Jíyùn 集韻
Collected Rhymes by 丁度 (Dīng Dù, 990–1053) and 司馬光 (Sīmǎ Guāng, 1019–1086) et al., 奉敕纂
About the work
The Northern-Sòng companion-piece — and successor — to the Chóngxiū Guǎngyùn KR1j0055: a comprehensive imperial rhyme-book in 10 juàn, expanded from the Guǎngyùn’s 26,194 entry-graphs to 53,525 — i.e. an addition of 27,331 graphs, more than doubling the Guǎngyùn. Imperially commissioned in Jǐngyòu 4 (1037) on petition by Sòng Qí 宋祁 and Zhèng Jiǎn 鄭戩, who had complained that Chén Péngnián’s 陳彭年 Guǎngyùn was over-conservative in its retention of older (and now superfluous) glosses. The compilation team was originally led by Sòng Qí, Zhèng Jiǎn, Jiǎ Chāngcháo 賈昌朝, Wáng Zhū 王洙, and supervised by Dīng Dù and Lǐ Shū 李淑 — but per the Qièyùn zhǐzhǎngtú preface by Sīmǎ Guāng (preserved at KR1j0058), the book was actually completed and presented to Yīngzōng (not Rénzōng) in Zhìpíng 4 (1067) by Sīmǎ Guāng himself, who continued the work after Dīng Dù’s death (1053). Maintains the 206-rhyme structure of the Guǎngyùn but consolidates 13 narrow rhyme-classes for poetic-use cross-rhyming: yīn 殷 with 文 wén, 隱 yǐn with 吻 wěn, 焮 xìn with 問 wèn, etc. (the consolidation was Jiǎ Chāngcháo’s specific proposal). The Jíyùn in turn is the principal source for the early píngshuǐ 平水韻 reduction (Liú Yuān, 1252).
Tiyao
The Jíyùn in 10 juàn. The old copy is signed: composed on imperial command by Dīng Dù et al. of the Sòng. The frontmatter yùnlì records: in Jǐngyòu 4 (1037), Tàichángbóshì zhí Shǐguǎn Sòng Qí, Tàichángchéng zhí Shǐguǎn Zhèng Jiǎn et al. petitioned that Chén Péngnián, Qiū Yōng et al.’s Guǎngyùn had over-retained old glosses with fading pertinence — the imperial command was that Sòng Qí, Zhèng Jiǎn together with the Guózǐjiàn zhíjiǎng Jiǎ Chāngcháo, Wáng Zhū make the revision; Xíngbù lángzhōng zhī Zhìgào Dīng Dù and Lǐbù yuánwàiláng zhī Zhìgào Lǐ Shū were appointed to supervise. (Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Jùnzhāi dúshūzhì records the same.) Yet Sīmǎ Guāng’s Qièyùn zhǐzhǎngtú xù says: “Rénzōng commanded the Hànlín xuéshì Dīng Gōng [Dù] and Lǐ Gōng [Shū] to expand the rhyme-scholarship, taking a sweep of xiǎoxué from Xǔ Shūzhòng down through several dozen schools, and bringing them together as the Jíyùn — with Jiǎ Gōng [Chāngcháo] and Wáng Gōng [Zhū] as its members. In Zhìpíng 4 (1067) I [Sīmǎ Guāng] received the imperial regulation to continue this charge; the book was completed and submitted, and an imperial zhào publishing it was issued. Often, in idle hours, I have classified the rhyme-classes by aspiration and tone into 20 charts.” So this book was presented to Yīngzōng, not Rénzōng — completed by Sīmǎ Guāng’s hand, not entirely by Dīng Dù et al. The 4 juàn of píngshēng contain 53,525 graphs — 27,331 more than the Guǎngyùn (the Guǎngyùn having 26,194; the original [Sìkù] copy mistakenly wrote “10,000” — corrected here to “20,000”). Xióng Zhōng’s Yùnhuì jǔyào states: “the old yùn uses píngshēng 1, 2, 3, 4; the Jíyùn changed to shàng- and xiàpíng”; in fact the old yùn uses shàng- and xiàpíng and the Jíyùn is what changed to píngshēng 1-2-3-4 — Xióng’s account is reversed. As for the Guǎngyùn’s indication of tōngyòng (cross-rhyming permitted) and dúyòng (independent) — Fēng Yǎn’s Wénjiàn jì attributes this to Xǔ Jìngzōng of the Táng — the changing and merging of those rhyme-categories actually starts here. The Dōngzhāi jìshì records: “in Jǐngyòu’s beginning, on Chóngzhèngdiàn shuōshū Jiǎ Chāngcháo’s recommendation, the imperial command went to Dīng Dù et al. to expand the consolidations