On The Variants Of Tianwen Xiangyi Of Wanbao Quanshu In Ming And Qing Dynasties

A series of folk encyclopedias for the public,commonly known as Wanbao Quanshu(《万宝全书》),have been published by folk bookshops since late Ming dynasty.And there are many versions and rich variants which are of great value to the study on history of Chinese language and writing.Tianwen(天文)is an important category of Wanbao Quanshu,in which Tianwen Xiangyi(“天文祥异”)is mainly in the form of picture and text contrast,recording some ancient explanations about the auspicious and evil of celestial phenomena.This kind of content and form has a long history,through the continuous adaptation and engraving of folk bookshops,the texts are full of vulgarism and errors,showing many valuable phenomena of language and literature.In this paper,more than 20 versions of Tianwen Xiangyi collected in Tianwen category of Wanbao Quanshu in Ming and Qing dynasties are studied on.Through comparative analysis of the variants among different versions,the evolution of Chinese character,collation of errors,pedigree of versions and the value of variants are discussed with the research methods of Chinese philology and literature.The main achievements are as follows.Firstly,this paper collects and sorts out 26 versions of Wanbao Quanshu,combs the origin and development relationship among them,probes into the composition and formation of Tianwen category,and traces the historical origin of the content of Tianwen Xiangyi.Secondly,taking 5 groups of folk characters which have been seen before Song and Yuan dynasties and 5 groups of folk characters which have been seen since Song and Yuan dynasties as examples,this paper analyzes the features and stratum of vulgar forms of Wanbao Quanshu.From the perspective of evolution of Chinese writing,and connecting with the relevant forms in the unearthed and extant physical literature,this paper examines the emergence age,generation mode and rheological context of the various forms involved in each group,expounds the inheritance and homograph of the folk characters in Wanbao Quanshu,and probes into the language and writing factors in the evolution of graphic forms.Thirdly,based on the analysis of 7 groups of false characters related to folk characters and 10 groups of false characters related to engraving,combined with the relevant graphic in the materials of the same era and the previous era,this paper discusses the causes and tracks of the corruption,and analyzes the variation law of the character behind them.Finally,this paper makes a comparative analysis of the relationship between Tianwen Xiangyi in Wanbao Quanshu and the contents of various Xiangyi(祥异)books.Then,taking 10 groups of errors in images and texts as examples,this paper expounds the phenomenon of errors in Wanbao Quanshu in Ming and Qing dynasties,analyzes some characteristics of popular literature in the process of spreading,and summarizes the genealogy of Tianwen Xiangyi in different versions by integrating the variants of words,sentences,glyphs and textual structures.