The (c. 780) ''Yunhai jingyuan'' 韻海鏡源 ''Ocean of Rhymes, Mirror of Sources''

Chinese dictionary 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 ...

, which was compiled by 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 ...

official and calligrapher Yan Zhengqing (709–785), was the first phonologically arranged

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 ...

of words rather than characters. Although the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' is a lost work, several later dictionaries, such as the (1711) '' Peiwen Yunfu'', followed its system of collating entries by the

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

and rime of the last character in a term.

Title

The title ''Yunhai jingyuan'' compounds four words (translation equivalents from Wenlin 2015): *''yùn'' 韻 "rime; rime-class; tone; agreeable sound; charm; appeal; final; syllable final" *''hǎi'' 海 "sea; ocean; big lake; huge group (of people/things); great capacity" *''jìng'' 鏡 "mirror; lens; glass" *''yuán'' 源 "source (of a river); fountainhead; source; cause; origin" English translations include: *''Mirror-origin of the Sea of Rhymes'' *''Mirror of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''Mirror-source of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''Mirror & Origin of the Ocean of Rhymes'' *''The Sources of Rhyme Ocean''

Text

The ''Yunhai jingyuan'' included 26,911 character head entries and comprised 360 volumes (''juǎn'' 卷 "roll; volume"). By any standards, it was a very large dictionary, and "by the standards of the time it must have been simply gigantic". For more than two centuries, the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' remained the most inclusive Chinese dictionary, until the (1039) ''

Jiyun The ''Jiyun'' (''Chi-yun''; ) is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du (丁度) and others expanded and revised the ''Guangyun''. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff (1971:147 ...

'' with 53,525 character entries. Compared with two contemporary 100-volume dictionaries, the 桂苑珠叢 by Zhuge Ying 諸葛潁 (539–615) and the 100-volume ''Zihai'' 字海 compiled under the direction of Empress

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was List of rulers of China#Tang dynasty, Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as queen consort , empress consort th ...

(r. 690–705), the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' was an "even more miraculous lexicographical work". Chinese dictionaries are traditionally dichotomized between ''zìdiǎn'' 字典 "character dictionaries" and ''cídiǎn'' 辭典 "word dictionaries". In the history of Chinese

lexicography Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical le ...

, the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' was the earliest hybrid of a word dictionary and a rime dictionary. Earlier rime dictionaries that only included characters include (c. 230) '' Shenglei'' and the (601) ''

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 ' ...

'', which was revised as the (720) ''Tangyun'' 唐韻. In 773, during the reign of

Emperor Daizong of Tang Emperor Daizong of Tang (11 November 726According to Daizong's biography in the ''Old Book of Tang'', he was born on the 13th day in the 12th month of the 14th year of the Kaiyuan era of Tang Xuanzong's reign. This date corresponds to 11 Nov 72 ...

(r. 762–779). Yan Zhengqing assembled a group of over 50 scholars with diverse backgrounds to compile the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' at his residence in Huzhou. They included several of his literary friends, the Daoist poet Zhang Zhihe, the Chan Buddhist monk Jiaoran 皎然, and

Lu Yu Lu Yu (; 733–804) or Lu Ji (陆疾), courtesy name Jici (季疵) was a Chinese tea master and writer. He is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture. He is best known for his monumental book ''The Classic of ...

, author of ''

The Classic of Tea ''The Classic of Tea'' or ''Tea Classic'' () is the first known monograph on tea in the world, by Chinese writer Lu Yu between 760 CE and 762 CE, during the Tang dynasty. Lu Yu's original manuscript is lost; the earliest editions available date ...

''. In the same year, the ''Yunhailou'' 韻海樓 "Ocean of Rhymes Building" was constructed as the depository for its namesake ''Yunhai jingyuan''. The building was restored in 1666, and is presently a municipal library and cultural center in

Huzhou Huzhou (, ; Huzhou dialect: Romanization of Wu Chinese, ''ghou² cieu¹'') is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province (Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain, China). Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzho ...

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

prefecture. Yan Zhengqing's reference work included not only single-syllable words but also multi-character compounds, and even some ''

chengyu ''Chengyu'' ( zh, t=, s=, first=t, p=chéngyǔ, tr=set phrase) are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four Chinese characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Literary Chinese and are still common in ...

'' "

set phrase A phraseme, also called a set phrase, fixed expression, multiword expression (in computational linguistics), or idiom, is a multi-word or multi-morphemic utterance whose components include at least one that is selectionally constrained or restrict ...

s". This type of specialized dictionary was intended for the composition of poems, retrieving literary quotations, and finding appropriate words for antithetical couplets. The word or phrase entries in the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' were

phonologically Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

arranged by the 106 rime groups of the '' Pingshui'' (lit. 平水 "level water") system, which is based on the traditional

four tones The four tones of Chinese poetry and dialectology () are four traditional tone classes of Chinese words. They play an important role in Chinese poetry and in comparative studies of tonal development in the modern varieties of Chinese, both in ...

: ''ping'' "level", ''shang'' "rising", ''qu'' "departing", and ''ru'' "entering". Note that the term ''rime'' is used, as opposed to common

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

, in the linguistic sense of

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 ...

or Chinese

rime table A rime table or rhyme table ( zh, t=韻圖, s=韵图, p=yùntú, w=yün-t'u) is a Chinese phonological model, tabulating the syllables of the series of rime dictionaries beginning with the ''Qieyun'' (601) by their onsets, rhyme groups, tones an ...

. A dictionary user looks up a word by the tone and rime of the final character, which presumes that the user already knows, or can guess, how to pronounce the character. For speakers of

alphabetic language An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given ...

s who are familiar with easy dictionary lookup, using a Chinese dictionary based on the ''Yunhai jingyuan'' system is very user-unfriendly. Three later dictionaries of literary allusions followed the 106-rime arrangement of the ''Yunhai jingyuan''. First were the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

(c. 1280) 韻府群玉 "Assembly of Jade Tablets, a Word-Store arranged by Rhymes" compiled by Yin Shifu 陰時夫 and the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

(1592) ''Wuche yunrui'' 五車韻瑞 "Five Cartloads of Rhyme-inscribed Jade Tablets" by Ling Zhilong 淩稚隆. Ultimately 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 ...

(1711) '' Peiwen yunfu'' "Word-store arranged by Rhymes, from the Hall of the Admiration of Literature" expanded entries and corrected errors in previous rime dictionaries, resulting in 212 volumes with 10,257 head entries arranged by the 106 ''Pingshui'' rime categories. The (1728) Pianzi leipian 駢字類編 "Classified Collection of Phrases and Literary Allusions" dictionary was the first dictionary to abandon the traditional ''Yunhai jingyuan'' system of indexing words by their last character's rime and tone, and it indexed words by their first character. Most subsequent Chinese word dictionaries were internally arranged by the graphic

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

of the first character in a word.

References

* Footnotes

External links

*Theobald, Ulrich (2011)
Yunfu qunyu 韻府群玉 "The Many Jades from the Rhymes Treasury"

Chinaknowledge Chinaknowledge, with the subtitle "a universal guide for China studies", is an English-language hobbyist's web site that contains a wide variety of information on China and Chinese topics. The site was founded by and is maintained by Ulrich The ...

{{Dictionaries of Chinese 8th-century Chinese books Chinese dictionaries Tang dynasty

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References

External links