''Menggu Ziyun'' (, "Rimes in Mongol Script") is a 14th-century
rime dictionary of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
as written in the
'Phags-pa script that was used during the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...
(1271–1368). The only surviving examplar of this dictionary is an 18th-century manuscript copy that belonged to
Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844–1908), and is now held at the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
(Or. 6972). As the only known example of a 'Phags-pa script dictionary of Chinese, it is important both as an aid for interpreting Yuan dynasty texts and inscriptions written in Chinese using the 'Phags-pa script, and as a source for the reconstructed pronunciation of
Old Mandarin
Old Mandarin or Early Mandarin was the speech of northern China during the Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty and the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (12th to 14th centuries). New genres of vernacular literature were based on this language, including verse, dram ...
.
The British Library manuscript
The
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
manuscript was acquired by the antiquarian and art historian
S. W. Bushell when he worked as a physician at the British Legation in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
China from 1868 to 1900, probably in 1872 during a trip to
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
and the ruins of
Shangdu
Shangdu (, ), also known as Xanadu (; Mongolian: ''Šandu''), was the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty of China before Kublai decided to move his throne to the former Jin dynasty capital of Zhōngdū () which was renamed Khanbaliq ( pre ...
, the fabled summer capital of the Yuan emperors then known as "Xanadu" in English. In April 1909, a year after his death, Bushell's widow, Florence Bushell, sold the manuscript to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in London, and it is now held by the British Library (shelfmark Or. 6972).
The manuscript is written on thin, brown paper which has been mounted on white backing paper and bound in two
traditional stitched volumes, each 24.7 × 17.3 cm. Each folio of the manuscript is 22.5 × 28.8 cm in size, folded in half as is normal in stitch-bound volumes. The text is written in vertical columns running from left to right across the page, which is the opposite of traditional Chinese books, but follows the layout of Mongolian script and 'Phags-pa texts. The first volume comprises an unnumbered title folio and 33 numbered folios, and the second volume comprises an unnumbered title folio and 31 numbered folios, of which page 30b and 31a are blank except for the volume and page numbers. The missing section covers the rimes in ''-a'' and ''-e'', as well as the first part of the appended ''Taboo Characters'' section, which
Junast
Junast (also Junastu and Zhaonasitu; 1934–2010) was a Chinese linguist of Mongolian ethnicity who specialized in the study of the Monguor language, Eastern Yugur language and the 'Phags-pa script.
Biography
Junast was born in Horqin Right ...
and
Yang Naisi
Yang Naisi (; 20 October 1927 – 5 March 2019), also known by his pen name Yang Daojing (), was a Chinese linguist and a research professor at the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was noted for his research ...
have calculated should actually take up three full folios (i.e. the second volume of the original edition would have comprised 33 folios).
The manuscript does not indicate when and by whom it was copied, and there are no
ownership seals. However, on the basis of
tabooed characters of Qing dynasty emperors, the manuscript has been dated to the
Qianlong era
The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...
(1736–1795). The manuscript may be a second or third hand copy of an original Yuan dynasty edition, made by someone who did not necessarily understand the 'Phags-pa script, and so the 'Phags-pa letters are often poorly written or corrupted, and there are many transcription errors such as missing, misplaced and incorrectly written Chinese characters.
Authorship and editions
Based on its format, the British Library manuscript of ''Menggu Ziyun'' is thought to be a copy of an earlier printed edition. Although no extant printed editions are known, one mid 19th century writer, Luo Yizhi 羅以智, mentions that he had seen a Yuan dynasty printed edition of the dictionary. Other
Qing dynasty
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-spea ...
(1644–1912) writers mention having seen manuscript copies of the text, but the British Library manuscript is now the only known copy.
The British Library manuscript includes two prefaces in Chinese dated 1308, one by Liu Geng 劉更 and one by Zhu Zongwen 朱宗文 (Mongolian name Bayan) of Xin'an 信安 (modern
Changshan County
() is a county under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Quzhou in the west of Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China, bordering Jiangxi Province to the southwest. The district's total area is 1099 square kilometers, and its p ...
in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
). The prefaces both indicate that this edition of the dictionary was composed by Zhu Zongwen, but that it is a revised edition based on a collation of several editions that were in circulation at the time, including one edition published in
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...
and one edition published in Eastern
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
. The original 'Phags-pa dictionary that is ancestral to the 1308 edition was probably compiled by imperial order soon after the 'Phags-pa script was devised in about 1269, intended for use in teaching the new script to Chinese officials.
Two late 13th century books which may be related to ''Menggu Ziyun'' are recorded in Yuan dynasty sources, one called ''Měnggǔ Yùnlüè'' 蒙古韻略 ("Summary of the Mongol Rimes") and one called ''Měnggǔ Yùnlèi'' 蒙古韻類 ("Mongol Rime Categories") that was compiled by Li Hongdao 李宏道. Although neither work is extant, it has been conjectured that they could be primary sources used by Zhu Zongwen in compiling his edition, or possibly even earlier editions of ''Menggu Ziyun'' published under a different title. A preface for ''Měnggǔ Yùnlèi'' that has survived, and it indicates that it used a system of 15 rime classes and 32 initials, which is very similar to the system used in ''Menggu Ziyun''.
