(Shuowen Jiezi) Pinyin Version

Author: Xu Shen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Shuowen Jiezi, compiled by Xu Shen during the Eastern Han Dynasty, is an ancient dictionary that analyzes character forms and explains their meanings based on the Six-Book theory. This book is a photolithographic reproduction of the Chen Changzhi edition from the 12th year of the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. The Chen edition was engraved based on Sun Xingyan's reproduction of the Song Dynasty edition of the Great Xu version, preserving the old appearance of the Song edition. Yuelu Book Society is highly authoritative in publishing such ancient classics. To preserve the original form, no changes were made to the missing, omitted, added, 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 serves as 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 particularly 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 our country's excellent cultural heritage. Shuowen includes explanations of characters with various meanings, reflecting ancient politics, economy, culture, customs, and more. Based on two considerations: first, for the younger generation of readers who have little exposure to vertically printed traditional Chinese books, it is necessary to let them read this vertically printed traditional Chinese book; second, to preserve the "original ecology" of ancient books, the layout remains unchanged, annotations are in double-column small print, and no punctuation marks are used throughout the book, so that young readers can understand the form characteristics of Chinese ancient books and achieve an intuitive effect.