Shenglei

The (c. 230 CE) ''Shenglei'' 聲類, compiled by the Cao Wei dynasty lexicographer Li Deng 李登, was the first Chinese rime dictionary. Earlier dictionaries were organized either by semantic fields (e.g., c. 3rd-century BCE ''Erya'') or by character radicals (e.g., 121 CE ''Shuowen Jiezi''). The last copies of the ''Shenglei'' were lost around the 13th century, and it is known only from earlier descriptions and quotations, which say it was in 10 volumes and contained 11,520 Chinese character entries, categorized by linguistic tone in terms of the ''wǔshēng'' 五聲 "Five Tones (of the pentatonic scale)" from Chinese musicology and wǔxíng 五行 "Five Phases/Elements" theory.

Title

The title combines ''shēng'' 聲 "sound; voice; declare; reputation; tone (in Chinese linguistics); initial consonant (of a Chinese syllable)" and ''lèi'' 類 "kind; type; class; category; genus; form class (in Chinese linguistics)".

English translations of the title include: ''Sounds Classified'', ''Sound Categories'', ''Classification of Sounds'', ''Categories of Pronunciation'', and ''Dictionary of Initial Consonants''. This last translation interprets ''sheng'' 聲 in the 4th-century ''Shenglei'' to mean the contemporary linguistic term ''shēngmǔ'' 聲母 "initial consonant (of a Chinese syllable)"; exemplifying Yong and Peng's practice of assigning a "startlingly anachronistic English title" to some Chinese dictionaries, such as ''The Ready Guide'' for the venerable ''Erya''.

History

Chinese texts from circa the 6th century to the 13th century referred to the ''Shenglei'', after which it was lost. In the 19th century, Chinese scholars collected hundreds of ''Shenglei'' fragments and quotations, enabling better understanding of the text.

Many works mentioned the ''Shenglei'' together with the second oldest rime dictionary, the (c. 280) ''Yunji'' 韻集 "Assembly of Rhymes", by Lü Jing 呂靜 of the Western Jin Dynasty. Neither of these works has survived, but judging by later rime dictionaries, they were clearly stimulated by the ''fanqie'' method of indicating character pronunciation. Both borrowed Chinese music terms in order to lexicographically collate words by pronunciation: the contrasting terms ''qīng'' 清 "clear; high pitch" and ''zhuó'' 濁 "muddy; low pitch", and the ''wǔshēng'' 五聲 "five musical tones (of the pentatonic scale)": ''gōng'' 宮, ''shāng'' 商, ''jué'' 角, ''zhǐ'' 徵 and ''yǔ'' 羽—equivalent to do, re, mi, sol, and la in western solfège.

Northern and Southern dynasties

The first references to the ''Shenglei'' and ''Yunji'' are from the Northern and Southern dynasties period (420–589). In the period of the Wei to the Northern and Southern dynasties, "lexicography in China entered the stage of exploration and development. There were more new dictionary types coming into being and discoveries were waiting to be made in format and style, in mode of definition, and in phonetic notation."

The (514) ''Lunshu biao'' 論書表 "Memorial on Calligraphy", by Jiang Shi 江式, was included by his biography in the (554) ''Book of Wei'' history of the Northern Wei (386–535) dynasty. It said, "Lü Jing, the brother of Lü Chen, took examples from he ''Shenglei''by Li Deng and compiled he ''Yunji''(five volumes). Each tone makes up a volume.".

Yan Zhitui's (581) ''Yanshi jiaxun'' 顏氏家訓 "Family Instructions of the Yan Clan" describes the origins of ''fanqie'' pronunciation notation and rime dictionaries with Sun Yan 孫炎's ''Erya Yinyi'' 爾雅音義 "Sounds and Meanings of the ''Erya''": "Sun Shuyan writing ''Sounds and Meanings of the Ready Guide'' (爾雅音義) illustrates the first knowledge of ''fanqie''. ''Fanqie'' became very popular in the Wei Dynasty … since then, rhyme books have begun to come out". The Qing dynasty scholar Chen Li (1810–1882) said this passage referred to the ''Shenglei''.

As to 'since then, rhyme books have begun to come out'; Sun Shuyan was referring to Li Deng's compilation of ''The Dictionary of Initial Consonants'', which was the first rhyme book in the history of Chinese lexicography. When the method of ''fanqie'' was invented, it was possible to group together characters with the same rhymes, and consequently, rhyme books came into being.

