The ''Piya'' (; "Increased
ra") was 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 by
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
scholar Lu Dian (
陸佃/陆佃, 1042-1102). He wrote this ''
Erya
The ''Erya'' or ''Erh-ya'' is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. Bernhard Karlgren (1931:49) concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC."
Title
Chinese scholars interpret the first title chara ...
'' supplement along with his ''Erya Xinyi'' (爾雅新義 "New Exegesis of the ''Erya''") commentary. Although the ''Piya'' preface written by his son Lu Zai (陸宰/陆宰) is dated 1125, the dictionary was written earlier; estimates around the Yuanfeng era (元豐, 1078–1085), and
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, in ...
says around 1096.
Lu Dian arranged the ''Piya'' into 8 semantically based chapters that closely correspond with the last
''Erya'' chapters 13-19. The only exceptions are Chapter 5 ("Explaining Horses") that is contained in ''Erya'' 19 ("Explaining Domestic Animals") and Chapter 8 ("Explaining Heaven") that anomalously corresponds with the first part of the ''Erya''.
The preface explains Lu's motives for defining flora and fauna terminology. Since Song officials changed the basis for the
Imperial examination
The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
from mastering poetry to ''jingyi'' (經義/经义 "expounding on a classical quotation"), literati no longer studied the lyrical names for plants and animals.
See also
*''
Xiao Erya
The ''Xiao Erya'' (; "Little ra") was an early Chinese dictionary that supplements the ''Erya''. It was supposedly compiled in the early Han Dynasty by Kong Fu ( 264?-208 BCE), a descendant of Confucius. However, the received ''Xiao Erya'' text w ...
''
*''
Shiming
The ''Shiming'' (), also known as the ''Yìyǎ'' (逸雅; ''I-ya''; ''Lost Erya''), is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and "is believed to date from ''c''. 200 E.
This dictionary is linguistically invaluable because it ...
''
*''
Guangya
The (c. 230) ''Guangya'' (; "Expanded '' ra''") was an early 3rd-century CE Chinese dictionary, edited by Zhang Yi (張揖) during the Three Kingdoms period. It was later called the ''Boya'' (博雅; ''Bóyǎ''; ''Po-ya''; "Broadened ra") owing t ...
''
References
External links
1478 Korean woodblock edition ''Piya'' Chinese University of Hong Kong Rare Book Collection (in Chinese)
{{Dictionaries of Chinese
Song dynasty literature
Chinese dictionaries
11th-century Chinese books