters, The Jade Chapters, The Character Forest, The
Orthographical Manual of Characters (<字统>), The RectiWcation of Ancient
and Contemporary Characters (<古今正字>), and Sounds and Meanings of
Kaiyuan Characters. For those characters, words, and phrases which were not
treated in previous rhyme books and character dictionaries, he would cite
extensively from the classic works. Moreover, it recorded the sounds and mean-
ings added by Xuan Ying, Hui Yuan, etc. It is a huge masterpiece of notation
and interpretation of the sounds and meanings of characters in Buddhist scrip-
tures – exhaustively embracing the ancient exegetic interpretations, phonetically
notating the Sanskrit classics – and it is broad in collection and rich in content.
The Extended Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures was compiled
by Xi Lin in the Liao Dynasty. He was a monk in the Congren Temple in the
capital of Yanjing. According to An Introduction to Buddhist Scriptures in China
(<中国佛教史籍概论>) by Chen Yuan (陈垣), this dictionary was Wnished in
987. It consisted of ten volumes and the entry characters were taken from 226
volumes of Buddhist scriptures. For each entry, phonetic notation was given in
the Wrst place, followed by its deWnition. It cited Wrst from the character books
and rhyme books, then from Confucian classics and historical books and other
classic literature. It followed Hui Lin’s Sounds and Meanings in format and style.
220 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
12.5 the academic value and influence
The academic value and inXuence of dictionaries over the period from the Wei
to the Yuan Dynasties has gone beyond its function as a reference tool.
The dictionaries have become classic works in themselves. They serve not only as
references for studying and reading classics but also as beacons for researchers of
later generations, and not surprisingly some academic disciplines have come into
being as a result of the study of these dictionaries. Wang Niansun, a Qing Dynasty
scholar, was an expert in exegetic studies. He spent ten years compiling The
RectiWed Broad Ready Guide. He pointed out that ‘‘the present version is based
on a version of The Broad Ready Guide whose size is 16,913 characters. It deletes
ninety-six redundant characters and adds 590 characters previously left out. It now
has 17,326 characters, 824 characters fewer than the number mentioned in the
original version’ (cf: Zhang Yi’s Memorial for The Broad Ready Guide: Appendix).
Verifying against other character books and dictionaries, Wang Niansun collated
Cao Xian’s (曹宪) version. He worked entry by entry and gave detailed reasons and
evidence for his revision. His work involves correcting errors, eliminating redun-
dant characters and adding missing ones, in addition to rearranging those in the
wrong order or misplaced. He rectiWed 580 erroneous characters, added 490
characters that were left out, and deleted thirty-nine redundant characters. He
corrected 123 places of wrong ordering, removed nineteen textual wordings from
among notating wordings, and removed Wfty-seven notating wordings from among
textual wordings. He spared no eVort in keeping the original appearance of the
book. Meanwhile, he cited extensively to expound the content of The Broad Ready
Guide, believing that ‘the essence of exegetic explanation lies in its sound. Thus,
there are characters with the same pronunciation but diVerent spellings and
characters with similar pronunciations but identical meanings. These characters
have been grouped together or separately, but they are linked by a single thread.’
Therefore, ‘ancient meanings should be sought according to their ancient
pronunciations. Analogies should be made and extensions should be taken into
consideration, not being conWned to their formal features and stylistic charac-
teristics’. Greater attention was given to seeking meaning by means of studying its
sound, without being conWned by formal analysis alone. It appears, through the
continuous eVorts of later generations, that the discipline of ‘the Erya Studies’
has won independence from exegetic studies of philological reference books.
Another inXuential work is The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics. It bears
signiWcance not only to the study of the circulation history of ancient classics
development of word dictionaries 221
but also to linguistic studies in identifying the sound and meaning of characters,
segmenting sentences, and rectifying errors while reading ancient books. The
Exegetic Interpretation of Classics has preserved a number of phonetic notations
of ancient characters and materials of the 8,000 entries of variant and loaned
characters, very valuable for studying Chinese phonetic history. Its preservation
of the pre-Tang Dynasty pronunciations is precious material for studying and
restoring the phonological system in mid and early Ancient Chinese.
It has adopted the phonetic notations from 230 diVerent schools in the Han to Six
Dynasties. It has recorded the exegetic studies of some Confucian scholars and veriWed
them against each exegetic book available. With the help of this dictionary newcomers are
able to have an insight into the ancient meanings. Apart from books of exegetic studies, this
is the only dictionary that scholars can refer to. As a remnant of the past, scholars could
experience what it was originally like. (from The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the
Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature, <四库全书总目提要>)
The sounds and meanings recorded are very useful for studying the changes of
phonetics and rhymes since the Jin (晋) Dynasty, the evolution of ancient lexical
meanings, and the appearance of a character with diVerent pronunciations and
meanings. The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics has preserved a great deal of
linguistic data not available from other sources. It has also rectiWed fourteen
classic works, including The Book of Changes. Thus, it is very important in
classiWcational literature and collative studies. It is the earliest special dictionary
for phonetically notating and semantically interpreting characters from a set of
scriptures and it holds an important position in Chinese lexicographical history.
The two diVerent versions of Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures
by Xuan Ying and Hui Lin respectively relate to interpreting the sounds and the
meanings of the characters of Buddhist scriptures. They are extremely useful for
studying Buddhist scriptures. Having preserved the pronunciations and meanings
of ancient characters, they turn out to be valuable to exegetic studies of ancient
characters. They have also cited widely from various ancient classic sources and
therefore retained what have been lost in other sources, bearing signiWcance to
collative studies. This is especially true of Hui Lin’s Sounds and Meanings, which ‘is
as vast as the sea, embracing numerous streams and therefore profound, and is as
bright as a mirror, reXecting tirelessly the objects in the world’ (from the Preface to
Sounds andMeanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures). It is commented upon by Yang
Shoujing (杨守敬), a contemporary scholar, as follows: ‘It is where philological
studies reside and a diamond in the academic forest’. In The Dictionary of Buddhist
Studies (<佛学大辞典>) by Ding Fubao, many comments are cited from this
book, which shows its wide-ranging and profound inXuence.
222 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
13
CLASSIFIEDDICTIONARIES – THE
ENCYCLOPEDICDICTIONARY INANCIENT CHINA
ACCORDING to The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Chinese-English
Edition, 2002), 类书 (classiWed dictionaries) is deWned as ‘reference books
with materials taken from various sources and arranged according to subjects’.
A comparison between classiWed dictionaries and modern encyclopedic diction-
aries will reveal that there is quite a lot in common between the two, in terms
of mega-conWguration, information organization, and interpretation of words
and phrases. Therefore, classiWed dictionaries are treated as one type of encyclo-
pedic dictionary in this chapter.
13.1 the historical background to thebirth of classified dictionaries
In ancient China the classiWed dictionaries were usually supervised by the
government in their compilation. They were compiled to meet both the political
and academic needs of the time. From the political perspective, the large-scale
compilation of classiWed dictionaries in a dynasty serves as a manifestation of its
‘academic success in a peaceful reign’. For instance, the Wrst Emperor in the Tang
Dynasty, Li Yuan (李渊), gave the imperial edict to compile classiWed dictionaries
on a large scale. In the same year when he gave the order to compile The ClassiWed
Collection of Art and Literary Works, he ordered the history of the period prior to
the Tang Dynasty to be written. Some staV members working on The ClassiWed
Collection of Art and Literary Works were also involved in this history book
compilation. Ouyang Xun was summoned to write The History of the Chen
Dynasty (<陈史>), Chen Shuda (陈叔达) and Linghu Defen (令狐德棻) to
write The History of the Zhou Dynasty (<周史>), and Pei Ju (裴矩) to write
The History of the Qi Dynasty (<齐史>). The ClassiWed Collection of Art and
Literary Works was completed within a quite short period of time, while the
history book projects lagged far behind. Another reason why a large number of
classiWed dictionaries had come into being was that some emperors took advan-
tage of compiling classiWed dictionaries to mitigate conXicts within political
groups. For instance, Emperor Zhao Guangyi (赵光义) seized the crown from
his brother. In order to appease the oYcials of the late Emperor, he gave imperial
edicts to compile classiWed dictionaries on a large scale.
From the academic perspective, the compilation of classiWed dictionaries is
principally motivated by academic retrieval, dogmatic guidance, and imperial
examinations. ClassiWed dictionaries are Wrstly used for citation and ready access.
Once, when Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was preparing to travel in
order to inspect, an oYcial asked him whether he wanted to carry some books
with him in case he might need to consult. The Emperor replied, ‘No need. Yu
Shinan is in our company, and he is a walking dictionary’. At that time the
oYcials serving the Emperor had to be familiar with various books and stories in
order to answer the spontaneous questions from the Emperor. So the oYcials
and servants around him had to be learned scholars with good memory. They
should also have been well armed with reference books so as to reply promptly.
The ‘invisible walking book’ of Yu Shinan is the classiWed dictionary he compiled –
The Beitang Collection of Copied Books. The Emperor himself and othermembers of
the imperial family made use of classiWed dictionaries to get to know the feudal
culture while the feudal oYcials turned to those classiWed dictionaries to familiar-
ize themselves with feudal dogma. Since the time of the Tang Dynasty, imperial
examinations have become the chief way for selecting scholars to Wll government
oYcial positions, and classiWed dictionaries soon became the necessary reference
tools for preparing examinations.
Some feudal scholars also compiled classiWed dictionaries to collect and
accumulate data, to sort what they learned, and to summarize the achievements
224 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
of civilization with the purpose of facilitating the task of writing compositions
and taking examinations. In feudal times, the poems and compositions were
usually full of literary quotations and writers had to turn to these classiWed
dictionaries in the course of poetry writing. The Beitang Collection of Copied
Books, The Six Writing Models (<六帖>) by Bai Juyi (白居易), and The ClassiWed
Collection (<类聚>) by Yuan Zhen (元稹), among others, were compiled to serve
such purposes. The classiWed dictionaries compiled by book houses were chieXy
used for consultation and examination preparation. Sometimes, classiWed dic-
tionaries were also compiled for everyday purposes. Understandably, the ultimate
purpose of the classiWed dictionaries by book houses was to make money.
13.2 the emergence of classified dictionaries
The methodology adopted in the compilation of classiWed dictionaries in ancient
China diVers from the principles guiding the compilation of encyclopedias in
modern times. For each entry in a modern encyclopedia, a text is composed,
rather than merely a collection of the original data. ClassiWed dictionaries in
ancient China, however, are reference books in nature, integrating the features of
an encyclopedia and a language corpus. The encyclopedic nature of the classiWed
dictionary was, nevertheless, distinctive when it was initially compiled. Between
220 and 222, Cao Pi (曹丕), the Emperor of the Wei Dynasty, summoned a group
of Confucian scholars to compile a then-completely-new type of dictionary: The
Imperial Survey (<皇览>). It was the prototype of the classiWed dictionary in
ancient China. In format and style, ancient classiWed dictionaries were heavily
inXuenced by The Ready Guide and other works towards the end of the Warring
State Period and adopted the macrostructure of The Ready Guide as its mega-
structural conWguration, i.e. explicitly labelled classiWcations and sections, and
the microstructure of The Lu Survey (<吕览>) as the prototype of its micro-
structure.
In the period from the Sui to the Yuan Dynasties, classiWed dictionaries
developed very quickly and there appeared a series of such dictionaries with
high sophistication and quality. The Pearl Collection (<编珠>) is the earliest
classiWed dictionary presently available. It was compiled byDuGongzhan (杜公瞻)
on the order of Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty. It originally consisted of
fourteen sections in four volumes, but only Wve sections of the Wrst two volumes
are available today. A statistic from these Wve sections shows its citations from 194
emergence of classified dictionaries 225
books. In The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four
Branches of Literature, it is listed in the top place for classiWed dictionaries. The
Beitang Collection of Copied Books is the earliest classiWed dictionary that is available
today almost in its original shape, consisting of 173 volumes in eighty parts. The
presently available version has 160 volumes, nineteen parts in 851 categories. It is a
collection from the ancient books of literary quotations, words and phrases, and
verse and prose for writing poems and compositions. The books quoted are those
written before the Sui Dynasty. According to statistics, there are about 800 kinds of
books that were quoted from, in addition to those from other sources. Those
sources were mainly written before the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and
approximately eight out of ten are lost today. Thus, this book has a very important
literary value. The Sources of Rhyme Ocean by Yan Zhenqing of the Tang Dynasty is
the earliest classiWed dictionary arranged by rhyme order. In the early TangDynasty,
there existed The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works (100 volumes) by
Ouyang Xun; during the reign of Emperor Taizong there existed The Essentials
of Literature and Thoughts (<文思博要>, 1,200 volumes) by Gao Shilian (高士廉);
during EmpressWu Zetian’s reign there existed The Pearl Collection of Three Religions
(<三教珠英>) by Zhang Changzong (张昌宗); and in Mid and Later Tang
Dynasty there existed Xuanzong’s Collection of Things and Events (<玄宗事类>,130 volumes, also called The Star Collection of Things and Events <明星事类>)and The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners (thirty volumes) by Zhang Yue, Xu Jian,
and others.
The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners was completed in 725. It has 23
sections and 313 subsections. It was commented in The General Catalogue and
Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature that ‘among
the classiWed dictionaries compiled by the Tang Dynasty scholars, it [The
ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners] is next to The ClassiWed Collection of Art
and Literary Works in broadness but superior to it in depth.’ The Bai’s Collection
of Classics, Histories and Events (<白氏经史事类>, thirty volumes) by Bai Juyi
was a classiWed dictionary compiled for private consultation of idioms and
stories. It was not divided into sections, but each volume had its own table of
contents.
There was further development of classiWed dictionaries in the Song and Yuan
Dynasties. The feudal government selected a team of scholars led by Li Fang and
HuMeng to compile two large-scale classiWed dictionaries – The Imperial Records
of the Taiping Reign and The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign. The former was
completed in 978, the third year of the Taiping (literally ‘peaceful’) Xingguo
period. It collected short note-style stories from the Han to the Northern Song
Dynasties. Its sources involve unoYcial history, miscellany, stories, and Buddhist
226 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
and Taoist scriptures. It is classiWed into 500 volumes and it is the Wrst general
collection of stories. The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign will be discussed
later in detail. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong in the Song Dynasty, Wang
Qinruo and Yang Yi began to compile The Historical Records of Cefu (100
volumes). It was Wnished in 1013 and had 10,000,000 characters in size. It brought
together the stories about kings and emperors and their oYcials from remote
times to the Five Dynasties (907–960), including the histories of seventeen
dynasties. In addition, there are also a number of other important classiWed
dictionaries, such as The Jade Sea by Wang Yinglin of the Song Dynasty,
The Miscellanies of Argumentations Concerning ClassiWed Dictionaries by Wang
Mingshou, and The Grand Dictionary of Classics (<经典大典>) by Zhao Shiyan
(赵世延) in the Yuan Dynasty.
There appeared specialized dictionaries in the period from the Sui to Yuan
Dynasties. Between 650 and 655, on the orders of Emperor Gaozong, Li Ji
(李勣) and Yu Zhining (于志宁) began to revise An Annotated Collection of
Materia Medica (<本草经集注>) and renamed it The Yinggongtang Materia
Medica (<英公唐本草>). And later, it was further revised under the editorship
of Su Jing (苏敬) and Zhangsun Wuji (长孙无忌) and renamed again as The
Newly Revised Materia Medica (<新修本草>). It has Wfty-three volumes with
numerous illustrative diagrams. It is a collectively compiled medical dictionary.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were also a number of other medical dictionaries,
such as One Thousand Golden Medical Prescriptions (<千金方>) by Sun Simiao
(孙思邈) and The Waitai Collection of Secret Prescriptions (<外台秘要>) by
Wang Tao (王焘). There was also a special dictionary of family names, that is,
The Yuanhe Dictionary of Family Names (<元和姓纂>) by Lin Bao (林宝) in
the Tang Dynasty.
A number of special dictionaries were also compiled in the Song and Yuan
Dynasties, such as Archaeological Diagrams (<考古图>) by Lu Dalin, and
Xuanhe Collection of Archaeological Artefacts (<宣和博古图>), which was an
oYcial compilation. They were both dictionaries on ancient objects and vessels,
illustrated with excellent pictures. Records of Ancient Coins (<泉志>, Wfteenvolumes) by Hong Zun (洪遵) was a dictionary of ancient coins. It recorded
more than 300 kinds of ancient domestic and foreign coins before the Five
Dynasties. The coins were classiWed into nine types, such as oYcially made
ones, fake ones, knife-form ones, etc. It recorded various opinions and made
detailed textual research on them. The Botanic Compendium (Wfty-eight vol-
umes) by Chen Jingyi in the middle of the thirteenth century was the earliest
botanic dictionary in the world. There also existed in this period some classiWed
dictionaries of other kinds, such as The Language Assistant by Lu Yiwei in the
emergence of classified dictionaries 227
Yuan Dynasty, and The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes by Yin Shifu at the end of
the Song Dynasty. The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes is an important dictionary
of literary quotations.
13.3 a brief analysis of some importantclassified dictionaries
ClassiWed dictionaries are generally divided into Wve categories. First, in terms of
the nature of the content, they can be divided into general classiWed dictionaries
and special classiWed dictionaries. The former is a collection of all knowledge
concerning nature and human society, such as The Imperial Digest of the Taiping
Reign, whereas the latter is concerned with a speciWc Weld of knowledge, such as
The Historical Records of Cefu, involving only politics and history.
Second, in terms of compilation style, some classiWed dictionaries record events
only, some a combination of recording events and collecting the verses of poems;
some are arranged in rhyming order, some on the basis of diagrams, and others are
an integration of all of the above. The category of event recording is the earliest
form of classiWed dictionary and the most popular one. The Imperial Survey
belongs to this group; The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works is a
combination of event recording and collection of poems; and The Pearl Collection
deals with diction, wording, and useful expressions in the lexicon.
Third, in terms of the method of compilation, some are classiWed according to
the categories that things and events fall into, some according to rhyming
categories, and others are numerically classiWed. The Wrst categorization is the
major type of compilation. Since the time of The Imperial Survey, the majority of
the classiWed dictionaries have fallen into this group.
Fourth, in terms of the organization of the dictionary project, some are
oYcially organized, some privately compiled, and others compiled by book
houses. The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign was oYcially compiled. The
Beitang Collection of Copied Books was compiled by scholars themselves; and The
Broad Records of Things and Events (<事林广记>) was published by book
houses. The last did not come into being until the Southern Song Dynasty
when engraving and printing technology was invented and widely applied and
bookstores were accordingly mushrooming.
Fifth, in terms of the functions and social eVects of the dictionaries, some are
intended for general consultation, such as The ClassiWed Collection of Art and
228 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Literary Works and The Imperial Survey; some are for poetry working, such as The
Extensive Miscellany of Minute Things (<海录碎事>); some are for imperial
examinations, such as The Jade Sea; some are for beginners’ enlightenment,
such as The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners; and others are for everyday
use, such as The Complete Guide to How to Do (<万用正宗不求人>), which is
similar to the encyclopedic dictionary of modern times.
In the Wfth year of Wude in the early Tang Dynasty, i.e. 622, Emperor Gaozhu
ordered Ouyang Xun et al. to compile The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary
Works. As a reference work, it has more in commonwith a comprehensive encyclo-
pedic dictionary – more comprehensive in its content and more speciWc in its
classiWcation. ClassiWed dictionaries are the product of their time and naturally
manifest the values and ideology of the mainstream social classes. The ClassiWed
Collection of Art and Literary Works is no exception and bears the characteristics of
feudal culture in the organization of its content. It has forty-six sections, namely
heaven, year and time, earth, states, shires, mountains, water, omens and incarna-
tions, emperors and kings, queens and princess, crown prince, human beings, rites,
music, positions and oYcials, investiture, politics, criminal law, scribble, military,
armsandweapons, settlements, industries,garmentsandhats,ceremonialornaments,
clothingornaments, ships and carts, food, vessels, craftsmanship, arts of necromancy,
domestic ceremonies, supernatural, Wre, medicine, fragrant smells, herbs, precious
stones, grains, cloth, fruit, woods, birds, beasts, Wshes, worms, auspicious signs,
calamity, etc., which are further classiWed into 727 subsections. For each subsection,
the stories are given at theWrst place, followedby theme-relatedpoems.Theworks are
arranged chronologically; for each story quoted, the title of the source book is given
and for each poem, its time, author, and title are given in the notes and they are
variously labelled according to their styles, such as ‘poem’, ‘fu-poem’, ‘compliments’,
etc. The sources quoted are enormous, amounting to 1,431 kinds, nine out of which
are lost. Unfortunately, there was no rigorous classiWcation criterion established in
that the author never grasped the attributes of things to be described. As a result,
the classiWcation is ‘neither justiWable in deciding whether to deal with it in detail or
in brief nor appropriate in deciding whether to deal with it separately or in combin-
ation’ (from The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four
Branches of Literature). For instance, in the ‘Mountain’ section, no mention was
made of Taishan Mountain and Hengshan Mountain. And papers, writing brushes,
and ink stones weremistakenly categorized into the ‘Scribbles’ section.
As to the style of compilation, The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works
also made some innovations, which is best shown by the principle that ‘the things
and events are classiWed according to the categories they fall into, and, in the
meantime, the poems, comments, and articles quoted from past literature are
emergence of classified dictionaries 229
listed following each section’, which makes it distinct from previous classiWed
dictionaries and unique in the classiWed dictionary format and style. The paradigm
of classiWed dictionaries has been changed by combining ‘things and events’ with
‘related texts’. Moreover, its use of co-reference is also noticeable in the study of
compilation style.
The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners was compiled by Zhang Yue and Xu Jian
on the orders of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty to help the royal
children to learn literature – to quote literary works and consult the things and
events important in history or literature. It comprises twenty-three sections,
namely heaven, year and time, earth, states and shires, emperors and kings,
inner palaces, crown princes, imperial relations, positions and oYcials, rites,
music, human beings, administration, civil and military, Taoism and Buddhism,
settlements, utensils, dressing and food, precious stones and artefacts (attached
to Xowers and grasses), fruits and woods, animals, birds (attached to Wshes and
insects), which are further classiWed into 313 subsections. Within each subsection,
the order of arrangement is ‘narration’ (叙事), ‘antithesis’ (事对), and ‘poetry
and prose’ (诗文). ‘Narration’ is quoting relevant stories from ancient books so
as to give a general introduction to the subsection; ‘antithesis’ is condensing the
story and quotations into antithetical sentences; and ‘poetry and prose’ are direct
quotations from poems and articles. The materials of The ClassiWed Dictionary for
Beginners are taken from the classic works of diVerent schools of thought
throughout the Pre-Qin Dynasties, the poems and other rhyming articles of
each foregoing dynasty, and the neo-classic works of the early Tang Dynasty. As
to its format and style, it followed the example of The ClassiWed Collection of Art
and Literary Works. It cited widely and organized the citations into a coherent
text. All the materials centre around the title and elaborate on it, which bears
some features of an encyclopedic dictionary but contains richer information.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, society became more stable and
peaceful. In 977, i.e. the second year of the Taiping reign, Emperor Taizong ordered
Li Fang to compile The General Digest of the Taiping Reign (<太平总类>). Thebook was Wnished in 983 and the Emperor made it a rule to read three volumes a
day and Wnish the whole book in a year. It was thus granted the imperial title The
Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign and was sometimes shortened to The Imperial
Digest. It was chieXy based on and modelled after The Imperial Survey of Xiuwen
Palace (<修文殿御览>), The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works, The
Essentials of Literature and Thoughts, and various other imperial collections. It has
1,000 volumes and 500million characters in size. The book was classiWed into Wfty-
Wve parts – heaven, time sequence, earth, emperors and kings, chiefs of feudal
princes, imperial relations, states and shires, residences, feudal systems, positions
230 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
and oYcials, soldiers, personnel, hermits, relatives of the same clan, rites, music,
culture, study, administration, criminal law, Buddhism, Taoism, ceremonies, dress-
ing badges, dressing utensils, arts of necromancy, diseases, arts and crafts, imple-
ments, sundries, boats and ships, carts, supplies, messengers, minorities, jewellery,
clothing, properties, grains, drinks and food, Wre, truces, punitive expeditions,
gods and ghosts, evil spirits, beasts, birds, Wshes, insects, woods, bamboos, fruits,
vegetables, fragrant grasses, herbal medicine, and Xowers. Each part can be further
divided into several subcategories, and some of these subcategories have some
subsections attached. Altogether there are 5,426 categories (5,474 according to
another version) and attached subsections. Each volume is prefaced with a cata-
logue of classic works and historical books, from which the book cited. According
to the catalogue, the source books total 1,690 (actually 1,989) diVerent kinds. There
are also a great number of poems, fu-poems, didactic literary compositions, etc.,
whose titles have not been listed. According to Ma Nianzu (马念祖), the sources
amount to 2,579 diVerent kinds. The format of The Imperial Digest of the Taiping
Reign follows this pattern: coming after the title of each category is the title of a
book, then comes the original text cited. All of these are arranged chronologically
with no comment from the compiler himself.
Zhao Heng (赵恒), Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, also wanted to
compile a massive book to match The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign, which
was compiled during his father’s reign. In 1003, he orderedWang Qinruo, Yang Yi,
and others to start to compile The Stories of Emperors and Their OYcials in
Previous Dynasties (<历代君臣事迹>). It was Wnished in 1013 and the Emperor
wrote a Preface to it and renamed it The Historical Records of Cefu, the body of
which consists of 1,000 volumes, ten volumes of tables of contents, and ten
volumes of sounds and meanings of its terms and expressions. Presently available
are the main body and the table of contents. The volumes covering sounds and
meanings are lost. The currently popular version is the one printed in the Ming
Dynasty. It has thirty-one parts, namely emperors and kings, illegal succession,
usurping, monarchs of various countries, crowned princes, imperial clans, ma-
ternal relatives, prime ministers, generals, central oYce and provincial oYcers,
foreign nations, constitutional oYcials, remonstrance, judicial oYcials, national
history, ritual oYcials, schooling, criminal law, oYcial supervision, royal guard-
ian, oYcial selection, civil examinations, oYcial messengers, domestic ministers,
county magistrate, court oYcials, assistants, general recorders, external oYcials.
For each part, there is a general preface at the front, introducing the history of this
part. The thirty-one parts are further divided into 1,104 sections, and for each
section, there is also a short preface to introduce that section. The Historical
Records of Cefu is a classiWed dictionary on the administrative history and
emergence of classified dictionaries 231
a large-scale collection of historical data in the light of their categories, recording
the stories about the emperors and their oYcials from Early Ancient Times to the
Five Dynasties and arranged on the basis of a general classiWcation of people and
events. The data are mainly cited from the histories of seventeen dynasties, in
addition to Confucian classics and classics of other schools but excluding novels
and non-oYcial histories. The presently available version is the photocopied one
by Zhong Hua Book Company in 1960.
The Historical Records of Cefu has two major diVerences from The Imperial
Digest of the Taiping Reign in format and style and with respect to other classiWed
dictionaries: Wrstly, the sources from which the data are cited have not been
directly indicated; secondly, they not only cite and record but also ‘express’ – for
each part there is a ‘general preface’ to describe its organization, and for each
section there is a short preface for its content – what they designate. There are
thirty-one ‘general prefaces’, each about 1,000 characters long, but there are
exceptions; for instance, the preface for ‘central oYcials and provincial oYcers’
has 12,000 characters. There are 1,116 ‘short prefaces’, each about one or two
hundred characters in size. These general and short prefaces are excellent com-
positions in themselves.
The Broad Records of Things and Events was a popular classiWed dictionary of
ancient times, being of the nature of an encyclopedic dictionary for everyday use.
It was compiled by Chen Yuanjing (陈元靓) at the end of the Southern Song
Dynasty. It comprised four collections: the Wrst one had thirteen volumes in-
volving sixteen categories, the second thirteen volumes involving nineteen cat-
egories, the third, also called the follow-up collection, ten volumes and ten
categories, and the miscellaneous collection eight volumes and eight categories,
altogether forty-two volumes and Wfty-one categories. It was compiled to meet
everyday needs, thus keeping a large amount of data concerning the everyday life
of the time. For instance, the sixth, seventh, and eighth types in the follow-up
collection were about the arts and literature, recording a variety of methods and
modes of entertainments, involving diVerent games for drinking at banquets,
chess games, ball games, talk shows, and magic. In the judicial type of the fourth
volume of the miscellaneous collection, there were records of diVerent proced-
ures of lawsuits: a military man on beheading, title-granting, and equipment;
a widow without an oVspring on appropriation or remarriage, etc., which give a
picture of the reality of that time. The Broad Records of Things and Events set
a good example for various classiWed dictionaries in ancient times. As to the
macrostructure, it was the Wrst one to provide pictorial illustrations, depicting
the marketplaces and social life of ancient times. In the period of the Tang and
Song Dynasties, there were no pictorial illustrations in the majority of classiWed
232 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
dictionaries, and it should be Chen Yuanjing who is accredited with such an
innovation. The Broad Records of Things and Events had a variety of illustrative
diagrams, such as charts, tables, maps, pictures and paintings. For instance, in the
calendar category, there were ‘diagrams of weights and measurements’, ancient
and contemporary ‘lotus water clocks’; in the ritual category, there were ‘learning
genuXection diagrams’; in the agriculture and sericulture category, there were
‘farming and gathering’ diagrams, ‘fair trade’ diagrams, and ‘silk weaving’ dia-
grams; in the schooling category, there were ‘the king’s Wve kinds of learning’
diagram, ‘the king’s practising opening ceremonial music’ diagram, ‘schools of
feudal princes’ diagram; in the literature category, there were ‘River Diagram’ and
‘Luo River Book’ diagram; in the clothing category, there were diagrams of various
caps and hats and diVerent clothes; in the implement category, there were
diagrams of weights and measurements, sacriWcial utensils, cart-making, Xag-
making; in the musical category, there are diagrams of diVerent musical instru-
ments; in the martial arts category, there were diagrams of infantry shooting and
cavalry shooting, etc. These diagrams are quite straightforward and can greatly
increase the readability and interest of the book. The innovations of The Broad
Records of Things and Events in its format and style have been widely adopted by
later dictionaries, such as The Yongle Compendium (<永乐大典>), which was
oYcially compiled in the Ming Dynasty and The Compendium of Ancient and
Contemporary Books (<古今图书集成>), which was oYcially compiled in the
Qing Dynasty, both having given great prominence to the role played by illus-
trative diagrams.
There is one scholar whose name and whose works cannot be neglected in the
discussion of ancient classiWed dictionaries in China. This scholar is Shen Kuo,
known as Cunzhong (存中). He was born in Qiantang (Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Province) and was an outstanding scientist, reformist, diplomat, Wnancier, and
strategist. He was an expert in a variety of disciplines, such as astronomy,
geography, chemistry, biology, temperaments and calendars, music, medicine,
and decrees and regulations. His works include The Everlasting Prosperity Collec-
tion (<长兴集>), The Mengxi Collection of Written Dialogues, etc. The Mengxi
Collection of Written Dialogues was written in his late years when he lived at
Dream Stream (Mengxi) Garden in Run Zhou (today’s Zhenjiang, Jiangsu
Province). It was a classiWed dictionary of a rather sketchy nature, completed
in 1091. It consisted of twenty-six volumes, in seventeen categories, namely
stories, dialectics, temperaments, astronomical phenomena, human life, admin-
istration, empowerment, arts and literature, calligraphy, crafts, utensils, miracles,
alien things, falsehood, humour, jottings, medicine, etc. In his Introduction to
the book, he stated:
emergence of classified dictionaries 233
since I retired I have lived a simple life in the woods; I have had the time to recall my
conversations with friends and to jot them down. It seems that I have begun to
understand things deeper and better and in so doing time has passed quickly. With
whom have I conversed? – the writing brushes and the ink stones. That is why it is
entitled ‘written dialogues’.
What had been discussed and reXected upon in The Mengxi Collection of
Written Dialogues was what Shen Kuo observed and thought about while he
travelled extensively around the country and talked with friends. Its content was
exceptionally broad and involved numerous domains – historical events, biog-
raphies, administrative schemes and regulations, examination systems, philoso-
phy, music, painting, calligraphy, involving almost every aspect of social life.
Three-Wfths of its content, however, was ‘on nature and on rigorous science,
containing information, description, and theoretical explorations on engineer-
ing, technology and inventions.’ ‘The excellent dissertation of the author’s
rational inquiry into physical phenomena has increasingly caught the attention
of modern scholars. He was the leading Wgure in the scientiWc world of his
time’ (Hu Daojing, 1981).
The Song Dynasty also saw the birth of the Wrst botanic dictionary in the
history of human civilization – The Botanic Compendium. It was compiled by
Chen Jingyi, a Song Dynasty poet. It extensively collected the names of Xowers,
grasses, and trees, exhaustively collected and attested their relevant data, and
inquired into their sources. The book had two collections, which were further
divided into eight parts and Wfty-eight volumes. The Wrst collection had only one
part – on Xowers, coming to twenty-seven volumes; the second collection had
seven parts, namely fruit, small grasses, grasses, trees, agriculture and sericulture,
vegetables, and medicine, amounting to thirty-one volumes. For each part,
further division was made into classes and there were 400 classes altogether.
Each entry was for one speciWc plant, and each entry consisted of three ‘sources’.
The Wrst source was ‘the factual source’, which was further divided into ‘fragment
records’, ‘summary’, and ‘miscellaneous’, centring around scientiWc knowledge,
stories and legends about the plant. The second was ‘the composing source’,
seventeen types in all, such as prosaic sentences, antithetical couplets, classic
poems, eight lines, four lines, which were all poems. The third was ‘the diction
source’, which listed only verses, sentences, or expressions of a speciWc type of
classic poetry. The book gave about 307 kinds of plants and the data were not later
than the Song Dynasty. The Botanic Compendium boasted remarkable character-
istics in its content and style and came 300 years earlier than the Wrst book on
botanic history in the West.
234 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
13.4 the social and academic influence
ClassiWed dictionaries are the repository of knowledge and information. They are
compiled mainly to record and transmit knowledge. As one type of ‘encyclopedic
dictionary’, classiWed dictionaries have the following four aspects of social and
academic values. First, as ‘encyclopedic dictionaries’, classiWed dictionaries have
fulWlled the role of textbooks for the people of the time. To turn new information
into knowledge is the work of the compilers and to popularize the knowledge
into common knowledge for the people is the function of classiWed dictionaries.
Thus, ancient classiWed dictionaries have played key roles in popularizing scien-
tiWc knowledge and culture and in transmitting the civilization of a nation.
Second, ancient classiWed dictionaries have played an important part in
educating the people. While introducing knowledge to the people, classiWed
dictionaries have also introduced the ideology and values of the dominant
class. The general public has been subtly inXuenced when using these books. In
other words, these classiWed dictionaries have functioned as a means of governing
and shaping the thoughts of people and have transformed their way of thinking.
Third, these classiWed dictionaries can be used to collate the ancient books
and literatures that have been lost for reasons unknown. The role of classiWed
dictionaries is closely related to their nature – a categorized accumulation of data.
When they were compiled, the majority of the data had been directly cited from
their original sources with explicit labels. They are mostly reliable in that they are
faithful to the originals though there might be occasional deletions or revisions.
As early as in the Southern Song Dynasty, Hong Mai (洪迈) had noticed there
were quite a few ancient books no longer available although fragmentary cit-
ations could be found in The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign.
Fourth, classiWed dictionaries have the function of ‘indexing’ for scholars to
retrieve relevant sources in the course of their research. The data in classiWed
dictionaries are mainly second-hand and they need to be checked against the
original sources. ClassiWed dictionaries collect relevant data under one cover and,
to a large extent, narrow down the scope of information retrieval. Searching via
classiWed dictionaries is much more convenient and eYcient than browsing in
the endless sea of sources. For instance, The Data Corpus of Ancient Chinese
Musical History (<中国古代音乐史料辑要>, 1962) was motivated and initiated
as a result of the study of classiWed dictionaries in the course of a general survey.
The general principle for its compilation lies in taking advantage of the ancient
classiWed dictionaries that have individual parts or volumes on music and
emergence of classified dictionaries 235
following the threads they oVer for doing further research. When the original
sources are not available, the data from the classiWed dictionaries will be quoted
directly and labelled accordingly. Another instance is The Probe into Ancient
Novels (<古小说钩沉>) by Lu Xun (鲁迅), in which such ancient novels are
mentioned as The Peizi Language Forest (<裴子语林>), which is lost and the
entries on them are almost all taken from The ClassiWed Collection of Art and
Literary Works. The literature quoted by The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign
is enormous and today only about 10% is available. From this book, however,
thousands of books lost from the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties could be
traced. There is every reason to rank The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign
above all the other ancient classiWed dictionaries in China.
The compilation of classiWed dictionaries has greatly facilitated the process of
composing essays and adding notes to books. However, there may be a tendency,
if they are improperly used, to bring out in users the bad habits of learning by
rote without reading the original books and exploring the original sources. The
negative eVects of using classiWed dictionaries can implicitly be found in the
ideology, objectives, training procedures, or assessment criteria of education–or
even going beyond education into other aspects of socio-political life.
236 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
14
RHYME DICTIONARIES – ASPECIAL DICTIONARY TYPE
IN ANCIENT CHINA
IN the field of lexicographical studies in China, rhyme books are likely to be
considered book-like in characters, thus overlooking the features they share in
common with language dictionaries. As the investigation into the attributes of
rhyme books goes further, more and more scholars have come to the consensus
that rhyme books, which later develop into rhyme dictionaries, should fall into
the ‘dictionary’ category and be classiWed as one type of special dictionary. The
most representative view of this school is expressed in the deWnition of 韵书
(rhyme dictionaries) in The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (2002): ‘diction-
aries of characters with the same rhymes or with the same pronunciations for
writing literary composition in rhyme, such as The Dictionary of Rhymes, The
Rhyme Dictionary, and The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes, etc.’
Yong Heming (2003), according to the ‘subject domains’, classiWes dictionaries
into two types – ‘general dictionary’ (普通词典) and ‘special dictionary’ (专门
词典). The latter can be further classiWed into ‘specialized dictionary’ (also
‘special-subject dictionary’) and ‘special-aspect dictionary’. ‘Specialized dic-
tionary’ deals with the terms of a speciWc subject Weld, such as agriculture,
law, and medicine. Since the words collected are mainly conWned to a certain
subject Weld specialized dictionaries are classiWed according to the subject Weld
they belong to, such as law dictionary, medicine dictionary, and economics
dictionary. ‘Special-aspect dictionary’ deals with the lexicon or part of
the lexicon of a language, or one aspect or theme of language use. It can be
further classiWed according to the types or aspects of the lexicon or the themes
of language use. From this point of view, rhyme books should be regarded as
one type of special dictionary – the ‘special-aspect dictionary’ in the ‘special
dictionary’ category.
14.1 the historical backgroundto the birth of rhyme dictionaries
The period from the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasties was subject to
great upheavals which lasted for about four centuries. In the Sui and Tang Dynas-
ties China was blessed with reuniWcation and great sense of unity: social stability,
national prosperity, and the order of feudalism being greatly strengthened. In
addition to the further development of exegetic and philological studies, a new
discipline was established – phonology – a major event in the history of linguistic
studies in China. Since that time, phonological studies have been exceptionally
remarkable in traditional linguistic study in China until the early Qing Dynasty.
There are four reasons why phonological studies evolved into an independent
discipline after the period of the Wei and Jin (晋) Dynasties. First, constant
warfare in the period of the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasties brought
about the largest and longest migration of the Chinese population. Meanwhile,
quite a number of ethnic groups conquered the Central Plains in rapid succes-
sion. Consequently, there was a melting pot of people from diVerent nations.
There were more opportunities to communicate in diVerent languages or dia-
lects, and these would inevitably exert inXuence upon each other. As pointed out
by Yan Zhitui, a scholar of the Northern Qi Dynasty, the common language was
‘contaminated by the Wu and Yue dialects from the South and mixed with the
language of Yi State and the language of the Hu people from the North’ (from
The Teachings of the Yan Family). With diVerent languages and dialects, the Wrst
thing that people perceive is a diVerence in phonetics. Such a diVerence stimu-
lates an interest in the study of phonetics.
Second, the period of the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasties was
also a time in which the Han Dynasty Literature transformed into a new type, i.e.
the Tang Dynasty Literature. The literary forms, Ci-poem of Chu State (楚辞)
and Fu-poem of the Han Dynasty (汉赋), evolved Wrstly into Pai Fu (俳赋) and
then into Lu Fu (律赋); the form of prose changed from a half-rhythmical style to
a wholly-rhythmical style, marked by parallelism and magniWcence; and the style
238 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
of poetry changed from the ancient style into the Tang Dynasty ‘modern style’. In
a word, the literary works of this period emphasized the beauty of linguistic form,
pursuing the Xamboyance of words and the harmony of prosody. As Shen Yue
(沈约, 441–513) stated:
The dazzling brilliance of the Wve colours and the harmonic Xuency of the eight sounds
are due to the laws and patterns regulating the mixing of colours and the matching of
sounds. Thus, they can Wnally harmonize with the objects in speciWc surroundings. In
order to change the pitch of a sound, e.g. from Gong (宫) to Yu (羽) or from low pitch
to high pitch, or to adjust the mutual restriction of high and low pitches, it must be
observed that, if there is a Xoating sound in the front, then the following one must be a
loud falling tone. Within one bamboo’s clip, the loudness of the sound and the corre-
sponding rhyming should be diVerent; whereas, between two adjacent sentences, the
degree of loudness, i.e. light or heavy, should be totally diVerent. Only when such a tenor
is reached can it be considered gorgeous. (from The Book of the Song Dynasty, <宋书>)
The development of literature promoted the study of language, especially studies
in phonetics and phonology.
Third, as early as in the period of Pre-Qin Dynasty, some knowledge had
already been gained of the analysis of speech sounds and was complete by the
time of the Han Dynasty. As Zhou Zumo stated:
By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, scholars were already good at speech sound
examination and analysis. As to the position of articulation, there is a distinction
between diVerent positions of the tongue in the mouth and diVerent ways of lip
movement; as to the pitches of rhyming, there is discrimination between internal and
external, and between hasty and slow; as to the opening and closing of rhymes, there is a
diVerence between lax and tense, and between lip-rounded and lip-unrounded; as to the
opening and closing of end vowels, there is lip opening and lip closing; as to the length of
tone, there is the diVerence between long and short. The analysis has reached such a
degree of a precision and accuracy and revealed the underlying patterns . . . I once
attempted to discourse on this and I contend that the study of speech sound examination
in China started from as early as the Han Dynasty.
Phonological study in China has evolved from such a basis and progressed
rapidly.
Fourth, from the Wei to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism
underwent a period of huge growth and development. In the Tang Dynasty
Buddhismwas Xourishing. With the introduction of Buddhism, Chinese scholars
took the opportunity to learn Sanskrit and the phonetics and grammar of
the Indian language. Because of the great diVerences between Sanskrit and
Chinese in their grammars, it was very diYcult for Chinese scholars to adopt
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 239
the methodologies used in studying the grammar of Sanskrit but it was relatively
easier for them to accept and learn from phonological studies. The phonetic
knowledge of the Indian language had a very strong and positive inXuence on the
establishment and development of Chinese phonology.
Chinese phonology started from the invention of fanqie and the discovery of the
four tones of classical Chinese. Fanqie is a method for giving phonetic notation to
Chinese characters in ancient China. It makes use of the pronunciations of two
characters to indicate the pronunciation of a third one. For instance, in The
Dictionary of Rhymes: Rising Level Tone (<广韵·上平声·一东>), the phonetic
notation of the Chinese character东 goes like this:东,德红切. The pronunciation
of东 can be obtained by means of fanqie, that is, through the combined pronun-
ciations of the initial consonant德 and the vowel红. For the Chinese language, the
syllable of a Chinese character can be segmented into two components: the initial
consonant and the coda vowel. In applying the method of fanqie, the pronunciation
of a new character, such as东, is obtained by combining the two components – the
initial consonant of the Wrst known character,德 in this case, and the vowel of the
second known character, 红 in this case. The birth and wide circulation of fanqie
was concomitant with the introduction and development of Buddhism in China,
which is not a sheer coincidence. The Book of the Sui Dynasty states:
From the time of the popularization of Buddhism in the Central Plains in the Eastern
Han Dynasty, we have also seen the introduction of the language of Hu and its writing
system from the Western Regions, which has made it possible to invent a phonetic
system to indicate all the speech sounds by using only fourteen characters. It is very
simple but profoundly signiWcant and it is called the Brahmin writing style. This
writing system is totally diVerent from the eight scripts and the six styles of calligraphy
in ancient China.
It is evident that the Sanskrit letters and their phonetic notations were intro-
duced into China at the same time as Buddhism was introduced. The birth of the
method of fanqie was after the revelation of the phonetic principles of Sanskrit.
The establishment of fanqie bears great signiWcance to the progress and
development of lexicographical culture in China. First, fanqie provided the
most advanced method of the time for phonetic notation. Before its invention,
there were various forms of phonetic notation, but they were all relatively
disadvantageous by comparison with fanqie. Yan Zhitui states:
Only after Zheng Xuan’s adding notes to The Six Classics (<六经>), Gao You’s (高诱)
interpreting The Lu Survey and Huai Nan (<淮南>), Xu Shen’s creating An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and Liu Xi’s writing The Dictionary of Chinese Charac-
ters and Terms, were there established the methods of analogy and phonetic loaning to
240 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
attest the characters and their pronunciations. As for the diVerences between ancient and
contemporary languages, and the diVerences in their degree of stress and their possessing
of voicing, there is no way for us to know. As for the labels, such as ‘internal or external
articulation’, ‘hasty or slow articulation’, and ‘read as’, they have caused much confusion.
(from The Teachings of the Yan Family)
Chen Li (陈澧, 1810–1882) states:
In ancient phonetic books, ‘read like . . .’ or ‘pronounced in the same way as . . .’ are often
employed to indicate the pronunciation. But where there is no character found with the
same pronunciation, this method does not work. When a character is found with the same
pronunciation but it is a diYcult character with very low frequency of use, then this
method does not work either. When Sun Shuyan (孙叔言) initiated fanqie, two characters
are used to indicate the pronunciation of a single character. This method is workable in all
conceivable situations. This method has surpassed its predecessors.
The advantages of fanqie made it likely to be employed to provide phonetic
notations for Chinese characters by later lexicographers.
Second, fanqie is an important prerequisite for the birth of rhyme dictionaries
and phonetic alphabets. Yan Zhitui says, ‘Sun Shuyan’s writing Sounds and
Meanings of the Ready Guide (<尔雅音义>) illustrates the Wrst knowledge of
fanqie. Fanqie became very popular in the Wei Dynasty . . . since then, rhyme
books have begun to come out’ (from The Teachings of the Yan Family). As Chen
Li explained:
As to ‘since then, rhyme books have begun to come out’, Sun Shuyan was referring to Li
Deng’s compilation of The Dictionary of Initial Consonants, which was the Wrst rhyme
book in the history of Chinese lexicography. When the method of fanqie was invented, it
was possible to group together characters with the same rhymes, and consequently,
rhyme books came into being.
In other words, a rhyme book can be compiled if the second characters, that is,
characters sharing the same vowel, are grouped together. Similarly, when the Wrst
characters, that is, characters sharing the same initial consonant, are grouped
together, rhyme books of a diVerent type will be compiled. As a further step,
when the characters sharing the same initial consonant are grouped together and
one character is chosen as a representative, the alphabetical system can be
established. Thus, with the establishment of fanqie and the sorting into phonetic
data, Chinese rhyme books (and eventually, phonology) came into use, and this
exercised profound inXuence on the development of linguistics in later periods.
Tone is an important suprasegmental quality in the Chinese language. It was
Zhou Yong (周颙,?–485) and Shen Yue in the Southern and Northern Dynasties
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 241
who discovered tones in the Chinese language and identiWed them as having four
scales, i.e. level, rising, falling, and entering. The scaling of the four tones came
about mainly for practical purposes. As stated in The History of the Southern
Dynasty (<南史),
it was a time for writing prose. Some scholars, such as Shen Yue, Xie Tiao (谢脁), and
Wang Rong (王融), are scrupulous with the mood and eVect of characters in diction.
And Zhou Yong is good at recognizing the prosodic features of rhyming. For parallelism
they employ the musical notes, such as Gong and Shang, and further identify four
phonetic tones, i.e. level, rising, falling, and entering. Thus the rhyming system is
established: level head, rising tail, bee waist, and crane knee. In a Wve-character poetic
line, the rhymes of the Wve characters are totally diVerent; in the two lines of an
antithetical couplet, the musical scales of Jue (角) and Zhi (徵) should be diVerent.
And this should be kept constant, without any deletion or addition. This is called
Yongming style (永明体).
In this quotation, Gong, Shang, Jue, and Zhi, though originally referring to
musical notes, are here employed to designate phonetic tones. In other words,
these scholars had already made use of the tones in analysing the patterns of Wve-
character-line poems. As to antithetical couplets, the two lines, which must
match semantically and phonetically, are called the given sentence (出句) and
the corresponding sentence (对句) respectively. For these two lines, if the Wrst
two characters of both lines have ‘level tones’, they will be called ‘level head’; if the
last characters have ‘rising tone’ in both lines, then they will be called ‘rising tail’;
if the third characters in both lines have ‘falling tone’, then they will be called ‘bee
waist’; and if the fourth characters in both lines have ‘entering tone’, then they
will be called ‘crane knee’. As Shen Yue states:
In order to change the pitch of a sound, e.g. from Gong to Yu or from low to high, or
adjust the mutual restriction of high and low pitches, we have to observe that if there is a
Xoating sound in the front, then the following one must be a loud falling tone. Within
one bamboo’s clip, the loudness of the sound and the corresponding rhyming should be
diVerent; whereas, between two adjacent sentences, the degree of loudness, i.e. light or
heavy, should be totally diVerent. Only when such a tenor is reached can it be considered
gorgeous. (from The Book of the Song Dynasty)
Here, ‘Gong’, ‘high’, ‘Xoating sound’, and ‘light’ generally refer to level tones,
whereas ‘Yu’, ‘low’, ‘loud falling’, and ‘heavy’ refer to oblique tones. It is obvious
that the four phonetic tones identiWed by Zhou Yong and Shen Yue are employed
for studying and establishing the patterns of Wve-character-line poems. The
alternation of level and oblique tones in one line and the oppositeness of level
and oblique tones in the two lines in an antithetical couplet have laid the basis for
242 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
the principles and patterns of ‘modern style’ poetry in and after the Tang
Dynasty. Moreover, when they are employed in the rhythmical prose style, the
musical beauty of poetic language is greatly enhanced.
The establishment of the four-tone system also has great signiWcance in the
lexicographical history in China. The phonetics of the Chinese language consists of
initial consonants, coda vowels, and tones. Fanqie diVerentiates initial consonants
from coda vowels in the syllable of a character. The identiWcation of the four tones
separates the tones from the syllables and thus the internal structure of Chinese
syllables is revealed. The discovery of phonetic tones in the Chinese language has
made it possible to compile rhyme dictionaries on the basis of phonetic tones as
the framework of the dictionaries. The earliest rhyme dictionaries had already paid
attention to the diVerentiation of phonetic tones. For instance, The Dictionary of
Initial Consonants and The Collection of Rhymes are both arranged according to the
Wve-tone (i.e. Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu) system adopted from musical notes.
The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes is arranged on the basis of the four tones (level,
rising, falling, and entering) for each rhyme section. The mainstream format and
style of rhyme dictionaries in ancient China is best represented by the arrangement
according to diVerent rhyme sections and on the basis of the four-tone system,
which has also made up the theoretical underpinnings for the standardization of
the format and style of dictionary making in China.
14.2 the burgeoning growthof rhyme dictionaries
Rhyme dictionaries were compiled for examining pronunciation and diVeren-
tiating rhymes. The Dictionary of Initial Consonants is the Wrst rhyme dictionary
in China, which distinguished between voicing and voiceless and between Gong
and Yu, as stated below:
Books, such as Three Cang Primer and The Instant Primer, had hardly any discussion of
the writing of sentences and texts; books like An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and The Character Forest focused on the diVerentiation of the formal features
of Chinese characters. The phonetics and rhymes of Chinese characters had long been
confusing and puzzling. Research on either the ancient or contemporary phonetics had
not achieved much success. Only after the compilation of The Dictionary of Initial
Consonants and The Rhyme Dictionary can voicing be identiWed from voiceless and
Gong be diVerentiated from Yu.
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 243
Asmentioned in The Book of the Sui Dynasty, The Dictionary of Initial Consonants
originally consisted of ten volumes. According to Characters (<文字>), the secondvolume of The Feng’s Records of Things and Events (<封氏闻见记>), ‘in the Wei
Dynasty there is a scholar called Li Deng, who compiled The Dictionary of Initial
Consonants. It has ten volumes and contains 11,520 characters. It is arranged accord-
ing to the Wve tones without further division into sections’. Possibly, for each tone,
there should be two volumes. Its arrangement diVered from An Explanatory Dic-
tionary of Chinese Characters, which was based on the sections of radicals. Ma
Guohan (马国翰), a Qing Dynasty scholar, collected about 200 quotations of The
Dictionary of Initial Consonants from diVerent sources, which shows it had already
made use of fanqie in phonetic notation and there were deWnitions in the dictionary
(from The Collection of Lost Books in Yuhanshan House, <玉函山房辑佚书>).Subsequent to The Dictionary of Initial Consonants came The Collection of
Rhymes. According to The Book of the Wei Dynasty, ‘Lu Jing, the brother of Lu
Chen, took examples from The Dictionary of Initial Consonants by Li Deng
and compiled The Collection of Rhymes (Wve volumes). Each tone makes up a
volume.’ The Collection of Rhymes and The Dictionary of Initial Consonants
were consistent in format and style. Unfortunately, The Collection of Rhymes
was lost again. According to Yan Zhitui, ‘The Collection of Rhymes has
combined 成, 仍, 宏, and 登 into two rhymes and divided 为, 奇, 益, and
石 into four chapters . . . , which is not reliable’ (from The Teachings of the
Yan Family). In recent decades, three versions of Wang Renyun’s RectiWcation
on the Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes (<王仁昀刊谬补缺切韵>) were found.
There were brief notes on the rhyme sections, which pointed out the simi-
larities and diVerences of the previous rhyme dictionaries in the diVerentia-
tion of rhyme sections, such as The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes by Lu Fayan
and The Collection of Rhymes by Lu Jing. For instance, in the second section
of 冬, there is ‘Lu is diVerent from Zhong (钟) and Jiang (江)’; in the sixth
section of 脂, there is ‘Lu is in contradiction with Zhi (之) and Wei (微)’. It is
obvious that The Collection of Rhymes, like many later rhyme dictionaries, had
diVerentiated various rhyme sections. Since The Collection of Rhymes took The
Dictionary of Initial Consonants as its model for compilation, rhyme sections
must have already been classiWed in The Dictionary of Initial Consonants, and
under each tone those rhyme sections must have been diVerentiated from
each other.
Obviously, later rhyme dictionaries were, as a rule, organized according to the
rhyme sections on the basis of the four-tone system, with phonetic notations via
fanqie and deWnitions. These stylistic features were basically present in The
Dictionary of Initial Consonants and The Collection of Rhymes. Eventually, The
244 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
Dictionary of Initial Consonants started a new era of compiling special diction-
aries – rhyme dictionaries, and established the format and style for rhyme
dictionaries and other dictionaries to follow.
14.3 a brief analysis of someimportant rhyme dictionaries
Rhyme books originated in the period from the Wei to the Jin Dynasties,
established themselves in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and prospered in the
Song and Yuan Dynasties. Their birth and development were closely related to
social need, cultural development, and political stabilization. Since that period,
the compilation of rhyme dictionaries developed steadily until the period of
the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In this section, we will brieXy introduce some
important early rhyme dictionaries and explore how rhyme dictionaries evolved.
The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes was written by Lu Fayan, a Sui Dynasty
scholar, and it was completed in 601. The original book was lost and today we
can onlyWnd some remnant volumes andpages in revised editions. It is known that
the book consisted of 193 rhymes: Wfty-four rhymes in level tone, Wfty-one rhymes
in rising tone, Wfty-six rhymes in falling tone, and thirty-two rhymes in entering
tone. Its coverage is 11, 558 characters. The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes, following
on from and summarizing the previous achievements in this Weld, is generally
regarded as amilestone in the history of rhyme dictionary compilation. It was very
popular and, after its publication, the rhyme books and dictionaries compiled
during the Six Dynasties began to fade out of the lexicographical scene. Many
rhyme dictionaries compiled in the Tang and Song Dynasties weremodelled on it.
In the Tang Dynasty, Zhangsun Neyan (长孙讷言) and Guo Zhixuan (郭知玄)
started to revise it and the revisionwas Wnished in 677. Then,WangRenxu (王仁煦)
revised it again by augmenting and enlarging its coverage, adding more notes and
renaming it RectiWcation on the Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes (<刊谬补缺切韵>).His work was Wnished in 706. Later, Sun Mian initiated a larger-scale revision and
augmentation and changed its name toTheTangDictionary of Rhymes. The revision
was Wnished in 751 but unfortunately it was later lost. In the Song Dynasty, Chen
Pengnian and Qiu Yong, on the orders of Emperor Zhenzong, started to revise it
and it was renamedThe Revised Dictionary of Rhymes of the SongDynasty (<大宋重
修广韵>), shortened to The Dictionary of Rhymes.
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 245
As mentioned above, The Dictionary of Rhymes was compiled on the basis of
The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes with extensive revision, adjustment, and
expansion. The motivation behind this was a desire to broaden The Dictionary
of Chinese Rhymes in coverage; it comprised Wve volumes, covering 26, 194
characters with a large number of notes, 191, 692 characters altogether. There
were 206 rhyme sections: Wfty-seven rhymes in level tone, Wfty-Wve rhymes in
rising tone, sixty rhymes in falling tone, and thirty-four rhymes in entering tone.
Among these 206 rhyme sections, 193 were adopted from The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes, two from Wang Renyun’s RectiWcation on the Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes or the Kaiyuan version of The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes, eleven
from the Tianbao version of The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes. The arrangement of
the rhyme sections and their correspondence with the four tones mainly followed
the pattern of The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes by Li Zhou (李舟). Since the
level-tone characters were so numerous, they were divided into two volumes:
twenty-eight rhymes were in the upper-level tone and twenty-nine rhymes were
in the lower-level tone. The other three tones were treated in separate volumes.
In the light of the feature of phonetic similarity meaning semantic similarity,
The Dictionary of Rhymes collected the pictophonetic characters with the same
initial consonants and arranged them in such a way as to help reveal the
adjacency of the spatial relationships of the meanings of pictophonetic charac-
ters. It made the best use of the phonetic sequencing in adopting the comparative
approach to the similarities and diVerences of character meaning, which were
identiWed and diVerentiated on diVerent levels and from diVerent perspectives:
(a) With diVerent objects: For instance, 训 (scold) is deWned as 戒 (forbid).
When it is applied to a man it is 教 (to teach), whereas it will be 训 (to
scold) when it is applied to a woman.
(b) With diVerent focuses: For instance, 讼 is about 狱 (jailing) when one
argues about whether someone is guilty; when it is for money and
property, then it is about讼.
(c) With or without certain attributes: For instance, 虫豸: when it has feet, it
is 虫 and when it has no foot it is 豸.
(d) With diVerent degrees: 疾 means 病. In An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters,病 (disease) is interpreted as疾加 (serious illness).
(e) With diVerent scopes of domain:卒 (die) means终 (to end). In An Explana-
tory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, 薨 is explained as ‘the death of the
monarch member’.
(f) With diVerent sizes of an area (or capacity, volume): for 鼗, the bigger
ones are called 麻 and the smaller ones are called料.
246 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
(g) With diVerent dimensions: for衣 (clothes), for covering the upper part of
the body, it is called衣; whereas, for covering the lower part, it is called裳.
(h) With diVerent spatial relations: for离 (to leave), when the target place is
near, it is called离 and when the target place is far away, it is called别.
(i) With diVerences in shape:篚means ‘bamboo vessels’. When it is square it
is called 筐; whereas, when it is round, it is called 篚.
Examined from its macrostructure and microstructure, the phonetic sequencing
in The Dictionary of Rhymes reXected from diVerent dimensions and on diVerent
levels the semantic relations of characters, and the semantic information and
linguistic knowledge embedded in such sequencing were of high density. Such
macrostructural conWguration itself implicated the diVerentiation and interpret-
ation of character meanings. As for its format and style, The Dictionary of Rhymes
normally gave the deWnition of a character in theWrst place, followed by its phonetic
notation. For those characters with the same pronunciation, they are arranged in
one group. If a character has pronunciation variants, they will be notated accord-
ingly. The variant characters are usually attached to the standard character. For each
section, there will be notations like独用 (use independently) or同用 (co-use). For
instance, in the upper-level tone, in the rhyme sections东,鱼,江, and微, there is
the annotation独用; in the section支, there is the annotation脂之同用 (co-used
with脂), and in真, there is the annotation谆臻同用 (co-usedwith谆 or臻).独用
means that the characters in this section should only be used individually. 同用
means that they can be used with the characters in the relevant sections.
