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Erya

February 16, 2024

The Erya or Erh-ya is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. The sinologist Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC."[1]

Erya
Erya exhibit at Chinese Dictionary Museum (Jincheng, Shanxi Province)
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese爾雅
Simplified Chinese尔雅
Literal meaningapproaching what is correct
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetNhĩ Nhã
Chữ Hán爾雅
Korean name
Hangul이아
Hanja爾雅
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationIa
Japanese name
Kanji爾雅
Kanaじが
Transcriptions
RomanizationJiga

Title edit

Chinese scholars interpret the first title character ěr (爾; "you, your; adverbial suffix") as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous ěr (邇; "near; close; approach"), and believe the second yǎ (雅; "proper; correct; refined; elegant") refers to words or language.[2] According to W. South Coblin: "The interpretation of the title as something like 'approaching what is correct, proper, refined' is now widely accepted".[3] It has been translated as "The Literary Expositor" or "The Ready Rectifier" (both by Legge), "Progress Towards Correctness" (von Rosthorn), "Near Correct" (Xue), "The Semantic Approximator" (Needham), and "Approaching Elegance" (Mair).

History edit

The book's author is unknown. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, or his disciples, scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre-Qin texts, especially the Shijing. Joseph Needham et al. place the Erya's compilation between the late 4th and early 2nd centuries BCE, with the possible existence of some core text material dating back to the 6th century BCE, and the continued additions to the text as late as the 1st century BCE.[4]

The first attempts to date the different parts of the Erya separately began when the Tang scholar Lu Deming (556–627) suggested that the Duke of Zhou only compiled the Shigu (Chinese: 釋詁; pinyin: Shígǔ) chapter (1), while the rest of the text dated from later.[5] The Japanese historian and sinologist Naitō Torajirō analyzed the Erya text and concluded it originated in the early Warring States period, with the Jixia Academy having a considerable hand in it from c. 325 BCE onwards, and the text was enlarged and stabilized during the Qin and Western Han dynasty. Naitō connects the Shigu chapter (1) with the first generations of the Confucian School (450-400 BCE), places the family relationships, astronomy, and meteorology chapters (4-8) in the time of Xun Qing 荀卿 (300-230 BCE) with additions as late as 90 BCE, allocates the geographical chapters (9-12) to the late Warring States, Qin, and beginning of Han (300-200 BCE), puts the natural history chapters (13-18) between 300 and 160 BCE, and ascribes the last chapter (19) on domestic animals to the time of Emperor Wen or Emperor Jing of Han (180 to 140 BCE).

The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han dynasty, and Song dynasty Confucians officially categorized it as one of the Thirteen Classics, "making it one of the more revered works in the history of Chinese literature, not to mention lexicography".[6] Although the only ancient Erya commentary that has come down to us is the (c. 310) Erya zhu (爾雅注, "Erya Commentary") by Guo Pu (276–324), there were a number of others, including the (early 1st century) Erya Fanshi zhu (爾雅樊氏注, "Mr. Fan's Erya Commentary") by Liu Xin, and the (late 3rd century) Erya Yinyi (爾雅音義, "Sounds and Meanings of Erya") by Sun Yan, which popularized the fanqie system of pronunciation glosses.[4]

Most of these texts about the Erya were still extant in the Tang dynasty (618-907) but had disappeared by the Song dynasty (960-1279), when there was a revival of interest in the Erya.[7] The Northern Song dynasty scholar Xing Bing (邢昺) wrote the (c. 1000) Erya shu (爾雅疏, "Erya Subcommentary"), which quoted many descriptions from both ordinary literature and medicinal bencao (本草, "pharmacopoeia; herbal") texts. A century later, Lu Dian (陸佃) wrote the (1096) Piya ("Increased [Er]ya") and the (1099) Erya Xinyi (爾雅新義 "New Interpretations of the Erya") commentary. The Southern Song dynasty scholar Luo Yuan (羅願) subsequently wrote the (1174) Eryayi (爾雅翼, "Wings to the Erya") interpretation. During the Qing dynasty, Shao Jinhan (邵晋涵, 1743–1796) published the Erya Zhengyi (爾雅正義, "Correct Meanings of the Erya") and the naturalist Hao Yixing (郝懿行) wrote the (1808-1822) Erya yishu (爾雅義疏, "Subcommentary on Meanings of the Erya").

