Chinese Language Museum

Unit 1

Elegance of Form and Purpose

○ Shi Zhou Pian, or The Scribe's Characters

The first character books trace back to pre-Qin and Han dynasties, initially as literacy textbooks dating to as early as the Western Zhou period. For example, “Shi Zhou Pian” is the first Chinese character book with documented records, said to be attributed to Taishi Zhou, a Grand Scribe named Zhou during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, hence the name. According to “Book of Han: Treaties on Arts and Literature”, during the Zhou Dynasty, aristocratic children entered elementary school at the age of eight, and learning characters was one of the main subjects. The textbook used was the “Scribe’s Characters”, which marked the maturity of the large seal script and was a milestone in the development of Chinese characters, having a significant impact on future generations.

○ Shuowen Jiezi, or Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters

In the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD100-121), Xu Shen wrote “Shuowen Jiezi” or “Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters” to refute his contemporary Confucian scholars who distorted script and altered the classics and reiterate the concept that “characters are the foundation of classics and art, and the beginning of governance.” This work stands as the first truly meaningful dictionary in Chinese history and the earliest systematic analysis of character forms and etymology. This book discusses character forms, meanings, and phonetics and elaborates on the relationship between those three, comprising 540 radicals and 9353 characters. It comprehensively shows the system of Chinese character formation and establishes a scientific method for studying characters using their morphological relationships, profoundly impacting the development of Chinese character books!

○ Kangxi Dictionary

The Kangxi Dictionary was compiled by Zhang Yushu, Chen Tingjing, and others under imperial order during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, representing the culmination of traditional Chinese character book compilations. Nearly 30 scholars participated, making it the largest compilation project of ancient Chinese character book. Organized into 12 volumes based on 12 Earthly Branches with a total of 47,035 characters, it is the most extensive official Chinese character books and was the first to be named “Zi Dian”, or dictionary in China. Highly practical and standardized, it had a far-reaching impact as a character book.

Unit 2

Discover Denotation and Connotation

In simple terms, exegetical(xun gu) character books primarily help us understand the meanings and etymology of words, focusing on explaining terms and interpreting objects. Among these, works like “Erya”, or “Approach to Correct Expressions” have a great impact on the development of subsequent dictionaries and reference books.

○ Erya

“Erya”, or “Approach to Correct Expressions” , said to be compiled by scholars from the Warring States period to the Qin and Han dynasties, is the first dictionary in China arranged according to semantic categories, pioneering dictionary compilation of this kind. “Er” means “near”, “Ya” means “correct”, here specifically referring to correct expression. “Erya” means to use elegant and correct language to explain ancient Chinese words and dialects. Erya pioneered the method of classifying and interpreting words based by content, featuring over 4300 words and phrases and akin to an encyclopedic dictionary. Highly esteemed in history, it was included in the classics when the Kaicheng Stone Classics(12 Confucian classics that were incised into stone tablets) were engraved, during the reign of Emperor Wenzong of Tang Dynasty. It’s considered a core component of traditional Chinese literature.

○ Dialect

During the Han Dynasty, great emphasis was placed on organizing and interpreting dialect vocabulary. Scholars often cited dialect and colloquial expressions as examples when commenting on classics and writing dictionaries, making dialects an important part of language and writing research. “Fangyan”, or “The Dialect”, written by Yang Xiong of the Western Han Dynasty, is the first dialect dictionary in Chinese history, covering dialects of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, and some ethnic minorities’. It records living dialects from various regions, and has important reference value for studying the distribution of ancient dialects and the formation and development of the common Han language. It is hailed as the first extraordinary book in the history of Chinese dialectology that “enjoys everlasting merit like the sun and the moon.”

○ Jingji Zhuangu, or A Compilation of Interpretations of the Confucian Classics, Ancient Codes and Records

In the Qing Dynasty, the rise of textology led to the emergence of books of “kao shi”, or etymological study and philological analysis of words. The exegesis approach involved is the process of examining and explaining the meaning and origin of a single word using the method of comparison and induction. “Jingji Zhuangu”, or “A Compilation of Interpretations of the Confucian Classics, Ancient Codes and Records”, compiled by Ruan Yuan(a prominent scholar, Viceroy of Liangguang) of the Qing dynasty, is the first extensive exegesis dictionary that collates citations from Chinese canonical texts up to Tang dynasty, aligning words with similar usages side by side for detailed analysis.

Unit 3

Studies of Phonology

A phonetic character book refers to a work that arranges the characters by pronunciations and explains their sounds and meanings, also known as “Yun Shu”, or rhyme dictionaries. Their main function is to distinguish and specify the correct pronunciation of Chinese characters, providing references for people when composing poetry and serve both as dictionaries and rhyming dictionaries.

