Liùshū tǒng 六書統
The Comprehensive [Treatment of] Six-Script Doctrine by 楊桓 (Yáng Huán, 撰)
About the work
A 20-juàn paleographic dictionary by Yáng Huán 楊桓 (1234–1299), zì Wǔzǐ 武子, hào Xīnquán 辛泉, of Yǎnzhōu. Presented to court by his son Yáng Shǒuyì in Zhìdà bǐngshēn (Wǔzōng’s reign, 1308) and printed at Jiāngzhè by imperial order. Yáng’s central thesis is that all graphs can be brought under the liùshū taxonomy, hence the title Tǒng 統 (“comprehensive”). Sub-categories: xiàngxíng 10 lì, huìyì 16 lì, zhǐshì 9 lì, zhuǎnzhù 18 lì, xíngshēng 18 lì (here from the Zhōulǐ terminology rather than the Shuōwén’s xiéshēng), jiǎjiè 14 lì. The form-display sequence: gǔwén dàzhuàn, zhōngdǐng wén (bronze-script), xiǎozhuàn.
Tiyao
Your servants etc. report: Liùshū tǒng in 20 juàn; composed by Yáng Huán of the Yuán. Huán’s zì was Wǔzǐ 武子, hào Xīnquán 辛-quán; a man of Yǎnzhōu. In Zhōngtǒng 4 (1263) as a prefectural zhūshēng he was made instructor of Jǐzhōu; rose through Tàishǐyuàn jiàoshū, Jiānchá yùshǐ, Guózǐjiàn sīyè; his career is in his Yuánshǐ biography. The book was presented in Zhìdà bǐngshēn (1308) by his son Shǒuyì; an imperial order had it carved in Jiāngzhè. Front-matter: preface by Hànlín zhíxuéshì Ní Jiān 倪堅; postface by Guózǐ bóshì Liú Tài 劉泰; Yáng Huán’s own preface is the most detailed. Main thesis: to bring all graphs under the liùshū — hence “tǒng (comprehensive).” Xiàngxíng in 10 lì, huìyì in 16, zhǐshì in 9, zhuǎnzhù in 18, xíngshēng in 18 (the Shuōwén writes xiéshēng, but here xíngshēng follows the Zhōulǐ wording), jiǎjiè in 14. The four classes xiàngxíng, huìyì, zhuǎnzhù, xíngshēng mostly extend the categorial scheme of Dài Tóng’s Liùshū gù KR1j0034; zhǐshì and jiǎjiè are Yáng’s own derivation. Within each entry: gǔwén dàzhuàn first, then zhōngdǐng wén, then xiǎozhuàn. He says: “for graph-economy and meaning-fullness none surpasses gǔwén dàzhuàn; the trouble is the corpus is small and inadequate for current use; the comprehensively usable script is the xiǎozhuàn, but it is not free of corruption from copyists. With gǔwén as evidence I have here restored the original” — that is Yáng’s self-claim. — Yáng’s lapses are in the same place: when his theory does not fit, he changes the lì (sub-class); when the new lì still does not fit, he changes another lì; after several changes the lines blur into tangled silk. So zhǐshì alone has cases of “zhí zhǐ qí shì,” “yǐ xíng zhǐ xíng,” “yǐ yì zhǐ yì,” “yǐ yì zhǐ xíng,” “yǐ zhù zhǐ xíng,” “yǐ zhù zhǐ yì,” “yǐ shēng zhǐ xíng,” “yǐ shēng zhǐ yì”; jiǎjiè alone has shēngyì jiānjiè, jièshēng bùjièyì, jièyì bùjièshēng, jiè xiéshēng jiān yì, jiè xiéshēng, jiè jìnshēng jiān yì, jiè jìnshēng, jiè xiéjìn shēng jiān yì, jiè xiéjìn shēng, yīnjiè ér jiè, yīnshěng ér jiè, jiè tóngxíng, jiè tóngtǐ, fēijiè ér jiè — round and round, dizzying and unintelligible. — Xǔ Shèn’s Shuōwén is the ancestor of the liùshū; if one tries to evaluate fēnlì, xíngcǎo by his seal-script standards, one is forever blocked. To compose seal-script, the 9,000 graphs are the high-altar; one cannot face away from them and re-write the calligrapher’s craft. Yáng Huán did so against the grain: his fragmentation is not surprising. By the liùshū his book is not worth taking; but the de-novo re-arrangement of the gǔwén tradition began with Dài Tóng 戴侗 and was completed in Yáng Huán. Dài deviated mildly; Yáng broke through completely and did not look back. The Míng arbitrary character-creation of Wèi Xiào and others has its source here. To omit the work would be to mute Yáng’s failures of method; therefore one of his three works is here recorded, to mark where the de-novo movement began. Per Zhū Xī, “preserving precisely so as to nullify” — that is the rationale. Respectfully edited and presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Liùshū tǒng is the most ambitious and most idiosyncratic Yuán-period paleographic dictionary, attempting to reorganize the entire pre-Qin character corpus under the liùshū taxonomy with maximum sub-categorization. Yáng Huán’s six categories together generate 85 sub-classes, and the work moves freely between gǔwén, bronze-script, and small-seal forms. The Sìkù tíyào is severely critical, calling the work the source of later wild liùshū speculation (Wèi Xiào 魏校 in the Míng, etc.) and printing the work explicitly “to make the failure visible” — yet acknowledging the genuine paleographic learning behind it. Yáng Huán is also author of two further philological works, Liùshū sùyuán 六書溯源 and Shūxué zhèngyùn 書學正韻 (both lost or partially preserved), making him a major if controversial Yuán paleographer. Dating bracket notBefore 1290 (Yáng’s mature scholarly period) to notAfter 1308 (the year of presentation by his son, four years after Yáng’s own death of 1299 — the catalog meta lifedates 1234–1299).
Translations and research
- Bottéro, Françoise. 1996. Sémantisme et classification dans l’écriture chinoise. Paris: Collège de France. — Discusses Yáng Huán in the history of liù-shū doctrine.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §2.4.