In the history of Chinese lexicography, nearly all dictionaries were collated by graphic systems of character radicals, first introduced in the Shuowen Jiezi. However, a few notable exceptions, called yashu 雅書 "[Er]ya-type books", adopted collation by semantic categories such as Heaven and Earth. The Ming dynasty scholar Lang Kuijin (郎奎金) categorized and published the Wuya (五雅 "Five [Er]yas"): Erya, (c. 150 BCE) Xiao Erya ("Little Erya"), (c. 200) Yiya ("Lost Erya" or the Shiming), (c. 230) Guangya ("Expanded Erya"), and (1125) Piya ("Increased Erya"). The more important Erya-type books of the subsequent period are the 1579 Tongya (通雅, Analogous to Erya) compiled by Fang Yizhi (方以智), 1587 Pianya (駢雅, A Book of Two-Syllable Words) by Zhu Mouwei (朱謀㙔), c. 1745 Bieya (別雅, Another Erya) by Wu Yujin (吴玉搢), and 1864 Dieya (疊雅, A Book of Double-Syllable Words) by Shi Menglan (史夢蘭).[8] Chinese leishu encyclopedias, such as the (1408) Yongle Encyclopedia, were also semantically arranged. Needham takes the Erya's derivative literature as the main line of descent for the encyclopedia in China.[7]

Content edit

The Erya has been described as a dictionary, glossary, synonymicon, thesaurus, and encyclopaedia. Karlgren explains that the book "is not a dictionary in abstracto, it is a collection of direct glosses to concrete passages in ancient texts."[9] The received text contains 2094 entries, covering about 4300 words, and a total of 13,113 characters. It is divided into nineteen sections, the first of which is subdivided into two parts. The title of each chapter combines shi ("explain; elucidate") with a term describing the words under definition. Seven chapters (4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18, and 19) are organized into taxonomies. For instance, chapter 4 defines terms for: paternal clan (宗族), maternal relatives (母黨), wife's relatives (妻黨), and marriage (婚姻). The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining abstract words and the last sixteen semantically arranged chapters defining concrete words. The last seven – concerning grasses, trees, insects and reptiles, fish, birds, wild animals, and domestic animals – describe more than 590 kinds of flora and fauna. It is a notable document of natural history and historical biogeography.

Chapter Chinese Pinyin Translation Subject
1 釋詁 Shigu Explaining the Old [Words] verbs, adjectives, adverbs, grammatical particles
2 釋言 Shiyan Explaining Words verbs, adjectives, adverbs
3 釋訓 Shixun Explaining Instructions adjectives, adverbs, mostly with reduplication
4 釋親 Shiqin Explaining Relatives kinship, marriage
5 釋宮 Shigong Explaining Dwellings architecture, engineering
6 釋器 Shiqi Explaining Utensils tools, weapons, clothing, and their uses
7 釋樂 Shiyue Explaining Music music, musical instruments, dancing
8 釋天 Shitian Explaining Heaven astronomy, astrology, meteorology, calendar
9 釋地 Shidi Explaining Earth geography, geology, some regional lore
10 釋丘 Shiqiu Explaining Hills topography, Fengshui terms
11 釋山 Shishan Explaining Mountains mountains, famous mountains
12 釋水 Shishui Explaining Rivers rivers, navigation, irrigation, boating
13 釋草 Shicao Explaining Plants grasses, herbs, grains, vegetables
14 釋木 Shimu Explaining Trees trees, shrubs, some botanical terms
15 釋蟲 Shichong Explaining Insects insects, spiders, reptiles, etc.
16 釋魚 Shiyu Explaining Fishes fish, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles, etc.
17 釋鳥 Shiniao Explaining Birds wildfowl, ornithology
18 釋獸 Shishou Explaining Beasts wild animals, legendary animals
19 釋畜 Shichu Explaining Domestic Animals livestock, pets, poultry, some zoological terms

The format of Erya definitions varies between the first section treating common terms (chapters 1–3) and the second treating specialized terms (4-19). Entries for common terms are defined by grouping synonyms or near-synonyms and explaining them in terms of a more commonly used word, and additional explanations if one of the words had multiple meanings. For instance, "Qiáo (喬), sōng (嵩), and chóng (崇) all mean 'high' (高). Chóng also means 'to fill' (充)." (ch. 1). Entries for specialized terms are defined by grouping related words and giving them a description, explanation, classification, or comparison. For example: "A woman calls her husband's father jiù (舅), and her husband's mother gū (姑). While alive they are called jūnjiù (君舅) and jūngū (君姑). After their death they are called xiānjiù (先舅) and xiāngū (先姑).[10]

Owing to its laconic lexicographical style, the Erya is one of a few Chinese classics that have not been fully translated into English.