The Dictionary of Rhyme has a variety of methods for deWning characters,
Wfteen altogether, according to Zhu Jiansong (朱建颂, Zhu Jiansong, 1988):
(a) Description (描叙): to use reWned words to describe what the character or
word designates through abstraction. For instance,锻 (forge) is deWned as
打铁 (strike iron);赧 is deWned as 惭而面赤 (regret with a red face).
(b) Simulation (摹拟): to capture the feature of an object by imitating its
sound or picturing its shape. It is usually indicated with labels like 声
(sound), 貌 (appearance), 状 (shape). For instance, 嚇 is 笑声 (sound of
laughing); 涵 is水泽多貌 (the appearance of having lots of marshes).
(c) ClassiWcation (归类): to use the generic term to deWne a subcategory. The
labels are名 (name), 类 (genus), and 属 (family). For instance, 蒯: 茅类
(one type of thatch grass); 蚶: 蚌属 (belong to the mussel family).
(d) Alias (别名): to use a diVerent name, i.e. to use the known to introduce
the unknown. For instance, 笏 (sceptre): more widely known as 手板
(hand tablet).
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 247
(e) Synonyms (同义): to use a simpler word with the same meaning to help
understand a more diYcult word. For instance,禧:福也 (blessing),吉也
(lucky);仆: 倒也 (fall over).
(f) Reversing exegetic interpretation (反训): to use a collocation of two
opposite characters to explain one of them. For instance, 寒: 寒暑也
(cold and hot weather). 浊:不清也 (not clear).
(g) Conjunctive word (联词): to use multi-syllabic words or phrases to
explain the monosyllabic word or morpheme (character). For instance,
从:从容 (leisureliness).什: 篇什 (verse, poetry), or什物 (sundries)也.
(h) Conjunctive sentences (联句): to use sentences bearing the headword to
explain the monosyllabic word or morpheme (character). For instance,笄
(woman’s large-sized hairpin): 女十有五而笄也 (When a girl is Wfteen,
she will wear a special hairpin.).应 (correspondence): 物相应也 (things
that are in correspondence).
(i) Vulgarism (俗语): to use colloquial material to explain. For instance, 站
(stand):俗言独立 (colloquially means to be independent).
(j) Dialects (方言): to make use of characters with dialectal diVerences in
sound and meaning to explain. For instance,苡:苤苡, in the region to the
east of the River, it is called 虾蟆衣 (frog’s clothes), and in the region to
the east of the Mountain, it is called 牛舌 (bull’s tongue).
(k) Archaic word (古语): to make use of the diVerences in sound and
meaning between contemporary and archaic characters and to explore
through comparison the etymological relationships and trace the path of
evolution. For instance,哥: it was 歌 in ancient times but today it is used
to refer to兄 (brother).
(l) Loan word (异语): for those words borrowed from foreign countries,
explain them from diVerent perspectives, such as sound, meaning, or
even etymology. For instance, 氏: 月氏, 国名 (country name). 阏氏: 匈
奴皇后也 (the queen of the Hun ethic).
(m) Citation (引证): to make use of citations. For instance,空鸟:怪鸟 (bizarre
birds),出 <字统> (from The Orthographical Manual of Characters).载:年
(year),出 <方言> (from The Dictionary of Dialectal Words).
(n) Character decomposition (析字): to analyse and compare the formal
structure or diVerent spellings of characters. For instance, 品: 二口则生
讼, 三口乃能品量 (Two mouths, mouth in Chinese is 口, here referring
to a person, i.e. two persons will give rise to argument and three mouths,
i.e. three people, may guarantee a fair assessment).
(o) Grammar (语法): to point out the grammatical meaning, i.e. parts of
speech, usage, etc. For instance, 只: 专辞 (specifying term). 盖: 又发语
端也 (again, used at the initial position of a sentence).
248 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
In 1037, Ding Du, Li Shu, and a number of others were summoned to revise
The Dictionary of Rhymes because its citations were taken mainly from the old
rhyme books and dictionaries of the Tang Dynasty, and its content lacked a
balance in information distribution. The revision was Wnished in 1039 and the
outcome was renamed as The Rhyme Dictionary. It had ten volumes: four
volumes in level tone and each of the other three tones had two volumes. It
covered 53,525 characters, which was 27,331 characters more than in the original
version. The revised version and the original version had the same number of
rhyme sections, but some changes were made to the rhyme section titles and their
order. Some of the characters with the same rhyme were regrouped and the
pronunciations were notated in fanqie according to contemporary pronunci-
ations. The dictionary gave equal attention to the form, sound, and meaning of
the entry character. The principle of coverage for The Rhyme Dictionary was
‘make sure to be broad and brief ’. For each character, diVerent spellings were
collected when there was suYcient data to support it no matter whether it was
standard, archaic, variant, or vulgar style. It contained as many as 22,000 variant
characters. The principles for its rectiWcation were as follows:
(a) For those ancient characters that can be veriWed, ‘some are retained, and
some abandoned’;
(b) The original form of a character is given in the Wrst place and the other
(variant) forms are given in a group;
(c) If a part (or parts) of a character has been mutually exchanged in spelling,
the variant form will be given but with an indicative label such as或书作
某字 (or written in the form of certain characters).
(d) As for the colloquial or vulgar form, there will be direct stylistic glosses
like俗作某 (colloquially as . . . ) or 非是 (not standard, substandard).
The principle of form rectiWcation and arrangement for The Rhyme Dictionary
pushed forward the tradition of formal treatment of characters in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters and established the theory of formal interpret-
ation for large- and medium-size character dictionaries.
The Rhyme Dictionary also modiWed the methods of presenting fanqie in The
Dictionary of Rhymes. In addition to integrating some fanqie expressions, it added
598 more phonetic sounds, which were excluded from The Dictionary of Rhymes,
increasing the total number to 4,473. The number of the upper characters in
fanqie expressions was increased from 452 in The Dictionary of Rhymes to 869 in
The Rhyme Dictionary. The Rhyme Dictionary also put forward two points
concerning the principle of phonetic notation in arranging the rhyme sections:
when there are several readings in the classic works they will be treated together
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 249
now in order to end the diVerent sayings, that is, for a character with several
sounds and meanings, they will all be recorded; when a character is treated with
‘overpass’ fanqie, such as 武 being used to substitute 某 and 亡 being used to
substitute 茫, also called 类隔 (diVerential categorization), the characters used
will be the original ones. They indicate substantial progress in understanding the
mechanism of sound change and the patterns of phonetic sounds and appropri-
ate adjustments in equal exhaling and intonation types between the upper fanqie
character and the character to be notated. The Rhyme Dictionary adopted the
traditional style of ‘fanqie Wrst and deWnition second’, which made the phonetic
notation system in a character dictionary more standard and more rigorous.
The Rhyme Dictionary, based on the revised version of The Dictionary of
Rhymes, diVers from it in the following respects (赵诚, Zhao Cheng, 1980):
(a) The Dictionary of Rhymes has Wve volumes while The Rhyme Dictionary
has ten;
(b) The principle of coverage for The Rhyme Dictionary is ‘make sure to be
broad and brief ’. For each character, the diVerent spellings are collected
when there is suYcient record no matter whether it is standard, archaic,
variant, or vulgar style. Thus, the variants of an entry character can go
from two to as many as nine;
(c) In general, the explanatory notes inTheDictionary of Rhymes aremore lengthy
and redundant while The Rhyme Dictionary, as a rule, makes some pruning.
Something needs to be added if the notes are too brief in The Dictionary of
Rhymes. Its notational style is to quote Wrst from An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters, then from other character books and exegetic books as
supplements. Clear indications are given concerning the sources.
(d) The Rhyme Dictionary has the same number of rhymes as The Dictionary
of Rhymes, but discernible diVerences exist in the characters used in rhyme
entries, the order of some of the rhyme sections and the labels for notes
under each rhyme entry (i.e. ‘co-use’, ‘use independently’).
(e) In terms of sound coverage and rhyme classiWcation, The Rhyme Diction-
ary has some modiWcations with respect to The Dictionary of Rhymes.
(f) When a character is pronounced in diVerent ways, The Dictionary of
Rhymes usually gives indicative labels like 又音, whereas The Rhyme
Dictionary gives no such labels.
(g) The Rhyme Dictionary establishes quite a number of new fanqie expres-
sions and revises some adopted from The Dictionary of Rhymes.
As far as the Song Dynasty is concerned, there are two other books worth
mentioning. One is The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes (Wve volumes), compiled
250 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
by Qiu Yong et al., especially for those preparing for imperial examinations. The
characters dealt with in that dictionary are extracted from The Dictionary of
Rhymes. The other is The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the Ministry of Rites
(Wve volumes), compiled by Ding Du et al. for the use of the Ministry of Rites in
regulating imperial examinations. The classiWcation of the rhyme sections and
the style of notational labelling for ‘use independently’ and ‘co-use’ are the same
as in The Rhyme Dictionary. Its coverage is considerably narrowed down to 9,590
characters in common use and the other rarely used ones are deleted. Subse-
quently, a new version of The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the Ministry of
Rites was compiled by Liu Yuan (刘渊) and was published in 1252.
The dictionary family of The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes includes The Dic-
tionary of Chinese Rhymes, The Dictionary of Rhymes, The Rhyme Dictionary, and
The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the Ministry of Rites. The rhyme classiWca-
tion in these books kept an increasing distance from the actual situation of
language use, which called for a reform of rhyme dictionaries already in popular
use. As a result, there appeared The Comprehensive Five-sound Rhyme Dictionary
by Han Daozhao, a Jin (金) Dynasty scholar, and The Essential Dictionary of
Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes (thirty volumes) by Xiong Zhong, a Yuan
Dynasty scholar. Both dictionaries were the result of direct reformation on The
Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes. The Comprehensive Five-sound Rhyme Dictionary
regrouped the rhyme sections into 160 and abandoned the format and style of The
Dictionary of Rhymes and The Rhyme Dictionary, but, in each rhyme section, the
characters were arranged in groups according to the thirty-six-alphabet order.
Such a practice took into consideration the initial consonant types. The characters
with the same initial consonant were arranged in an independent order, according
to the diVerences in opening and closing, and, Wnally, labels were given as to their
degrees. The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes had 107
rhyme sections and, for each section, the characters were further arranged accord-
ing to the seven sounds, four degrees, and the thirty-six-alphabet. The classiWca-
tion of rhyme sections and initial consonant types are all based on the actual
situation of language use at that time. Themost representative dictionary that can
reXect the real situation of the phonology of the Chinese language system is The
Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes and this diVers in format and style
from The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes. Firstly, it was compiled according to the
phonological system of the Northern Dialects whereas The Dictionary of Chinese
Rhymes embraces the phonetic system of both the North and the South and both
the ancient and the contemporary; secondly, it totally abandons the format and
style, the classiWcation of rhyme sections, and the four tones and bases itself on the
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 251
real situation of the phonology of a dialect in examining its pronunciations and in
identifying its rhymes.
The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes had two major parts. The
Wrst part was a rhyme family (韵谱). It listed 5,866 characters, which were
frequently used as rhyme feet in qu (a type of verse in popular singing during
the Yuan Dynasty) and in ci-poem (a type of classical poetry conforming to a
conventionalized pattern popular in the Song Dynasty) and further classiWed
according to their pronunciations, building up into a rhyme dictionary family.
The 106 rhyme sections were condensed into nineteen according to their use in
the Northern qu in the Yuan Dynasty. According to the real situation of language
use in the North, the rhyme sections of the entering tone were removed. For each
rhyme section, the characters were arranged according to the four tones, namely,
the high-level tone, the rising tone, the falling-rising tone, and the falling tone.
The characters with the entering tone were distributed between the high-level
tone, the falling-rising tone, and the falling tone. This is what is commonly called
‘the level tone dividing into the high-level tone and the rising tone; the entering
tone being distributed between the high-level tone, the falling-rising tone, and
the falling tone’. The nineteen rhyme sections in this dictionary were:东钟,江阳,
支思, 齐微, 鱼模, 皆来, 真文,寒山, 桓欢,先天, 萧豪, 歌戈,家麻,车遮,庚青,
尤侯, 侵寻, 监咸 and 廉纤. In terms of format and style, The Central Plains
Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes diVers essentially from The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes. Fanqie is no longer employed in phonetic notation. Rather,
the characters sharing the same pronunciations are put in one group with a
commonly used character in the front as a signpost, and a circle is employed to
separate these groups. There is no deWnition in The Central Plains Dictionary of
Sounds and Rhymes. The second part entitled Standard Words for Composing Ci-
poems with Examples (<正语作词起例>) speciWes the format and style of the
rhyme family and the principles for examining pronunciations and expounds the
scheme of Northern qu, patterns of sound, language, and the methodologies of
composing qu and ci-poems.
14.4 the social and academic influenceof rhyme dictionaries
Rhyme dictionaries, as one type of special dictionary, were principally used to
guide and help to compose poetry, rhythmic prose, etc. They played an active and
252 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
important role in standardizing and facilitating Chinese literary production, but
their role was much neglected both as part of and as a propeller for lexicograph-
ical culture. First, the format and style of rhyme dictionaries in the Wei to Yuan
Dynasties, especially the innovations, formed not only a paradigm for the
compilation of later generations of rhyme dictionaries but also the theoretical
sources and motivation for reforms and innovations in their development.
Second, the steady progress and development of rhyme dictionaries exerted
considerable inXuence on the development of other dictionary types, the selec-
tion, organization, and presentation of various kinds of information in an entry,
and the methodological standardization in phonetic notations. Thirdly, rhyme
dictionaries, like other types of dictionary, were closely related to the historical
promotion of contemporary and future academic activities. For instance, the
rhyme dictionaries of the Wei to Southern and Northern Dynasties are the
products of the inquiry into fanqie and the discovery of the four-tone theory;
the rhyme dictionaries in the Tang and Song Dynasties were the products of the
studies on alphabets and rhyme tables. Moreover, the rhyme dictionaries of
the Wei to Yuan Dynasties served as the initiator for and made great impact
on linguistic inquiries in the Qing Dynasty and even in modern times, involving
methodologies and technologies, research Welds, and data collection.
Let us take two speciWc rhyme dictionaries and look into them in some detail.
The Wrst one is The Dictionary of Rhymes, the Wrst oYcially compiled and the
earliest relatively completely preserved among those presently available. Its social
and academic values are manifold and wide-ranging.
To begin with, it investigated into and sorted the rhyme sections classiWed in
previous rhyme dictionaries. It eventually made the decision to Wrst divide the
rhymes into volumes according to the four tones, and then further divide them
into 206 rhyme sections. It is the most comprehensive in The Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes family and the most representative as well.
Second, it is a Chinese character dictionary by nature, with its macrostructure
set up according to the initial consonants, by the rhymes, and by the tones of
Chinese characters. It identiWed the character variants as archaic ones, colloquial
ones, and those in general use. It is also a dictionary of homophones, listing
characters sharing the same initial consonant, rhyme, and tone in one group.
Third, it is of important referential value to the study of phonetics and rhyme
and to the compilation of rhyme dictionaries. It plays a signiWcant role in
studying the compilation of rhyme dictionaries of later generations and in
studying dialects at diVerent times and in diVerent regions. It preserves valuable
data for studying the phonetic system in the period of the Wei to Song Dynasties,
which also proves important for the investigation into middle ancient phonetics
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 253
and rhymes. It can also be used as a frame of reference for studying late ancient
and modern phonetics of the Chinese language. For instance, the following
works, which are all mainly based on the study of The Dictionary of Rhymes,
oVer some clear thoughts for future phonetic research: The VeriWcation of the
Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes (<切韵考>) and Additional Notes on the VeriWca-
tion of the Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes (<切韵考外篇>) by Chen Li, a Qing
Dynasty scholar,Notes on the RectiWcation of the Jade Chapters and The Dictionary
of Rhymes (<玉篇广韵校刊札记>) by Deng Xianhe (邓显鹤), a Qing Dynasty
scholar, Studies on the Dictionary of Rhymes (<广韵研究>) by Zhang Shilu
(张世禄), a contemporary scholar, andNotes on the RectiWcation of the Dictionary
of Rhymes (<广韵校勘记>) by Zhou Zumo, a contemporary scholar.
Finally, an enormous amount of data is preserved with extremely abundant
citations from The Cangjie Primer, The Augmented Cangjie Glossary, The Broad
Cangjie Primer (<广苍>), The Character Forest, The Character Designator
(<字指>), The Character Models, The Orthographical Manual of Characters, The
Character Garden (<字苑>), The Garden of Variant Characters (<异字苑>), TheClassiWed Characters (<字类>), On Composition (<纂文>), The Exegetic Interpret-ation of New Characters (<新字训解>), The Sounds and Meanings of Characters
(<文字音义>), The Essential Collection of Words (<文字集略>), The Ultimate
Designators of Words (<文字指归>), The Dictionary of Popular Words, The RectiW-
cation of Popular Words (<证俗文>), The Dictionary of Initial Consonants, The
Essential Dictionary of Rhymes, The Sound Family (<音谱>), etc. Those citationshave built up a wealthy treasure house for preserving the materials concerning the
evolution of the Chinese language. The Dictionary of Rhymes is an important
reference book for studying ancient lexicographical history and for reading the
classic works that appeared prior to the Song Dynasty. It is widely regarded as an
important milestone in Chinese lexicographical history.
The second one is The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes, which
was based on the speech sound of the spoken Chinese language in the North
regions and the rhyme systems used in the qu, a type of singing verse popular in
the Yuan Dynasty. It made brave reforms and innovations and abandoned the
tradition of The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes, which had long been followed. It
simpliWed the classiWcation of the rhyme sections and renewed the four-tone
theory, which is an unprecedented feat in the history of rhyme dictionary
compilation. It is the Wrst book based on the sounds and rhymes of the language
spoken in the Northern regions. And it is also the Wrst work whose focus changed
from the study of ancient to that of contemporary phonetics. The book faithfully
reXected the pronunciation system of its time, which is signiWcant for the study
of the formation and development of the standard oYcial language. The book
254 exploration and cultivation of lexicography
listed many groups of characters with the same rhymes, which is very helpful for
writing songs, operas, and dramas in rhythmic verse. It can also be used as a
reference book for consulting the feet in rhyme. The phonology reXected in it is
the basis of the phonetic system of the modern Chinese language. It faithfully
recorded and reXected the real situation of the speech sounds used in North
China and is therefore important for the study of both the history of phonology
and the phonetics of Mandarin Chinese in modern times.
emergence of rhyme dictionaries 255
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p a r t i v
THE REFORM AND
SHAPING OF
LEXICOGRAPHY
IN CHINA
(from the Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644to the Qing Dynasty, 1616–1911)
This page intentionally left blank
15
AN INSIGHT INTO CHINESELEXICOGRAPHICAL
CULTURE IN THE MING ANDQING DYNASTIES
THE Ming and Qing Dynasties were a special period in China’s social
development, during which China saw great economic prosperity and weak-
ness, political stability and turbulence, and domestic military troubles and
foreign aggressions. During these two dynasties, Chinese lexicography also took
on a new lease of life, having witnessed a surprisingly great variation in the type,
scale, content, function, and compilation levels of dictionaries and an increas-
ingly evident expansion in the social, cultural, and academic inXuence diction-
aries exerted. All this highlights the distinctively conspicuous features of the
evolution in dictionary compilation, research and style.
15.1 the historical background to the reformand shaping of chinese lexicography
Printing in the prosperous period of the Ming DynastyWith the printing of the former dynasties well grounded, the printing industry in
the Ming Dynasty underwent rapid development. Apart from engraving, some
other printing technologies also came into being, likewood type, copper type, lead
type, register printing, biconcave printing, wax printing, copy printing, and photo-
lithograph printing. In the Wanli period (1573–1619), wood type was used for
printing books among vassals, academies of classical learning, bookshops with
printing houses, and individuals. Among the folklores, there was a tradition of
using wood type for printing family trees. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty,
copper type, widely used for printing books in Jiangsu Province, spread to such
places as Jian’an of Fujian Province and Guangzhou of Guangdong Province.
According to the historical records, workshops using lead type for printing books
appeared in Changzhou of Jiangsu Province in the period of Hongzi (1488–1505) of
the Ming Dynasty. Register printing, chromatography to use the shortened form,
refers to the way in which one presswork is printed with diVerent colours on the
same page. In the seventh year of Tianqi (天启, 1627), Shizhuzai’s Chart of Painting
and Calligraphy (<十竹斋书画谱>) was printed by means of chromatography by
Hu Zhengyan (胡正言) and enjoyed a high reputation for printing with Wve
diVerent colours. Biconcave printing is the way inwhich uneven decorative patterns
are pressed and printed on a page with no colour applied after carving. This type
of printing is suitable for drawings without colours. In the seventeenth year of
Chongzhen (崇祯, 1644), Hu Zhengyan, by means of biconcave printing, printed
Shizhuzai’s Chart of Painting and Calligraphy,whichwas exquisite beyond words. In
wax printing, wax is spread on the wood type and cannot be carved or printed
before it cools, dries and becomes hardened. Copy printing is similar to tracing in
black ink over the printed red characters when learning towrite with a brush, with a
piece of transparent paper spread on the Song Dynasty block-printed models and
depicting every stroke, with a view tomaking it look almost the same as the original
one. This was also called Song Dynasty photolithography by later generations. Both
the Xourishing printing industry and the invention of new printing technology
paved theway for the development and spread of dictionaries in theMing andQing
Dynasties and created favourable conditions for the transformation of Chinese
dictionaries from hand-making to machine-making, which marks a signiWcant
innovation in the printing technology of dictionaries.
The oYcial education system in the Ming and Qing DynastiesOYcial education in theMing and Qing Dynasties was divided into two categories:
central and local education. On the central government level, there were the
Imperial College (国子监, approximating to universities and colleges of modern
times, the highest level of education and education administration), the Royal
School (宗学, for children of royal and noble origin) and the National Martial
Arts School (武学). On the provincial level and below, the education bodies
260 reform and shaping of lexicography
included province-owned schools (府学), state-owned schools (州学), prefecture-
owned schools (县学), Siru schools (司儒学), Xingdu Siru schools (行都司儒学),
Weiru Schools (卫儒学), Duzhuanyun Siru schools (都转运司儒学), Xuanwei
Siru schools (宣慰司儒学), and Anfu Siru schools (按抚司儒学), which all fell
into the category of the third-level education, approximating to middle and high
schools. In addition, there weremedical schools (医学),martial arts schools (武学),
and Yin Yang (Astronomy) schools (阴阳学), which undertook vocational educa-
tion, the secondary level of education, and community schools (社学), which
approximated to primary schools.
The oYcial education in the Ming Dynasty can be described in the following
way. First, the Imperial College, as the top national education body, underwent a
period of somewhat faster development than before, lessening its restrictions on
the qualiWcations for enrolment. Second, the local oYcial education experienced
unprecedented development. Third, the primary school system was becoming
more and more specialized and professionally mature. And Wnally, a complete
education system on both central and local levels was established. The oYcial
education system in the Qing Dynasty was basically the same as that of the Ming
Dynasty and also categorized into central and local levels. The central oYcial
education was mainly represented by the Imperial College. Moreover, there were
also the Jueluo school (觉罗学), Baqi (Eight Banners) oYcial school (八旗官学),
Jingshan oYcial school (景山官学), Xian’angong oYcial school (咸安宫官学),
arithmetic school (算学), and the Russian school (俄罗斯文馆). On the local
level, there were the province-owned school, state-owned school, prefecture-
owned schools, and the Wei school (卫学, also called the Confucian school).
Apart from the above, there were also the community schools, Yi school (义学),
and Jing school (井学), etc. The oYcial education of the Qing Dynasty, during its
long development, also had its own characteristics. Close attentionwas paid to the
education of children of Baqi (the Eight Banners) and Qi (Banner) schools of
various types were set up. A six-rank education system for evaluationwas adopted
for schools on provincial, state, and prefectural levels in order to have a dynamic
administration of students so as to associate their upgrading and degrading closely
with their academic performance. The system of oYcial education in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties functioned as a political safeguard for the normalized admin-
istration of education and intensiWcation of the role of education. The develop-
ment and popularization of education created social needs for dictionaries.
Academies of classical learning in the Ming and Qing DynastiesThe academies of classical learning in the Ming Dynasty started to thrive from
the period of Zhengde (正德, 1506–1521) and prospered in the period of Jiajing
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 261
(嘉靖, 1522–1566). There were several justiWcations for the Xourishing academies
of classical learning after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. First, the eunuchs
held all the court powers, which caused the scholar-oYcials to lose their power
to give lectures and lampoon the court administration and other persons
concerned. Second, oYcial education had become a vassal to the imperial
examinations. As a result, many learning-oriented scholar-oYcials set up a
selection of academies of classical learning to impart knowledge to their students.
Third, the advocating of famous scholars such as Zhan Ruoshui (湛若水) and
Wang Shouren (王守仁), was directly responsible for the rapid development of
academies of classical learning. Donglin Academy, among all the academies of the
Ming Dynasty, enjoyed the highest reputation and exerted the most profound
inXuence on the nation. Donglin Academy possessed a unique position in the
history of ancient Chinese academies, for it worked both as a signiWcant centre
for academic studies and as a centre for political activities. The academies in the
Qing Dynasty, based on the content of lectures oVered, were categorized into
four types, focusing on: Neo-Confucianism; stereotyped writing (eight-part
essays); practical technologies; or ancient classical studies. Among the four
types, the second was the most popular, while the fourth, though few in number,
had deeper inXuence on academic studies and stimulated the development of
academic thought in the Qing Dynasty. As far as the fourth is concerned, the
Exegetic Academy (诂经精舍) and the Xuehai Academy (学海堂) were the best-
known to people at that time. The academies of classical learning in the Ming
and Qing Dynasties created the academic atmosphere for dictionary compilation
and research.
The organization of book collections in the Ming and Qing DynastiesAs of the middle of the Ming Dynasty, private collections of books had become a
fashion. The most famous bibliophiles were Fan Qin (范钦), the owner of Tianyi
Library (天一阁) in Zhejiang Province and Mao Jin (毛晋), the owner of Jigu
Library (汲古阁) in Jiangsu Province. Bibliophiles of theMing Dynasty produced
catalogues of collected books and their selections for recommended use, printed
books from their selections, and wrote books while preparing collections.Many of
the bibliophiles were themselves writers and compliers. The bibliophiles of the
Ming Dynasty played a signiWcant part in conserving ancient Chinese books,
particularly rare books. Nevertheless, private book collections might give rise to
themonopolization and loss of books. The institutions for book collection located
in the capital citywere generally called ‘CourtCollectionofBooks’ (内廷藏书), the
biggest ofwhichwas theWenyuanLibrary (文渊阁). All the oYcialsworking in the
262 reform and shaping of lexicography
Wenyuan Library were chosen from among those who had passed imperial exam-
inations, particularly those who had served as oYcials in the Imperial Academy.
Those institutions of high reputation outside the capital were theWenhui Library
in Yangzhou, the Wenzhong Library in Zhengjiang, and the Wenlan Library in
Hangzhou, which were known as the ‘Three Libraries outside the Capital City’.
Moreover, there were places for both preserving Wles and collecting books, such as
The Library of General Strategies (方略馆), The Library of Imperial History
(皇史宬) and The Universal Library of the Cabinet (内阁大库). The Library of
General Strategieswas in the chargeof theMinistryofMilitary andPoliticalAVairs.
The Library of Imperial History specialized in collecting records of the former
dynasties, oYcial documents of emperors, and prescripts and other information
from emperors, while The Universal Library of the Cabinet collected ‘red books’
(红本) and ‘honest records’ (实录) in thebeginningyearsof theQingDynasty. ‘Red
books’ refer tomemorials to the throne, whichwere read through and commented
on by the Emperor using redwriting brushes. ‘Honest records’ are the books on the
histories of former emperors. The organizations for book collection in the Ming
andQingDynasties provided precious literature andmaterials for the compilation
and study of dictionaries of the time.
The reform of the educational system in the Qing DynastyOriginating from the Western learning (西学) movement, the reform of the
educational system in the Qing Dynasty created new-model schools, translated
Western books, and sent students overseas for further education. The schools of
foreign studies were quite diVerent from the traditional educational bodies such as
the oYcial institutions, academies of classical learning, and old-style private
schools. The educational goal of the latter was to cultivate specialists in foreign
aVairs, whichwas diVerent from that of preparing people for imperial examinations
and to be government oYcials. The content of teaching mainly focused onWestern
culture and technologies and the courses were closely combined with practical
work, very diVerent from focusing on classical learning and eight-part essay writing.
Regarding the teaching methodology, the content was arranged step by step in
conformity with the regular patterns of learning. Students’ understanding was
emphasized while memorizing by rote was discarded. The widely-adopted teaching
frameworks included the school-year system and the class teaching format, which
overcame the limitations of individual teaching and diVerent teaching arrange-
ments. In Western learning movements, Zhang Zhidong (张之洞) proposed the
guiding principle of ‘keeping Chinese learning as the fundamental basis and
Western learning for practical use’, which greatly boosted the diVusion of Western
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 263
culture and technology in China. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the system of the
Imperial Examinations, which lasted for more than a thousand years, was Wnally
abolished and at the same time new-model schools were founded. Modern intel-
lectuals represented by teachers and students of new-model schools and students
back from abroad, on the one hand, promoted the revolutionary thought of
overthrowing the Qing Dynasty, and, on the other, made preparation for the later
New Culture Movement. The reform of educational systems, regulations, and
concepts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, to a great degree, paved the way for the
diVusion of advanced science and culture, and prepared social and cultural motiv-
ations for the development of dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
15.2 the academic background to the reform andshaping of chinese lexicography
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Ji (刘基), who had rendered
outstanding service in founding the state, took an active and direct part in drawing
up the system of imperial examinations, which revived Neo-Confucianism and
consolidated the dominating position of Zhu Xi thought. Apart from the Four
Books and the Five Classics prescribed as the scope of examinations, the variorum
edition of the Four Books completed byZhuXiwas designated as the authoritative
reference. Since the promulgation of A Complete Collection of the Four Books
(<四书大全>), A Complete Collection of the Five Classics (<五经大全>), andAComplete Collection of Philosophical Essays (<性理大全>) revised by the oYcial
scholars, the academic spirit came to be guided by the ideas of ZhuXi thought, and
the oYcial Confucian study moved from the age of the study of Confucian classics
to that of Neo-Confucianism.
The fundamental reform of the academy and Neo-Confucianism in the Ming
Dynasty owed a lot to Wang Yangming (王阳明). As Zhu Xi thought became ever
more ossiWed, the theory founded by Wang Yangming, also known as the
Yangming Theory, appeared as typical of a pagan school. Yangming Theory
could be summarized as a theory of conscience. Conscience, as the theoretic
basis of the ontology of mind, was manifold, such as truth and falsehood, right
and wrong, good and evil, as well as ‘mind-retarded’. There were a variety of
reasons why the Yangming Theory had become widespread, the most essential
being the social needs of the time. Wang Yangming, for the Wrst time, settled the
confusion between ‘learning from the facts’ and ‘learning from the books’, which
264 reform and shaping of lexicography
helped scholars free themselves from the shackles of books. Second, he trans-
formed the realm of the sages from being both sacred inside and royal outside
into the realm of being sacred only, which greatly promoted scholars’ self-
conWdence. Furthermore, the rising of the folklore’s ideology brought the entire
world of thought and academy to developing an inclination towards novelty,
uniqueness, and transformation, providing the psychological basis for the diVu-
sion of Yangming Theory.
The other driving force for academy in the Ming Dynasty came from practical
learning. The social crises, from the time of the mid-Ming Dynasty, tended to get
worse and worse, so the scholar oYcials, for the purpose of riding out such crises,
devoted their attention to those concrete aVairs and technologies which prepared
externally for practical learning. However, the inherent causes propelling practical
learning lay in the following. First, from the inner part of Neo-Confucianism
arose the idea that opposed those unpractical theories and endeavoured to
transform Neo-Confucianism so as to make it practical. Luo Qinshun (罗钦顺)
and Wang Tingxiang (王廷相) were the earliest advocates of practical learning.
Second, the introduced Western technologies served as the frame of reference for
the development of practical learning in that Western learning Wrst brought to
China by Western missionaries provided a brand-new thinking mode and some
advanced technologies that were beneWcial to China at the time. As a matter of
fact, with the development of such practical aVairs as revising the calendar and
resisting the Later Jin Dynasty, the new mood of studying natural sciences was
sanctioned by the court and was becoming popularized. The representatives were
Xu Guangqi (徐光启, 1562–1633), Li Zhizao (李之藻), Wang Zheng (王征), and
Fang Yizhi. Thirdly, there were other scholars who, on the one hand, inherited
previous achievements, and, on the other, made new accomplishments in sum-
marizing and integrating previous attainments. Li Shizhen (李时珍, 1518–1593),
Song Yingxing (宋应星, 1587–1662), and Xu Xiake (徐霞客, 1586–1641), for
instance, made remarkable contributions to medical science, geology, and geog-
raphy respectively.
In the transition from the Ming to the Qing Dynasty, political conXicts were so
Werce and intricate that scholars’ minds were heavily aVected by them. Under
such circumstances, Neo-Confucianism, as a hugely important heritage, experi-
enced inXuences from numerous sources. Thereupon, Neo-Confucianism as
a trend in practical learning became divided into three schools, namely the
Innovative School (理学创新派), the Orthodox School (理学正统派), and the
Decadent School (理学末流派). Gu Yanwu (顾炎武, 1613–1682), Huang Zongxi
(黄宗羲), and Wang Fuzhi (王夫之), the representatives of the Innovation
School, infused the steady and conservative Neo-Confucianism with the spirit
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 265
of practice and paid suYcient attention to new research in social customs, the
vicissitudes of systems and pursuit of practical beneWts, which improved
the appearance of Neo-Confucianism from the time of the mid-Ming Dynasty.
The Decadent School was characterized by such demerits as being limited to
books only, devoting their whole life to those classical readings and taking books
as their only guiding doctrine. Another demerit of the Decadent School consisted
in indulging in empty talk on temperament and contemplation with no action.
The representatives of the Orthodox School were Sun Qifeng (孙奇逢), Lu Shiyi
(陆世仪), Zhang Luxiang (张履祥), Li Yong (李颙), and so on. Actively involved
with Neo-Confucianism, they considered its revival as their own responsibility
and made rigid demands on themselves. Moreover, they had the courage to
develop Neo-Confucianism in the course of adoption rather than innovation
in the course of animadversion, improving themselves and society by bringing
beneWt to the people. It follows from the above comparison that the Innovation
School was the most vigorous in that it impregnated the traditional Confucian-
ism with strong energy and smoothed the way for traditional culture to be
transferred from the ancient period to modern times. The Orthodox School
enjoyed the utmost power and highest reputation, for it was the main school
that not only summarized and reconstructed traditional Confucianism but also
played a predominant part in adjusting Neo-Confucianism to the oYcial stand-
ards at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. The Decadent School, discarded due
to the trends of a new era, however, deteriorated into a target for criticism from
the other two schools and came to an end.
In the early years of Qianlong (乾隆), the Qing Dynasty, founded upon almost
one hundred years of social progression of Shunzhi (顺治), Kangxi (康熙), and
Yongzheng (雍正), took on a new look in its social stability and economic
prosperity. In the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing (嘉庆), textual research, by
degrees, came to dominate all of the academic circles with its profound inXuence
on the study of Confucian classics, historiography, philology, lexicology, and the
like. The essential principles of the textual research consisted in being practical
and realistic and having faith in ancient scholars. Qian Daxin, for example, held
that ‘not everything ancient could be taken seriously, not that ancient scholars are
not reliable, but that sages existed before those ancient scholars; the ancient sages
did not make such remarks, but the scholars closer to us made those remarks,
and I would rather follow the former.’
All in all, textual research at the time of Qianlong and Jiaqing, by means of its
spirit of being practical and realistic, discarded the objective of academic studies
serving politics, strengthened to a considerable extent the independency of
academic studies, and broke away from the role of academic studies being
266 reform and shaping of lexicography
subordinate to politics, which was positively signiWcant for the history of ancient
Chinese learning and leavened the process and direction of Chinese dictionary
history.
The activities of oYcial academics tend to be the mainstream of academic
studies of an epoch. The activities of oYcial learning in the Qing Dynasty were
carried out mainly in the time of Kangxi and Qianlong. The compilation
of character dictionaries and classiWed (encyclopedic) dictionaries were the
important components of oYcial learning and culture in the years of Kangxi.
As early as April 1673, Kangxi made a proposal that a dictionary of the Manchu-
rian language be compiled and entitled The Dictionary of the Manchurian Lan-
guage (<清文鉴>). In the forty-ninth year of Kangxi, Kangxi began to take
charge of compiling a Mandarin dictionary of the Chinese language, which
was not completed until 1716, called The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi. In the
time of Kangxi, many types of classiWed dictionary were compiled, including
The Categoric Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary (<渊鉴类函>), A Dictionary of
Rhymes and Styles (<佩文韵府>), A Dictionary of Synonyms (<骈字类编>),A Categoric Dictionary of Chinese Words (<分类字锦>), some of which are still
of practical value even now. Among those classiWed dictionaries, The Compen-
dium of Ancient and Contemporary Books was the most important and the
largest in size, consisting of 10,000 volumes; The Imperial Collection of Four
Branches of Literature (<四库全书>) was the most magniWcent oYcial compil-
ation at the time of Qianlong, for it was the largest hand-copied series so far.
A large number of celebrated scholars took part in its compilation. A number of
scholars who contributed to the popularity of the study of textual research at the
time were trained in this work. China’s academic and cultural studies entered
into a ‘sum-up’ stage in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. With the joint eVorts
of both oYcial and individual forces, those summed-up academic accomplish-
ments culminated in a period of greatness in the history of ancient Chinese
learning.
The term ‘Western learning’ was widely used in the late Qing Dynasty, when
the initial introduction of the concepts and contents of Western science started
with the translation of Western academic books. The translators, who were the
main body for diVusing Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty, were essen-
tially Western missionaries and those Chinese scholars versed in extremely old
Chinese learning. Scholars brought up on the old Chinese learning constituted
the main body for the study of ‘Western learning’. Those scholars, in any event,
would not abandon Chinese traditional culture as they assimilated Western
learning. They merely complemented their original structure of knowledge by
absorbing what they needed from Western learning. Natural science, therefore,
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 267
was introduced into China with little obstruction. With regard to social sciences,
it was Yan Fu (严复) who Wrst introduced Western concepts, brought in the
division of politics and learning, and ameliorated the atmosphere of learning in
the late Qing Dynasty. Yan Fu, in the light of modern Western science, advanced
the question and the method of learning, emphasized the veriWcation, induction,
and classiWcation of facts, and proposed that the conclusion of learning, for the
sake of consolidating learning, should be veriWed and conWrmed. Thereafter,
there appeared some scholars who were expert in both Chinese and Western
culture, like Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao (梁启超), Zhang Binglin, and Hu Shi
(胡适). The direct eVect of introducing Western learning into China upon the
history of Chinese dictionaries could be seen from the presence of specialized
dictionaries and the initial Xourishing of bilingual dictionaries.
The renovation of learning in the late Qing Dynasty was mainly guided by the
transformation of inner factors of traditional Chinese learning. Even in the course
of introducing Western learning into China and initiating the academic trans-
formation in the late Qing Dynasty, the learning of the Qing Dynasty still func-
tioned as groundwork. The scholars in the lateQingDynasty, resorting tomethods
ofmodernWestern sciences, tidied up the Chinese academic heritage, and came to
replace the dominant Neo-Confucianism with the rising historiography.
15.3 a survey of dictionaries in the mingand qing dynasties
Stimulated by Western learning, the compilation of dictionaries in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties was in secret competition with its Western counterpart, which
was a noticeable characteristic of the history of Chinese dictionary compilation
over that period, aiming at dictionaries being as bulky and comprehensive
as conceivable. It was taken as the ultimate goal to take in multitudinous
characters, explicate words and characters in multiple ways, and indicate various
sources cited, as shown in the compilation of The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters or of The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi. A new dynasty of Chinese
history is generally marked by its representative dictionary, which makes it
diVerent from and superior to the former dynasties. It is safe to say that the
Ming and Qing Dynasties could be reckoned as the summarization period of
Chinese dictionary compilation over previous dynasties in the sense that the
lexicographical achievements could be appreciated in such grand compilations as
268 reform and shaping of lexicography
Chinese character dictionaries, Chinese word dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries,
special dictionaries (including special-subject dictionaries and special-aspect
dictionaries) and encyclopedic dictionaries (i.e. classiWed dictionaries).
Representative Chinese character dictionariesThe compliers of character dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties not only
adopted the merits of the preceding wordbooks and dictionaries but also man-
aged to innovate the style and format. The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, compiled by Mei Yingzuo in the Ming Dynasty, was inXuential in the
compilation of Chinese character dictionaries. The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, composed by Zhang Zilie at the end of the Ming Dynasty, remedied
the Xaws and corrected the mistakes of A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters. In the Qing Dynasty, The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi, compiled by
Zhang Yushu, Chen Tingjing et al., was an important dictionary still in popular
use today.
Representative word dictionariesThe dictionaries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties could be approximately seg-
mented into four strains, that is, the Erya dictionary type (dictionaries following
the pattern of The Ready Guide), dialect dictionaries (dictionaries following the
pattern of The Dictionary of Dialectal Words), exegetic dictionaries, and diction-
aries of function words.
Dictionaries of The Ready Guide type mainly consist of The Rhythmical Ready
Guide (<骈雅>) written by Zhu Mouwei (朱谋玮) of the Ming Dynasty,
The General Ready Guide by Fang Yizhi of the Ming Dynasty, The Contrastive
Ready Guide by Hong Liangji of the Qing Dynasty, The Distinctive Ready Guide
(<别雅>) byWu Yujin (吴玉搢) of the Qing Dynasty, and The Alternating Ready
Guide (<叠雅>) by ShiMenglan (史梦兰) of theQingDynasty.TheReadyGuide is
the Wrst word dictionary of the Chinese language in the history of Chinese
lexicography, annotated time and again during later dynasties, especially during
the Qing Dynasty. The RectiWcation of the Ready Guide (<尔雅义疏>) by Hao
Yixing was the most detailed version of the annotation.
The dialect dictionaries, developed rapidly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, are
mainly categorized into two types: dictionaries elucidating, emending, and replen-
ishing The Dictionary of DialecticalWords and new compilations. The dialect diction-
aries of the Ming Dynasty include The RectiWed Dictionary of Dialectal Words <方言
据> byYueYuansheng (岳元声),ACategoricDictionary ofDialectalWords (<方言类
聚>) by ChenYujiao (陈与郊), and The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect. The more
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 269
Xourishing dialect dictionaries in the Qing Dynasty can be divided into three types.
The Wrst type comprises dictionaries elucidating and emending The Dictionary
of Dialectal Words, such as The RectiWcation of the Dictionary of Dialectal Words
by Dai Zhen, The RectiWed Dictionary of Dialectal Words with New RectiWcations
(<重校方言>) by Lu Wenshao (卢文绍), The Annotated Interpretation of the
Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Qian Yi, and Supplements to the RectiWcation of
the Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Wang Niansun. The second type comprises
those replenishing The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, such as The Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Hang Shijun, Supplements and RectiWcations to
the Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<续方言补正>) by Cheng
Jisheng, New Supplements to the Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words (<续方言又补>) by Xu Naichang (徐乃昌), The Broadly Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words with Supplements (<广续方言及拾遗>) by Cheng Xianjia (程先甲) as well asNew Supplements and RectiWcations to the Augmented Dictionary
of Dialectal Words by Zhang Shenyi. The third type consists of the newly
compiled dialect dictionaries. Some of the new dictionaries of the Qing Dynasty
collected dialectal words from various works, such as The Dialectal Dictionary of
Literary Embellishments (<方言藻>) by Li Diaoyuan (李调元), The Dictionary
of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect by HuWenying, and An Explanatory
Dictionary of the Yue Dialect (<越言释>) by Du Xuxu (杜煦序).
During the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties, scholars advocated practi-
cality and emphasized the exegesis of ‘name’ and ‘essence’, which gave rise to the
revival of Neo-Confucianism. Ruan Yuan (阮元, 1764–1849), meeting the needs for
studying the classics, was in charge of the compilation ofThe Exegetic Interpretations
of Ancient Classics (<经籍纂诂>), which incorporated words from the classic
literature, philosophical works, and history books under one cover.
The rapid development of dictionaries of function words in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties was characterized by their great number, immense size, and enviable
quality, which formed a well-deWned feature of dictionary compilation at the time.
The dictionaries of function words during this period included The Interpreta-
tive Dictionary of Function Words (<助字辨略>) compiled by Liu Qi (刘淇), The
Dictionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies (<经传释词>) by Wang
Yinzhi, and The Studies in Function Words (<虚字说>) by Yuan Renlin (袁仁林).
Bilingual dictionariesThe Ming and Qing Dynasties witnessed the early Xowering of bilingual diction-
aries in China. There appeared a large number of Chinese bilingual dictionaries
and specialized dictionaries, including not only the medium-sized dictionary
270 reform and shaping of lexicography
series like A Chinese–Foreign Language Vocabulary (<华夷译语>) and lists of
Chinese–foreign technical terms, but also large-size dictionary series like The
Dictionary of the Manchurian Language, The Compendium of the Manchurian
Language (<清文总汇>), and A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Great Qing
Dynasty (<大清全书>), and there were even large-scale bilingual dictionary
series. The introduction of Western learning into China and the arrival of
Western missionaries contributed to an unprecedented boost in the compilation
of bilingual dictionaries, particularly combinations of Chinese dialects with
English, Latin, and other major European languages.
Specialized dictionariesIn the Ming and Qing Dynasties, great achievements were made in science and
technology owing to the new factors of economic development and the advanced
ideas Europeanmissionaries brought with them. Therefore, specialized dictionaries
in the modern sense appeared in the Ming Dynasty and accelerated into a boom,
and the major ones are the 32-volume The General Survey of Currencies (<钱通>)by Hu Wokun (胡我琨) in the Ming Dynasty, the 16-volume The Dictionary of
Currencies (<钱录>) by Qian Longchi (乾隆敕) in the Qing Dynasty, and the
64-volumeADictionary of Ancient Currencies (<古泉汇>) by Li Zuoxian (李佐贤).
Wang Xiangjin (王象晋), who was born in Shandong Province in the reign of
Emperor Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, composed the 30-volume AComplete Collec-
tion of All Beauties (<群芳谱>), which was rectiWed, supplemented, and extended
into the 100-volume The General Dictionary of All Beauties (<广群芳谱>) byWang
Hao (汪灏) in the reign of Emperor Kangxi of theQingDynasty. TheQingDynasty
also brought forth such specialized dictionaries as A Contemporary Dictionary of
Ancient Names of Places in All Dynasties (<历代地理志韵编今释>), which was
compiled by Li Zhaoluo (李兆洛) in theQingDynasty andwas the earliest to check
and inquire into historical place names of previous dynasties, The Compendium
ofMateriaMedica (<本草纲目>),The Compendium of Agriculture (<农政全书>),and The Book of Nature’s Engineering (<天工开物>), which are well known to
the world.
Encyclopedic dictionariesThe compilation of encyclopedic dictionaries (mainly classiWed dictionaries) was
an especial boom area in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Ming and Qing
dynasties were generally politically stable and economically well developed, so it
was possible to organize large-scale dictionary compilations. The Yongle Compen-
dium, a classiWed dictionary, was well known around the world. The Compendium
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 271
of Ancient and Contemporary Books, compiled successively by ChenMenglei (陈梦
雷) at the time of Kangxi and Jiang Tingxi (蒋廷锡) at the time of Yongzheng in
the Qing Dynasty, is the largest classiWed dictionary now available in China. The
Categoric Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary (450 volumes), compiled in the charge
of ZhangYing (张英) andWang Shizhen (王士祯) in 1701, is a classiWed dictionary
with abundant information. In addition, Chen Yuanlong (陈元龙, 1652–1736) also
composed The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences (<格致镜原>).
Representative rhyme dictionariesThe phonologists who came to the fore of Chinese philological studies in the
Ming and Qing Dynasties advanced the study of rhyme dictionaries and studies
in phonology. In this Weld, there appeared quite a number of magna opera. In the
Ming Dynasty, for example, there were Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes
(<洪武正韵>) written by Yue Shao (乐韶) and Song Lian (宋濂), An Interpret-
ative Dictionary of Rhymes (<韵略易解>) by Lan Mao (兰茂), and A General
Introductory Dictionary of Rhymes (<韵略汇通>) by Bi Gongzhai (毕拱窄),
while in the Qing Dynasty, there were An Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds and
Rhymes (<音韵阐微>) by Li Guangdi (李光地, 1642–1718) and Wang Lansheng
(王兰生), and A Diachronic Dictionary of Chinese Rhyme Studies (<韵史>) by He
Xuan (何萱).
The stylistic rules and layout of dictionary compilation in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties were basically standardized and stabilized, which can be
shown in the following. First, the standards for dictionary compilation were
essentially established and conventionalized. At the early stages, very little
mention was made in the front matter of the dictionary with respect to
stylistic rules and format. But in the Ming and Qing Dynasties there were
separate parts or sections devoted exclusively to stylistic rules and formats.
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi included the most comprehensive and best-
developed stylistic rules and formats for Chinese character dictionary compil-
ation, which comprised eighteen rules covering its arrangement of entries,
character types, pronunciations, citations, deWnitions, and lexical coverage.
The establishment of the standardized stylistic rules and formats is a sign-
iWcant indication of the conventionalization and standardization of dictionary
compilation.
Second, the arrangement of headwords and dictionary layout were innovated,
and ease of retrieval of information was greatly enhanced. The arrangement of
lemmatas and the layout of the dictionary in this period were founded on a more
scientiWc and user-friendly basis, which was shown in the further adjustment
272 reform and shaping of lexicography
and re-categorization of the radicals in Chinese characters. The Comprehensive
Dictionary of Chinese Characters not only reduced the number of radicals in An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters to only 214 but the arrangement of
radicals was sequenced in the light of the number of strokes. The later dictionaries,
such as The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The Imperial Dictionary
of Kangxi, basically adopted the same stylistic rules and layout, which broke
through the conventional dependence upon the formation and structure of the
Chinese characters for the arrangement.
Third, the method of phonetic notation was improved. The phonetic notation
of former dictionaries was carried out mainly by means of fanqie or direct
phonetic notation. The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters amelior-
ated the traditional method of phonetic notation in that the level, rising, falling,
and entering tones would be used for phonetic notation if no corresponding
character could be found for its direct phonetic notation. The character判 /pan/,
for instance, was phonetically annotated below it as half-pronunciation of the
character普 /pu/ with the falling tone of 潘. However, there were some charac-
ters whose pronunciations could not be indicated by means of four tones and had
to be annotated as ‘pronunciation is close or similar to’ a certain character. For
example, the character 作 /zuo/ was phonetically annotated as 徒 /tu/ being
inXuenced by conXuent consonants and its pronunciation similar to 淡 /dan/,
with the rising tone.
Furthermore, if a character had a change in its phonetics or had a lateral sound,
it would be annotated by semitone Wrst and then transferred sound or lateral
sound. For instance, the character化 /hua/ was annotated as ‘pronounced with
the consonant of 呼 and the vowel of 话, as in 造化, and then an indicative
label○was used to denote diVerences in pronunciation andmeaning’, as in ‘○又
叶居为切,音归 . . . . . .○又叶禾切,音讹 . . . . . .○又叶许既切,音戏 . . . . . .○又
叶呼卧切, 音货 . . . . . .’. This method set a precedent for modern dictionaries to
list headword characters in separate entries.
Fourth, the methods of deWning characters were improved, which was
mainly reXected in simple and clear explanations, explanations in terms of
phonetic sounds, which related sounds more closely to meanings, and clarity
of hierarchical meaning explanation. There were even meaning explanations
on diVerent layers, segmented with indicative characters like 又 (also), which
meant dividing the meaning of the character into various segments. This
practice set a precedent for sense division and diVerentiation in later diction-
aries.
Fifth, illustrative citations were to a large extent improved and strengthened.
The previous character glossaries and dictionaries contained no illustrative
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 273
materials. Even though there was such evidence, it was not the illustrative citation
in the modern sense because what was provided was merely book titles, chapter
and volume titles, or only an indication of quotations from a certain author,
which turned out to be almost of no utility to dictionary users. Furthermore, it
was extremely diYcult to check the sources indicated. Throughout The Imperial
Dictionary of Kangxi, illustrative citations can be found coupled with names
of books and volumes, which prove helpful in tracing sources. The character
茵 /yin/, for example, is illustrated with 乘茵步辇 from Ode to the Western
Capital (<西都赋>) written by Ban Gu. Another example, the character 蜜
/mi/, is accompanied by the illustration瑶浆蜜勺 from The Songs of Chu written
by Qu Yuan (屈原).
Finally, indexation was basically brought forward and appended for the Wrst
time to the dictionary. The ancient dictionaries contained practically no indexing
and were not easy to look up and check. It was not until the Ming and Qing
Dynasties that indexes were designed and appeared as part of the end matter of
the dictionary. In The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters, each
volume was preWxed with an index of page numbers of each and every part of
the volume and an indication of the number of characters that each radical
section covered, followed by Character Index (<检字>) sequenced according to
the number of strokes the character contains. In the front matter of The Imperial
Dictionary of Kangxi, the section Character Index was also given, but it was no
more than an elementary index, for this sort of word index was not a complete
list of all the characters included but an index for those characters which were
diYcult to categorize into a certain radical section and which were listed here on
the basis of the number of strokes they were made up of. The Character Index in
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi included no more than 4,000 characters,
accounting for only one tenth of the dictionary’s total coverage. Although this
sort of index was far from perfect, it was a more convenient and easier way for
retrieval of information in the main body of the dictionary and thus greatly
enhanced its utility and practical value. It set a precedent for later dictionaries to
compile and include indexes for easier access to dictionary information, thus
bringing the mega-conWguration of Chinese dictionaries one step further to
perfection.
To sum up, the compilation of dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
was remarkable for its great variety, large scale, rich content, and more scientiWc
methods and sophisticated techniques than ever. In the Ming and Qing Dynas-
ties, Chinese dictionary making was basically conventionalized and standardized
both in macrostructural and microstructural conWguration, leaving a huge and
profound mark upon dictionary compilation ever since.
274 reform and shaping of lexicography
15.4 the characteristics of dictionary makingin the ming and qing dynasties
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, through a long period of exploration and
historical heritage, we Wnd distinctive features in Chinese dictionary making, as
evident in format and style and in the compilation scheme.
First, dictionary making in ancient China was guided by theories of philology,
without which Chinese character dictionaries and word dictionaries would
not have been born. Nevertheless, no coherent and integrated lexicographical
theories had been developed and established although the practice of dictionary
making had gone on for more than two millennia during which Chinese dic-
tionary making had experienced a transformation from its gradual emergence to
Wnal embodiment. The main body of lexicographical works in ancient China was
made up of character primers, exegetic books, and rhyme books, from which
later character and word dictionaries were derived. The compilation of those
lexicographical works was interwoven with ancient Chinese philology, exegetic
research, and rhyme studies. Likewise, the lexicographical methods and theories
in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were also formulated within the framework of
ancient Chinese philology and came under the direction of ancient Chinese
philological principles. This forms a clear and sharp contrast with modern
dictionary making inside and outside China, represented by the apparent incon-
gruity between contemporary lexicography and modern linguistics.
Second, lexicography in the Ming and Qing Dynasties saw a gradual process
of reformation in format and style and conWguration in macro- and microstruc-
ture. In the period from the Xia to the Qin Dynasty, lexicography was in its
infancy and no dictionary in its strict sense was produced. In the period of the
Han Dynasties, there appeared the Wrst character dictionary, i.e. An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, the Wrst word dictionary, i.e. The Ready Guide,
the Wrst dialect dictionary, i.e. The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, the Wrst dic-
tionary of folk words, i.e. The Dictionary of Popular Words, and the Wrst etymo-
logical dictionary, i.e. The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms. The major
dictionary types in contemporary lexicography had all come into being in the
Han Dynasties, indicating the ending of the period of birth and initiation. In
the period of the Wei to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, lexicography in
China entered the stage of exploration and development. There were more new
dictionary types coming into being and discoveries were waiting to be made in
format and style, in mode of deWnition, and in phonetic notation. There
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 275
appeared the Wrst classiWed dictionary, i.e. The Imperial Survey, the Wrst rhyme
book, i.e. The Dictionary of Initial Consonants, and the Wrst specialized dictionary
of family names, i.e. Records of Names of the Same Family Names (<同姓名录>).We can see the preliminary formation of three streams of dictionaries, repre-
sented by The Ready Guide, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and
The Dictionary of Rhymes respectively, indicating three clear-cut paths of evolu-
tion and development in Chinese word, character, and rhyme dictionaries,
although these dictionaries were small in scale, incomplete in format and style,
with numerous noticeable defects in content and in structure. In the period from
the Sui to the Yuan Dynasties, bilingual dictionaries, further rhyme dictionaries,
and classiWed dictionaries came into use, and the rapid development of these
dictionaries laid a solid foundation for theoretical explorations. There was great
progress made in lexicography in the period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The
dictionaries compiled in this period had expanded enormously in size. For
instance, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters had a coverage of
9,353 characters, or 10,515 characters if the variants were taken into consideration,
and it was approximately 200,000 characters in size. The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi, however, had a coverage of 47,035 entry characters (including addendum
and those for reference, but excluding 1,995 ancient characters), and it was more
than three million characters in size. The dictionary types were practically
complete and the major types, such as character dictionaries, word dictionaries,
special dictionaries, and encyclopedic dictionaries, had all appeared on a large
scale and formed their own series. These dictionaries were rich in content, well-
conceived in format and style, and excellent in quality. For instance, The Ready
Guide dictionary family saw new developments, such as The Rhythmical Ready
Guide, which interpreted the rare and diYcult words and expressions collected
from various books, The General Ready Guide, which exegetically interpreted and
discriminated the lexical words or names of objects, The Distinctive Ready Guide,
which concentrated on characters sharing the same meanings but with diVerent
spellings or pronunciations, and The Alternating Ready Guide, which dealt
speciWcally with the use of reiterative locations. Moreover, The Yongle Compen-
dium of the Ming Dynasty, The Categoric Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary,
A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, and A Dictionary of Synonyms of the Qing
Dynasty were all dictionaries of immense size. Their grandness in size and their
richness in content were all unprecedented.
Third, in the light of modern lexicographical standards, the dictionaries
compiled in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were basically good but there
remained a great deal of room for improvement. All dictionaries are required
to be informative, succinct, precise, standardized, and user-friendly. If measured
276 reform and shaping of lexicography
by such criteria, ancient dictionaries were inevitably considered defective. For
instance, the phonetic notation for philological dictionaries was not scientiWc
and free of defects, and was not even treated with consistency – some without
phonetic notation, some notated with ‘read as . . .’, and others employing direct
notation or fanqie. As a result, if the pronunciations of some characters were
unknown to the user, it would be impossible to gain access to the entry character,
to say nothing of getting to the correct pronunciation of the target character. In
terms of deWnition, sense demarcation, though fairly well managed in modern
lexicography, was still in its primitive stage. For instance, An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters deWned 感 as ‘动人心也。从心,感声’ (to
move the heart of a human being, belonging to the radical of 心 ‘heart’,
and pronounced as 感), while The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Chinese–
English edition, 2003) identiWes six senses, among which there are at least three
senses belonging to ‘heart moving’. In other words, the deWnitions in ancient
dictionaries were normally general and superWcial, while those in modern dic-
tionaries were more speciWc and substantial. There were usually no citations in
dictionaries compiled in ancient times and, if there happened to be any, they were
usually too simple and curtailed out of context. There were usually no such forms
as entries in special dictionaries and encyclopedic dictionaries, and for those few
with such a form of character entry, the entries were normally incomplete in
constitution. The ancient dictionaries were also feeble for consultation purpose.
