Duan Yucai () (1735–1815),

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Ruoying () was a Chinese

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. He made great contributions to the study of Historical Chinese phonology, and is known for his annotated edition of ''

Shuowen Jiezi The ''Shuowen Jiezi'' is a Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen , during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE). While prefigured by earlier reference works for Chinese characters like the ''Erya'' (), the ''Shuowen Jiezi'' contains the ...

''.

Biography

A native of

Jintan Jintan District is a District (China), district under the administration of Changzhou in the Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. History Jintan, known as Jinshan () in ancient times, was a township of Yanling commandery since ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, he resigned his government post at the age of 46 to concentrate on his studies. A student of Dai Zhen, he divided

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

words into 17 rhyme groups. He suggested that "characters sharing the same phonetic component must belong to the same rhyme group s deduced from the rhyming scheme of ''Shijing''">Shijing.html" ;"title="s deduced from the rhyming scheme of '' s deduced from the rhyming scheme of ''Shijing'' (). He also suggested that there is no four tones">departing tone in Old Chinese. His monumental ''Shuowen Jiezi Zhu">Shijing">s deduced from the rhyming scheme of ''Shijing'' (). He also suggested that there is no four tones">departing tone in Old Chinese. His monumental ''Shuowen Jiezi Zhu'' (說文解字注 "Annotated ''Shuowen Jiezi''"), which he spent 30 years to complete, was published shortly before his death (in 1815). Wang Niansun, in his preface to the work, says that "it has been 1,700 years since a work of the same quality appeared" (), suggesting that it is the greatest Chinese philological work since ''Shuowen Jiezi'', which was published during the early 2nd century.

References

*He Jiuying 何九盈 (1995). ''Zhongguo gudai yuyanxue shi'' (中囯古代语言学史 "A history of ancient Chinese linguistics"). Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe. *'' Zhongguo da baike quanshu'' (1980–1993). 1st Edition. Beijing; Shanghai: Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe. *

External links

On-line edition of ''Annotated Shuowen Jiezi''

說文解字注 online version by Alain Lucas and Jean-Louis Schott
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duan, Yucai 1735 births 1815 deaths Chinese Confucianists Linguists from China Qing dynasty writers Writers from Changzhou Scientists from Changzhou People from Jintan District 18th-century Chinese writers