Sui dynasty

The (636) ''Book of Sui'', the official Sui dynasty (581–618) history, first directly referred to the ''Shenglei'' and ''Yunji'' in two chapters. The "Biography of Pan Hui" 潘徽 compares these two 3rd-century rime dictionaries with four earlier character dictionaries, the '' Sancang'' 三蒼, '' Jijiupian'', ''Shuowen Jiezi'' 說文解字, and '' Zilin'' 字林.

Previous works like ''Three Cang Primer'' ��蒼and ''The Instant Primer'' ��就have merely retained some texts and quotations; those like ''An Explanatory Dictionary of Chinese Characters'' ��文and ''The Character Forest'' ��林only focus on differentiating the form and structure of characters. As for the study of speech sounds and rhymes, there is much doubt and confusion. Either through speculation on ancient characters or interpretation of contemporary ones, the investigations have mostly missed the target. It is in ''The Dictionary of Initial Consonants'' ��類and ''The Collection of Rhymes'' ��集that the voiceless is differentiated from the voiced and the tones are demarcated in five scales ��判清濁才分宮羽 (76)

In a more literal translation, "this book was the first to make distinctions between ''qing'' 清 and ''zhuo'' 濁, and divide ''gong'' 宮 and ''yu'' 羽 tones."

The ''Book of Sui'' "Bibliography" section ('' Yiwenzhi'') said the ''Shenglei'' had ten volumes, and added scarce biographical information that Li Deng held the post of ''Zuoxianling'' 左校令 "Left Superintendent" (in the Board of Labor) in the last years of the Wei dynasty. Nothing further is known about him.

Tang dynasty

The ''Shenglei'' was in wide circulation during the Tang dynasty (618–907), as evidenced by the two Buddhist dictionaries titled ''Yiqiejing Yinyi'' 一切經音義 "Pronunciation and Meaning in the Tripiṭaka". The 25-volume version by the monk Xuanying 玄應 (c. 649–661) cited the ''Shenglei'' 207 times, once indicated by author and title, the rest by title alone; the 100-volume version by the monk Huilin 慧琳 (737–820) quoted the rime dictionary 625 times, some only by title, others by author and title.

The (c. 770) ''Fengshi wenjianji'' 封氏聞見記 "Master Feng's Record of Knowledge", written by the scholar Feng Yan 封演, was the first work to record the number of ''Shenglei'' dictionary volumes and characters. The ''Wenzi'' 文字 "Characters" section mentions it in a list of early Chinese dictionaries, "In the Wei dynasty there is a scholar called Li Deng, who compiled ''The Dictionary of Initial Consonants''. It has ten volumes and contains 11,520 characters. It is arranged according to the five tones without further division into sections ��五聲命字不立諸部" Translating the last sentence as, "the entries in the book were arranged according to five sound classes, but that rime groups were not yet to be established", Tsai notes, "A rime book not organized into rime groups is hardly a legitimate dictionary for riming purposes."

The (945) ''Old Book of Tang'' Bibliography lists Li Deng's ''Shenglei'' in ten volumes.

Song dynasty

Texts from the Song dynasty (960–1279) recorded the last existing copies of the ''Shenglei''.

Both the (1161) '' Tongzhi'' encyclopedia by historian Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 and the (c. 1290) ''Yuhai'' 玉海 "Jade Ocean" by Wang Yinglin 王應麟 repeat the ''Book of Sui'' bibliographic information that the ''Shenglei'' had ten volumes and Li Deng served as "Left Superintendent".

The ''Shenglei'' was not recorded in the (1346) ''History of Song'' "Bibliography" or in any major private catalogues, indicating that the text was likely lost after the late Song era.

Qing dynasty

During the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) there was a resurgence of scholarship in the Chinese classics, and several researchers collected fragments of ''Shenglei'' glosses from the classics and encyclopedias. Huang Shi 黃奭 (c. 1826) collected 252 citations, and Ma Guohan 馬國翰 collected 73 ''Shenglei'' glosses.

