() -> The Examination of the Qieyun (with Three Treatises on Phonology Attached)

Author: (Qing) Chen Li wrote, Luo Weihao edited
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-08-01
Features: The Examination of the Qieyun (six volumes), where the preface and Regulations (「」「」) describe the purpose of the work and the methodology of research; the second volume Examination of Sound Classes (「」) corrects the tonal words in Guoyun and derives four hundred fifty-two initial characters, which are then linked to form forty sound classes; the third volume Examination of Rhyme Classes (「」) corrects the tonal words in Guoyun and, organized by rhyme groups, links the final characters to examine the categories of rhyme nuclei; the fourth and fifth volumes Tables () and Tables (), organized by rhyme groups, classify all small rhymes within each of the two hundred and six rhymes in Guoyun; the sixth volume General Rhyme (「」) explores certain theoretical issues in phonology. Chen's purpose in writing The Examination of the Qieyun was to investigate the "old method of cutting tones" () of Sun Shuran and Lu Fayan, that is, to explore the phonetic and rhyming system of Lu Fayan's Qieyun.
Traditional phonology has long believed that the thirty-six initials of Shou Wen to be the initials of Middle Chinese, the phonetic system of both Qieyun and Guoyun. They were keen on the classification and analysis of ancient rhyme groups and lacked understanding of the rhyme system in Guoyun. Chen Feng's method of tonal analysis not only helped clarify the phonological system of Guoyun but, more importantly, inspired later scholars to use tonal analysis beyond rhyme books. However, there were two fundamental flaws: , the so-called "variant tones" () could either be homophones with different tonal words (same pronunciation but different tonal words) or homophones with different pronunciations (the same character with two or more pronunciations). Second, whether the categories of initial characters in tonal analysis absolutely correspond to the categories of initials? Guoyun shows a clear trend where the final characters in tonal analysis are divided into first, second, fourth, and third classes, and the initial characters follow the same classification.