Yunhai jingyuan
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The (c. 780) ''Yunhai jingyuan'' 韻海鏡源 ''Ocean of Rhymes, Mirror of Sources''
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 ...
, which was compiled by the
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 dyn ...
official and calligrapher Yan Zhengqing (709–785), was the first phonologically arranged
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 import ...
of words rather than
characters 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 ...
. Although the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' is a lost work, several later dictionaries, such as the (1711) '' Peiwen Yunfu'', followed its system of collating entries by the 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 ...
of the last character in a term.


Title

The title ''Yunhai jingyuan'' compounds four words (translation equivalents from
Wenlin Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese () is a software application designed by Tom Bishop, who is also president of the Wenlin Institute. It is based on his experience of the needs of learners of the Chinese language, predominantly Mandarin. It co ...
2015): *''yùn'' 韻 "rime; rime-class; tone; agreeable sound; charm; appeal; final; syllable final" *''hǎi'' 海 "sea; ocean; big lake; huge group (of people/things); great capacity" *''jìng'' 鏡 "mirror; lens; glass" *''yuán'' 源 "source (of a river); fountainhead; source; cause; origin" English translations include: *''Mirror-origin of the Sea of Rhymes'' *''Mirror of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''Mirror-source of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''Mirror & Origin of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''The Sources of Rhyme Ocean''


Text

The ''Yunhai jingyuan'' included 26,911 character head entries and comprised 360 volumes (''juǎn'' 卷 "roll; volume"). By any standards, it was a very large dictionary, and "by the standards of the time it must have been simply gigantic". For more than two centuries, the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' remained the most inclusive Chinese dictionary, until the (1039) ''
Jiyun The ''Jiyun'' (''Chi-yun''; ) is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du (丁度) and others expanded and revised the '' Guangyun''. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff (1971:14 ...
'' with 53,525 character entries. Compared with two contemporary 100-volume dictionaries, the 桂苑珠叢 by Zhuge Ying 諸葛潁 (539–615) and the 100-volume ''Zihai'' 字海 compiled under the direction of Empress
Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...
(r. 690–705), the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' was an "even more miraculous lexicographical work". Chinese dictionaries are traditionally dichotomized between ''zìdiǎn'' 字典 "character dictionaries" and ''cídiǎn'' 辭典 "word dictionaries". In the history of Chinese
lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...
, the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' was the earliest hybrid of a word dictionary and a rime dictionary. Earlier rime dictionaries that only included characters include (c. 230) '' Shenglei'' and the (601) '' Qieyun'', which was revised as the (720) ''Tangyun'' 唐韻. In 773, during the reign of
Emperor Daizong of Tang Emperor Daizong of Tang (9 January 727 According to Daizong's biography in the ''Old Book of Tang'', he was born on the 13th day in the 12th month of the 14th year of the Kaiyuan era of Tang Xuanzong's reign. This date corresponds to 9 Jan 727 i ...
(r. 762–779). Yan Zhengqing assembled a group of over 50 scholars with diverse backgrounds to compile the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' at his residence in Huzhou. They included several of his literary friends, the Daoist poet Zhang Zhihe, the Chan Buddhist monk Jiaoran 皎然, and
Lu Yu Lu Yu (; 733–804) or Lu Ji (陆疾), courtesy name Jici (季疵) was a Chinese tea master and writer. He is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture. He is best known for his monumental book ''The Classic of ...
, author of ''
The Classic of Tea ''The Classic of Tea'' or ''Tea Classic'' () is the first known monograph on tea in the world, by Chinese writer Lu Yu between 760 CE and 762 CE, during the Tang dynasty. Lu Yu's original manuscript is lost; the earliest editions available date ...
''. In the same year, the ''Yunhailou'' 韻海樓 "Ocean of Rhymes Building" was constructed as the depository for its namesake ''Yunhai jingyuan''. The building was restored in 1666, and is presently a municipal library and cultural center in Huzhou,
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
prefecture. Yan Zhengqing's reference work included not only single-syllable words but also multi-character compounds, and even some '' chengyu'' "
set phrase Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
s". This type of specialized dictionary was intended for the composition of poems, retrieving literary quotations, and finding appropriate words for antithetical couplets. The word or phrase entries in the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' were
phonologically Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
arranged by the 106 rime groups of the '' Pingshui'' (lit. 平水 "level water") system, which is based on the traditional
four tones This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin). Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies wid ...
: ''ping'' "level", ''shang'' "rising", ''qu'' "departing", and ''ru'' "entering". Note that the term ''rime'' is used, as opposed to common
rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...
, in the linguistic sense of
syllable rime A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
or Chinese
rime table A rime table or rhyme table () is a Chinese phonological model, tabulating the syllables of the series of rime dictionaries beginning with the ''Qieyun'' (601) by their onsets, rhyme groups, tones and other properties. The method gave a significa ...
. A dictionary user looks up a word by the tone and rime of the final character, which presumes that the user already knows, or can guess, how to pronounce the character. For speakers of
alphabetic language An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
s who are familiar with easy dictionary lookup, using a Chinese dictionary based on the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' system is very user-unfriendly. Three later dictionaries of literary allusions followed the 106-rime arrangement of the ''Yunhai jingyuan''. First were 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 fifth ...
(c. 1280) 韻府群玉 "Assembly of Jade Tablets, a Word-Store arranged by Rhymes" compiled by Yin Shifu 陰時夫 and the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1592) ''Wuche yunrui'' 五車韻瑞 "Five Cartloads of Rhyme-inscribed Jade Tablets" by Ling Zhilong 淩稚隆. Ultimately the
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-speak ...
(1711) '' Peiwen yunfu'' "Word-store arranged by Rhymes, from the Hall of the Admiration of Literature" expanded entries and corrected errors in previous rime dictionaries, resulting in 212 volumes with 10,257 head entries arranged by the 106 ''Pingshui'' rime categories. The (1728) Pianzi leipian 駢字類編 "Classified Collection of Phrases and Literary Allusions" dictionary was the first dictionary to abandon the traditional ''Yunhai jingyuan'' system of indexing words by their last character's rime and tone, and it indexed words by their first character. Most subsequent Chinese word dictionaries were internally arranged by the graphic
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 ...
of the first character in a word.


See also

*
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 import ...
*
Rime table A rime table or rhyme table () is a Chinese phonological model, tabulating the syllables of the series of rime dictionaries beginning with the ''Qieyun'' (601) by their onsets, rhyme groups, tones and other properties. The method gave a significa ...


References

* Footnotes


External links

*Theobald, Ulrich (2011)
Yunfu qunyu 韻府群玉 "The Many Jades from the Rhymes Treasury"
Chinaknowledge Chinaknowledge, with the subtitle "a universal guide for China studies", is an English-language hobbyist's web site that contains a wide variety of information on China and Chinese topics. The site was founded by and is maintained by Ulrich Theo ...
{{Dictionaries of Chinese 8th-century Chinese books Chinese dictionaries Tang dynasty