Shuōwén zìyuán 說文字原
Origins of the Characters in the Shuōwén by 周伯琦 (Zhōu Bóqí, 撰)
About the work
A one-juàn re-organization of the 540 Shuōwén radicals, with each entry given as small-seal followed by a liùshū analysis. Compiled by Zhōu Bóqí 周伯琦 (1298–1369), late-Yuán Bīngbù shìláng, of Ráozhōu 饒州. The companion to his Liùshū zhèngé KR1j0041 in five juàn. Increases or relocates 17 of Xǔ Shèn’s 許愼 radicals from their Shuōwén positions to make the zīshēng (proliferation) of derived characters more transparent; expands the zhuǎnzhù category to cover cases of 90-degree rotation and inversion (e.g., qiū 丘 as inverted-mountain glyph; zā 帀 as inverted zhī 㞢). The two together represent the late-Yuán Zhèngzìtōng tradition — as the Sìkù compilers note: “more refined than Yáng Huán 楊桓’s Liùshū tǒng KR1j0037 but less precise than Zhāng Yǒu 張有’s Fùgǔbiān KR1j0031.”
Tiyao
Your servants etc. report: Shuōwén zìyuán in 1 juàn; Liùshū zhèngé in 5 juàn; both composed by Zhōu Bóqí of the Yuán. Bóqí’s zì was Bówēn 伯温; a man of Ráozhōu; rose to Bīngbù shìláng. Míng Láng Yīng’s Qīxiū lèigǎo records that he surrendered to Zhāng Shìchéng and after Shìchéng’s defeat was executed by the Míng Tàizǔ; calls the Yuánshǐ claim that he later returned to Póyáng to die ill an error. Examining Xú Zhēnqīng’s Jiǎnshèng yěwén — this view appears earlier. But the Sòng Lián 宋濂 Yuánshǐ compilation was during the Tàizǔ’s reign; if Bóqí had been killed alongside Zhāng’s faction, Sòng Lián etc. could not have been ignorant. The Jiǎnshèng yěwén is not an authority. Láng Yīng was probably misled by hearsay. — Xǔ Shèn’s Shuōwén in 540 bù: the sequence of bù sometimes has rationale, sometimes not — not entirely recoverable. Xú Kǎi 徐鍇’s Shuōwén xìzhuàn KR1j0019 modeled on the Yì xùguàzhuàn and tried to make every adjacency intelligible — a forced argument. Bóqí here further increases-or-modifies 17 bù and rearranges to keep cognates together — i.e. to clarify the zhǎnzhuǎn zīshēng meaning. The Xǔ–Zhōu departure is significant. As to “qiū 丘 = inverted-mountain glyph; zā 帀 = inverted zhī 㞢” — categorized as zhuǎnzhù — but this in fact is no different from huìyì; he is making it up as he goes. — His Liùshū zhèngé takes the Lǐbù yùnlüè sub-classes for arrangement, with xiǎozhuàn as head graph; first the structural rationale of the graph is given, and below “lìzuò X-X, súzuò X-X” (lì writes X-X, sú writes X-X) are given for distinguishing — much like Zhāng Yǒu’s Fùgǔbiān’s scheme. — In all, Bóqí’s two books extend the Shuōwén by half and add personal opinion by half; merits and demerits side by side, illumination and obscurity blocking each other. Not as precise as Zhāng Yǒu’s Fùgǔbiān; not as garbled as Yáng Huán’s Liùshū tǒng. Cǎi fēng cǎi fēi wú yǐ xià tǐ — preserve [the works] as one variant interpretation, in the catholic spirit. Respectfully edited and presented in the twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
The Shuōwén zìyuán is the principal late-Yuán attempt to refine the radical-organization of the Shuōwén jiězì — increasing 17 radicals and relocating others to bring cognates into adjacency. Together with Zhōu Bóqí’s KR1j0041 Liùshū zhèngé, the work forms a paired late-Yuán paleographic project: the Shuōwén zìyuán re-arranges the radicals; the Liùshū zhèngé re-organizes the actual graph corpus by rhyme class. The Sìkù compilers position it between Zhāng Yǒu’s Fùgǔ biān (more precise) and Yáng Huán’s Liùshū tǒng (more idiosyncratic). Dating bracket notBefore 1340 to notAfter 1369 (Zhōu’s death) covers his mature scholarly career.
Translations and research
- Bottéro, Françoise. 1996. Sémantisme et classification dans l’écriture chinoise. Paris: Collège de France. — Treats Zhōu Bó-qí’s contribution.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §2.4.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào takes pains (here and at the head of the Liùshū zhèngé) to refute the rumor — passed in Láng Yīng’s Qīxiū lèigǎo and Xú Zhēnqīng’s Jiǎnshèng yěwén — that Zhōu Bóqí was executed by Míng Tàizǔ for Zhāng Shì-chéng-faction sympathies; the official Yuánshǐ (compiled under Tàizǔ by Sòng Lián) gives him a peaceful death of illness in Póyáng, which the Sìkù compilers accept.