Study On Yan Shigu’s Kuangmiuzhengsu

This dissertation is a comprehensive study of Yan Shigu’s Kuang Miu Zheng Su, one of the existing ancient literatures on XiaoXue in China. In the literature, lots of evidence was cited and all kinds of books were checked, in order to investigate the explanations of words and pronunciation meaning in various ancient books according to searching their root and distinguishing their error. The textual criticism was precise, the source was detailed and the conclusion was also exact. This book, one of the important references on classical literatures in China, related to the knowledge of characters, harmonious sounds, critical interpretation, collation, and so on. Therefore, Yan Shigu’s Kuang Miu Zheng Su was studied synthetically from three parts as follows.In part one, Yan Shigu’s life and writings were introduced. Simultaneity, the significance of the book Kuang Miu Zheng Su was also brought out. In part two, the simple language theory in this literature was analyzed synthetically from the perspective of modern linguistics, and was grouped into five main categories: critical interpretation, harmonious sounds, grammar, etymology and collation. In part three, mainly involving questions on the literature, is a key part of the dissertation. The mistakes of the explanations of words and pronunciation meaning existing in Kuang Miu Zheng Su were corrected. Except the main mistakes in the explanations of words, others were found to exist in the explanations of ancient words, polysemous words, borrowed words and colloquial words. Owing to the lack of extensive evidence during correcting, some points to be corrected were also listed.In a word, according to the comprehensive study of Yan Shigu’s Kuang Miu Zheng Su, we can have a more clear understanding of it, so as to further understand the position and role in the history of Chinese linguistics. Meanwhile, we hope that part of this dissertation could offer some valuable reference for research of Chinese linguistics history.