○ Qieyun, or Spelled Rhymes Dictionary

“Qieyun”, a rhyme dictionary using “fanqie”, a method of indicating the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters, one for the initial consonant, the other for the rhyme and tone was compiled by Lu Fayan of Sui dynasty and it includes over 10,000 characters. It is a comprehensive phonetic system based on the Luoyang dialect, incorporating ancient and other regional pronunciations . In the early Tang Dynasty, it was designated as an official rhyme book, and the style of “Qieyun” became a model for future rhyme books.

○ Zhongyuan Yinyun, or Rhymes of the Central Plain

Written by Zhou Deqing in the first year of the Yuan Dynasty's Tai Ding era (AD 1324), “Zhongyuan Yinyun”, or “Rhymes of the Central Plain” was created to provide phonetic standards for contemporary composers. This work is a revolutionary transformation in the history of rhyme book compilation, leading a new trend for its era. Based on the actual spoken language of the Yuan Dynasty, it removes the “entering tone” in books such as “Qieyun”(Spelled Rhyme Dictionary) and “Guangyun”(Broad Rhyme Dictionary), and divides the level tone into “yin ping”, or dark level tone, and “yang ping”, or light level tone (similar to the first and second tones in modern Mandarin Chinese). It preserves a complete and systematic record of the Northern Chinese pronunciation and, has become an important material for modern Chinese language research.

○ Yuntu, or Rhyme Table

In phonetic dictionaries, there is a kind of table for readers to find the pronunciation of Chinese characters, known as “Yuntu” or rhyme table, with the earliest ones dating back to the Song Dynasty. Today, we enjoy the convenience of pinyin, while in ancient China, without such an alphabetic system, mastering the “fanqie” method was challenging. That’s why rhyme scholars invented rhyme tables. After learning to read all the syllables in the table, a reader can find the correct pronunciation of a word based on its coordinates in the table.

Unit 4

Integration and Innovation

Dictionaries are reference books for consulting and reading. After the Opium War, with the introduction of Western political thought and scientific culture, dictionary compilation moved from traditional exegesis to a modern approach. These works integrated some forms of Western dictionary compilation on the basis of traditional dictionaries and have been innovated and developed.

○ Xinhua Dictionary

Xinhua Dictionary, the first modern Chinese dictionary of “xin hua”-new china, or the PRC founded in 1949, was successively edited by Xinhua Dictionary Society and Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Since its first print in 1953 and the reprint in 1954, the new edition in 1957 to the 12th edition in July 2020, the Xinhua Dictionary has undergone more than ten revisions and hundreds of reprints, with a cumulative circulation of over 600 million copies, making it the most published dictionary in world publishing history and the most influential and authoritative pocket-sized Chinese dictionary to date, which can be regarded as a model of pocket-sized Chinese language reference books.

○ Ciyuan

In addition to lexicons, modern reference books also include dictionaries that arrange words in a certain order and explain their meaning and usage. “Ciyuan” is China’s first comprehensive dictionary that includes both ancient Chinese common words and encyclopedic terms. It is currently the largest ancient Chinese language reference book, providing essential references for reading classical texts and conducting classical literature and historical research.

○ Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Characters

In addition to modern Chinese dictionaries, there are also specialized dictionaries of ancient Chinese characters, which are a class of specialized dictionaries that collect various ancient character on bronze and stone inscriptions. With the large-scale excavation of ancient script materials, various ancient script reference books have emerged, showing increasingly diverse compilation forms, such as “Jin Wen Bian”(Arranged Bronze Inscriptions), “Jia Gu Wen Bian”(Arranged Oracle Bones Inscription), “Jia Gu Wen Gu Lin”(Collections of explanations of Oracle bone Inscriptions), and so on.

Unit 5

Time-honored Masters

The five famous linguists in Chinese history are Xu Shen of the Eastern Han dynasty who wrote “Shuowen Jiezi(Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters)”, Guo Pu of the Western Jin dynasty who wrote “Erya Zhu(Erya Commentary)”, Gu Yewang of the Southern Liang dynasty who wrote “Yupian(Jade book, a character dictionary whose entries are arranged according to character radicals)”, Lu Fayan of the Sui dynasty who wrote “Qieyun(Spelled Rhyme Dictionary)”, and Duan Yucai of the Qing dynasty who wrote “Shuowen Jiezi Zhu(Commentary on Shuowen Jiezi)”. With their passion and persistence, these scholars wrote monumental works that not only passed down their knowledge but also ensured the development and innovation of Chinese philology, maintaining the vitality of Chinese characters through the ages.