Many dictionaries contained no indexes for retrieval, and the retrieval system was
too rigid and diYcult to have access to, even if there was one. The exegetic
dictionaries were arranged in semantic order and were rather diYcult for re-
trieval. In rhyme dictionaries, the characters were arranged on the basis of the
rhymes they shared. For those who have little or no knowledge of phonology,
they are also very diYcult to use. Serious attempts were made to ease the pain of
information retrieval in a few dictionaries, such as The Comprehensive Dictionary
of Chinese Characters, The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and The
Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi, in which entry characters were arranged in the
order of simpliWed radicals. These few dictionaries were relatively easy to retrieve
for information. When these ancient dictionaries are reprinted, new indexes or
other information retrieval systems are generally developed to help modern
users. For instance, when Zhong Hua Book Company reprinted An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, the stroke index is attached as an appendix. The
Rhyme Dictionary printed by the Shanghai Ancient Works Press includes an
appendix of a new kind of retrieval system – ‘four corner code’ system. The
megastructure of all major dictionary types of modern times, particularly Chi-
nese character dictionaries and word dictionaries, was formulated during the
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 277
Ming and Qing Dynasties, though there were still many defects in the format and
style and in the content of the dictionaries compiled over that period.
Fourth, ancient Chinese lexicography was closely linked to the study of
Confucian classics but in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, however, dictionary
making was drifted away from the ‘hard-word’ tradition. As part of ancient
Chinese civilization, the Confucian works are read, recited, and studied in the
world. To read and study these classics scholars had to get rid of lexical diYcul-
ties, and ancient Chinese dictionaries were compiled to meet such needs. Con-
sequently, lexicography in ancient China had to start from the ‘hard-word
tradition’, which is true of all lexicographical cultures in the world. In the period
from the Sui to the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to China and
an enormous number of Buddhist works were translated into Chinese. Against
this background, numerous dictionaries were compiled to help interpret the
Buddhist scriptures. In Pre-Qin China, books were generally classiWed into four
major categories: Classics, Histories, Philosophy, and Anthology. Dictionaries
used to fall into the Weld of ‘Little Learning (philological studies)’ and classiWed
into the category of ‘Classics’. There was an inherent relationship between
dictionary making and the interpretation of ancient classics. In the Ming and
Qing Dynasties, there appeared a tendency for dictionary making to be divorced
from such a relationship, which paved the way for Chinese lexicography to set
out on the road to modernization and to acquire a more scientiWc and stand-
ardized basis.
Fifth, the format and style of classiWed dictionaries had been steadily improved
and had reached an unprecedented level in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The
general principle governing the format and style of such dictionaries was ‘to
follow the categories they belong to in compiling the collection of classics and the
commentaries on classics’. The earliest attempt to generalize and classify the
knowledge of ancient Chinese classics was The Imperial Survey. Over the Wfteen
centuries from The Imperial Survey to A Continual to the General Survey on
Ancient Literature (<续文献通考>), the format and style of classiWed dictionar-
ies had undergone a process of gradual improvement – from being primitive and
simple to being consistent and sophisticated, and the identiWcation of categories
was becoming more speciWc and better-grounded. The format and style of The
Imperial Survey of Xiuwen Palace were designed by Yan Zhitui of the Northern Qi
Dynasty. Its classiWcation and structural arrangement were rather speciWc and
precise, and its format and style rather consistent. There were Wfty-Wve sections
and 240 classes. Such an emphasis on dictionary format and style exerted a direct
inXuence on the compilation of The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign. In the
Tang Dynasty, an important breakthrough was made on the format and style in
278 reform and shaping of lexicography
The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works, guideposting the design of
format and style in the history of ancient Chinese classiWed dictionaries. The
features of its format and style are summarized as follows: ‘the event comes Wrst
while the relevant literature collected follows’. In other words, the chronicles and
the collection of literature are combined into one, which is a deviation from the
paradigm set for classiWed dictionaries from the Three Kingdoms period – ‘the
literature is assembled into collections and the things are categorized into
classiWed dictionaries’. The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary Works displays
practically all the features of the format and style of a modern encyclopedia. The
well-known classiWed dictionaries in the Song Dynasty, such as The Imperial
Records of the Taiping Reign and The Historical Records of Cefu, had evolved and
progressed in the direction of an encyclopedia of a specialized nature. The
Imperial Records of the Taiping Reign had extensively collected the novels, notes,
and non-oYcial historical books from the Han Dynasties to the early Northern
Song Dynasty. The Historical Records of Cefu had recorded the stories of the
monarchs and their oYcials from remote times to the Five Dynasties. In the Ming
and Qing Dynasties, further classiWed dictionaries were published and in greater
varieties and sizes and with more sophisticated styles and formats. The format
and style of The Yongle Compendium was ‘to govern the characters with the
rhymes they share, and the events are related to the characters by which they are
designated’, and that dictionary became quite notable for being enormously rich
in data and grand in scale. The Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Books
went one step further in the design of its format and style by adding a classiWca-
tion of subjects. It had six volumes, thirty-two folios and 6,119 sections, which
could be further divided into subsections. The whole book was well structured
and properly presented. The data were exhaustive, embracing almost all know-
ledge in every subject in the late feudal period in China. Its format and style was
the most rigorous, setting a good example for the compilation of modern
encyclopedias.
lexicographical culture from ming to qing 279
16
THE FORMATION OFCHINESE CHARACTER
DICTIONARIES
THE Chinese language ranks among the oldest languages in the world, with a
peculiarly abundant vocabulary, compared to that of other languages, which
is the quintessence of the 5000-year evolution of Chinese culture and language.
In terms of quantity, there were only around 4,600 Jiaguwen characters but the
number ascended to 47,035 in the Qing Dynasty when The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi was compiled. Its publication marks an unparallelled peak in the history
of Chinese dictionaries.
16.1 the social and cultural backgroundin the ming and qing dynasties
The reason why the Chinese language possesses such a rich vocabulary lies not
only in the long history of the Han culture but also in the assimilation of the
linguistic components of other ethnic languages through cultural exchange and
language interaction. The Chinese language has gone through three distinct
phases of vocabulary augmentation in its long development. During the Qin
and Han Dynasties, the enhanced political and economic links between nation-
alities led to the comprehensive development of the cultural undertaking, which
in turn greatly accelerated the political union and social stabilization. The
Chinese cultural development in the 2000 years since the Qin and Han Dynasties
reveals the interaction between politics and culture. Such interaction enables
word absorption from Xiongnu (the Huns, an ancient nomadic people in North
China) and Xiyu (the Western Region, a Han Dynasty term for the region west of
Yumenguan Pass, including present-day Xinjiang Province of China and Central
Asia) into the Chinese language in the Period of Warring States and the Qin and
Han Dynasties. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the
political setting was dark and society was in chaos. However, if perceived the
other way round, the cultural pattern, which had been focusing solely on
Confucianism since the Western Han Dynasty, was shattered in this period,
thus providing room for an overall cultural development and people’s free and
vigorous thoughts. Religions began to Xourish on the grounds of the then
prevailing metaphysics. The word ‘Taoism’ Wrst appeared in the Southern and
Northern Dynasties. In almost the same period, Buddhism was brought into
China from India and gradually penetrated Chinese culture. The Sui and Tang
cultures reXected the hayday of Chinese feudal society. The grand and all-
inclusive Tang culture had an impact even on global culture. The Tang Dynasty
practised liberal politics, advocating the coexistence of the three ideologies of
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The broadness of Tang culture was also
illustrated by cultural exchanges with diVerent parts of the world: for example,
there were the Buddhist paintings from South Asia; music and dance from
Central Asia; and Islam, architecture, and the game of polo from West Asia.
Such liberal governance and open policies brought about a mass introduction of
foreign words, especially Buddhist terms of Sanskrit origin, into the Chinese
language.
The Ming and Qing cultures were experiencing the decline of traditional
Chinese culture and the transition towards modern culture, which started with
the Opium War in 1840. A distinct feature of the Ming and Qing cultures is
cultural autocracy, which is clearly illustrated by the extremely cruel literacy
inquisition. Meanwhile, these two dynasties were in the process of introducing
Western learning into the East, which brought into the Chinese language a
Xock of words of Western origin. Perceived from the angle of civilizational
progression, the Ming and Qing Dynasties can be regarded as the representative
period for the achievements of traditional Chinese civilization. Solid proof of this
lies in the fact that in these two dynasties a great amount of manpower and
material resources were collectively utilized for the compilation of The Yongle
Compendium, The Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Books, and The
Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature, which assembled and classiWed
a tremendous number of ancient books. Considering their impressive size and
formation of character dictionaries 281
systematic dictionary format, these encyclopedic dictionaries are not only unpar-
allelled in the history of Chinese culture but also among the exceptional few in
the history of global culture. In keeping with the Chinese tradition of compiling
books and records in times of prosperity, the dictionaries of the time are
supposed to be impressive in size, ample in content, and systematic in format.
This accounts for the grand publications of The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, which ‘embodies the essence of the study of Chinese characters’ (from
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters; Author’s Preface), and The Imper-
ial Dictionary of Kangxi, which ‘can be valued as an unchanging norm’ (from the
Preface to The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi). Both books are the crystallized
product of traditional Chinese lexicographical cultures. Emperor Kangxi com-
mented that the dictionaries compiled before ‘may be imbalanced in terms of
lexical coverage and density; may be either excessive or insuYcient in illustrative
citations; may be scant in deWning words of multiple meanings or pronunci-
ations’ and that there is ‘not a single dictionary that embodies both beauty and
completeness so as to be valued as an unchanging norm’, (from the Preface to The
Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi). It should be admitted, however, that without the
contributions of generations of ancient scholars and the unprecedented Xourish-
ing of the academic spirit, there would not have been the appearance of such
immense historical literature in times of social stability and prosperity, let alone
dictionaries of such impressive sizes.
16.2 the development of character dictionarycompilation in the ming and qing dynasties
Dictionary compilation in the Ming and Qing Dynasties far surpassed that in the
preceding dynasties both in macrostructural and microstructural conWguration.
Such excellence was directly related to the highly sophisticated studies of Chinese
characters of the time, a representative research Weld of which was the study of An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters. There were a multitude of scholars
involved in such studies. Among the most famous were Duan Yucai, Gui Fu,
Wang Yun, and Zhu Junsheng, who were called the ‘Four Masters’ for their
leading role and their outstanding works that embodied accomplishments in
both practical and theoretical aspects of Chinese lexicography.
Duan Yucai, the student of Dai Zhen, who ranked Wrst in the ‘Four Masters’
list, was accomplished in philology, metrics, and exegetic interpretation of
282 reform and shaping of lexicography
ancient books. In his book The Annotated Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, Duan Yucai fully expounded the interrelationship between the form,
pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters and proposed many original
views. Gui Fu’s The RectiWed Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (Wfty
volumes) dealt primarily with the principles for exegetic interpretation of
ancient books. Wang Yun stated in the Preface to The ExempliWed Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文释例>, twenty volumes):
Gui Fu’s work contains a huge number of citations, which are well organized and
consistent. InsuYciencies in preceding books are supplemented in Gui Fu’s book
and errors rectiWed. Whatever quotations are cited are all organized in a certain sequence
and selected only to help illuminate Xu Shen’s ideas. As a result, it is not his personal
intention to select exclusively from ancient classics.
Gui Fumerely collected quotations from ancient classics without expressing his
own. Actually, Gui Fu’s own intentions and viewpoints could be ascertained if note
was taken of his thoughtfulness when he was selecting objective materials to be
listed in his book. Plainness and a refusal to impose his views were important
features of The ExempliWed Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, giving
readers room for their own analysis and judgement. Wang Yun’s The ExempliWed
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters was divided into two parts: the Wrst
fourteen volumes explain the structure of the six categories of Chinese characters
and the format and style of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters; the
remaining six volumes list some doubts about An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters. There are ‘Supplements’ at the end of each volume, referring
to ancient books and records, such as inscriptions, to support the explanation of
the forms of Chinese characters in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Charac-
ters. For instance, although Wang Yun had not seen the character 折 (zhe) in
Jiaguwen, his explanation about the form of the character accorded with what it
actually was like in Jiaguwen. Duan Yucai made several discoveries in accent
metrics; Gui Fu was adept at deWning principles; Zhu Junsheng clariWed the
interchangeability of characters, while Wang Yun showed his remarkable achieve-
ments in diVerentiating various forms of Chinese characters. Among the ‘Four
Masters’, DuanYucai andZhu Junshengwere undoubtedly themost distinguished.
Duan Yucai, whose courtesy namewas Ruoying withMaotang as his other alias,
was born in Jintan, Jiangsu in 1735 and died on 8 September 1815, aged eighty-one.
He was born with such great intelligence that he could recite Chinese classics such
as The Book of Songs, The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty, and The Book of Rites at the age
of thirteen. He was granted the title of Juren (the title of a successful candidate in
the imperial examination at the provincial level) in the twenty-Wfth year of
formation of character dictionaries 283
Qianglong, appointed magistrate of Yuping County, Guizhou Province and later
transferred to Sichuan Province as the magistrate of Wushan and other counties
for a total of ten years. He devoted himself to academic study in his spare time. At
the age of forty-six, he quitted his oYcial position and concentrated on reading
and writing until his last years. Duan Yucai had spent decades studying
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and had written The Annotated
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The Rhyme Diagram of Six Categor-
ies of Chinese Characters (<六书音韵表>), A Collection of Classic Rhyme House
(<经韵楼集>), Rhymes of the Book of Songs (<诗经韵谱>), Rhymes of Various
Classics (<群经韵谱>), The Book of Songs and the Philological Studies (<诗经小
学>). The Annotated Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters made sign-
iWcant contributions to the research of lexicographical theories. The dictionary
was Wnished in 1807 but was not completely printed until 1815. Duan Yucai started
his annotations by Wrst collating its Song Dynasty versions, on the basis of which
the late Ming Dynasty versions were rectiWed, and wrote the one-volume The Jigu
Library Revision to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<汲古阁说文订>). Then, based on the format of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, the interpretation of Chinese characters in The Jade Chapters and
The Rhyme Dictionary and annotational quotations from An Explanatory Diction-
ary of Chinese Characters in ancient books, Duan Yucai compared and emended
Xu’s version, and wrote the voluminous A Guide to Reading An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters (<说文解字读>). Extracting the essence of
previous phases, he Wnally Wnished The Annotated Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters, which had extensive references to Classics, Histories, Philoso-
phy, and Anthology and gave a complete and careful collation, annotation, and
elucidation of Xu’s book. Moreover, centring on the study of An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, Duan Yucai had carried out holistic research on
ancient Chinese lexicology, examining the form, pronunciation, and meaning in
an integrated approach. The rectiWcation and textual research of The Annotated
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters not only rendered the book readable
but proposed some initial answers to a series of important theoretical questions
regarding Chinese metrics, philology, lexicology, and the interpretation of ancient
books. From a historical and developmental perspective, Duan Yucai studied
linguistic phenomena with some scientiWc methodology. His research made a
thorough summary of the general principles about previous scholars’ works and
enriched the traditional theories of the study of the interpretation of ancient
books and Chinese lexicography.
Zhu Junsheng, whose courtesy name was Fengqi and alternative name Yun-
qian, was born in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province in 1788 and died in 1858.
284 reform and shaping of lexicography
Brought up in a scholarly family, he topped all the candidates in the prefectural
screening exam at fourteen, became a doctoral candidate at Wfteen, and was
granted Juren at thirty-one in 1818. He was appointed Instructor in Jinde, Anhui
Province. Zhu Junsheng ‘read whatever books he could get, was accomplished in
whatever subjects he learned, immersed himself in and apprehended the teach-
ings of the Ten Classics, and recited all the books from the Three Annals and Ten
Literary Writings’ (from An Explanatory Book of Phonetic Sounds, Preface <说文通训定声�序>). Being a proliWc writer, he had written several books and devoted
most of his life to the study of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters.
An Explanatory Book of Phonetic Sounds (<说文通训定声>) was completed in
1833 and published in 1870. It has eighteen volumes in all, together with Jian
Rhymes (<柬韵>, one volume), Studies in the Ready Guide (<说雅>, one
volume, including nineteen pieces of writing), Ancient and Modern Rhyme
Standards (<古今韵准>), and Addendum (<补遗>, two volumes). The front
matter of the book includes ‘Memorial to the Throne’, ‘Imperial Sanction’, ‘The
Author’s Preface’, ‘Preface’ by Luo Dunyan(罗惇衍), ‘Epilogue’ by Zhu Jingrong
(朱镜蓉) and ‘Postscripts’ by Xie Zeng (谢增). The book is actually a homo-
phonic companion to An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, mainly
including: (a) explanation of Chinese Characters, that is, clarifying the relations
between forms, meanings, and pronunciations of characters, and expounding the
original meanings of the words mainly through word forms; (b) interpretation of
ancient books, mainly by mutually explanatory formations and phonetic loans.
The former refers to the extension of the meaning, while the latter the inter-
changeability of homophonic Chinese characters. This part of the book functions
as a dictionary of interchangeable Chinese characters, and is extremely useful for
researching words of interchangeability in the ancient books of the time; and
(c) Wxation of the pronunciation: Based on over 9,000 characters from An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters and an additional 7,000, the dic-
tionary abstracts from the pictophonetic characters 1,137 phonogramic radicals,
divides them into eighteen parts in terms of ancient rhymes and arranges all the
words according to ancient rhymes and phonogramic signs. The book shows a
complete abandonment of Xu Shen’s traditional indexing system of 540 radicals,
inaugurating a new indexing system for Chinese dictionaries. In writing An
Explanatory Book of Phonetic Sounds, Zhu Junsheng made a thorough alteration
to Xu Shen’s An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in both content and
structure, and at the same time a comprehensive probe into the semantic system
of ancient Chinese. He was the Wrst to make a strict distinction between the
literal, extended, and phonetically loaned meanings of words, laying the theor-
etical foundation for polysemic studies and the theoretical basis for the detailed
formation of character dictionaries 285
classiWcation of meaning items in Chinese dictionaries. He proposed Mutual
Explanation–Meaning Extension Theory (转注-词义引申说), initiating the
view that mutual explanation equals meaning extension and that compilers can
‘extend the meaning from the form’ of a character. He also further clariWed the
features of mutual explanation from the perspective of the form, the pronunci-
ation and the meaning of the word. Moreover, he advanced the Word Meaning
Loaning Theory (词义假借说), suggesting that, among phonetically loaned
characters, only those with identical pronunciations but diVerent meanings
were the phonetically loaned characters in the real sense. He proposed three
standards for identifying phonetic loans: (a) A word originally not possessing a
certain meaning loans the meaning from another word only because of their
sameness or similarity in pronunciation; (b) The original meaning of the word
has no connection with the meaning of the loaned word, but the relation between
the loaned word form and its meaning can be traced and identiWed; (c) The
meaning cannot be ascertained from the form of the loaned word but can be
explored by observing the principle of homophonic interchangeability in certain
contexts. After analysing the three causes of phonetic loans, he classiWed them
into four types in terms of phonetic representation and eight forms in terms of
word use. All this enriched the theoretical discussions of Chinese dictionaries in
aspects of dictionary format, word entry, semantic deWnition, phonetic notation,
etc., and strengthened the theoretical foundation for Chinese lexicography.
16.3 the development of format and stylein the ming and qing dynasties
The dictionaries prior to the Ming Dynasty were mostly modelled on An Ex-
planatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters in terms of format, with such a
numerous and complicated classiWcation of radical sections which were not
readily accessible to ordinary users. In order to make the dictionary’s format
popular and practical, Mei Yingzuo in the Ming Dynasty compiled The Compre-
hensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters with extensive innovations in its format,
which was representative of Chinese character dictionaries. Mei Yingzuo sim-
pliWed the radicals in An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, estab-
lished the principle of ‘judging only from forms instead of meanings to avoid
ambiguity arising from deciding radicals from meanings’ (from Style Guide).
This important principle about dictionary format design made the classiWcation
286 reform and shaping of lexicography
of Chinese characters in regular scripts more reasonable and promoted ease in
consulting the dictionary. In A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
Mei Yingzuo simpliWed the number of radicals in An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters into 214 in the form of regular scripts, and divided the main
body of the dictionary into twelve volumes categorized in the light of the twelve
earthly branches, in addition to the Wrst volume (the front matter) and the last
volume (appendices). Each volume began with a diagram, where each line was
divided into ten grids. In the grids were all the radicals in the volume and their
page numbers in the dictionary. The diagram served as a reference guide to
the volumes, which made consultation of information items more convenient
than in the previous dictionaries. The number of radicals in The Comprehensive
Dictionary of Chinese Characters was about two-Wfths of that in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. Moreover, the radicals and the characters in
each radical section were arranged in the sequence of the number of strokes so
that users could consult the dictionary according to the number of strokes for
each character. A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters included 33,179
entry characters, most of which were from Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard
Rhymes, with reference to some other books, such as An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters and The Comprehensive Dictionary of Ancient and Contem-
porary Rhymes. The entry characters included common characters in ancient
books and some colloquial characters, contemporary and ancient. Odd and
unusual characters were not included in the book. Each entry comprised Wrst
the phonetic notations by fanqie, then, by direct phonetic notation, the deWnition
afterwards. In the deWnition, basic meaning items were put Wrst, followed by
other meaning items. DeWnitions were pellucid and readily understandable.
Examples were given afterwards, mostly from ancient books and partly from
spoken and colloquial language. Its innovations in dictionary format, such as the
arrangement of meaning items, the use of plain language, the employment of
examples from informal language, rendered the book exceptional at the time.
The front matter of A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters in-
cluded the preface by the compiler, the style guide, and the general contents,
and appendices like ‘sequences of strokes’, ‘ancient forms’, ‘prevailing forms’,
‘ancient-prevailing interchangeable words’ and ‘index of diYcult characters’. In
‘sequences of strokes’ were listed seventy-one characters of various forms, with
each character being given an indication of the sequence of writing the charac-
ter, which was a very instructive method for literacy education in old-style
private schools. The ‘ancient forms’ listed 179 ancient characters that were
adopted, accompanied by their explanations to help understand the theory of
the six Chinese character categories. In ‘prevailing forms’, Mei Yingzuo included
formation of character dictionaries 287
109 words in their then-prevailing forms together with their ancient forms to
remind users that they should follow the prevailing forms and not constrain
themselves by the ancient ones. Altogether 135 characters were included in
‘ancient-prevailing interchangeable words’ in the form of comparison to show
the interchangeability of each pair. ‘Index of diYcult characters’ listed charac-
ters whose radicals were diYcult to identify. At the beginning of each volume
are listed the radicals included in the volume and the corresponding pages of
each radical. Under each entry of The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, the pronunciation is given Wrst, followed by the explanation of the
meaning of each character in the order of basic meanings, common meaning,
and extended meanings. Common characters used in ancient classics, together
with informal characters, were included in the book, whereas odd characters
were excluded. The archaic forms or the variant forms were placed below the
standard form. At the end of the book were appendixes such as ‘DiVerentiation’,
‘RectiWcation’, and ‘Rhyming’. In ‘DiVerentiation’, 473 characters with similar
forms but diVerent pronunciations and meanings were listed and distinguished
to help acquire literacy. All the characters in this part were divided into 225
groups, most of which comprised two characters, such as刺 and剌,段 and叚.
In ‘RectiWcation’, sixty-eight characters commonly used in the civilian block-
printed books were selected, the errors of which were rectiWed by means of
comparing the wrong with the right. ‘Rhyming’ consisted of vertical diagrams
and horizontal ones, with the aim of illustrating the four tones and fanqie. From
the perspective of modern dictionary format, A Comprehensive Dictionary of
Chinese Characters is relatively complete and self-contained, and comprehensive
and integrated in function, hence a role model for the ancient Chinese diction-
ary format.
Zou Feng (1983), a contemporary Chinese scholar, remarks:
The prolonged history of Chinese dictionary compilation can be divided into three
stages: Wrstly, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, as a prelude to dictionary
compilation, can be seen as an embryo for large-scale dictionaries; secondly, The Jade
Chapters is representative of dictionary compilation during the growing time; thirdly, A
Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters assimilates the essence and experience of
all previous dictionary compilations, discards unreasonable elements, establishes a set of
principles for the compilation of large-scale dictionaries, and consequently the whole set
of principles of dictionary compilation takes shape. These immutable principles have
been followed generation after generation.
Zou Feng sums up four major renovations in A Comprehensive Dictionary of
Chinese Characters from the perspective of the dictionary format. First, both
288 reform and shaping of lexicography
formal and informal characters are covered, and the latter carries more weight
than previously. Such an attitude towards dictionary coverage not only opposes
the selection of odd characters, but also rectiWes the traditional prejudice of
‘attaching much more importance to formal characters than to informal ones’.
The principle of covering both formal and informal characters is thus established.
Second, the meaning item system is basically established. Various measures
are employed to Wnalize the meaning-centred Form–Pronunciation–Meaning
system, improving the phonetic notation by combining fanqie and direct phon-
etic notation. In terms of deWnition, the dictionary integrates and improves the
traditional deWning methods of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters,
laying emphasis on simple and plain deWnition. The dictionary initiates a more
scientiWc format for displaying meaning items, which starts with original mean-
ings followed by extended meanings. The dictionary also creates the patterns for
arranging meaning items of characters with multiple pronunciations, that is,
listing various pronunciation and meaning items of a character in accordance
with its various pronunciations, using the label * to show their divisions.
Another feature of The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters in the
treatment of meaning items is the revelation of multiple parts of speech and
multiple meanings of each entry character. This dictionary sets a precedent for
multiple parts of speech of a character to be presented in large-scale dictionaries,
and its profound inXuence can still be found in similar practices in modern
dictionaries. The dictionary brings into play a trinity of rhyme exempliWcation,
literature citation and annotation rectiWcation as well as a unity of deWnition and
exempliWcation. The facilitation of deWnition by means of exempliWcation makes
this dictionary distinct from its precedents.
Third, radicals are classiWed in a more logical manner. Two principles of
radical innovation are established in A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters. One is the radical Wxing principle. Radicals should be Wxed through
a combined consideration of form and meaning and priority should be given to
form when a balanced attention to both form and meaning is not achievable. The
other is the principle of radical sequencing and character sequencing within
radical sections. Both arrangements should follow the sequence of the number
of strokes in the form of the regular script. This dictionary simpliWes and
condenses the 540 radical sections of An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, the 542 of The Jade Chapters, and the 517 of The MagniWcent Chapters
into 214. This simpliWed radical system was in continuous use until the publica-
tion of the new edition of Ci Hai, which is an obvious manifestation of the
profound inXuence of the principle.
formation of character dictionaries 289
Finally, appendices are utilized in the dictionary to enhance eYciency. It was
from A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters that Chinese dictionaries
began to integrate the main body and the appendices into one whole. That
practice, boosting the utility of the dictionary, has been carried forward and
continues in present-day dictionaries.
16.4 a brief introduction to the masterpiecesof character dictionaries
Not only did Chinese character dictionary compilation in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties assimilate the quintessence of previous works and make outstanding
theoretical achievements but there also appeared in this period such important
lexicographical works as The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The
RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi.
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters was compiled by Zhang Zilie of
the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Zilie, with Ergong as the courtesy name and Qishan as
the alternative name, was born in Lichen, Jiang Province in the Ming Dynasty
and died in the Qing Dynasty. As a member of the Naming Imperial Academy in
the late Shenzhen regime, he wrote a number of books, including The RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. He declined many oYcial appointments from
the beginning of the Qing Dynasty and lived a secluded life in the Lucian
Mountain. He died at the age of eighty-six without descendants. There are varied
historical records regarding who wrote The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Char-
acters. One story claims that the dictionary was compiled either by Liao Wenying
(廖文英) or Zhang Zilie. According to the relevant accounts in The General
Catalogue and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature,
the original version of The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters was attrib-
uted to Zhang Zilie, or Liao Wenying, or both of them. Another story claims that
the dictionary was Wrst compiled by Zhang Zilie, then purchased by Liao Weny-
ing, and put under Liao’s name. (See The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the
Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature, Volume 43, 1965). It can be
concluded with some justiWcation that Zhang Zilie was the author of the original
version of the dictionary.
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters (twelve volumes) covered 33,000
Chinese characters. The classiWcation of radicals and the arrangement of charac-
ters were improved and enhanced in the light of the format of The Comprehensive
290 reform and shaping of lexicography
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, dividing the characters into 214 radical sections
and arranging them in accordance with the number of strokes in each radical
section, but it added 360 new headwords and 119 variant characters in the
‘Explanation’ part to the 33,179 original entry characters in The Comprehensive
Dictionary of Chinese Characters. Moreover, the dictionary cited new examples
and added new meaning items. Much emphasis was laid on the collection of
vulgar, dialectal, and neological meanings, including those of both content and
function words. The improvement made in The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters upon The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters comprised
the supplementation of characters as well as the rectiWcation of headwords, forms,
pronunciations, and meanings. As pointed out in its Style Guide, the dictionary
rectiWed many errors in The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters, such
as misspelled characters, characters mistakenly considered as being from ancient
prose or as informal characters, identical characters with diVerent annotations,
and diVerent characters with similar or contradictory annotations, etc., which
could either be mutually explained or be supported by reasonable examples. For
example, the word 刏 was described in A Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters as ‘pronounced as鸡 /ji/, the same as刲 and刺.* also pronounced as
脍 /kuai/, the same as脍’, but was described in The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters as ‘. . . in the old sound description,刽 and刏 are pronounced as the
Wrst sound /kuai/, whereas刏 and畿 the second sound /ji/’. In The Comprehensive
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, a character might have several indications of
fanqie in accordance with diVerent views held by scholars, while in The RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Characters, one character had only one indication of fanqie
and one pronunciation, which made the dictionary concise and explicit. As its
compilation was intended to supplement and rectify The Comprehensive Diction-
ary of Chinese Characters, The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters was
blemished for its failure to provide the titles of some reference books and for its
complicated and inaccurate citations.
In 1710, Emperor Kangxi assigned the compilation of The Imperial Dictionary
of Kangxi to a team of thirty scholars including Zhang Yushu and Chen Tingjing.
The dictionary was completed and published in 1716, with the preface written by
Emperor Kangxi. The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi was based on the revision
and enlargement of Mei Yingzuo’s The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Zhang Zilie’s The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters. It
was the Wrst oYcial dictionary with the title字典 (zidian, character dictionary)
in the history of Chinese dictionary making. The 42-volume dictionary covered
47,035 entry characters, all of which were grouped into 214 radical sections. The
dictionary was divided into twelve parts, each denoted by the twelve earthly
formation of character dictionaries 291
branches and comprising three volumes. Both the 214 radicals in the dictionary
and the characters in each radical section were arranged in the sequence of the
number of strokes. The dictionary was prefaced with a style guide, general table
of contents, indexing, diVerentiation and rhyme diagrams, each of which occu-
pies one volume. ‘Indexing’ was designed for searching characters whose radicals
were not easily identiWable, and ‘diVerentiation’ for distinguishing groups of
characters with similar forms but diVerent meanings. The back matter included
‘Addendum’, which was used to collect unusual characters, and ‘Supplement’,
which was designed to cover characters without meanings or those whose
pronunciations and meanings are unknown.
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi included in the front matter two rhyme
tables – The Techniques for Segmenting Rhymes (<字母切韵要法>) and The
Guidelines for Segmenting Phonetic Sounds and Rhymes (<等韵切音指南>).The rhyme table referred to the diagram made on the basis of equivalent
rhyme studies, or, in other words, the diagram analysing rhymes and fanqie by
means of equivalent rhymes. The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi included the two
representative and inXuential rhyme tables with a view to facilitating users’
comprehension of various forms of fanqie in the dictionary. The Techniques for
Segmenting Rhymes mainly presented the actual pronunciations of the Chinese
characters at the time, while The Guidelines for Segmenting Phonetic Sounds and
Rhymes reXected their pronunciations in earlier times, retaining the rhyme
patterns in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The Techniques for Segmenting Rhymes
comprised two rhyme diagrams – The Internal Four-tone Rhyme Diagram (the
combination of consonants and vowels) and The Explicit Four-tone Equivalent
Rhyme Diagram (the combination of consonants, vowels, and tones). The Guide-
lines for Segmenting Phonetic Sounds and Rhymes, with sixteen parts and twenty-
four rhyme diagrams, was a revision of A Guide to the Dictionary of Chinese
Rhymes (<切韵指南>) written by Liu Jian (刘鉴) in the Yuan Dynasty. Entries
in The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi start with phonetic notations, followed by
deWnitions. Under each entry the variants of the headword character in ancient
prose were listed Wrst, followed by the phonetic notations by means of fanqie in
the ancient dictionaries, such as The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes, The Dictionary of
Rhymes, The Rhyme Dictionary, ACollection of Rhymes (<韵会>), The Dictionaryof Standard Rhymes (<正韵>), etc. As a principle of phonetic notations and
deWnitions, the original pronunciations and meanings were given before the
variant pronunciations and extended meanings. The extended and loaned mean-
ings beyond the original meaning were both indicated by又 (in addition), after
which come deWnitions and explanations, coupled with citations from the
ancient classics.注 (Annotation) and疏 (Commentaries, Detailed Annotation)
292 reform and shaping of lexicography
below citations generally referred to those from the original books. The textual
research on the classics from which citations were taken were attached at the end
of the entry, indicated by 按 (Remark).
Zhou Zhongfu (周中孚) in the Qing Dynasty commended The Imperial
Dictionary of Kangxi as ‘the fruit of the philological studies in both ancient and
modern times and the peak of culture through all previous dynasties’ and ‘none
of the succeeding scholars involved in the study of Chinese characters could go
beyond The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi’. Naturally, The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi has remained a prominent and extensively used dictionary until the
present time. However, just like other dictionaries, this dictionary is by no
means impeccable. Its deWciencies mainly include incompleteness and inaccuracy
of interpretation, numerous errors, exclusion of most vulgar and colloquial
words, and Wnally defects in dictionary format design and lack of ease in
information retrieval.
16.5 the academic value and influence ofcharacter dictionaries of the ming and qing
dynasties
The period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties is a representative period of the
achievements in the development of Chinese civilization. The character diction-
aries of this period not only represent a conclusion of previous philological
studies but also exert a direct inXuence on the development of later character
dictionaries. Among them are The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Charac-
ters, The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters, and The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi, all of which are still held in high academic esteem and are commended as
models for Chinese character dictionaries.
The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters, a character dictionary of
great popularity in the Ming Dynasty, excels previous dictionaries in providing a
uniWed format, a scientiWc classiWcation of radicals, convenient indexing, plain
interpretations, rich content, and abundant citations. Practical and innovative,
the dictionary exerts a considerable inXuence on the history of Chinese diction-
ary compilation. It is, however, not free from deWciencies and errors, many of
which are rectiWed in The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters.
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters is intensively prescriptive, either
rectifying errors or conWrming the correct usage of vulgar forms, pronunciations,
formation of character dictionaries 293
and meanings illustrated in other dictionaries or collected from common ex-
amples of usage. The dictionary assimilates the latest achievements of traditional
linguistics and philology, for example the achievements of epigraphy, studies in
inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets from the time of the Song
Dynasty, and new insights into ancient Chinese phonology from the time of
Chen Di (陈第, 1541–1617) of the Ming Dynasty, to name just a few. In the
dictionary, the practice of notating far-fetched labial sounds has been discarded,
a wider coverage of language materials adopted, and the scope and content of the
reference books for interpretation have also been extended. It is noted in its Style
Guide that citations and references in the dictionary, especially those from the
classics, have been selected via a comprehensive search of the Buddhist and Taoist
Canons. Supplements have also been given to the illustrations in the old version
by selecting and editing materials from medical science to various other Welds.
Such approaches could best illustrate its extensiveness in language data collec-
tion. Zheng Zhenduo (郑振铎, 2000) reckons that The RectiWed Dictionary of
Chinese Characters surpasses The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters
in various respects. For instance, in the treatment of the variant forms of a certain
character, the latter puts them and their explanations in diVerent parts of the
dictionary according to their respective radicals, while the former not only
inherits such a method of arrangement but informs users of all the variant
forms in the entry of the regular form by listing them under the most commonly
used form.
When dealing with pairs of words that have the same meaning but diVerent
pronunciations, The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters gives
repeated interpretations in both entries of such words, whereas The RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Characters explains the similarities and diVerences of the
twowords in one entry and notes ‘see also . . .’ in the other to save space and eVort.
As for words with more than one pronunciation, The Comprehensive Dictionary of
Chinese Characters gives repeated interpretations in every entry whileThe RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Characters merely deWnes the word in one entry. When it
comes to phonetic notation, The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters
lists excessive variations and various methods of phonetic notation in pronunci-
ation, leaving the readers rather confused. The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters, however, provides only one pronunciation so as to reduce dissension.
Concerning deWnition and exempliWcation, The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters shows considerable improvements in that it polishes the deWnitions
in The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters to render them plain
and pellucid and enhances the completeness and preciseness of exempliW-
cation by paying greater attention to the integrality of quoted examples and
294 reform and shaping of lexicography
rectifying some errors in the examples in The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters. Although The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters was far from
Xawless, it laid the foundation for the compilation of The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi and exercised extensive and profound inXuence upon dictionary compil-
ation with respect to dictionary format, data collection, deWnition style, phonetic
notation, and theoretical generalization.
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi remains a landmark monument and holds
an exceptionally important position in the history of Chinese dictionary com-
pilation. To begin with, this dictionary is most often noted for its grand coverage
of Chinese characters. It collects a total of 49,030 characters, including 1,995
repetitions of ancient characters, exceeding the 33,179 characters in The Compre-
hensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters and the 33,549 characters in The RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Character. According to the statistics put forward by the
Coverage Research Group of The Great Chinese Character Dictionary (<汉语大字典>), the number of characters in The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi amounts
to 49,174, with 46,128 entry characters and the rest non-entry characters. Another
account says that the number totals to 46,975.
Second, the dictionary is abundant in its collection of phonetic notations and
deWnitions. It initiates the approach of summarizing the similarities and diVer-
ences of the fanqie notations from diVerent rhyme dictionaries for the readers’
reference. It Wrst deals with the original pronunciations and meanings, then the
variant pronunciations and meanings, and, if any, the extended meaning and
interchangeable characters, both indicated by又 (also). The coverage of meaning
items is extremely complete. As shown in the preface, ‘the collection of pronun-
ciations and meanings is based primarily on An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and The Jade Chapters, supplemented by The Dictionary of Rhymes,
The Rhyme Dictionary, A Collection of Rhymes, The Dictionary of Standard
Rhymes. No pretermission is made of any adoptable pronunciation or meaning
in other character dictionaries.’
The dictionary not only collects plenty of meaning items from previous rhyme
dictionaries but also attaches great importance to new word meanings or those
emerging from the middle ancient period from the third to the ninth century AD
and loanwords borrowed into the Chinese language.
Third, the dictionary is remarkable for its aZuence of exempliWcation
accompanied by indications of citation sources. It is indicated in the preface of
the dictionary that ‘the absence of exempliWcation in various books is remedied by
extensive citations ranging from ancient classics to works of literati dating back to
the Han Dynasty to make the examples well-founded.’ All the examples in the
dictionary are listedwith the titles of the texts and arranged in chronological order.
formation of character dictionaries 295
Fourthly, this dictionary carries on the inheritance and development of pre-
vious character dictionaries. Emperor Kangxi once commented in his edict to
Master Scholar Chen Tingjing that ‘The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters is overly simple while The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters is,
by contrast, excessive.’ He commanded that a new dictionary should be compiled
to ‘amend the above two dictionaries and establish an everlasting paradigm for
dictionary compilation’. In this sense, The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi inherits
and advances the distillate of The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters
and The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters. On the one hand, it integrates
the merits of the two dictionaries by adopting their format and the 214 radicals
therein. On the other hand, improvements are made and new content is added to
make it more precise, more substantial, and better grounded than The Compre-
hensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters and The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters. In The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi, supplements are given for the
deWciencies and pretermission in The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Char-
acters, and these are summarizations and simpliWcations in The RectiWed Dic-
tionary of Chinese Characters. Moreover, rectiWcations are made of the errors in
the forms of characters in both books, adjustments to the inappropriate radical
sorting, and correction of the mistakes in stroke calculation.
Finally, importance is attached to the analysis of character structure and the
diVerentiation of meanings. The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi analyses the
structure of Chinese characters on the basis of An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and includes discussions in later dictionaries to help the
explanation of the form of the character and the clariWcation of strokes. In
addition to that, the dictionary possesses a wide coverage of variant forms of
characters. Another point worthy of attention is its brilliant discrimination of the
meanings of characters.
Over the 200 years since its publication, The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi has
exerted such a profound and far-reaching inXuence that there has been wide
adoption of the pronunciation, meaning, and examples of the characters in the
dictionary and the format of the dictionary has been repeatedly adopted in
subsequent compilations. As a large-scale character dictionary, The Imperial
Dictionary of Kangxi is, both practically and theoretically, a prominent achieve-
ment exerting a profound inXuence on succeeding dictionary compilers and
embodying the quintessence of classical and historical works, various schools
of thought, and a diverse literature. It is a driving force in the study of Confucian
classics, textology in the Qing Dynasty, especially in the academically Xourishing
age of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. As a handy reference work, the
dictionary exerted a subtle inXuence on various scholars engaged in academic
296 reform and shaping of lexicography
research in the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. The achievements and inXuences of
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi can be traced back to their source in the
compilers’ pragmatic understanding of dictionary compilation. The principles
of compilation established in the dictionary have been inherited and further
developed by dictionary compilers in modern times. The Imperial Dictionary of
Kangxi has continued the compilation tradition from An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters to The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Characters and
learned extensively from the merits of various previous lexicographical practices.
Meanwhile, it explores new paths towards the systematization, standardization,
and modernization of dictionary compilation.
formation of character dictionaries 297
17
THE FORMATION OFCHINESE WORDDICTIONARIES
THE character dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties occupy a sign-
iWcant position in the history of Chinese dictionary making. The period of
the Ming and Qing Dynasties is also reckoned to be a crucial time for the
development of Chinese word dictionaries. It is no exaggeration to say that
Chinese lexicography in the twentieth century would not be as glorious and
thriving without the attainments of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Word dic-
tionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties consist of four major extensions – the
derivatives of The Ready Guide, those of The Dictionary of Dialectal Words,
dictionaries of exegetic interpretations and explanations, and special-aspect
dictionaries (mainly dictionaries of function words and dictionaries of lexical
expressions).
17.1 the historical background
With China confronting an earth-shattering transformation in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties, ancient Chinese knowledge, ideas, and beliefs in this new context were
subjected to a reform of their value systems. In response to such tremendous
changes, the Chinese intelligentsia who possessed long and abundant traditional
resources would customarily take the approach of reinterpreting the ancient
classics. Thus, Confucius’ classics were the Wrst to bear the brunt of re-interpretation
since, for a considerably long period in ancient China, Confucius’ classics had
been the most familiar mode of interpretation of knowledge, ideas, and beliefs for
Chinese intellectuals. The concept of ‘interpretation’ could be taken as a metaphor
for ‘transformation’ to depict the relationship of transference, interpretation, and
comprehension between the old learning and the new. The interpretational resources
that are easy to identify when one comes across incomprehensible learning are the set
of knowledge and value systems constructed through childhood readings and
examinations during adulthood. Such familiar and comprehensible old learning
and ideas would assist the imagination and reconstruction of the unfamiliar new
learning and recondite ideas. Besides, such a process of interpretationwould ease the
psychological shock arising from the encounter of new knowledge and ideas. In this
sense, the ancient Chinese classics and their relevant studies take on the dual
responsibilities of reserving and extending various forms of old knowledge and
ideas as well as ensuring the apprehension, acquisition of rationality, and validity
of new knowledge, ideas, and beliefs. It was in this historical context that textual
research gradually gained prevalence, turning the studies of classics into a laboratory
for textual research. The research methods for classic interpretation centring on
phonology, and exegesis and characters developed into the principal methodology
for rediscovering and reinterpreting the studies of ancient classics.
For a lengthy spell during theMing andQing Dynasties, intellectuals had been
deprived of the right to the interpretation of truth and the orientation of social
development as a result of the political suppression of inWdels, the imperial
monopoly of truth, and the complete annexation of ‘morality-governing’ by ‘rule-
governing’ with the moral commanding heights and the rationality base occupied
by the governing power. In order to cast oV the mantle of the public, oYcial, and
mainstream discourses, the literati gradually stepped into the temple of the textual
research of classics. As time went on, such practices became a vogue at that time,
which primarily prevailed in Jiangnan (the region south of the lower Yangtze River)
where scholars could enjoy a better subsistence atmosphere and later began to aVect
the intelligentsia throughout the country.
Ancient Chinese culture was, in the eyes of feudal governors, the systemization
of Confucianism, the kernel of which was the extension of imperial culture
into various domains. In that respect, the imperial court would advocate aca-
demic activities such as the personal and annotation of the classics as well as
relevant activities sorting traditional Chinese classics. Consequently, the oYcially
organized dictionary compilations embracing the annotation of words in
classics became the key feature of lexicographical culture in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties.
formation of word dictionaries 299
17.2 the evolution of lexicographical theoriesin the ming and qing dynasties
The fulcrum of lexicographic theories is semantic studies. Semantics in the Qing
Dynasty was actually the study of exegesis, which exceeded all previous dynasties
with its signiWcant accomplishments propelled by phonology. The reason for
such progress resided in the consensus gradually reached on research method-
ology among scholars of the Qing Dynasty, reXected in the following. First,
meanings are sought from pronunciations. Though scholars of the Qing Dynasty
did not originate this principle, it was compilers of the time, such as Duan Yucai
and Wang Niansun, who successfully employed it. Those scholars established a
scientiWc phonological system for ancient Chinese, thus enabling the realization
of the principle of ‘seeking meanings from pronunciations’. The practice of
deriving meanings from forms had the disadvantage of explaining the inter-
changeable words in the role of the regular base forms and explaining pairs of
alliterated or rhymed characters in their split forms, whereas the practice of
seeking meanings from pronunciations could overcome those traditional defects
in semantic studies. Second, meanings are sought from the laws of meaning
deduction. Duan Yucai was expert at establishing the laws of meaning deduction
and gave an accurate revelation of them in the annotations of classics in the Han
Dynasty. He stated:
Scholars in the Han Dynasty annotated the Classics by raising doubts and making
rectiWcations about meanings of characters, which are exempliWed as ‘读如,读若’
(pronounced like, read like), ‘读为,读曰’ (read in the same way as) and ‘当为’ (treated
in the same way as). (The Explanatory RectiWcation of the Rites of the Zhou Dynasty,
Author’s Preface, <周礼汉读考�自序>)
He explicitly proposed the systematicity of meanings and the basic method-
ology for commanding this system, stating that characters had their basic mean-
ing, extended meaning, and borrowed interchangeable meaning. (Explanations of
the Characters 亯 and 飨: A Case Study, in A Collection of Classic Rhyme House,
Volume 11). For instance, the original meaning of the character 亯 is ‘sacriWces
oVered to gods or ancestors’, which is extended to mean ‘whatever is oVered from
subordinates to superiors’. The character can be interchangeably used with飨 for
their identical pronunciation. Duan Yucai successfully employed the laws of
seeking meanings from examples in composing treatises such as The Stories
of Mizhou (<密州说>) and The Discrimination of 杀 and 弑 in the Spring and
300 reform and shaping of lexicography
Autumn Classics (<春秋经杀弑二字辨别考>) (see ACollection of Classic Rhyme
House, Volume 4). Third, meanings are sought by collecting exempliWcations
from extensive references. Wang Niansun noted in The Miscellaneous Notes in
Reading (<读书杂志>) that the accuracy of their works was such that tens of
thousands of books had been consulted for the explanation of just one character.
Wang Yinzhi mentioned in The Interpretation of Classics and Scriptures that, in
the correction of whatever mistakes were made by ancient scholars, the original
meaning was acquired through extensive quotations and sinuous evidence. The
practice of ‘consulting tens of thousands of books, i.e. extensively’ and ‘relying on
extensive quotations and sinuous evidence’ manifested the principle of ‘seeking
meanings by collecting exempliWcation from wide-ranging references’ for
detailed supporting materials and hence the deduction of a scientiWc conclusion.
The detection of the problem goes before its evidence. In this sense, evidence
Wnding is scholarship. That is the reason why Wang Yinzhi deemed that, when
annotating classics, one should make extensive consultation of various relevant
materials. No explanation should be made of a sentence if the whole book has not
been comprehended, neither of a work of the classics if various other pieces have
not been apprehended. Only through wide-ranging consultation is a scientiWc
deduction possible. Any non-serious explanation based on only a couple of
citations casually chosen is a far cry from ‘collecting exempliWcation from
extensive references’.
The discussion of scholars in the Qing Dynasty about the principles of ‘seeking
meanings from pronunciations’, ‘seeking meanings from the laws of meaning
deduction’ and ‘seeking meanings by collecting exempliWcation from extensive
references’ represented not only the fruit of their in-depth reXection of semantic
theories but also an exhaustive theoretical exploration of deWnitions and quota-
tions in Chinese word dictionaries before the Qing Dynasty, an endeavour which
laid the academic foundation for the formation of Chinese word dictionaries,
especially in respect of microstructural formation and perfection.
17.3 the development of format and stylein the ming and qing dynasties
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emergence of such new dictionary types as
dictionaries of function words and regional dialect dictionaries demonstrated
unique features of and reXections on word dictionary compilation of the time.
formation of word dictionaries 301
A distinctive feature of word dictionary compilation in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties was the rapid expansion of dictionaries of function words that were
not only huge in number and length but excellent in quality also. Among them
were The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words written by Liu Qi, The
Dictionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies by Wang Yinzhi, and
The Studies in Function Words by Yuan Renlin. These dictionaries were rather
remarkable in their entry setting. The function words collected from classics,
historical and philosophical works, poetry and prose, and folk sayings from
the time of the pre-Qin Dynasty, were arranged in the order of rhyme sections,
and subsequently the four tones of the words. With plentiful exempliW-
cations and complete meaning items, these dictionaries Wrst presented a brief
explanation of the usages of the word, and then expounded every usage with
quotations from ancient books. The delicate classiWcation, accurate discrimin-
ation of usages, exhaustive tracing of the genesis, and historical development of
function words collectively illuminated the eminence of those dictionaries
of function words.
For over one thousand years, since Yang Xiong erected a monument to the
history of Chinese dictionary compilation with The Dictionary of Dialectal Words
in the Han Dynasty, there had been a sombre decline in the compilation of dialect
dictionaries. The only product in that period was the three volumes of The Ready
Guide for the Shu Dialect (<蜀尔雅>) by Li Shangyin (李商隐) included in The
General RectiWcation of Literature (<文献通考>). It was not until the Ming and
Qing Dynasties that the compilation of dialect dictionaries regained momentum
and sprinted into rapid development with advances in both quality and quantity.
Dialect dictionaries of that period fell into two categories: one type aimed at the
elucidation, emendation, supplementation, and continuation of The Dictionary
of Dialectal Words. These dictionaries were compiled for error rectiWcation,
explanation of minute meanings, and supplementation of the content of The
Dictionary of Dialectal Words; and the other type consisted of the newly compiled
dialect dictionaries, most of which dealt with regional dialects including those
of the ‘Shu’, ‘Wu-Xia’, and ‘Yue’ regions, and so forth. These dictionaries involv-
ing ‘regional’ dialects reinforced and enriched the content of Chinese dialect
dictionaries.
If perceived from the aspect of microstructure, the dictionaries of the Ming
and Qing Dynasties also possessed some salient characteristics: in terms of
dictionary format, The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics, which listed
characters as well as words, bore the dual functions of both a character and a
word dictionary. In the histories of both Chinese philology and dictionary
302 reform and shaping of lexicography
compilation, the Wrst systematic and thorough categorizations of Chinese
function words appeared in The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words,
which divided function words into thirty categories such as word repetition,
word omission, auxiliary words, and sentence breaking, and in The Dictionary
of Function Words in Lections and Biographies, which grouped them into
six categories: common function words, auxiliary words, interjections,
words signalling mood at the initial position of a sentence, interchangeably
used words, and words with extensions of original meanings. Scholars in
the Qing Dynasty also conducted an unprecedented exploration and summar-
ization with respect to how Chinese function words should be explained.
Qian Xizuo (钱熙祚) generalized the following six approaches of explaining
function words in the postscript of The Dictionary of Function Words in Lections
and Biographies: (a) supporting explanations with similar quotations; (b)
contrasting explanations with diVerent citations; (c) detecting similarities in
meanings with mutual explanations of words; (d) deducing meanings
from examples in other versions; (e) inferring from ancient annotations;
and (f) evidencing with quotations by later scholars. His generalization
makes a signiWcant contribution to the Chinese lexicographical deWnition
theory and the construction of microstructure in treating function words,
Wlling in the gaps in the theoretical exploration of dictionary compilation in
previous dynasties. The Dictionary of Dialectal Words simply listed the
explanation and comparison of the meanings of dialect words, eliding
the detailed notation of various pronunciations of the words in diVerent
regions. In contrast, The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect not only deWned dialectal
words in common language but also provided the clear and accurate phonetic
annotation of each word. The regional dialect dictionaries of the Ming and
Qing Dynasties attached great importance to textual research on the origin of
the dialectal folk language. As a typical example, The Dictionary of the Shu
Dialectmade a particular exploration of the sources of dialectal words. Records
in The Annals of Zunyi Prefecture (<遵义府志>) show that The Dictionary of
the Shu Dialect consulted nearly eighty per cent of all the resources available in
search of the origins of words. Another example is Proverbs of the Yue Dialect
(<越谚>), which makes an exhaustive inquiry into the origin of the Yue dialect
by the mutual corroboration between ancient and the then contemporary
materials. The General Ready Guide is still another case in point, which coped
with the absence of exempliWcation and counterexamples in previous versions
of The Ready Guide by providing both of them in the deWnitions to remove
some tough problems regarding meanings of words.
formation of word dictionaries 303
17.4 a brief introduction to the masterpiecesof word dictionaries in the ming
and qing dynasties
The dictionaries in the Ming and Qing Dynasties fall into the following four
categories: dictionaries patterned after The Ready Guide (the Erya dictionary
family), those patterned after The Dictionary of Dialectal Words (the Fangyan
dictionary family), dictionaries of exegetic explanations, and function word
dictionaries. An introduction to the masterpieces of each category will be pro-
vided to outline the evolutionary progression of dictionaries in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties. The introduction of major function word dictionaries will be
presented in the next chapter.
The Erya dictionary familyThemost immediate inXuence of the publicationofTheReadyGuideon the evolution
ofChinesecultureover thepast twothousandyearsWndsexpressionintheformationof
the Erya studies and the compilation of dictionaries modelled on it. In the history of
over two thousand years of Chinese lexicographical culture, The Ready Guide, An
Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The Dictionary of Rhymes, and diction-
aries derived from each of them have collectively woven the three main historical
threads of the development ofChinese dictionaries. Comparedwith the previous Erya
dictionaries, works in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were superior for their more
standardized formats, more comprehensive functions and more diverse styles, essen-
tially shaping their particular compiling styles, formats, and patterns.
The Rhythmical Ready Guidewas compiled by ZhuMouwei in 1587. ZhuMouwei,
whose courtesy names were Mingfu and Yuyi and who was from Haozhou, had
perused awide collection of classics and historicalworks.Hewas acquaintedwith the
literary quotations from the imperial court and wrote 112 books, such as The Classic
Account of Poetry (<诗故>), A Famed Record of the Spring and Autumn Period
(<春秋戴记>), Shui Jing Annotations and Commentaries (<水经注笺>), Notes onLu’s Arguments (<鲁论笺>), and New Manuscripts from the Citrange Garden (<枳园近稿>). Concerning the naming of The Rhythmical Ready Guide, Yu Changzuo
(余长祚) explained in the Preface to the dictionary that with the character 骈
signifying two horses walking in parallel, the naming of the dictionary implied the
harmony between forms and meanings and indicated that the entry word and its
explanation were both alliterative and rhyming compounds of two syllables.
304 reform and shaping of lexicography
The dictionary mostly provided the classiWcation and explanation of alliterated or
two-syllable rhymed compounds collected from the classics, historical and philo-
sophical works, poetry and prose dating back to the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties,
and even as far as the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and to the Tang and Song
Dynasties if encyclopedias were also taken into account. The seven-volume diction-
ary was divided into thirteen categories, explaining archaic words, exegetic words,
appellations, words for buildings, garments and foods, utensils, astronomy, geog-
raphy, herbs, woods, insects, worms and Wshes, birds and beasts. The Rhythmical
ReadyGuidewas helpful in the study of alliterative or rhyming compounds. Itsmajor
defect resulted fromZhuMouwei’s ignorance of ancient phonology, which led to his
inability to analyse alliterated or rhymed words from a phonetic perspective, hence
the deWciencies in word explanation and entry arrangement.
The General Ready Guide was compiled by Fang Yizhi of the Ming Dynasty.
Fang Yizhi, from Tongcheng, whose courtesy names were Dazhi, Mizhi, Wuke,
Yaozhen, Hongzhi, and Master Yuzhe, became a monk after the Manchurian
troops invaded the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. He was knowledgeable
and wrote books such as Fine Observations of Nature (<物理小识>), The
Fushan Collection (<浮山集>), and The General Ready Guide. The General
Ready Guide was compiled as from 1641 and published in 1663, with Wfty-two
volumes in the main body and three volumes in the front matter. The three
volumes in the front matter, namely ‘Miscellaneous Discussions on Meanings
and Pronunciations’, ‘Succinct ClassiWcation of Readings’, and ‘Preliminary
Introduction to Philology’ and ‘Aesthetic Notes on Poets and Poetry’ were a
synoptic discussion of some essential views on philology, which worked in
concert with the content of the main part of the work. The Wfty-two volumes
comprising the main body of the work were arranged as follows, with volumes
1 and 2 explaining ancient seal characters and ancient pronunciations; volumes 3
to 10, annotations; volumes 11 and 12, words in astronomy; volumes 13 to 17,
words in geography; volume 18, words of the human body; volume 19, terms of
address; volumes 20 and 21, family and given names; volumes 22 to 25, oYcial
administrative systems; volumes 26 and 27, administrative systems and institu-
tions; volume 28, etiquette; volume 29, rituals; volume 30, music and dances;
volumes 31 to 35, utensils; volumes 36 and 37, clothes; volume 38, buildings;
volume 39, food and drink; volume 40, arithmetic; volume 41 to 44,
plants; volume 45 to 47, animals; volume 48, inscriptions; volume 49, origin of
proverbs; volume 50, origin of rhymes and sounds; volume 51, pulse checking,
and volume 52, explanations of ancient recipes. The General Ready Guide brought
together diverse aspects of textual research in the explanations, sounds, and
rhymes as well as the names and deWnitions of various objects, giving priority
formation of word dictionaries 305
to the explanations of the words. Moreover, the writer’s own argumentations
against inaccurate explanations as well as his perspectives on some intractable
problems were put forward. The dictionary preserved an abundant databank of
ancient characters and words, with the immense addition of new words and
characters from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, hence a marvellous
reference for the exploration of the genesis of ancient characters and words as
well as the study of words in the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing Dynasties.
The Buddhist Ready Guide (<佛尔雅>, eight volumes) was compiled by Zhou
Chun (周春, 1729–1815) from Haining, whose courtesy name was Song’ai. Zhou
Chun, a proliWc writer, was erudite and keen on ancient study and wrote A Brief
Introduction to Phonetic Sounds in Thirteen Scriptures (<十三经音略>, thirteenvolumes), The Chinese Book of Filial Virtues (<中文孝经>, one volume), The
Preliminary Annotation to the Ready Guide (<尔雅初注>, four volumes), and
The Buddhist Ready Guide. His outstanding accomplishments in Buddhist scrip-
tures were noted in Biographies of Confucian’ Scholars in the Qing Dynasty (<清儒学案>) as being the result of extensive perusal of over six hundred Buddhist
scriptures, which equipped him with the groundwork for his compilation of The
Buddhist Ready Guide. Informed of his friend’s intention of compiling The
Buddhist Book of Filial Virtues (<佛孝经>), he recognized the immediate indis-
pensability of another book to go with it, that is The Buddhist Ready Guide.
Subsequently, he exerted himself in an endeavour to compile and collate The
Buddhist Ready Guide and Wnalized it within three months. The eight-volume
dictionary comprised Wfteen chapters, which successively interpreted in each
volume appellations and terms, exegetic words, relatives, buildings, music, as-
tronomy, geography, mountains, waters, herbs, woods, Wshes, birds and beasts.
