Shuowen Jiezi Jin Shi

Author: Xu Shen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-12-01
Features: The Shuowen Jiezi is a dictionary arranged by radicals, and one of the earliest dictionaries in the world. This immortal masterpiece, written by the renowned scholar Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was created during the early stages of the development of Chinese linguistics and literature. The Shuowen Jiezi holds an extremely important position in the history of Chinese linguistics. It first established the radical arrangement system, pioneering the method of dictionary organization and retrieval used in later dictionaries. It preserves the richest textual materials from ancient times, making it an indispensable stepping stone for modern scholars studying oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions, as well as a direct sample for studying small seal script. It elaborated on the theory of the Six Schools of Characters and was the first to analyze the form and structure of Chinese characters using the Six Schools theory. The explanations primarily focus on the form, deriving meanings from shapes, and further explain the original meanings while also covering extended meanings and phonetic loanwords. Through methods of seeking meaning from form and tracing origins from sound, it explains ancient language, clarifies regional dialects, and elucidates classical texts. As a result, The Shuowen Jiezi has also become an essential reference for systematically studying ancient phonetics, vocabulary, and comprehending pre-Qin and Han Dynasty classics. Its emergence not only established textualology as a formal science but also had a significant impact on the emergence or development of phonology, etymology, and lexical studies. After two thousand years of passage, it continues to be consulted, read, memorized, imitated, and studied by countless readers today.