Chapter 2 Section 2 Classification of Word Books

Ancient Chinese calligraphy has a long history and a wide variety.Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there have been books such as compiling literacy textbooks. The earliest literacy textbook seen in the historical records is "Zhou Zhou" compiled by Tai Shizhen (zhou Zhou) in the era of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty (827-782 BC). "Historical Poetry".It, together with "Cangjie Pian" compiled by Li Si in the Qin Dynasty, and "Jijiupian" compiled by Han Shi You, only compiled commonly used characters into a text form that is easy to memorize, without any annotations.

Around the end of the Warring States period to the early Western Han Dynasty, the first ancient exegetical dictionary "Er Ya" was formed, which was the first to explain the meaning of words according to the nature of the content of the text. This is also the earliest and most complete dictionary in the history of lexicography in the world.Yang Xiong in the Western Han Dynasty compiled "Dialect" and compiled dialects and common sayings in the Han Dynasty, which opened a precedent for ancient dialect dictionaries."Shiming" edited by Liu Xi in the Eastern Han Dynasty was slightly different from "Erya". It specialized in explaining the meaning of words with homonyms and similar words, which became the origin of the dictionary of sound training."Popular Text" compiled by Fuqian in the Eastern Han Dynasty is the precursor of popular dictionaries. "Dialect" and "Popular Text" are semantic dictionaries different from "Erya", which set a precedent for the compilation of specialized dictionaries in later generations."Shuowen Jiezi" edited by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty was the first to search for radicals, using the theory of "Six Books" to explain the structure, sound and meaning of characters.

The emergence of "Erya", "Dialect", "Shuowen Jiezi", "Shiming" and "Popular Wen" laid the foundation for the development of calligraphy in later generations.The large number of calligraphy books in ancient times evolved from them. Dictionaries inherited from "Shuowen Jiezi", such as Jin Luchen's "Zi Lin" and Northern Wei Jiang's "Ancient and Modern Characters", are all classified according to the radicals of "Shuowen", explaining the shape, sound and meaning of characters.In the Southern Dynasties, King Gu Ye of Liang Chenjian wrote "Jade Pian", which had two more radicals than "Shuowen", but replaced seal script with regular script, paying attention to sound and meaning without analyzing form.Mei Yingzuo compiled "Zihui" in the Ming Dynasty, simplified the radicals of "Shuowen", and arranged the radicals and characters in regular script according to the number of strokes in regular script. .Zhang Zilie's "Zheng Zi Tong" in the Ming Dynasty and the "Kangxi Dictionary" in the Qing Dynasty both follow the style of "Zi Hui".

Dictionaries such as "Erya", such as "Xiao Erya" compiled by Kong Yu (fu Fu) in the Han Dynasty, "Guang Ya" compiled by Zhang Yi of the Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period, "Pi Ya" compiled by Lu Dian in the Song Dynasty, and "Pi Ya" compiled by Fang Yizhi in the Ming Dynasty "Tong Ya", "Die Ya" edited by Shi Menglan in the Qing Dynasty, etc., or imitated "Er Ya", or augmented, revised, and supplemented "Er Ya", all explain the meaning of words and various names. After the Tang Dynasty, there were more and more specialized dictionaries with different functions for explaining the pronunciation and meaning of words.Some annotate the pronunciation and meaning of scriptures, such as Lu Deming's "Classic Interpretations" in the Tang Dynasty, and some compile the textual exegesis of the scriptures, such as Ruan Yuan's "Classic Compilation" in the Qing Dynasty.There are two works explaining the pronunciation and meaning of Buddhist scriptures, Xuanying and Huilin in the Tang Dynasty, and the Yinyi of All Sutras written by Xilin in the Liao Dynasty.Chen Shiyuan's "Slang Explanation" in the Ming Dynasty and Zhai Hao's "Tongsubian" in the Qing Dynasty mainly collected and explained local dialects and sayings; Wu Wenying's "Wufang Dialect Research" in the Qing Dynasty specifically explained Wuyue dialects and sayings.The calligraphy books that interpret virtual characters include: Zhuzi Differentiation by Liu Qi in the Qing Dynasty, and Jingzhuanshici by Wang Yinzhi.There are also calligraphy books that compile allusions from ancient books, such as "Pei Wen Yun Fu" in the Qing Dynasty and "Pian Zi Lei Bian" compiled by Zhang Tingyu and others in the Qing Dynasty.

After the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, a large number of rhyme books were produced, mainly focusing on sound and rhyme identification, and also focusing on the form and meaning of words.First, there is "Sheng Lei" written by Li Deng of the Wei State in the Three Kingdoms period, "using the five tones to determine the characters, but not establishing various departments" (Fengyan "Wen Jian Ji" in the Tang Dynasty); Gongshangjiao Zhengyu is one chapter each" ("Wei Shu·Jiang Shi Biography"), which became the germination of rhyme books.Later, "Qie Yun" by Lu Fayan in the Sui Dynasty was produced. It was classified according to four tones, and the words were arranged according to the rhyme under the category. This is an epoch-making work in the history of the development of rhyme books.Li Zhou in the Tang Dynasty wrote "Qie Yun", which made the four tones follow in sequence, increased the rhymes, and adjusted the arrangement of the rhymes.The official revision "Guang Yun" promulgated in the Song Dynasty collected the culmination of orthodox rhyme books and increased the rhymes from 193 rhymes in Lu Fayan's "Qie Yun" to 206 rhymes.The "Ji Yun" and "The Rhyme of the Ministry of Rites" written by Ding Du and others in the Song Dynasty all belong to this system.Han Daozhao's "Five-Yin Collection of Rhymes" in the Jin Dynasty reformed the system of grouping homophones under the rhymes of the "Guang Yun" series of rhymes, and arranged the rhymes in order of 36 letters (that is, using 36 Chinese characters to represent initial consonants).The rhyme book has the nature of a calligraphy book, which began in the Tang Dynasty and was finalized in the Song Dynasty. "Guang Yun" can be said to be a dictionary arranged according to rhyme, similar to the current homonym dictionary.The "Peiwen Poetry Rhyme" compiled by the Qing Dynasty, the "Sound and Rhyme Interpretation" by Li Guangdi and others in the Qing Dynasty, and the "Rhyme History" by He Xuan in the Qing Dynasty can all play the role of dictionaries.

Generally speaking, ancient calligraphy can be roughly divided into three types: the first type, explaining the composition of fonts and the pronunciation and meaning of characters, led by "Shuowen", and checking characters according to radicals; "Erya" is the representative, and it is classified according to meaning; the third category is mainly based on the examination of sound and rhyme, and also explains the meaning of words. Taking "Guang Yun" as a typical example, it is arranged according to rhyme.