The words embraced in the dictionary covered eight categories: (a) Buddhist
titles such as the appellations of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Arhat, Master of Disser-
tation, Master of Explanation, King, Senior, and other gods (see ‘Explaining
Appellations’); (b) Buddhist terms concerning etiquette, disciples, parts of the
human body, languages in the Western Regions, Buddhist classics, measurements
of time and substance, motions, conditions, ghosts and humans, diseases, com-
mon principles, etc.; (c) Buddhist history and sects; (d) buildings such as
temples, Jingshe (living or preaching places for monks and priests), towers,
birth places of Buddha, etc.; (e) astronomy and geography, covering various
Buddhist heavens, the sun, the moon, and stars, weather, Buddha’s lands,
Buddhist Holy Lands, countries, and various heavens in ancient India and
theWestern Regions, HolyMountains and ordinary mountains, rivers, continents
mentioned in Buddhist scriptures, etc.; (f) plants such as herbs, crops, Xowers,
trees, fruits, and some types of bamboo and vegetable, etc.; (g) creatures and
306 reform and shaping of lexicography
animals, such as insects, aquatics (including reptiles), various kinds of birds and
beasts, etc.; (h) utensils and stuV, such as instruments and vestments for Bud-
dhist rites, ordinary textiles, household appliances, food and drink, medicines,
jewellery, colours, Buddhist music and musical instruments, etc. In China, the
translation of Buddhist scriptures once thrived to an unprecedented degree with
the translation of 1,690 books (6,420 volumes in all) of Buddhist sutras, doc-
trines, and analects. However, the linguistic obscurity of the translations required
additional annotation of the words and characters from the scriptures. Further-
more, indexing in most translations turned out to be inconvenient. By contrast,
The Buddhist Ready Guide distinguishes itself with its highly convenient arrange-
ment of words on the basis of the categorization of things and their matching
terms.
The ReWned Ready Guide (<彬雅>) was compiled by Hu Chenggong (胡承珙,
1776–1832), whose courtesy names were Jingmeng and Mozhuang and who was
born in Jingxian, Anhui Province. He wrote books such as An Epilogue to Mao’s
Book of Songs (<毛诗后笺>), The Ancient Interpretation of the Ready Guide
(<尔雅古义>), The Ancient and Contemporary Exegesis of Etiquette and Rites
(<仪礼古今义疏文>), The Collected Poems and Prose of Qiushi Academy (<求是堂诗文集>), The RectiWcation of the Pocket Ready Guide (<小尔雅义疏>), andThe ReWned Ready Guide, the last of which was compiled during the mourning
leave for his parents, Wnished in 1846 and printed and published in 1881 by Yilin
Publishing House.
The eight-volume The ReWned Ready Guide concerned itself with the explan-
ation of 801 words categorized into ninety-Wve radical sections which were
arranged in accordance with the number of strokes of each radical. From volume
1 to 7, the number of strokes of each radical determined the volume number.
Radicals of more than seven strokes were assembled in volume 8. The approach of
textual criticism was employed in the explanations in The ReWned Ready Guide,
presenting the meanings of the words supported by extensive quotations and
rectifying the errors of previous scholars. The scope of research of The ReWned
Ready Guide mainly covered the annotation of philology, sounds and rhymes,
exegesis, collations, etc. in ancient classics and scriptures and the textual research
on ancient ritual articles and notions of historical regions.
There were also two other dictionaries compiled in Emperor Tongzhi’s reign in
the Qing Dynasty, which deserve mentioning: The Ready Guide of the Huzhou
Prefecture (<湖雅>) and The Alternating Ready Guide. Both dictionaries distin-
guished themselves with their concentrated specialization and elaborated clas-
siWcation. The Ready Guide of the Huzhou Prefecture was compiled by Wang
Yuezhen (汪曰桢) in the Tongzhi Reign of the Qing Dynasty. Wang Yuezhen
formation of word dictionaries 307
adopted The Annals of Wuxing, Jiatai (<嘉泰吴兴志>) as the primary source,
previous records of the prefecture and subordinate counties as reinforcements
and The Ready Guide, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, The
Exegesis on Poetry (<诗疏>), The Compendium of Materia Medica as documen-
ted evidence. Apart from the above, Wang Yuezhen also carried out an elaborate
selection of entries based on his comparison of the consulted books as well as his
own observations to deliver in the dictionary a classiWed explanation of the
products, customs, utensils and appliances of the Huzhou prefecture. The
Ready Guide of the Huzhou Prefecture comprised nine volumes, the titles of
which were as follows: Volume 1, grains and vegetables; Volume 2, melons, fruits,
and teas; Volume 3, medicines and Xorae; Volume 4, herbs, woods and bamboos;
Volume 5, birds, beasts, dragons, and snakes; Volume 6, Wshes, coccids, worms,
and insects; Volume 7, metals, jades and stones, silk Xosses, cloths and silk
textiles; Volume 8, brewage, pastries, and cuisines; Volume 9, utensils and
appliances, vehicles and Wrewood. A resemblance could be discerned in the
compilation format of The Ready Guide of the Huzhou Prefecture to such dic-
tionaries as The Augmented Ready Guide and The Extended Ready Guide. The
Alternating Ready Guide, compiled by Shi Menglan in the Qing Dynasty, was
published in 1864. Complying with the format of The Ready Guide, this thirteen-
volume dictionary possessed an extensive coverage of the assonant compounds
appearing in ancient classics, historical and philosophical works, poetry and
prose as well as various annotations. As remarked in the preface of the dictionary,
characters in assonant compounds with similar meanings but diVerent forms
were categorized into the same sections while those with the same form but
diVerent meanings into diVerent sections. For characters in assonant compounds
sharing the same pronunciation and form and referring to each other, distinction
was made in regard to their forms as in The Distinctive Ready Guide and
manifestations of the sameness of their meaning as in The General Ready
Guide. The Alternating Ready Guide investigated the origin of the words and
provided exhaustive annotations on the deWnition of the words. For whatever
was cited in the dictionary, detailed information was provided with regard to the
name of books and articles and the time of the writer as well, rendering the
indexing system extremely helpful. Besides the above-mentioned dictionaries,
the Qing Dynasty also boasted The Contrastive Ready Guide and The Distinctive
Ready Guide. The former was compiled by Hong Liangji in keeping with the
format of The Ready Guide. This Wve-volume dictionary functioned as a conver-
gence of ancient exegesis, an explanation of synonyms in ancient Chinese, and
hence a desirable reference for research into language, literature, and studies of
the meanings of words. The latter was compiled by Wu Yujin and published in
308 reform and shaping of lexicography
the reign of Emperor Qianlong. Primarily concerned with the explanation of
two-syllable compounds, the dictionary listed the variant forms of each word
with their respective sources, demonstrating the relationships of interchangeabil-
ity, transferred deWnition, or loaning among the words.
Related to dictionaries in the family of The Ready Guide are its annotated
versions, the publication of which took place in various Chinese dynasties,
particularly in the Qing Dynasty. The Exegesis of the Ready Guide, written by
Hao Yixing in 1822, is generally considered the most detailed and popular
annotation characterized by the writer’s Weld research on most of the words
regarding herbs, woods, insects, worms and Wshes and his courageous rectiWca-
tion of various feudal superstitions handed down from previous dynasties. The
dictionary, being phonetics-oriented, employed the method of phonetic inter-
pretation in its endeavour to annotate The Ready Guide and explain and diVer-
entiate words so as to ascertain the character adoption from The Ready Guide and
other ancient works so as to achieve mutual corroboration with the deWnitions in
The Ready Guide.
The Fangyan dictionary familyThe Fangyan dictionary family members in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were
roughly categorized into two types: those elucidating, emending, supplementing,
and augmenting The Dictionary of Dialectal Words and those new compilations,
most of which are dictionaries of regional dialectal words, involving dialects used
in such regions as the ‘Shu’, ‘Wu-Xia’, and ‘Yue’ regions. These works reinforce
and enrich the substance of Chinese dialect dictionaries. The recorded diction-
aries of dialectal words in the Ming Dynasty include The RectiWed Dictionary of
Dialectal Words, A Categoric Dictionary of Dialectal Words, and The Dictionary of
the Shu Dialect. The Qing Dynasty represents a Xourishing period of dialect
compilations, comprising three categories: (a) dictionaries elucidating and
emending The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, such as The RectiWcation of the
Dictionary of Dialectal Words written by Dai Zhen, The RectiWed Dictionary of
Dialectal Words with New RectiWcations by Lu Wenshao, The Annotated Interpret-
ation of the Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Qian Yi, and Supplements to the
RectiWcation of the Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Wang Niansun; (b) diction-
aries supplementing and extending The Dictionary of Dialectal Words, such as The
Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words written by Hang Shijun, Supplements
and RectiWcations to the Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Cheng
Jisheng, New Supplements and RectiWcations to the Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words by Xu Naichang, The Broadly Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal
formation of word dictionaries 309
Words with Supplements by Cheng Xianjia, and New Supplements to the Aug-
mented Dictionary of Dialectal Words by Zhang Shenyi; (c) newly compiled
dictionaries, which may be subdivided into two types: (i) those collecting
dialectal words in famous works such as Li Diaoyuan’s The Dialectal Dictionary
of Literary Embellishments, which explains the dialectal words collected from
both ancient and contemporary poetry and prose; (ii) those expounding
regional dialects such as Hu Wenying’s The Dictionary of Textual Researches
on the Wu-Xia Dialect, which collected and investigated into the dialects in the
Changzhou, Wuxi, and Suzhou regions and Du Xuxu’s An Explanatory Diction-
ary of the Yue Dialect, which explored the origin of words in the Yue dialect. The
following is a concise introduction to the masterpieces of dictionaries of
dialectal words.
The Dictionary of the Shu Dialectwas compiled by Li Shi, who lived in seclusion
in Suzhou for thirty years after the fall of theMing Dynasty. Li Shi, whose courtesy
name was Rushi, from Suining, Sichuan Province, was a proliWc writer whose
works on language included The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect and The Dictionary
of the Wu Dialect (<吴语>). In the Preface to The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect, Li
Shi mentioned that he was born and brought up in the villages in the Shu Region
and was immersed in the Shu dialect. Yet confused by the strokes of the characters,
he had no time to research the dialect until he resided in Changzhou where he
began the study of the Shu dialect. He claimed that there was no diVerentiation of
inferiority and superiority between standard words and folk words from his
humble perspective and that both could function alike in communication. This
view had not been raised and fully recognized until the 1970s, when sociolinguis-
tics gained some momentum. The background to and motive for Li Shi’s com-
pilation of The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect can be best illustrated by his mention
of ‘fondness of speaking his native dialect as a reminder of his origin’. According to
FuDingmiao (傅定淼, FuDingmiao, 1987), Li Shi’s year of birthwas between 1606
and 1614 and the year of his death between 1684 and 1692. The Dictionary of the Shu
Dialect was compiled and published between 1673 and 1692. Explaining the words
of the Sichuan (Shu) dialect, the dictionary ranks among the earliest existing
dictionaries to investigate regional folk languages. The 564 entry words of the Shu
dialect included in the dictionary are treated with neither classiWcation nor
volume division. Meanings of the words are followed by their pronunciations.
The words covered included general terms, interpersonal appellations, human
actions, and properties and states.
The entries started with the explanation of the meanings, followed by phonetic
notations, as in ‘皮裂曰皴,皴音村’ and ‘露牙曰龅,龅音报’. As far as dictionary
format was concerned, The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect lacked a reasonable
310 reform and shaping of lexicography
sequence for word arrangement, resulting in diYcult access and retrieval of
information.
The Dictionary of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect was compiled by Hu
Wenying, whose courtesy names were Shengyan and Zhiyu and who was born in
Wujin, Jiangsu Province, in the Qing Dynasty, with the date of birth and death
unknown. According to Chen Zhen (陈真, 1984), the date of birth of Hu Wenying
goes back to the last years of the reign of Emperor Yongzheng (1723–1735) or to the
early years of the reign of Emperor Kangxiwhile the date of his death to the last years
of the reign of Emperor Qianlong, or even to the Wrst years of the reign of Emperor
Jiaqing. Rather than being unruly, Hu Wenying was ‘restrained’. Integrated and
open-minded, he would be content with living reclusively, playing musical instru-
ments, and singing songs to entertain himself. Learned and adept at writing, he was
quiet in his leisure and principled when travelling. In addition to The Dictionary of
Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect, Hu Wenying’s other works include
Original Commentaries on Zhuang Zi (<庄子独见>), The Interpretation of Poetry
(<诗疑义释>), The General Interpretation of Mao’s Book of Songs (<毛诗通义>),and Supplements to the Exegesis on Poetry (<诗疏补遗>). The compilation of The
Dictionary of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect started in 1753 or 1754,
Wnished in 1760 andwas sent for publication in 1783. The twenty-volume dictionary
studies the phonetics of words in the Wu dialect with evidence from ancient books
for the supplementation to classics and historical works from the perspective ofWu
dialect pronunciation. For every word or sentence in the books he read and every
folk saying he heard in the streets, Hu Wenying would consult ancient documen-
tation to explore their meanings. In the front matter of the dictionary are the
prefaces by Qian Renlin (钱人麟) and by the author himself, guide to use, and
table of contents. The dictionary listed 993 entries of dialectal words in the Changz-
hou, Wuxi, and Suzhou regions and arranged them in twelve volumes, Wrst accord-
ing to the pingshui rhyme and then the order of the four tones. Each entry was
signiWed by the original formof the character, whichwas followed by the notation of
pronunciation and tone with Chinese characters as well as relevant citations. Then,
explanations of the words in the citations were given in the form of notes. Finally,
the dialectal words and expressions in the Wu dialects were presented (marked by
*) together with their brief and concise explanations. The Dictionary of Textual
Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect is of signiWcant reference value in the textual
research of words. Hu Wenying made such outstanding achievements in detailed
textual research that even today’s research on the original form and genesis of
dialectal words cannot surpass in many respects what he accomplished. However,
the dictionary’s blemishes lie in its occasional inaccuracy in the phonetic study,
far-fetched interpretation of words due to improper understanding, and the
formation of word dictionaries 311
diYculty in consultation for lack of speciWc indications of chapters and reference
sources.
Mention should be made, lastly, of two more dictionaries – The Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words and The Broadly Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal
Words with Supplements. The former was a collection of over 500 dialectal words
from over ten types of ancient classics such as The Annotated RectiWcation of
Thirteen Scriptures (<十三经注疏>). This two-volume dictionary adopted from
The Ready Guide the classiWcation and arrangement of words and provided
references of citations and in some cases the phonetic notation of fanqie and
collative explanations as well. Employing the same format of Hang Shijun’s The
Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words and Cheng Jisheng’s The RectiWed
Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words, the latter supplemented the two dic-
tionaries by providing citations dating back to the Tang Dynasty. Consisting of
four volumes and 18 categories, this dictionary is of considerable reference value
with its extensive quotations of dialectal words.
Dictionaries of exegetic explanationAlthough there are a huge number of annotations in ancient Chinese works, their
scattered distribution in various books has rendered consultation diYcult. Wang
Yinzhi recalls in the Preface to The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics that
previous scholars, such as Dai Dongyuan (戴东原) and Zhu Sihe (朱笥河), had
tried in vain the compilation of dictionaries of annotations. His teacher Yuntai
(芸台) also proposed such a compilationwith SunYuanru (孙渊如), later joined by
Zhu Shaohe (朱少河). Nonetheless, the project was aborted. It was not until Ruan
Yuan’s compilation of The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics that things
began to change. Ruan Yuan, from Yizheng, Jiangsu Province, whose courtesy
nameswere Boyuan andYuntai, had been appointedGrand Scholar of Tiren Library
and Governor of Hunan and Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan and Gui-
zhou Provinces. The compilationwas carried out during his oYce of Administrator
of Education in Zhejiang Province. Led by ZangYongtang (臧镛堂, also ZangYong,
臧镛) as the chief compiler, the group of thirty-three selected scholars completed
the dictionary in two years and had it published in 1798.
Employing the arrangement of A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, The Exegetic
Interpretations of Ancient Classics listed its character and word entries in 106
rhythmic volumes in the order of the four tones, with each volume representing a
rhyme. The dictionary included annotations of 13, 349Chinese characters (exclusive
of variant forms) collected from more than one hundred books prior to the Tang
Dynasty ranging from exegesis of ancient classics, historical, and philosophical
312 reform and shaping of lexicography
works, to books of annotations, characters, rhymes, and pronunciations as well.
Detailed information concerning the names of books, articles, and volume numbers
of the citations were provided in the dictionary to produce a conXuence of
approximately all the ancient exegesis of characters and annotations in various
ancient books. The dictionary covered words as well as characters. Besides the
characters in A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, other characters and words from
The Dictionary of Rhymes and The Rhyme Dictionarywere also supplemented in the
dictionary. The explanations of meanings started with the original meanings of the
entries, followed by the extended meanings and interchangeable meanings. Poly-
phonic characters were categorized according to diVerent rhymes into their respect-
ive volumes where explanations were given separately. In terms of dictionary
format, The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics retained all the explanations,
brief or detailed, of the same character or word without addition or removal.
It is thus evident that The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics possessed
the dual functions of the Chinese character dictionary and word dictionary. The
chief Xaw of the dictionary lay in its inaccuracy and errors in the collation of
citations resulting from group compilation.
17.5 the academic value and influence of worddictionaries in the ming and qing dynasties
The word dictionaries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties function not only as
a summarization of the study of ancient classics of the time but also as an
indispensable tool for subsequent readers perusing ancient classics. The textual
research on the keywords of Confucian classics conducted by researchers in the
mid-Qing Dynasty are, in essence, circuitous challenges to the mainstream ideolo-
gies of the time and an eVort to cast oV the shadow of their deprived right to
the interpretation of truth. Such intentions are well expressed by Dai Zhen:
The summit of Confucian classics indicates the law of the universe, the enlightenment of
which relies on the words of the classics, which are subordinately formed by characters.
The comprehension of the law of the universe is a gradual process achieved through the
apprehension of the characters in the classics which lead to the formation of the words.
Dai Zhen also believes that because of the great distance in time from the
ancient sages, scholars could only learn the law of the universe in the Six Classics.
These classics written in ancient times expound profound speculations upon the
formation of word dictionaries 313
law of the universe and give succinct discussions about the systems of the times
according to the comprehension level of the learners of the time. However,
tracing the law of the universe in a remote dynasty hundreds of years ago is by
any means diYcult. Therefore, the study of the classics should start from
understanding the words, then the sentences, and Wnally the enlightenment of
the law of the universe bearing on the classics (see The Collected Works of Dai
Zhen, Volume 9:140; Volume 11:164–5, 1974). Such judgement and cognitive
sequence of the truth in classics has acquired wide acceptance among textual
researchers that the process should start from the exploration of character
meanings to the identiWcation of word meanings, then the analysis of sentence
meaning, and Wnally the interpretation of truth. Naturally following from such
acceptance is the social and political signiWcance of word dictionary compilation
by scholars in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The academic value and inXuences of the word dictionaries in the Ming and
Qing Dynasties are evident in diverse respects. First, using the groundwork of
previous studies, dictionary compilers of this period brought about new devel-
opments in the research of lexicographical theories and relevant Welds, which was
primarily reXected in the front matter of the dictionaries. Ruan Yuan presented in
the front matter of The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics discussions on
the content, scope, and norms of terms of exegesis, which could be regarded as an
exegetic dissertation of admirable academic accomplishment with great sign-
iWcance to Chinese exegesis. The General Ready Guidemade several discoveries in
the semantics of ancient Chinese words by explicitly proposing the principles of
‘understanding the ancient phonetics prior to the apprehension of ancient
semantics’ (the front volume) and ‘seeking the meaning from the pronunciation
and inferring the pronunciation through the meaning’ (Volume 6).
The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words, compiled by Liu Qi, gives a
careful classiWcation and an accurate discrimination of the usages of function
words with an extensive range of resources and detailed argumentations. Re-
gardless of cases of non-compliance with the exegetic principles of explanation,
errors in citations and deWnitions, illogicality in categorization methods, the
dictionary still ranks as the Wrst in the history of Chinese language studies to
carry out such an exhaustive analysis, categorization, and interpretation of
function words. Being a major breakthrough and innovation in the study of
Chinese function words and the compilation of function word dictionaries,
The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words established a signiWcant frame
of reference for the compilation of usage dictionaries and later studies of function
words.
314 reform and shaping of lexicography
Second, as regards dictionary compilation itself, the word dictionaries of the
Ming and Qing Dynasties paved the way for the Wnalization of the format of
Chinese word dictionaries in the sense that their formats progressed further
towards perfection and standardization, that both micro- and macrostructuring
gradually became more uniWed and user-friendly, and that the theoretical sum-
marization concerning dictionary format becamemore systematic and integrated.
The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics embodies the accomplishments of
other dictionaries and its principle with respect to format can be condensed as
‘displaying all the characters under the heading of a single rhyme and complete
explanations within the entry of a single character’ (see Wang Yinzhi’s Preface).
The twenty-four notes on the use of the dictionary formulated by Ruan Yuan
represent an innovation in and systematic construction of the format of word
dictionaries, which furnish later word dictionary compilers with a great deal of
salutary inspiration. The layout of Ruan Yuan’s The Exegetic Interpretations of
Ancient Classics is so well organized that Liu Dabai (刘大白) deems it ‘a word
dictionary truly designed for later scholars’ (Preface to The General Dictionary of
the Chinese Language (<辞通>,序).
Wang Yinzhi and his father were extremely accomplished in the study of
exegesis and word deWnitions. Therefore, the deWning methods they employed
were relatively scientiWc and illustrative of their rational thinking on Chinese
grammar. They also attached great importance to the origin of characters and
proposed several reWned and innovative viewpoints regarding the interchange-
ability of characters. Their approach of integrated investigation of grammar,
word origin, and explanation exerted an indelible inXuence on the deWning
methodology of ancient Chinese dictionaries as well as its theoretical exploration.
Moreover, such an approach accumulated valuable experience for the compil-
ation of general dictionaries, and function word dictionaries in particular. A
breakthrough in the exempliWcation and deWnition of the Erya dictionary family
is seen in The General Ready Guide, which copes with the absence of exempliWca-
tion and counter-examples in previous Erya dictionary members by providing
both of them in the explanations to tackle some diYcult problems regarding
word meanings. Other innovations are represented by The Dictionary of Dialectal
Words to initiate the practice of adopting spoken language as examples and by
The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words to employ informal and folk
language in its explanation of ancient words, originating the approach of exem-
plifying standard words with informal and folk language.
Third, the level of word dictionary compilation in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties was further promoted, bringing about the emergence of new types of
dictionaries, such as dictionaries of regional dialectal words and function words.
formation of word dictionaries 315
The Dictionary of Dialectal Words was the Wrst Chinese dialectal dictionary.
Although succeeded by many augmentations and supplementations or records
of dialectal phenomena, none of these was ‘regional’ or became specialized. The
Dictionary of the Shu Dialect was the Wrst existing ‘regional’ dictionary of dialectal
words in China, containing several advantages in comparison with The Diction-
ary of Dialectal Words. While The Dictionary of Dialectal Words merely listed
explanations of meanings of dialectal words without indicating pronunciations
in various places, The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect, however, explained dialectal
words in popular language and provided clear and accurate pronunciations. It
retained a huge number of dialectal words from the ancient Sichuan region,
which were of such great vitality that most of them were still in use up to the
present, an indication that Li Shi possessed outstanding ability in the evaluation
and selection of dialectal words. Drawing a relatively comprehensive picture of
the phonology of the Sichuan dialect, the dictionary is of great signiWcance to the
study of the historical development of the pronunciations of the Sichuan dialect,
the historical comparative analysis of dialectal pronunciations, and the tracing of
some aspects of phonology in The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes. The dictionary
also attaches great importance to the genesis of dialectal words. It lists, to the
greatest extent, the textual exempliWcations of the words and gives fairly justiW-
able explanations for those lacking textual evidence.
In recording dialectal words, The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect strives for
conformity not only with the pronunciation and meanings of dialectal words
but also with old phonetic notations and explanations in books of rhymes and
characters of previous dynasties. It can be inferred that The Dictionary of the Shu
Dialect brings about remarkable developments in both the format construction of
dialect dictionaries and the substantiation and enrichment of dictionary content.
Fourth, in terms of textual research of language data, a great deal of sum-
marization and innovation was achieved in the compilation of dictionaries in the
Ming and Qing Dynasties, which resulted in beneWcial resources for subsequent
dictionary compilations. The ReWned Ready Guide aims at providing assistance
for the understanding of classics and records of defence of dissertations (Preface
to The ReWned Ready Guide). It distinguishes itself from other members of the
Erya dictionary family with its emphasis on the textual research of explanations,
a feature rendering the dictionary of relatively higher academic value. The ReWned
Ready Guide adopts important approaches instructive of the study of the Chinese
language, among which are conducting textual research on the explanation of
certain characters, collating ancient books, indicating the pronunciations of
polyphonic and polysemous characters, and pointing out their antinomy with
respect to the meaning items.
316 reform and shaping of lexicography
Proverbs of the Yue Dialect strives to explore the origin of the Yue dialect
through mutual veriWcation between ancient and present texts. The preservation
of some precious historical data, textual veriWcation of the origin of Yue customs,
introduction of features and methods for making various spectacular specialities
and typical local dishes together with its emphasis on the Weld corroboration of
the names of things contribute to the eminence of the dictionary as a greatly
distinctive dialect dictionary of extreme value to textual research. The greatest
value of The Dictionary of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect lies in its
preservation of an abundance of dialects and folk languages of the Wu region
during the reign of Emperors Yongzheng and Qianglong in the Qing Dynasty.
The dictionary lists more than 1,500 entries with explanations of the dialects and
folk languages of the Wu region. The textually researched original forms of
characters as well as the then popular spoken languages in the Wu dialect quoted
in every entry in the dictionary can provide valuable reference for the compara-
tive study of the history of the Chinese language, lexical and other research on the
Wu dialects and the compilation of dictionaries of the Wu dialect. The phonetic
notation used in The Dictionary of Textual Researches on the Wu-Xia Dialect, the
so-called ‘Wu Notation’, together with the present pronunciations of the Wujin
dialect, will enable the induction of the phonological system of the then Wujin
dialect, which adds considerably to the value of the dictionary.
Fifth, the word dictionaries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are of enormous
cultural value because of their preservation of material concerning local condi-
tions, customs, means of production, and daily life of the period. For instance,
some of the dialectal words listed in The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect provide rare
material for archaeological veriWcation and for the study of folklore. Proverbs of
the Yue Dialect inspires an understanding of nature by providing rich knowledge
regarding various aspects of the means of production and daily life of the time. It
preserves plenty of words, proverbs, and folk songs reXecting local customs and
the geographic features of the region.
Finally, the word dictionaries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties possess language
data of extraordinary value in providing later generations with abundant lin-
guistic material covering a wide range of Welds. For example, The Rhythmical
Ready Guide lists words from the ancient classics, histories dating back from the
Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties to the Six Dynasties, words from anthology and
encyclopedic dictionaries of the Tang and Song Dynasties, many of which came
down in their spoken forms from numerous and complicated origins, with varied
written forms. Scholars of modern times who wish to comprehend the Buddhist
scripts and understand the names of things therein will rely heavily on The
Buddhist Ready Guide. Zhou Chun claims in the Preface to this work: ‘All the
formation of word dictionaries 317
sutras, doctrines, and analects are presented in the form of language, while only a
careful discrimination of the names of things mentioned will ensure the full
understanding of Buddha’s teachings. That explains why books should not be
disposed of casually.’
The Buddhist Ready Guide is an indispensable tool for the sorting of ancient
classics, particularly Buddhist scriptures. The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient
Classics boasts a plentiful amount of language data and relatively complete
interpretations which provide invaluable linguistic resources for dictionary com-
pilation and are extremely helpful for meaning diVerentiation of deWnitions, the
perusal of ancient books, and the study of ancient classics. Proverb Couplets of the
Wu Dialect (<吴下谚联>) has focused resources of the common sayings of the
Wu region, which assist research in lexicology, semantics, the study of common
sayings, and the compilation of dictionaries of common sayings.
318 reform and shaping of lexicography
18
THE EVOLUTION ANDREFORMATION OF
SPECIAL ANDENCYCLOPEDIC
DICTIONARIES IN CHINA
AS indicated in the Introduction, dictionaries are classiWed into two major
categories – general and special dictionaries – on the basis of their func-
tions. Special dictionaries are mainly compiled to serve special purposes and
meet the needs of speciWc user groups. They usually involve the technical terms
of speciWc Welds (such as law, medicine, etc.), or a certain part of the lexicon of
a language (such as verbs, prepositions, etc.), or a certain aspect of language
use (such as spelling, pronunciation, rhymes, etc.). The special dictionaries to
be discussed in this chapter are mainly dictionaries of function words, and
dictionaries of quotations, idioms, and proverbs. Encyclopedic dictionaries are
more ‘general’ in nature than general dictionaries as they cover a much wider
range of information and knowledge concerning human civilization and
language. Encyclopedic dictionaries included in this chapter are mainly clas-
siWed dictionaries, which resemble encyclopedias in several conspicuous ways.
Since rhyme dictionaries have evolved into a relatively independent system
in the special dictionary genre, they will be discussed separately in the next
chapter.
18.1 the historical background in theming and qing dynasties
In the period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China once again experienced an
enormous and fundamental cultural shock with the gradual pervasion of Western
knowledge, thought, and religions into the ever great and proud Chinese Empire.
In ancient China, map making was rather advanced. In the minds of the Chinese
people, the notion of ‘the world’ was such that there is an enormous and civilized
Empire at the centre, surrounded by numerous uncivilized small states. The
‘world’ maps drawn by the ancient Chinese usually had titles like 禹贡, 华夷,
and 舆地. From these terms, the notions of the ancient Chinese people about
天下 (the world), 中国 (China), and 四裔 (minor nationalities remotely sur-
rounding China) could be recognized. At the end of the sixteenth century, when
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), an Italian missionary, brought the map of the world
from the West to China, the collective ‘image’ of the world in the minds of the
Chinese people was dramatically changed. Some intellectuals quickly accepted
such a new ‘image’ of the world with the co-existence of multiple civilizations,
such maps of the world were printed prominently in the books of common
knowledge – classiWed dictionaries – which had a wide circulation and profound
inXuence on the thinking and religion of the general public. For instance, The
Entire Territory Map of Mountains and Seas (<山海舆地全图>) could be found
in General Monthly Climates (<月令广义>, 1602) and in A Pictorial Collection of
Heaven, Earth, and Humans (<三才图会>, 1609). From then on, the world of
knowledge, the world of thought, and the world of religion all underwent gradual
changes. There appeared books from the Western world about global geography,
such as The World Map (<万国舆图>) and Areas Outside the Concern of the
Chinese Imperial Geographer (<职方外纪>), books about the philosophy and
methodology of the Western people, such as Explorations in Philosophical Prin-
ciples (<名理探>), and A Thorough Exploration in Philosophy (<穷理学>),books about practical technologies, such as The Compendium of Agriculture
and The Book of Nature’s Engineering, and books about politics, such as The
Complete Manual of Taxes and Services (<赋役全书>) and Annals of Water
Transportation (<漕运志>).In the mid-nineteenth century, the publication of An Illustrated Gazette of
Overseas States (<海国图志>) by Wei Yuan (魏源) and A Brief Account of the
Overseas States (<瀛环志略>) by Xu Jishe (徐继畲) indicated a transformation
in the traditional transmission of knowledge.WhenWei YuanwroteAn Illustrated
320 reform and shaping of lexicography
Gazette of Overseas States, hemainly quoted from two kinds of books, that is, those
written by Chinese scholars, involving oYcial history books, decrees and regula-
tions, geographical records, classiWed dictionaries, in addition to journals, travel
diaries, local annals, and monographs, and those written by foreign scholars, six
old books by earlier missionaries and eleven new contemporary works. In com-
parison with An Illustrated Gazette of Overseas States, A Brief Account of the
Overseas States is more like a geographical work with fresher knowledge.
With the ‘expansion’ of the world and the ‘shrinkage’ of China, Chinese
intellectuals came to realize that there existed a world of multiple civilizations.
Such a realization further changed the attitude of the Chinese intellectuals
towards the outside world. In 1862, the Wrst year of Emperor Tongzhi of the
Qing Dynasty, an oYcial institution named the Capital City Tongwenguan (京城
同文馆) was established. The name of the institution alluded to the decree of
‘Writing Same Character’ promulgated by the Wrst Chinese Emperor in the Qin
Dynasty, indicating the egocentricity of the Chinese Imperialism. It was, however,
diVerent from Foreign AVairs Establishment (四夷馆), established by the Ming
Dynasty government in 1407, which focused on training interpreters for the
purpose of handling foreign aVairs. Tongwenguan, however, was set up for the
study of foreign languages in order to promote communication and exchanges
with the foreign countries. With the expansion of spatial dimensions, there came
an expansion of the knowledge space – various branches of knowledge Xowing
into China. The special dictionaries and encyclopedic dictionaries of the Ming
and Qing Dynasties were evolving against such a humanity background, serving
as a foil to the exchange and conXict between the Western and the Chinese
civilizations.
18.2 lexicographical paradigm in theming and qing dynasties
The theoretical underpinnings for compiling special and encyclopedic dictionaries
(especially for encyclopedias) are the lexicographical expression of the values of
scientiWc knowledge. In the classic and traditional Chinese culture, especially in that
of theMing andQingDynasties, science was normally construed as the bringing into
play of practical values. In the Ming Dynasty, there were representative Wgures such
as Li Shizhen, Xu Guangqi, and Xu Xiake. Theoretically, Li Shizhen took Yin–Yang,
the Five Elements, and Qi as the basic notions to construct his medical theory. He
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 321
laid much emphasis on ‘the investigation of things’ and held that medicinal herbs,
‘though materia medica in the eyes of the physicians, should be investigated in the
theoretical framework of Confucian studies in order to get a good understanding of
their properties’ (The Compendium of Materia Medica: Explanatory Notes). Here,
‘the investigation of things’ underlines the practicality of scientiWc research.
Xu Guangqi, a remarkable representative Wgure, achieved more than any other
scholar in learning scientiWc knowledge from the West at the end of the Ming
Dynasty. In the science historyofChina,XuGuangqi’smajor contributions resided
in the introduction of science and technology and researchmethodology from the
West, and the research he himself conducted. In 1606, together with Matteo Ricci,
he translatedEuclid’sElements (<几何原本>) intoChinese.Geometrywasmainly
a kind of training of thought and the basis for natural sciences in the West. The
translation of Euclid’s Elements was actually the Wrst attempt to introduce the
rigorous deductive inference system into Chinese civilization, representing a
dialogue between Oriental and Western civilization in ways of thinking, a big
event in the history of world civilization. Based on his many years of agricultural
experiments, he wrote The Compendium of Agriculture (sixty volumes), of about
700, 000 characters in size. It is an important work on ancient agriculture, of great
signiWcance to Chinese and indeed world agricultural studies.
Xu Xiake, a scholar of all-round knowledge, devoted more than thirty years to
geographical surveys, especially in Southeast China conducting for the Wrst time
a systematic investigation into the limestone karsts. The Travel Diaries of Xu
Xiake (<徐霞客游记>) is regarded as the Wrst academic work on karsts, which is
about two centuries earlier than similar research carried out in Europe. The style
of academic research employed by Xu Xiake was unique at the end of the Ming
Dynasty. Unlike his contemporary scholars, Xu Xiake looked into nature directly
and this new mode of investigation not only opened new Welds of research but
also undermined to a certain extent the supreme dominance of classic research.
How was the scientiWc knowledge presented in special dictionaries in the
Ming and Qing Dynasties? The Compendium of Materia Medica is a case in
point. The Ming and Qing Dynasties was an important period in the history of
medicine in China. The main characteristics of this period could be summar-
ized as: numerous important discoveries and inventions in medicine; frequent
and unprecedented communication between China and foreign countries;
considerable medical works, including specialized dictionaries of medicine,
which served as a summarization of previous medical achievements, in com-
bination with individuals’ clinical experiences. The Compendium of Materia
Medica is a good representation of such characteristics. Judging from the
historical perspective of scientiWc thought, The Compendium of Materia Medica
322 reform and shaping of lexicography
made prominent contributions to medicine and natural sciences in China and
the world. It systematically summarized medical research before the sixteenth
century in China, speciWcally identiWed the curative eVects of drugs, and
rectiWed the erroneous records of drugs in the old version of Materia Medica.
For instance, it veriWed that 苹 refers to 田字草 (clover fern) and 萍 refers to
水浮萍 (duckweed), putting right the misuse of 苹, 萍, 蓴, 莕, and 萍蓬草
interchangeably. The book also made great achievements in pharmacy and
proposed a scientiWc method of Materia Medica classiWcation. There were
records of ways of powder comminuting and mixing, the making of tinctures
and infusions, and the reWnement and capsuling of pills, etc. These records have
been proved to be accurate by modern pharmacy. In the reWnement and making
of pills, whether to use water or alcohol as the solvent depends on how easily
the medical solute can dissolve in water or alcohol, and if wax is to be used for
the capsule, the eVects of the medicine are better preserved. These practices are
very valuable in the making of pills in modern pharmacy and in the investiga-
tions into the preservation of the eVectiveness of the medicine. The Compen-
dium of Materia Medica put forward many signiWcant points in the light of the
theories established in Classic Internal Medicine (<内经>). Almost every argu-
ment in The Compendium of Materia Medica is supported by citations from
classic medical works, laying emphasis on the basic theories of Chinese medi-
cine, such as the Yin–Yang (阴阳) and the Five Elements (五行) theory, the
correspondence between heaven and the human being, the pulse condition, and
the main and collateral channels, etc. It is also among the earliest to have
noticed the fact that spiritual activities are the results of the functions of the
brain. The Compendium of Materia Medica also provided a detailed description
of the production areas, physical attributes and application methods (such as
methods of identiWcation) of numerous minerals and discussed the mechan-
isms of the evolution of some minerals and the chemical reactions taking place
in the processing of some metals, compounds, and biological medicines. The
Compendium of Materia Medica has made great contributions to China’s
natural history, pharmacy, and traditional medical science. It has been well
regarded and highly rated in the Welds of medicine and botany. As a specialized
dictionary of medicine in the Ming Dynasty, The Compendium of Materia
Medica has embodied the application of the principles of scientiWc thinking
to the compilation of special dictionaries – the format and style, selection of
contents, and the methods of deWnition and explanation. It has also embodied
the inXuence of the knowledge systems of natural and social sciences on the
design of the format and style, the classiWcation and explanation of knowledge
in special and encyclopedic dictionaries.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 323
18.3 the analysis of format and stylein the ming and qing dynasties
In the early periods of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the macrostructure of
special dictionaries, in essence, indicated how to speciWcally classify diVerent
subjects and diVerent kinds of knowledge involved, and the microstructure
mainly indicated how to deWne and explain diVerent terms involved in natural
and social sciences. What follows is an analysis of the format and compilation
style of some representative works of the special and encyclopedic dictionaries of
the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Let us Wrst look at three special dictionaries: ADictionary of Rhymes and Styles, A
Dictionary of Synonyms, and A Dictionary of Titles and Appellations (<称谓录>).In terms of format and style, A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles is divided into
diVerent sections according to pingshui rhyme (平水韵, rhymes for poetry) and
based on the four tones, i.e. level tone, rising tone, falling tone, and entering tone,
with the level tone being subdivided into the upper level tone and the lower level
tone. Each tone consists of diVerent sections in the sequence of the subtitles of the
pingshui rhyme. There are 106 rhyme sections altogether. In each rhyme section are
listed the characters sharing the same rhyme. Since ‘things are character-oriented’,
words and phrases with the same character ending are grouped under each ‘head
character’. And the words and phrases are arranged according to the number of
characters the word or phrase comprises. Under each head character, its pronun-
ciation is phonetically notated with fanqie and the meaning of the character is
brieXy explicated with a clear indication of its source of citation. The whole lexicon
is listed and interpreted in two separate parts. The part of 韵藻 (rhyme chains) is
mainly copied from The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes and Wuju Rhyme Dictionary
(<五车韵瑞>). Those words that are not included in these two books are put in a
separate part – the Supplement. In this part, the data quoted are arranged in the
sequence of Classics, Histories, Philosophy, andAnthology. If aword or a phrase co-
occurs in several books, the Wrst quotation is usually the original one, with the
others in chronological order. The ‘Supplement’ is followed by antithetical quota-
tions (对语) and sentence quotations (摘句). The part of ‘antithetical quotations’ is
a collection of antithetical phrases and sentences, and the part of ‘sentence quota-
tions’ is a collection of relevant Wve-character and seven-character poetic verses.
Since the material in this book is chieXy taken from various classiWed dictionaries,
there are quite a number of errors that occur. Moreover, there are also quotations
with only the names of the books other than the titles of the texts from which they
324 reform and shaping of lexicography
are quoted, which renders it diYcult for users to consult and check, a major defect
of A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles.
A Dictionary of Synonyms plays a unique part in the history of Chinese
dictionary compilation, for it integrates the formats and styles of both a general
philological dictionary and a thesaurus. Its Preface states: ‘Things are sorted and
grouped together, which indicates the beginning of classiWcation. The characters
today are combinatorial and the characters with diVerent meanings can be
collocated together. In compilation, characters are grouped according to the
categories they belong to and the things they refer to will not be confused’.
Its signiWcance in the history of dictionary compilation lies in the fact that it
initiated a new format and style – a character governing relevant compounds and
phrases with this character as a component. As is stated in The General Catalogue
and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature : ‘It is
ingenious to invent such a format and style of compilation’. Zhang Luxiang
(1988) makes the following remarks:
A Dictionary of Synonyms is a reference book listing the best achievements of many other
relevant works and has been long highly valued for its enormous collection of words,
phrases, and literary quotations . . . A Dictionary of Synonyms has it that characters are
combinatorial, which makes it possible for a character to govern relevant compounds
and phrases with the same initial character, initiating the compilation of synonym
dictionaries. It also has it that in compilation, characters are grouped according to the
categories they belong to, which makes it possible to group synonyms together and
arrange them in order, and this truly lies at the origin of the compilation of thesauruses.
Such a huge reference book should receive more attention in that it bears quite a few
ingenious innovations in its format and style although it also bears some defects due to
the limitations of its time of compilation.
Zhang Luxiang (1988) has summarized the characteristics of A Dictionary of
Synonyms as follows:
The notion that characters are combinatorial, which makes it possible for a character to
govern relevant compounds and phrases, manifests its initiativeness in its format and
style; such an invention in its compilation style also embodies its uniqueness in classiW-
cation; the notion that, in compilation, characters are grouped according to the categor-
ies they belong to, which makes it possible to group synonyms together and arrange them
in order, manifests its precision in arranging compound words; its wide collection and
extensive quotation embody its richness in data coverage; and its citations with source
titles and words with supportive examples manifest its speciWcity in illustrative citation.
All these characteristics are a good summarization of the characteristics of format and
style put forward in the Preface to A Dictionary of Synonyms.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 325
The ingenuity of A Dictionary of Titles and Appellations in format and style lies
mainly in its entry design and its selection of diVerent kinds of information. First,
it has the titles and appellations as entry words and supplies citations. Textual
research is made and citations are provided as evidence, which turns out to be
helpful to those interested in the sources of the titles. Second, for many entries
there are notes made by the author to give further explanation, introduce the
evolution of the title, or give evidence from his own experiences. Third, it collects
a large amount of valuable data on how to address people, which are indispens-
able sources for compiling general philological dictionaries. Fourth, there are
abundant citations, many of which bear earlier etymological information than
those employed in Ci Yuan. And some of the entries are very valuable for the
literary citations they have.
The Compendium ofMateriaMedica is themost representative among the special
dictionaries compiled in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its format and style are as
follows: ‘In general, there are sixteen major parts which are further divided into
sixty subparts. The entries are all grouped according to the properties and origins of
medicinal herbs’ (The Compendium of Materia Medica: Explanatory Notes). In his
Preface to The Compendium of Materia Medica, Zhang Dingsi (张鼎思) states:
Generally speaking, the entries are arranged according to the standard names with the
attachment of the alias. Then, there are discussions and discriminations to rectify
the erroneous material in previous literature. There are detailed descriptions about the
concocting and processing of the medicine, its appearance, its properties, and pharma-
cology so as to identify it in the proper way. There are further supplements about the
medical prescriptions that it can be used in and the roles it plays.
For each medicine, there are detailed notes about its place of origin, shape,
properties, functions, and the medical prescriptions of which it is the principal
element. The mode of explanation for each entry is as follows: interpretation of
its name, followed by collective explanation and discrimination, then concocting
and processing, properties and pharmacology, its major medical eVects, research
Wndings, and Wnally medical prescriptions. Such a microstructure of information
organization is scientiWc, practical, and relatively complete.
ClassiWed dictionaries can, in a sense, be taken as the archetype of contempor-
ary encyclopedic dictionaries and encyclopedias. In terms of their content, format
and style, The Yongle Compendium, The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences,
and The Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Books all fall into such a
category. ClassiWed dictionaries are a collection of classiWed data for consultation
and their range of domains is extensive, involving poetry, vocabulary, historical
Wgures, literary citations, astronomy, geography, codes and regulations, systems
326 reform and shaping of lexicography
and schemes, Xying birds, running beasts, grasses and woods, worms and insects,
and numerous other things. They are all-embracing and historically related to
modern encyclopedic dictionaries. ClassiWed dictionaries diVer from book series,
which involve the printing of various complete works together, bringing those
scattered works under one cover. The format and style of book series are based on
the collection of ‘relevant books by ancient scholars and their combination into
one’. The Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature is a book of such a kind.
ClassiWed dictionaries are very important to its contemporary scholars and
scholars of later generations of academic research.
In terms of its content, The Yongle Compendium bears greater resemblance to
modern encyclopedias. But in terms of its design, format and style, it looks
more like a dictionary. It adopts the framework of the Hong Wu Dictionary of
Standard Rhymes and ‘governs the characters by means of their rhymes and
relates to things by means of the characters’. The entries recorded in this
Compendium embrace classics, historical records, philosophy, astronomy, geog-
raphy, medicine, Buddhist scriptures, technology and arts, political systems,
poetry and opera, names of objects, military classics, applied sciences, etc. The
citations in the entries can be complete books, whole texts, or separate para-
graphs from a wide range of sources and without any revision or modiWcation.
Though such a practice gives the impression of inconsistency, it has whole-
somely preserved a large amount of data that would otherwise have been lost
completely, spanning the period from the Pre-Qin Dynasties to the early period
of the Ming Dynasty.
The most outstanding feature of The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences
is its divorce from the traditional type of comprehensive encyclopedic classiWed
dictionaries. ClassiWed dictionaries in ancient China were originally compiled
to meet the need of the emperors and learned scholars in surveying ancient
works or in consulting useful resources for writing poems or essays. The
Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences, however, is a new type of encyclopedic
dictionary for educated people, Wlled with information about natural sciences.
It is of a high quality and, as commented in The General Catalogue and Abstracts
of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature, ‘its collection is ex-
tremely extensive and its arrangement is orderly . . . its format and style appear
to be rigorous and the overall organization is coherent, and it is well-balanced,
free from the defects of being redundant and undiscriminating.’ The citations
in the dictionary are mostly directly taken from the original books and/or the
best versions and therefore there are few omissions and errors. Zhou Zhongfu
once commented: ‘It has made every eVort to be broad in its content and simple
in its length’.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 327
18.4 a short analysis of some representativedictionaries in the ming and qing dynasties
Prior to the Ming Dynasty, there were special dictionaries in use, but were not
thus called. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there emerged a new epoch of
special dictionary making and quite a number of works with profound social
inXuence and high academic value. The major specialized dictionaries were The
Compendium of Materia Medica, The Compendium of Agriculture, and The Book
of Nature’s Engineering, and the encyclopedic dictionaries, i.e. classiWed diction-
aries, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were mainly represented by The Yongle
Compendium and The Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Books. What
follows is a rapid survey of some of the major dictionaries.
Dictionaries of function wordsA distinctive feature of dictionary making in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is the
rapid progress in the compilation of dictionaries of function words. These
dictionaries are of high quality, many in number and large in size, and reach a
fairly sophisticated level of compilation. The major function word dictionaries of
this period were The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words and The Dic-
tionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies. The entry words in these
dictionaries were well chosen from the Classics, Histories, Philosophy, and
Anthology, in addition to those from poetry and colloquial expressions, from
the time of the Pre-Qin Dynasties, and were arranged according to the rhyme
sections they belonged to and in the sequence of the four tones. They were rich in
citations and the senses identiWed were complete and speciWc. The usage of the
entry word is explained in brief but supported with citations from ancient classic
works. The function words in these dictionaries are precisely classiWed and their
functions and usages are discriminated with high accuracy. The explanatory texts
make an eVort to trace the origins and chart the paths of evolution.
The Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words was compiled by Liu Qi in the
early Qing Dynasty and exercised strong and longlasting inXuence. Liu Qi, whose
courtesy name was Wu Zhong, came from Queshan (in present-day Henan
Province) and moved to Jining (in present-day Shandong Province). His major
works includedTheAnnals of Tangyi County (<堂邑县志>) andThe InterpretativeDictionary of FunctionWords. The latter (Wve volumes) was published in 1711with a
coverage of 476 function characters (or words) from the Classics, Histories,
Philosophy, and Anthology, in addition to those from poetry and colloquial
328 reform and shaping of lexicography
expressions, over the period from the Pre-Qin Dynasties to the Song and Yuan
Dynasties. These characters and words were arranged according to the rhyme
sections they belonged to and in the sequence of the four tones. The main charac-
teristics of the book are as follows: (a) a great variety of interpretive methods were
adopted to explain the function words, such as synonymous interpretation (正训),
antonymous interpretation (反训), general interpretation (通训), loaning inter-
pretation (借训), mutual interpretation (互训), and transferring interpretation (转
训); (b) function words were for the Wrst time classiWed into thirty types, i.e.
repetition (重言), omission (省文), assisting (助语), assertion (断辞), interroga-
tion (疑辞), exclamation (咏叹辞), abruption (急辞), recuperation (缓辞), initia-
tive (发语辞), conclusion (语己辞), proposition (设辞), diVerentiation (别异之
辞), succession (继事之辞), alternative (或然之辞), originator (原起之辞), ter-
minator (终竟之辞), pause (顿挫之辞), connective (承上), transition (转下),
predicative (语辞), generalization (通用), specialization (专辞), delimitation (仅
辞), regret (叹辞), approximation (几辞), accumulation (积辞), summarization
(总括之辞), dialect (方言), reversing (倒文), grammaticalization (实字虚用); (c)
making use of dialectal or colloquial words or expressions to interpret. In addition,
there were also abundant citations and the senses diVerentiated were complete and
speciWc. The citations were collected not only from works of the Pre-Qin and Han
Dynasties but also from the poetry of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The Dictionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies was compiled by
Wang Yinzhi, awell-knownQingDynasty scholar of exegetic studies. It wasWnished
in 1798 and published 1819. His other works included The Interpretation of Classics
and Scriptures and The Collected Works of Wang Yinzhi (<王文简公文集>). TheDictionary of FunctionWords in Lections and Biographies covered 160 entries, dealing
with 254 function words among which the latest were those found in works of the
Western Han Dynasty. In Preface, the compiler states. ‘In order to search for
functionwords, I have read through and sorted the Nine Classics, the Three Annals,
and other books of the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties. These function words are
arranged and compiled into the ten volumes of The Dictionary of FunctionWords in
Lections and Biographies.’
The dictionary was compiled to interpret function words and assist in the
understanding and appreciation of classics. Its format and style diVered from The
Ready Guide, which was of semantic classiWcation in macrostructural conWgura-
tion, from An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which was of radical
classiWcation, and from The Dictionary of Rhymes, which was of rhyme classiWca-
tion. It was arranged according to the initial consonants of the 160 head charac-
ters, with consistent and distinct format and style: Volumes 1 to 4 deal with
laryngeals; Volume 5, dentals; Volume 6, tongue-sounds; Volume 7, semi-back
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 329
dentals and semi-tongue sounds; Volume 8, tip-back dentals; Volume 9, back
dentals; Volume 10, labials. This unique type of format and style manifested the
new approach of Wang Niansun and Wang Yinzhi, that is, an initial consonant-
based approach to linguistic investigation, which was an indication of serious
pioneering endeavour towards innovation in macrostructural conWguration for
special dictionaries of function words.
The Dictionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies started each of its
entries with a brief explanation of the usages of the head character and then cited
extensively from ancient books to illustrate diVerent usages. Its citations and
explanatory notes were richer and more comprehensive than those of The
Interpretative Dictionary of Function Words. Its deWnition texts focused on tracing
the origin of the meaning of the character and explicating the extensional
relations between the senses of the character. Its treatment of common usages
was succinct, its treatment of rare or less frequent senses more speciWc and
practical, and its citations wide-ranging and free from redundancy and messi-
ness. The explication of the diVerent senses of a character was distinct and readily
intelligible. The function words in the book were classiWed into six types, namely
ordinary words, auxiliary words, exclamatory words, vocalizing words, general
words, and discriminating words.
Dictionaries of lexical expressionsDictionaries of lexical expressions are special-aspect dictionaries intended for the
composition of poems, retrieving literary quotations, and Wnding appropriate words
for antithetical couplets. The Wrst dictionary of such a kind is The Sources of Rhyme
Ocean compiled by Yan Zhenqing in the Tang Dynasty. Another inXuential diction-
ary of a similar kind is The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes compiled by Yin Shifu in the
early Yuan Dynasty. The Wrst dictionary of this kind in the Ming Dynasty is Wuju
Rhyme Dictionary by Ling Zhilong. The representative dictionaries of lexical expres-
sions in theMing andQingDynasties areProverbs of the YueDialect,ProverbCouplets
of the Wu Dialect, A Collection of Popular Expressions (<通俗编>), A Dictionary of
Rhymes and Styles, and A Dictionary of Synonyms.
Proverbs of the YueDialectwas compiled by FanYin (范寅, 1830–1911, or 1827–1897
according to another account), whowas born into the family of a Confucian oYcial.
He travelled far and wide and became learned and well-informed. He spent much
time observing, comparing, and investigating the diVerences between the Yue
dialect and other languages or dialects. Proverbs of the Yue Dialect was compiled
between 1878 and 1881 andpublished in three volumes in 1882. TheWrst volume dealt
with language and consisted of eighteen texts, namely meditating on past events,
330 reform and shaping of lexicography
presentwarnings to people, quoting, investigating things,making analogy, divining,
rumouring, riddles, types of things, numbering, ten ‘only’s, ten ‘must’s, head
characters, end characters, translating bird’s language, cursing and jeering, baby’s
words and children’s folk rhymes, and warning proverbs and praising prayers. The
second volume listed the names of the objects and consisted of twenty-four texts,
namely heaven, earth, time sequence, human beings, spirits, ghosts, diseases,
human body, buildings, utensils, goods, food and drink, dressing, beasts, aquatic
animals, worms and insects, Xowers and grasses, bamboos and woods, melons and
fruits, grains and vegetables, odours and smells, shapes and colours, crafts and skills,
and customs. The third volume was concerned with meanings and speech sounds,
comprising ten classes, namely one character with six diVerent pronunciations, four
equivalents and one diVerence, combined meanings, diVerences in both spelling
and pronunciation, accents of northern regions, combined rhymes, one character
with a single meaning, speech sounds and musical sounds, and speech initiators.
Following the three volumes was an additional part ‘Other Miscellaneous Expres-
sions’, which consisted of two volumes – the Wrst one dealing with colloquial words
and phrases and slang expressions, and the second with words of the written
language. There was also an appendix with Wve texts in the contents (actually
dealing with six texts). Proverbs of the Yue Dialect records the spoken language as
it was used in everyday life and is valuable for investigating into the Yue Dialect and
its evolution. The format and style, however, were not consistent or rigid, and the
data used in the dictionary were relatively unmeasured and jumbled.
Proverb Couplets of the Wu Dialect, also a dialect dictionary of folk expressions,
was compiled byWang Youguang (王有光), whose courtesy name was Guan Guo
and who was born in Wujin, present-day Jiangsu Province. It was originally
printed in 1820 and a big Wre broke out in the publishing house that year.
Fortunately, it survived the disaster with little damage and was reprinted in
1873 with some restoration work and some amendment. It listed 304 entries of
proverbs and slang expressions of theWu Dialect. To interpret these proverbs and
slang expressions, much textual research was conducted on the poetry history
and the chorography of the region, and much investigation carried out into social
customs and folklores. The characters involved were carefully discriminated and
explicated, and the sentences in question were adequately explained and inter-
preted. The arrangement of the entries was also delicate, innovative, and inter-
esting. As for its deWnition, the characters were well deWned, the proverbs were
explained with extreme precision, and numerous citations provided to support
its treatment. This dictionary imparted serious knowledge and rectiWed the
errors and misinterpretations made previously. It was unique in displaying the
outstanding features of its deWnition style and in its format of entry arrangement.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 331
A Collection of Popular Expressions, a practical dictionary of folk expressions
and common words, was compiled by Zhai Hao (翟灏, 1736–1788), a Qing
Dynasty scholar, born in Renhe, present-day Zhejiang Province. Zhai Hao was
a productive scholar and his major works, in addition to A Collection of Popular
Expressions, included The RectiWcation and DiVerentiation of the Four Books
(<四书考异>) and Peripheral Amendments on the Ready Guide (<尔雅补郭>).A Collection of Popular Expressions (thirty-eight volumes) was published in 1751.
The data in the book were extensively collected, involving Classics, Annals,
Philosophy, and History, poetry, songs, novels, wordbooks, religious scriptures,
and directly from contemporary spoken languages. There were more than 5,000
entries, which were classiWed into thirty-eight categories: astronomy, geography,
time sequence, feudal ethics, oYcialdom, politics, literature, martial arts, eti-
quette, congratulations and invitations, items, behaviours, communication, cir-
cumstances, dispositions, body, speech and manners, addressing, god and ghost,
Buddhism and Taoism, arts, women, properties and goods, sheltering, dresses and
ornaments, utensils, food and drink, cattle and beasts, poultry and Wshes, grasses
and trees, numbers, language and rhetorics, appearance, sounds and voices,
miscellanies, stories, and so on. Each category was dealt with in one volume.
For each entry, the source was given at the Wrst place. Then citations were given to
support the deWnitions. As to those with some changes in their processes of
evolution, textual research was carried out and explanatory notes added.
A Collection of Popular Expressions is important not only for consulting folk
expressions encountered in reading but for studying Chinese etymology, names,
artefacts, social systems, and the origin and development of the arts. It is also
useful for looking up the meanings of words and expressions, for studying the
literary quotations of stories, and for investigating the customs of regions.
However, it is not free from defects. The works involved were numerous and
jumbled, the information about the corresponding authors, names of texts, and
the number of volumes was incomplete. To amend the defects of this book, his
contemporary, Liang Tongshu (梁同书), compiled Direct Amendments on A
Collection of Popular Expressions (<直语补证>). It added some new expressions
and rectiWed the previous entries in their citations and some other aspects.
In order to remedy the defects of The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes and Wuju
Rhyme Dictionary, i.e. ‘their careless omissions and incompletion in content;
their frequently encountered errors and mistakes’ (The General Catalogue and
Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature: A Dictionary of
Rhymes and Styles), Emperor Kangxi ordered Zhang Yushu and Chen Tingjing to
take responsibility for the compilation of a new one – A Dictionary of Rhymes and
Styles, to help those having diYculties in consulting relevant information in
332 reform and shaping of lexicography
writing poems. The dictionary project was started in 1704 and completed in 1711,
and its Chinese title佩文 came from the name for the study of Emperor Kangxi.
In 1716, the Emperor gave an order to compile its sequel – The Additions to A
Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles (<韵府拾遗>), which was Wnished in 1720.
A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles adopted the same format and style as The
Gem Dictionary of Rhymes andWuju Rhyme Dictionary, i.e. ‘things are character-
oriented, and characters are governed by rhymes’. In addition to these two rhyme
dictionaries, there were also extensive collections from Classics, Histories, Phil-
osophy, and some of the collections of poetry compiled before the Yuan and
Ming Dynasties. The original book was not classiWed into volumes but into 106
sections according to its 106 rhymes. When it was incorporated into The Imperial
Collection of Four Branches of Literature, it was classiWed into 444 volumes. To
compensate for the defects of A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, Zhang Tingyu
(张廷玉, 1672–1755) et al. compiled The Continuation of A Dictionary of Rhymes
and Styles on imperial order, with the same format and style. It originally had 106
rhymes and each rhyme a volume. Later, they were reclassiWed into 120 volumes.
As for the characters listed in A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, they were given
phonetic notations via fanqie. As for those newly included character entries, they
were phonetically notated and semantically deWned. Its major revision with
respect to A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles was apparent in the inclusion of
greater numbers of entry characters and the addition of more quotations and
more accurate information on the works quoted from.
A Dictionary of Synonyms (240 volumes) was compiled by Zhang Tingyu et al.
on the imperial order of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. Zhang Tingyu was
born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province and was a successful Supreme oYcial.
