Yuánběn Guǎngyùn 原本廣韻
The Original Broadened Rhyme-book by anonymous Northern-Sòng (early-eleventh-century) compiler, in the Lù Fǎyán 陸法言 / Sūn Miǎn 孫愐 line of Qièyùn / Tángyùn expansion
About the work
The “original” Guǎngyùn of the Sìkù — i.e. the version of the Guǎngyùn that pre-dates the imperially-commissioned 1011 revision by Chén Péngnián 陳彭年 and Qiū Yōng 丘雍 (recorded as KR1j0055). The book is not Lù Fǎyán’s original Qièyùn (Rénshòu 1, 601), but an unsigned mid-stage expansion: between Sūn Miǎn’s Tángyùn (Tiānbǎo 10, 751) and Chén Péngnián’s Chóngxiū Guǎngyùn (Dàzhōngxiángfú 4, 1011) several palaeographers — Yán Bǎowén 嚴寶文, Péi Wùqí 裴務齊, Chén Dàogù 陳道固 — added supplementary characters, and the Sìkù compilers conclude this Yuánběn Guǎngyùn is most likely one of those three. 5 juàn, retaining the 206-rhyme structure inherited from Lù Fǎyán; the gloss-text is markedly briefer than the 1011 revision; the xù of Sūn Miǎn’s Tángyùn is preserved. Critical for the textual history of the Qièyùn / Guǎngyùn tradition: it preserves a witness of the Northern-Sòng Guǎngyùn before the imperial editors expanded the gloss by a factor of 3-4.
Tiyao
The Guǎngyùn in 5 juàn. Compiler’s name not given. Of the Guǎngyùn circulating in the world there are two: one is the Sòng Chóngxiū Guǎngyùn by Chén Péngnián, Qiū Yōng et al.; the other is this. This copy is preceded by Sūn Miǎn’s Tángyùn xù; its glosses are markedly briefer than the chóngxiū version. Zhū Yízūn (in his preface to the Chóngxiū) supposed that the simpler text was made by Míng court eunuchs trimming the wordage to standardise character-count — but the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn cites this version as “Lù Fǎyán Guǎngyùn” and the chóngxiū version as “Sòng Chóngxiū Guǎngyùn”, which proves the simpler version is the older. There also exists a Máshā 麻沙 small-print copy with the same text as the Míng inner-court print, marked “Yǐwèisuì Míngdétáng kān”, with the 13 graphs after 〓 each missing a stroke (taboo on the Sòng Tàizǔ’s name), but observing no other Sòng taboos; Shào Chánghéng’s Gǔjīn yùnlüè takes this for a Sòng print, but that is unlikely. Under the píngshēng graph 東 the gloss “Dōng Bùzī” of this text differs from the chóngxiū version (which has “Shùn qīyǒu”), and a corruption “Shùnzhīhòu” — and Xióng Zhōng’s Yùnhuì jǔyào already cites this text — so it must be Yuán print, not a Míng eunuch’s deletion. Furthermore, since Sòng-period writers tabooed 殷, the chóngxiū version replaces the 21st rhyme 殷 with 欣; this text retains 殷 — proving it is not a Sòng product. Táng poets, finding 殷 too rhyme-poor for verse, treated it as a sub-rhyme of 真 / 諄 / 臻 (e.g. Dù Fǔ’s Dōngshān cǎotáng poem, Lǐ Shāngyǐn’s Wǔsōng yì poem) — the Shuōwén citing the Tángyùn gives 殷 as 於身切 and 欣 as 許巾切, both as 真-rhyme diphthongs, with no link to 文-rhyme; only the chóngxiū version’s gloss “殷 dúyòng (independent), xīn yǔ wén tōng (parallel with 文)” is the Northern-Sòng innovation. The Tángzhì and Sòngzhì both list “Lù Fǎyán Guǎngyùn 5 juàn” — so Lù Fǎyán’s Qièyùn also went under the title Tángyùn. Between Sūn Miǎn and Chén Péngnián, three further expanders are known: Yán Bǎowén, Péi Wùqí, Chén Dàogù — whose names appear in the chóngxiū version. Guō Zhōngshù’s Pèixī shàngpiān still cites Péi Wùqí’s Qièyùn xù (correcting the orthographic confusion between 老 and 考 — the “left-rotation / right-rotation” issue). So those three expansions still survived in early Sòng. This copy is presumably one of the three, which is why Chén Péngnián’s revision was titled