Chapter 16 Section 7: Several Calligraphy Books Related to Place Names

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also several calligraphy books related to place names: (1) "Erya" is a pre-Qin work, as mentioned earlier.In the preface of "Erya", it is said: "Erya is built in the middle ages and flourished in the Han Dynasty." Someone explained: "Fuxi is the ancient, King Wen is the middle ancient, Confucius is the ancient, ... the one who is prosperous in the Han Dynasty, After Master (Confucius) died, the records of the book were dispersed, the Mausoleum of the Warring States Period was delayed, and the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, so this book also fell. It is the Han Dynasty Yuyu, who seeks classics from the side, removes the law of holding books, and opens the book. Therefore, this book will be prosperous." (Volume 1 of "Er Ya Shu") "Siku Quanshu Zongmu" said in the introduction of "Er Ya": "Er Ya before Mao Gong, its writing was still a little bit, until Zheng Kangcheng Time will add more details." Mao Gong refers to Mao Heng in the Warring States Period, Zheng Kangcheng is Zheng Xuan at the end of Han Dynasty, indicating that the book "Erya" has long existed, but the content was not rich in the pre-Qin period, and suffered a lot of losses until the Han Dynasty Only then can it be enriched and finalized.Later, it was handed down as one of the scriptures after Guo Pu's annotation in Jin Dynasty and Xing Bing (bing Bing)'s commentary in Song Dynasty.The content of the interpretation is divided into 19 items, and the volumes closely related to place names include Shidi, Shiqiu, Shishan, and Shishui.

(2) Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" was written between the 12th year of Emperor Yongyuan (AD 100) of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the first year of Jianguang of Emperor An (AD 121). After hundreds of years of writing, It was not until the third year of Song Taizong Yongxi (986 A.D.) that it was corrected by Xu Xuan and others, and then it was engraved and printed by Fu Guozijian and handed down to the world.Xu Xuan's younger brother, Xu Kai, also wrote "Shuowen Series Biography". Xu Xuan's proofreading version is called "Big Xu Version", and Xu Kai's Series Biography is called "Xiao Xu Version".In addition to correcting mistakes, Xu Xuan's version also made slight additions and changes, such as changing the original book from 15 volumes to 30 volumes, and adding headings, annotations, and phonetic notations for Fanqie.There are many items explaining place names in the book, for example, there are a large number of place names in Shanzibu (53 entries in total), Shuizibu (468 entries in total), and Tuzibu (131 entries in total), including both general names and proper names. .Of course, not all of these three radicals are place names, and some place names are also scattered in other radicals.

(3) "Shi Ming" by Liu Xi.In addition to Liu Xi's book, there is another "Shi Ming", whose author is Liu Zhen, whose book has been lost.Liu Zhen was a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there is a biography in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", but there is no record of Liu Xi. Some people suspect that he may be from the end of the Han Dynasty or even the beginning of the Wei Dynasty, after Liu Zhen.Therefore, some people think that the book "Shi Ming" is probably "a sign of Liu Zhen, followed by Xi" (the preface of "Shi Ming Shu Zheng" written by Bi Yuan of the Qing Dynasty). The style of "Shiming" is similar to that of "Erya". It is divided into eight volumes and contains 27 items. Among them, the items that are more related to place names include Shidi, Shishan, Shishui, Shiqiu, Shidao, and Shizhou. .

"Erya", "Shuowen Jiezi" and "Shiming" have many same or similar interpretations of place names, which are listed on page 49 for comparison.Through comparison, we can see that some common nomenclature concepts described in the three books are mostly the same.Of course, there are some differences. For example, "Erya" says, "There are bushes in flat land called forests", while "Shi Ming" says: "There are bushes in mountains called forests."Another example is "Shuowen" describes the evolution of the county, explaining: "from the voice of the king", and "Shiming" says: "The county is a group, and people gather together." Whether it is accurate or not can be considered. But it is valuable to put forward after all.