Longkan Shoujian - Chinese Dictionary Museum

''Longkan Shoujian'' () is a

Chinese dictionary Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...

compiled during the

Liao Dynasty The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...

by the Khitan monk Xingjun (). Completed in 997, the work had originally been entitled Longkan Shoujing (; and are synonyms), but had its title changed owing to

naming taboo A naming taboo is a cultural taboo against speaking or writing the given names of exalted persons, notably in China and within the Chinese cultural sphere. It was enforced by several laws throughout Imperial China, but its cultural and possibly r ...

when it was later printed by the

Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

publishers. ( Emperor Taizu's grandfather had the name , a homophone of .) The earliest surviving edition of the work is an incomplete

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n one, reprinted in China in 1985. ''Longkan Shoujian'' was one of the many

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

''yinyishu'' (; 'dictionary of pronunciations and meanings') produced in ancient China, which were meant to aid the study of Buddhist scriptures. However, the work stands out in two aspects. Firstly, its method of

collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office fili ...

is innovative. While Chinese dictionaries before ''Shoujian'' collate

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

s either graphically (by

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

) or phonetically (by tone and

rime Rime may refer to: *Rime ice, ice that forms when water droplets in fog freeze to the outer surfaces of objects, such as trees Rime is also an alternative spelling of "rhyme" as a noun: *Syllable rime, term used in the study of phonology in ling ...

), the work employs both methods: the radicals, which number 242 (including the "radical" ''za'' (; 'miscellaneous'), where characters that are difficult to analyze graphically are found), are grouped by tone into four groups (each group occupies one ''juan'' () or fascicle); the characters under each radical are in turn grouped by tone. Secondly, it collects more than 26,000 characters with a huge proportion of variant characters. Many of these variants are not recorded in any other works. The characters in it are divided, in terms of orthography, into "standard" (; ''zheng''), "vulgar" (; ''su''), "contemporary" (; ''jin''), "archaic" (; ''gu'') and "alternative" (; ''huozuo''), a classification more elaborated than that used in ''

Ganlu Zishu ''Ganlu Zishu'' () is a Chinese orthography dictionary of the Tang Dynasty. The first surviving orthographical dictionary for the regular script, it was authored by Yan Yuansun (顏元孫), a descendant of the famous scholar Yan Shigu. It is rou ...

''. The pronunciations of characters in it are indicated by either homophone or ''

fanqie ''Fanqie'' ( zh, t= 反切, p=fǎnqiè) is a method in traditional Chinese lexicography to indicate the pronunciation of a monosyllabic character by using two other characters, one with the same initial consonant as the desired syllable and one w ...

'' spelling. For some characters, only the pronunciations are given, not the meanings. While being criticized for its unorthodox collation and collection by the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

philologists, it is hailed by Pan (1980) as an essential guide for deciphering the

Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, durin ...

, which contains a large amount of "vulgar" characters.

References

*Pan Chonggui 潘重規 (ed.) (1980). ''Longkan shoujian xinbian'' (龍龕手鑑新編 "Longkan shoujian, a reorganized edition"). Taipei: Shimen tushu gongsi. *Shi Xingjun 釋行均 (2006

985 Year 985 (Roman numerals, CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, Henry II (the Wrangler) is rest ...

. ''Longkan shoujing (Gaoli ben)'' (龍龕手鏡 (高麗本) "The handy mirror in the dragon shrine (Korean edition)"). Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. . *''

Zhongguo da baike quanshu The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, beginn ...

''. First Edition. Beijing; Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe. 1980-1993.

External links

* 木村正辭
龍龕手鑑
(including references to the work in other Chinese texts) * * {{Dictionaries of Chinese Chinese dictionaries Khitan history 10th-century Chinese books