Erya

Oldest surviving Chinese dictionary (3rd-century BCE)

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Erya

Erya exhibit at Chinese Dictionary Museum (Jincheng, Shanxi)

Chinese name
Traditional Chinese| 爾雅
Simplified Chinese| 尔雅
Literal meaning| approaching what is correct
| Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin| Ěryǎ
Wade–Giles| Erh3-ya3
IPA| [àɚ.jà]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization| Yíh-ngáah
Jyutping| Ji5-ngaa5
IPA| [ji˩˧.ŋa˩˧]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ| Ní-ngá
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese| /ȵiᴇX ŋˠaX/
Old Chinese
Baxter–Sagart (2014)| *n[e][r]ʔ N-ɢˤraʔ
Zhengzhang| /*njelʔ ŋraːʔ/
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet| Nhĩ Nhã
Chữ Hán| 爾雅
Korean name
Hangul| 이아
Hanja| 爾雅
| Transcriptions

Revised Romanization| Ia
Japanese name
Kanji| 爾雅
Kana| じが
| Transcriptions

Romanization| Jiga

The Erya or Erh-ya is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. The sinologist Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC."[1]

## Title

[edit]

Chinese scholars interpret the first title character ěr (爾; "you, your; adverbial suffix") as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous ěr (邇; "near; close; approach"), and believe the second yǎ (雅; "proper; correct; refined; elegant") refers to words or language.[2] According to W. South Coblin: "The interpretation of the title as something like 'approaching what is correct, proper, refined' is now widely accepted".[3] It has been translated as "The Literary Expositor" or "The Ready Rectifier" (both by Legge), "Progress Towards Correctness" (von Rosthorn), "Near Correct" (Xue), "The Semantic Approximator" (Needham), and "Approaching Elegance" (Mair).

## History

[edit]

The book's author is unknown. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, or his disciples, scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre-Qin texts, especially the Classic of Poetry. Joseph Needham et al. place the Erya's compilation between the late 4th and early 2nd centuries BCE, with the possible existence of some core text material dating back to the 6th century BCE and continued additions to the text as late as the 1st century BCE.[4]

The first attempts to date the different parts of the Erya separately began when the Tang scholar Lu Deming (556–627) suggested that the Duke of Zhou only compiled the Shigu (Chinese: 釋詁; pinyin: Shìgǔ) chapter (1), while the rest of the text dated from later.[5] The Japanese historian and sinologist Naitō Konan analyzed the Erya text. They concluded it originated in the early Warring States period, with the Jixia Academy having a considerable hand in it from c. 325 BCE onwards. The text was enlarged and stabilized during the Qin and Western Han dynasty. Naitō connects the Shigu chapter (1) with the first generations of the Confucian School (450-400 BCE), places the family relationships, astronomy, and meteorology chapters (4-8) in the time of Xun Qing 荀卿 (300-230 BCE) with additions as late as 90 BCE, allocates the geographical chapters (9-12) to the late Warring States, Qin, and beginning of Han (300-200 BCE), puts the natural history chapters (13-18) between 300 and 160 BCE, and ascribes the last chapter (19) on domestic animals to the time of Emperor Wen or Emperor Jing of Han (180 to 140 BCE).

The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han dynasty, and Song dynasty Confucians officially categorized it as one of the Thirteen Classics, "making it one of the more revered works in the history of Chinese literature, not to mention lexicography".[6] Although the only ancient Erya commentary that has come down to us is the (c. 310) Erya zhu (爾雅注, "Erya Commentary") by Guo Pu (276–324), there were others, including the (early 1st century) Erya Fanshi zhu (爾雅樊氏注, "Mr. Fan's Erya Commentary") by Liu Xin, and the (late 3rd century) Erya Yinyi (爾雅音義, "Sounds and Meanings of Erya") by Sun Yan, which popularized the fanqie system of pronunciation glosses.[4]

Most of these texts about the Erya were still extant in the Tang dynasty (618-907) but had disappeared by the Song dynasty (960-1279), when there was a revival of interest in the Erya.[7] The Northern Song dynasty scholar Xing Bing (邢昺) wrote the (c. 1000) Erya shu (爾雅疏, "Erya Subcommentary"), which quoted many descriptions from both ordinary literature and medicinal bencao (本草, "pharmacopoeia; herbal") texts. A century later, Lu Dian (陸佃) wrote the (1096) Piya ("Increased [Er]ya") and the (1099) Erya Xinyi (爾雅新義 "New Interpretations of the Erya") commentary. The Southern Song dynasty scholar Luo Yuan (羅願) subsequently wrote the (1174) Eryayi (爾雅翼, "Wings to the Erya") interpretation. During the Qing dynasty, Shao Jinhan (邵晋涵, 1743–1796) published the Erya Zhengyi (爾雅正義, "Correct Meanings of the Erya") and the naturalist Hao Yixing (郝懿行) wrote the (1808-1822) Erya yishu (爾雅義疏, "Subcommentary on Meanings of the Erya").