See also edit

 
Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Erya (in Chinese)
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erya.

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ Karlgren 1931, p. 49.
  2. ^ Shiming (Explanations of Names) "Explaining the Classics" Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 version p. 107 of 142 quote: "《爾雅》，爾，昵也；昵，近也；雅，義也；義，正也。五方之言不同，皆以近正為主也。" rough translation: "Erya: 爾 ěr, it's 'close'; 'close', it's 'near'. 雅 yǎ, it's 'the mean / meaning'; 'the mean / meaning', it's correctness. Words in five regions are not similar, yet all are priotized to be near correctness."
  3. ^ Coblin 1993, p. 94.
  4. ^ a b Needham 1986, p. 191.
  5. ^ Needham 1986, p. 190.
  6. ^ Creamer 1992, p. 112.
  7. ^ a b Needham 1986, p. 192.
  8. ^ tr. Xue 1982, p. 155.
  9. ^ Karlgren 1931, p. 46.
  10. ^ ch. 4, tr. Xue 1982, p. 151

Sources edit

  • Coblin, W. South (1993). "Erh ya" 爾雅. In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley. pp. 94–99. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
  • Creamer, Thomas B. I. (1992). "Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language". In Ladislav Zgusta (ed.). History, Languages, and Lexicographers. Niemeyer. pp. 105–135.
  • Karlgren, Bernhard (1931). "The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (3): 1–59.
  • Mair, Victor H. (1998). "Tzu-shu 字書 or tzu-tien 字典 (dictionaries)". In William H. Nienhauser, Jr. (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Vol. 2. SMC Publishing. pp. 165–172. ISBN 978-0253334565.
  • Needham, Joseph; Lu, Gwei-djen; Huang, Hsing-Tsung (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6 Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1 Botany. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521087315.
  • Von Rosthorn, A. (1975). "The Erh-ya and Other Synonymicons". Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 10 (3): 137–145.
  • Xue, Shiqi (1982). "Chinese Lexicography Past and Present". Dictionaries. 4: 151–169. doi:10.1353/dic.1982.0009.