Chóngxiū (re-revised) — implying an antecedent Guǎngyùn — and the Jǐngdé 4 (1007) imperial edict states the “old version’s gloss is incomplete,” again implying a prior briefer-glossed Guǎngyùn. Zhū Yízūn, expert philologist that he was, here erred. Note: the new and old Guǎngyùn both pre-date Dīng Dù’s Jíyùn, but their shàng / qù tone arrangement uses Jíyùn’s merged sub-rhymes; the píng / rù arrangement does not. After Jiǎ Chāngcháo proposed merging 13 sub-rhymes, perhaps the Guǎngyùn engravers, finding 豏 / 檻 / 儼 / 陷 / 鑑 / 釅 too character-poor, switched to Jíyùn arrangement, while 咸 / 銜 / 嚴 / 洽 / 狎 / 業, being more populated, were left as they had been. Thus, examining Xú Kǎi’s Shuōwén yùnpǔ, in shàngshēng 湛 / 檻 / 儼 follow each other, in qùshēng 陷 / 鑑 / 醶 follow each other — i.e., the original Táng order. The Yuánběn Guǎngyùn tone-order is therefore inconsistent with itself, but, as the Sòng print stands, we record it as it is and correct the errors above.
Abstract
The Yuánběn Guǎngyùn is the standard name in modern philology for the version of the Guǎngyùn preceding the imperial revision of Dàzhōngxiángfú 4 (1011) by Chén Péngnián and Qiū Yōng. The Sìkù tíyào — based on internal evidence (rhyme-classes 殷 vs 欣, lexical glosses, taboo characters, citation in Xióng Zhōng’s Yùnhuì jǔyào of 1297) — argues that this brief-glossed version pre-dates the 1011 imperial expansion and is most likely one of the three intermediate expansions of Yán Bǎowén / Péi Wùqí / Chén Dàogù made between Sūn Miǎn’s Tángyùn (751) and the imperial revision. notBefore and notAfter are accordingly bracketed at c. 980 (terminus a quo: post-Sòng founding, since the work largely ignores Sòng taboos) – 1011 (terminus ad quem: the imperial revision incorporated and supersedes it). The principal modern witness is the Sūzhōu 蘇州 Zhāng Shìjùn 張士俊 fāndiāo (re-cut) of a Sòng print, transmitted into the Sìkù; the Máshā 明德堂 small-print represents a separate manuscript line. Modern phonological scholarship (e.g. Zhōu Zǔmó 周祖謨’s Guǎngyùn xiàoběn 1937 and his Tángdài yùnshū kǎo 1966) has reconstructed the Qièyùn / Tángyùn / Guǎngyùn lineage in detail.
Translations and research
- Zhōu Zǔ-mó 周祖謨. 1937 [rev. 1960]. Guǎng-yùn xiào-běn 廣韻校本. 2 vols. Beijing: Zhōnghuá. Critical edition collating the yuán-běn with the chóng-xiū line.
- Zhōu Zǔ-mó. 1966. Tángdài yùn-shū kǎo 唐代韻書考. — Standard reconstruction of the lineage Qiè-yùn → Táng-yùn → pre-1011 Guǎng-yùn.
- Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1984. Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology. Vancouver: UBC Press. — Uses the Guǎng-yùn as primary witness for Early and Late Middle Chinese.
- Baxter, William H. 1992. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin: Mouton. — Uses the Guǎng-yùn rhyme-classes as the primary phonological foundation for the Middle Chinese reconstruction.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §1.3.4 (rhyme-books overview).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù compilers’ identification of the Yuánběn as one of the three pre-1011 expansions (Yán / Péi / Chén) was a major textual-history finding, correcting Zhū Yízūn’s earlier surmise that the simpler-glossed Guǎngyùn must be a Míng eunuch’s deletion of an originally fuller text. The Sòng print 朱彛尊 had used was almost certainly the chóngxiū version, not this one — hence his confusion. Modern phonology essentially upholds the Sìkù judgment: the Yuánběn is a witness to the Guǎngyùn tradition mid-way between Sūn Miǎn (751) and the imperial revision (1011).