In the history of Chinese lexicography, nearly all dictionaries were collated by graphic systems of character radicals, which were first introduced in the Shuowen Jiezi. However, a few notable exceptions, called yashu 雅書 "[Er]ya-type books", adopted collation by semantic categories such as Heaven and Earth. The Ming dynasty scholar Lang Kuijin (郎奎金) categorized and published the Wuya (五雅 "Five [Er]yas"): Erya, (c. 150 BCE) Xiao Erya ("Little Erya"), (c. 200) Yiya ("Lost Erya" or the Shiming), (c. 230) Guangya ("Expanded Erya"), and (1125) Piya ("Increased Erya"). The more important Erya-type books of the subsequent period are the 1579 Tongya (通雅, Analogous to Erya) compiled by Fang Yizhi (方以智), 1587 Pianya (駢雅, A Book of Two-Syllable Words) by Zhu Mouwei (朱謀㙔), c. 1745 Bieya (別雅, Another Erya) by Wu Yujin (吴玉搢), and 1864 Dieya (疊雅, A Book of Double-Syllable Words) by Shi Menglan (史夢蘭).[8] Chinese leishu encyclopedias, such as the (1408) Yongle Encyclopedia, were also semantically arranged. Needham takes the Erya's derivative literature as the main line of descent for the encyclopedia in China.[7]

## Content

[edit]

The Erya has been described as a dictionary, glossary, synonymicon, thesaurus, and encyclopaedia. Karlgren explains that the book "is not a dictionary in abstracto, it is a collection of direct glosses to concrete passages in ancient texts."[9] The received text contains 2094 entries, covering about 4300 words, and a total of 13,113 characters. It is divided into nineteen sections, the first of which is subdivided into two parts. The title of each chapter combines shi ("explain; elucidate") with a term describing the words under definition. Seven chapters (4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18, and 19) are organized into taxonomies. For instance, chapter 4 defines terms for: paternal clan (宗族), maternal relatives (母黨), wife's relatives (妻黨), and marriage (婚姻). The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining abstract words and the last sixteen semantically arranged chapters defining concrete words. The last seven - concerning grasses, trees, insects and reptiles, fish, birds, wild animals, and domestic animals - describe more than 590 kinds of flora and fauna. It is a notable document of natural history and historical biogeography.

Chapter  | Chinese | Pinyin | Translation  | Subject

|
|
|
|

1  | 釋詁 | Shigu  | Explaining the Old [Words]  | verbs, adjectives, adverbs, grammatical particles
2  | 釋言 | Shiyan  | Explaining Words  | verbs, adjectives, adverbs
3  | 釋訓 | Shixun  | Explaining Instructions  | adjectives, adverbs, mostly with reduplication
4  | 釋親 | Shiqin  | Explaining Relatives  | kinship, marriage
5  | 釋宮 | Shigong  | Explaining Dwellings  | architecture, engineering
6  | 釋器 | Shiqi  | Explaining Utensils  | tools, weapons, clothing, and their uses
7  | 釋樂 | Shiyue  | Explaining Music  | music, musical instruments, dancing
8  | 釋天 | Shitian  | Explaining Heaven  | astronomy, astrology, meteorology, calendar
9  | 釋地 | Shidi  | Explaining Earth  | geography, geology, some regional lore
10  | 釋丘 | Shiqiu  | Explaining Hills  | topography, Fengshui terms
11  | 釋山 | Shishan  | Explaining Mountains  | mountains, famous mountains
12  | 釋水 | Shishui  | Explaining Rivers  | rivers, navigation, irrigation, boating
13  | 釋草 | Shicao  | Explaining Plants  | grasses, herbs, grains, vegetables
14  | 釋木 | Shimu  | Explaining Trees  | trees, shrubs, some botanical terms
15  | 釋蟲 | Shichong  | Explaining Insects  | insects, spiders, reptiles, etc.
16  | 釋魚 | Shiyu  | Explaining Fishes  | fish, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles, etc.
17  | 釋鳥 | Shiniao  | Explaining Birds  | wildfowl, ornithology
18  | 釋獸 | Shishou  | Explaining Beasts  | wild animals, legendary animals
19  | 釋畜 | Shichu  | Explaining Domestic Animals  | livestock, pets, poultry, some zoological terms