External links edit

February 16, 2024
erya, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, february, 2022, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, first, sur. This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations February 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Erya or Erh ya is the first surviving Chinese dictionary The sinologist Bernhard Karlgren concluded that the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC 1 EryaErya exhibit at Chinese Dictionary Museum Jincheng Shanxi Province Chinese nameTraditional Chinese爾雅Simplified Chinese尔雅Literal meaningapproaching what is correctTranscriptionsStandard MandarinHanyu PinyinEryǎWade GilesErh3 ya3IPA a ɚ ja Yue CantoneseYale RomanizationYih ngaahJyutpingJi5 ngaa5IPA jiː ŋaː Southern MinHokkien POJNi ngaMiddle ChineseMiddle Chinese ȵiᴇX ŋˠaX Old ChineseBaxter Sagart 2014 n e r ʔ N ɢˤraʔZhengzhang njelʔ ŋraːʔ Vietnamese nameVietnamese alphabetNhĩ NhaChữ Han爾雅Korean nameHangul이아Hanja爾雅TranscriptionsRevised RomanizationIaJapanese nameKanji爾雅KanaじがTranscriptionsRomanizationJiga Contents 1 Title 2 History 3 Content 4 See also 5 References 5 1 Citations 5 2 Sources 6 External linksTitle editChinese scholars interpret the first title character er 爾 you your adverbial suffix as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous er 邇 near close approach and believe the second yǎ 雅 proper correct refined elegant refers to words or language 2 According to W South Coblin The interpretation of the title as something like approaching what is correct proper refined is now widely accepted 3 It has been translated as The Literary Expositor or The Ready Rectifier both by Legge Progress Towards Correctness von Rosthorn Near Correct Xue The Semantic Approximator Needham and Approaching Elegance Mair History editThe book s author is unknown Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou Confucius or his disciples scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre Qin texts especially the Shijing Joseph Needham et al place the Erya s compilation between the late 4th and early 2nd centuries BCE with the possible existence of some core text material dating back to the 6th century BCE and the continued additions to the text as late as the 1st century BCE 4 The first attempts to date the different parts of the Erya separately began when the Tang scholar Lu Deming 556 627 suggested that the Duke of Zhou only compiled the Shigu Chinese 釋詁 pinyin Shigǔ chapter 1 while the rest of the text dated from later 5 The Japanese historian and sinologist Naitō Torajirō analyzed the Erya text and concluded it originated in the early Warring States period with the Jixia Academy having a considerable hand in it from c 325 BCE onwards and the text was enlarged and stabilized during the Qin and Western Han dynasty Naitō connects the Shigu chapter 1 with the first generations of the Confucian School 450 400 BCE places the family relationships astronomy and meteorology chapters 4 8 in the time of Xun Qing 荀卿 300 230 BCE with additions as late as 90 BCE allocates the geographical chapters 9 12 to the late Warring States Qin and beginning of Han 300 200 BCE puts the natural history chapters 13 18 between 300 and 160 BCE and ascribes the last chapter 19 on domestic animals to the time of Emperor Wen or Emperor Jing of Han 180 to 140 BCE The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han dynasty and Song dynasty Confucians officially categorized it as one of the Thirteen Classics making it one of the more revered works in the history of Chinese literature not to mention lexicography 6 Although the only ancient Erya commentary that has come down to us is the c 310 Erya zhu 爾雅注 Erya Commentary by Guo Pu 276 324 there were a number of others including the early 1st century Erya Fanshi zhu 爾雅樊氏注 Mr Fan s Erya Commentary by Liu Xin and the late 3rd century Erya Yinyi 爾雅音義 Sounds and Meanings of Erya by Sun Yan which popularized the fanqie system of pronunciation glosses 4 Most of these texts about the Erya were still extant in the Tang dynasty 618 907 but had disappeared by the Song dynasty 960 1279 when there was a revival of interest in the Erya 7 The Northern Song dynasty scholar Xing Bing 邢昺 wrote the c 1000 Erya shu 爾雅疏 Erya Subcommentary which quoted many descriptions from both ordinary literature and medicinal bencao 本草 pharmacopoeia herbal texts A century later Lu Dian 陸佃 wrote the 1096 Piya Increased Er ya and the 1099 Erya Xinyi 爾雅新義 New Interpretations of the Erya commentary The Southern Song dynasty scholar Luo Yuan 羅願 subsequently wrote the 1174 Eryayi 爾雅翼 Wings to the Erya interpretation During the Qing dynasty Shao Jinhan 邵晋涵 1743 1796 published the Erya Zhengyi 爾雅正義 Correct Meanings of the Erya and the naturalist Hao Yixing 郝懿行 wrote the 1808 1822 Erya yishu 爾雅義疏 Subcommentary on Meanings of the Erya In the history of Chinese lexicography nearly all dictionaries were collated by graphic systems of character radicals first introduced in the Shuowen Jiezi However a few notable exceptions called yashu 雅書 Er ya type books adopted collation by semantic categories such as Heaven and Earth The Ming dynasty scholar Lang Kuijin 郎奎金 categorized and published the Wuya 五雅 Five Er yas Erya c 150 BCE Xiao Erya Little Erya c 200 Yiya Lost Erya or the Shiming c 230 Guangya Expanded Erya and 1125 Piya Increased Erya The more important Erya type books of the subsequent period are the 1579 Tongya 通雅 Analogous to Erya compiled by Fang Yizhi 方以智 1587 Pianya 駢雅 A Book of Two Syllable Words by Zhu Mouwei 朱謀㙔 c 1745 Bieya 別雅 Another Erya by Wu Yujin 吴玉搢 and 1864 Dieya 疊雅 A Book of Double Syllable Words by Shi Menglan 史夢蘭 8 Chinese leishu encyclopedias such