Piányǎ 駢雅
Coupled-Word Yǎ by 朱謀㙔 (Zhū Móuwěi, 撰)
About the work
A late-Míng Ěryǎ-style dictionary of binomial expressions in seven juàn and twenty thematic chapters, gathering classical and recondite two-graph terms (pián 駢 = “paired”) from antiquity through the WèiJìn period. Compiled by Zhū Móuwěi 朱謀㙔 (d. 1624), a Míng imperial-clansman scholar of broad learning known also for his Zhōuyì xiàngtōng 周易象通 KR1a0044. The author’s principle is pián èr wéi yī, pián yì wéi tóng 駢二為一駢異為同 — “joining two graphs into one [unit], joining different things by their being the same.”
Tiyao
Piányǎ in seven juàn; composed by Zhū Móuwěi of the Míng. Móuwěi’s Zhōuyì xiàngtōng has been recorded already. This book takes from the ancient texts those classical and recondite phrases and compounds, and following the style of the Ěryǎ divides them by chapter for gloss, from Shìgǔ and Shìxùn down through the insects, fish, birds, and beasts — twenty piān in all. His doctrine is “to join two into one, to join different things by their sameness” — hence the title Piányǎ. Móuwěi was deeply read in the canonical literature; the holdings recorded in his Yīzhāi shūmù 一齋書目 often include items the other authorities had not seen, hence the citations are detailed and broad and well-organized — not on a level with the cobbled-together leftovers of country-school pedants. In the body, however: zǎojǐng 藻井 is a square-paneled ceiling-vent cut with seaweed-figures (the Xījīng fù commentary cites the Fēngsú tōng and the gloss is perfectly clear), but Móuwěi has put it under “carved doors” — an unwarranted alteration of older usage. Likewise his calling the Censor-in-chief dūyùshǐ “Dà sīxiàn” 大司憲 and the Zhānshì “Duānyǐn” 端尹 — these are popular usages without canonical authority. As for Shìtiān’s suìyáng yuèmíng 嵗陽月名 and Shìdì’s Wǔqiū sìhuāng 五邱四荒, Tàipíng tàiméng 太平太䝉, Dānxué Kōngtóng 丹穴空桐 — these are already in the Ěryǎ, so the duplicate citations here are particularly bloated. Yet his collection of recondite graphs and rare expressions has retrieved much; cherry-picking the rich passages, he is not without contribution to the literary craft. Respectfully edited and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Piányǎ is the principal Míng yǎ-style dictionary of binomial compounds, organized to imitate the Ěryǎ’s nineteen-section topical arrangement. The Sìkù compilers find the work valuable for its broad citation base — Zhū Móuwěi as a senior member of the Níngfānwáng cadet branch of the Zhū imperial line had access to a private library of unusual scope (his Yīzhāi shūmù records works otherwise lost) — but criticize gratuitous re-glossing of well-established terms (zǎojǐng) and the duplication of items already covered by the Ěryǎ. The dating bracket notBefore 1587 (when Zhū’s scholarly activity is firmly attested) to notAfter 1624 (the year of his death) brackets a long compilatory career in which the Piányǎ was one of his many works on the Classics, divination, and lexicography. The work feeds directly into Qing-period studies of binomial vocabulary (liánmián cí 連綿詞), notably Wáng Niànsūn and the Gāoyóu Wángshì school.
Translations and research
- Liú Yèqiū 劉葉秋. 1983. Zhōngguó zì-diǎn shǐ-lüè 中國字典史略. Beijing: Zhonghua. — Surveys the Piányǎ in the history of Chinese lexicography.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.2.1.
Other points of interest
The Piányǎ is the earliest sustained dictionary of binomial / liánmián vocabulary in Chinese, anticipating the modern dictionaries of liánmián cí by some three centuries.