Research Into The Correction Of Xiaozhuan In Shuowen Jiezi Zhu

Shuowen Jiezi Zhu was written by Duan Yucai,a famous paleographer of Qing dynasty,who annotated Shuowen Jiezi comprehensively,including font,pronunciation, explanation,quotation,and etc.Correction of the font style of Xiaozhuan constituted an important part in these annotations.Researches on Duan Zhu have been much and some focused on gains and losses of the correction of Xiaozhuan.However,few publications demonstrated the success and failure of the correction of Xiaozhuan systematically by using ancient characters information.This paper summarizes the basis and methods of the correction by Duan,and on the other hand demonstrates the gains and losses of the correction of Xiaozhuan by comparing it with ancient characters in unearthed text and the transcriptions of ancient characters.Firstly,it outlines the researches on Duan Zhu dated from Qing dynasty,and makes a little comment on some important books and papers selected.Especially it summarizes the research situation of correcting Xiaozhuan,with the analysis of the achievements and shortcomings.At the same time,the objects,methods and significance of this paper are clarified.Secondly,it analyses the basis and methods of the correction by Duan and categorizes the characters corrected by him.Two ways are applied in the correction.The first way has its base on all kinds of ancient books,including dictionaries and historic documents,and so on.The other way is based on Shuowen Jiezi itself and on pronunciation,meanings of the characters.Finally,Duan Yucai's achievement and failure is demonstrated by comparing the corrected characters with unearthed ancient text materials,including Oracle,Jinwen,and the Warring States text.There are advantages and disadvantages of the correction of Xiaozhuan in Duan Zhu. Taking this into consideration,this paper makes a comprehensive and objective evaluation of it.