Unearthed Classical Chinese Writing Verifies Duan's Annotations In Shuowen

Duan Yucai pays great attention to the Classical Chinese writing in Shuowen. In the book, Annotation on Shuowen Jiezi, he is the first one who gives reasonable interpretations of the statements of Xu shen, namely,"Zhuan Characters are presently employed to narrate, combing with ancient Seal characters". What's more, based on substantial documents and materials, he analyzes and makes textual research into a great portion of Classical Chinese writings which were collected in Shuowen. Due to his contribution, it has far-reaching influence on the latter research into Classical Chinese writings. Some of Duan's discourses have gained abundant affirmation by scholars; nevertheless, owing to the insufficiency of materials, or occasionally his subjective assumptions, some of his statements are biased. Since then, it also has emerged other works, involving the research into Classical Chinese writing in Shuowen, revising and commenting on Duan's previous interpretation. These works quote a great deal from Duan's annotations and are supplementary. However, the materials utilized in these works are mainly from Hanjian, Guwen Sisheng Yun, Yupian and so on; the unearthed materials are restricted in carapace-bone-script and inscriptions on bronze. In recent years, large quantities of Classical Chinese writings have been unearthed, which casts a new light on Shuowen, providing reliable proofs for people to survey Duan's interpretations. Therefore, based on a thorough research on annotations of Duan's, by employing the unearthed documents and materials, peculiarly those of Warring States Period, this thesis attempts to delve and check Duan's discourses.Firstly, the thesis demonstrates unearthed Classical Chinese writings, roughly 282 graphemes, respectively listed beneath 256 prefixes. The graphemes are selected from shuowen and expounded by Duan Yucai. Secondly, this paper compares Classical Chinese writings of Warring States with those of Shuowen, using carapace-bone-script as well as inscriptions on bronze if the graphemes are not found in that of Warring States. Based on the research of He Linyi, an expert on Chinese paleography, this thesis will explore them word by word to verify Duan's interpretations. In conclusion, by summarizing the achievements and insufficiency of Duan's researching into Shuowen, the dissertation attempts to provide a comparatively objective, comprehensive evaluation.