Compilation started in 1719 and was Wnished in 1726. In the title, there was the
character骈, designating the keeping abreast of two running horses. The adoption
of骈字 (literally, characters in parallel) in the title was due to the fact that the head
characters were all set in parallel, and the other character, i.e.类, in the title meant
‘category’, indicating that characters were semantically treated in groups. This
dictionary selected 1,604 characters as head characters, under which there were
about 100,000 compounds and phrases treated. The principle for its format and
style was that ‘characters are governed by the rhymes they share’ and ‘their
arrangement is based on the categories they fall into’. In other words, under
each entry, the compounds and phrases sharing the same initial character, i.e.
the head character, were listed. And as for the 1,604 head characters, they were
grouped into diVerent ‘categories’ and further into diVerent subcategories. Thus,
the dictionary consisted of twelve categories on the macrostructural level, namely
heaven and earth, time sequence, mountains and waters, sheltering, treasures,
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 333
numbers, geographical locations, colours, utensils, grasses and trees, birds and
beasts, worms and insects, and Wshes. There was an additional category for
‘human behaviour’, which was further classiWed into subcategories. For instance,
under the category of ‘heaven and earth’, there were Wfty-eight entries, such as sky,
sun, moon, wind, cloud, rain, dew, earth, soil, suburb, plain, etc. These character
entries each represented a diVerent ‘subcategory’.
A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles was arranged on a diVerent basis and was
intended as a diVerent way of consultation, by end characters. As commented in
The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of
Literature, ‘the two dictionaries (i.e. A Dictionary of Synonyms and A Dictionary
of Rhymes and Styles) are complementary, with the compounds and phrases
grouped in the former according to the consonants of the initial characters they
share and in the latter according to the vowels of the end characters they share’.
The data used in A Dictionary of Synonyms were the same as those in A
Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles and they were both in the same sequence of
Classics, Histories, Philosophy, and Anthology. Compared with A Dictionary of
Rhymes and Styles, A Dictionary of Synonyms appears to be closer to perfection in
format and style because it provides more detailed and accurate information
about the cited books and texts and their authors.
ADictionary of Titles andAppellations (thirty-twovolumes)was compiledbyLiang
Zhangju (梁章钜, 1775–1849), whose courtesy name was Hong Zhong and who was
born in Changle, Fujian Province. He held quite a number of important positions in
the central government and was proliWc in academic research. He produced more
than seventy works. This dictionary was Wnished in 1848 and published in 1884. As
indicated in the title, it was a collection of diVerent terms of address, divided into 738
categories with 5, 424 entries. The major categories read as follows:
(a) From remote ancestors to parents, maternal relations, paternal relations,
brothers, husbands, wives, concubines, sons, daughters, grandchildren, relatives on
the husband’s side, relatives on the wife’s side, uncles and aunts, relatives by
marriage, relatives of children and grandchildren (appendix of teachers and friends);
(b) The Emperor and his parents, the children and grandchildren of the Em-
peror, thewives of the Emperor, princesses and sons-in-law, relatives of the Emperor
on the side of his mother or wife, eunuchs, martial masters and body guards;
(c) Supreme Council and investiture, Zhongrenfu, the Cabinet, Military
OYce, the Imperial Academy, the Council of Routine AVairs, Ministers;
(d) The Ministry of Personnel AVairs, the Board of Revenues and Demog-
raphy, Granary and Factories, Ministry of Rites, Department of War, the Ministry
of Punishments (including the names of its branches in ancient times), Ministry
of Public Works, Ministry of Tribal AVairs;
334 reform and shaping of lexicography
(e) Department of General Administrative AVairs and Supreme Court, ritual
oYcial, the Imperial College, Hong Lu;
(f) Department of Capital AVairs, Imperial Prison, Imperial Hospital, Depart-
ment of Civil AVairs, Department of Military Facilities, Imperial Carriage,
imperial stable;
(g) Head of Imperial Guards, commander-in-chief of the ‘Eight Banners’,
commander of the army, Commander-in-chief of the Nine Gates, commander
of the front-line army, commander of the defending army;
(h) Provincial civil oYcials: governor-general and provincial governor and
people under his control such as managerial oYcials of river aVairs, river
transportation, salt industry; district magistrate, imperial envoy; Great General
and other generals of national defence; Commander-in-chief and commanders of
Green Camp and other oYcers of lower ranks;
(i) Department of Educational AVairs and the oYcial examiner of diVerent
ranks; oYcials with a pass in imperial examinations and their family members,
gentlemen, servants, women servants, clerks, soldiers, warriors;
(j) Crafts and Wne arts: all sorts of workmen, businessmen, cooks, and car-
penters;
(k) Musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing and dancing,
riding and shooting, boxing, gambling;
(l) Thieves, pickpockets, performers, prostitutes, people of the three religions
(Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism) and the nine schools of thought (the
Confucians, the Taoists, the Yin–Yang, the Legalists, the Logicians, the Mohists,
the Political Strategists, the Ecletics, and the Agriculturists), three kinds of
middle-aged women, i.e. nuns, women Taoists, and women fortune-tellers, and
six kinds of elderly women, i.e. women traYckers in human beings, match-
makers, witches, procuresses, women quacks, and midwives – women who
have no honest occupation and make trouble; and various other terms of address.
A Dictionary of Titles and Appellations ensured its completeness by its listing of
terms of address and proved user-friendly. It is the Wrst dictionary of its kind in
the lexicographical history in China.
Specialized dictionariesSpecialized dictionaries in the modern sense came into existence and gradually
prospered in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The General Survey of Currencies, The
Dictionary of Currencies, and A Dictionary of Ancient Currencies are specialized
dictionaries of ancient money. A Complete Collection of All Beauties provides
detailed information about the appearance, properties, ways of fostering, and the
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 335
utility of various living things. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Wang Hao
et al. undertook the revision of A Complete Collection of All Beauties. They had
access to the books stored in the imperial court and data were collected and used
for the revision. The revision was a greatly expanded version and re-entitled The
General Dictionary of All Beauties (100 volumes). These two books are actually
dictionaries of botany. A Contemporary Dictionary of Ancient Names of Places in
All Dynasties (twenty volumes) was compiled by Li Zhaoluo in 1837. It collected
geographical names from historical annals from the period of the Western Han
Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty. The book oVered a brief introduction to each
geographical name about its establishment and evolution. Its contemporary name
in the Qing Dynasty was also indicated. This dictionary is the Wrst comparative
dictionary of ancient – contemporary geographical names in China – a dictionary
of a pioneering nature. The period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was charac-
terized by the compilation of dictionaries of science and technology. These
dictionaries were great in number, broad in scope, high in quality, and bulky in
size. The subjects involved were wide-ranging, such as ancient currency, botany,
geography, medicine, agriculture, handicraft industry, technology, chemistry,
physics, etc. Quite a number of them were comparable to modern encyclopedias.
For example, The Compendium of Materia Medica is regarded as ‘a medical
encyclopedia’, The Compendium of Agriculture as ‘a combined encyclopedia of
knowledge and technology’, and The Book of Nature’s Engineering as ‘China’s
encyclopedia of science and technology’. They are held in high esteem and
commended academically and culturally both inside and outside China.
The Compendium of Materia Medica was compiled by Li Shizhen, a distin-
guished pharmacologist of the Ming Dynasty. Li Shizhen, whose courtesy name
was as Dong Bi, was born in Qizhou, present-day Qichun County, Hubei Prov-
ince. He gave up the opportunity to becoming an oYcial but took his father as a
rolemodel to follow. He pursuedmedicine earnestly, especially pharmacology as a
career, with special emphasis on clinical treatment. He found numerous errors in
Materia Medica compiled by previous physicians and was determined to correct
them and write a new one, the result of which was The Compendium of Materia
Medica. He initiated this project in 1552 and Wnished it in 1578. The book had
undergone three major revisions and modiWcations. The Wnal version of The
Compendium of Materia Medica had Wfty-two volumes with excellent pictorial
illustrations. It amounted to 1,900,000 characters, comprising sixteen sections,
namely water, Wre, earth, metal, stone, grass, grain, vegetables, fruit, wood,
drinking vessels, worms, Wshes, insects, beasts, and human beings. Each section
was further classiWed into sixty categories, and each category was further classiWed
into subcategories. For instance, the section on grain was classiWed into four
336 reform and shaping of lexicography
categories: (a) Wbre crops, wheat and rice; (b) millet; (c) beans; (d) grains for
brewing. The Compendium of Materia Medica collected 1,892 kinds of medicines
(374 new ones) and 11,096 prescriptions, which was a fourfold increase over
previous works, and there were 1,109 illustrative pictures to describe the appear-
ance of medicine. Moreover, there was a volume on the general contents of
medicine, three volumes of pictures, one volume for inquiries into odd main
channels and eight collateral channels, one volume for studies of Li Shizhen’s
pulse theory, eight volumes for Cai’s surgery techniques, and ten volumes of
supplements to The Compendium of Materia Medica.
Li Shizhenmade a reference tomore than 800medical books and cited from 758
medical books. Through careful investigation and veriWcation, he rectiWed the
errors inMateria Medica in names of medicines, varieties, and places of origin; he
also collected a large number of medicines discovered from the time of the Song
and Yuan Dynasties, which greatly enriched the content of The Compendium of
Materia Medica. As commented by Zhao Xuemin (赵学敏) in his preface to
Supplements to the Compendium of Materia Medica (<本草纲目拾遗小序>):
Li Shizhen has read extensively, embracing the books of a hundred generations; he has
done extensive textual research and cited from works of Confucius through to books of
anecdotes and triXes; he has integrated the achievements of numerous scholars and
formed his own theory; furthermore, he has spared no time or energy in following the
steady development of Chinese medicine – he has inquired into folk medicine every-
where in the country. He travels far and wide to learn about local produce and takes risks
to explore deep in the mountains for precious and rare medicines.
There was even a record about mummies in his book. One cannot but ask: ‘Is
there anything missing for us to re-collect today?’
The Compendium of Agriculture was compiled by Xu Guangqi, whose courtesy
name was Zi Xian and who was born in Xujiahui, Shanghai. In 1619 he started to
work on this important book on agriculture. He died on 8November 1633, with the
book unWnished. The compilation was continued by Chen Zilong (陈子龙) and
was published in 1639. The Compendium of Agriculture had over 700,000 characters
in size, consisting of sixty volumes: three volumes on agricultural cultivation, two
on farmland systems, six on agricultural aVairs, nine on irrigation works, four on
farming tools, six on tree planting, four on sericulture, twomore volumes on related
sericultural aVairs, four on planting, one on animal husbandry, one on manufac-
turing, and eighteen volumes on relieving famines. It was in 1635 that Chen Zilong
borrowed the original manuscript from the grandson of Xu Guanngqi and pre-
sented it to the Imperial Inspector in Yingtian (i.e. Nanjing, present-day Jiangsu
Province), ZhangGuowei (张国维) who appreciated its value and commended it as
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 337
‘a book of everlasting value for state management’. Chen Zilong then presented it to
Fang Yuegong (方岳贡) for review, whowas lavish in his praise. They discussed the
issues relating to its publication. Chen Zilong was in charge of its editing and it was
eventually published in 1639 after four years’ work.
The Book of Nature’s Engineering was compiled by Song Yingxing, whose
courtesy name was Chang Geng and who was born in Fengxin, Jiangxi Province.
His other major works included Miscellaneous Commentaries (<野议>), On Qi
(<论气>), and On the Skies (<谈天>). The Book of Nature’s Engineering was
written around 1634 when he held an oYcial position in Jiangxi Province. The
book consisted of three volumes: the Wrst was divided into six volumes, namely
grain cultivation, cloth processing and dyeing, grain processing, salt making,
sugar making; the second volume was divided into seven volumes, namely
pottery, metal melting, ship and cart manufacturing, hammering, baking, oil
making, paper making and printing; the third volume was divided into Wve
volumes, namely metal exploitation and making, weapon making, pigment
making, brewing, and pearl collecting and precious stone making. There were
altogether eighteen subsidiary volumes, containing 123 pictures and diagrams,
illustrating the place of production, product models, methods of production, etc.
It recorded in detail the production technologies employed in agriculture and
industry in diVerent regions, especially in Jiangxi Province. As for the Chinese
title天工开物, it was derived from the proverb人间巧艺夺天工 (literally, ‘the
arts and crafts on earth are superior to those in heaven’), high praise to the
craftsmanship of diVerent trades in China. As is stated in the preface: ‘How
sorrowful it is to be in poverty! When I am in need of reference, there is no
money to buy rare books; when I want to invite some experts to consult and
attest the genuineness of some materials, there are no hotel rooms aVordable to
hold discussions’, from which it can be seen how hard Song Yingxing’s life was in
the course of compilation. The publication of The Book of Nature’s Engineering
was funded by his intimate friend Xu Shaokui (徐绍煃) in Jiangxi Province in
1637. In the early period of the Qing Dynasty, the book was reprinted by a
number of publishing houses in China and later in Japan and France. In 1959,
the book was photocopied by Beijing Library.
ClassiWed dictionaries in the Ming and Qing DynastiesThe compilation of classiWed dictionaries Xourished in the Ming and Qing
Dynasties. There are some great classiWed dictionaries compiled during this
period, such as The Yongle Compendium, The Compendium of Ancient and
Contemporary Books, The Categoric Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary, and The
338 reform and shaping of lexicography
Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences. They remain milestones in the history
of Chinese lexicography.
The Yongle Compendium is a large-scale dictionary compiled on imperial
order. It was in the charge of Xie Jin (解缙, 1369–1415), a member of the
Imperial Academy. Xie Jin, whose courtesy name was Da Kun, was born in
Jishui, Jiangxi Province. His broad knowledge was appreciated by the Em-
peror Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) and he was chosen as a royal consultant, and
as one of the Emperor’s attendants. He was once removed from his oYce by
the Emperor for ‘oVering opinions’. In 1403, he was repositioned by Zhu Di
(朱棣), the new Emperor, as a close oYcial. Soon afterwards, he was in
charge of the project of The Yongle Compendium. The project formally started
on 19 July 1403 and was completed on 21 December 1404. The dictionary was
at Wrst entitled by the Emperor The Comprehensive Dictionary of Literature
(<文献大成>). When the Emperor read the new dictionary, he was not
satisWed with it, for it failed to meet his expectations, i.e. ‘embracing all
that is in the universe and assembling the diVerent opinions of the past and
present’. He made the decision to revise it and expand it. In the new
programme, 3,000 people were involved in its compilation, editing, and
copying. The revision took four years and the project was completed on 8
December 1408. Since it was compiled in the period of Yongle, in the reign of
Emperor Zhu Di, it was re-entitled ‘永乐大典’. The dictionary was composed
of 22,877 volumes, in addition to sixty volumes of Explanatory Notes and
Contents, which were bound into 11,095 books. It collected books of diVerent
schools of thought, both ancient and contemporary, on astronomy, local
annals, Yin–Yang, medicine, Buddhism and Taoism, and technologies and
arts, amounting to more than 7,000 diVerent kinds of information. It was
extremely bulky in size, totalling to 370 million characters. Its coverage was
all-embracing: classic Chinese philosophy, religions, politics, economy, cul-
ture, education, literature, arts, history, geography and agriculture, industry,
astronomy, geology, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, medicine, con-
struction and utensils. It is an general manifestation of the level that Chinese
society, its politics, economy, culture, and science, had reached by the early
Ming Dynasty.
The Yongle Compendiumwas so enormous that it was diYcult to print. It could
only be hand-copied and the only copy was stored atWenyuan Library in Nanjing,
the then capital. In 1421, the central government was moved to Peking (Beijing
today), the new capital, and The Yongle Compendium was transported there and
stored in the ‘Literary Building’. In April 1557, the courtyard caught Wre and the
‘Literary Building’ was destroyed but, fortunately, The Yongle Compendium was
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 339
rescued from the Xames. For fear of losing the dictionary by accident, Emperor
Zhu Houcong (朱厚熜) decided to make an additional copy. In August 1562, Xu
Jie (徐阶) and Gao Gong (高拱) were imperially ordered to take charge of the
project. It took 109 Confucian scholars Wve years to hand-copy it and a new copy
came into being in April 1567. From that time on, the two copies have been
separately stored, one in the Wenyuan Library and one in the Huang Shi Cheng
Library. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the original copy was burned and only
the duplicate copy was preserved until the Qing Dynasty. During the reign of
Emperor Yongzheng, the dictionary was moved out of the Huang Shi Cheng
Library to the Imperial Academy so that oYcials and scholars could have access
to it. Eventually, the numerous volumes began to disappear. In 1773, when the
central government started to compile The Imperial Collection of Four Branches of
Literature, more than 2,000 volumes of The Yongle Compendium were lost. When
Beijing was invaded in 1860 and in 1900, part of the duplicate copy was burned and
part of it was stolen by invaders from England, the US, Russia, Japan, Germany,
France, and other countries. Those that remained scattered all over China were
few in number and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were only sixty-four
books left.
Since 1949, continuous eVorts have been made to collect the original volumes
of the duplicate copy. Up to now the number has reached 219 books. In 1960,
Zhong Hua Book Company made use of the 215 original books, together with
the pseudo-classical ones, photocopied ones, and others, and printed The Yongle
Compendium in photocopy, a 730-volume Yongle Compendium. In recent years,
Zhong Hua Book Company has continued its pursuit of The Yongle Compen-
dium and collected another sixty-three photocopies with the help of libraries
both inside and outside China. The presently available 800-volume Yongle
Compendium is printed in photocopy.
The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences was compiled by Chen Yuan-
long, whose courtesy name was Guang Ling and who was born in Ninghai,
Zhejiang Province. He was a learned scholar and adept at composing poems.
He published a collection of poems, i.e. Collected Poems: Sun-loving Hall
(<爱日堂诗集>, twenty-seven volumes) and compiled A Collection of Fu-
poems of Previous Dynasties (<历代赋汇>, 184 volumes). The compilation of
The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences started in 1703 when he was
imperially permitted to leave his oYce and serve his sick father at home. He
was also imperially ordered to compile A Collection of Fu-poems of Previous
Dynasties at home at the same time. Eight years later and with the help of other
scholars, such as Fan Zuan (范纉), Huang Zhijun (黄之隽), and Yao Yan (姚
炎), The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences was completed and sent for
340 reform and shaping of lexicography
printing in 1717. It was in 1735 that the dictionary was prefaced and made
available to the public.
The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences had a classiWcation of thirty
categories, namely heaven, earth, human body, garments, court and room, drink-
ing and eating, cloth and silk, ship and cart, governmental system (i.e. seals,
ceremonial equipment), treasures, stationery, military equipment, ritual articles,
musical instruments, weaving instruments, farming tools, everyday utensils, fur-
niture, dressing utensils, entertaining utensils, gaming utensils, grain, vegetable,
wood, grass, Xower, fruit, bird, beast, aquatic animals, and insects. For each
category, there were some subcategories. For example:
(a) The category of ‘heaven’ (four volumes) dealt with heavenly bodies,
meteorology, calendar, time sequence, etc. and was classiWed into thirty-eight
subcategories, such as sky, the sun, the moon, stars, twenty-eight constellations,
Milky Way, storm and lightning, rainbow, armillary sphere, water clock, climate
and weather, etc.
(b) The category of ‘earth’ (six volumes) dealt with the landform and geo-
logical phenomena and was classiWed into forty-four subcategories, such as earth,
mountain, sea, stone, water, spring, waterfall, well, maps, seismograph, fossils,
and ornamental columns, etc.;
(c) The category of ‘cloth and silk’ (one volume) dealt with Wbre products and
was classiWed into thirty-eight subcategories, such as silk, ramie, brocade, em-
broidery, damask, gauze, damask silk, silk yarn, gunny cloth, cotton cloth, Wre-
proofed cloth, felt, etc.
If the data to deal with under one item were unmanageable, diVerent labels
were used for further diVerentiation, such as ‘general introduction’ (总论),
‘subcategories’ (各类), ‘titles’ (称号), and ‘diVerentiation’ (纪异). For instance,
the item ‘stone’ in the category ‘earth’ was further labelled with diVerent types,
such as ‘general introduction’, ‘detailed classiWcation’, ‘precious stones in ancient
times’, ‘individual stones’, ‘individual stones in ancient times’, ‘Wgure stones’,
‘strange stones’, ‘fossils’, and ‘stone diVerentiation’. In such a way, the enormous
data about ‘stone’ were well sorted and organized. The data pertaining to more
than one item were appended at the end of the main entry as a subentry. The
Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences explored the etymology of the names of
artefacts and physical objects. Joseph Needham (1900–1995), a British historian of
science, commented that it is ‘a useful’, ‘small-scale encyclopedia speciWcally for
the history of science and technology’ and it is ‘the best one’ among the
numerous books of its kind.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 341
18.5 the academic value and influence of specialand encyclopedic dictionaries in the ming and
qing dynasties
The special and classiWed dictionaries of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were
mainly compiled ‘to research into the scientiWc principles of things and nature’.
They were important reference books for studying science and culture at that
time, serving the purpose of consultation in time of special need. They can also
be taken as a summarization of what natural sciences and social sciences achieve
at a speciWc stage of social development. They have greatly enriched Chinese
lexicographical culture and embodied its unique framework. They are still of
great value in terms of theoretical inquiries into and actual use of special
dictionaries, encyclopedic dictionaries, and encyclopedias of the twentieth century
in China.
Dictionaries of function words and of lexical expressions also developed
rapidly over this period. They were grand in size, speciWc in entry identiWcation
and selection, detailed and complete in citation and sense explication, and
particular in the classiWcation of function words. They strived as much as
possible to trace the origin of words and expressions (especially geographical
terms and terms of address), showing a high standard of compilation and great
commitment to academic enquiry. The Interpretative Dictionary of Function
Words and The Dictionary of Function Words in Lections and Biographies instan-
tiated a high standard and expertise in the classiWcation and explication of
function words. The format and style of The Dictionary of Function Words in
Lections and Biographies diVered from those of The Ready Guide, which was of
semantic classiWcation, An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters, which
was of radical classiWcation, and The Dictionary of Rhymes, which was of rhyme
classiWcation. It was arranged according to the initial consonants of the ancient
characters. Its format and style were consistent and distinct. This unique mode of
format and style was evidence of the new approach of Wang Niansun and Wang
Yinzhi, i.e. the initial consonant-based approach to linguistic investigation,
which also made pioneering explorations into the macrostructure of special
dictionaries of word usage. In his Preface to The Dictionary of Function Words
in Lections and Biographies, Wang Yinzhi pointed out the signiWcance of ‘learning
from example and extending by analogy’. By ‘learning from example’ was
meant that the meanings of function words could be deduced by comprehen-
sively studying the examples – observing the contexts in which they were used
342 reform and shaping of lexicography
and the roles they performed in the example sentences; and by ‘extending by
analogy’ was meant that the scope of word meaning explication could be
extended by employing the method of analogy. Such a notion of deWning
words in context initiated by Wang Yinzhi is insightful and had profound
implications for future theoretical and practical lexicographers. It was in the
second half of the twentieth century that such a notion began to receive greater
attention when learners’ dictionaries and active dictionaries were booming. It
was systematically applied to and well manifested by the Collins-Cobuild learn-
ers’ dictionary series.
Among the dictionaries of lexical expressions, Proverbs of the Yue Dialect,
Proverb Couplets of the Wu Dialect, A Collection of Popular Expressions, A
Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles, A Dictionary of Synonyms, and A Dictionary
of Titles and Appellations all have their particular features of format and style,
deWnition, phonetic notation, and citation. They are not only important refer-
ence books for consulting the meaning of proverbs, dialectal colloquial expres-
sions and terms of address but also important and valuable resources for the
etymological study of Chinese words, the optimization of social arts and
systems, the textual research of literary quotations, and the development of
local customs in ancient times, etc. In terms of format and style, A Dictionary of
Synonyms has it that ‘characters are combinatorial’ and that ‘in compilation,
characters are grouped according to the categories they belong to’. Such a
principle for designing dictionary format and style is initiative and scientiWc
in that it accords with the linguistic characteristics of dictionaries of lexical
words and meets the speciWc needs of its users. It has great signiWcance for later
generations of dictionary compilers. A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles is a
distinguished representative of dictionaries of lexical expressions and is com-
piled for literati to consult relevant literary quotations and antithetical couplets
in writing poems and fu-poems. In such a dictionary words and phrases are
grouped together when they share the same character ending. This reversing
dictionary is initiative and holds a unique position in the history of lexicog-
raphy in China. In terms of linguistic data, the materials involved in A Diction-
ary of Rhymes and Styles are abundant and it provides good lexical resources for
subsequent lexicographers.
In terms of the evolution of human civilization, The Compendium of Materia
Medica is undoubtedly the greatest medical work in the medical history of China.
Darwin praises it as ‘the encyclopedia of ancient China’ and Joseph Needham
also points out that the greatest scientiWc accomplishment of the Ming Dynasty is
The Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen and that it is the peak of
materia medica works. In terms of specialized dictionaries, The Compendium of
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 343
Materia Medica is a monumental work in the lexicographical history of China. It
accumulates massive valuable experience for later generations of special diction-
aries, encyclopedic dictionaries, and encyclopedias: it has improved the method
of the categoric arrangement of entries, highlighted the role of entries in explain-
ing meaning, strengthened the dominant position of name standardization in
entry organization – in treating the variant or diVerent but related names, and
fossilized the modes of deWnition. A model microstructure of The Compendium
of Materia Medica goes as follows: interpretation on its name – collective
explanation and discrimination – concocting and processing – its properties
and pharmacology – its major medical eVects – research Wndings – medical
prescriptions. Its Explanatory Notes has summarized the entry structure thus:
For its several constituents, the Wrst thing is to interpret the name, i.e. the standard name;
collective explanation, explaining its places of origin, its appearance, and its collection;
discussions and discriminations to rectify errors in previous literatures; then, produc-
tion, i.e. how to make it; odour and taste, i.e. to expose its properties; then, major
medical treatments, i.e. to record previous literature; its research Wndings, i.e. to discuss
its pharmacology; the attachment of prescriptions, i.e. to illustrate its medical functions.
Or if a prescription is to be deleted, reasons must be given to justify it.
Such a deWnition model is far ahead of its time and even today few specialized
dictionaries of medicine can surpass it.
Now, let us turn to The Book of Nature’s Engineering, a special-subject diction-
ary, which gives a comprehensive introduction to the tools, technologies, and
methods of processing employed in the agriculture and handicraft industry. It is
regarded by some Western scholars as an encyclopedia of Chinese science and
technology history. It is well known for its rich, full, and accurate content and has
embodied the overall situation of agriculture and industry of China in the middle
of the seventeenth century. The data in The Book of Nature’s Engineering are still
an important resource for the study of science and technology history of China
and of the world.
In a sense, an encyclopedic dictionary lies in between a general philological
dictionary and an encyclopedia proper. It is an integration of the two in format
and style and in content and among its entries the encyclopedic ones are more
than those in the philological dictionary. ClassiWed dictionaries could be taken as
the predecessors of Chinese encyclopedias and have made both theoretical and
practical preparations for the birth of encyclopedic dictionaries and encyclope-
dias. The Yongle Compendium is the biggest encyclopedic dictionary in ancient
China and the biggest dictionary of an encyclopedic nature in the world. It is rich
in content, profound and broad in knowledge, and comprehensive in the subjects
344 reform and shaping of lexicography
involved and, therefore, it is unprecedented as far as classiWed dictionaries and
encyclopedic dictionaries are concerned. The Yongle Compendium follows the
policy of word for word copy of the original and, therefore, it has genuinely
preserved a large amount of the content of the non-existent classics and ancient
books, which exercises great inXuence on the academic research and cultural
progress of later times. It holds an indispensable position in collecting lost
literature in that its data is vast and inexhaustible. For instance, in compiling
The Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature in the Qing Dynasty, more
than 500 kinds of lost books are detected and listed. The ancient versions it
preserves are important for studying the evolution of academic research. It also
provides an abundant source of data for studying the politics, economy, history,
culture, and science and technology before the Ming Dynasty. For instance, The
Yongle Compendium lists more than 220 kinds of plays and drama, which are
important data for the study of art and literature. It also records books concern-
ing various subjects, such as The Old History of the Five Dynasties (<旧五代史>),Collected Essentials of the Song Dynasty (<宋会要>), The Nine Chapters on
Arithmetic (<九章算术>), The Arithmetic Classics of the Islands (<海岛
算经>), Essentials of Agriculture and Sericulture (<农桑辑要>), Methods and
Models in Construction (<营造法式>), and Teachings of the Deceased Natives
(<梓人遗训>), which are indispensable data for studying ancient Chinese his-
tory and the history of science and technology.
The Yongle Compendium is the biggest and grandest dictionary project in the
lexicographical history of China and a rare gem among world civilizations and
cultures. It is extremely rich in its data collection, grand in size, accurate and neat
in copying the original, and delicate and beautiful in its design, binding, and
printing. The Yongle Compendium provides abundant experience and good
lessons for later generations of lexicographers to learn. In terms of format and
style, it abandons the traditional method of classiWed dictionary compilation,
that is, to group things according to the categories they belong to and to arrange
entries according to the categories of the things they designate and adopts a new
method of entry design, i.e. rhyme-based entry design – ‘to govern the characters
by means of their rhymes and to relate to things by means of the characters’. That
is an innovation and a new system in dictionary design. A rhyme-based entry
design is a new way of character listing, which is more convenient for retrieval. In
terms of retrieval, it adopts the method of co-referencing, which is an important
contribution to the improvement of the retrieval system of dictionary design.
Co-reference enables the interaction between diVerent entries and fosters and
strengthens the lexical association of the user in consulting a target word, which,
to a certain extent, changes the traditional model of retrieval and way of thinking.
evolution of special & encyclopedic dictionaries 345
The Yongle Compendium also adopts an editing policy of exhaustiveness, speciW-
city, and completeness, which is of signiWcance to the compilation of encyclope-
dias. Since it adopts the policy of word-for-word copying, it eVectively preserves
ancient books in their original forms and does much better work than The
Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature, which alters and/or deletes
what is taken from the ancient books. There are, however, some defects in The
Yongle Compendium:
Its content is disunited, enormous, and jumbled; it is not well organized . . . Since it is
hasty in compilation and completion, data collection cannot be carried out entry by
entry but text by text; as the programme was pressed for time and ended in haste, it was
impossible to carry out the analysis text by text, but book by book. Consequently, the
classiWcation was made on the basis of the book titles. The whole dictionary, therefore, is
inconsistent in some parts of its organization and it can only be left at that. (The General
Catalogue and Abstracts of the Imperial Collection of Four Branches of Literature)
These are good lessons for later generations of lexicographers to learn.
346 reform and shaping of lexicography
19
THE EVOLUTION ANDFORMATION OF RHYMEDICTIONARIES IN THE
MING AND QINGDYNASTIES
LIKE pronouncing dictionaries, rhyme dictionaries fall into the special-aspect
dictionary type in the ‘special dictionary’ category. Over the Ming and Qing
Dynasties, rhyme dictionaries formed a relatively independent system, thus dealt
with here in a separate chapter rather than together with other special dictionary
types in the previous chapter.
19.1 the historical background in theming and qing dynasties
Since The Dictionary of Initial Consonants was compiled by Li Deng in the Three
Kingdoms period, rhyme dictionaries have been compiled to standardize and dis-
criminate speech sounds, and to assist literati in composing poems or fu-poems. At
the very beginningof theMingDynasty,HongWuDictionary of StandardRhymeswas
compiled. In the Preface, the author, Song Lian, mentioned his motivation for
compilation: Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang happened to consult rhyme dictionaries and
found that the analogies made in them were illogical in many cases, and the speech
sounds, phonetically notated, were occasionally found to be abnormal. He sum-
moned the oYcials whowere in charge of language teaching aVairs and instructed:
The study of phonetics originated from the regions to the left of the Yangtze River but
the phonetic notations have already lost their justiWcation today: there are rhymes that
are used individually but should be used in a general way, such as东冬 and 清青; there
are also rhymes that are used in a general way but should be used separately, such as 虞,
模, 麻, and 遮. Examples of such a kind are numerous. You oYcials concerned should
consult with those with expertise in phonetics and rectify the rhyme dictionaries. (from
the Preface to Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes)
From 正韵 (literally, ‘to rectify the old rhymes’) in the Chinese title, it can be
inferred that it was compiled mainly for the examination and rectiWcation of
phonetic notations. In the Qing Dynasty, when he was compiling Ancient and
Modern Rhyme Standards, Zhu Junsheng stated:
When I Wnished the compilation of An Explanatory Book of Phonetic Sounds, I wanted to
get it published and solicit comments from the experts. On second thoughts, I am afraid
that with the publication of the 106 rhymes a negative eVect might be brought about – the
over-emphasis on the 106 rhymes might strongly constrain poetic composition in oYcial
examinations; the contemporary could not be generated and the ancient would not be
suppressed. Then I came back to the contemporary rhymes and reconsidered them
carefully. And as a result, one rhyme is divided into several types and the users can
choose from one speciWc type and select the appropriate ones for their poems. No matter
whether they match the contemporary or the ancient, either is justiWable. Thus the book
is entitled古今韵准 (Ancient and Modern Rhyme Standards). (from Self-introduction to
Criteria of Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes)
The motivation for the compilation of Criteria of Ancient and Contemporary
Rhymes was to compromise the diVerences between the ancient and the contem-
porary rhymes, on the one hand, and to help those take part in imperial
examinations on the other hand, which truthfully reXected the background and
the evolutionary path of rhyme dictionaries.
19.2 the development of lexicographicaltheories in the ming and qing dynasties
The theoretical underpinnings of the compilation of rhyme dictionaries in ancient
China were phonological studies. The period of the Ming and Qing Dynasties,
348 reform and shaping of lexicography
especially the Qing Dynasty, reached the peak of ancient phonological studies in
China. Chen Di, a Ming Dynasty scholar, initiated the scientiWc studies of phon-
ology in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The publication of The VeriWcation of
Ancient Phonetic Sounds in Mao’s Book of Songs (<毛诗古音考>) overturned the
‘coordinate rhyme’ (叶韵) theory universally acknowledged by the Song Dynasty
scholars for reading The Book of Songs. As Chen Di points out:
Diachronically, we have the ancient and the contemporary; geographically, we have the
North and the South; and inevitably, the characters and words undergo reforms while the
speech sounds experience changes. If we read an ancient work with present day pronun-
ciation, we will Wnd it awkward and inharmonious. All these were once attributed to
‘leaves’ for they were what the ‘fruits’ all came from. Correspondingly, literary works are
not all written by one hand and they are not collected from one single state, then, why
must母 be universally pronounced as米? If it does not rhyme with杞 or止, then it must
rhyme with祉 or喜. Why? (from Self-introduction to The VeriWcation of Ancient Phonetic
Sounds in Mao’s Book of Songs)
Gu Yanwu was the pioneer of academic research and the founder of ancient
Chinese phonetics in the Qing Dynasty. On the basis of the research by Chen Di,
he further worked out the ancient pronunciations of some characters and
classiWed them into rhyme sections. He proposed a classiWcation of ten rhyme
sections for the ancient rhyming system, which laid the foundation for the study
of ancient rhymes in the Qing Dynasty. Of the ten rhyme sections identiWed by
Gu Yanwu, four of them were well acknowledged, i.e. the sixth, seventh, eighth,
and ninth rhyme sections. For the other six rhyme sections, the classiWcation was
preliminary and more work needed to be done, mainly in further subdivision.
For instance, the ancient rhyme system was classiWed into thirteen sections by
Jiang Yong (江永, 1681–1762), nine categories and twenty-Wve sections by Dai
Zhen (1723–1777), seventeen sections by Duan Yucai, eighteen sections by Kong
Guangshen (孔广森, 1752–1786), and twenty-one sections by Wang Niansun. Gu
Yanwu invented an important method of studying the ancient pronunciation –
‘go along the streams and trace upwards to the sources’, in other words, ‘research
into ancient speech sounds through a better understanding of how contemporary
speech sounds divorce and merge’ (Jiang Yong: The Standards of Ancient Rhymes:
Style Guide, <古韵标准�例言>). By this method, for the Wrst time, he dissected
the rhymes in the Tang Dynasty and classiWed ancient rhymes into ten sections.
Let us see how he did it. Firstly, he took apart the combined rhymes as ‘level
rhymes’, i.e. the rhymes for poetry and went back to The Tang Dictionary of
Rhymes; then he studied how rhymes were used in The Book of Songs and tested
the Wndings against the rhyming works in the Pre-Qin Dynasties; next, he
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 349
dissected and analysed the rhyme system instantiated in The Tang Dictionary of
Rhymes; and lastly he reclassiWed them in an attempt to restore the ancient rhyme
system. Gu Yanwu broke through the paradigm set by The Tang Dictionary of
Rhymes and separated one rhyme into two, which was unprecedented and
revolutionary. Gu Yanwu also changed the distribution system of the entering
tone in The Dictionary of Rhymes: in his Table of Ancient Phonetic Sounds (<古音
表>) he matched the entering tone with the high and level tone, which revealed
the relationship between the entering tone and the high and level tones in the
speech sounds of the early ancient period, which was a great contribution to the
study of the rhyme system in early ancient times. That was also used as support-
ive evidence for his classiWcation of the three rhyme sections of支,脂, and之 in
The Rhyme Diagram of Six Categories of Chinese Characters. The rule of ‘the
entering tone mating the high and level tone’ was well recognized by the majority
of the phonologists of later generations.
For the studies in ancient phonetics in the Qing Dynasty, more attention was
given to ancient rhyme sections. The ancient initial consonants were largely
neglected. Qian Daxin was the Wrst scholar to systematically look into ancient
consonants and made noticeable achievements. His Wndings about ancient
initial consonants were mainly given in The Collected Works of Qian Yan Tang
(<潜研堂文集>) and New Collections of Shijiazhai (<十驾斋养新录>) and
could be summarized as follows: (a) There were no light labials in early ancient
times: the four light labial alphabets, i.e. 非, 敷, 奉, and 微 in the 36-letter
alphabet of Middle Ancient Chinese, did not exist in Early Ancient Chinese but
were the result of diVerentiation from four heavy labials, i.e.帮, 滂,并, and明
respectively; (b) There were no tongue surface sounds in early ancient time. The
three such sounds, i.e. 知,彻, and 澄, were once pronounced as 端,透, and定
respectively, which were tongue head sounds from which the tongue surface
sounds were derived; (c) The ancient people had more tongue sounds than we
have today; (d) In early ancient times,影,喻,晓, and匣 are mutual alliterations.
These four Wndings are Qian Daxin’s major contributions to the study of the
early ancient initial consonants. The Wrst two Wndings are especially important
and have been widely accepted by his contemporaries and the scholars of later
generations.
Not only were outstanding achievementsmade in ancient phonology but also in
contemporary Chinese phonology in the Qing Dynasty. Contemporary Chinese
phonology focused on the study of Chinese sound patterns and systems in the Sui
and Tang Dynasties and referred especially to the studies of the phonological
systems reXected in The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes, which was represented by
Chen Li in theQingDynasty. He wroteThe VeriWcation of the Dictionary of Chinese
350 reform and shaping of lexicography
Rhymes (1842) to restore the original outlook of The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes
by Lu Fayan of the Sui Dynasty via a systematic investigation into The Dictionary
of Rhymes. Chen Li held that ‘The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes is lost but it exists
in The Dictionary of Rhymes’ (from the Preface to The VeriWcation of the Dictionary
of Chinese Rhymes). The fanqie used in The Dictionary of Rhymes was what
Lu Fayan called ‘the old method’. The focus of Chen Li’s investigation was on
the fanqie used in The Dictionary of Rhymes. The basic principle established
by Chen Li was that: the Wrst character in fanqie and the target character to
be phonetically notated must share the same initial consonant while the second
character in fanqie and the target charactermust share the same end vowel, i.e. they
rhyme. From this basic principle two corollaries can be inferred: for two fanqies,
if their Wrst characters are of the same kind, then the second characters must be
of diVerent kinds; if their second characters are of the same kind, then the Wrst
characters must be of diVerent kinds. The method he employed for analysing
fanqie was the method of relation-detection, a kind of induction, which can
be instantiated as three rules, namely:
(a) identical use (同用):冬 is phonetically notated as都宗切 and当 as都郎
切 – the two fanqies share the same Wrst character都;
(b) mutual use (互用):当 is phonetically notated as都郎切 and都 as当孤切 –
in the two fanqies都 and当 are mutually used to give phonetic notations;
(c) successive use (递用):冬 is phonetically notated as都宗切 and都 as当孤
切 –当 is used for都which is used for冬, i.e. the three characters are used
in a successive fashion. (from The VeriWcation of the Dictionary of Chinese
Rhymes: Style Guide)
Chen Li used the method of relation-detection in studying the Wrst 452
characters of fanqie in The Dictionary of Rhymes and classiWed them into forty
initial consonant types. Then he turned to over 1,200 second characters of fanqie
and classiWed them into 311 rhyme types. Chen Li approached The Dictionary
of Rhymes in the right way and implemented the relation-detection method
successfully. For the Wrst time he revealed the initial consonant system and the
rhyme system of The Dictionary of Rhymes. The relation-detection method is still
widely used in phonological studies today.
The focus of ancient phonological studies in China was on how to classify
diVerent speech sounds into diVerent categories and/or diVerent sections and
how to improve the methods of phonetic notation, especially fanqie. The achieve-
ments in phonological studies in the Qing Dynasty had an impact on the
compilation of rhyme dictionaries, in their format and style and in their content.
They formed the underpinnings for the design of rhyme dictionaries – how to
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 351
construct the format and style, how to design the macrostructure, and how to
present the diVerent kinds of information in an entry.
19.3 the evolution of format and style in theming and qing dynasties
In terms of the nature of the rhyme system, the important rhyme dictionaries of
the Ming and Qing Dynasties fell into two major categories: Hong Wu Dictionary
of Standard Rhymes and Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions (<五方元音>) arerhyme dictionaries under the Central Plains rhyme system while An Explanatory
Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes was under the rhyme system of The Dictionary
of Chinese Rhymes.
Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes, in line with The Central Plains
Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes, adopted a critical attitude towards traditional
rhyme dictionaries. Since Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang believed that ‘the study of
rhymes originated from the regions to the left of the Yangtze River and it has
eventually lost its justiWcation and validity as a standard’ (Preface to Hong Wu
Dictionary of Standard Rhymes), the compilers argued accordingly that ‘it is too
hard for Shen Yue to take the speech sounds of Wu as the standard to govern the
sounds of the world. Today we will rectify it’ (Style Guide to Hong Wu Dictionary
of Standard Rhymes: Style Guide). Then, what was the criterion for rectiWcation in
Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes? The standard speech in the Central
Plains was to be adopted as the criteria for rectiWcation, for the compilers
believed:
Men are born with the capacity to speak. They speak diVerently because of what they
have practised in diVerent regions. Then, few types of speech are qualiWed to govern them
all. For instance, the forms of speech in Wu and in Chu are too Xighty; those in Yan and Ji
are too heavy; in Qin and Long the falling tones have turned into the entering and in
Liang and Yi the levelling tone sounds like a falling tone; the diVerences in rhyming
between the east of the Yangtze and the north of the Yellow River are even greater. Then,
which one can be justiWably reckoned as the standard one? The standard one should be
intelligible to people from all diVerent regions. (Style Guide to Hong Wu Dictionary of
Standard Rhymes: Style Guide.)
The one and only speech of such a kind was the speech of the Central Plains.
Then, what were the proto-sounds of speech in all regions? Nian Xiyao (年希尧)
stated: ‘The laws of Yin–yang and the Five Elements are instantiated as the Five
352 reform and shaping of lexicography
Elements in Heaven and the Five Directions on earth and the Five Tones in
sounds.’ ‘It is intended to apply the laws of heaven, earth, and nature to the
sounds of heaven, earth, and nature, and consequently the proto-sounds of
speech can be produced.’ (Preface to Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions).
‘Law’ referred to the twelve temperaments in music and Proto-sounds of Speech
in all Regions was correspondingly divided into twelve rhyme sections, indicating
the ‘sounds of heaven, earth, and nature’, i.e. ‘the proto-sounds of speech’. The
text of Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions was divided into two volumes: each
had six rhyme sections. The characters in each volume were further grouped
according to their initial consonants and the tones they shared. The characters
did not adopt the phonetic notation of fanqie but occasionally used direct
phonetic notation. Each character had a brief explication of its meaning. Look
at the following example entry from Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions:
一天: (剪) (上平) 煎,油煮 . . . . . . (去) 煎, 蜜浸果物。
(One heaven: 剪 [rising level tone] 煎: oil-fried . . . [falling tone] 煎: fruits
soaked with honey.)
天 (heaven) indicated the rhyme section, 剪 stood for the initial consonant,
and上平 and去 indicated the tones. It can be seen from this example entry that
煎 had two pronunciations and two senses. Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions
was written in simple and plain Chinese, with both phonetic notation and sense
deWnition, which partly explained why it was so popular in the early period of the
Qing Dynasty.
The actual phonetic sounds reXected in An Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds
and Rhymes were diVerent from those reXected in the series of rhyme dictionaries
patterned after The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes in that a large-scale reformation
was made on the old phonetic notation system of fanqie. Such a reform was
triggered by a comparison between the Chinese language and the Manchurian
language. Emperor Kangxi noticed that ‘in the Manchurian language, the method
of sound combination is natural and this method should be good enough to
embrace the merits of fanqie’ (from Preface to An Explanatory Dictionary of
Sounds and Rhymes). Li Guangdi, along with others, was appointed to reform
the method of fanqie by taking advantage of sound combination. The so-called
‘sound combination method’ was a method of phonetic notation in the Man-
churian language. When it was applied to fanqie for the Chinese language, ‘its
function is manifested as follows: two characters are recognized when it is
pronounced slowly but only one is detected when it is pronounced fast enough.’
In order to facilitate the pronouncing of two characters as that of one character,
some characters were identiWed as the Wrst characters for fanqie, such as the
characters falling into the rhyming sections of 支, 微, 鱼, 虞, 歌, and 麻, etc.
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 353
These rhymes were all open syllables with no nasal ending. When they are
combined with the second character in fanqie, there will be no redundant
element lying in between. As for the second character for fanqie, the compilers
identiWed the characters with the vowel of影 /ying/ when it was a voiceless sound
and the characters with the vowel of 喻 /yu/ when it was a voiced sound. These
characters had a vowel or a semi-vowel as the initial sound and when they were
used as the second characters in fanqie there would be no initial consonants lying
in between as a hindrance. Through the work of Li Guangdi and his colleagues,
the Wrst characters in fanqie were stripped of sound tails, and the second
characters were without sound heads. They naturally merged into one when
they were pronounced quickly, which was the major advantage of the improved
method – the combinatorial fanqie (合声切字法).
In addition, there are also several other rhyme dictionaries bearing unique
features in format and style, such as General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems
(<诗词通韵>), General Examples of Sounds and Rhymes in All Human Speeches
(<古今中外音韵通例>), and The Diagram of Pictophonetic Characters (<谐声
谱>).General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems (1685) was written by Piao Yinzi (朴
隐子), a Qing Dynasty scholar from Jiangsu Province. It consisted of Wve volumes
arranged in the order of rising level tone, falling level tone, rising tone, falling tone,
and entering tone, with an appendix of The Standard Table of Fanqie (<反切定谱>, one volume). It was entitledGeneral Rhymes (<通韵>), because twenty basicrhyme sectionswere identiWed on the basis of the rhyme system in ci-poems and qu
which was systematically compared with that of the poems. The twenty rhyme
sections were:翁,咉,面,伊,纡,乌,鸦,矣,恩,安,嫣,剜,鏖,阿,耶,英,讴,阴,谙,
and 淹. In the Qing Dynasty, mouth-opening (开), parallel-dental (齐), mouth-
closing (合), and lip-rounding (撮) were identiWed as ‘four breathing-outs’ and
General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems was the Wrst to apply the ‘four breathing-
outs’ to the arrangement of the characters. ‘For rhymes, there are four breathing-
outs, seven basic sounds, and thirty-one classes. There is ‘‘open’’ or ‘‘close’’ for
breathing-outs, gong (宫) or shang (商) for sounddiscrimination, and voiceless or
voiced for thirty-one classes.’ (from General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems:
Illustrations). The ‘seven sounds’ referred to宫, 商, 角,徵, 羽,变徵, and变商.
The ‘thirty-one classes’ referred to the thirty-one initial consonants. Within the
thirty-one classes, the initial consonants were further diVerentiated between
‘voiceless’ and ‘voiced’. General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems amply reXected
the major characteristics of the initial consonants of the rhyme dictionaries on
Southern Qu, a kind of verse popular in the Yuan Dynasty.
General Examples of Sounds and Rhymes in All Human Speeches was compiled
by Hu Huan (胡桓, 1836–?). The book was originally entitled as Rhyme Studies in
354 reform and shaping of lexicography
Wei Gen Xuan (<味根轩韵学>) and published in 1888. It consisted of twenty-
Wve sections and one preface which expatiated on the reasons and motivations
for the book. In the third section of Preface, he stated:
The front matter of General Diagrams of Vowels and Consonants (<音呼声韵总谱>) Wrstlisted four diagrams for individual surveys of the vowels and the initial consonants, then
Wfteen diagrams for general survey of the vowels and the initial consonants, and then
sixteen diVerent ways of pronunciation, which serve as an introductory guide. Those
diagrams are the results of several decades’ investigation and analysis. It is a well-
established method for serious study to approach from their diVerent ways of pronun-
ciations. Later, diVerent tables are made for the rhymes in the classics, in diVerent
dialects, and in translation, but the essentials all fall into the scope of General Rhymes.
(from the Preface to General Examples of Sounds and Rhymes in All Human Speeches)
General Diagrams of Vowels and Consonants had some rhyme tables to illustrate
combinatorial relationships between diVerent initial consonants and vowels.Dia-
grams of the 15 Rhymes: the Five Tongue Positions and the Opening and Closing of the
Mouth (<十五韵分五舌张笼口图>) had identiWed Wfteen rhyme sections cat-
egorized into three types, i.e. Wve tongue rhymes, mouth-opening rhymes, and
mouth-closing rhymes.Diagrams of 22 Initial Consonants: lightness vs. heaviness of
the Five Sounds (<二十二母分五音轻重图>) listed twenty-two initial conson-
ants that were regrouped into Wve types: laryngeals, alveolars, back dentals, front
dentals, and labials and, for each type, the consonants were further classiWed into
four subtypes: primary heavy, secondary heavy, secondary light, primary light.
Diagrams for the Four Breathing-outs: Positive vs. Negative;High vs. low;Narrow vs.
Broad; Roundedness vs. Flatness (<四呼分正副高低狭阔圆扁图>) made use of
the four breathing-outs to reclassify the vowels and choose the root vowels as the
representatives. Diagrams for the Five Sounds: Levelling vs. Oblique; Yin vs. Yang;
Rising vs. Falling vs. Entering (<五声分平仄阴阳上去入图>) classiWed the tonesinto the levelling tone, which was further classiWed into the yin-levelling tone and
the yang-levelling tone, and the oblique tone, which was further classiWed into the
rising tone, the falling tone, and the entering tone. Hu Huan made diagrams for
each rhyme section and general diagrams weremade to embrace the Wfteen rhyme
sections. For each diagram, horizontally listed were the twenty-two initial
consonants for the rhyme sections and vertically listed were the four types
of breathing-outs: mouth openings, parallel-dentals, mouth-closings, and lip-
roundings. Within each type were listed the Wve tones – yin-levelling, yang-
levelling, rising oblique, falling oblique, and entering oblique. Hu Huan stated
that the book was written for enlightenment and practical use, to help understand
and appreciate rhyming patterns. In Level-Oblique Initial Consonants: Seven Items
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 355
(<平侧声七条>), he said that ‘it is compiled for enlightenment and it will simply
follow SoundDiVerentiation (<音鉴>) by Li Songshi (李松石)’; ‘Since it is to help
to enlighten the students, when an odd sound is encountered the chief method
employed is to elicit or to highlight the most basic things’. This emphasis on
enlightenment can be found in most parts of the book. For instance,
since it is for enlightenment, there would be no diVerentiation of the voiceless from the
voiced but just the diVerentiation of breathing-out for the initial consonants and the
rhyming of the vowels. When it is expected that the user might know only one of the two
characters in fanqie, the diYcult one might be substituted for an easy borrowed one.
(from Head Characters with Vowels: Two Items, <母韵领首字两条>)
The alphabetical characters used are only those voiceless ones. The addition of the yang-
level tone to the four tones is also intended to ease pronunciation. (from The Method of
Keeping the Voiceless and Deleting the Voiced: Two Items, <留清去浊法二条>)
the deletion of the voiced from the vowels is also to assist learners in grasping pronun-
ciation. . . . It is inappropriate to take the names of the breathing-outs as the names of
the vowels. Otherwise the learners would be confused. . . . The illustrative examples are
expected to meet the need of the students and the slang and colloquial expressions are
not deliberately avoided. (from Self Introduction: Three Items, <自述三条>).
As Zhao Yintang (赵荫棠, 1957) stated: ‘Since the book is entitled ‘‘all speeches in
the world’’, its content does not merely focus on rhyming but also is concerned
with translated expressions and sound transmission in the open air, in addition
to the vowels and initial consonants of human speech.’
Therefore, the book served to help to understand ancient speech sounds
centuries or millennia ago or the sounds of dialects hundreds or thousands of
miles away. Hu Huan added fresh ideas to theoretical investigations and devoted
suYcient attention to speech sounds of diVerent regional dialects. His contribu-
tions to phonological studies are remarkable and indispensable.
Among the rhyme dictionaries in the Qing Dynasties there was one of rigorous
format and style, i.e. The Dictionary of Pictophonetic Characters (Wfty volumes) by
Zhang Huiyan (张惠言) and Zhang Chengsun (张成孙), an essential dictionary
on ancient phonetics, second only to those compiled by Gu Yanwu and Wang
Niansun. This dictionary made full use of the data from classic literature and the
early ancient sounds were divided into twenty sections. There were four kinds of
format and style, namely表 (chart),谱 (pedigree),韵 (rhyme), and略 (omission).
The logical relations in the macrostructure of the dictionary were meticulously
woven and well-grounded. From the studies in the ancient rhymes some charts
were obtained, from which were derived the other charts for pictophonetic
356 reform and shaping of lexicography
characters. The charts followed the model of the theory of combined rhymes by
Duan Yucai; the pedigrees were mainly based on An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters; the pictophonetic characters were mainly rhymed ones while
the rhymesweremainly found in poems; the omissions were written in the formof
the oYcial script in the order of the pedigrees to facilitate consultation. (See Style
Guide to The Dictionary of Pictophonetic Characters.)
19.4 the representative dictionariesin the ming and qing dynasties and
their academic influence
The major inXuential rhyme dictionaries in the period of the Ming and Qing
Dynasties areHongWuDictionary of StandardRhymes,Proto-sounds of Speech in all
Regions,An Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes,The Essentials of Sounds
and Rhymes of Zhongzhou State (<中州音韵辑要>), The Pearls of Rhyme Studies
(<韵学骊珠>), and ACollection of Characters and Sounds (<字音汇集>).
Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard RhymesImmediately after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang
ordered Yue Shaofeng (乐韶凤) and Song Lian (宋濂) to compile a new rhyme
dictionary, the result of which is Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes. The
compilation was completed in 1375. It regrouped the 206 rhyme sections into 76
new ones – twenty-two rhyme sections for the levelling tone, the rising tone, and
the falling tone respectively, and ten rhyme sections for the entering tone, for
instance, the rhyme sections represented by the characters东,支, 齐, 鱼, 模, 皆,
庆, 真, 寒, 删, 先, 萧, 爻, 歌, 麻, 遮, 阳, 庚, 尤, 侵, 覃, and 盐. Hong Wu
Dictionary of Standard Rhymes had thirty-one initial consonant types, which was
Wve fewer than the standard ‘36-character alphabet’ – in other words, Wve pairs
were mixed:非 with敷;知 with照;彻 with穿;澄 with床; and泥 with娘.Hong
Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes kept the entering tone and the completely
voiced initial consonants without discrimination of yin and yang with the
levelling tone. Many scholars came to the conclusion that some elements from
southern dialects had been merged into the dictionary. In a sense, Hong Wu
Dictionary of Standard Rhymes served as a transitional bridge connecting The
Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymeswith the rhyme dictionaries of the
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 357
Ming and Qing Dynasties, occupying a very important position in the develop-
ment of rhyme dictionaries in China. In terms of exegetic interpretation, Hong
Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes classiWed the characters according to the
rhyme categories they fell into, following the example of Amendments to the
Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the Ministry of Rites (<增修互补礼部韵略>)by Mao Huang (毛晃) in the Southern Song Dynasty. The rhyme sections of
Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes were similar in many respects to those
of The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and Contemporary Rhymes, reXecting, to a
certain extent, the actual situation of the oYcial language in Northern regions
and proving valuable for the study of how the oYcial language came to take
shape.
Proto-sounds of Speech in all RegionsProto-sounds of Speech in all Regions was written by Fan Tengfeng (樊腾凤,
1601–1664), whose courtesy name was Lin Xu and who was born in Long County,
present-day Hebei Province. DiVerent accounts existed concerning when it was
written: between 1653 to 1673 according to Zhao Yintang or between 1654 to 1664
according to Yu Min (俞敏). Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions consisted of
a Preface, table of contents, and a two-volume main part with Style Guide. The
Style Guide included the part from河图 (River Diagram) to二十字母 (20-letter
alphabet), which was an exposition of the format and style, the part from the
labials of水,肾, and 羽 to the three poems of West River Moon (西江月三首),
which introduced the common knowledge of sounds and rhymes, and the part
on rhyme introduction (韵略), which was actually made up of the rhyme tables:
one rhyme table for each rhyme section and twelve tables in all. The dictionary
text started with the part from 一天 (One Heaven) to 六獒 (Six MastiVs), the
Wrst volume, followed by the part from 七虎 (Seven Tigers) to 十二地 (Twelve
Earth), the second volume. Within each volume, the characters were grouped
according to their initial consonants and the tones of their vowels. The characters
were not phonetically notated by means of fanqie but sometimes with direct
notations. For each character there was always a brief explication of its meaning.
The format and style of the book can be summarized as follows: ‘The rhyme
system is the spine; the initial consonants form its sequence; four breathing-outs
are discriminated; the Wve sounds are identiWed; the entry characters are deWned
brieXy.’ The characters were classiWed into twelve rhyme sections represented by
天,人, 龙, 羊, 牛, 獒, 虎, 驼, 蛇, 马, 豺, and地. Within each rhyme section, the
characters were, according to the initial consonants they shared, classiWed into
twenty major groups represented by梆,匏,木,风,斗,土,鸟,雷,竹,虫,石,曰,
358 reform and shaping of lexicography
箭, 鹊,丝,云, 金, 桥, 火, and 蛙. As for the characters sharing the same rhyme
and the same initial consonant, they were further divided according to the four
breathing-outs, i.e. mouth-opening, dental-parallelling, mouth-closing, and lip-
rounding. Those sharing the same initial consonant, the same rhyme, and the
same breathing-out were further divided according to the Wve tones, i.e. rising
level, falling level, rising, falling, and entering.
The Qilin Manual of Eight SoundsThe Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds (<戚林八音>) was a combination of The
General Survey of Eight Sounds and Meanings for Qi Armymen (<戚参军八音义
便览>) and The Sound Synchronization of Pearls and Jade (<珠玉同声>). Theformer was compiled by the Ming Dynasty military leader Qi Jiguang (戚继光,
1528–1588) to teach his soldiers the dialects of Fujian Province. The latter
was compiled by Lin Bishan (林碧山), a learned scholar born in Fuzhou City,
present-day Fujian Province. The two books were combined and printed by Jin
An (晋安), a citizen of Fuzhou City in 1749. Qi Jiguang, whose courtesy name
was Yuan Jing, was born in Dengzhou, present-day Shandong Province.
His major works included Disciplines and EVects: A New Book (<纪效新书>),Records on Soldier Training (<练兵纪实>), and The Zhizhitang Collection (<止止堂集>). Among the rhyme books on the Fujian dialects, The Qilin Manual
of Eight Sounds (<戚林八音>) was the earliest, the most widely circulated,
and the most popular and inXuential. The earliest version presently available
of The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds is The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds:
Bound Edition, printed in 1749 by the Haixuetang Publishing House, which
was a combined edition of The General Survey of Eight Sounds, Characters and
Meanings (<戚林八音字义便览>), and Historian Lin Bishan’s Sound Synchron-
ization of Pearls and Jade (<太史林碧山先生珠玉同声>). Its Foreword by
Shangwan Jin’an (上浣晋安) stated that the two books ‘have lasted for a
long time and errors and mistakes appeared in their circulation. It is a pity
to those who appreciate their signiWcance, as the two books are separately
issued and are diYcult to come by. That is why they are now combined into
one volume, with a great deal of rectiWcation and correction so that they can
be co-referred to each other in reading now, avoiding possible gaps between
the two.’
