Comparative Study Of Lei Pian, Ji Yun And Yu Pian

Taking Lei Pian as the anchor point of our study, this thesis applies a comparative perspective to examine Lei Pian and Ji Yun and Yu Pian. Through the synchronic comparative study of Lei Pian and Ji Yun and the diachronic comparative study of Lei Pian and Yu Pian, this thesis analyzes the increase and decrease of characters of these three works, and analyzes the Chinese vocabulary recorded in the large dictionaries of the Tang and Song dynasty from both the macroscopic view and the microscopic view.The foundation of comparative study is ontological study. Therefore, the first chapter is a fundamental analysis of Lei Pian, Ji Yun and Yu Pian. The conclusion we attained here is different from the traditional academic opinion in 4 aspects:1. about the vocabulary of Lei Pian:the prelude of Lei Pian writes that "there are 31319 characters and 1846 polyphones." However, according to our statistics, there are actually 30844 characters,475 less than the original record.2. According to Tan Zhou version and Yang Zhou Li Yuan version, there are 53866 characters in Ji Yun (we cannot take Jin Zhou version into account because it lacks of the first volume). The Ming Zhou version adds another 6 characters to it, so Ji Yun has 53872 characters totally in fact. Thus, the original record of 53525 is inexact; the actual vocabulary has 347 characters more.3. There is no record of the vocabulary of Yu Pian, and the academic circle has no determined conclusion of that. According to Ze Cun Tang's version, Yu Pian has 22803 characters.4. We have our own opinions about questions such as the compilation of Lei Pian and Ji Yun, and the radicals of Lei Pian, etc.There are many recurrent characters in Lei Pian. In the second chapter, we mainly analyze the relation between pronunciation and meaning of the recurrent characters and investigate if the recurrent characters can be amalgamated. We conclude that there are only 647 recurrent characters except the original ones. Of these 647 characters,357 of them can be amalgamated, which include 316 characters with two derivations,19 characters with more than two derivations, and 22 characters with error derivations. According to the standard of modern lexicographical work, all of the 647 recurrent characters can be amalgamated. In this thesis, we also make a tentative analysis of the causes of recurrent characters and the significance of studying them.Based upon the above ontological analysis, we will have a synchronic comparative study of Lei Pian and Ji Yun, and examine the increase and decrease of characters and the differences of characters pattern. The third chapter is a comparative study of the vocabulary of Lei Pian and Ji Yun. The traditional opinion is that the two works have similar vocabulary in general, and even Si Ku Ti Yao does not have a clear idea about that. Lei Pian is a reorganization of the vocabulary of Ji Yun, the former follows the phonetic order, while the later follows the morpheme order. However, the compiler of Lei Pian has not totally recorded the vocabulary of Ji Yun. There is some difference between the two works.Lei Pian has 69 new characters that do not exist in Ji Yun, which include 17 head characters,52 variant characters. On the other hand, Lei Pian deletes 299 characters of Ji Yun, which include 78 head characters and 221 variant characters; there are 267 amalgamated ones, except the 32 error amalgamations, most of the left are variations. 21 characters are degraded to the annotation, all of which are variations. There are 587 characters totally.In a word, compared with Ji Yun, the vocabulary of Lei Pian has increased 69 new characters and decreased 587 characters. Speaking of the quantity, the vocabulary of Lei Pian has 518 characters less than that of Ji Yun.The fourth chapter is a classified statistic analysis of the characters with different forms that exist both in Lei Pian and Ji Yun. This chapter investigates the change of structural patterns, the writing differences and the error characters with the analysis of certain examples, and discusses why the two works have a number of characters with different forms.Studying ancient writing is not only for the purpose of making clear of certain questions about the Chinese writing history, but also for the evaluation of modern writing. The dictionaries compiled in each dynasty would have some ancient characters. The longer the history, the more characters would be accumulated, and the more errors would occur. Great Chinese Dictionary represents the highest standard of modern lexicography and has a deep influence in the academic circle. Nevertheless, it still has some errors. While recording the ancient characters, it has some words deleted, some errors remained uncorrected, some citations left behind, and some meaning explanations ignored. We have discussed these faults in relative chapters and we wish that our analysis would be helpful for the future editing of Great Chinese Dictionary.Newly increased characters are an important study object in the Chinese writing history. Yu Pian is the first Kaishu dictionary of China. The most obvious characteristic of this dictionary is that it not only records the modern characters, but also records most of the ancient characters in the form of Kaishu with paraphrases. Therefore, Yu Pian is the basic coordinate of the study of Chinese ancient writing. Lei Pian is another large scaled dictionary after Yu pian. What are the differences between the two works? In the fifth chapter, we have compared them in detail. The compilation of Lei Pian takes Yu Pian as reference, but there are 1735 characters not recorded, which means the 1735 characters only exist in Yu Pian.1350 of them are head characters and 373 of them are variants. We have investigated the reasons why they are not recorded.Compared with Yu Pian, the vocabulary of Lei Pian has 9557 characters new. The newly increased characters can be categorized into three kinds: 1.6009 head characters with new form, pronunciation and meaning; 2.2900 variants with new forms but old pronunciation and meaning; 3.648 characters categorized in 313 groups with head characters and variants both newly increased. If counting separately, there are 313 head characters and 335 variants. In total, there are 6332 newly increased head characters and 3235 variants.Of the newly increased characters of Lei Pian,2316 of them are cited from ancient works and works of profound scholars. Works being quoted include primary education works and Confusion classic works. Of the primary education works, the most frequently quoted is Guang Yun,1541 characters in total; next is Shuo Wen,283 characters; Guang Ya, 211 characters; Er Ya, 47 characters; Fang Yan, 39 characters; Zi Lin, 29 characters; others, 6 characters. In total, there are 2156 characters. Characters quoted from classic works are 35, from history works are 23, from subclass works are 90, and one from collected works, which counts 149 characters in total. Characters quoted from the works of profound scholars are 11.That is to say 2316 characters are newly increased characters in dictionary. Besides the 2316 characters, the left 7241 new characters newly in Lei Pian almost all of them are created in the Sui, Tang and Song dynasty.