Unscrambling The Thoughts Of Natural History In Erya

ErYa is the earliest dictionary in our country. The thoughts of natural history embodied in it, especially the classification thoughts, has a profound influence on later generations. In the past, ErYa is studied as a book of exegesis by the academia. For the first time, this paper carried on an integrity research on the system of classification in ErYa, and excavated the social order idea behind it through the system of classification.Category is the core of ErYa. There are mainly four classified characteristics in ErYa:the ethic and politicization of nature; classified theory with organization; thought of Tiandao far and Rendao near; detail of classification. Three categories in ErYa, "the ceremony and propriety", "the astronomical geography" and "the biology", also contain rich thoughts of natural history. The system of classification in ErYa mainly manifested the Confucian social order view, such as activities of human being, loyalty and the idea of social hierarchy. The natural history is an important component of the natural science. It takes human's direct experience of the nature as the basis, closely related to social life. There were also rich the thoughts of natural history in ancient China. As human's starting point of knowing the nature, "the classification" plays a prominent role in the natural history. The essence of classification is order, the manifestation of people's order view in nature. But people's order view is influenced by the social order.Study on the system of classification in ErYa, provide a new way to understand the thought of natural history and the thought of science which are non-western. We can understand the natural view of pre-qin, and test an influence of social order for the natural view.