The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds, Characters and Meanings (<戚林八音字
义>) was ascribable to Cai Shipan (蔡士泮), and The Sound Synchronization of
Pearls and Jade, a simpliWed version of Eight Sounds, Characters and Meanings
(<八音字义>) in early Qing Dynasty, to Lin Bishan, and its editor was Chen Ta
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 359
(陈他). According to the textual research carried out by Li Rulong (李如龙),
neither Qi Jiguang nor Lin Bishan was the original author. Their names were used
because they were well-known. The authors were actually Cai Shipan and Chen
Ta, as was recorded in the original books. They both failed the Imperial Exam-
inations and were thus in a better position to understand the real need for the
compilation of such dialect rhyme dictionaries, which were not very greatly
appreciated among the learned scholars.
Qi’s manual classiWed the initial consonants into Wfteen types, as represented
in the following four-line poem:
柳边求气低,波他曾日时。
莺蒙语出喜,打掌与君知。
The vowels were classiWed into thirty-six types, as indicated in the following
poem:
春花香,秋山开。
嘉宾欢歌须金杯,孤灯光辉烧银缸。
之东郊,过西桥,
鸡声催初天,奇梅歪遮沟。
The tones in the manual were classiWed into eight types: levelling, rising,
falling, and entering, with each of the four tones divided into two subcategories
of ‘voiceless’ and ‘voiced’. Among these eight types, the two ‘rising’ subcategories
were identical, actually only one tone, marked by the symbol☉.
The initial consonants in Lin’s book were also classiWed into Wfteen classes, as
illustrated in the following poem:
柳边求美女,波面鸟亦之。
雅音风出语, 声援悉皆知。
The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds is still of considerable value today. As
pointed out in the Preface to The Supplement to the Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds
(<加订戚林八音>):
If you want to enjoy the highly elegant and the widely popular at the same time and have
the readily intelligible and the most profound side by side, the best choice is The Qilin
Manual of Eight Sounds. When its pronunciation is examined, you have learned the
character and have the pleasure of getting the essence of each of the adequately explicated
characters when the volume is opened, without any diYculties in grasping its essentials.
(from The Supplement to the Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds)
This illustrates that The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds applied the principles of
phonology and rhyming theories to actual lexicographical practice. The people in
the Fujian dialect region could learn the characters with the help of the sounds and
retrieve the meanings of the character from the book. It became an important tool
360 reform and shaping of lexicography
for learning the characters and getting to know about the culture and provided
useful rhyme data for the composition of local operas. It preserved the phono-
logical system of the Fuzhou dialect 400 years ago, which furnished important
data for dialectal investigations. This phonological system could also serve as a
frame of reference for the study of themodern Fuzhou dialect and as a basis for the
tracing of its evolution. This manual is valuable for the study of lexicology and
exegetic research and signiWcant for studying the historical positions of dialectal
words and the changes of word meanings, as it provides rich data sources for the
deWnitions of a large number of local characters, words, and expressions.
An Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds and RhymesIn 1715, Emperor Kangxi ordered Li Guangdi, Wang Lansheng, and others to
compile An Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes, which was completed
in 1726. Li Guangdi, whose courtesy name was Jin Qing, was born in Anxi, Fujian
Province. This dictionary consisted of eighteen volumes and 112 rhyme sections
which were classiWed according to the rhymes for poetry. Within each rhyme
section, the characters were arranged according to the four breathing-outs and
the 36-letter alphabet. As to phonetic notation, the phonological system of the
Northern OYcial Language was taken as the standard. For the application of
fanqie, the Wrst characters were selected from rhyme sections represented by支,
微, 鱼, 虞, 歌, and 麻, which were open syllable characters, and the second
characters made no diVerentiation between voiceless and voiced, except that they
were identical to the Wrst characters of fanqie in level and oblique tones.
The outstanding features and achievements of An Explanatory Dictionary of
Sounds and Rhymes resided in its application of the principles of the rhyme
contour theory, its improvement on the style and format of rhyme dictionaries,
and its reform in fanqie. The scholars of the Qing Dynasty contended that the
fanqie adopted in pre-Qing Dynasty was ‘over-elaborate and unintelligible and
usually segregated by a diVerent categoric classiWcation’ (from the Preface to An
Explanatory Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes). Thanks to a series of reforms in
the old fanqie system adopted in previous rhyme dictionaries, the new methods
of fanqie were more simple, Xuent, and intelligible, having overcome the short-
comings of the previous method of fanqie, i.e. ‘complicated to use and diYcult to
access the target sound’. This book, as a valuable data source for studying the
evolution of pronunciation in modern times, holds an important position in the
history of phonology. Even today, the majority of its phonetic notations for single
characters by means of fanqie have been directly adopted in compiling large-scale
dictionaries, such as Ci Hai and Ci Yuan.
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 361
The Essentials of Sounds and Rhymes of Zhongzhou StateThe Essentials of Sounds and Rhymes of Zhongzhou State was compiled by Wang
Jun (王鵕), whose courtesy name was Lu Qing (履青), and was completed in
1781, consisting of twenty-one sections represented by东同,支时,归回,苏模,
真文,欢桓,萧豪,家麻,庚亭,侵寻,纤廉,江阳,机微,居鱼,皆来,干寒,天田,
歌罗,车蛇, 鸠由, and 监咸. This book was based on A Comprehensive Diction-
ary of the Rhymes of Zhongzhou State (<中州全韵>) by Fan Shanzhen (范善
臻) – ‘deleting the odd and outdated characters, integrating the essential ones,
and rectifying the erroneous ones’, and its adoption of fanqie was ‘tested
against General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems’. As for deWnitions, ‘half of
them are simpliWed, but all of them are essentially based on The Imperial
Dictionary of Kangxi’. The falling tone in The Essentials of Sounds and Rhymes
of Zhongzhou State was divided into yin and yang, following Fan Shanzhen’s A
Comprehensive Dictionary of the Rhymes of Zhongzhou State, while its treatment
of the entering tone was modelled on The Central Plains Sounds and Rhymes
Dictionary, taking into consideration the Southern sounds. As mentioned in its
Style Guide:
The Wrst important thing to do is to have an accurate phonetic notation of the entering
tone; then, to phonetically notate with the Northern sounds and make sure that they
rhyme. As to the confusable ones in the previous rhyme dictionaries, they will be
analysed and assigned to where they belong. Finally, the four tones are complete and
the relationships between diVerent regions, i.e. the North, the South, and the Central
Plains, have been well worked out. (from The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and
Contemporary Rhymes: Style Guide)
All these practices constituted substantial contributions to the compilation of
rhyme dictionaries.
The Pearls of Rhyme StudiesThe Pearls of Rhyme Studies was compiled by Shen Chenglin (沈乘麐) who had
spent half a century writing it and it had been redrafted seven times before it was
Wnalized. The book included a Foreword by Jie Zhou (芥舟) in 1746 and a Preface
by Zhou Ang (周昂) in 1792. Its rhyme sections were mainly based on Hong Wu
Dictionary of Standard Rhymes and The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and
Rhymes. Following the example of Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes, it
further divided 苏模 into 姑模 and 居鱼, 齐微, into 机微 and 灰回, but for
寒山, it followed The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and Rhymes, without
further division, adding up to twenty-one rhyme sections. The Pearls of Rhyme
362 reform and shaping of lexicography
Studiesmade important contributions to the development of rhyme dictionaries,
with signiWcant innovations in the division of tones. The levelling tone was
initially divided into yin-levelling and yang-levelling in The Central Plains Dic-
tionary of Sounds and Rhymes Dictionary. In A Comprehensive Dictionary of the
Rhymes of Zhongzhou State, the levelling and the falling tones were each discrim-
inated between yin and yang. The Pearls of Rhyme Studies, however, went one step
further and divided each of the levelling, rising, falling, and entering tones into
yin and yang, employing the system of宫,商,角,徵,羽,变宫,变徵 to represent
the initial consonants, rather than adopting the 36-character alphabet.
A Collection of Characters and SoundsA Collection of Characters and Sounds was compiled by Jiang Xuehai (江学海)
between 1821 to 1850, comprising seventy-eight rhyme sections:
(a) The rhyme sections falling into the rising levelling category included: 优,
依, 巴赊,夫,呵,诗, 焉,央, 风, 深, 蒿, 威 and哀;
(b) The rhyme sections falling into the falling levelling category included:由,
移,拔, 蛇, 浮,何,时, 言,阳,逢,辰, 豪,为 and 岩;
(c) The rhyme sections falling into the rising category included:有,以,把,舍,
府,大,始, 眼,养, 捧,审,好,委 and 蔼;
(d) The rhyme sections falling into the falling category included:右,易,罢,射,
父,贺,是,焰,样,凤,剩,号,魏,艾,幼,意,霸,赦,富,货,世,厌,漾,讽,圣,耗,
畏, and 爱; and
(e) The rhyme sections falling into the entering category included: 欲, 壹,八,
涉,福,合,实 and曰.Within each of the above rhyme sections, the characters were regrouped into
rhyme subsections according to the initial consonants or the middle sounds they
shared. The subsections were separated by the symbol *. There was a brief
explanatory note for each character, in imitation of The Dictionary of Rhymes.
In normal cases, there was no fanqie for phonetic notation except for some rare
examples, such as ‘遒,即由切’, in which遒 was notated as即由 in fanqie. A small
number of variant pronunciations were directly notated, such as ‘探, 又音突’,
which means that探 was also pronounced突. The methods adopted in the brief
explanatory notes were description (描叙), simulation (摹拟), classiWcation (归
类), alias (别名), synonymy (同义), opposite exegetic interpretation (反训),
word association (联词), sentence association (联句), colloquial expression (俗
语), citation (引证), and grammar (语法), etc. As illustrated in the Style Guide,
the book was compiled
evolution of rhyme dictionaries 363
originally for consulting the rhymes of characters and for explaining the meanings of the
characters in order to avoid misspelling and misuse. It is for teachers to use in their
leisure time. Using this book, students can understand a group of characters when one of
them is taught; and the meanings of numerous characters can be deduced when the
meaning of one character is explicated.
For those scholars who take part in the imperial examination, such a book will help to
prevent them from making errors and mistakes, such as the misinterpretation of 兽
(beast) as in 鱼兽 (Wsh and beast). And even those who have trades, and who have
learned and understood suYciently, will not have anything to regret. When talents are
moulded and trained, who will be belittled as being simple and shallow? (from A
Collection of Characters and Sounds: Style Guide)
ACollection of Characters and Sounds was used for learning characters and as a
valuable source of referential data for dictionary compilation. The abundant data
in the book are also important for diachronic research on the Chinese language,
its dialects, and exegetic research.
364 reform and shaping of lexicography
p a r t v
CHINESE BIL INGUAL
LEXICOGRAPHY:
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
(from the Tang Dynasty, 618–907 tothe Qing Dynasty, 1616–1911)
This page intentionally left blank
20
THE ORIGIN ANDEMERGENCE OF CHINESE
BILINGUAL LEXICOGRAPHY
LANGUAGE is often assumed to be the carrier of a nation’s culture, and in a
sense the dictionary can be said to be the carrier of language, as the diction-
ary describes and records language, which makes it possible for language elem-
ents to be preserved and transmitted from generation to generation. Modern
linguists have to resort to ancient glossaries, wordbooks, vocabularies, diction-
aries, and relevant literature to conduct research on ancient languages and their
writing systems. The dictionary is traditionally considered the reference tool that
provides information concerning word history, grammar, pragmatics, sense
relations, and sense diVerentiation, in addition to the phonetics, orthography,
and signiWcation of language. All this reXects the main features most dictionaries
share and is the epitome of the linguistic nature of the dictionary.
The dictionary chooses to describe and record language components, but it is
a cultural product by nature as it derives from the development of society and
culture and the need for human communication. The need for communication
leads to the emergence of language, and the dictionary progresses and matures
with the human understanding of language and the gradual advancement of
civilization. The birth of the dictionary signiWes a comprehensive and systematic
aggregation of a nation’s socio-linguistic and socio-cultural accomplishments over
certain periods of time. As a cultural product, the dictionary forms a culture of its
own – lexicographical culture, fromwhich its attributes are engendered. Standard-
ization is the most representative attribute of lexicographical culture, permeating
the whole dictionary both macrostructurally and microstructurally, and forms
the basis for the authority of the content of the dictionary.
Language depends on social existence and progression and mirrors the content,
standard, and scale of social production and life. Language use depends on social
conventions and needs social recognition. Language embodies the peculiarities of a
nation. Every nation has its own culture and cultural traditions. The formation and
development of a national language can never be separated from its historical back-
ground and cultural traditions. Language is not only the carrier of its national culture
but also the product of that culture. National idiosyncrasies and cultural features can
always be analysed and abstracted from the speciWc practices of material production,
spiritual life,psychology,waysof thinking, religion,moralvaluesandsocialcustomsof
thatnation,andreXected in its language,developing into its linguisticconventionality.
The dictionary, as a tool for describing and recording language, is eventually
imprinted with such socio-cultural behaviours. The social nature of the dictionary
is the mirror of the social conventions of language.
The linguistic, cultural, and social nature are inherent in the dictionary and are
reXected in its compilation and research by diVerent dimensions and interdiscip-
linary perspectives. The origin, compilation, and research of the dictionary are all
ascribable to the revelation and elevation of its linguistic, cultural, and social
attributes. There is no doubt that the inception, creation, and development of the
dictionary are also the outcome of such revelations and elevations.
The development of dictionary compilation is closely interwoven with social
civilization and cultural advancement, reXecting the evolutionary path for civiliza-
tional progression and the rise and fall of a nation. The diVerence in socio-cultural
setting will lead to diVerent modes and degrees for the rise and development of
lexicographical culture. English and Chinese bilingual lexicography originated from
diVerent cultural and historical backgrounds and consequently developed from
diVerent sources and along diVerent paths. English bilingual lexicography arose
with the glossing of classical works with Old English in the Anglo-Saxon period and
became heavily involved with the classical language Latin in the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance. Chinese bilingual lexicography started with religious preaching
and had its origins in the translation of Buddhist sutras, starting from around 550.
People today still indulge in the habit of glossing words and phrases in reading,
a practice which has come down to us from very remote times. These interlinear
and marginal glosses may give the reader’s comments upon certain lines of the
text, function as an aid for textual interpretation and comprehension, serve as a
reminder of previous thoughts and reXections relevant to the text, and explain
meanings of diYcult words or mark special uses of certain words in the text. It is
this last function of those interlinear and marginal glosses that marks the
368 chinese bilingual lexicography
inception of bilingual lexicography and is of immediate relevance and interest to
lexicographical studies.
20.1 buddhist preaching and the advent ofbilingual lexicography
Chinese bilingual lexicography originated from the preaching of Buddhism, a
religion founded in India during the period from the early fourth century bc to
the late sixth century. It spread from India to countries in Central, East, and
Southeast Asia, exercising a strong, profound, and long-lasting inXuence upon the
social, cultural, and spiritual life of the region. Buddhism was introduced into
China in the late Western Han Dynasty (206 bc–ad 7). To preach their Buddhist
doctrines to the native Chinese, Indian monks had to make painstaking eVorts to
translate their Scriptures into Chinese. As Buddhism was totally foreign on
Chinese soil, it is not hard to imagine what a diYcult and painstaking start Indian
monks must have had and what those early translations might have been like.
Meanwhile, Chinese monks started to write Sanskrit works, which can be
classiWed into two categories – dictionaries and Siddham. During the Tang
Dynasty (618–907) Chinese monks made pilgrimages to India to study Bud-
dhism and the Buddhist languages, preparing themselves for the task of preach-
ing Buddhism and translating Buddhist scriptures. That led to a signiWcant
improvement in the quality of later sutra translation and paved the way for
the compilation of the earliest Chinese glossaries and dictionaries of sound and
meaning, mainly compiled and augmented by Xuan Ying, Hui Yuan, Hui Lin, Xi
Lin et al., and collections of Buddhist terms in the translated Buddhist sutras,
like The Collection of Meanings of Terms in Translation (<翻译名义集>) by Fa
Yun (法云) and Translating Sanskrit (<翻梵语>) by Bao Chang (宝唱). Trans-
lating Sanskrit bore close resemblance to The Collection of Meanings of Terms in
Translation in compilation style and format, but neither can, in a strict sense, be
considered Sanskrit-Chinese bilingual dictionaries. The Chinese monks used
Siddham to refer to the Sanskrit phonetic alphabet and wrote several books in
this connection, like The Record of Siddham Characters (<悉昙字记>) writtenby Zhi Guang (智广), a Tang Dynasty monk, and The Origin of Siddham
Characters (<天竺字源>) jointly compiled by an Indian monk called Fa Hu
(法护) and a Chinese monk called Wei Jing (惟净) in the Northern Song
Dynasty.
chinese bilingual lexicography 369
20.2 buddhist sutras and the compilation ofdictionaries of sounds and meanings
Buddhist sutras were written in Sanskrit, an ancient language of India mainly
used by the upper elite class in northwest India, and, more signiWcantly, used to
preach Buddhism. In translating Buddhist sutras, Chinese monks accumulated
Buddhist terms and transliterated themwith Chinese characters, which were later
gathered to become glossaries. The earliest extant glossary of this kind – Sounds of
All the Buddhist Scriptures – was compiled by a Chinese monk of the Northern Qi
Dynasty (550–577), known as Dao Hui, who was mistaken by T. Watters for
‘Yuan-ying’ (Xuan Ying). It preceded the Wrst Western Sanskrit–English diction-
ary by Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860) by more than one thousand years
(see Collision, 1982:127).
There was a boom in the compilation of such glossaries in the Tang Dynasty,
which saw the birth of Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures (also
translated as Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Sacred Books, Sounds and
Meanings of the Whole Canon; Watters, 1889:52–3, 382). Sounds and Meanings of
All the Buddhist Scriptures was compiled under the patronage of Empress Zhen
Guan (贞观, 627–649) by another Chinese monk named Xuan Ying, probably a
contemporary of Yi Jing (义净) and Xuan Zang (玄奘). Xuan Ying commenced
his work ‘by collecting 454Mahayana and Hinayana sutras and arranging them in
a series starting with The Avatamsaka Sutra (<华严经>) and ending with The
Abhidharma Naya Anusara Sutra (<顺正理论>) . . . His purpose in compiling
the dictionary was to deWne diYcult words, both Sanskrit and Chinese, that
appeared in the Chinese translations of the sutras’ (Chien and Creamer, 1986),
which shows Chinese bilingual lexicography also started by following the ‘hard-
word’ tradition. The entries in his work were arranged in much the same way as
in The Leiden Glossary, i.e. in the order in which they appeared in the sutra text.
The dictionary text provides ‘any variant renderings of the headword, then the
deWnition, the pronunciation of diYcult characters in the headword combin-
ation and an explanation of any unusual character that appears in the deWnition’
(Chien and Creamer, 1986). Some time afterwards, another Chinese monk called
Hui Yuan added two more chapters, which may be regarded as a sort of
supplement to Xuan Ying’s Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures
(Watters, 1889:53). Mention must be made here of what can be called a composite
collection of all the glossaries of scripture words and expressions compiled in and
before the Tang Dynasty. Hui Lin, another monk of the Tang Dynasty, spent
370 chinese bilingual lexicography
twenty-Wve years selecting a vast number of Buddhist terms from previous
glossaries and from among over 1,300 Buddhist sutras and scriptures and com-
piled what was also called Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures,
which can safely be considered the archetype of the Chinese bilingual dictionary.
Xi Lin, a Chinese monk of the Song Dynasty, followed in the wake of the
compilation of the ‘sounds and meanings’ glossaries and compiled The Extended
Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures, which can be regarded as a
continuation of previous works of Buddhist terms.
20.3 dictionaries of sounds and meanings andthe dawn of bilingual dictionaries
In addition to the glossaries and dictionaries of sounds and meanings, there also
appeared a Sanskrit-Chinese vocabulary, with quite a unique compilation style –
The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary (<梵语千字文>), which is awk-
wardly translated as Sanskrit Thousand Character Text byWatters (1889:382). This
glossary is assumed to have been written by Yi Jing, collecting 995 transliterated
Sanskrit entry words. Each entry starts with a transliterated Sanskrit word, fol-
lowed by its Chinese phonetic equivalent and then a single Chinese explanatory
word. The body of the dictionary is prefaced with a one-thousand-character text
composed of rhymed verses with each line consisting of four characters. The
characters used in the text form the deWning vocabulary for the glossary. This
method of limiting the deWning vocabulary is similar in nature to that used by the
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978) and other modern English
monolingual dictionaries.
The above-mentioned glossaries and dictionaries, in most cases, employ trans-
literated Sanskrit Buddhist terms as headwords in the entries, which are deWned
or explained by Chinese characters. They can, by nature, only be considered
monolingual dictionaries deWning Buddhist terms, not bilingual dictionaries in
the modern sense. If any evolutionary connection can be detected between those
ancient glossaries and dictionaries and modern bilingual dictionaries, they can
only be reckoned as the most primitive attempts at compiling bilingual diction-
aries. Those early glossaries and dictionaries bear some basic features of modern
bilingual dictionaries, but it will be more reasonable to consider them as the most
distant forerunners of modern Chinese bilingual dictionaries.
chinese bilingual lexicography 371
21
THE ARCHETYPEAND EVOLUTION OFCHINESE BILINGUAL
DICTIONARIES
SIMULTANEOUS with The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary was a
glossary of a simlar nature, which was entitled A Miscellaneous Collection of
Sanskrit Terms (<梵语杂名>). It was written by a monk called Li Yan (利言), and
the version currently available was made in 1732. Li Yan was born in the Kingdom of
Guici (approximately present-day Xinjiang in Northwest China) and followed the
Indian monk Fa Yue (法月) to become a monk in his early years. He had a good
memory and was familiar with mid-Asian languages, apart from Chinese and San-
skrit. He died some time between 789 and 795. A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit
Terms was completed during his late years in Chang’an. It collected 1,221 headwords,
and most of them were monosyllabic character entry words, with occasional bi-
syllabic headwords like眼睫 (eyelid) and指节 (Wnger joints). It even included verb
phrases like 上马 (mount a horse) and 何处去 (where to go), which made it
somewhat diVerent from The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary in style.
21.1 buddhist culture and the emergenceof bilingual glossaries
The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary was prefaced with a text of one
thousand Chinese characters, and its headwords were mainly transliterated
Sanskrit words. A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit Terms was, however, diVer-
ent in that it listed Sanskrit words as its headwords, which were then translated
into Chinese. In cases where there was a lack of appropriate translation, the same
Chinese character would be used repeatedly. A Miscellaneous Collection of San-
skrit Terms also collected quite a number of proper terms, together with their
Sanskrit translations. For instance, the Sanskrit equivalent for 京师 was Kumu-
dana, which originated from Khumdan – used by the Tujue and mid-Asian
people to refer to the capital city of Chang’an, and the Sanskrit equivalent for
高丽 was Mukuli, which was Mukrit, a Tujue word, and the Sanskrit equivalents
for吴 and 蜀 were Paravada and Amrdu respectively. It follows from the above
discussion that compared with The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary,
A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit Terms bore greater resemblance to a
modern bilingual dictionary in structure and format and may, therefore, be
considered the archetype of early Chinese bilingual dictionaries.
From A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit Terms were derived two Sanskrit-
Chinese glossaries – The Sanskrit–Chinese Glossary (<唐梵两语双对集>) and
The Glossary of Sanskrit and Chinese Characters (<唐梵文字>). The former was
written by two Indian monks and was appended to The Newly Revised Dazheng
Buddhist Scriptures (<大正新修大藏经>, abbreviated to <大正藏>, DazhengBuddhist Scriptures). The text was organized in the same way as Li Yan’s glossary,
but it left some characters out of account. There were no Sanskrit words but
Chinese transliterations. The characters used for transliteration were mostly
the same as those in A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit Terms, which aroused
the suspicion that the book was a copied version of Li Yan’s glossary and that the
names of the two Indian monks were added deliberately. The latter was compiled
by Quan Zhen (全真) of the Esoteric Sect, covering 1,117 head characters. Com-
pared with Yi Jing’s glossary, some deletion was made in the book, except for the
last 400 entry characters. Quan Zhenwas dozens of years junior to Yi Jing, and his
book must have been written for the purpose of preaching the Esoteric doctrines
and was an adaptation from The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary.
21.2 chinese socio-cultural life and theevolution of bilingual dictionaries
Looking back upon the origin and evolution of Chinese bilingual lexicography,
three main threads of development are clearly visible. The Wrst thread goes
chinese bilingual dictionaries 373
through the translation of religious scriptures and preaching, particularly appar-
ent in the early history of Chinese bilingual lexicography. Around 200 bc, the
Indian monks came to the mysterious Chinese territory to preach Buddhism. As
a result, Sanskrit–Chinese glossaries and dictionaries started to appear, in add-
ition to Chinese monolingual dictionaries aimed at explaining Buddhist terms.
By the sixteenth century, Christianity began to spread in China, which led to an
endless stream of Chinese–English dictionaries, Chinese–Latin dictionaries, and
the combination of Chinese with other Western languages.
Ever since remote times China had established friendly cultural and trade
relations with its neighbours and countries in other parts of the world. During
the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian (张骞) visited the Western Region, including
Xinjiang and Central Asia, in the capacity of an envoy and opened up the well-
known Silk Road. Closer ties were being forged between the Han people and the
non-Han peoples (such as the Japanese and Koreans), the Han people and
the ethnic minorities within the Chinese territory (such as the Tibetans and the
Mongolians), and the ethnic minorities and alien nations (such as the Arabians
and the Iranians) in social, cultural, technological, and commercial exchanges.
All this forms the socio-cultural background to the development of Chinese
bilingual lexicography, and the ever-increasing socio-cultural and commercial
exchanges became the propeller for early Chinese bilingual dictionary compil-
ation, particularly bilingual dictionaries of science and technology.
From the EasternHanDynasty (25–220), the Han Cultural Rimwas beginning to
take shape, and Chinese culture was widely found in China’s neighbouring coun-
tries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The earliest extant Chinese–Japanese
dictionary, which was completed in 830, was modelled on The Jade Chapters. In
the eleventh century the Wrst Chinese–Japanese encyclopedic dictionary, the work
of Minamoto no Shitago, made its appearance. The Kagakushu, another Chinese–
Japanese dictionary, possibly compiled by a Buddhist monk, was widely circulated
during the Wfteenth and sixteenth centuries (see Collision, 1982:51). Again, in the
eleventh century, an anonymous Chinese–Vietnamese encyclopedic work was pro-
duced with the title of AChinese–Foreign Language Vocabulary. This work ‘provides
a Chinese-to-Vietnamese corpus of 3,394 entries grouped under forty headings
(Astronomy, Geography, Human Morals, Human Body, Birds, Insects, Trees and
Plants, Fruits and Flowers, etc.)’. Another anonymous dictionary of a similar
sort entitled The Chinese–Vietnamese Guide to Sound and Meaning (Zi Nan Yu
Yin Jie Yi), probably ascribable to a Buddhist monk, was in circulation in Vietnam
around the sixteenth century (see Dinh-Hoa Nguyen, 1995).
The Koreans started to use Chinese loanwords between 108 bc and 313 ad, and
the earliest Chinese–Korean dictionary may be traced back to the Song Dynasty,
374 chinese bilingual lexicography
when Sun Mu (孙穆), a Chinese ambassador to Korea, produced a Korean-
Chinese vocabulary, strangely entitled <鸡林类事> (A Miscellaneous Collection
of Things and Events, mistranslated literally by Chien and Creamer (1986) as
Hen Grove Analogies). The original version of the three-volume book, which is
no longer in existence, consisted of sections dealing with social customs, royal
laws and regulations, dialectal words, and appendices. The current version was
produced in 1647, and the ‘dialectal words’ part, almost in its original shape and
with a total number of 361 entry words, was divided into eighteen categories:
Astronomy, Geography, Woods and Flowers, Birds and Beasts, Insects and Fish,
Utensils, Human Characters, Human Body, Garments, Food, Philology and
History. This part was arranged in much the same format and style as The One
Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary, but its headwords were Chinese, followed
by the Chinese transliterated Korean equivalents, which was quite the reverse of
The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary.
The fact that a considerable number of words in those glossaries were derived
from Chinese bears witness to the profound and extensive inXuence of the
Chinese language and culture upon Asian, and indeed Oriental languages and
cultures. Ever since, combinations of Chinese with these Asian languages, though
very limited in number, have improved considerably in terms of format, content,
and quality. This is especially true of Chinese and Japanese bilingual dictionaries
in the present century, with both the number and quality far surpassing those of
their counterparts in Korean and Vietnamese.
21.3 the writing of history books andbilingual glossary compilation
There is another easily discernible thread going through the early history of
Chinese bilingual lexicography, though it did not last very long – the collection
of annotations of words and terms in history books and historical records. That
thread continued till the Qing Dynasty. Explanations of the Terms in the History of
the Liao Language (<辽国语解>) is assumed to be the starting point of that
thread. Collections of a similar nature can be found in later history books,
imperial and royal surveys.
chinese bilingual dictionaries 375
22
ETHNIC MINORITYLANGUAGES ANDTHEIR BILINGUALDICTIONARIES
THE translation of the Buddhist sutras was beginning to decline with Bud-
dhism dwindling in the Later Tang Dynasty (923–936). A typical feature of
this transition was the increased communications and strengthened ties between
the Han people and the neighbouring minorities and other nationalities of the
Eastern World. As a matter of fact, the Kitans-Tartar, Mongolians and Manchu-
rians established the Liao Dynasty (907–1125), the Yuan Dynasty (1260–1368), and
the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) in Chinese history. As the ruling classes, their
languages became culturally, politically, and economically important and were
naturally the oYcial languages used in historical documents. They were also
given special prominence and received unusual treatment in Chinese-minority
language bilingual dictionaries. It is not hard to Wgure out why almost all these
minority languages occupied the position of source language in those early
Chinese bilingual dictionaries.
Bilingual dictionaries grow out of the need for communication and interaction
between people of diVerent speech communities and cultures. The need to
communicate and facilitate mutual exchange of ideas and experience will,
sooner or later, bring bilingual and multilingual dictionaries into existence. The
socio-political, cultural, science-technological interactions between the Han
people and minority groups provided impetus for the creation and development
of Chinese bilingual lexicography and gave rise to a large number of bilingual
dictionaries, bringing Chinese bilingual lexicography into a brand-new era.
22.1 western xia culture and tangutbilingual dictionaries
Western Xia, a dynasty founded by a people of Tangut descent in 1038 and
eliminated by the Yuan Dynasty in 1227, ruled a region that encompassed present-
day Ningxia, north Shanxi, northwest Gansu, northeast Qinghai, andwestern Inner
Mongolia. The Western Xia people inherited their writing system from the Qiang
nationality, an ethnic people of ancient China that originally inhabited a region
centring on present-day Qinghai Province, extending to Sichuan Province to the
south, and the Xinjiang Region to the north, then moving to the region around
present-day Gansu Province during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Prior to Yuan Hao
(元昊) becoming the Wrst Emperor of the Western Xia Dynasty, Yelirenrong (野利
仁荣) was ordered to create the writing system for the Tangut people, which was
then called the Tangut characters and promulgated within its borders in 1036. The
Tangut characters were held in high esteem as state characters and were used in
glossaries and rhyme books. In order to standardize the use of the Tangut charac-
ters, YuanHao and Yelirenrong, usingThe Ready Guide as amodel, compiled one of
the earliest Chinese and Tangut bilingual dictionaries – A Tangut–Chinese Ready
Guide (<番尔雅>), with the Tangut words as headwords, followed by Chinese
explanations and translations. According to The History of the Song Dynasty (<宋史>), that dictionary should have appeared between 1032 and 1048 in twenty-Wve
volumes, but is no longer in existence.
Within the Western Xia territories lived the Dangxiang people, the Tubo
people, the Huihe (Ouigour) people, the Tartar people (nomadic peoples of
northern China in ancient times), in addition to the Han people. The Dangxiang
culture naturally came under the inXuence of its neighbouring ethnics, especially
the Han culture. The Western Xia rulers held Confucius in high esteem for his
theories. With the expansion of the Chinese–Tangut exchanges came the necessity
of compiling a bilingual glossary to help the ethnic people to learn Chinese and
help the Chinese to learn the Tangut language. The result was the earliest extant
Chinese and Tangut dictionary – ATimely Gem Dictionary Tangut–Chinese (<番汉合时掌中珠>, inappropriately but literally translated by Chien and Creamer
(1986) as Foreign–Chinese (Glossary) As Timely As A Pearl In The Palm), compiled
minority languages and bilingual dictionaries 377
by Gulemaocai (骨勒茂才), an ethnic of Dangxiang nationality, and completed
in 1190. In the Preface, Gulemaocai states: ‘How can one associate with a
foreigner without learning the foreign language? How can one acquaint oneself
with Chinese customs without knowing Chinese? If it happens that foreign talents
are not recognized by the Chinese and Chinese talents are not recognized by
foreigners, it is because they cannot communicate in each other’s languages.’
A Timely Gem Dictionary Tangut-Chinese had only thirty-seven pages and
listed 414 headwords, divided into three sections under the headings of ‘Heaven’,
‘Earth’, and ‘Man’. Under each entry was listed, from right to left, the Chinese
phonetic transcription of the Tangut word, the Tangut word, Chinese transla-
tional equivalent, and the Tangut phonetic transcription of the Chinese word.
This glossary is most likely to be the earliest bilingual glossary with both source
and target language explanations in the world. It is no exaggeration that this
glossary is a key to Tangut studies and the studies of Western Xia Dynasty.
22.2 mongolian culture and mongolianbilingual dictionaries
The Mongolian people are proud of their long history and cultural traditions.
The Mongolian language has been in use for nearly one thousand years. Like the
writing systems in many other countries, the Mongolian characters were not
created by themselves but borrowed from other writing systems. They had
become popular and established through constant circulation.
The rise of the Mongolian people and their expansion stimulated the birth of
Mongolian bilingual dictionaries, including Mongolian–Persian, Mongolian–
Arabian, and Mongolian–Chinese dictionaries. Although the Mongolian lan-
guage had a history of less than one thousand years, the earliest Mongolian
bilingual dictionary The Mongolian–Persian Dictionary (<蒙古波斯语词典>)appeared anonymously in 1245, which, with over 600 entries, is supposed to be
the earliest Mongolian bilingual dictionary.
From the time when China entered the period of the Tang Dynasty, the
tradition of recording, by means of the Chinese language, other language elem-
ents and of compiling glossaries and wordbooks started to be handed down
from one generation to another. To meet the need for social and cultural
exchanges, Chen Yuanjing wrote a classiWed dictionary of an encyclopedic nature
– The Broad Records of Things and Events, which included a Mongolian–Chinese
378 chinese bilingual lexicography
thematic dictionary. This dictionary was entitled Explanations of the Mongolian
Language (<蒙古译语>, also known as <至元译语>), an anonymous collection
of Mongolian words and terms with Chinese explanations, produced in the Yuan
Dynasty. The Preface states, ‘unintelligible languages will not make sense unless
translated. Hence the present volume, carefully translated and deliberated, so that
interested readers can acquaint themselves with how to use it and consult any
problems and have them solved.’
This glossary collected 538 headwords, classiWed into twenty-two categories,
such as Astronomy, Geography, Foods, Garments, Utensils, Jewellery, Birds,
Beasts, and Colours. The headwords were transliterated Chinese characters,
followed by Chinese translations and explanations.
Explanations of the Mongolian Language carried on the tradition of using
Chinese characters to transliterate and record the target language coupled with
Chinese explanations and deWnitions, with a unique format and compilation
style. It is valuable for studying the Mongolian language in the Middle Ages and
the Chinese transliteration of the Mongolian language.
22.3 turkish culture and turkishbilingual dictionaries
The term ‘Tujue (Turk)’ means ‘the ripest and most prosperous time’. Tujue was
an ethnic minority group of ancient China that roved the Altay Mountains in
search of pasture, and which in the mid-6th century became powerful and
prosperous, annexing neighbouring tribes. In 582 or the second year of the
Kaihuang reign of the Sui Dynasty, the Tujue divided itself into Eastern and
Western groups, but were annihilated by the Tang Dynasty in themid-7th century.
The Complete Turkish Dictionary, variously known as Turki Tillar Diwani,
Diwanu Lught-it-Turk, Divanu Lugat-it-Turk, Diwanu LuBatit-Turk, and The
Compendium of the Turkic Dialects, was the Wrst Turkish–Arabian bilingual
dictionary in the history of world civilization, compiled by the outstanding
Uygurian scholar Mahmud Kashkarii (1008–1105), also known as Muhammad
Kashgaly. Mahmud Kashkarii was born of a noble family in the Karakhanid
Dynasty (840–1212) in Wupar, present-day Shufu County, Xinjiang. His tomb is
still situated on a hilltop in Wupar, 45 kilometres southwest of Kashi.
As a child, Mahmud Kashkarii studied at The Royal Islamic School in Kashigaer
and was conversant with the Arabian and Persian languages. He travelled far and
minority languages and bilingual dictionaries 379
wide in Central Asia, particularly the Turkish-speaking countries. In the late 1160s he
arrived in Baghdad, the centre for Islamic culture, where he became a well-known
scholar in Islamic studies. Inorder to spread theTurkish cultures to the Islamicworld,
hemadeamazingeVorts toconduct languagesurveys, collectdata relating to theTujue
ethnicpeople and the tribal languages, andclassify and sort thedata.HecompiledThe
Complete Turkish Dictionary between 1072 and 1076 in Baghdad and stated in the
Introduction, ‘I visited all the villages and pastures of the Tujue people . . . After
extensive research and investigation, I completed this book in the most elegant form
and in themost crystallized language.’ Themanuscript of this landmarkwork has not
been discovered yet, and the currently available versionwas hand-copied in 1266, 200
years after the Wrst appearance of the original version, and is kept in the National
LibraryofTurkey. In 1917, a neweditionof thedictionarywas issued inTurkey, and, in
1981, a three-volumeUygurian editionwas published inChina. Ever since 1931, a large
amount of research has been conducted concerning the dictionary and its compiler
both inWestern Asia and China.
The Complete Turkish Dictionary collected over 7,500 entry words, arranged in
the Arabian alphabetical order. There was a preface in the front matter of the
dictionary, emphasizing the importance of the Tujue language, the objective for
compiling the dictionary, the data sources, the format and style, word formation of
the Tujue language, the distribution of the Tujue tribes and the features of their
tribal languages. This dictionary consisted of three volumes divided into eight
parts, which were subdivided into two smaller volumes. Each smaller volume was
comprised of chapters within which the headwords were further classiWed on
the basis of the number of roots, and words with the same root were arranged
according to their formation, phonetic features, and inXectional endings, followed
by explanations about pronunciations, semantic changes, grammar, etc. It is worth
mentioning that glosses were added to some entries to indicate the tribes to which
some usages were ascribed and that the deWnitions contained citations frommore
than 240 folk songs and over 200 proverbs and sayings. As the compiler stated in
the preface, ‘the maxims, prose, proverbs, poems, folklores, and narrative stories
are cited to adorn the book’. There were, in the category of Geography, Mountains
and Rivers, illustrations of roundmaps drawn by the compiler himself to show the
territories of the Karakhanid Dynasty and Central Asia. It can be assumed that
MahmudKashkarii was the Wrst to include pictorial illustrations in the dictionary.
The Complete Turkish Dictionary, considered an encyclopedia through which
to examine and study languages, socio-politics, history, culture, religion, hu-
manities and geography in 11th-century Xinjiang and Central Asia, listed words
and terms covering a wide range of Welds, such as language, human races, history,
social customs, astronomy, geography, agriculture, craftsmanship, medicine,
380 chinese bilingual lexicography
politics, military and social life. Its academic values are manifold, and its impact
extends to such areas as language studies, historical literature, lexicography,
social customs studies, geography, and history. It is undoubtedly the only im-
portant and reliable data source for later scholars to explore the social life of
the Tujue tribes of the time.
The Complete Turkish Dictionary made an in-depth and systematic compara-
tive study of the Tujue tribal languages and the Arabian language, which predated
European comparative linguistics by over 800 years, and reached the acme of its
times in terms of the systematicity and scientiWcity of the studies of the Tujue
languages and their grammar. This giant work has been published in various
bilingual versions, i.e. in Turkish, Uzbekish, Uygurian, Russian, Hungarian,
German, Japanese, French, English, and Chinese. The Turkish–Chinese Dictionary
was introduced to its users by The Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences in 2003.
The original version of The Complete Turkish Dictionary is still on display in
the exhibition room of the north wing of Mahmud Kashkarii Tomb Memorial.
22.4 tibetan culture and tibetanbilingual dictionaries
Around the turn of the Tang and Song Dynasties appeared an anonymous
The Tibetan–Chinese Bilingual Glossary (<西番译语>), which was appended to
The Secret Imperial History (<龙威秘书>) written in the regime of Qianlong of
the Qing Dynasty. The Tibetan region of present-day Qinghai and Gansu prov-
inces was called吐蕃 (Tufan) in the Tang and Song Dynasties and 西蕃 (Xifan)
in the Yuan Dynasty. This work collected over 200 entry words which were in
currency in that region, incorporating a number of Buddhist terms, like 藏经
(Tibetan canon),佛 (Buddha),佛像 (image or statue of Buddha), 罗汉 (arhat),
皈依 (conversion to Buddhism or another religion), 慈悲 (benevolence and
mercy), 清净 (free from disturbance), and 大乘 (Mahayana). It was classiWed
into twenty categories, under such headings as Astronomy, Geography, Seasons,
Humans, Human Body, Court and Palace and Utensils. Under each entry was
listed the Tibetan headword at the top, its Chinese phonetic transcription at the
bottom, and the Chinese translational equivalent in between.
According to Tibetan historical literature, the Buddhist scriptures in Tufan
were mostly translated from India, Nepal, and the Western Regions by monks of
diVerent periods, which naturally gave rise to inconsistency and irregularity in
minority languages and bilingual dictionaries 381
translation and hence diYculty in understanding the meanings. That created a
serious barrier to preaching Buddhism in Tufan, making it immensely diYcult
for people in Tufan to read and become familiar with the translated scriptures. In
the early 9th century, a large number of translators from India and Tibet were
assembled to translate Buddhist classics and rectify the previously translated
Buddhist scriptures, bringing Buddhism into its prime period.
The collation and stipulation of rules and norms for Buddhist scripture
translation were carried out three times in the course of translation and set the
translation of Buddhist scriptures onto a path towards standardization, giving
rise to a Sanskrit–Tibetan glossary intended to serve the purpose of Buddhist
scripture translation and transmission – Mahavyu-tpatti (also known as The
Complete Collection of Terms and Meanings in Translation, <翻译名义大集>).This grand glossary collected 9,565 entry words, most of them being Buddhist
terms, and they were arranged on a categoric basis. Subsequent to the introduc-
tion of that glossary into the inland regions of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian
and Han monks inserted the Mongolian and Chinese translations, making it the
Wrst multilingual dictionary in the history of Chinese lexicography. This version
of the glossary was brought to Russia by the Russians in 1853 and is now kept in
the Library of Saint Petersburg State University.
22.5 history studies and bilingualdictionaries for history books
The compilation of bilingual dictionaries for the purpose of assisting in the
reading of history books started with the writing ofTheHistory of the Liao Dynasty
(<辽史>), with the ethnic Mongolian of the Yuan Dynasty, Tuoketuo (脱脱,
1314–1355), acting as chief editor. This history book consisted of 116 volumes, and
appended at the end of the book was Explanations of the Terms in the History of the
Liao Dynasty, a Khitan–Chinese vocabulary, comprising about 200 entries. The
Khitan (Qidan), an ethnic people of ancient China, were a branch of the Eastern
Hus inhabiting the valley of the Xar Murun River in the upper reaches of the
Liaohe River. In the 10th century, Yelu Abaoji (also known as Ye-lu Apao-chi)
uniWed all the Khitan tribes and established the kingdom of Khitan. This vocabu-
lary provided Chinese explanations of the Khitan terms used for oYcial systems,
royal palace guards, tribes, and places in The History of the Liao Dynasty. It also
contained brief explanations of a small number of non-Khitan terms. Numerous
382 chinese bilingual lexicography
mistakes were found in its compilation, and they were eventually corrected and
rectiWed when Explanations of the Terms in the Histories of the Liao, Jin and Yuan
Dynasties (<辽金元三史国语解>) was compiled.
After the completion of The History of the Liao Dynasty, Tuoketuo was
appointed chief editor of The History of the Jin Dynasty (<金史>). This historybook was completed in 1344 and comprised 135 volumes. Appended at the
end of the book was Explanations of the Terms in the History of the Jin Dynasty
(<金国语解>), a vocabulary in the Nuchen language and Chinese. Nuchen, an
ethnic people of ancient China, were ancestors of the Manchurians, who
inhabited present-day Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces, and founded the Jin
Dynasty in 1115. This vocabulary listed 1,423 Nuchen words and terms in seventy-
two entries, divided into Wve categories: OYcial Terms, Human Terms, Natural
Phenomena, Things and Events, and Surnames. The entry words were Chinese
transliterations of the Khitan words and terms followed by Chinese explanations.
This glossary proves valuable in interpreting The History of the Jin Dynasty
and conducting research into the Nuchen language and its characters.
Chinese and ethnic minority language bilingual dictionary compilation had
been advancing steadily, though slowly, over the past century. Works have in-
creased considerably in number, covering combinations of Chinese with almost
all the major minority languages of China (see David Chien, 1986). However, they
leave much to be desired as far as their quality and informativeness are concerned.
Most of such combinations are devoid of any information except the pronunci-
ation and spelling of the headword and the meager deWnition or equivalent
in Chinese, and any information about grammar and register would be nothing
short of miraculous.
minority languages and bilingual dictionaries 383
23
RELIGIOUS PREACHINGFROM THE WESTAND CHINESE
BILINGUAL DICTIONARYCOMPILATION
AT the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, European missionaries came
into the mysterious Chinese territories to preach religion. To meet the need
for religious preaching, the missionaries, represented by the Jesuits, started to
study Chinese and Chinese culture and left behind them a great deal of valuable
data on Chinese studies and teaching.
23.1 matteo ricci’s contributions to chinesebilingual lexicography
Among the Wrst missionaries to arrive in China was Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit
missionary. He came toCanton (nowGuangzhou) by boat and started his Christian
mission inChina in 1582. In 1601 he went to Peking tomeet Chinese EmperorWanli,
which was considered a prologue to Western learning. To overcome linguistic
and cultural diYculties, the Western missionaries were beginning to compile
bilingual dictionaries of Chinese and Western languages, in addition to learning
the Chinese language. However, between the end of the sixteenth century and the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of bilingual dictionaries written by
them was quite limited. Starting from the middle of the nineteenth century, as a
result of ever-increasing penetration of Western countries into Chinese diplomatic
and economic arenas, more and more missionaries and Western scholars joined in
Chinese bilingual dictionary compilation, bringing about another climax in the
history of Chinese bilingual lexicography.
Matteo Ricci’s contributions to Chinese bilingual lexicography were mainly
represented by his creation of the Chinese Romanization system based on the
alphabets of the Portuguese and Italian languages and the Chinese tone indica-
tion system and his compilation of Dizionario Portoghese–Cinese (<葡汉词典>)in collaboration with Michele Ruggieri. This dictionary contained 189 folios
and listed Portuguese words arranged in alphabetical order from ‘aba da vesti-
dura’ to ‘zunir’. The dictionary is considered the Wrst combination of a Western
language with Chinese (see Chien and Creamer, 1986). Later on, Matteo Ricci
compiled another glossary entitled Vocabularium ordine alphabetico europaeo
more corcinnatum, et per accentus suos digestum with his fellow missionary
L. Cattaneo (Kang Zhijie, 1988). Another Jesuit, the Frenchman Nicolas Trigault,
published an important work An Audio And Visual Guide for Foreign Scholars
(<西儒耳目资>) in Hangzhou, China in 1625. It was ‘a massive vocabulary to
help the Chinese learn Latin’ (Chien and Creamer, 1986).
In the seventeenth century, the Polish Jesuit Michael Boym (1612–1659) compiled
a Chinese-Latin and a Chinese–French dictionary, which were printed between
1667 and 1670 in the popular magazine China Illustrata (<中国图说>). There isreliable evidence for those two works, more of a vocabulary than a dictionary, to be
considered the Wrst Chinese–Latin dictionary and the Wrst Chinese–French diction-
ary published in the Western world. The Western missionaries also compiled
alphabetical dictionaries and bilingual dictionary manuscripts with the number
of entry words between 10,000 and 13,000. Those manuscripts were used by
M. deGuignes as the data source for his compilation of Dictionnaire Chinois,
Francais et Latin (<汉法拉辞典>, 1813), probably the Wrst multilingual combin-
ation of Chinese with both French and Latin. About half a century later, in 1869,
Paul Perny ‘de la congregation des missions-etrangeres’ completed another com-
bination of Chinese with both French and Latin, but with a diVerent order, using
French as the source language, with Chinese following Latin. This dictionary had
two columns to each page, with the indication of parts of speech following the
French headword, then followed by Latin equivalents andChinese explanations and
their corresponding phonetic transcriptions.
religious preaching from the west 385
23.2 robert morrison and the firstchinese–english dictionary
In Chinese bilingual lexicographical circles, Robert Morrison, a name familiar
and yet remote, was the Wrst Protestant missionary to China (Chien and
Creamer, 1986). He was a missionary and a lexicographer. He took the road of
dictionary compilation for the purpose of religious preaching and occupied a
unique position in the history of Chinese bilingual lexicography because he
compiled the Wrst Chinese–English dictionary. Robert Morrison arrived in
Guangzhou in September 1807 and completed A Dictionary of the Chinese
Language (<华英词典> – 五车韵府) in 1822 after eight years’ strenuous and
arduous eVorts. The whole dictionary was printed by P. P. Thoms in six large
quarto volumes at the Honourable East India Company’s Press, and the Wrst
volume appeared in 1815. The dictionary contained three parts and listed over
40,000 Chinese characters and terms. The Wrst part (three volumes) was Chinese-
English, arranged according to the 214 Kangxi radicals. The second part (two
volumes) was also Chinese–English, based on the Chinese rhyme dictionary五车
韵府 but arranged alphabetically according to the Romanization of the Nanking
dialect rather than the Peking dialect. The third part (one volume) was English–
Chinese, arranged alphabetically. This dictionary was reprinted under the same
title in separate parts in Shanghai in 1865. Examined from a modern perspective,
the dictionary contained numerous errors, especially in its interpretation and
deWnition of a number of Chinese characters. For example, 站 was deWned as: to
stand up; to stand erect; a stopping; standing or remaining still; a stage of a
journey. Except for the Wrst and last deWnitions, all the others can hardly be
treated as its deWnitions because they are the extensions of its original meaning in
diVerent contexts. Even so, the dictionary delineated the basic conWguration of a
bilingual dictionary and shed a good deal of light upon the design and compil-
ation of English–Chinese, Chinese–English, and other bilingual dictionary types.
The year 1871 witnessed the emergence of William Lobscheid’s A Chinese
and English Dictionary and George C. Stent’s A Chinese and English Vocabulary
in the Pekinese Dialect (Shanghai: China Inland Mission and American Presby-
terian Mission Press). From Stent’s work were derived A Dictionary from
English to Colloquial Mandarin Chinese and Donald MacGillivray’s A Mandarin–
Romanised Dictionary of Chinese. The latter work was, time and again, revised and
enlarged with new terms and phrases and with new supplements. It enjoyed wide
386 chinese bilingual lexicography
popularity and had gone through nine reprints by the time the last edition came out
in Shanghai in 1930.
Three years later, Samuel Wells Williams published A Syllabic Dictionary of
the Chinese Language, ‘arranged according to the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin, with the
pronunciation of characters as heard in Peking, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai’
(see the title page). The number of characters in this dictionary is 12,527, ‘con-
tained in 10,940 articles, and placed under 522 syllables, which follow each other
alphabetically’ (see the Preface). Presumably, it was the Wrst dictionary of its kind
to contain such a great variety of pronunciations. As an explanation for the
inclusion of pronunciation variants, Williams stated in the Preface: ‘The plan of a
Chinese lexicon to satisfy all the needs of a foreigner should comprise the general
and vernacular pronunciations, with the tones used in various places, and the
sounds given to each character as its meanings vary.’ As good as his intention was,
it was highly doubtful whether he could achieve his goal. In the revised edition of
1909, the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin system of arranging Chinese characters was changed
to conform to that of Thomas F. Wade, which had become the established
prevailing practice for the arrangement of Chinese characters in the
nineteenth-century missionary dictionaries.
There appeared in the last few years of the nineteenth century two more
dictionaries of special signiWcance and interest – Herbert A. Giles’ A Chinese-
English Dictionary (<华英词典>, 1892) and P. Poletti’s A Chinese and English
Dictionary (<华英词典>, 1896). Giles’ dictionary, published in two volumes,
contained 13,848 numbered entries of Chinese characters, arranged alphabetically
according to the established Wade Romanization system with modiWcations. In
addition to the standard pronunciation, Giles went far beyond Williams by
indicating pronunciation in Wve more Chinese dialects and in Japanese, Viet-
namese, and Korean as well. Giles instilled into his work a bit of encyclopedic
Xavour by providing ‘Names, etc., of the Eighteenth Province’ on page 743, a
description of the geographical location of Tibet on page 744, and tables of the
insignia of oYcial ranks, family names, Chinese dynasties, topographical names,
the calendar, and the Chinese digital and decimal system in the Appendixes. This
example was followed in later Chinese and English bilingual dictionaries and up
to the present time. Giles’ work was revised and enlarged in 1912 and 1964, and
was in constant use until the 1960s. Giles modiWed the Wade Romanization
system in his dictionary, the result of which came to be called the Wade–Giles
Romanization system. This system was the best-known and the most commonly
used Romanization scheme in the Western world for Chinese until the oYcial
pinyin system implemented by the Chinese government in 1958. Giles’ dictionary
religious preaching from the west 387
enjoys pride of place in the history of Chinese bilingual dictionaries as the
authoritative source for the Wade–Giles system of Romanization.
P. Poletti’s dictionary is of special interest to Chinese bilingual lexicographers
in adopting a special method of arranging Chinese characters. It Wrst arranged
Chinese characters according to the radicals, a then commonly accepted method
of entry arrangement, but instead of counting the number of the remaining
strokes, it again arranged the characters by sub-radicals, that is by the radical
under which the remaining part of the character would be found. Poletti’s
method of arranging Chinese characters, though scientiWcally based and helpful
in decoding Chinese characters, required a great deal of special knowledge
concerning the formation of Chinese characters on the part of dictionary users.
Understandably, it failed to gain currency in later Chinese bilingual works.
23.3 dialect studies and chinese bilingualdialect dictionaries
In the nineteenth century Western missionaries also became increasingly inter-
ested and active in studying Chinese dialects and vernaculars, among which
dialects spoken in Canton (Guangdong) and in Hok-keen (Fujian) were the
most thoroughly studied and the most systematically treated in Chinese dia-
lect–English bilingual lexicography. As a result, Chinese dialect and English
bilingual dictionaries appeared one after another. In 1828, Morrison took the
lead in publishing AVocabulary of the Canton Dialect, ‘the Wrst bilingual Chinese
dialect dictionary in a western language’ (Chien and Creamer, 1986). In 1856,
Samuel Wells Williams published A Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in
the Canton Dialect. By 1870, John Chalmers’ An English and Cantonese Pocket
Dictionary had already gone through three editions. In 1883, William DuVus
published English–Chinese Vocabulary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of
Swatow. J. Dyer Ball’s An English–Cantonese Pocket Vocabulary, revised in 1894,
lasted well into the twentieth century.
In Chinese dialect–English lexicography, Hok-keen dialects received equal
attention. In 1832, Walter H. Medhurst (mistaken by Chien and Creamer (1986)
for William H. Medhurst) produced A Dictionary of the Hok-keen Dialect of the
Chinese Language, containing about 12,000 characters, arranged by Romanized
pronunciation in that dialect according to the author’s own system. This was
followed by An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Foochow
388 chinese bilingual lexicography
Dialect (1898), a joint work by Robert S. Maclay and C. C. Baldwin, and Costairs
Douglas’ Chinese–English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language in
Amoy (1899). Shanghai and Ningpo dialects were also treated in missionary
bilingual dictionaries, as in William T. Morrison’s An Anglo–Chinese Vocabulary
of the Ningpo Dialect (1876), Joseph Edkins’ AVocabulary of the Shanghai Dialect
(1869) and Shanghai vernacular; Chinese–English Dictionary jointly compiled by
S. H. Davis and J. A. Silsby. There even emerged specialized dictionaries like
Giles’ A Dictionary of Colloquial Idioms in the Mandarin Dialect (1873) and
Williams’ An English and Chinese Vocabulary in the Court Dialect (1844).
23.4 the end of missionary compilation ofchinese bilingual dictionaries
Missionary Chinese and English bilingual lexicography started at the beginning
of the nineteenth century and Xourished in the late part of the century, but its
vigorous inXuence extended well into the twentieth century. There were not only
revisions and extensions of previous works in the twentieth century but new
creations as well. In fact, the twentieth century was marked by a fresh start with
the publication of Adam Grainger’s Western Mandarin, or the Spoken Language
of Western China; with Syllabic and English Indexes (<西蜀方言>, 1900) and
Frederick W. Baller’s An Analytical Chinese–English Dictionary (1900). ‘The
objective of this work is to supply the demand for a dictionary at once portable
and inexpensive and at the same time suYciently large to meet the wants of an
ordinary student’ (in its Preface). Based on the belief that ‘6,000 characters are
suYcient to furnish a fount for a Chinese newspaper, and this number . . . is an
ample stock-in-trade for any scholar’, (Giles) Baller included in his dictionary
a corpus of 6,089 single characters. Baller’s work was characterized by a careful
selection of entries, an elaborate cross-reference system and a copious body
of appendixes. ‘With a view to ascertain which 6,000 characters were likely to
be the most useful’ (Preface), Baller made a careful analysis of a great number
of Chinese classic works and various other sources and then decided on 6,089 in-
dividual characters as entry words. In arranging these entry words, Baller created
his own Romanization system, now referred to as Baller’s system or the China
Inland Mission (shortened to C.I.M.) system, i.e. arranging entry words alpha-
betically according to groups of characters having the same Romanized pronun-
ciation, rather than adopt the Wade–Giles system. In addition, the characters
religious preaching from the west 389
were numbered consecutively, with a Chinese radical index appended at the back
of the dictionary referring to these numbers. This cross-reference system enabled
the reader to make comparative analyses of each Chinese character. Furthermore,
Baller included more practical tables and appendices than any other predecessor
at the end of his work. There were even ‘selected passages from the Four Books,
and Standard Commentary of Chu-hsi’ to assist readers in studying classic works.
One of the defects of Baller’s is displayed by his inconsistent treatment of dialectal
pronunciations. On the one hand, no notice was taken of dialects ‘as those
spoken in the south-eastern provinces’, and, on the other hand, ‘the sounds of
characters as given in West China have been furnished’.
Baller’s work was followed by another important dictionaryMathews’Chinese–
English Dictionary (1931) and another vigorous and endless stream of dictionaries
compiled by Chinese authors in China and overseas and published in Chinese–
English and English–Chinese editions. Mathews not only revised Baller’s diction-
ary but augmented and innovated it as well. He reverted to the Wade–Giles
Romanization system in entry arrangement, increased the number of entry
words to 7,785 (excluding the variant spellings of the same character) and ‘cited
extensively from classic works, ordinary literature, magazines, newspapers, ad-
vertisements, legal documents and other sources’ (see Preface). He also doubled
the number of illustrations in it. Mathews’ dictionary has been reprinted time and
again and is still kept for reference in university libraries.
It is likely that Mathews’ dictionary was the last compilation by inland China
missionaries, signifying the end of missionary compilation of Chinese bilingual
dictionaries and the beginning of a new era for Chinese and English bilingual
dictionaries, based on stronger theoretical underpinnings andmore sophisticated
information technology as from the latter part of the twentieth century.
