Liùshū gù 六書故
The Foundations of the Six-Script Doctrine by 戴侗 (Dài Tóng, 撰)
About the work
A 33-juàn paleographic dictionary by Dài Tóng 戴侗 of the late Sòng (fl. 1252–1275, jìnshì in the Chúnyòu era), built on a radical departure from Xǔ Shèn’s 許愼 Shuōwén organization. Its central thesis is that zìyì (graph-meaning) is the key to understanding all texts; if graph-meanings are clear, the Classics and other writings will be intelligible. Internally divided into nine bù: (1) shù numbers; (2) tiānwén astronomy; (3) dìlǐ geography; (4) rén persons; (5) dòngwù animals; (6) zhíwù plants; (7) gōngshì crafts; (8) zá miscellaneous; (9) yí doubtful. With this scheme Dài abandons radical-organization entirely.
Tiyao
Liùshū gù, 33 juàn; composed by Dài Tóng of the Sòng. Per the surname-genealogy, Tóng’s zì was Zhòngdá 仲達; a man of Yǒngjiā 永嘉. Granted jìnshì in the Chúnyòu era; serving as Guózǐjiàn bù he was sent out as Prefect of Tāizhōu; in early Déyòu, from Mìshū láng he was promoted to Jūnqì shǎojiān but pleaded ill and refused to come; thereafter no record. — The work’s main thesis is to illuminate graph-meaning through the liùshū; if zìyì are clear, all texts are linked and all principles intelligible. Divided in 9 bù: shù, tiānwén, dìlǐ, rén, dòngwù, zhíwù, gōngshì, zá, yí. The total reorganization of the Shuōwén radical scheme begins with him. His treatment of jiǎjiè: prior writers took lìng 令 and zhǎng 長 as jiǎjiè, but he denies this — those graphs derive from their original meaning and not from outside borrowing; for example wéi 韋 is “behind” — borrowed for wéigé 韋革 leather; dòu 豆 is “zǔdòu sacrificial pedestal” — borrowed for dòumài bean-grain. Only when there is no semantic motivation and the borrowing is purely phonetic, jiǎjiè is the right term. The argument is well taken. — But all his head-graphs are bronze-script forms; his glosses use clerical (lìshū); the seal forms are also reset to lì-style. Neither current nor ancient — a real obstacle to actual use. Yuán Wúqiūyǎn’s Xuégǔbiān says: “Dài compiled this book in zhōngdǐng wén; the unaware mostly suppose it good, since every graph has a form. They do not realize: many of his forms differ from the Shuōwén and from current usage; ancient and modern shapes are jumbled without method. Zhōngdǐng radical-elements cannot be fully provided, so he supplements with small-seal — sometimes one graph in two ways. Many do not know. Take yuán 寰: in original sound qióng 睘 with the mén added — strictly huányǔ 寰宇; but he reads it as yá 衙府 guān 官. Or cūn 邨: not from cùn 寸 mù 木 — but he writes it as 村 and cites Dù [Fǔ]‘s verse ‘wú cūn tiàowàng shē 無村眺望賒’ as authority — sheer error. Xǔ Shèn cited the Classics in seal-and-clerical script, with Hàn-period propriety; Dài Tóng cites the Classics but does not study the canonical ancient forms; instead he takes recent erroneous graphs and cites them as authority — bāng 鎊, zhōng 鍾, jué 鋫, jù 鋸, niào 尿, shǐ 屎 etc. The character mǎo 夘 is especially un-canonical. This book is a calamity to scholars” — etc., etc. The criticism is sharp, and not without ground; but Dài Tóng’s painstaking documentation is not entirely worthless. Skipping the lapses and taking the essentials, he has not failed to add to the liùshū. Respectfully edited and presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Liùshū gù is the most radical Sòng-period departure from the Shuōwén radical tradition: Dài Tóng abandons the 540 (or 543) radical scheme entirely in favor of a nine-fold thematic taxonomy (shù, tiānwén, dìlǐ, rén, dòngwù, zhíwù, gōngshì, zá, yí). His jiǎjiè doctrine — that the term should be reserved strictly for sound-only borrowings, with no semantic motivation — refines the canonical liùshū. The Sìkù tíyào gives extended quotation from Wú Qiūyǎn’s Xuégǔbiān’s severe critique (mixed bronze and seal forms; idiosyncratic re-readings of yuán 寰 and cūn 邨; reliance on contemporary corrupted graphs as authority). The work was nevertheless influential in the late-Sòng-Yuán paleographic milieu: Yáng Huán’s 楊桓 Liùshū tǒng KR1j0037 is one direct heir. The dating bracket notBefore 1252 (Chúnyòu jìnshì) to notAfter 1275 (early Déyòu) covers Dài Tóng’s documented official career.
Translations and research
- Bottéro, Françoise. 1996. Sémantisme et classification dans l’écriture chinoise. Paris: Collège de France. — Substantial discussion of Dài Tóng’s nine-category taxonomy.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §6.1.
Other points of interest
The Liùshū gù’s theme-based organization (numbers, astronomy, geography, etc.) anticipates the encyclopedic lèishū tradition’s lexicographical mode and prefigures by some six centuries the topical word-arrangement of modern thematic dictionaries.