Contents
The book is written in Chinese using a mixture of Chinese characters and 'Phags-pa transcription, with section titles and rime class headings given in both scripts. Only the two prefaces and the appended list of taboo characters are written entirely in Chinese characters. The title of the book in 'Phags-pa script ( ''mong xol tshi ʼwin'') is anomalous in that it does not exactly transcribe the corresponding Chinese characters (''Měnggǔ Zìyùn'' 蒙古字韻) as ''mong xol'' is not a transcription of the Chinese characters 蒙古 (měnggǔ, meaning 'Mongol'), but is a direct phonetic representation of the
Mongolian word ''mongɣol'' 'Mongol'.
The book comprises the following sections:
* Preface in Chinese written by Liu Geng 劉更 and dated 1308
* Preface in Chinese written by Zhu Zongwen 朱宗文 and dated 1308
* Table of errors in earlier editions of ''Menggu Ziyun'' that are corrected in this edition
* Diagram illustrating the pronunciation of 'Phags-pa letters (incomplete in the extant manuscript)
* Table of the
thirty-six initial sounds of Chinese in the 'Phags-pa script
* Table of
seal script
Seal script, also sigillary script () is an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty bronze script. The Qin variant of seal ...
forms of 'Phags-pa letters
* Table of the fifteen Chinese rime classes under which the entries are ordered
* The main text of the dictionary
* Appendix listing
taboo characters, derived from the ''
Decrees and Regulations of Yuan dynasty
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
'' (元典章)
The main text comprises 813 entries ordered by rime class and initial sound. Three folios covering some 37 syllables with ''-a'' and ''-e'' rimes are missing in the extant manuscript, and so it is thought that the original text would have comprised about 850 entries in total. Each entry consists of a syllable written in 'Phags-pa script at the top, below which are a list of
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the 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 ...
representable by this 'Phags-pa syllable, ordered according to the
four traditional Chinese tones ("level", "rising", "falling" and "entering"). The 'Phags-pa script does not indicate tonal differences so Chinese characters with the same pronunciation but different
tones are represented using the same 'Phags-pa syllable. A total of 9118 Chinese characters are given under the surviving 813 entries, although as Chinese characters may have more than one pronunciation, some characters are included under multiple entries.
Phonetic features
The entries in ''Menggu Ziyun'' are arranged by the fifteen
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 ...
classes listed at the start of the dictionary, and within each rime class by rime subclass (there are 71 subclasses in total, as shown in the table below). Within each rime subclass entries are ordered according to the thirty-six traditional
initial onsets.
The rime classes in ''Menggu Ziyun'' follow those given in ''Gǔjīn Yùnhuì Jǔyào'' 古今韻會舉要, a lexicographical compendium originally compiled by Huang Gongshao 黃公紹 (died 1297), and published in an abridged form by Xiong Zhong 熊忠 in 1297. However, the Chinese characters under each entry may be based on ''Xīnkān Yùnlüè'' 新刊韻略, a rime book compiled by Wang Wenyu 王文郁 during the late
Jin dynasty (1115–1234) (the text is known from a manuscript copy of an edition published in 1229).
The 36 initials are a traditional classification of initial onsets used in Chinese books dating back to the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
(618–907), but by the Yuan dynasty they represented an idealized phonetic system that did not accurately reflect the Old Mandarin language that the 'Phags-pa script was designed to represent. The discrepancy between the theoretical and actual phonology of Yuan dynasty Chinese is indicated by certain peculiarities in the use of 'Phags-pa letters to represent the 36 initials in ''Menggu Ziyun'':
* The 'Phags-pa letters ''ja'', ''cha'' and ''ca'' are each used to represent two different initials, one from the palatal series (9–11) and one from the palatal-retroflex series (26–28), suggesting that in Yuan dynasty Old Mandarin these two series had converged.
* Initials 17–19 are represented by two forms of the 'Phags-pa letter ''fa''. Although the table of 36 initials at the head of the dictionary assigns the normal form of the letter ''fa'' to initials 17 and 19, and the variant form of the letter ''fa'' to initial 18, the actual entries in the dictionary are not consistent about which form of the letter to use for which initial. However, as no rime subclass has more than two of the three initials, only two forms of the letter ''fa'' are required to distinguish the initials from each other.
* Initials 29 () and 30 () are represented by two forms of the 'Phags-pa letter ''sha'', and were probably pronounced the same in Yuan dynasty Old Mandarin.
* Initial 32 () is represented using both 'Phags-pa letter ''xa'' and a variant form of 'Phags-pa letter ''ha''. However the distribution of the two letters is complementary, with the letter ''xa'' used before
back vowels and ''i'', and the variant form letter ''ha'' used before the
semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...
''y'' and
front vowels other than ''i''.
* Initial 33 () is represented using both 'Phags-pa letter ''·a'' and the normal form of 'Phags-pa letter ''ya''.
* Initial 34 () is represented using both 'Phags-pa letter ''ʼa'' and a variant form of 'Phags-pa letter ''ya''.
This use of variant forms of the letters ''fa'', ''ha'', ''sha'' and ''ya'' for different initials is not reflected in surviving inscriptions in the 'Phags-pa script, and is probably an attempt by Zhu Zongwen to artificially distinguish historical phonetic differences that were no longer valid in Yuan dynasty Old Mandarin.
See also
* ''
Zhongyuan Yinyun''
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Menggu Ziyun
Yuan dynasty literature
British Library oriental manuscripts
Chinese dictionaries
Mongolian writing systems
Old Mandarin
Traditional Chinese phonology