390 chinese bilingual lexicography
24
CHINESEGOVERNMENT
ESTABLISHMENTSAND CHINESE
BILINGUAL DICTIONARYCOMPILATION
THE practice of establishing foreign aVairs organizations in China started in
the pre-Qin Dynasty, when the concepts of ‘diVerentiating the Chinese from
the alien’ and ‘using the Chinese to reform the alien’ were being formulated. After
the uniWcation of the small kingdoms into a giant Chinese empire in the Qin
Dynasty, special establishments were set up to receive foreign visitors and take
charge of foreign aVairs, and this tradition continued from the Han Dynasty to the
Yuan Dynasty. Tomaintain the relations and promote communicationwith foreign
countries, the Ming Dynasty government founded the Foreign AVairs Establish-
ment aYliated to the Hanlin Academy (翰林院), which was in 1644 transformed
into the Foreign Studies School (四译馆). The ForeignAVairs Establishment, which
was divided into the Tartar Section, the Nuchen Section, the Tibetan Section, the
Burmese Section, the Persian Section, the Ouigourian Section, the Sanskrit Section,
the Dais Section, and two more additions (that is the Eight-Hundred Section and
the Thai Section) later according to the languages that were taught, took over
responsibility for translating and interpreting in foreign aVairs, teaching Chinese
ethnic minority languages and languages of neighbouring Asian countries and
cultivating translators and interpreters conversant with the history, geography,
and social customs of neighbouring countries. The establishment of these govern-
ment organizations provided strong support for the compilation of Chinese bilin-
gual glossaries and dictionaries. The miscellaneous collections of words and
translated terms were mostly in the charge of those organizations and compiled
by scholar oYcials serving the government.
24.1 government establishments andbilingual glossary compilation
According to textual research, 译语 (literally ‘translated languages’) had three
implications: interpreter, interpretation and translation, and languages trans-
lated. It is hard to tell the exact date when this term came into use. In the Tang
Dynasty, some neighbouring countries like Japan, Bohai, and Xinluo in the
Korean Peninsula also employed this term, which was obviously the result
of copying the oYcial system from China. In the Song, Liao, and Jin Dynasties,
译语 gradually lost its implication of ‘interpreter’ but retained the meaning of
‘interpretation and translation’. The Yuan Dynasty government set up an educa-
tional body for the cultivation of translators and interpreters so as to facilitate
exchanges between the Han people and the Mongolians. The founder of the Yuan
Dynasty, Hubilie (忽必烈, 1215–1294), gave the edict that Mongolian and Chinese
bilingual glossaries like Explanations of the Mongolian Language be compiled
to collect Mongolian words, categorize them into sections, transliterate them,
and provide Chinese explanations. The tradition of transliterating other lan-
guages via Chinese to compile wordbooks continued generation after generation.
Those compilations were a special form of bilingual glossaries, and the term译语
came to refer especially to combinations of Chinese with the languages of
ethnic minorities and neighbouring countries. In between the Yuan and Ming
Dynasties appeared another bilingual glossary, which is generally referred to
by Chinese academic circles as The Yellow River West Bilingual Glossary (<河西
译语>), compiled in 1370, or 1371 according to another account, for the reference
of interpreters receiving foreign visitors. The book consisted of 81 pages and
covered 255 entry words, divided into seventeen categories such as Astronomy,
Geography, Seasons, Flowers and Woods, Birds and Beasts, Royal Palaces, Uten-
sils, Human Body, Numerals, Jewellery, Garments, and Colours. Each entry
392 chinese bilingual lexicography
started with Chinese explanations, followed by Chinese transliterations, with an
absence of their matching foreign words. For lack of corresponding foreign
words, it has remained a riddle what was its source language or languages.
However, it can be inferred that The Yellow River West Bilingual Glossary was
oYcially compiled by the government establishment. Though small in size, its
format, compilation style and thematic categorization left a visible imprint upon
similar bilingual glossaries compiled in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
At the initial stage of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian language had no
written form. Then the Wrst Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Hong Wu (洪武),
requested foreign monks to create the written system for Mongolians. Huoyuan-
jie (火源洁), an ethnic Mongolian, was commissioned to add Chinese explan-
ations to the created language system. The establishment of the Foreign Studies
School in the Ming Dynasty did not seem to contribute much to dictionary
making, judging from the few bilingual dictionaries produced in this period, but
it exercised far-reaching inXuence upon later bilingual lexicographical practices,
for it did a lot of research into the principles of dictionary making and helped in
standardizing bilingual dictionary making in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912).
24.2 chinese-foreign language dictionariesand their three versions
According to The Provisions of the Foreign Studies School, student oYcials in
the ten sections were initially required to learn a miscellany of foreign words from
bilingual glossaries. From 1542 onwards, they were required to learn imperial
mandates, memorials and miscellaneous foreign words simultaneously. The so-
called miscellany of foreign words was actually Chinese–foreign language bilin-
gual glossaries compiled by the Foreign AVairs Establishment. For instance,
The Nuchen and Chinese Glossary (<女真译语>) is a combination of
The Nuchen Miscellaneous Collection of Foreign Words (<女真馆杂字>) and
Memorials from the Nuchen Section (<女真馆来文>) under the general headingof The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries (<华夷译语>). The
Nuchen Miscellaneous Collection of Foreign Words was divided in much the
samewayasTheYellowRiverWestBilingualGlossary intonineteencategories, covering
over 800 entry words. In each entry the Nuchen words were matched to their
corresponding Chinese words, phonetically notated by means of Chinese trans-
literated Nuchen words. The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries were
chinese government establishments 393
used as textbooks for student oYcials in the Foreign Studies School to learn
foreign words and read memorials from foreign countries.
The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries allow of two interpretations.
In a broad sense, the bilingual glossaries compiled by the Foreign AVairs Establish-
ment all came under this general title. These glossaries classiWed all the collected
words into categories on a thematic basis and provided Chinese translation and
Chinese transliteration for entry words. The title included the Huwu Version, the
Yongle Version, and the Huitongguan Version. Subsequent to the founding of the
MingDynasty, the last Emperor of the YuanDynasty led his subjects and forces into
the northern territories and left behind a large number of Mongolians in the Ming
Dynasty territory and a considerable amount of historical literature, documents,
and Wles of the Mongolians, which needed to be sorted. Daily communication
between the Mongolians and other ethnic peoples also needed the media of
language. What was born of these needs was Huoyuanjie’s A Chinese–Mongolian
Glossary, which appeared in 1389 and is the so-called Huwu Version. The Huwu
Version involved only the Mongolian language. It had 185 pages and listed nearly
3,000 entry words, with Mongolian words as headwords, followed by Chinese
explanations or translations and then Chinese transliterated Mongolian words.
Huoyuanjie capitalized on the general conWguration and other useful elements of
Explanations of the Mongolian Language and The Yellow River West Bilingual Gloss-
ary in the formation of its format and style and made a number of innovations.
The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries generally consist of the
following categories: Astronomy, Geography, Seasons, Flowers and Woods,
Beasts and Birds, Royal Palaces, Utensils, Garments, Food and Drink, Jewellery,
Public Figures, Important Events, Sounds and Colours, Numerals, Human Body,
Whereabouts, General Terms, History and Liberal Arts. Subsequently, The Aug-
mented Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries (two volumes) were added
to this general heading, which is the narrow interpretation of The Chinese–
Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries. In 1407, the Foreign AVairs Establishment
was founded and was responsible for ten foreign and ethnic language sections.
Each section compiled bilingual glossaries of their own languages, intended to
help translate the memorials and documents from ethnic minorities and foreign
countries. Each glossary consisted of two parts: miscellany and presented docu-
ments. The miscellany collected ethnic minority and foreign language words,
which were used as headwords, followed by Chinese translation and Chinese
transliterated pronunciation. The documents presented included memorials
and their Chinese versions. This is the Yongle Version of The Chinese–Foreign
Language Bilingual Glossaries, mainly including The Translated Documents of
Huihe (Ouigour) Section (<高昌馆译书>), A Miscellany of the Ouigourian
394 chinese bilingual lexicography
Words (<高昌馆杂字>), A Miscellany of Persian Words (<回回馆杂字>), ThePersian Language and Chinese Glossary (<回回馆译语>), The Burmese Language
and Chinese Glossary (<百译馆译语>), The Sanskrit and Chinese Glossary (<西天馆译语>), The Nuchen and Chinese Glossary, The Tibetan Language and
Chinese Glossary (<西番译语>), The Thai Language and Chinese Glossary (<暹罗馆译语>), etc.The Huitongguan Version of The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries,
whichwascompiledby theHuitongguan(theHuitongMansions) in the lateperiodof
theMingDynasty, included those bilingual glossaries compiledby theKoreanHouse,
the Japanese House, the Okinawa House, the Annan House, the Vietnamese House,
the Thai House, the Tartar House, the Ouigourian House, the Tibetan House, the
Persian House, the House of Sultanate of Malacca, the Nuchen House, and the
Burmese House. The Huitongguan Version had various copied editions and only
contained collections of words which had Chinese equivalents and Chinese translit-
eration but no foreign and ethnic minority language words, merely serving the
purpose of interpretation in foreign aVairs.
The Hongwu Version of The Chinese–Foreign Language Bilingual Glossaries is
considered by scholars outside China to be the Wrst version, the Yongle Version
the second, and the Huitongguan Version the third version. As the Chinese
compilers did not realize the alphabetical or formal arrangement of entry
words the three Versions still modelled their arrangement on the format of The
Ready Guide, but they made substantial innovations in categorization, entry
selection, deWnition and explanation, and transliteration.
24.3 the spread of western learning and thecompilation of specialized bilingual
dictionaries
The pervasion of Western learning reached its Wrst climax in the late period of the
Ming Dynasty and its second climax was marked by the founding of the Capital
City Tongwenguan at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Scholars of various Welds
joined in the translation of contemporary works of Western science, which
brought about a Xourishing of translation as well as chaos and randomness in
translations. It was often the case that the very same book had several diVerent
translated versions, and the same terms were given diVerent Chinese equivalents,
thus causing great confusion and misunderstanding. It was becoming an urgent
chinese government establishments 395
issue to compile bilingual dictionaries and manuals of technical terms to stand-
ardize Western science translation. In the late period of the Qing Dynasty, the
focus was on the compilation of specialized bilingual dictionaries, which was a
natural result of the transmission of Western learning and standardization of
technical terms. The translation bodies were mainly local and regional trans-
lators’ workshops, typically the Jiangnan Arsenal. The Translation Department of
the Jiangnan Arsenal collected technical terms and published specialized voca-
bularies, like Vocabulary of Names and Substances Occurring in Various Words
on Chemistry: ChieXy in Bloxam’s Chemistry (<化学材料中西名目表>, 1885),Vocabulary of Names of Materia Medica Occurring in the Translation of Royle’s
Manual of Materia Medica and Therapeutics with Lists of Names and Places
Occurring in the Same Work and in Various Treatises and Allied Subjects (<西药
大成中西名目表>, 1887), Vocabulary of Mineralogical Terms Occurring in the
Manual by J. D. D. and A. M. (<金石中西名目表>, 1883), Vocabulary of Terms
Relating to the Steam Engine (<汽机中西名目表>, 1890). They were all compil-
ations by John Fryer (1839–1928). There were also a number of other specialized
bilingual dictionaries and glossaries and they laid the foundation for modern
Chinese science terminology and served as precedents for specialized bilingual
dictionary compilation.
24.4 the compilation of manchurian-chinesebilingual and multilingual dictionaries
in the qing dynasty
The founding of the Qing Dynasty in Chinese history gave another powerful
impetus to the development of Chinese–ethnic minority language dictionaries in
its early and middle periods and specialized bilingual dictionaries in its late
period. With the Manchurians as the ruling class, the Manchurian language
became the oYcial state language, which brought about a long and vigorous
stream of Manchurian–Chinese dictionaries, over one hundred in number,
which were still mainly the compilations of the oYcial establishments of the
Qing Dynasty, most notably A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Great Qing
Dynasty, The Dictionary of the Manchurian Language, and The Compendium of
the Manchurian Language. They were remarkable for their quality, sophisticated
techniques of production, number of languages involved in the text, and massive
size of some of them.
396 chinese bilingual lexicography
A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Great Qing Dynasty, compiled by Shen
Qiliang (沈启亮) in the Qing Dynasty, was the Wrst unabridged Manchurian-
Chinese bilingual dictionary in the history of Chinese lexicography. It comprised
twelve volumes and included over 12,000 entries. It was divided into the Man-
churian part and the Chinese part. The former contained Manchurian words,
their derivation of proper names, expressions and inXections of some words,
dotted with citations, and the latter contained the Chinese equivalents of the
Manchurian words or their corresponding explanations. This dictionary was
characterized in particular by its emphasis on early Manchurian words and
Chinese loanwords and thus served as a signiWcant reference book for translating
early Manchurian historical literature and conducting research on the evolution
of Manchurian words.
Early in the eighteenth century, Emperor Kangxi attached great importance to
the studies of historical literature and proposed the compilation of the gigantic The
Dictionary of the Manchurian Language (twenty-Wve volumes), which was com-
pleted by Fu Dali (傅达礼), Ma Qi (马齐), and Ma Erhan (马尔汉) et al. between
1673 and 1708. It was the Wrst monolingual encyclopedic dictionary oYcially
compiled with 280 classiWcatory categories in the Manchurian language, abundant
in citations and explanations, but without Chinese deWnitions, andwas reckoned to
be the foundation of oYcial compilations of Manchurian dictionaries.
The appearance of The Dictionary of the Manchurian Language and its bilin-
gual and multilingual series pushed the compilation of bilingual and multilingual
dictionaries in the Qing Dynasty to its peak. In the 56th year of the Kangxi
reign appeared The Imperial Manchurian and Mongolian Dictionary (<御制满蒙
文鉴>), and in the last year of the Yongzheng reign, Chinese explanations were
added to The Dictionary of the Manchurian Language, hence The Manchurian and
Chinese Dictionary (<音汉清文鉴>). In the thirty-sixth year of the Qianlong
reign appeared the encyclopedic dictionary – The Augmented Imperial Manchu-
rian and Chinese Dictionary (<两体清文鉴>, also known as <御制增订清文
鉴>) by Fu Heng (傅恒) in forty volumes, four of which were Supplements. This
dictionary had thirty-Wve classiWcatory categories, subdivided into 292
sections and covering 18,000 entry words, including over 1,600 archaic and rare
words. Each entry word was deWned in both the Manchurian and Chinese
languages. The uniqueness of this dictionary lay in its adoption of fanqie
to indicate the pronunciation of Manchurian deWning words, and the Chinese
deWning words were notated with Manchurian pronunciation, making the
dictionary friendly to both Manchurian and Chinese users. This was followed by
the gradual addition of: (a) Mongolian explanations, hence The Three-Language
Dictionary: Manchurian, Mongolian, and Chinese (<三体清文鉴>, also known
chinese government establishments 397
as <御制满珠蒙古汉字三合切音清文鉴> and <满蒙汉字三合切音清文
鉴>); (b) the Tibetan explanations in 1779, hence The Manchurian Dictionary
in Four Languages (<四体清文鉴>); and (c) Uygurian explanations, hence The
Manchurian Dictionary in Five Languages (<五体清文鉴>). This was perhapsthe Wrst polyglot dictionary series in the history of Chinese lexicography.
The massive size of the Qing Dynasty can be best exempliWed by The Compen-
dium of the Manchurian Language, a combination of The Complete Collection of
the Manchurian Language (<清文汇书>, twelve volumes), which was compiled
by Li Yanji (李延基) on the basis of The Imperial Dictionary of the Manchurian
Language (<御制清文鉴>, 1673–1708) and The Supplements of the Manchurian
Language (<清文补汇>). With the standardization of the Manchurian language,
a large number of new words appeared and were not listed in previous diction-
aries. Consequently, Yixin (爱新觉罗宜兴) accumulated over 7,900 new words in
the Manchurian language and compiled The Supplements of the Manchurian
Language (eight volumes) in 1786, with its format and style patterned after The
Complete Collection of the Manchurian Language. In 1897, the Manchurian
scholars, Xiangxiang (爱新觉罗祥享), Zhikuan (志宽), and Zhipei (志培),
bound the two under one cover and with one title – The Compendium of the
Manchurian Language, in twelve volumes and with more than 20,000 entry words
deWned in Wve languages: the Manchurian, Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, and
Uygurian languages. It is an indispensable reference work for scholars of Man-
churian studies even today.
398 chinese bilingual lexicography
25
THE CHARACTERISTICSAND INFLUENCE OF EARLY
CHINESE BILINGUALDICTIONARIES
THE preaching of Buddhism is the main force behind the earliest Chinese
bilingual dictionaries. Buddhist culture is a special part of Chinese culture,
and Buddhism has exercised extensive and profound inXuence upon China and
its neighbouring countries. Many Buddhist terms, such as 世界 (world), 实际
(reality),平等 (equality),相对 (relativity), and绝对 (absoluteness) have been in
daily circulation in Chinese life, and many Sanskrit words and expressions, such
as魔 (devil),觉悟 (consciousness),境界 (vision),大千世界 (Great Chiliocosm,
the boundless universe), 本来面目 (true nature), and 芸芸众生 (all living
things) have come down to the present day through Buddhist glossaries and
dictionaries, which in turn help to transmit Buddhist culture and forge exchanges
and communication ties between nations.
25.1 early bilingual dictionaries andtheir characteristics
When examined from the microstructural point of view, entries in early bilingual
glossaries and dictionaries generally consisted of headwords, deWnitions, and
phonetic notations. The headwords were, in most cases, transliterated Chinese
characters of foreign words, and a small number of them adopted foreign lan-
guage words directly as headwords. A Miscellaneous Collection of Things and
Events was the only book that was found to have adopted Chinese characters as
headwords. Some headwords were deWned with synonyms, some on a one-to-one
basis, and a number of others were provided with explanatory deWnitions.
Examples were rarely found in those entries. The pronunciations were generally
notated by means of Chinese transliteration, but some were not notated at all.
In terms of reform and innovation in format and compilation style, two major
dictionary categories – oYcial compilations and missionary compilations – come
to the fore, forming the main threads of bilingual dictionary development in the
Ming and Qing Dynasties. Although the two categories originated and developed
almost over the same historical period, there was no sign of any convergence or
interaction of their evolutionaly paths. OYcial compilations were progressing in
their own way and following their own set courses, upholding the authority and
dignity of the Ming and Qing Empire, with their format and style showing a high
degree of solemnity and inXexibility. Flexibility and innovativeness were, to a
greater extent, embodied in missionary compilations, which not only integrated
the merits of Western dictionary compilation but inherited the great traditions of
Chinese dictionary compilation, laying solid foundations for the development
and Xourishing of Chinese bilingual lexicography in the twentieth century.
Over theMing andQingDynasties, Chinese bilingual dictionaries turned out to be
distinct and signiWcant in several respects. First, they becamemore diversiWed in type.
There emerged not only bilingual dictionaries but also multilingual dictionaries and
their derivative series, specialized bilingual dictionaries, and bilingual encyclopedic
dictionaries as well. The types of dictionary covered were those with Chinese and
foreign languages as the source language. Moreover, a considerable number of bili-
ngual dialect dictionaries andbilingualminority languagedictionarieswere compiled.
Second, over the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the macrostructural conWguration
of bilingual dictionaries was beginning to take shape and gradually became
established, minimizing the unscientiWc and unstandardized practices that had
come down from the Tang and Song Dynasties. Bilingual dictionaries, subsequent
to the late Qing Dynasty, began to adopt the radical arrangement or the Roman-
ized alphabet (especially the Wade–Giles Romanization system), rather than
the thematic (or categoric) arrangement, as the basis for macrostructure. Such
information retrieval systems, based on word pronunciation or formation, were
more easily accessible and more user-friendly.
Third, in terms of microstructural formation, there still existed numerous
deWciencies, imperfections, and even wrong practices. No scientiWcally acceptable
400 chinese bilingual lexicography
standards were established for the sizes of headwords. Letters, characters, words,
expressions or even sentences could all be found in headword position. The
selection of headwords was largely random. The understanding and deWnition of
the headword were sometimes erroneous. However, the basic microstructure was
in good shape. The headwords were taken directly from the source language
instead of Chinese transliteration. Their phonetic notation employed the Ro-
manization system instead of fanqie or Chinese transcription. Their deWnitions
became more accurate and intelligible. DeWnitions were provided with citations
geared to the context of use. The methods and skills used for microstructural
construction were more diversiWed and more practical.
Finally, no individual essays or papers have been found for the purpose of serious
lexicographical study, but illuminating ideas and thoughts pervade prefaces, fore-
words, compilation plans, guidelines, and other relevant monologues. The Trans-
lation Department of the Jiangnan Arsenal, for example, stipulated, prior to
translating Western works, that it should be obligatory to employ already estab-
lished or popular terms; in cases where there are no such terms, translators may
employ the methods of combining a character and a relevant radical, combining
two ormore characters, or direct transliteration to create a new term; all new terms,
including names of people, place names, and terms for things and events, should be
collected and appended to the book for reference. This stipulation gave rise to a
series of specialized bilingual dictionaries. These discussions were highly practical
and served as guidelines for bilingual dictionary compilation but, in terms of
theoretical generalization, they were fragmentary and lacked consistency.
Dictionary compilations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were mostly Chinese
and English or Chinese and French combinations. Chinese combinations with
other modern European languages were extremely limited. It is no doubt that
Chinese and English bilingual dictionaries became well established over that period
in their format, compilation style, entry selection, entry arrangement, phonetic
transcription, and illustrative citations, thus paving the way for Chinese bilingual
lexicography to make a new start and take oV afresh in the twentieth century.
25.2 the socio-cultural influence of earlybilingual dictionaries
The early Chinese bilingual wordbooks and glossaries are a mirror reXecting the
society, politics, economy, culture, and regional transformations of ancient
influence of bilingual dictionaries 401
China. With their help, people today can explore the path of ancient Chinese
language evolution, examine the social customs of ancient Chinese society,
observe the changes and transformations of social and political events, and
analyse the nature and geography of ancient times. A Timely Gem Dictionary
Tangut-Chinese, for example, tells us a lot about the Western Xia society. It
divides Western Xia architecture into 楼阁 (building), 泥舍 (clay house), and
帐库 (tent, shelter), and its description reveals architectural features and achieve-
ments. The terms for utensils made of bamboo and wood recorded in the
dictionary show that many Western Xia characters, when created, followed the
radical木 and adopted their corresponding Chinese characters as loanwords, and
that some characters, such as those denoting 碗 (bowl) and 碟 (plate), followed
the radical 木 rather than 石 as in 碗 and 碟, indicating that the utensils were
most likely made of wood rather than of pottery. It is known from Explanations of
the Terms in the History of the Liao Dynasty that the ceremony of rebirth was held
in the Liao Dynasty every twelve years and was developed into an event of
considerable political signiWcance that could only be attended by the Emperor,
Queen, crown prince, and the Khitan tribeal chiefs.
The early Chinese bilingual glossaries and dictionaries prove highly valuable
not merely for social and cultural study and for the study of history, politics,
geography, and terminology. Their academic inXuence and eVect are also
reXected in language studies, philology, and dictionary compilation. They played
a vital role in opening this new Weld, pushing its expansion and signifying its
direction, eventually forming the basic conWguration of bilingual dictionaries
and paths of development. Examined from the macrostructural point of view,
early glossaries and dictionaries were generally arranged on a categoric basis,
and the sequences between categories were relatively stabilized, but there were
no obvious patterns of arrangement within categories. Their entry selection
focused on diYcult words and expressions from ancient classic works, and
Buddhist terms in particular. They were mostly compiled by a small number of
‘sages’ and gifted monks.
402 chinese bilingual lexicography
Appendix i
List of book titles from
English to Chinese with English titles
arranged in alphabetical order
ENGLISH TITLES
CHINESE
TITLES
PAGE
NUMBER
A Brief Account of the Overseas States <瀛环志略> 320, 321
A Brief History of Chinese Character
Dictionaries
<中国字典史略> 4
A Brief History of Dictionary Compilation in
China
<中国辞书编纂史略> 4
A Brief Introduction to Phonetic Sounds in
Thirteen Scriptures
<十三经音略> 306
A Categoric Dictionary of Chinese Words <分类字锦> 267
A Categoric Dictionary of Dialectal Words <方言类聚> 269, 309
A Chinese–English Dictionary <华英词典> 386, 387
A Chinese–Foreign Language Vocabulary <华夷译语> 271, 374
A Collection of Characters and Sounds <字音汇集> 357, 363, 364
A Collection of Classic Rhyme House <经韵楼集> 284, 300, 301
A Collection of Fu-poems of Previous Dynasties <历代赋汇> 340
A Collection of Inscription Characters of the Yin
and Shang Dynasties
<殷周金文集成> 47
A Collection of Popular Expressions <通俗编> 330, 332, 343
A Collection of Rhymes <韵会> 292, 295
A Complete Collection of All Beauties <群芳谱> 271, 335, 336
A Complete Collection of Philosophical Essays <性理大全> 264
A Complete Collection of the Five Classics <五经大全> 264
A Complete Collection of the Four Books <四书大全> 264
A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Great Qing
Dynasty
<大清全书> 271, 396, 397
A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Rhymes of
Zhongzhou State
<中州全韵> 362, 363
A Contemporary Dictionary of Ancient
Names of Places in All Dynasties
<历代地理志韵编今
释>271, 336
A Continual to the General Survey on Ancient
Literature
<续文献通考> 278
ADiachronicDictionary of Chinese Rhyme Studies <韵史> 272
A Dictionary of Ancient Currencies <古泉汇> 271, 335
A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles <佩文韵府> 276, 324
332–4,
343
A Dictionary of Synonyms <骈字类编> 276, 325,
334, 343
A Dictionary of the Chinese Language <华英词典–五车韵
府>386
A Dictionary of Titles and Appellations <称谓录> 324, 326,
334, 335,
343
AFamedRecord of the Spring andAutumnPeriod <春秋戴记> 304
A General Introductory Dictionary of Rhymes <韵略汇通> 272
A Guide to Reading An Explanatory Dictionary
of Chinese Characters
<说文解字读> 284
A Guide to the Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes <切韵指南> 292
A Miscellaneous Collection of Sanskrit Terms <梵语杂名> 372, 373
AMiscellaneous Collection of Things and Events <鸡林类事> 375, 400
A Miscellany of Persian Words <回回馆杂字> 395
A Miscellany of the Ouigourian Words <高昌馆杂字> 394, 395
A Narrative History of Lexicography in China <中国辞书史话> 3
APictorialCollectionofHeaven,Earth, andHuman <三才图会> 320
A Tangut-Chinese Ready Guide <番尔雅> 377
A Thorough Exploration in Philosophy <穷理学> 320
A Timely Gem Dictionary Tangut–Chinese <番汉合时掌中珠> 377, 378
402
Additional Notes on the VeriWcation of the
Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes
<切韵考外篇> 254
Amendments to the Essential Dictionary of
Rhymes for the Ministry of Rites
<增修互补礼部韵略> 358
An Annotated Collection of Materia Medica <本草经集注> 227
An Audio And Visual Guide for Foreign Scholars <西儒耳目资> 385
An Epilogue to Mao’s Book of Songs <毛诗后笺> 307
An Epilogue to the Standardized Version of Mao
Heng’s Exegesis of Book of Songs
<毛诗故训传定本小
笺>36
An Explanatory Book of Phonetic Sounds <说文通训定声> 285, 348
404 book titles from english to chinese
An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters <说文解字> 5, 41–8,
95–113, 141,
147–52,
169–70,
178–203,
276–7,
282–9,
295–7
AnExplanatoryDictionary of Sounds andRhymes <音韵阐微> 353, 361
An Explanatory Dictionary of the Yue Dialect <越言释> 270, 310
An Illustrated Gazette of Overseas States <海国图志> 320, 321
An Interpretative Dictionary of Rhymes <韵略易解> 272
An Introduction to Ancient Dictionaries in
China
<中国古代字典辞典
概论>4
An Introduction to Buddhist Scriptures in China <中国佛教史籍概论> 220
Ancient and Contemporary Characters <古今文字> 169, 187, 188
Ancient and Modern Rhyme Standards <古今韵准> 285, 348
Annals of Water Transportation <漕运志> 320
Areas Outside the Concern of the Chinese
Imperial Geographer
<职方外纪> 320
Ban Gui <班簋> 50
Bibliographies of Yizhai Library <一斋书目>Biographies of Confucian Scholars in the
Qing Dynasty
<清儒学案> 306
Brief Stories in Eastern Capital <东都事略> 159
Character Index <检字> 274
Characters <文字> 244
Ci Hai <辞海> 39, 289, 361
Ci Yuan <辞源> 39, 326, 361
Classic Internal Medicine <内经> 323
Collected Essentials of the Song Dynasty <宋会要> 345
Collected Poems: Sun-loving Hall <爱日堂诗集> 340
Collected Works of Wang Yinzhi <王文简公文集>Collections of Cangjie Exegesis <仓颉训纂> 81, 101
Collections of Jiaguwen Characters <甲骨文编> 105
Collections of Jin Inscriptions <金文编> 105
DaoDe Jing, TaoTe Ching <道德经> 30, 33
Dictionnaire Chinois, Francais et Latin <汉法拉辞典> 385
Direct Amendments on A Collection of Popular
Expressions
<直语补证> 332
Disciplines and EVects: A New Book <纪效新书> 359
book titles from english to chinese 405
Dizionario Portoghese–Cinese <葡汉词典> 385
East of the River <河东> 80
Eight Sounds and Character Meanings <八音字义> 359
Elements <几何原本> 322
Essentials of Agriculture and Sericulture <农桑辑要> 345
Essentials of the Well-known Chinese Academic
Works: Language and Characters
<中国学术名著提
要�语言文字卷>218
Etiquette and Rites <仪礼> 215
Explanations of the Mongolian Language <蒙古译语>,<至元译语>
379, 392, 394
Explanations of the Terms in the Histories of the
Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties
<辽金元三史国语解> 383
Explanations of the Terms in the History of the
Jin Dynasty
<金国语解> 383
Explanations of the Terms in the History of the
Liao Language
<辽国语解> 375, 382, 402
Explorations in Philosophical Principles <名理探> 320
Fine Observations of Nature <物理小识> 305
General Examples of Sounds and Rhymes in All
Human Speeches
<古今中外音韵通例> 354, 355
General Monthly Climates <月令广义> 320
General Rhymes <通韵> 354, 355
General Rhymes for Poems and Ci-poems <诗词通韵> 354, 362
Gongyang’s Spring and Autumn Annals <春秋公羊传> 215, 216
Guliang’s Spring and Autumn Annals <春秋榖梁传> 215, 216
Historian Zhou’s Primer <史籀篇> 27 42–9,
51–60, 136
Hong Lie <鸿烈> 216
Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard Rhymes <洪武正韵> 347–8, 352,
357–8
Huai Nan <淮南> 240
Huai Nan Zi <淮南子> 72, 107
Hui Lin’s Sounds and Meanings <慧琳音义> 220, 222
Jian Rhymes <柬韵> 285
Lao zi <老子> 107, 160, 215
Lectures on Ancient Wordbooks <古代词书讲话> 4
Li Sao <离骚> 81, 92
Lie Zi <列子> 72
Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of Songs <毛诗诂训传>,<毛诗>, <毛传>
22, 35–7, 70,
97
406 book titles from english to chinese
Memorials from the Nuchen Section <女真馆来文> 393
Meng Zi <孟子> 36, 60, 107
Methods and Models in Construction <营造法式> 345
Minute DiVerences in Character Formations <分毫字样> 189
Miscellaneous Commentaries <野议> 338
Mo zi <老子> 107
New Collections of Shijiazhai <十驾斋养新录> 350
New Manuscripts from the Citrange Garden <枳园近稿> 304
New Supplements and RectiWcations to the
Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words
<续方言新校补> 94, 270, 309
New Supplements to the Augmented Dictionary
of Dialectal Words
<续方言又补> 270, 310
Notes on Lu’s Arguments <鲁论笺> 304
Notes on the RectiWcation of the Dictionary of
Rhymes
<广韵校勘记> 254
Notes on the RectiWcation of the Jade Chapters
and the Dictionary of Rhymes
<玉篇广韵校刊札记> 254
Ode to the Western Capital <西都赋> 274
On ‘Name’ and ‘Content’ <名实篇> 31
On Composition <纂文> 254
On Destiny <辨命论> 207
On Name RectiWcation <正名篇> 31
On Physics <物理论> 132
On Qi <论气> 338
On Substance <指物篇> 31
On the Skies <谈天> 338
One Thousand Characters Text <千字文> 57
One Thousand Golden Medical Prescriptions <千金方> 227
Original Commentaries on Zhuang Zi <庄子独见> 311
Peripheral Amendments on the Ready Guide <尔雅补郭> 332
Proto-sounds of Speech in all Regions <五方元音> 352–3,
357–8
Proverb Couplets of the Wu Dialect <吴下谚联> 330, 331, 343
Proverbs of the Yue Dialect <越谚> 303, 317,
330–1
Recorded Studies on the Meaning of Classics <经义述闻> 70, 71, 301,
329
Records of Ancient Coins <泉志> 227
Records of Names of the Same Family Names <同姓名录> 276
Records on Soldier Training <练兵纪实> 359
RectiWcation on theDictionary ofChineseRhymes <刊谬补缺切韵> 245
Rhyme Essentials <韵英> 220
book titles from english to chinese 407
Rhyme Studies in Wei Gen Xuan <味根轩韵学> 354, 355
Rhymes of the Book of Songs <诗经韵谱> 284
Rhymes of Various Classics <群经韵谱> 284
San Pan <散盘> 51
Seven Strategies <七略> 63, 83
Shi Zi <尸子> 38, 40
Shizhuzai’s Chart of Painting and Calligraphy <十竹斋书画谱> 260
Shui Jing Annotations and Commentaries <水经注笺> 304
Simple Questioning <素问> 111
Sound DiVerentiation <音鉴> 356
Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist
Scriptures
<大藏音义> 170–3, 206,
219, 220,
222,
370–1
Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist
Scriptures (also Sounds and Meanings
of the Whole Canon)
<一切经音义> 110
Sounds and Meanings of Kaiyuan Characters <开元文字音义> 177, 220
Sounds andMeanings ofMaha Parinibbana Sutta <大般涅槃经音义> 219
Sounds and Meanings of the Avatamsaka Sutra <华严经音义> 185, 219
Sounds and Meanings of the Lotus Sutra <妙法莲华经音义> 219
Sounds and Meanings of the Ready Guide <尔雅音义> 39, 241
Sounds of All the Buddhist Scriptures <一切经音> 207, 370
Standard Words <法言> 81, 216
Standard Words for Writing Ci with Examples <正语作词起例> 252
State Didactics <州箴> 81
Studies in the Ready Guide <说雅> 285
Studies on the Dictionary of Rhymes <广韵研究> 254
Supplements and RectiWcations to the
Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words
<续方言补正> 270, 309
Supplements to the Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
<续方言补> 94
Supplements to the Compendium of Materia
Medica
<本草纲目拾遗> 337
Supplements to the Exegesis on Poetry <诗疏补遗> 311
Supplements to the RectiWcation of the
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
<方言疏证补> 93
Supplements to the RectiWed Broad Ready Guide <广雅疏证补正> 61
Supplements to the RectiWed Dictionary of
Chinese Characters and Terms
<释名疏证补> 131
Talks on Poetry <诗讲义> 217
Talks on the History of Ancient Word Books and
Dictionaries
<古代辞书史话> 4
408 book titles from english to chinese
Talks on the History of Chinese Dictionaries <中国字典词典史话> 4
Teachings of the Deceased Natives <梓人遗训> 345
The Abhidharma Naya Anusara Sutra <顺正理论> 370
The Academic Elites <文苑英华> 164
The Additions to A Dictionary of Rhymes and
Styles
<韵府拾遗> 333
The Alternating Ready Guide <叠雅> 276, 308
The Analects of Confucius <论语> 36, 39, 81
The Ancient and Contemporary Exegesis of
Etiquette and Rites
<仪礼古今义疏文> 307
The Ancient Interpretation of the Ready Guide <尔雅古义> 307
The Annals of Tangyi County <堂邑县志> 328
The Annals of the Three Kingdoms <三国志> 119, 120, 121
The Annals of Wuxing, Jiatai <嘉泰吴兴志> 308
The Annals of Zunyi Prefecture <遵义府志> 303
The Annotated Dictionary of Dialectal Words <方言注> 24, 90, 148
The Annotated Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
<说文解字注> 112, 132,
283–4
The Annotated Huai Nan Zi <淮南子注> 101
The Annotated Interpretation of the Dictionary
of Dialectal Words
<方言笺疏> 94, 270, 309
The Annotated Ready Guide <尔雅注> 24, 62, 73, 74
TheAnnotated RectiWcation of Thirteen Scriptures <十三经注疏> 312
The Annotations of Selected Works <文选注> 110
The Arithmetic Classics of the Islands <海岛算经> 345
The Augmented Cangjie Glossary <埤仓> 186, 215, 254
The Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal Words <续方言> 270, 309, 312
The Augmented Imperial Manchurian and
Chinese Dictionary
<两体清文鉴>,<御制
增订清文鉴>397
The Augmented Ready Guide <埤雅> 170, 217–18
The Avatamsaka Sutra <华严经> 370
TheBai’sCollectionofClassics,HistoriesandEvents <白氏经史事类> 226
The Beginning of Chinese Characters <文始> 133
The Beitang Collection of Copied Books <北堂书钞> 172, 224–6
The Biographies of Great Monks of the Song
Dynasty
<宋高僧传> 219
The Biography of Xiao Kai <萧恺传> 192
The Book of Ancient Texts <尚书><书> 21, 22, 107
The Book of Changes <易经>,<易> 25, 26, 81
The Book of Family Names <百家姓> 57
The Book of Filial Virtues <孝经> 96, 107, 215
The Book of Late Han Dynasty <后汉书> 110
The Book of Music <乐> 21
book titles from english to chinese 409
The Book of Nature’s Engineering <天工开物> 336, 338, 344
The Book of Rites <礼记>, <礼> 36, 39
The Book of Secret Prescriptions <医经方> 111
The Book of Songs <诗经> <诗> 35, 77, 349
The Book of Songs and the Philological Studies <诗经小学> 284
The Book of the Chen Dynasty <陈书> 192
The Book of the Han Dynasty <汉书> 35, 60, 64–6,
79–81, 101
The Book of the Jin Dynasty <晋书> 38
The Book of the Late Han Dynasty <后汉书> 101
The Book of the Liang Dynasty <梁书> 192
The Book of the Song Dynasty <宋书> 239, 242
The Book of the Sui Dynasty <隋书> 112, 160
The Book of the Tang Dynasty <唐书> 178
The Book of the Wei Dynasty <魏书> 177, 215, 244
The Book of Three Rites <三礼> 120, 216
The Botanic Compendium <全芳备祖> 173, 227, 234
The Broad Cangjie Primer <广苍> 254
The Broad Ready Guide <广雅> 172, 215–17
The Broad Records of Things and Events <事林广记> 228, 232–3,
378
The Broadly Augmented Dictionary of Dialectal
Words with Supplements
<广续方言及拾遗> 270, 310, 312
The Buddhist Book of Filial Virtues <佛孝经> 306
The Buddhist Ready Guide <佛尔雅> 306, 318
The Burmese Language and Chinese Glossary <百译馆译语> 395
The Cangjie Primer <仓颉篇> 28, 35, 52–60
The Categoric Chinese Encyclopedic Dictionary <渊鉴类函> 267, 276, 338
The Central Plains Dictionary of Sounds and
Rhymes
<中原音韵> 167, 251–2
The Character Designator <字指> 254
The Character Dictionary <字说> 180–2, 218
The Character Forest <字林> 185–8
The Character Garden <字苑> 254
The Character Mirror <字鉴> 198, 199
The Character Models <字样> 171, 173, 254
The Character RectiWcation <字諟> 101
The Chinese Book of Filial Virtues <中文孝经> 306
The Chinese-Foreign Language Bilingual
Glossaries
<华夷译语> 393–5
The Classic Account of Poetry <诗故> 304
The ClassiWcation of the Thirty-letter Alphabet <归三十字母例> 162
410 book titles from english to chinese
The ClassiWcation of Things and Objects <物性门类> 217
The ClassiWed Chapters <类篇> 165–71, 190,
191, 203
The ClassiWed Characters <字类> 254
The ClassiWed Characters of Banma <班马字类> 171, 199
The ClassiWed Collection <类聚> 225
The ClassiWed Collection of Art and Literary
Works
<艺文类聚> 224,228,229,
279
The ClassiWed Dictionary for Beginners <初学记> 226, 230
The ClassiWed Dictionary of Zhongzhou Yuefu
Rhymes
<中州乐府音韵类编> 172
The Cognate Dictionary of Characters <同源字典> 133
The Collected Poems and Prose of Qiushi
Academy
<求是堂诗文集> 307
The Collected Works of Qian Yan Tang <潜研堂文集> 350
The Collected Works of Wang Anshi <王文公文集> 181
The Collection of Ancient Records <集古录> 164
The Collection of Characters from Ancient
Books
<古文尚书> 211, 215
The Collection of Characters from Five Classics <五经文字> 195–6
The Collection of Characters from Nine Classics <九经文字> 174
The Collection of Lost Books in Yuhanshan
House
<玉函山房辑佚书> 244
The Collection of Meanings of Terms in
Translation
<翻译名义集> 369
The Collection of Rhymes <韵集> 174, 243, 244
The Compendium of Agriculture <农政全书> 322, 336, 337
The Compendium of Ancient and
Contemporary Books
<古今图书集成> 233, 271–2
The Compendium of China’s Buddhist Sutras <中华大藏经> 207
The Compendium of Materia Medica <本草纲目> 322–3,
336–7,
343–4
The Compendium of Scriptures and Classics <经世大典> 172
The Compendium of the Manchurian Language <清文总汇> 271, 396, 398
The Complete Collection of Terms and
Meanings in Translation
<翻译名义大集> 382
The Complete Collection of the Manchurian
Language
<清文汇书> 398
The Complete Guide to How to Do <万用正宗不求人> 229
The Complete Manual of Taxes and Services <赋役全书> 320
book titles from english to chinese 411
The Complete Turkish Dictionary, Turki Tillar
Diwani, Diwanu Lught-it-Turk, Divanu
Lugat-it-Turk, Diwanu LuBatit-Turk, The
Compendium of the Turkic Dialects
<突厥语大词典> 173, 379–81
The Comprehensive Dictionary of Ancient and
Contemporary Rhymes
<古今韵会> 171, 287
The Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
<字汇> 269, 274,
286–91,
293–7
The Comprehensive Dictionary of Literature <文献大成> 339
The Comprehensive Five-sound Rhyme
Dictionary
<五音集韵> 171, 251
The Comprehensive Studies in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
<说文解字系传><说文系传>
112, 179
The Contemporary Annotated Ready Guide <尔雅今注> 74
The Continuation to Biographies of Great
Monks
<续高僧传> 219
The Contrastive Ready Guide <比雅> 72, 269, 308
The Dadai Book of Etiquette <大戴礼> 117
The Data Corpus of Ancient Chinese Musical
History
<中国古代音乐史料
辑要>235
The Deepest Mystery <太玄> 81
The Dialectal Dictionary of Literary
Embellishments
<方言藻> 270, 310
The Dictionary of Ancient Character Exegesis <复古编> 175, 197, 198
The Dictionary of Buddhist Studies <佛学大辞典> 222
The Dictionary of Chao-shan Dialect <潮汕方言> 94
The Dictionary of Characters from Classics and
Scriptures with Phonetic Discrimination
<群经音辨> 200, 212, 213
The Dictionary of Chinese Characters and Terms <释名> 114–33,
142–4
The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes <切韵> 161–8,
171–4,
183–5,
243–6,
251–4,
350–3
The Dictionary of Currencies <钱录> 271, 335
The Dictionary of Dialectal Words <方言> 43, 76, 79,
80–94,
142, 148
412 book titles from english to chinese
The Dictionary of Function Words in Lections
and Biographies
<经传释词> 328–30,
342
The Dictionary of Initial Consonants <声类> 174, 243–5,
347
The Dictionary of Meticulously RectiWed
Characters from Classics
<经典分毫正字> 177
The Dictionary of Popular Words <通俗文> 23, 275
The Dictionary of Rhymes <广韵> 170, 174,
246–54
The Dictionary of Standard Rhymes <正韵> 292, 295
The Dictionary of Textual Research on the
Wu-Xia Dialect
<吴下方言考> 310–11, 317
The Dictionary of the Manchurian Language <清文鉴> 271, 396–7
The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect <蜀语> 303, 316–17
The Dictionary of the Wu Dialect <吴语> 310
The Distinctive Ready Guide <别雅> 269, 276, 308
The Dragon Shrine Character Manual <龙龛手鉴> 192, 198
The Essential Collection of Words <文字集略> 254
The Essential Dictionary of Ancient and
Contemporary Rhymes
<古今韵会举要> 172–4
The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes <韵略> 171, 250, 254
The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes for the
Ministry of Rites
<礼部韵略> 171, 174, 251
The Essentials of Augmented Ready Guide <埤雅广要> 171, 217
The Essentials of Literature and Thoughts <文思博要> 226, 230
The Essentials of Sounds and Rhymes of
Zhongzhou State
<中州音韵辑要> 357, 362
The Everlasting Prosperity Collection <长兴集> 233
The Exegesis of the Cang Jie Primer <苍颉故> 101
The Exegesis of Ancient and Contemporary
Characters
<古今字诂> 186, 188
The Exegesis of Lao Zi <老子疏> 215
The Exegesis of Six-category Characters <六书故> 182, 200–4
The Exegesis of the Analects of Confucius <论语义疏> 24
The Exegesis of the Book of Rites <礼记义疏> 24
The Exegesis of the Ready Guide <尔雅义疏> 74, 309
The Exegesis of Words and Sentences from the
Book of Changes
<周易文句义疏> 215
The Exegesis of Words and Sentences from
Zhuang Zi
<庄子文句义> 215
The Exegesis on Poetry <诗疏> 308
The Exegetic Interpretation of Classics <经典释文> 165–6, 211,
221–2
book titles from english to chinese 413
The Exegetic Interpretation of New Characters <新字训解> 254
The Exegetic Interpretations of Ancient Classics <经籍纂诂> 302, 312–15,
318
The Exegetic Primer <训纂篇> 47
The ExempliWed Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
<说文释例> 283
The Explanatory RectiWcation of the Rites of the
Zhou Dynasty
<周礼汉读考> 300
The Extended Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
<广干禄字书> 195
The Extended Ready Guide <尔雅翼> 171, 217, 308
The Extended Ready Guide <续尔雅> 217–18
The Extended Sounds and Meanings of All the
Buddhist Scriptures
<续一切经音义> 219–20, 371
The Extensive Miscellany of Minute Things <海录碎事> 229
The Feather Hunting <羽猎> 80
The Feng’s Records of Things and Events <封氏闻见记> 244
The Five Classics <五经> 214
The Five-scale Compendium of Chinese
Characters: with Revisions and Four-tone
ClassiWcations
<改并五音类聚四声
篇>196
The Four-tone MagniWcent Chapters <四声篇海> 196, 203
The Foushan Collection <浮山集> 305
The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese Characters <干禄字书> 194–6
The Garden of Variant Characters <异字苑> 254
The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes <韵府群玉> 172, 330
The General Catalogue and Abstracts of the
Imperial Collection of Four Branches
of Literature
<四库全书总目提要> 325
The General Dictionary of All Beauties <广群芳谱> 271, 336
The General Dictionary of Chinese Characters <字通> 175, 197, 198
The General Dictionary of the Chinese Language <辞通> 315
The General Digest of the Taiping Reign <太平总类> 230
The General Exegesis of Six-category Chinese
Characters
<六书统> 182, 201
The General Interpretation of Mao’s Book of
Songs
<毛诗通义> 311
The General Interpretation of Six-category
Chinese Characters
<六书通释> 167, 200, 203
The General Primer <凡将篇> 25, 144
The General Ready Guide <通雅> 72, 305
The General RectiWcation of Literature <文献通考> 302
The General Survey of Currencies <钱通> 271, 335
414 book titles from english to chinese
The General Survey of Eight Sounds and
Meanings for Qi Armymen
<戚参军八音义便览> 359
The Glossary of Sanskrit and Chinese Characters <唐梵文字> 373
The Grand Dictionary of Classics <经典大典> 227
The Great Character Dictionary of China <中华大字典> 292
The Great Chinese Character Dictionary <汉语大字典> 79–81, 101
The Guidelines for Segmenting Phonetic Sounds
and Rhymes
<等韵切音指南> 292
The Guiyuan Collection of Characters <桂苑珠丛> 178
The Historical Records of Cefu <册府元龟> 227, 231–2,
279
The History of the Chen Dynasty <陈史> 224
The History of the Jin Dynasty <金史> 383
The History of the Liao Dynasty <辽史> 382, 383
The History of the Qi Dynasty <齐史> 224
The History of the Song Dynasty <宋史> 377
The History of the Southern Dynasty <南史> 242
The History of the Zhou Dynasty <周史> 224
The Huayang National Annals <华阳国志> 78
The Immensely Augmented Jade Chapters <大广益会玉篇> 193
The Imperial Collection of Four Branches of
Literature
<四库全书> 267, 327, 346
The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi <康熙字典> 267–9,
272–4,
276,
290–7
The Imperial Dictionary of the Manchurian
Language
<御制清文鉴> 398
The Imperial Digest of the Taiping Reign <太平御览> 230–1
The Imperial Manchurian and Mongolian
Dictionary
<御制满蒙文鉴> 397
The Imperial Records of the Taiping Reign <太平广记> 226
The Imperial Survey <皇览> 225, 278
The Imperial Survey of Xiuwen Palace <修文殿御览> 230, 278
The Instant Primer <急就篇>,<急就> 57, 144
The Interpretation of Poetry <诗疑义释> 311
The Interpretative Dictionary of FunctionWords <助字辨略> 303, 314, 328
The Interpretative Dictionary of the Five Classics <五经异义> 101
The Interpretative Manual of Rhymes <韵诠> 220
The Jade Chapters <玉篇> 177–8,
184–5,
188–94,
202–3
book titles from english to chinese 415
The Jade Sea <玉海> 172, 227, 229
The Jigu Library Revision to An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
<汲古阁说文订> 284
The Language Assistant <语助> 172, 227
The Later Spring and Autumn Annals <春秋后传> 217
The Learned Exegesis of Six-category Chinese
Characters
<六书通> 201
The Lu Survey <吕览> 225, 240
The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals <吕氏春秋> 38
The MagniWcent Chapters <篇海> 191, 192, 289
The MagniWcent Chapters: with Augmentations
of Five Scales and Categorizations of Four
Tones
<五音增改并类聚四
声篇海>192
The MagniWcent Character Dictionary <字海> 178
The Manchurian and Chinese Dictionary <音汉清文鉴> 397
The Manchurian Dictionary in Five Languages <五体清文鉴> 398
The Manchurian Dictionary in Four Languages <四体清文鉴> 398
The Manuscripts of the Augmented Dictionary
of Dialectal Words
<续方言稿> 93
The Mengxi Collection of Written Dialogues <梦溪笔谈> 234
The Mirror of Rhymes <韵镜> 174
The Miscellaneous Collection <别录> 63
The Miscellaneous Notes in Reading <读书杂志> 301
The Miscellaneous Record of Dialectal Words <方言别录> 94
The Miscellanies of Argumentations Concerning
ClassiWed Dictionaries
<类林杂说> 172, 227
The Modern Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
<说文解字诂林> 112
The Mongolian–Persian Dictionary <蒙古波斯语词典> 378
The Mutianzi Biography <穆天子传> 38
The National Language <国语> 36, 72, 135
The New Collection of Character Models from
Nine Classics
<新加九经字样> 171, 177, 196
The New Dictionary of Dialectal Words <新方言> 94
The New Manual of Character Models from
Classics and Scriptures
<群书新定字样> 177, 196
The New Meanings of the Ready Guide <尔雅新义> 217
The Newly Revised Dazheng Buddhist Scriptures <大正新修大藏经> 373
The Newly Revised Materia Medica <新修本草> 227
The Nine Chapters on Arithmetic <九章算术> 345
The Nuchen and Chinese Glossary <女真译语> 393, 395
The Nuchen Miscellaneous Collection of Foreign
Words
<女真馆杂字> 393
416 book titles from english to chinese
The Old History of the Five Dynasties <旧五代史> 345
