A Comparative Study On Beasts And Livestock Words In Erya And Shuowenjiezi

Erya was written between the Warring States and the Qin and Han dynasties.It is one of the earliest dictionaries in China.Shuowenjiezi,written during the Eastern Han Dynasty,was the first dictionary in China to explore the shape,sound and meaning of Chinese characters,and has an extremely important place in the history of Chinese philology.Erya and Shuowenjiezi contain a large number of beasts and livestock words,which are important sources for studying ancient animal-related vocabulary and,to a certain extent,reflecting the connotations of ancient Chinese culture.By studying such words,we can explore the ancient knowledge of beasts and livestock,and also have some reference to further study the vocabulary system of the two books.In this paper,beasts and livestock words in Erya and Shuowenjiezi are selected for comparison,hoping to provide new references for further in-depth studies on the development of Chinese vocabulary.The main body of the thesis,excluding the introduction and conclusion,is divided into four main sections:In the first part,we use a comparative approach to collate the beasts and livestock words included in Erya and Shuowenjiezi,and compare the similarities and differences between the beasts and livestock words from the perspective of whether the word forms and meanings are the same.The second part uses exegetical theory to analyze the similarities and differences in the methods of word interpretation between the two,and concludes that Erya mainly adopts the method of meaningful training to interpret words,while Shuowenjiezi not only inherits the method of meaningful training from Erya,but also adds the methods of sound training and form training to interpret words.The third part compares Erya with Shuowenjiezi and then with the Modern Chinese Dictionary,analyzes the usage of beasts and livestock words in Erya,and sorts out the extinct beasts and livestock words,the declining beasts and livestock words and the active beasts and livestock words.The fourth part explores the Chinese culture embodied in beasts and livestock words included in Erya and Shuowenjiezi,such as ritual culture and farming culture,and thus reveals the close relationship between beasts and livestock words and Chinese culture.