Qúnjīng yīnbiàn 羣經音辨
Distinguishing the Pronunciations of the Classics by 賈昌朝 (Jiǎ Chāngcháo, 撰)
About the work
A seven-juàn phonological reference for the Classics, compiled by Jiǎ Chāngcháo 賈昌朝 (998–1065) during his tenure as imperial reader-in-waiting of the Tiānzhānggé. It systematically gathers cases where one written graph carries divergent readings depending on context, organized into five mén 門 (categories): (1) “Distinguishing same-graph different-sound” biànzìtóngyīnyì (juàn 1–5); (2) biànzìyīnqīngzhuó (light vs. heavy initials); (3) biànbǐcǐyìyīn (deictic differences); (4) biànzìyīnyíhùn (confusable sounds); (5) biànzìxùn déshī (corrections of received glosses). It was prepared in part as raw material for the imperial Jíyùn 集韻 (presented 1039), and was carved by the Chóngwényuàn at imperial command in Bǎoyuán 2 (1039/11/3).
Tiyao
Qúnjīng yīnbiàn in seven juàn, composed by Jiǎ Chāngcháo of the Sòng. Chāngcháo’s zì was Zǐmíng 子明; he was a man of Huòlù 獲鹿. In early Tiānxǐ he was granted jìnshì status; in Qìnglì he served as Tóng zhōngshūménxià píngzhāngshì; in early Yīngzōng’s reign he was further promoted to zuǒ púshè and enfeoffed as Wèiguó gōng; his posthumous title was Wényuán 文元. His career is in his Sòngshǐ biography. The book was presented during his time as Tiānzhānggé reader. It gathers, throughout the Classics, those single graphs whose glosses differ along with their readings, organizing them into four mén [or, per the author’s own preface and Wáng Guānguó’s 王觀國 Shào-xīng-period preface, five mén]: juàn 1–5 are “Distinguishing same-graph different-sound” — modeled on the Táng Zhāng Shǒujié 張守節’s Shǐjì zhèngyì fāzìlì, and ordered after Xǔ Shèn’s Shuōwén jiězì radical sequence; juàn 6 covers “Distinguishing initials light/heavy,” “Distinguishing demonstrative-this/that readings,” and “Distinguishing confusable sounds” (these are the headings already used in the Jīngdiǎn shìwén xùlù, here separated out as named mén); juàn 7 appends a single mén on “Distinguishing the merits and demerits of received glosses,” covering only nine graphs. The book inherits older diction and is not free of errors. For example: juàn 1, yán 言 bù: under qiān 謙, “qiān is qiè 慊,” beneath which: “Zhèng Kāngchéng 鄭玄 says: qiān is read qiè; qiè is yàn 厭; yàn is the appearance of being closed-up.” Now, the Lǐjì note on this passage in fact reads: “qiān is read as qiè; qiè is yàn” — a gloss of zìqiān in the main text — and the same note continues: “yàn is read as yǎn 黶; yǎn is the appearance of being closed-up” — a gloss of yàn in the main text, and quite distinct from the previous note’s yànzú 厭足. Jiǎ Chāngcháo has merged the two — a real critical lapse. Likewise juàn 2, jī 丌 bù: under diǎn 典 — “the appearance of firm and well-honed” — but the Kǎogōngjì’s “zhōu yù qídiǎn” 輈欲頎典 has the gloss “qídiǎn is the appearance of firm and well-honed,” where qídiǎn is a binomial descriptive — not to be quoted as a single-graph diǎn. Juàn 3, jīn 巾 bù: “shāntóu 幓頭, kuòfà 括髮” — but shān is a graphic corruption of qiào 幧. The Yílǐ note has both: one to gloss women’s zhuā 髽 with hempen shēn, “as in wearing qiàotóu”; the other to gloss the kuòfà (men’s hempen mourning braid done up with cloth), “this uses hemp and cloth, in the manner of wearing qiàotóu today” — i.e. both kuòfà and miǎnzhuā are like wearing qiàotóu; qiàotóu itself is a piece of regular dress (per Yáng Xióng’s Fāngyán: “mòtóu; from the Hé northwards, between Zhào and Wèi, called qiàotóu”; per Liú Xī’s Shìmíng it is xiāotóu 綃頭; alternative names tāodài 韜帶 etc.) — it cannot be glossed as kuòfà. These are all lapses in source-checking. — Yet the [Jīngdiǎn] shìwén is dispersed throughout the various Classics and is hard to use; Jiǎ Chāngcháo gathered the gloss-readings on a single thread and laid out the same and the different lucidly, sparing the student the labor — not unprofitable. Xiǎoxué scholars to this day do not discard it, with reason. The author’s own preface says the work is “completed in seven juàn, in five mén”; Wáng Guānguó’s Shào-xīng-period preface likewise gives “five mén, seven juàn.” Only the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì gives three juàn — the present book, a Kāng-xī-period Sūzhōu reprint by Zhāng Shìjùn 張士俊 from a Sòng print, is in fact seven juàn, so the Sòngshǐ notice is a slip of the brush. (Translated from the Sìkù tíyào via Zinbun digital tíyào 0084001.html.)
Abstract
The Qúnjīng yīnbiàn is the first systematic Sòng treatment of yīzìduōyīn 一字多音 (multi-reading characters) across the Classics. Internally it is organized by Xǔ Shèn’s 540 Shuōwén radicals (juàn 1–5) supplemented by phonological-categorial mén (juàn 6–7), bringing the older medieval material in Lù Démíng’s 陸德明 Jīngdiǎn shìwén into a single, consultable structure. Jiǎ Chāngcháo had been working on the book for two decades when it was used (alongside Dīng Dù’s 丁度 lexicographic team) as preparatory material for the imperial Jíyùn KR1j0057; the Memorial of Presentation (Bǎoyuán 2, 1039) and the imperial command for printing at the Chóngwényuàn are preserved at the head of the SBCK / WYG text. The work is foundational for the development of Sòng phonological scholarship and was used by both Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo and the Qing critics Wáng Niànsūn and Duàn Yùcái. The Sìkù tíyào documents specific errors of source-collation but acknowledges the lasting utility of Jiǎ’s organization. The dating bracket notBefore 1037 to notAfter 1039 covers the closing year of preparation and the year of formal presentation/printing.
Translations and research
- Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1984. Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology. Vancouver: UBC Press. — Treats the Qún-jīng yīn-biàn as a Northern-Sòng phonological source.
- Branner, David Prager, ed. 2006. The Chinese Rime Tables: Linguistic Philosophy and Historical-Comparative Phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. — Discusses Jiǎ’s classifications.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.3.