Guangyun
Encyclopedia
The Guangyun is a Chinese
rime dictionary
that was compiled from 1007 to 1008 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of Song
. Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong were the chief editors.
It is a revision and expansion of the influential Qieyun
rime dictionary of 601, and was itself later revised as the Jiyun
.
Until the discovery of an almost complete early 8th century edition of the Qieyun in 1947, the Guangyun was the most accurate available account of the Qieyun phonology, and was heavily used in early work on the reconstruction of Middle Chinese.
It is still used as a major source.
The Guangyun has a similar layered organization to the Qieyun:
The dictionary has a total of 26,194 character entries, each containing a brief explanation of the character's meaning.
The Unihan database incorporates the "SBGY" (Songben Guangyun; "Song edition Guangyun") dataset with 25,334 head-entries for 19,583 characters.
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
rime dictionary
Rime dictionary
thumb|upright=1.0|A page from Shiyun Hebi , a rime dictionary of the [[Qing Dynasty]]A rime dictionary, rhyme dictionary, or rime book is an ancient type of Chinese dictionary used for writing poetry or other genres requiring rhymes. A rime dictionary focuses on pronunciation and collates...
that was compiled from 1007 to 1008 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of Song
Emperor Zhenzong of Song
Emperor Zhenzong was the third emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to 1022. Zhenzong was the third son of Emperor Taizong. His personal name was Zhao Heng and his temple name Zhenzong means "True Ancestor".Zhenzong's reign was noted for the consolidation of power and the...
. Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong were the chief editors.
It is a revision and expansion of the influential Qieyun
Qieyun
The Qieyun is a Chinese rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The title Qieyun literally means "cutting rimes" referring to the traditional Chinese fănqiè system of spelling, and is thus translatable as "Spelling Rimes."Lù Făyán was the chief editor...
rime dictionary of 601, and was itself later revised as the Jiyun
Jiyun
The Jiyun is a Chinese rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The chief editor Ding Du and others expanded and revised the Guangyun. It is possible, according to Teng and Biggerstaff , that Sima Guang completed the text in 1067...
.
Until the discovery of an almost complete early 8th century edition of the Qieyun in 1947, the Guangyun was the most accurate available account of the Qieyun phonology, and was heavily used in early work on the reconstruction of Middle Chinese.
It is still used as a major source.
The Guangyun has a similar layered organization to the Qieyun:
- The dictionary is split into four tones in five volumes, two for the Middle ChineseMiddle ChineseMiddle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
level tone and one each for the other three Middle Chinese tones, the rising tone , departing tone and entering toneEntering toneA checked tone, commonly known by its Chinese calque entering tone , is one of four syllable types in the phonology in Middle Chinese which are commonly translated as tone. However, it is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable that ends in a stop consonant, such as p, t,...
. - Each tone is split into rimes, with a total of 206 final rimes, increased from 193 in the Qieyun.
- Each rime is divided into groups of homophonous characters, with the pronunciation of each group given by a fanqieFanqièIn Chinese phonology, fanqie is a method to indicate the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters.-The Origin:...
formula.
The dictionary has a total of 26,194 character entries, each containing a brief explanation of the character's meaning.
The Unihan database incorporates the "SBGY" (Songben Guangyun; "Song edition Guangyun") dataset with 25,334 head-entries for 19,583 characters.
External links
- Songben Guangyun, with dictionary lookup – Chinese Text ProjectChinese Text ProjectThe Chinese Text Project is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Digitization Project of Chinese Philosophy Books", showing its focus on books related to Chinese philosophy...
- GuangYun Initials and Rhymes, Dylan W.H. Sung