The One Thousand Sanskrit Character Glossary <梵语千字文> 371–3, 375
The Origin of Siddhim Characters <天竺字源> 369
The Original Exegesis of Six-category Chinese
Characters
<六书本义> 201
The Origins of Direct Phonetic Notations of Six-
category Chinese Characters
<六书溯原直音> 201
The Orthographical Manual of Characters <字统> 220, 248, 254
The Overall Exegesis of Six-category Chinese
Characters
<六书总要> 201
The Pangxi Primer <滂喜篇> 34, 35
The Pearl Collection <编珠> 225, 228
The Pearl Collection of Three Religions <三教珠英> 226
The Pearls of Rhyme Studies <韵学骊珠> 357, 362, 363
The Pei Xi Dictionary <佩觿> 197, 198
The Peizi Language Forest <裴子语林> 236
The Persian Language and Chinese Glossary <回回馆译语> 395
The Phonetic Interpretation of the Extended
Ready Guide
<尔雅翼音释> 217
93
The Phonetic Studies in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
<说文音隐> 112
94, 270, 309
The Phonological Exegesis of Six-category
Chinese Characters
<六书系韵> 201
The Pictorial Dictionary of Archaeology <考古图> 183
The Pocket Ready Guide <小尔雅> 23, 72, 215
The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary of Sciences <格致镜原> 327, 339–41
The Preliminary Annotation to the Ready Guide <尔雅初注> 306
The Probe into Ancient Novels <古小说钩沉> 236
The Proprieties <礼象> 217
The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds <戚林八音> 359, 360
The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds and
Character Meanings
<戚林八音字义> 359
The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds: Bound
Edition
<戚林八音合订> 359
The Ready Guide <尔雅> 3, 40–3,
59–75,
122–5,
142–5,
147–52,
168,
215–18,
269
book titles from english to chinese 417
The Ready Guide for the Shu Dialect <蜀尔雅> 302
The Ready Guide of the Huzhou Prefecture <湖雅> 307, 308
The Record of Siddhim Characters <悉昙字记> 369
The Records of Hard Learning <困学记闻> 94
The Records of Internal Classics of the Tang
Dynasty
<大唐内典录> 219
The Records of the Historian <史记> 65, 199
The RectiWcation and DiVerentiation of the Four
Books
<四书考异> 332
The RectiWcation and Standardization of
Chinese Characters
<匡谬正俗> 94, 177
The RectiWcation of Ancient and Contemporary
Characters
<古今正字> 220
The RectiWcation of Classic Interpretations <刊谬正俗> 207
The RectiWcation of Historian Zhou’s Primer <史籀篇疏证> 58
The RectiWcation of Initial Consonants and
Vowels
<考声切韵> 220
The RectiWcation of Mao’s Book of Songs <诗毛氏传疏> 35, 36
The RectiWcation of Popular Words <证俗文> 254
The RectiWcation of the Annotated Ready Guide <尔雅注疏> 74
The RectiWcation of the Augmented Dictionary
of Dialectal Words
<续方言疏证> 94, 270, 309
The RectiWcation of the Dictionary of Dialectal
Words
<方言疏证>
The RectiWcation of the Interpretative
Dictionary of the Five Classics
<驳五经异义> 147
The RectiWcation of the Pocket Ready Guide <小尔雅义疏> 307
The RectiWed Broad Ready Guide <广雅疏证> 216, 221
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters <正字通> 290–6
The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese Characters
and Terms
<释名疏证> 131
The RectiWed Dictionary of Dialectal Words <方言据> 269, 309
The RectiWed Dictionary of Dialectal Words with
New RectiWcations
<重校方言> 270, 309
The RectiWed Exegesis of the Ready Guide <尔雅正义> 74
The RectiWed Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
<说文解字义证> 112, 283
The RectiWed Interpretation of Five Classics <五经正义> 162, 214
The RectiWed Interpretation of Mao’s Book of
Songs
<毛诗正义> 210, 211, 214
The RectiWed Interpretation of the Ancient
Texts
<尚书正义> 214
418 book titles from english to chinese
The RectiWed Interpretation of the Book of
Changes
<周易正义> 214
The RectiWed Interpretation of the Book of Rites <礼记正义> 214
The RectiWed Interpretation of the Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
<方言校笺> 94
The RectiWed Interpretation of Zuo’s Spring and
Autumn Annals
<春秋左传正义> 214
The ReWned Ready Guide <彬雅> 307, 316
The Revised Dictionary of Rhymes of the Song
Dynasty
<大宋重修广韵> 245
The Revised Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
<校定说文> 179
The Rhyme Diagram of Six Categories of
Chinese Characters
<六书音韵表> 284, 350
The Rhyme Dictionary <集韵> 168, 170,
249–51,
277
The Rhythmical Ready Guide <骈雅> 304–5, 317
The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty <周礼> 41
The Sanskrit and Chinese Glossary <西天馆译语> 395
The Sanskrit–Chinese Glossary <唐梵两语双对集> 373
The Scholarly Circles <学林> 209
The Scholarly Primer <博学篇> 18, 57
The Secret Imperial History <龙威秘书> 381
The Shanhai Scriptures <山海经> 38, 107
The Six Classics <六经> 240
The Six Writing Models <六帖> 225
The Songs of Chu <楚辞> 194, 216
The Sound Family <音谱> 254
The Sound Synchronization of Pearls and Jade <珠玉同声> 359
The Sounds and Meanings of Characters <文字音义> 254
The Sources of Rhyme Ocean <韵海镜源> 178, 226, 330
The Spring and Autumn <春秋> 34, 135
The Spring and Autumn Exegesis <春秋传> 99
The Standard Five Classics <五经定本> 161
The Standardized Exegesis of Six-category
Chinese Characters
<六书准> 201
The Standardized Ready Guide <尔雅> 定本 61
The Standards of Ancient Rhymes <古韵标准> 349
The Star Collection of Things and Events <明星事类> 226
The Stemmata of the Gu Family <顾氏谱传> 192
The Stories of Emperors and Their OYcials in
Previous Dynasties
<历代君臣事迹> 231
book titles from english to chinese 419
The Stories of Mizhou <密州说> 300
The Studies in An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
<演说文> 112
The Studies in Function Words <虚字说> 270, 302
The Succinct Explication of Six-category
Chinese Characters
<六书略> 182
The Supplement to Sounds and Meanings of All
the Buddhist Scriptures
<正续一切经音义> 149
The Supplement to the Qilin Manual of Eight
Sounds
<加订戚林八音> 360
The Supplements of the Manchurian Language <清文补汇> 398
The Sweet Spring <甘泉> 80
The Taihe Dictionary of Rhymes <太和正音谱> 174
The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes <唐韵> 171, 245, 350
The Taoshan Collection <陶山集> 217
The Teachings of the Liu Family <柳氏家训> 156
The Teachings of the Yan Family <颜氏家训> 177
The Techniques for Segmenting Rhymes <字母切韵要法> 292
The Thai Language and Chinese Glossary <暹罗馆译语> 395
The Thesaurus of Chinese Words and
Expressions
<同义词词林> 142
The Three-Character Primer <三字经> 57
The Three-Language Dictionary:
Manchurian, Mongolian, and Chinese
<三体清文鉴>,<御制
满珠蒙古汉字三合
切音清文鉴>, <满蒙汉字三合切音清
文鉴>
397, 398
The Tibetan–Chinese Bilingual Glossary <西番译语> 381, 395
The Translated Documents of Huihe (Ouigour)
Section
<高昌馆译书> 394
The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake <徐霞客游记> 322
The Travels of a Tourist OYcial <游宦纪闻> 209
The Ultimate Designators of Words <文字指归> 254
The VeriWcation of Ancient Phonetic Sounds in
Mao’s Book of Songs
<诗古音考> 349
The VeriWcation of the Dictionary of Chinese
Rhymes
<切韵考> 254, 350–1
The Waitai Collection of Secret Prescriptions <外台秘要> 227
The Word RectiWcation <别字>The World Map <万国舆图> 320
The Yellow River West Bilingual Glossary <河西译语> 392–4
420 book titles from english to chinese
The Yinggongtang Materia Medica <英公唐本草> 227
The Yongle Compendium <永乐大典> 271, 279, 327,
339–40,
344–6
The Yu Book <虞书> 109
The Yuanhe Dictionary of Family Names <元和姓纂> 227
The Yuanli Primer <爰历篇> 27, 28, 57
The Yuanshang Primer <元尚篇> 25, 101, 136
Three Annals <三传> 216
Three Cang Primer <三苍> 34, 35
Translating Sanskrit <翻梵语> 369
Vocabulary of Mineralogical Terms Occurring in
the Manual
<金石中西名目表> 396
Vocabulary of Names and Substances Occurring
in Various Words on Chemistry: ChieXy in
Bloxam’s Chemistry
<化学材料中西名目
表>396
Vocabulary of Names of Materia Medica
Occurring in the Translation of Royle’s
Manual of Materia Medica and Therapeutics
with Lists of Names and Places Occurring in
the Same Work and in Various Treatises and
Allied Subjects
<西药大成中西名目
表>396
Vocabulary of Terms Relating to the Steam
Engine
<汽机中西名目表> 396
Wang Renyun’s RectiWcation of the Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes
<王仁昀刊谬补缺切
韵>244, 246
Western Mandarin, or the Spoken Language of
Western China; with Syllabic and English
Indexes
<西蜀方言> 389
Wuju Rhyme Dictionary <五车韵瑞> 324, 330
Xi Zhuan <系传> 167
Xiping Stone Inscriptions <熹平石经> 18, 195
Xuanzong’s Collection of Things and Events <玄宗事类> 226
Xun Zi <荀子> 124
Yan’s Manual of Character Models <颜氏字样> 177, 194–6
Yu Didactics <虞箴> 81
Yu Gong <禹贡> 61
Zheng’s Annotated Analects of Confucius <论语郑氏注> 157
The Zhizhitang Collection <止止堂集> 359
Zhuang Zi <庄子> 38
Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals <春秋左传>, <左传> 39, 216
book titles from english to chinese 421
Appendix ii
List of book titles from Chinese to
English with Chinese Titles arranged
in Pinyin order
CHINESE
TITLES
ENGLISH
TITLES
PAGE
NUMBER
<爱日堂诗集> Collected Poems: Sun-loving Hall 340
<八音字义> Eight Sounds and Character
Meanings
359
<白氏经史事类> The Bai’s Collection of Classics,
Histories and Events
226
<百家姓> The Book of Family Names 57
<百译馆译语> The Burmese Language and Chinese
Glossary
395
<班簋> Ban Gui 50
<班马字类> The ClassiWed Characters of Banma 171, 199
<北堂书钞> The Beitang Collection of Copied
Books
172, 224–6
<本草纲目> The Compendium of Materia
Medica
322–3, 336–7,
343–4
<本草纲目拾遗> Supplements to the Compendium
of Materia Medica
337
<本草经集注> An Annotated Collection of Materia
Medica
227
<比雅> The Contrastive Ready Guide 72, 269, 308
<编珠> The Pearl Collection 225, 228
<辨命论> On Destiny 207
<别录> The Miscellaneous Collection 63
<别雅> The Distinctive Ready Guide 269, 276, 308
<别字> The Word RectiWcation 101
<彬雅> The ReWned Ready Guide 307, 316
<驳五经异义> The RectiWcation of the
Interpretative Dictionary of the
Five Classics
147
<博学篇> The Scholarly Primer 18, 57
<仓颉篇> The Cangjie Primer 28, 35, 52–60
<苍颉故> The Exegesis of the Cang Jie Primer 101
<苍颉训纂> Collections of Cangjie Exegesis 81, 101
<漕运志> Annals of Water Transportation 320
<册府元龟> The Historical Records of Cefu 227, 213–32, 279
<长兴集> The Everlasting Prosperity
Collection
233
<潮汕方言> The Dictionary of Chao-shan
Dialect
94
<陈史> The History of the Chen Dynasty 224
<陈书> The Book of the Chen Dynasty 192
<称谓录> A Dictionary of Titles and
Appellations
324, 326, 334, 335, 343
<初学记> The ClassiWed Dictionary for
Beginners
226, 230
<楚辞> The Songs of Chu 194, 216
<春秋> The Spring and Autumn 34, 135
<春秋传> The Spring and Autumn Exegesis 99
<春秋戴记> A Famed Record of the Spring and
Autumn Period
304
<春秋公羊传> Gongyang’s Spring and Autumn
Annals
215, 216
<春秋榖梁传> Guliang’s Spring and Autumn
Annals
215, 216
<春秋后传> The Later Spring and Autumn
Annals
217
<春秋左传>, <左传> Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals 39, 216
<春秋左传正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of
Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals
214
<辞海> Ci Hai 39, 289, 361
<辞通> The General Dictionary of the
Chinese Language
315
<辞源> Ci Yuan 39, 326, 361
<大般涅槃经音义> Sounds and Meanings of Maha
Parinibbana Sutta
219
<大藏音义> Sounds and Meanings of All the
Buddhist Scriptures
170–3, 206, 219, 220,
222, 370–1
<大戴礼> The Dadai Book of Etiquette 117
book titles from chinese to english 423
<大广益会玉篇> The Immensely Augmented Jade
Chapters
193
<大清全书> A Comprehensive Dictionary of the
Great Qing Dynasty
271, 396, 397
<大宋重修广韵> The Revised Dictionary of Rhymes
of the Song Dynasty
245
<大唐内典录> The Records of Internal Classics of
the Tang Dynasty
219
<大正新修大藏经> The Newly Revised Dazheng
Buddhist Scriptures
373
<道德经> DaoDe Jing, TaoTe Ching 30, 33
<等韵切音指南> The Guidelines for Segmenting
Phonetic Sounds and Rhymes
292
<叠雅> The Alternating Ready Guide 276, 308
<东都事略> Brief Stories in Eastern Capital 159
<读书杂志> The Miscellaneous Notes in
Reading
301
<尔雅> The Ready Guide 3, 40–3, 59–75, 122–5,
142–5, 147–52, 168,
215–18, 269
<尔雅> 定本 The Standardized Ready Guide 61
<尔雅补郭> Peripheral Amendments on the
Ready Guide
332
<尔雅初注> The Preliminary Annotation to the
Ready Guide
306
<尔雅古义> The Ancient Interpretation of the
Ready Guide
307
<尔雅今注> The Contemporary Annotated
Ready Guide
74
<尔雅新义> The New Meanings of the Ready
Guide
217
<尔雅义疏> The Exegesis of the Ready Guide 74, 309
<尔雅翼> The Extended Ready Guide 171, 217
<尔雅翼音释> The Phonetic Interpretation of the
Extended Ready Guide
217
<尔雅音义> Sounds and Meanings of the Ready
Guide
39, 241
<尔雅正义> The RectiWed Exegesis of the Ready
Guide
74
<尔雅注> The Annotated Ready Guide 24, 62, 73, 74
<尔雅注疏> The RectiWcation of the Annotated
Ready Guide
74
<法言> Standard Words 81, 216
<番尔雅> A Tangut–Chinese Ready Guide 377
424 book titles from chinese to english
<番汉合时掌中珠> A Timely Gem Dictionary Tangut–
Chinese
377, 378, 402
<翻梵语> Translating Sanskrit 369
<翻译名义大集> The Complete Collection of Terms
and Meanings in Translation
382
<翻译名义集> The Collection of Meanings of
Terms in Translation
369
<凡将篇> The General Primer 25, 144
<梵语千字文> The One Thousand Sanskrit
Character Glossary
371–3, 375
<梵语杂名> A Miscellaneous Collection of
Sanskrit Terms
372, 373
<方言> The Dictionary of Dialectal Words 43, 76, 79, 80–94, 142,
148
<方言别录> The Miscellaneous Record of
Dialectal Words
94
<方言笺疏> The Annotated Interpretation of the
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
94, 270, 309
<方言据> The RectiWed Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
269, 309
<方言类聚> A Categoric Dictionary of Dialectal
Words
269, 309
<方言疏证> The RectiWcation of the Dictionary
of Dialectal Words
94, 270, 309
<方言疏证补> Supplements to the RectiWcation of
the Dictionary of Dialectal Words
94, 270, 309
<方言校笺> The RectiWed Interpretation of the
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
94
<方言藻> The Dialectal Dictionary of Literary
Embellishments
270, 310
<方言注> The Annotated Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
24, 90, 148
<分毫字样> Minute DiVerences in Character
Formations
189
<分类字锦> A Categoric Dictionary of Chinese
Words
267
<封氏闻见记> The Feng’s Records of Things and
Events
244
<佛尔雅> The Buddhist Ready Guide 306, 318
<佛孝经> The Buddhist Book of Filial Virtues 306
<佛学大辞典> The Dictionary of Buddhist Studies 222
<浮山集> The Foushan Collection 305
book titles from chinese to english 425
<复古编> The Dictionary of Ancient
Character Exegesis
175, 179, 198
<赋役全书> The Complete Manual of Taxes and
Services
320
<改并五音类聚四声篇> The Five-scale Compendium of
Chinese Characters: with
Revisions and Four-tone
ClassiWcations
196
<干禄字书> The Ganlu Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
194–6
<甘泉> The Sweet Spring 80
<高昌馆译书> The Translated Documents of
Huihe (Ouigour) Section
394
<高昌馆杂字> A Miscellany of the Ouigourian
Words
394, 395
<格致镜原> The Practical ClassiWed Dictionary
of Sciences
327, 339–41
<公羊> Gong Yang 96, 115
<古代词书讲话> Lectures on Ancient Wordbooks 4
<古代辞书史话> Talks on the History of Ancient
Word Books and Dictionaries
4
<古今图书集成> The Compendium of Ancient and
Contemporary Books
233
<古今文字> Ancient and Contemporary
Characters
169, 187, 188
<古今韵会> The Comprehensive Dictionary of
Ancient and Contemporary
Rhymes
171, 287
<古今韵会举要> The Essential Dictionary of Ancient
and Contemporary Rhymes
172–4
<古今韵准> Ancient and Modern Rhyme
Standards
285, 348
<古今正字> The RectiWcation of Ancient and
Contemporary Characters
220
<古今中外音韵通例> General Examples of Sounds and
Rhymes in All Human Speeches
354, 355
<古今字诂> The Exegesis of Ancient and
Contemporary Characters
186, 188
<古泉汇> A Dictionary of Ancient Currencies 271, 335
<古文尚书> The Collection of Characters from
Ancient Books
211, 215
<古小说钩沉> The Probe into Ancient Novels 236
<古韵标准> The Standards of Ancient Rhymes 349
426 book titles from chinese to english
<顾氏谱传> The Stemmata of the Gu Family 192
<广苍> The Broad Cangjie Primer 254
<广干禄字书> The Extended Ganlu Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
195
<广群芳谱> The General Dictionary of All
Beauties
271, 336
<广续方言及拾遗> The Broadly Augmented Dictionary
of Dialectal Words with
Supplements
270, 310, 312
<广雅> The Broad Ready Guide 172, 215–17
<广雅疏证> The RectiWed Broad Ready Guide 216, 221
<广雅疏证补正> Supplements to the RectiWed Broad
Ready Guide
61
<广韵> The Dictionary of Rhymes 170, 174, 246–54
<广韵校勘记> Notes on the RectiWcation of the
Dictionary of Rhymes
254
<广韵研究> Studies on the Dictionary of
Rhymes
254
<归三十字母例> The ClassiWcation of the
Thirty-letter Alphabet
162
<桂苑珠丛> The Guiyuan Collection of
Characters
178
<国语> The National Language 36, 72, 135
<海岛算经> The Arithmetic Classics of the
Islands
345
<海国图志> An Illustrated Gazette of Overseas
States
320, 321
<海录碎事> The Extensive Miscellany of Minute
Things
229
<汉法拉辞典> Dictionnaire Chinois, Francais et
Latin
385
<汉书> The Book of the Han Dynasty 35, 60, 64–6
<汉语大字典> The Great Chinese Character
Dictionary
79–81, 101
<河东> East of the River 80
<河西译语> The Yellow River West Bilingual
Glossary
392–4
<洪范> Hong Fan 70
<鸿烈> Hong Lie 216
<洪武正韵> Hong Wu Dictionary of Standard
Rhymes
347–8, 352, 357–8
<后汉书> The Book of Late Han Dynasty 101
book titles from chinese to english 427
<湖雅> The Ready Guide of the Huzhou
Prefecture
307, 308
<华严经音义> Sounds and Meanings of the
Avatamsaka Sutra
185, 219
<华严经> The Avatamsaka Sutra 370
<华阳国志> The Huayang National Annals 78
<华夷译语> A Chinese–Foreign Language
Vocabulary
271, 374
<华夷译语> The Chinese–Foreign Language
Bilingual Glossaries
393–5
<华英词典> A Chinese–English Dictionary 386, 387
<华英词典>–五车韵府
A Dictionary of the Chinese
Language
386
<化学材料中西名目表> Vocabulary of Names and Substance
Occurring in Various Words on
Chemistry: ChieXy in Bloxam’s
Chemistry
396
<淮南> Huai Nan 240
<淮南子> Huai Nan Zi 72, 107
<淮南子注> The Annotated Huai Nan Zi 101
<皇览> The Imperial Survey 225, 278
<回回馆译语> The Persian Language and Chinese
Glossary
395
<回回馆杂字> A Miscellany of Persian Words 395
<慧琳音义> Hui Lin’s Sounds and Meanings 220, 222
<鸡林类事> A Miscellaneous Collection of
Things and Events
375, 400
<汲古阁说文订> The Jigu Library Revision to An
Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
284
<急就篇>,<急就> The Instant Primer 57, 144
<集古录> The Collection of Ancient Records 164
<集韵> The Rhyme Dictionary 168, 170, 249–51, 277
<几何原本> Elements 322
<纪效新书> Disciplines and EVects: A New Book 359
<加订戚林八音> The Supplement to the Qilin
Manual of Eight Sounds
360
<嘉泰吴兴志> The Annals of Wuxing, Jiatai 308
<甲骨文编> Collections of Jiaguwen Characters 105
<柬韵> Jian Rhymes 285
<检字> Character Index 274
<金国语解> Explanations of the Terms in the
History of the Jin Dynasty
383
428 book titles from chinese to english
<金石中西名目表> Vocabulary of Mineralogical Terms
Occurring in the Manual
396
<金史> The History of the Jin Dynasty 383
<金文编> Collections of Jin Inscriptions 105
<晋书> The Book of the Jin Dynasty 38
<经传释词> The Dictionary of Function Words
in Lections and Biographies
328–30, 342
<经典大典> The Grand Dictionary of Classics 227
<经典分毫正字> The Dictionary of Meticulously
RectiWed Characters from
Classics
177
<经典释文> The Exegetic Interpretation of
Classics
165–6, 211, 221–2
<经籍纂诂> The Exegetic Interpretations of
Ancient Classics
302, 312–15, 318
<经世大典> The Compendium of Scriptures and
Classics
172
<经义述闻> Recorded Studies on the Meaning of
Classics
70, 71, 301, 329
<经韵楼集> A Collection of Classic Rhyme
House
284, 300, 301
<九经文字> The Collection of Characters from
Nine Classics
174
<九章算术> The Nine Chapters on Arithmetic 345
<旧五代史> The Old History of the Five
Dynasties
345
<开元文字音义> Sounds and Meanings of Kaiyuan
Characters
177, 220
<刊谬补缺切韵> RectiWcation on the Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes
245
<刊谬正俗> The RectiWcation of Classic
Interpretations
207
<康熙字典> The Imperial Dictionary of Kangxi 267–9, 272–4, 276,
290–7
<考古图> The Pictorial Dictionary of
Archaeology
183
<考声切韵> The RectiWcation of Initial
Consonants and Vowels
220
<匡谬正俗> The RectiWcation and
Standardization of Chinese
Characters
94, 177
<困学记闻> The Records of Hard Learning 94
book titles from chinese to english 429
<老子疏> The Exegesis of Lao Zi 215
<乐> The Book of Music 21
<类聚> The ClassiWed Collection 225
<类林杂说> TheMiscellanies of Argumentations
Concerning ClassiWed
Dictionaries
172, 227
<类篇> The ClassiWed Chapters 165–71, 190, 191, 203
<离骚> Li Sao 81, 92
<礼>,<礼记> The Book of Rites 36, 39
<礼部韵略> The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes
for the Ministry of Rites
171, 174, 251
<礼记义疏> The Exegesis of the Book of Rites 24
<礼记正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of the
Book of Rites
214
<礼象> The Proprieties 217
<历代地理志韵编今释> A Contemporary Dictionary of
Ancient Names of Places in All
Dynasties
271, 336
<历代赋汇> A Collection of Fu-poems of
Previous Dynasties
340
<历代君臣事迹> The Stories of Emperors and Their
OYcials in Previous Dynasties
231
<练兵纪实> Records on Soldier Training 359
<梁书> The Book of the Liang Dynasty 192
<两体清文鉴>,<御制增订清文鉴>
The Augmented Imperial
Manchurian and Chinese
Dictionary
397
<辽国语解> Explanations of the Terms in the
History of the Liao Language
375, 382, 402
<辽金元三史国语解> Explanations of the Terms in the
Histories of the Liao, Jin, and
Yuan Dynasties
383
<辽史> The History of the Liao Dynasty 382, 383
<列子> Lie Zi 72
<柳氏家训> The Teachings of the Liu Family 156
<六经> The Six Classics 240
<六书本义> The Original Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters
201
<六书故> The Exegesis of Six-category
Characters
182, 200–4
<六书略> The Succinct Explication of Six-
category Chinese Characters
182
430 book titles from chinese to english
<六书溯原直音> The Origins of Direct Phonetic
Notations of Six-category
Chinese Characters
201
<六书通> The Learned Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters
201
<六书通释> The General Interpretation of Six-
category Chinese Characters
167, 200, 203
<六书统> The General Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters
182, 201
<六书系韵> The Phonological Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters
201
<六书音韵表> The Rhyme Diagram of Six
Categories of Chinese Characters
284, 350
<六书准> The Standardized Exegesis of Six-
category Chinese Characters
201
<六书总要> The Overall Exegesis of Six-category
Chinese Characters
201
<六帖> The Six Writing Models 225
<龙龛手鉴> The Dragon Shrine Character
Manual
192, 198
<龙威秘书> The Secret Imperial History 381
<鲁论笺> Notes on Lu’s Arguments 304
<吕览> The Lu Survey 225, 240
<吕氏春秋> The Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals 38
<论气> On Qi 338
<论语> The Analects of Confucius 36, 39, 81
<论语义疏> The Exegesis of the Analects of
Confucius
24
<论语郑氏注> Zheng’s Annotated Analects of
Confucius
157
<毛诗古音考> The VeriWcation of Ancient
Phonetic Sounds in Mao’s Book
of Songs
349
<毛诗诂训传>,<毛传>, <毛诗>
Mao Heng’s Exegesis of the Book of
Songs
22, 35–7, 70, 97
<毛诗故训传定本小笺> An Epilogue to the Standardized
Version of Mao Heng’s Exegesis
of Book of Songs
36
<毛诗后笺> An Epilogue to Mao’s Book of
Songs
307
book titles from chinese to english 431
<毛诗通义> The General Interpretation of Mao’s
Book of Songs
311
<毛诗正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of
Mao’s Book of Songs
210, 211, 214
<蒙古波斯语词典> The Mongolian–Persian Dictionary 378
<蒙古译语>,<至元译语>
Explanations of the Mongolian
Language
379, 392, 394
<孟子> Meng Zi 36, 60, 107
<梦溪笔谈> The Mengxi Collection of Written
Dialogues
234
<密州说> The Stories of Mizhou 300
<妙法莲华经音义> Sounds and Meanings of the
Lotus Sutra
219
<名理探> Explorations in Philosophical
Principles
320
<名实篇> On “Name” and “Content” 31
<明星事类> The Star Collection of Things
and Events
226
<穆天子传> The Mutianzi Biography 38
<内经> Classic Internal Medicine 323
<南史> The History of the Southern
Dynasty
242
<农桑辑要> Essentials of Agriculture and
Sericulture
345
<农政全书> The Compendium of Agriculture 322, 336, 337
<女真馆来文> Memorials from the Nuchen
Section
393
<女真馆杂字> The Nuchen Miscellaneous
Collection of Foreign Words
393
<女真译语> The Nuchen and Chinese
Glossary
393, 395
<滂喜篇> The Pangxi Primer 34, 35
<裴子语林> The Peizi Language Forest 236
<佩文韵府> A Dictionary of Rhymes and Styles 276, 324, 332–4, 343
<佩觿> The Pei Xi Dictionary 197, 198
<埤仓> The Augmented Cangjie Glossary 186, 215, 254
<埤雅> The Augmented Ready Guide 170, 217–18
<埤雅广要> The Essentials of Augmented Ready
Guide
171, 217
<篇海> The MagniWcent Chapters 191, 192, 289
<骈雅> The Rhythmical Ready Guide 304–5, 317
432 book titles from chinese to english
<骈字类编> A Dictionary of Synonyms 276, 325, 334, 343
<葡汉词典> Dizionario Portoghese–Cinese 385
<七略> Seven Strategies 63, 83
<戚参军八音义便览> The General Survey of Eight Sounds
and Meanings for Qi Armymen
359
<戚林八音> The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds 359, 360
<戚林八音合订> The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds:
Bound Edition
359
<戚林八音字义> The Qilin Manual of Eight Sounds
and Character Meanings
359
<齐史> The History of the Qi Dynasty 224
<汽机中西名目表> Vocabulary of Terms Relating to the
Steam Engine
396
<千金方> One Thousand Golden Medical
Prescriptions
227
<千字文> One Thousand Characters Text 57
<钱录> The Dictionary of Currencies 271, 335
<钱通> The General Survey of Currencies 271, 335
<潜研堂文集> The Collected Works of Qian Yan
Tang
350
<切韵> The Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes 161–8, 171–4, 183–5,
243–6, 251–4, 350–3
<切韵考> The VeriWcation of the Dictionary
of Chinese Rhymes
254, 350–1
<切韵考外篇> Additional Notes on the
VeriWcation of the Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes
254
<切韵指南> A Guide to the Dictionary of
Chinese Rhymes
292
<清儒学案> Biographies of Confucian Scholars
in the Qing Dynasty
306
<清文补汇> The Supplements of the
Manchurian Language
398
<清文汇书> The Complete Collection of the
Manchurian Language
398
<清文鉴> The Dictionary of the Manchurian
Language
271, 396–7
<清文总汇> The Compendium of the
Manchurian Language
271, 396, 398
<穷理学> A Thorough Exploration in
Philosophy
320
book titles from chinese to english 433
<求是堂诗文集> The Collected Poems and Prose of
Qiushi Academy
307
<全芳备祖> The Botanic Compendium 173, 227, 234
<泉志> Records of Ancient Coins 227
<群芳谱> A Complete Collection of All
Beauties
271, 335, 336
<群经音辨> The Dictionary of Characters from
Classics and Scriptures with
Phonetic Discrimination
200, 212, 213
<群经韵谱> Rhymes of Various Classics 284
<群书新定字样> The New Manual of Character
Models from Classics and
Scriptures
177, 196
<三才图会> A Pictorial Collection of Heaven,
Earth, and Human
320
<三苍> Three Cang Primer 34, 35
<三传> Three Annals 216
<三国志> The Annals of the Three Kingdoms 119, 120, 121
<三教珠英> The Pearl Collection of Three
Religions
226
<三礼> The Book of Three Rites 120, 216
<三体清文鉴>,<御制满珠蒙古汉
字三合切音清文
鉴>, <满蒙汉字
三合切音清文鉴>
The Three-Language Dictionary:
Manchurian, Mongolian, and
Chinese
397, 398
<三字经> The Three-Character Primer 57
<散盘> San Pan 51
<山海经> The Shanhai Scriptures 38, 107
<尚书>, <书> The Book of Ancient Texts 21, 22, 107
<尚书正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of the
Book of Ancient Texts
214
<声类> The Dictionary of Initial
Consonants
174, 243–5, 347
<尸子> Shi Zi 38, 40
<诗经> <诗> The Book of Songs 35, 77, 349
<诗词通韵> General Rhymes for Poems and
Ci-poems
354, 362
<诗故> The Classic Account of Poetry 304
<诗讲义> Talks on Poetry 217
434 book titles from chinese to english
<诗经小学> The Book of Songs and the
Philological Studies
284
<诗经韵谱> Rhymes of the Book of Songs 284
<诗毛氏传疏> The RectiWcation of Mao’s Book of
Songs
35, 36
<诗疏> The Exegesis on Poetry 308
<诗疏补遗> Supplements to the Exegesis on
Poetry
311
<诗疑义释> The Interpretation of Poetry 311
<十驾斋养新录> New Collections of Shijiazhai 350
<十三经音略> A Brief Introduction to Phonetic
Sounds in Thirteen Scriptures
306
<十三经注疏> The Annotated RectiWcation of
Thirteen Scriptures
312
<十竹斋书画谱> Shizhuzai’s Chart of Painting and
Calligraphy
260
<史记> The Records of the Historian 65, 199
<史籀篇> Historian Zhou’s Primer 27, 42–9, 51–60, 136
<史籀篇疏证> The RectiWcation of Historian
Zhou’s Primer
58
<事林广记> The Broad Records of Things and
Events
228, 232–3, 378
<释名> The Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Terms
114–133, 142–4
<释名疏证> The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters and Terms
131
<释名疏证补> Supplements to the RectiWed
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
and Terms
131
<蜀尔雅> The Ready Guide for the Shu
Dialect
302
<蜀语> The Dictionary of the Shu Dialect 303, 316–17
<水经注笺> Shui Jing Annotations and
Commentaries
304
<顺正理论> The Abhidharma Naya Anusara
Sutra
370
<说文解字> An Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
5, 41–8, 95–113, 141,
147–52, 169–70,
178–203, 276–7,
282–9, 295–7
<说文解字读> AGuide to Reading An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
284
book titles from chinese to english 435
<说文解字诂林> The Modern Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
112
<说文解字系传>,<说文系传>
The Comprehensive Studies in An
Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
112, 179
<说文解字义证> The RectiWed Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
112, 283
<说文解字注> The Annotated Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
112, 132, 283–4
<说文释例> The ExempliWed Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
283
<说文通训定声> An Explanatory Book of Phonetic
Sounds
285, 348
<说文音隐> The Phonetic Studies in An
Explanatory Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
112
<说雅> Studies in the Ready Guide 285
<四库全书> The Imperial Collection of Four
Branches of Literature
267, 327, 346
<四库全书总目提要> The General Catalogue and
Abstracts of the Imperial
Collection of Four Branches of
Literature
325
<四声篇海> The Four-tone MagniWcent
Chapters
196, 203
<四书大全> A Complete Collection of the Four
Books
264
<四书考异> The RectiWcation and
DiVerentiation of the Four Books
332
<四体清文鉴> The Manchurian Dictionary in
Four Languages
398
<宋高僧传> The Biographies of Great Monks of
the Song Dynasty
219
<宋会要> Collected Essentials of the Song
Dynasty
345
<宋史> The History of the Song Dynasty 377
<宋书> The Book of the Song Dynasty 239, 242
<素问> Simple Questioning 111
<隋书> The Book of the Sui Dynasty 112, 160
<太和正音谱> The Taihe Dictionary of Rhymes 174
436 book titles from chinese to english
<太平广记> The Imperial Records of the Taiping
Reign
226
<太平御览> The Imperial Digest of the Taiping
Reign
230–1
<太平总类> The General Digest of the Taiping
Reign
230
<太玄> The Deepest Mystery 81
<谈天> On the Skies 338
<唐梵两语双对集> The Sanskrit–Chinese Glossary 373
<唐梵文字> The Glossary of Sanskrit and
Chinese Characters
373
<唐书> The Book of the Tang Dynasty 178
<唐韵> The Tang Dictionary of Rhymes 171, 245, 350
<堂邑县志> The Annals of Tangyi County 328
<陶山集> The Taoshan Collection 217
<天工开物> The Book of Nature’s Engineering 336, 338, 344
<天竺字源> The Origin of Siddhim Characters 369
<通俗编> A Collection of Popular Expressions 330, 332, 343
<通俗文> The Dictionary of Popular Words 23, 275
<通雅> The General Ready Guide 72, 305
<通韵> General Rhymes 354, 355
<同姓名录> Records of Names of the Same
Family Names
276
<同义词词林> The Thesaurus of Chinese Words
and Expressions
142
<同源字典> The Cognate Dictionary of
Characters
133
<突厥语大词典> The Complete Turkish Dictionary,
Turki Tillar Diwani, Diwanu
Lught-it-Turk, Divanu Lugat-it-
Turk, Diwanu LuBatit-Turk, The
Compendium of the Turkic
Dialects
173, 379–81
<外台秘要> The Waitai Collection of Secret
Prescriptions
227
<万国舆图> The World Map 320
<万用正宗不求人> The Complete Guide to How to Do 229
<王仁昀刊谬补缺切韵> Wang Renyun’s RectiWcation of the
Dictionary of Chinese Rhymes
244, 246
<王文公文集> The Collected Works of Wang Anshi 181
<王文简公文集> Collected Works of Wang Yinzhi 329
book titles from chinese to english 437
<味根轩韵学> Rhyme Studies in Wei Gen Xuan 354, 355
<魏书> The Book of the Wei Dynasty 177, 215, 244
<文始> TheBeginnings ofChineseCharacters 133
<文思博要> The Essentials of Literature and
Thoughts
226, 230
<文献大成> The Comprehensive Dictionary of
Literature
339
<文献通考> The General RectiWcation of
Literature
302
<文选注> The Annotations of Selected Works 110
<文苑英华> The Academic Elites 164
<文字> Characters 244
<文字集略> The Essential Collection of Words 254
<文字音义> The Sounds and Meanings of
Characters
254
<文字指归> The Ultimate Designators of Words 254
<吴下方言考> The Dictionary of Textual
Researches on the Wu-Xia
Dialect
310–11, 317
<吴下谚联> Proverb Couplets of the Wu Dialect 330, 331, 343
<吴语> The Dictionary of the Wu Dialect 310
<五车韵瑞> Wuju Rhyme Dictionary 324, 330
<五方元音> Proto-sounds of Speech in All
Regions
352–3, 357–8
<五经> The Five Classics 214
<五经大全> A Complete Collection of the Five
Classics
264
<五经定本> The Standard Five Classics 161
<五经文字> The Collection of Characters from
Five Classics
195–6
<五经异义> The Interpretative Dictionary of the
Five Classics
101
<五经正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of Five
Classics
162, 214
<五体清文鉴> The Manchurian Dictionary in Five
Languages
398
<五音集韵> The Comprehensive Five-sound
Rhyme Dictionary
171, 251
<五音增改并类聚四
声篇海>The MagniWcent Chapters: with
Augmentations of Five Scales and
Categorizations of Four Tones
192
<物理论> On Physics 132
<物理小识> Fine Observations of Nature 305
438 book titles from chinese to english
<物性门类> The ClassiWcation of Things and
Objects
217
<西都赋> Ode to the Western Capital 274
<西番译语> The Tibetan–Chinese Bilingual
Glossary
381, 395
<西儒耳目资> An Audio And Visual Guide for
Foreign Scholars
385
<西蜀方言> Western Mandarin, or the Spoken
Language of Western China; with
Syllabic and English Indexes
389
<西天馆译语> The Sanskrit and Chinese Glossary 395
<西药大成中西名目表> Vocabulary of Names of Materia
Medica Occurring in the
Translation of Royle’s Manual of
Materia Medica and
Therapeutics with Lists of Names
and Places Occurring in the Same
Work and in Various Treatises
and Allied Subjects
396
<悉昙字记> The Record of Siddhim Characters 369
<熹平石经> Xiping Stone Inscriptions 18, 195
<系传> Xi Zhuan 167
<暹罗馆译语> The Thai Language and Chinese
Glossary
395
<萧恺传> The Biography of Xiao Kai 192
<小尔雅> The Pocket Ready Guide 23, 72, 215
<小尔雅义疏> The RectiWcation of the Pocket
Ready Guide
307
<孝经> The Book of Filial Virtues 96, 107, 215
<校定<说文>> The Revised Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
179
<新方言> The New Dictionary of Dialectal
Words
94
<新加九经字样> The New Collection of Character
Models from Nine Classics
171, 177, 196
<新修本草> The Newly Revised Materia Medica 227
<新字训解> The Exegetic Interpretation of New
Characters
254
<性理大全> A Complete Collection of
Philosophical Essays
264
<修文殿御览> The Imperial Survey of Xiuwen
Palace
230, 278
book titles from chinese to english 439
<虚字说> The Studies in Function Words 270, 302
<徐霞客游记> The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake 322
<续尔雅> The Extended Ready Guide 217–8
<续方言> The Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
270, 309, 312
<续方言补> Supplements to the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
94
<续方言补正> Supplements and RectiWcations to
the Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
270, 309
<续方言稿> The Manuscripts of the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
93
<续方言疏证> The RectiWcation of the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
93
<续方言新校补> New Supplements and
RectiWcations to the Augmented
Dictionary of Dialectal Words
94, 270, 309
<续方言又补> New Supplements to the
Augmented Dictionary of
Dialectal Words
270, 310
<续高僧传> The Continuation to Biographies of
Great Monks
219
<续文献通考> A Continual to the General Survey
on Ancient Literature
278
<续一切经音义> The Extended Sounds and
Meanings of all the Buddhist
Scriptures
219–20, 371
<玄宗事类> Xuanzong’s Collection of Things
and Events
226
<学林> The Scholarly Circles 209
<荀子> Xun Zi 124
<训纂篇> The Exegetic Primer 47
<颜氏家训> The Teachings of the Yan Family 177
<颜氏字样> Yan’s Manual of Character Models 177, 194–6
<演说文> The Studies in An Explanatory
Dictionary of Chinese Characters
112
<野议> Miscellaneous Commentaries 338
<一切经音> Sounds of All the Buddhist Scriptures 207, 370
<一切经音义> Sounds and Meanings of All the
Buddhist Scriptures (also Sounds
and Meanings of the Whole
Canon)
110
440 book titles from chinese to english
<医经方> The Book of Secret Prescriptions 111
<仪礼> Etiquette and Rites 215
<仪礼古今义疏文> The Ancient and Contemporary
Exegesis of Etiquette and Rites
307
<艺文类聚> The ClassiWed Collection of Art and
Literary Works
224, 228, 229, 279
<异字苑> The Garden of Variant Characters 254
<易经>,<易> The Book of Changes 25, 26, 81
<音汉清文鉴> The Manchurian and Chinese
Dictionary
397
<音鉴> Sound DiVerentiation 356
<音谱> The Sound Family 254
<音韵阐微> An Explanatory Dictionary of
Sounds and Rhymes
353, 361
<殷周金文集成> A Collection of Inscription
Characters of the Yin and Shang
Dynasties
47
<英公唐本草> The Yinggongtang Materia Medica 227
<营造法式> Methods and Models in
Construction
345
<瀛环志略> A Brief Account of the Overseas
States
320, 321
<永乐大典> The Yongle Compendium 271, 279, 327, 339–40,
344–6
<游宦纪闻> The Travels of a Tourist OYcial 209
<虞书> The Yu Book 109
<虞箴> Yu Didactics 81
<羽猎> The Feather Hunting 80
<禹贡> Yu Gong 61
<语助> The Language Assistant 172, 227
<玉海> The Jade Sea 172, 227, 229
<玉函山房辑佚书> The Collection of Lost Books in
Yuhanshan House
224
<玉篇> The Jade Chapters 177–8, 184–5,
188–94, 202–3
<玉篇广韵校刊札记> Notes on the RectiWcation of the
Jade Chapters and the Dictionary
of Rhymes
254
<御制满蒙文鉴> The Imperial Manchurian and
Mongolian Dictionary
397
<御制清文鉴> The Imperial Dictionary of the
Manchurian Language
398
book titles from chinese to english 441
<渊鉴类函> The Categoric Chinese
Encyclopedic Dictionary
267, 276, 338
<元和姓纂> The Yuanhe Dictionary of Family
Names
227
<元尚篇> The Yuanshang Primer 25, 101, 136
<爰历篇> The Yuanli Primer 27, 28, 57
<月令广义> General Monthly Climates 320
<越言释> An Explanatory Dictionary of the
Yue Dialect
270, 310
<越谚> Proverbs of the Yue Dialect 303, 317, 330–1
<韵府群玉> The Gem Dictionary of Rhymes 172, 330
<韵府拾遗> The Additions to A Dictionary of
Rhymes and Styles
333
<韵海镜源> The Sources of Rhyme Ocean 178, 226, 330
<韵会> A Collection of Rhymes 292, 295
<韵集> The Collection of Rhymes 174, 243, 244
<韵镜> The Mirror of Rhymes 174
<韵略> The Essential Dictionary of Rhymes 171, 250, 254
<韵略汇通> A General Introductory Dictionary
of Rhymes
272
<韵略易解> An Interpretative Dictionary of
Rhymes
272
<韵诠> The Interpretative Manual of
Rhymes
220
<韵史> A Diachronic Dictionary of Chinese
Rhyme Studies
272
<韵学骊珠> The Pearls of Rhyme Studies 357, 362, 363
<韵英> Rhyme Essentials 220
<增修互补礼部韵略> Amendments to the Essential
Dictionary of Rhymes for the
Ministry of Rites
358
<正名篇> On Name RectiWcation 31
<正续一切经音义> The Supplement to Sounds and
Meanings of All the Buddhist
Scriptures
149
<正语作词起例> Standard Words for Writing Ci with
Examples
252
<正韵> The Dictionary of Standard Rhymes 292, 295
<正字通> The RectiWed Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
290–6
<证俗文> The RectiWcation of Popular Words 254
442 book titles from chinese to english
<直语补证> Direct Amendments on A
Collection of Popular
Expressions
332
<职方外纪> Areas Outside the Concern of the
Chinese Imperial Geographer
320
<止止堂集> The Zhizhitang Collection 359
<指物篇> On Substance 31
<枳园近稿> New Manuscripts from Citrange
Garden
304
<中国辞书编纂史略> A Brief History of Dictionary
Compilation in China
4
<中国辞书史话> A Narrative History of
Lexicography in China
3
<中国佛教史籍概论> An Introduction to Buddhist
Scriptures in China
220
<中国古代音乐史料辑
要>The Data Corpus of Ancient
Chinese Musical History
235
<中国古代字典辞典概
论>An Introduction to Ancient
Dictionaries in China
4
<中国学术名著提要�语言文字卷>
Essentials of the Well-known
Chinese Academic Works:
Language and Characters
218
<中国字典词典史话> Talks on the History of Chinese
Dictionaries
4
<中国字典史略> A Brief History of Chinese
Character Dictionaries
4
<中华大藏经> The Compendium of China’s
Buddhist Sutras
207
<中华大字典> The Great Character Dictionary of
China
292
<中文孝经> The Chinese Book of Filial Virtues 306
<中原音韵> The Central Plains Dictionary of
Sounds and Rhymes
167, 251–2
<中州乐府音韵类编> The ClassiWed Dictionary of
Zhongzhou Yuefu Rhymes
172
<中州全韵> A Comprehensive Dictionary of the
Rhymes of Zhongzhou State
362, 363
<中州音韵辑要> The Essentials of Sounds and
Rhymes of Zhongzhou State
357, 362
<重校方言> The RectiWed Dictionary of
Dialectal Words with New
RectiWcations
270, 309
book titles from chinese to english 443
<州箴> State Didactics 81
<周礼> The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty 41
<周礼汉读考> The Explanatory RectiWcation of
the Rites of the Zhou Dynasty
300
<周史> The History of the Zhou Dynasty 224
<周易文句义疏> The Exegesis of Words and
Sentences from the Book of
Changes
215
<周易正义> The RectiWed Interpretation of the
Book of Changes
214
<珠玉同声> The Sound Synchronization of
Pearls and Jades
359
<助字辨略> The Interpretative Dictionary of
Function Words
303, 314, 328
<庄子> Zhuang Zi 38
<庄子独见> Original Commentaries on Zhuang
Zi
311
<庄子文句义> The Exegesis of Words and
Sentences from Zhuang Zi
215
<梓人遗训> Teachings of the Deceased Natives 345
<字海> The MagniWcent Character
Dictionary
178
<字汇> The Comprehensive Dictionary of
Chinese Characters
269, 274, 286–91,
293–7
<字鉴> The Character Mirror 198, 199
<字类> The ClassiWed Characters 254
<字林> The Character Forest 185–8
<字母切韵要法> The Techniques for Segmenting
Rhymes
292
<字諟> The Character RectiWcation 101
<字说> The Character Dictionary 180–2, 218
<字通> The General Dictionary of Chinese
Characters
175, 197, 198
<字统> The Orthographical Manual of
Characters
220, 248, 254
<字样> The Character Models 171, 173, 254
<字音汇集> ACollection of Characters and
Sounds
357, 363, 364
<字苑> The Character Garden 254
<字指> The Character Designator 254
<纂文> On Composition 254
<遵义府志> The Annals of Zunyifu 303
444 book titles from chinese to english
Appendix ii i
中国历代纪元表 / The Chronology of Chinese History
中国历代纪元表 / THE CHRONOLOGY OF CHINESE HISTORY
朝代名称 / NAME OF DYNASTY 朝代时期和历史分期限 / DURATION AND DIVISION OF PERIODS
夏 / Xia Dynasty 前2070–前1600 (2070 bc–1600 bc)
商 / Shang Dynasty商前朝前1600–前1300 / Early Shang Dynasty 1600 bc–1300 bc
商后朝前1300–前1046 / Later Shang Dynasty 1300 bc–1046 bc
周 / Zhou Dynasty 西周前1046–前771 /Western Zhou Dynasty 1046 bc–771 bc
东周前770–前256 / Eastern Zhou Dynasty 770 bc–256 bc
秦 / Qin Dynasty 前221–前206 221 bc–206 bc
汉 / Han Dynasty 西汉前206–公元25 /Western Han Dynasty 206 bc–ad 25
东汉25–220 / Eastern Han Dynasty 25–220
三国 / Three Kingdoms 魏220–265 / Kingdom of Wei 220–265蜀汉221–263 / Kingdom of Shuhan 221–263
吴 222–280 / Kingdom of Wu 222–280
晋 / Jin Dynasty 西晋 265–420 /Western Jin Dynasty 265–420
东晋 317–420 / Eastern Jin Dynasty 317–420
南北朝 /Southern andNorthernDynasties
南朝 /SouthernDynasties
宋 420–479 / Song Dynasty 420–479
齐 479–502 / Qi Dynasty 479–502
梁 502–557 / Liang Dynasty 502–557
陈 557–589 / Chen Dynasty 557–589
北朝 /NorthernDynasites
北魏 386–534 / Northern Wei Dynasty 386–534
东魏 534–550 / Eastern Wei Dynasty 534–550
北齐 550–577 / Northern Qi Dynasty 550–577
西魏 535–556 /Western Wei Dynasty 535–556
北周 557–581 / Northern Zhou Dynasty 557–581
隋 / Sui Dynasty 581–618
唐 / Tang Dynasty 618–907
五代 / Five Dynasties 后梁 907–923 / Later Liang Dynasty 907–923
后唐 923–936 / Later Tang Dynasty 923–936
后晋 936–947 / Later Jin Dynasty 936–947
后汉 947–950 / Later Han Dynasty 947–950
后周 951–960 / Later Zhou Dynasty 951–960
宋 / Song Dynasty 北宋 960–1127 / Northern Song Dynasty 960–1127
南宋 1127–1279 / Southern Song Dynasty 1127–1279
辽 / Liao Dynasty 907–1125
金 / Jin Dynasty 1115–1234
元 / Yuan Dynasty 1206–1368
明 /Ming Dynasty 1368–1644
清 / Qing Dynasty 1616–1911
中华民国 / The Republic of China 1912–1949
中华人民共和国 / The People’s Republic of China 1949–
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http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/cbeta/result/app/T54/2133b001.htm
http://www.buddhist-canon.com/REF/misc/T54N2133B.htm
http://www.kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/�wittern/can/can2/ind/canwww.htm
http://www.buddhist-canon.com/REF/misc/T54N2129.htm
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index of chinese names
Bai Juyi 白居易 225, 226
Ban Gu 班固 46, 64, 77, 140, 274
Bao Chang 宝唱 369
Bi Gongzhai 毕拱窄 272
Bi Yuan 毕沅 131
Cai Lun 蔡伦 130
Cai Shipan 蔡士泮 359, 360
Cao Pi 曹丕 225
Cao Xian 曹宪 221
Chen Di 陈第 294, 349
Chen Huan 陈奂 36
Chen Jingyi 陈景沂 173, 227, 234
Chen Li 陈澧 241, 254, 350, 351
Chen Menglei 陈梦雷 272
Chen Pengnian 陈彭年 5, 171, 173, 193, 245
Chen Shuda 陈叔达 224
Chen Ta 陈他 359, 360
Chen Tingjing 陈廷敬 108, 269, 291, 332
Chen Yuan 陈垣 220
Chen Yuanjing 陈元靓 232, 233, 378
Chen Yuanlong 陈元龙 272, 340
Chen Yujiao 陈与郊 269
Chen Zhensun 陈振孙 195
Chen Zilong 陈子龙 337, 338
Cheng Bing 程秉 119
Cheng Jisheng 程际盛 94, 270, 309, 312
Cheng Miao 程邈 99
Cheng Rongjing 成蓉镜 131
Cheng Xianjia 程先甲 270, 310
Cheng Yi 程颐 163
Confucius 孔子 21, 23, 31, 60
Dai Dongyuan 戴东原 312
Dai Tong 戴侗 182, 200, 204, 209
Dai Zhen 戴震 20, 282, 313, 349
Dao Hui 道慧 207, 370
Deng Xianhe 邓显鹤 254
Ding Du丁度 171, 173, 190, 249, 251
Ding Fubao丁福保 112, 222
Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 96, 107, 117, 124
Du Gongzhan 杜公瞻 225
Du Lin 杜林 28, 97, 101, 107
Du Xuxu 杜煦序 270, 310
Du Yanye 杜延业 177
Duan Yucai 段玉裁 20, 41, 125, 132, 282–4
Fa Hu 法护 369
Fa Yue 法月 372
Fa Yun 法云 369
Fan Qin 范钦 262
Fan Shanzhen 范善臻 362
Fan Tengfeng 樊腾凤 358
Fan Yin 范寅 330
Fan Zhen 范镇 190
Fan Zhongyan 范仲淹 163
Fan Zuan 范纉 340
Fang Houshu 方厚枢 3, 27
Fang Xuanling 房玄龄 214
Fang Yizhi 方以智 72, 265, 269, 305
Fang Yuegong 方岳贡 338
Fu Dali 傅达礼 397
Fu Heng 傅恒 397
Fu Yi 傅毅 107
Gao Gong 高拱 340
Gao Shilian 高士廉 226
Ge Tuan 葛湍 180
Gongsun Longzi 公孙龙子 31
Gongyang Gao 公羊高 34
Gou Zhongzheng 句中正 180
Gu Liangchi 榖梁赤 34
Gu Yanwu 顾炎武 265, 349, 350, 356
Gu Yewang 顾野王 177, 178, 192, 194
Guan Pu 官溥 107
Gui Fu 桂馥 112, 282, 283
Gulemaocai 骨勒茂才 378
Guo Zhixuan 郭知玄 245
Guo Zhongshu 郭忠恕 198
Han Chun 韩醇 159
Han Daosheng 韩道升 191, 192, 196
Han Daozhao 韩道昭 171, 192, 196, 251
Han Fei 韩非 107
Han Xiaoyan 韩孝彦 191, 192
Hang Shijun 杭世骏 93, 270, 309, 312
Hao Yixing 郝懿行 74, 269, 309
He Xuan 何萱 272
Hong Liangji 洪亮吉 72, 269, 308
Hong Mai 洪迈 235
Hong Yanzu 洪焱祖 217
Hong Zun 洪遵 227
Hu Chenggong 胡承珙 307
Hu Huan 胡桓 354, 355, 356
Hu Meng 扈蒙 172, 226
Hu Shi 胡适 268
Hu Wenying 胡文英 94, 270, 310, 311
Hu Wokun 胡我琨 271
Hu Wujing 胡毋敬 27, 57
Hu Xiu 胡宿 171, 190
Hu Yuan 胡瑗 163
Hu Zhengyan 胡正言 260
Hua Tuo 华佗 130
Huang Gongshao 黄公绍 171, 173
Huang Kan 皇侃 24
Huang Kan 黄侃 22, 104, 112, 203
Huang Zhijun 黄之隽 340
Huang Zongxi 黄宗羲 265
Hubilie 忽必烈 392
Hui Lin 慧琳 110, 219–20, 222
Hui Yuan 慧苑 219, 220, 369, 370
Huoyuanjie 火源洁 393
Jia Changchao 贾昌朝 200, 212
Jia Kui 贾逵 97, 100, 102, 115, 116
Jiang Qiang 江强 187
Jiang Qiong 江琼 187
Jiang Shaoxing 江绍兴 187
Jiang Shi 江式 165, 169, 183, 186, 187, 215
Jiang Tingxi 蒋廷锡 272
Jiang Xuehai 江学海 363
Jiang Yong 江永 349
Jie Zhou 芥舟 362
Jing Fang京房 107
Kong Fu 孔鲋 72, 215
Kong Guangshen 孔广森 349
KongYingda孔颖达 24, 35, 161, 206,210,214
Kui Ji 窥基, also 大乘基 219
Lan Mao 兰茂 272
Lao Zi 老子 30, 31
Li Chang 李长 25
Li Congzhou 李从周 198
Li Deng 李登 42, 161, 174, 241, 244, 347
Li Diaoyuan 李调元 270, 310
Li Fang 李昉 172, 226, 230
Li Guangdi 李光地 272, 353, 354, 361
Li Ji 李勣 227
Li Rulong 李如龙 360
Li Sengbo 李僧伯 199
Li Shan 李善 110
Li Shangyin 李商隐 302
Li Shi 李实 94, 310, 316
Li Shizhen 李时珍 265, 321, 336, 337, 343
Li Si 李斯 17, 27, 52, 57, 136, 179
Li Songshi 李松石 356
Li Wenzhong 李文仲 199
Li Yan 利言 372, 373
Li Yangning 李阳冰 112, 179
Li Yanji 李延基 398
Li Yong 李颙 266
Li Yu 李育 115, 116
Li Yuan 李渊 224
Li Zhaoluo 李兆洛 271, 336
Li Zhizao 李之藻 265
Li Zhou 李舟 246
Li Zuoxian 李佐贤 271
454 index of chinese names
Liang Qichao 梁启超 268
Liang Tongshu 梁同书 332
Liang Zhangju 梁章钜 334
Liao Wenying 廖文英 290
Liao Yingzhong 廖莹中 159
Lin Bao 林宝 227
Lin Bishan 林碧山 359, 360
Linghu Defen令狐德棻 224
Linlu Wengru 林闾翁孺 78, 79
Liu Bozhuang 刘伯庄 217
Liu Ji 刘基 264
Liu Jian 刘鉴 292
Liu Pin 柳玭 156
Liu Qi 刘淇 270, 302, 314, 328
Liu Xi 刘熙 118–21, 124, 129
Liu Xiaobiao 刘孝标 207
Liu Yu 柳豫 207
Liu Yuan 刘渊 251
Liu Zhen 刘珍 101
Lou Ji 娄机 171, 195
Lu Chen 吕忱 173, 186, 244
Lu Dalin 吕大临 183, 227
Lu Deming 陆德明 22, 183–4, 206
Lu Dian 陆佃 72, 171, 217
Lu Fayan 陆法言 161, 168, 245
Lu Jing 吕静 42, 161, 174, 244
Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊 158, 163, 164
Lu Qing 履青 362
Lu Shiyi 陆世仪 266
Lu Wenshao 卢文绍 270, 309
Lu Yiwei 卢以纬 172, 227
Lu Zuqian 吕祖谦 158
Luo Dunyan 罗惇衍 285
Luo Qinshun 罗钦顺 265
Luo Yuan 罗愿 171, 217, 218
Ma Erhan 马尔汉 397
Ma Guohan 马国翰 244
Ma Nianzu 马念祖 231
Ma Qi 马齐 397
Ma Rong 马融 97, 101
Mahmud Khashgari 麻赫穆德·喀什噶
里 173, 379, 380
Mao Huang 毛晃 358
Mao Jin 毛晋 262
Mei Jiaju 梅家驹 142
Mei Yingzuo 梅膺祚 108, 269, 286
287, 291
Mo Zi (or Mo-tse) 墨子 30, 31, 40
Nian Xiyao 年希尧 352
Niu Zhong 牛衷 171, 217
Ouyang Rong 欧阳融 177
Ouyang Xiu 欧阳修 163, 164
Ouyang Xun 欧阳洵 172, 224, 226, 229
Pan Hui 潘徽 161
Pei Ju 裴矩 224
Piao Yinzi 朴隐子 354
Qi Jiguang 戚继光 359, 360
Qi Lun 戚纶 171
Qian Daxin 钱大昕 73, 130, 266, 350
Qian Longchi乾隆敕 271
Qian Renlin 钱人麟 311
Qian Xizuo 钱熙祚 303
Qian Yi 钱绎 94, 270, 309
Qiu Yong丘雍 171, 245, 251
Qu Yuan 屈原 207, 274
Quan Zhen 全真 373
Ruan Yuan 阮元 270, 312, 314, 315
Seng Xingjun 僧行均 198
Shang Yang 商鞅 64
Shao Jinhan 邵晋涵 74
Shen Chenglin 沈乘麐 362
Shen Kuo 沈括 208, 233, 234
Shen Qiliang 沈启亮 397
Shen Yue 沈约 239, 241, 242, 352
Shen Ling 沈龄 93, 94
index of chinese names 455
Shi Jiao 尸佼 38
Shi Menglan 史梦兰 269, 308
Shi Xie 士燮 119
Shi You 史游 25, 144
Shou Wen 守温 163
Sima Guang 司马光 163, 165, 173, 190
Sima Qian 司马迁 199
Sima Xiangru 司马相如 25, 81, 107
Song Lian 宋濂 272, 347, 357
Song Qi 宋祁 171
Song Yingxing 宋应星 265, 338
Su Jing 苏敬 227
Sun Fu 孙复 163
Sun Hao 孙皓 120
Sun Mian 孙愐 180, 245
Sun Mu 孙穆 375
Sun Qiang 孙强 193
Sun Qifeng 孙奇逢 266
Sun Shuyan 孙叔言 241
Sun Simiao 孙思邈 227
Sun Yan 孙炎 39
Sun Yirang 孙诒让 131
Sun Yuanru 孙渊如 312
Tan Zhang 谭长 107
Tuoketuo 脱脱 382, 383
Wang Anshi 王安石 180–2, 218
Wang Fuzhi 王夫之 265
Wang Gang 王纲 159
Wang Guanguo 王观国 209
Wang Guowei 王国维 47, 56, 58, 268
Wang Hao 汪灏 271, 336
Wang Jun 王筠 112, 362
Wang Lansheng 王兰生 272, 361
Wang Mingshou 王明寿 172, 227
Wang Niansun 王念孙 94, 221, 301
Wang Qinruo 王钦若 172, 227, 231
Wang Renxu 王仁煦 245
Wang Rong 王融 242
Wang Shengmei 王圣美 208
Wang Shizhen 王士祯 272
Wang Shouren 王守仁 262
Wang Tao 王焘 227
Wang Tingxiang 王廷相 265
Wang Weigong 王惟恭 180
Wang Xiangjin 王象晋 271
Wang Xianqian 王先谦 131
Wang Yangming 王阳明 264
Wang Yi 王逸 129
Wang Yinglin 王应麟 94, 172, 227
Wang Yinzhi 王引之 70–1, 301, 329
Wang Youguang 王有光 331
Wang Yu 王育 107
Wang Yuezhen 汪曰桢 307, 308
Wang Yumi 王与秘 191
Wang Yun 王筠 282, 283
Wang Zheng 王征 265
Wang Zhu 王洙 171, 173, 190
Wang Zishao 王子韶 132
Wei Hong 卫宏 107
Wei Jing 惟净 369
Wei Qu 卫觊 187
Wei Yao 韦曜 119, 120
Wei Yuan 魏源 320
Wei Zheng 魏征 214
Weng Donghui 翁东辉 94
Wu Cheng 吴澄 164
Wu Yujin 吴玉搢 269, 308
Wu Zetian 武则天 162, 178, 226
Xi Lin 希麟 219, 220, 369, 371
Xiao Gang 萧纲 193
Xiao Kai 萧恺 192, 193
Xiao Zixian 萧子显 193
Xie Jin 解缙 339
Xie Tiao 谢脁 242
Xie Zeng 谢增 285
Xing Bing 邢昺 74
Xiong Zhong 熊忠 172, 251
Xu Chong 许冲 102, 116
Xu Ci 许慈 120
456 index of chinese names
Xu Guangqi 徐光启 265, 321, 322, 337
Xu Heng 许衡 164
Xu Jian 徐坚 172, 226, 230
Xu Jie 徐阶 340
Xu Jing 许靖 120
Xu Jishe 徐继畲 320
Xu Kai 徐铠 112, 167
Xu Kai 徐锴 179, 180
Xu Miao 徐邈 186
Xu Naichang 徐乃昌 270, 309
Xu Shaokui 徐绍煃 338
Xu Shen 许慎 16, 27, 97–102, 106–10, 140
151, 169
Xu Xiake 徐霞客 265, 321, 322
Xu Xuan 徐铉 112, 179, 180
Xuan Du 玄度 171, 196
Xuan Ying 玄应 184, 219–20, 370
Xuan Zang 玄奘 370
Xue Zong 薛综 119
Xun Zi 荀子 30–3, 123, 137
Yan Fu严复 268
Yan Junping严君平 78, 79
Yan Shigu 颜师古 94, 177, 194, 214
Yan Yuansun 颜元孙 170, 194, 195
Yan Zhenqing 颜真卿 172, 195, 226, 330
Yan Zhitui 颜之推 186, 240–1, 244
Yang Heng 杨恒 201, 202
Yang Huan 杨桓 182
Yang Quan 杨泉 132
Yang Runlu 杨润陆 4
Yang Shoujing 杨守敬 222
Yang Xiong 扬雄 80–3, 89, 94
Yang Yi 杨亿 172, 227, 231
Yang Zhu 杨朱 31
Yao Yan 姚炎 340
Yelirenrong 野利仁荣 377
Yi Jing义净 370, 371, 373
Yin Shifu 阴时夫 172, 228, 330
Yu Changzuo 余长祚 304
Yu Min 俞敏 358
Yu Shinan 虞世南 172, 224
Yu Yanmo 庾俨默 112
Yu Zhining于志宁 227
Yuan Hao 元昊 377
Yuan Renlin 袁仁林 270, 302
Yuan Zhen 元稹 225
Yue Ke 岳珂 159
Yue Shao乐韶 272
Yue Shaofeng乐韶凤 357
Yue Yuansheng 岳元声 269
Yun Gong云公 219
Zang Yongtang (also Zang Yong) 臧镛堂,
臧镛 312
Zhai Hao 翟灏 332
Zhan Ruoshui 湛若水 262
Zhang Binglin 章炳麟 94, 112, 130, 268
Zhang Changzong 张昌宗 226
Zhang Chengsun 张成孙 356
Zhang Cili 张次立 190
Zhang Dingsi 张鼎思 326
Zhang Guowei 张国维 337
Zhang Heng 张衡 130
Zhang Huiyan 张惠言 356
Zhang Lin 张林 107
Zhang Luxiang 张履祥 266, 325
Zhang Qian 张骞 374
Zhang Shen 张参 171, 195
Zhang Shenyi 张慎仪 94, 270, 310
Zhang Shi 张栻 158
Zhang Shijun 张士俊 200
Zhang Shilu 张世禄 254
Zhang Shinan 张世南 209
Zhang Taiyan 章太炎 133
Zhang Tingyu 张廷玉 333
Zhang Yan 张晏 60
Zhang Yi 张揖 72, 215, 221
Zhang Ying 张英 272
Zhang You 张有 198
Zhang Yue 张说 172, 226, 230
Zhang Yushu 张玉书 108, 269, 291, 332
index of chinese names 457
Zhang Zhidong 张之洞 263
Zhang Zhongjing 张仲景 130
Zhang Zilie 张自烈 108, 269, 290, 291
Zhangsun Neyan 长孙讷言 245
Zhangsun Wuji 长孙无忌 227
Zhao Gao 赵高 27, 57
Zhao Guangyi 赵光义 224
Zhao Heng 赵恒 231
Zhao Jing 赵敬 198
Zhao Qi 赵淇 159
Zhao Shiyan 赵世延
Zhao Xuemin 赵学敏 337
Zheng Qiao 郑樵 182
Zheng Xuan 郑玄 22, 35, 115, 147, 240
Zheng Yuwu 郑玉吴 164
Zheng Zhong 郑众 98, 140
Zhi Guang 智广 369
Zhou Ang 周昂 362
Zhou Chun 周春 306, 317
Zhou Congzhi 周从之 172
Zhou Deqing 周德清 167, 172
Zhou Yong 周颙 241, 242
Zhou Zhongfu 周中孚 293, 327
Zhou Zumo 周祖谟 94, 239, 254
Zhu Di 朱棣 339
Zhu Houcong 朱厚熜 340
Zhu Jingrong 朱镜蓉 285
Zhu Junsheng 朱骏声 98, 282–5, 348
Zhu Mouwei 朱谋玮 269, 304, 305
Zhu Shaohe 朱少河 312
Zhu Sihe 朱笥河 312
Zhu Xi 朱熹 158, 163, 164, 264
Zhu Yizun 朱彝尊 200
Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 347, 352, 357
Zhuge Ying 诸葛颖 178
Zi Xia (also Bu Shang) 子夏,卜商
23, 36
Zuo Qiuming 左丘明 34, 99
458 index of chinese names