Xù Fāngyán 續方言
Continuation of the Fāngyán by 杭世駿 (Háng Shìjùn, 撰)
About the work
A two-juàn gleaner’s-supplement to Yáng Xióng’s 揚雄 Fāngyán KR1j0006, gathering regional-vocabulary data scattered through the Thirteen Classics commentaries, the Shuōwén, the Shìmíng KR1j0007, and other pre-Tang sources. Compiled by Háng Shìjùn 杭世駿 (1696–1773), one of the Bóxué hóngcí prize-winners of Qiánlóng 1 (1736). Internally arranged after the Ěryǎ topical sequence (without explicitly labeling the headings).
Tiyao
Xù Fāngyán in two juàn. — In our reigning dynasty composed by Háng Shìjùn. Shìjùn’s zì was Dàzōng 大宗, hào Jǐnpǔ 菫浦; a man of Rénhé 仁和. In Qiánlóng bǐngchén (1736) he passed the Bóxué hóngcí examination and was appointed Hànlín Yuàn biānxiū. The book draws on the Thirteen-Classics commentaries, the Shuōwén, the Shìmíng and other works to supplement what Yáng Xióng’s Fāngyán missed; the topical sequence follows the Ěryǎ but does not label the headings explicitly. The collection of ancient regional usages is genuinely close to xùngǔ practice. Only — given that he cites as far down as Wáng Yìnglín’s Jíjiùpiān bǔzhù KR1j0017, all pre-Sòng works ought to have been thoroughly canvassed; today, even within reach there are obvious omissions: the Yùpiān citing the Cāngjiépiān (the Chǔ pronunciation of zào 竈 as wù 寤); the Lièzǐ “Huángdì” commentary citing Hé Chéngtiān’s Zuǎnwén (the Wú pronunciation of shùnmù 瞬目 as xúnmù 眴目); the Yùnhuì jǔyào citing Wèi-state Lǐ Dēng’s Shēnglèi (Jiāngnán là 辣 = Central Plains xīn 辛); the Ěryǎ shìcǎo shìwén citing Sòng Xiáng’s Guóyǔ bǔyīn citing Jìn Lǚ Chén’s Zìlín (Chǔ jì 芰 = yúqín in capital, yēyú 雅烏 in Qín, tí 鯷 = jìqí 鯽 in Qīngzhōu); the Chūxué jì and Tàipíng yùlǎn citing the Zuǎnwén (Liángzhōu shǐ 豕 → swine, Hénán zhì 彘, Yúyáng zhū 豬 → bā 豝, QíXú small piglets zī 䝒); the Tàipíng yùlǎn again citing the Zuǎnwén (Qín gǔyè 鈷䥈 = cuò-… 銼鏏); the Ěryǎ shìcǎo shìwén citing the Zuǎnwén on mèi 妹 = wèi 媦 (one’s younger sister, in Chǔ); the Chūxué jì citing Lǐ Qián’s 李虔 Tōngsúwén on NánChǔ měisè 美色 = wā 娃; the Chūxué jì and Shāntáng kǎosuǒ citing the Tōngsúwén on Jìn bó 舶; the Píyǎ citing the Guǎngzhì xiǎoxué piān (lóugū 螻蛄 = Kuàijī xīgū 䗜蛄); the Běihù lù citing Zhāng Tuī’s Zhèng sú yīn on Nánrén niúyángxuè = biàn 䘓; xiánjù 寒具 (twisted dough confection) = fúyú 粰&KR2484; (Hénèi) = huánbǐng 糫餅 = today’s Jiāngnán sǎnfàn 饊飰; yǎntíng 蝘蜓 = Shāndōng □□; jì 鰿 = Wú jìyú 鯽魚 — all these are pre-Six-Dynasties dialect words, exactly fit to “continue” Yáng Xióng’s gaps, but all are missed because Háng Shìjùn drew on too narrow a citation pool. Likewise, his quotations from the Shuōwén’s “QínJìn 聽 but cannot hear; hear but cannot reach — called zé 䏁”; from the Shǐjì jíjiě’s “Qí people call [it] sǎng 顙; between Rǔnán and HuáiSì they call it yán 顔” — these are already in Yáng Xióng’s Fāngyán, so duplicating them is a critical lapse. Yet broadly the citations are precise and dense; among recent xiǎoxué writers it is the one with the firmest grounding. Respectfully edited and presented in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Abstract
The Xù Fāngyán is the principal Qing-period attempt to extend the Fāngyán’s regional-vocabulary catalogue with material gleaned from later sources. Háng Shìjùn worked through the Thirteen-Classics commentaries, the Shuōwén, Shìmíng, Yùpiān, Cāngjiépiān, the late-Hàn / Six-Dynasties dialect glossators (Hé Chéngtiān 何承天’s Zuǎnwén and Lǐ Qián 李虔’s Tōngsúwén are particularly important to the genre), the rhyme-books, and various encyclopedic and antiquarian sources. The Sìkù compilers, who admire the work overall as the most solid Qing xiǎoxué effort of its decade, document a series of major omissions: items already in the Yùpiān’s Cāngjié citations, in Lǚ Chén 呂忱’s Zìlín, and in the Tōngsúwén corpus, all of which Háng could have included. The book has provoked several Qing supplements (Chéng Jìfāng 程際芳’s Xù Fāngyán bǔ and others), making it the seed of a small Qing sub-genre. Dating bracket notBefore 1740 to notAfter 1773 (Háng’s death) covers his mature philological career.
Translations and research
- Coblin, W. South. 2002. “The Pre-Modern Chinese Dialects.” In The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. — Sets Xù Fāngyán in the Qing dialectological revival.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.3.4.