Ěryǎ yì 爾雅翼
Wings of the Ěryǎ by 羅願 (Luó Yuàn, 撰) with phonetic glosses by 洪焱祖 (Hóng Yánzǔ, 音釋)
About the work
A thirty-two-juàn expansion of the natural-history sections of the Ěryǎ, compiled by Luó Yuàn 羅願 (1136–1184), with a Yuán-period set of phonetic glosses by Hóng Yánzǔ 洪焱祖 (1267–1329) of Xīníng. Six topical divisions: shìcǎo 釋草 (8 juàn, 120 names), shìmù 釋木 (4 juàn, 60), shìniǎo 釋鳥 (5 juàn, 58), shìshòu 釋獸 (6 juàn, 74), shìchóng 釋蟲 (4 juàn, 40), shìyú 釋魚 (5 juàn, 55) — totalling roughly 50,000 graphs, by Luó’s own count. The yì 翼 (“wings”) in the title declares it a complement that gives the Ěryǎ its flight, in Wáng Yìnglín’s 王應麟 glowing preface phrase: “investigating things with concentrated thought, body and function mutually contained, neither root nor tip neglected.”
Tiyao
Ěryǎ yì in thirty-two juàn; composed by Luó Yuàn of the Sòng with phonetic gloss by Hóng Yánzǔ of the Yuán. Yuàn’s zì was Duānliáng 端良; he was a man of Shèxiàn 歙縣 [Huīzhōu] and during Xiàozōng’s reign served as Prefect of Èzhōu. Yánzǔ’s zì was Qiánfū 潛夫; also a man of Shèxiàn; he served as Magistrate of Xiūníng 休寧. The book has Luó Yuàn’s own preface, Wáng Yìnglín’s preface, and the postfaces of Fāng Huí 方回 and Hóng Yánzǔ. Wáng Yìnglín’s preface says it was carved at the prefectural seat in Chúnxī gēngwǔ (1174), but his Yùhǎi yìwénzhì fails to record it — evidently a slip. Yánzǔ’s postface says: shìcǎo eight juàn in 120 names, shìmù four juàn in 60 names, shìniǎo five juàn in 58 names, shìshòu six juàn in 74 names, shìchóng four juàn in 40 names, shìyú five juàn in 55 names. Examining the present text, the counts agree throughout — except that shìshòu, given as 74, has 85 in the present text. Either Yánzǔ’s postface is corrupt in its character-figures or later hands have added entries; the present is no longer Yánzǔ’s exact original. The book’s source-criticism is precise and broad, well above Lù Diàn’s Píyǎ KR1j0011. Wáng Yìnglín’s praise — “investigating things with concentrated thought, body and function mutually contained, neither root nor tip neglected” — is no flattery. Respectfully edited and presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Abstract
The Ěryǎ yì is the most ambitious of the medieval natural-history yǎ-books and the standard sub-genre exemplar after the Píyǎ. Where Lù Diàn’s etymological method is xíngshēng-driven (after Wáng Ānshí’s Zìshuō), Luó Yuàn’s is observational and citation-rich: he gathers from the Classics, Shǐjì, Hànshū, Sānguózhì, the Hàn–Wèi–Jìn glossators, and contemporary běncǎo literature, providing for each name an extended gloss with multiple cross-references. The author’s preface, dated Chúnxī gēngyín (literally Chúnxī 1, 1174), explicitly positions the work as “wings” to the Ěryǎ, expanding the scope of the canonical work in 50,000+ graphs. Hóng Yánzǔ’s Yuán-period yīnshì glosses 1,500+ headwords for difficult readings, supplying an independent phonological layer. The shìshòu discrepancy noted by the Sìkù compilers (74 names per Hóng’s postface but 85 in the present recension) suggests later editorial accretion. The book is one of three principal sources (alongside the Píyǎ and the much later Píyǎ guǎngyào) for the yǎ-style sub-genre and an indispensable transmission-vehicle for medieval natural-history terminology, especially of plant and bird names.
Translations and research
- Métailié, Georges. 2015. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6 part 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. — Treats the Ěryǎ yì alongside the Píyǎ as a foundation of Chinese scientific botany.
- Read, Bernard E. 1931–1939. Chinese Materia Medica. 7 vols. Beijing: Peking Natural History Bulletin. — Cites the Ěryǎ yì extensively for plant and animal identifications.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.2.1.