The is the first

Japanese dictionary have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic d ...

containing native ''

kun'yomi is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with ''on'yomi'', which is the reading based on the original Chi ...

'' "Japanese readings" of

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

. The title is also written 新選字鏡 with the graphic variant ''sen'' ( 選 "choose; select; elect") for ''sen'' ( 撰 "compile; compose; edit"). The

Heian Period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

Buddhist monk Shōjū (昌住) completed the ''Shinsen Jikyō'' during the Shōtai era (898-901 CE). The preface explains that his motivation for compiling a Japanese dictionary was the inconvenience of looking up Chinese characters in the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

dictionary by Xuan Ying (玄應), the '' Yiqiejing yinyi'' ("Pronunciation and Meaning in the '' Tripitaka''"). The preface credits two other

Chinese dictionaries There are two types of dictionaries regularly used in the Chinese language: list individual Chinese characters, and list words and phrases. Because tens of thousands of characters have been used in written Chinese, Chinese lexicographers have d ...

: the (ca. 543 CE) '' Yupian'', which enters 12,158 characters under a system of 542 radicals (''bùshǒu'' 部首), and the (601 CE) ''

Qieyun The ''Qieyun'' () is a Chinese rhyme dictionary that was published in 601 during the Sui dynasty. The book was a guide to proper reading of classical texts, using the '' fanqie'' method to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters. The ' ...

rime dictionary A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book () is a genre of dictionary that records pronunciations for Chinese characters by tone and rhyme, instead of by graphical means like their radicals. The most important rime dictionary tradition ...

, which enters 16,917 characters categorized by tones and

syllable rime A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

s. Don C. Bailey says:

In general, the ''Shinsen Jikyō'' resembles the 'Yupian'' but Shōjū specifically states in the preface that he acquired a copy of this work only in 892 after he had completed his first draft, and that he thereafter used it as supplementary material. Whether or not the format of the 'Yupian''was imitated, a dictionary or dictionaries of the same type must have served as a model.

Shōjū's model balances two traditional methods of collating

: semantic organization like the '' Erya'' and logographic radicals like the ''

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 ...

''. He introduces a novel Japanese system of 160 radicals (''bu'' 部) that exhibit semantic organization. For example, the first seven are Heaven (天), Sun (日), Moon (月), Meat (肉, a graphic variant of 月), Rain (雨), Air (气), and Wind (風). The ''Shinsen Jikyō'' not only reduced the number of radical headings, but also logically arranged them by meanings. Compare the earlier Japanese dictionary '' Tenrei Banshō Meigi'' that uses 534 radicals adapted from the original 540 in the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. The received edition ''Shinsen Jikyō'' dictionary contains 21,300 character entries in 12 fascicles (''kan'' 卷). Each head entry gives the Chinese character, Chinese pronunciations (with either a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

or '' fanqie'' spelling), definitions, and Japanese equivalents (''Wakun'' 和訓). This dictionary notes over 3,700 Japanese pronunciations, and cites early texts, for instance, the circa 822 CE Buddhist ''

Nihon Ryōiki The is an early Heian period setsuwa collection. Written by Kyōkai between 787 and 824, it is Japan's oldest collection of Buddhist setsuwa. It is three volumes in length. Title Commonly abbreviated as ''Nihon Ryōiki'', which means "Record ...

'' (日本霊異記 "Accounts of Miracles in Japan"). The ''Shinsen Jikyō'' is the first Japanese dictionary to include ''

kokuji In Japanese, or are kanji created in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Like most Chinese characters, they are primarily formed by combining existing characters - though using combinations that are not used in Chinese. Since kokuji ar ...

'' "national characters" invented in Japan. The modern Mojikyo computer font software includes character data from the ancient ''Shinsen Jikyō'' and ''Jikyōshū''. ''Shinsen Jikyō'' is the last Early Middle Japanese text to preserve any kind of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, where the distinction is only made between type A and type B ''ko''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shinsen Jikyo 9th-century Japanese books 10th-century Japanese books Japanese dictionaries Late Old Japanese texts Heian-period books