Shuowen Jiezi Xiao Jian

Author: Wang Guiyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: Shuowen Jiezi was formerly known as a character book. It is a dictionary in the history of Chinese linguistics that analyzes character forms, explains character meanings, and identifies phonetic pronunciations. At the same time, it established a linguistics style with Chinese characteristics—documentary linguistics, and Shuowen Jiezi is the foundational work of documentary linguistics. Soon after its completion, Shuowen Jiezi was highly valued by scholars of the time. It had a significant impact on the formation and development of traditional linguistics. The characters, phonetics, and etymologies discussed later generally fall within the scope of Shuowen Jiezi, while Shuowen Jiezi itself formed a specialized discipline. It systematically preserves the small seal script and some zhuwen, serving as a bridge for us to understand older scripts—such as oracle bone script and bronze script. The explanations in Shuowen Jiezi are also an important basis for us to annotate ancient books and organize ancient texts today. Therefore, Shuowen Jiezi still holds great academic and practical value. The two Tang-dated manuscript fragments of Shuowen Jiezi used for collation in this book are: the Tang-dated manuscript fragment of Shuowen Jiezi (Wood Department) and the Tang-dated manuscript fragment of Shuowen Jiezi (Mouth Department).