The format of Erya definitions varies between the first section treating common terms (chapters 1–3) and the second treating specialized terms (4-19). Entries for common terms are defined by grouping synonyms or near-synonyms and explaining them in terms of a more commonly used word, and additional explanations if one of the words had multiple meanings. For instance, "Qiáo (喬), sōng (嵩), and chóng (崇) all mean 'high' (高). Chóng also means 'to fill' (充)." (ch. 1). Entries for specialized terms are defined by grouping related words and giving them a description, explanation, classification, or comparison. For example: "A woman calls her husband's father jiù (舅), and her husband's mother gū (姑). While alive they are called jūnjiù (君舅) and jūngū (君姑). After their death they are called xiānjiù (先舅) and xiāngū (先姑).[10]

Owing to its laconic lexicographical style, the Erya is one of a few Chinese classics that have not been fully translated into English.

## See also

[edit]

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Erya (in Chinese)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erya.

* Xiao Erya
* Shiming
* Guangya
* Piya
* Urra=hubullu, Babylonian glossary

## References

[edit]

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Karlgren 1931, p. 49.
2. ^ Shiming (Explanations of Names) "Explaining the Classics" Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 version p. 107 of 142 quote: "《爾雅》，爾，昵也；昵，近也；雅，義也；義，正也。五方之言不同，皆以近正為主也。" rough translation: "Erya: 爾 ěr, it's 'close'; 'close', it's 'near'. 雅 yǎ, it's 'the mean / meaning'; 'the mean / meaning', it's correctness. Words in five regions are not similar, yet all are priotized to be near correctness."
3. ^ Coblin 1993, p. 94.
4. ^ a b Needham 1986, p. 191.
5. ^ Needham 1986, p. 190.
6. ^ Creamer 1992, p. 112.
7. ^ a b Needham 1986, p. 192.
8. ^ tr. Xue 1982, p. 155.
9. ^ Karlgren 1931, p. 46.
10. ^ ch. 4, tr. Xue 1982, p. 151

### Sources

[edit]

* Coblin, W. South (1993). "Erh ya" 爾雅. In Loewe, Michael (ed.). Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China; Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley. pp. 94–99. ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
* Creamer, Thomas B. I. (1992). "Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language". In Ladislav Zgusta (ed.). History, Languages, and Lexicographers. Niemeyer. pp. 105–135.105-135&rft.pub=Niemeyer&rft.date=1992&rft.aulast=Creamer&rft.aufirst=Thomas+B.+I.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Erya" class="Z3988">
* Karlgren, Bernhard (1931). "The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (3): 1–59.1-59&rft.date=1931&rft.aulast=Karlgren&rft.aufirst=Bernhard&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Erya" class="Z3988">
* Mair, Victor H. (1998). "Tzu-shu 字書 or tzu-tien 字典 (dictionaries)". In William H. Nienhauser, Jr. (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Vol. 2\. SMC Publishing. pp. 165–172\. ISBN 978-0253334565.字書Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text+or+tzu-tien+字典Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text+(dictionaries)&rft.btitle=The+Indiana+Companion+to+Traditional+Chinese+Literature&rft.pages=165-172&rft.pub=SMC+Publishing&rft.date=1998&rft.isbn=978-0253334565&rft.aulast=Mair&rft.aufirst=Victor+H.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Erya" class="Z3988">
* Needham, Joseph; Lu, Gwei-djen; Huang, Hsing-Tsung (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6 Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1 Botany. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521087315.
* Von Rosthorn, A. (1975). "The Erh-ya and Other Synonymicons". Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 10 (3): 137–145.137-145&rft.date=1975&rft.aulast=Von+Rosthorn&rft.aufirst=A.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Erya" class="Z3988">
* Xue, Shiqi (1982). "Chinese Lexicography Past and Present". Dictionaries. 4: 151–169\. doi:10.1353/dic.1982.0009.151-169&rft.date=1982&rft_id=info:doi/10.1353/dic.1982.0009&rft.aulast=Xue&rft.aufirst=Shiqi&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Erya" class="Z3988">

## External links

[edit]

* The Erya Complete text in Chinese
* The Erya 爾雅 Dictionary, Chinaknowledge article
* photo of a rare Song dynasty edition in National Palace Museum (Taipei)

