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5 Early and Pre-Modern Character Dictionaries
A number of character dictionaries are referred to in the explanations for individual
characters listed in this book, and so these are described briefly below for the convenience
of readers. Titles in Chinese characters are followed by the Chinese romanization
of the title together with an English translation and the corresponding
Japanese romanization.
説 ⽂ 解 字 Shuowen jiezi (Explanation of Indivisible Characters
and Analysis of Compound Characters; J.: Setsumon kaiji)
In discussing the beginnings of character dictionaries in early China, mention is
sometimes made of a few short texts of characters for learners such as
Jijiupian (Rapid Access Text; J.: Kyūshūhen), compiled in the 1st century BC. Whether
these warrant being regarded as actual dictionaries, though, is questionable, and
raises the question of how the word ‘dictionary’ is defined.
The first Chinese character dictionary proper to have survived from early times is
the Shuowen jiezi. Completed ca.100AD, this was a large-scale work and one which
was highly innovative in that it organized characters according to a system of formal
recurrent elements (radicals or determinatives, 540 in total). The compiler
Xu Shen (J.: Kyo Shin) (born sometime in the period 58–75 AD, died ca. 147–149
AD), set out the small seal forms for some 9,400 characters together with a number
of older and variant forms. Xu Shen analyzed the meanings of characters, dividing
them into indivisible characters () and compound (i.e., divisible) characters ().
Through his work he provided valuable insights for later generations of scholars.
Xu Shen’s analyses cannot be relied on in all cases, as he was limited by not having
access to very early bronzes or oracle bone characters. However, in assessing and
understanding his analyses, modern scholarship is in a position to make allowance
for this. Unfortunately, the surviving manuscripts of Shuowen jiezi are all late, with
the earliest dating from about 850 years after the time the work was compiled.
For the present book, reliance has been placed to some extent on the treatment
and recognition of individual seal forms by scholars such as Mizukami Shizuo, and
to some extent on the variorum text of Shuowen jiezi with its parallel modern Chinese
translation (published 2009, Wanjuan Publishing Co.).
⽟ 篇 Yupian (Jade Chapters; J.: Gyokuhen or Gokuhen)
Dating from the early 6th century AD, this work compiled by Gu Yewang
is a dictionary in which 12,158 characters are arranged according to pronunciation.
As a general trend, the number of characters listed in dictionaries increased with
the passage of time. For the present book, quoted excerpts from Yupian appearing
in scholarly works have been used.
Introduction 17