as the 1408 Yongle Encyclopedia were also semantically arranged Needham takes the Erya s derivative literature as the main line of descent for the encyclopedia in China 7 Content editThe Erya has been described as a dictionary glossary synonymicon thesaurus and encyclopaedia Karlgren explains that the book is not a dictionary in abstracto it is a collection of direct glosses to concrete passages in ancient texts 9 The received text contains 2094 entries covering about 4300 words and a total of 13 113 characters It is divided into nineteen sections the first of which is subdivided into two parts The title of each chapter combines shi explain elucidate with a term describing the words under definition Seven chapters 4 8 9 10 12 18 and 19 are organized into taxonomies For instance chapter 4 defines terms for paternal clan 宗族 maternal relatives 母黨 wife s relatives 妻黨 and marriage 婚姻 The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining abstract words and the last sixteen semantically arranged chapters defining concrete words The last seven concerning grasses trees insects and reptiles fish birds wild animals and domestic animals describe more than 590 kinds of flora and fauna It is a notable document of natural history and historical biogeography Chapter Chinese Pinyin Translation Subject1 釋詁 Shigu Explaining the Old Words verbs adjectives adverbs grammatical particles2 釋言 Shiyan Explaining Words verbs adjectives adverbs3 釋訓 Shixun Explaining Instructions adjectives adverbs mostly with reduplication4 釋親 Shiqin Explaining Relatives kinship marriage5 釋宮 Shigong Explaining Dwellings architecture engineering6 釋器 Shiqi Explaining Utensils tools weapons clothing and their uses7 釋樂 Shiyue Explaining Music music musical instruments dancing8 釋天 Shitian Explaining Heaven astronomy astrology meteorology calendar9 釋地 Shidi Explaining Earth geography geology some regional lore10 釋丘 Shiqiu Explaining Hills topography Fengshui terms11 釋山 Shishan Explaining Mountains mountains famous mountains12 釋水 Shishui Explaining Rivers rivers navigation irrigation boating13 釋草 Shicao Explaining Plants grasses herbs grains vegetables14 釋木 Shimu Explaining Trees trees shrubs some botanical terms15 釋蟲 Shichong Explaining Insects insects spiders reptiles etc 16 釋魚 Shiyu Explaining Fishes fish amphibians crustaceans reptiles etc 17 釋鳥 Shiniao Explaining Birds wildfowl ornithology18 釋獸 Shishou Explaining Beasts wild animals legendary animals19 釋畜 Shichu Explaining Domestic Animals livestock pets poultry some zoological termsThe format of Erya definitions varies between the first section treating common terms chapters 1 3 and the second treating specialized terms 4 19 Entries for common terms are defined by grouping synonyms or near synonyms and explaining them in terms of a more commonly used word and additional explanations if one of the words had multiple meanings For instance Qiao 喬 sōng 嵩 and chong 崇 all mean high 高 Chong also means to fill 充 ch 1 Entries for specialized terms are defined by grouping related words and giving them a description explanation classification or comparison For example A woman calls her husband s father jiu 舅 and her husband s mother gu 姑 While alive they are called junjiu 君舅 and jungu 君姑 After their death they are called xianjiu 先舅 and xiangu 先姑 10 Owing to its laconic lexicographical style the Erya is one of a few Chinese classics that have not been fully translated into English See also edit nbsp Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article The Erya in Chinese nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erya Xiao Erya Shiming Guangya Piya Urra hubullu Babylonian glossaryReferences editCitations edit Karlgren 1931 p 49 Shiming Explanations of Names Explaining the Classics Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 version p 107 of 142 quote 爾雅 爾 昵也 昵 近也 雅 義也 義 正也 五方之言不同 皆以近正為主也 rough translation Erya 爾 er it s close close it s near 雅 yǎ it s the mean meaning the mean meaning it s correctness Words in five regions are not similar yet all are priotized to be near correctness Coblin 1993 p 94 a b Needham 1986 p 191 Needham 1986 p 190 Creamer 1992 p 112 a b Needham 1986 p 192 tr Xue 1982 p 155 Karlgren 1931 p 46 ch 4 tr Xue 1982 p 151 Sources edit Coblin W South 1993 Erh ya 爾雅 In Loewe Michael ed Early Chinese Texts A Bibliographical Guide Berkeley Society for the Study of Early China Institute of East Asian Studies University of California Berkeley pp 94 99 ISBN 1 55729 043 1 Creamer Thomas B I 1992 Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language In Ladislav Zgusta ed History Languages and Lexicographers Niemeyer pp 105 135 Karlgren Bernhard 1931 The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 3 1 59 Mair Victor H 1998 Tzu shu 字書 or tzu tien 字典 dictionaries In William H Nienhauser Jr ed The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature Vol 2 SMC Publishing pp 165 172 ISBN 978 0253334565 Needham Joseph Lu Gwei djen Huang Hsing Tsung 1986 Science and Civilisation in China Volume 6 Biology and Biological Technology Part 1 Botany Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521087315 Von Rosthorn A 1975 The Erh ya and Other Synonymicons Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 10 3 137 145 Xue Shiqi 1982 Chinese Lexicography Past and Present Dictionaries 4 151 169 doi 10 1353 dic 1982 0009 External links editThe Erya Complete text in Chinese The Erya 爾雅 Dictionary Chinaknowledge article photo of a rare Song dynasty edition in National Palace Museum Taipei Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Erya amp oldid 1171553252, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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