Interpretations

Early sources generally agree that the (c. 250) ''Shenglei'' rime dictionary contained 11,520 main characters organized by means of the ''qing'' 清 "clear" and ''zhuo'' 濁 "muddy" contrast pair, and the ''wusheng'' 五聲 "the Five Tones (do-re-mi-sol-la) of the pentatonic scale (''gōng-shāng-jué-zhǐ-yǔ'' 宮, 商, 角, 徵, 羽)".

The terms ''qīng'' and ''zhuó'' had various applications in later phonological writings. In the Song dynasty rime tables, they referred to voiceless and voiced initial consonants respectively, but their ''Shenglei'' phonetic interpretation is obscure. The earliest recorded usage of ''qīngzhuó'' 清濁 meaning "voiceless and voiced" was in the (581) ''Yanshi jiaxun'' 顏氏家訓.

The pentatonic ''wusheng'' "Five Notes" were the Chinese musicology correlation of the ''wǔxíng'' 五行 "Five Phases; Five Elements" theory about ''mù'' 木 "Wood", ''huǒ'' 火 "Fire", ''tǔ'' 土 "Earth", ''jīn'' 金 "Metal"), and ''shuǐ'' 水 "Water". The Five Phases/Elements cosmological system has numerous corresponding sets of five. Many sets seem plausible, such as the ''wǔsè'' 五色 "Five Colors ( blue/green, yellow, red, white, black)"—corresponding to Berlin and Kay's basic color terms hypothesis. Some less plausible Five Phases sets are correlated with naturally occurring sets of four, such as the four tones in Chinese. For instance, the cardinal directions and seasons are stretched into the ''wǔfāng'' 五方 "Five Directions (north, south, east, west, and center)" and ''wǔshí'' 五時 "Five Seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter, and the 6th month intercalcary month between summer and autumn">Intercalation_(timekeeping).html" ;"title="onsidered an Intercalation (timekeeping)">intercalcary month between summer and autumn".

The ''Bunkyō hifuron'' 文鏡祕府論, by the Japanese monk Kūkai (774–835), quotes Yuan Jing 元兢 (fl. 668), author of the ''Shisuinao'' 詩髓腦 "The Bone-marrow and Brains of Poetry", as saying that the ''Shenglei'' Five Tones correspond to the ''sìshēng'' 四聲 four tones of later rime dictionaries: ''píng'' 平 "even/level", ''shǎng'' 上 "rising", 去 ''qù'' "departing/going", ''rù'' 入 "entering/ checked". "There are five sounds in music: ''jiao'', ''zi'', ''gong'', ''shang'', and ''yu''. They are so distributed as to represent the four tones of characters, level (''ping''), rising (''shang''), departing (''qu''), and entering (''ru''). ''Gong'' and ''shang'' are the level tones. ''Zi'' is the rising tone. ''Yu'' is the departing tone. And ''jiao'' is the entering tone." The following tableAdapted from . demonstrates the relationship between the Five Tones and the four tonal categories in the ''Shenglei'' according to this account.

However, the four tones were first explicitly identified around the start of the 6th century, by Shen Yue and Zhou Yong 周顒. Joseph Needham finds it "unlikely" that the circa-250 ''Shenglei'' used ''sheng'' to mean "linguistic tone", as in ''shēngdiào'' 聲調 "tone; note; key; melody".

Assuming that the 10-volume ''Shenglei'' (possibly with 2 volumes for each tone) and 5-volume ''Yunji'' were consistent in format and style, Yong and Peng suggest that the ''Shenglei'' must have already been classifying rime sections that were mutually differentiated under each tone. The stylistic features of later rime dictionaries organized according to rime sections based on the four-tone system, with ''fanqie'' phonetic notations, and definitions, "were basically present" in the ''Shenglei'' and ''Yunji''. The ''Shenglei'' started a new era of compiling special rime dictionaries and established the format and style for rime dictionaries and other dictionaries to come.

References

Footnotes

Works cited

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* CD-ROM ed.
* Wenhai chubenshe reprint 1967.
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Further reading

*Yip, Po-ching (2000), ''The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey'', Psychology Press.

External links

*Mok Kwok Yum 莫國欽
An Earliest Rhyme Book: Shenglei by Li Deng 最早的韻書：李登《聲類》
Chu Hai College of Higher Education

{{Dictionaries of Chinese

Chinese dictionaries
3rd-century books
Traditional Chinese phonology
Three Kingdoms literature