* v
* t
* e

Dictionaries for scripts using Chinese characters

Monolingual|

| Characters
(字; zì)|

* Shizhoupian 史籀篇 (first millennium BCE)
* Erya 爾雅 (c. 3rd century BC)
* Cangjiepian 倉頡篇 (c. 220 BC)
* Jijiupian 急就篇 (c. 40 BC)
* Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 (2nd century)
* Shiming 釋名 (c. 200)
* Guangya 廣雅 (c. 230)
* Xiao Erya 小爾雅 (3rd century)
* Zilin 字林 (c. 350)
* Ziyuan 字苑 (c. 4th century)
* Yupian 玉篇 (c. 543)
* Ganlu Zishu 干祿字書 (c. 7th century)
* Leipian 類篇 (1066)
* Piya 埤雅 (c. 11th century)
* Zitong 字通 (1254)
* Zihui 字彙 (1615)
* Zhengzitong 正字通 (1627)
* Kangxi Dictionary 康熙字典 (1716)
* Shuowen Jiezi Zhu 說文解字注 (1815)
* Zhonghua Da Zidian 中華大字典 (1915)
* Xinhua Dictionary 新华字典 (1957)
* Hanyu Da Zidian 漢語大字典 (1989)
* Zhonghua Zihai 中华字海 (1994)

|

Words
(詞／词; cí)|

* Ciyuan 辭源 (1915)
* Ministry of Education Mandarin Chinese Dictionary 教育部國語辭典 (1926)
* Cihai 辭海 (1938)
* Zhongwen Da Cidian 中文大辭典 (1968)
* Xiandai Hanyu Cidian 现代汉语词典 (1978)
* Hanyu Da Cidian 漢語大詞典 (1994)
* Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian 现代汉语规范词典 (2004)

Rime|

* Shenglei 聲類 (c. 230)
* Qieyun 切韻 (601)
* Kanmiu Buque Qieyun 刊謬補缺切韻 (706)
* Tangyun 唐韻 (732)
* Yunhai jingyuan 韻海鏡源 (780)
* Guangyun 廣韻 (1008)
* Jiyun 集韻 (1037)
* Yunjing 韻鏡 (1161)
* Qiyin lüe 七音略 (before 1161)
* Pingshui Yun 平水韻 (c. 12th century)
* Menggu Ziyun 蒙古字韻 (14th century)
* Zhongyuan Yinyun 中原音韻 (1324)
* Qi Lin Bayin 戚林八音 (17th century)
* Peiwen Yunfu 佩文韻府 (1711)

Varieties|

* Fangyan 方言 (c. 1st century)
* Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects 現代漢語方言大詞典 (2002)

Exegetical|

* Jingdian Shiwen 經典釋文 (c. 583)
* Yiqiejing Yinyi (Xuanying) 一切經音義 (玄英) (c. 649)
* Yiqiejing Yinyi (Huilin) 一切經音義 (慧琳) (c. 807)
* Longkan Shoujian 龍龕手鑒 (997)

Biographical|

* Zhongguo Renming Dacidian 中國人名大辭典 (1921)

Bilingual|

| Chinese–English|

* A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1823)
* Medhurst's Chinese and English Dictionary (1842)
* A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1874)
* A Chinese–English Dictionary (1892)
* The Five Thousand Dictionary (1926)
* Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary (1931)
* Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese (1947)
* Grammata Serica Recensa (1957)
* Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (1972)
* ABC Chinese–English Dictionary (1996)

| Online|

* CEDICT (1997)

|

In other languages|

* Pearl in the Palm (Tangut; 12th century)
* Pentaglot Dictionary (Manchu; 1794)
* Dai Kan-Wa Jiten (Japanese; 1960)
* Le Grand Ricci (French; 2001)
* Han-Han Dae Sajeon (Korean)

List of Chinese dictionaries

* v
* t
* e

Chinese classics and Confucian texts

Four Books|

* Great Learning
* Doctrine of the Mean
* Analects
* Mencius

Five Classics|

* Classic of Poetry
* Book of Documents
* Book of Rites
* I Ching
* Spring and Autumn Annals

Thirteen Classics|

* Classic of Poetry
* Book of Documents
* Rites of Zhou
* Etiquette and Ceremonial
* Book of Rites
* I Ching
* Commentary of Zuo
* Commentary of Gongyang
* Commentary of Guliang
* Analects
* Erya
* Classic of Filial Piety
* Mencius

San Bai Qian|

* Three Character Classic
* Hundred Family Surnames
* Thousand Character Classic

Seven Military Classics|

* The Art of War
* The Methods of the Sima
* Six Secret Teachings
* Wei Liaozi
* Wu Zi
* Three Strategies of Huang Shigong
* Questions and Replies between Tang Taizong and Li Weigong

Mathematics|

* Book on Numbers and Computation
* The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art
* Zhoubi Suanjing
* Shushu Jiyi
* Haidao Suanjing
* Sunzi Suanjing
* Ten Computational Canons

Others|

* Bai Hu Tong
* Biographies of Exemplary Women
* Classic of Music
* Four Books for Women
* Lessons for Women
* School Sayings of Confucius
* The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars
* Xunzi

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa