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Shenglei
The (c. 230 CE) ''Shenglei'' 聲類, compiled by the Cao Wei dynasty lexicographer Li Deng 李登, was the first Chinese rime dictionary. Earlier dictionaries were organized either by semantic fields (e.g., c. 3rd-century BCE '' Erya'') or by character radicals (e.g., 121 CE ''Shuowen Jiezi''). The last copies of the ''Shenglei'' were lost around the 13th century, and it is known only from earlier descriptions and quotations, which say it was in 10 volumes and contained 11,520 Chinese character entries, categorized by linguistic tone in terms of the ''wǔshēng'' 五聲 "Five Tones (of the pentatonic scale)" from Chinese musicology and wǔxíng 五行 "Five Phases/Elements" theory. Title The title combines ''shēng'' 聲 "sound; voice; declare; reputation; tone (in Chinese linguistics); initial consonant (of a Chinese syllable)" and ''lèi'' 類 "kind; type; class; category; genus; form class (in Chinese linguistics)". English translations of the title include: ''Sounds Cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zilin
The ''Zilin'' (; c. 350) or Forest of Characters was a Chinese dictionary compiled by the Jin dynasty (266–420) lexicographer Lü Chen (呂忱). It contained 12,824 character head entries, organized by the 540- radical system of the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. In the history of Chinese lexicography, the ''Zilin'' followed the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' (121; with 9,353 character entries) and preceded the ''Yupian'' (c. 543; with 12,158 entries). Text Lü Chen compiled the ''Zilin'' to supplement the ''Shuowen jiezi'', and included more the 3,000 uncommon and variant Chinese characters. Yong and Peng describe the ''Zilin'' as a "more influential character dictionary" than the ''Shuowen jiezi''. Lü Chen's younger brother Lü Jing (呂靜) was also a lexicographer, who compiled the '' Yunji'' (韻集; "Assembly of Rimes"; c. 280). Other than their dictionaries, little is known about either brother. The title ''Zilin'', translated as "Forest of Characters" or "The Character Forest", combines ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yiqiejing Yinyi (Xuanying)
The (c. 649) ''Yiqiejing yinyi'' 一切經音義 "Pronunciation and Meaning in the Complete Buddhist Canon" is the oldest surviving Chinese dictionary of Buddhist technical terminology, and was the archetype for later Chinese bilingual dictionaries. This specialized glossary was compiled by the Tang dynasty lexicographer monk Xuanying 玄應, who was a translator for the famous pilgrim and Sanskritist monk Xuanzang. When Xuanying died he had only finished 25 chapters of the dictionary, but another Tang monk Huilin 慧琳 compiled an enlarged 100-chapter version with the same title, the (807) ''Yiqiejing yinyi''. Title Xuanying's dictionary title combines three Chinese words: *''yị̄qiè'' 一切 "all; whole; every; everything" for Sanskrit ''sárva'' सर्व "whole; entire; all; every" *''jīng'' 經 "sutra; scripture; canon; classic" for ''sūtra'' सूत्र " string; thread; rule (that holds teachings together)" *''yīn-yì'' 音義 "pronunciation and meanin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rime Dictionary
A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book () is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary that collates Chinese character, characters by tone (linguistics), tone and rhyme, instead of by radical (Chinese character), radical. The most important rime dictionary tradition began with the ''Qieyun'' (601), which codified correct pronunciations for reading the classics and writing poetry by combining the reading traditions of north and south China. This work became very popular during the Tang dynasty, and went through a series of revisions and expansions, of which the most famous is the ''Guangyun'' (1007–1008). These dictionaries specify the pronunciations of characters using the ''fanqie, fǎnqiè'' method, giving a pair of characters indicating the syllable onset, onset and remainder of the syllable respectively. The later rime tables gave a significantly more precise and systematic account of the sounds of these dictionaries by tabulating syllables by their onsets, rhyme g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji''. Chinese characters in South Korea, which are known as ''hanja'', retain significant use in Korean academia to study its documents, history, literature and records. Vietnam once used the ''chữ Hán'' and developed chữ Nôm to write Vietnamese language, Vietnamese before turning to a Vietnamese alphabet, romanized alphabet. Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. By virtue of their widespread current use throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as their profound historic use throughout the adoption of Chinese literary culture, Sinosphere, Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users. The total number of Chinese c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tripiṭaka
''Tipiṭaka'' () or ''Tripiṭaka'' () or ''තිපිටක'' (), meaning "Triple Basket", is the traditional term for ancient collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures. The Pāli Canon maintained by the Theravāda tradition in Southeast Asia, the Chinese Buddhist Canon maintained by the East Asian Buddhist tradition, and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon maintained by the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are some of the most important ''Tripiṭaka'' in contemporary Buddhist world. ''Tripiṭaka'' has become a term used for many schools' collections, although their general divisions do not match a strict division into three piṭakas.Mizuno, ''Essentials of Buddhism'', 1972, English version by Ritik Bhadana, Tokyo, 1996 Etymology ''Tripiṭaka'' (Sanskrit: त्रिपिटक), or ''Tipiṭaka'' (Pāli), means "Three Baskets". It is a compound Sanskrit word of ''tri'' (त्रि) or Pāli word ''ti'', meaning "three", and ''piṭaka'' (पिटक) or ''piṭa'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a Golden age (metaphor), golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The House of Li, Lǐ family () founded the dynasty, seizing power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire and inaugurating a period of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty was formally interrupted during 690–705 when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Zhou dynasty (690–705), Wu Zhou dynasty and becoming the only legitimate Chinese empress regnant. The devast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yiwenzhi
"Yiwenzhi" (), or the "Treatise on Literature", is the bibliographical section of the ''Hanshu'' (''Book of Han'') by the Chinese historian Ban Gu (32–92 AD), who completed the work begun by his father Ban Biao. The bibliographical catalog is the last of its ten treatises, and scroll 30 of the 100 scrolls comprising the ''Hanshu''. The basis for the catalog came from Liu Xin's '' Qilüe'' (七略), which gives detailed bibliographical information about holdings in the Imperial Library,A.F.P. Hulsewé: ''Han shu'', in: Loewe (1993:130) which itself was an extension on '' Bielu'' (別錄) by Liu Xin's father Liu Xiang, on which the two had collaborated. The catalog provides important insights into the literature of the various Chinese intellectual currents of the pre-Qin period (Nine Schools of Thought), of which only some 20% are presently known. Origin of the bibliography "Yiwenzhi" closely adheres to the bibliographical system devised by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin with minor excep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jijiupian
The ''Jijiupian'' is a Chinese character primer that was compiled by the Han dynasty scholar Shi You around 40 BCE. Similar to an abecedarium, it contains a series of orthographic word lists, categorized according to character radical, and briefly explained in rhymed lines. In the Qin and Han dynasties, several similar othographic primers were in circulation, such as ''Cangjiepian'', but the ''Jijiupian'' is the only one that survived for two millennia. Title The ''Jíjiùpiān'' "Quickly Master haracterChapters" is also called the ''Jíjiùzhāng'' 急就章 "Quickly Master haracterSections" and simply ''Jíjiù'' 急就. The title ''Jíjiùpiān'' uses the word ''piān'' 篇, which is attested in Han dynasty texts with the meaning of "book, written document" (such as in the Hanshu 漢書 chapter on Wu Di, "著之於篇，朕親覽焉。"). Several other Chinese dictionary titles use ''pian'', for example, the (c. 500? BCE) ''Shizhoupian'' "Historian Zhou's Chapters" (c. 22 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sancang
The ''Cangjiepian'', also known as the ''Three Chapters'' (, ''sāncāng''), was a BCE Chinese primer and a prototype for Chinese dictionaries. Li Si, Chancellor of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), compiled it for the purpose of reforming written Chinese into the new orthographic standard Small Seal Script. Beginning in the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 221 CE), many scholars and lexicographers expanded and annotated the ''Cangjiepian''. By the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907), it had become a lost work, but in 1977, archeologists discovered a cache of (c. 165 BCE) texts written on bamboo strips, including fragments of the ''Cangjiepian''. Title The eponymous ''Cangjiepian'' title derives from the culture hero Cangjie, the legendary Yellow Emperor's historian and inventor of Chinese writing. According to Chinese mythology, Cangjie, who had four eyes and remarkable cognizance, created Chinese characters after observing natural phenomena such as the footprints of birds and animals. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sui Dynasty
The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and laying the foundations for the much longer lasting Tang dynasty. Founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, the Sui dynasty capital was Chang'an (which was renamed Daxing, modern Xi'an, Shaanxi) from 581–605 and later Luoyang (605–18). Emperors Wen and his successor Yang undertook various centralized reforms, most notably the equal-field system, intended to reduce economic inequality and improve agricultural productivity; the institution of the Five Departments and Six Board (五省六曹 or 五省六部) system, which is a predecessor of Three Departments and Six Ministries system; and the standardization and re-unification of the coinage. They also spread and encouraged Buddhism throughout the empire. By the middle of the dynasty, the newly unifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Sui
The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. In the third year of Zhenguan of the Tang dynasty (629), Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered Fang Xuanling to supervise the completion of the Book of Sui, which was being compiled around the same time as other official histories were being written. The Book of Sui was completed in 636 AD, the same year as the ''Book of Chen'' was completed. Contents The format used in the text follows the composite historical biography format (斷代紀傳體) established by Ban Gu in the '' Book of the Later Han'' with three sections: annals (紀), treatises (志), and biographies (傳). The extensive set of 30 treatises, sometimes translated as "monographs", in the ''Book of Sui'' was completed by a separate set of authors and added in 656 – 20 yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chen Li (scholar)
Chen Li (1810–1882) was a Cantonese scholar of the evidential research school, known for his contributions to historical Chinese phonology. Chen Li's family originally came from Shaoxing prefecture in Zhejiang province, moving to Nanjing in the early Ming dynasty. Chen's grandfather moved to Guangzhou, where his two sons remained after his death. Chen Li was the first in his family to register as a Guangzhou resident. He passed the provincial examination in 1832, but was unsuccessful in the imperial examination seven times. He also sat examinations at the Xuehaitang Academy in Guangzhou, headed by Ruan Yuan, and taught there as co-director for several decades from 1840. In his pioneering ''Qièyùn kǎo'' (切韻考 "An examination of the ''Qieyun''", 1842), Chen systematically analysed the pairs of characters (''fanqie'') used to indicate pronunciations of words in the ''Guangyun'', a Song dynasty redaction of the '' Qieyun'' dictionary published in 601. Chen was able to enum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
