Shuowen Jiezi

Author: Xu Shen (Eastern Han Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Shuowen Jiezi, compiled by Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, is an ancient dictionary that analyzes character forms and explains their meanings according to the Six Books theory. This book is printed from a photocopy of the Chen Changzhi edition of the same year of the Tongzhi period in the Qing Dynasty. The Chen edition was carved based on Sun Xingyan's re-carving of the Da Xu edition of the Song Dynasty, preserving the old appearance of the Song edition. Yue Lu Shu She is highly authoritative in publishing such ancient classics. To preserve the original form, no changes were made to the missing, omitted, duplicated, or incorrect characters during the collation of this book. Shuowen Jiezi summarizes the achievements of literature from the pre-Qin and Western Han periods, preserving the form, sound, and meaning of Chinese characters. It is an indispensable bridge for studying oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, ancient phonology, and textual research. Especially, the explanations of character meanings in Shuowen generally retain the ancient meanings, which is more helpful for understanding the terms in ancient texts. This book preserves materials for studying ancient social history, culture, and other aspects, serving as an important step in organizing China's excellent cultural heritage. Shuowen includes explanations of characters with various meanings, reflecting the ancient political, economic, cultural, and customs, etc. Based on two considerations: first, for the younger generation of readers who have little contact with vertically printed traditional Chinese books, it is necessary to let them read this traditional vertical print book with traditional characters; second, to preserve the "original ecology" of ancient books, the layout remains the same, with annotations in double-column small print, and no punctuation throughout the book, so that young readers can understand the form characteristics of Chinese ancient books and achieve a visual effect.