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Xu Shen
Xu Shen () was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–189 CE). During his own lifetime, Xu was recognized as a preeminent scholar of the Five Classics. He was the author of ''Shuowen Jiezi'','' Daijisen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Shogakukan.'' Kanjigen'' entry "Xu Shen" (''Kyo Shin'' in Japanese). Gakken, 2006. which was the first comprehensive dictionary of Chinese characters, as well as the first to organize entries by radical. This work continues to provide scholars with information on the development and historical usage of Chinese characters. Xu Shen completed his first draft in 100 CE but, waited until 121 CE before having his son present the work to the Emperor An of Han. Life Xu was born about 58 CE in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (modern Luohe in Henan). He was a student of the scholar-official Jia Kui (30–101 CE). Under Jia, he established himself as a master in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts and oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BC, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman and Byzantine Empire. It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other European ( Romance, Germanic, Celtic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Cheng Of Han
Emperor Cheng of Han, personal name Liu Ao (劉驁; 51 BC – 17 April 7 BC), was an emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty ruling from 33 until 7 BC. He succeeded his father, Emperor Yuan. Under Emperor Cheng, the Han dynasty continued its growing disintegration as the emperor's maternal relatives from the Wang clan increased their grip on the levers of power and on governmental affairs as encouraged by the previous emperor. Corruption and greedy officials continued to plague the government and, as a result, rebellions broke out throughout the country. Emperor Cheng died childless after a reign of 26 years; both of his sons by concubines had died in infancy. One of them starved to death and another was suffocated in prison. The babies and their mothers were killed by the order of Emperor Cheng's favorite consort Zhao Hede, with the implied consent of the emperor. He was succeeded by his nephew, Emperor Ai, whose death was followed by Wang Mang's rise to power. Birth and caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duan Yucai
Duan Yucai () (1735–1815), courtesy name Ruoying () was a Chinese philology, philologist of the Qing Dynasty. He made great contributions to the study of Historical Chinese phonology, and is known for his annotated edition of ''Shuowen Jiezi''. Biography A native of Jintan, Jiangsu, he resigned his government post at the age of 46 to concentrate on his studies. A student of Dai Zhen, he divided Old Chinese words into 17 rhyme groups. He suggested that "characters sharing the same Chinese character classification#Phono-semantic compounds, phonetic component must belong to the same rhyme group [as deduced from the rhyming scheme of ''Shijing'']" (). He also suggested that there is no four tones, departing tone in Old Chinese. His monumental ''Shuowen Jiezi Zhu'' (說文解字注 "Annotated ''Shuowen Jiezi''"), which he spent 30 years to complete, was published shortly before his death (in 1815). Wang Niansun, in his preface to the work, says that "it has been 1,700 years since a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Li Yangbing
Li Yangbing (; courtesy name: Shaowen) was a Chinese calligrapher, poet, and politician during the medieval Tang dynasty. A high-ranking Tang dynasty Chinese government official (imperial magistrate), literary figure, noted calligrapher, and relative of the famous Tang Chinese poet Li Bai, Li is notable for being the initial editor and compiler of the poetry of his kinsman, Li Bai; also for writing a preface to this which is important as one of the few primary historical sources on Li Bai. Li Yangbing was from Zhaojun, or the Zhao Administrative District, now known as Zhao County, in the province of Hebei, China. His first government position was as an official in Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province. In 755, An Lushan declared himself Emperor, fielding military forces against the ruling Emperor, Xuanzong. In the ensuing eight years of the disorders, largely conducted under Generals An Lushan and Shi Siming, death and famine stalked the Central Plain of China, and the population de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, 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 civilisation, and a Golden age (metaphor), golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivalled that of the Han dynasty. The House of Li, Li family founded the dynasty after taking advantage of a period of Sui decline and precipitating their final collapse, in turn 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 Wu Zhou dynasty and becoming the only legitimate Chinese empress regnant. The An Lushan rebellion (755 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sui Dynasty
The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged period of political division since the War of the Eight Princes. The Sui endeavoured to rebuild the country, re-establishing and reforming many imperial institutions; in so doing, the Sui laid much of the foundation for the subsequent Tang dynasty, who after toppling the Sui would ultimately preside over golden ages of China, a new golden age in Chinese history. Often compared to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), the Sui likewise unified China after a prolonged period of division, undertook wide-ranging reforms and construction projects to consolidate state power, and collapsed after a brief period. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian (Emperor Wen), who had been a member of the military aristocracy that had developed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Xuan Of Zhou
__NOTOC__ King Xuan of Zhou, personal name Ji Jing, was king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty; his reign has been reconstructed to be 827/25782 BC. He worked to restore royal authority after the Gonghe Regency. He fought the "Western Barbarians" (probably Xianyun) and another group on the Huai River to the southeast. In the ninth year of his reign, he called a meeting of all the lords. Later he intervened militarily in succession struggles in the states of Lu (state), Lu, Wey (state), Wey and Qi (state), Qi. Sima Qian said "from this time on, the many lords mostly rebelled against royal commands." According to Zhang Shoujie's annotation ''Correct Meanings'' () to Sima's ''Shiji'', quote: King Xuan is said to have killed the innocent Du Bo and according to tradition was himself killed by an arrow fired by Du Bo's ghost. His son King You of Zhou, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shizhoupian
The ''Shizhoupian'' () is the first known Chinese dictionary, and was written in the ancient large seal script. The work was traditionally dated to the reign of King Xuan of Zhou (827–782 BCE), but many modern scholars assign it to the state of Qin in the Warring States period (221 BCE). The text is no longer fully extant, and it is now known only through fragments. History The ''Shizhoupian'' dictionary, which was probably compiled sometime between 700 BCE to 200 BCE, originally consisted of 15 chapters ( ), but six were lost by the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han (25–56 CE) and the other nine chapters, except for scattered references, were lost by the Jin dynasty (266–420). Title Until recently, it was thought that the dictionary title referred to Shi Zhou (, who allegedly served as Grand Historian in the court of Western Zhou King Xuan (r. 827–782 BCE). Both the " Yiwenzhi" chapter of the ''Book of Han'' and the 121 CE ''Shuowen Jiez ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cangjiepian
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yin And Yang
Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary and at the same time opposing forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts and the parts are as important for the cohesion of the whole. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of primordial qi or material energy, organized into the cycles of yin and yang, force and motion leading to form and matter. "Yin" is retractive, passive and contractive in nature, while "yang" is repelling, active and expansive in principle; this dichotomy in some form, is seen in all things in nature—patterns of change and difference. For example, biological, psychological and seasonal cycles, the historical evolution of landscapes over days, weeks, years to eons. The origin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radical (Chinese Characters)
A radical (), or indexing component, is a visually prominent Chinese character components, component of a Chinese character under which the character is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary. The radical for a character is typically a semantic component, but it can also be another structural component or an artificially extracted portion of the character. In some cases, the original semantic or phonological connection has become obscure, owing to changes in the meaning or pronunciation of the character over time. The use of the English term ''radical'' is based on an analogy between the structure of Chinese characters and the inflection of words in European languages. Radicals are also sometimes called ''classifiers'', but this name is more commonly applied to the grammatical Chinese classifier, measure words in Chinese. History In the earliest Chinese dictionaries, such as the ''Erya'' (3rd centuryBC), characters were grouped together in broad semantic categories. Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