of narrow rhymes — 13 places permitted to share use of nearby ones.” Cross-checked with the Guǎngyùn: in píngshēng 殷 is merged with 文, 嚴 with 鹽-添, 凡 with 咸-銜; in shàngshēng 隱 with 吻; in qùshēng 廢 with 隊-代, 焮 with 問; in rùshēng 迄 with 物, 業 with 葉-帖 — 9 in all — not 13. But the Guǎngyùn’s píng 鹽 / 添 / 咸 / 銜 / 嚴 / 凡 with rù 葉 / 帖 / 洽 / 狎 / 業 / 乏 all match the present Jíyùn’s rhyme-divisions exactly — but show different mergers; only in shàngshēng (儼 with 琰-忝, 范 with 豏-檻) and qùshēng (釅 with 豔-㮇, 梵 with 陷-鑑) does the Guǎngyùn match the Jíyùn mergers — hence those four mergers also belong to the Jíyùn, and the chóngkān Guǎngyùn mistakenly used the Jíyùn to revise its own rhyme-order, displacing the originals. The Jíyùn’s polemic against the Guǎngyùn — that surname-citations and patrilineal genealogies belong to pǔ-records not zì-glosses — is sound; but its excision of cross-readings under each graph (which made distinct senses’ distinct readings inaccessible) is over-aggressive. As a rhyme-book, the Jíyùn’s focus should be sound — yet it includes seal-script and zhòu-script forms, vulgar and elegant forms, repetition and duplicate-graphs as in a character-dictionary — over-extension. The Guǎngyùn and Jíyùn therefore each have strengths and weaknesses; both have remained current and neither can be set aside. Presented Qiánlóng 46 / 9 (1781). General Editors Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Jíyùn, presented in Zhìpíng 4 (1067), is the most comprehensive rhyme-book of the Northern-Sòng — including 53,525 entry-graphs, more than twice the Guǎngyùn’s 26,194. It maintains the 206-rhyme outer structure but introduces a number of cross-rhyme mergers (the so-called tōngyòng expansion) that simplify poetic rhyming for narrow rhyme-classes — 9 mergers traceable from internal evidence (per the Sìkù tíyào’s detailed comparison). The work originated in 1037 under Dīng Dù 丁度 and Lǐ Shū as supervisors, with Sòng Qí 宋祁, Zhèng Jiǎn 鄭戩, Jiǎ Chāngcháo 賈昌朝, Wáng Zhū 王洙 as compilers; Dīng Dù died in 1053, and Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (the celebrated historian, 1019–1086) was assigned to complete it — submitting the finished book in 1067 and afterwards composing a 20-chart phonological key (Qièyùn zhǐzhǎngtú KR1j0058) as a companion. The Sìkù tíyào corrects the conventional attribution to Dīng Dù alone, on the basis of Sīmǎ Guāng’s preface. The work’s principal influence is on the píngshuǐyùn 平水韻 (Liú Yuān 1252, 107 rhyme classes; later 106) — the orthodox poetic-rhyme system from the Yuán onwards — which is essentially a further consolidation of the Jíyùn’s mergers. notBefore = notAfter = 1067, the year of presentation. The catalog meta dates Dīng Dù 990–1053 (which is correct), but he died before the book was finished — the actual presentation date 1067 must be associated with Sīmǎ Guāng.
Translations and research
- Zhōu Zǔ-mó 周祖謨. 1985. Wén-zì yīn-yùn xún-gǔ lùn-jí 文字音韻訓詁論集 (incl. Jí-yùn jiào-běn xù and Jí-yùn xù-lì kǎo).
- Zhào Zhèn-duó 趙振鐸. 2012. Jí-yùn xiào-běn 集韻校本. 4 vols. Shanghai: Shàng-hǎi cí-shū. Critical edition.
- Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1984. Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology. Vancouver: UBC Press. — Uses both Guǎngyùn and Jí-yùn as primary witnesses for the historical phonology of Late Middle Chinese.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2022. Chinese History: A New Manual, §1.3.4 (rhyme-books).
Other points of interest
The displacement of authorship from Dīng Dù to Sīmǎ Guāng — on the basis of Sīmǎ Guāng’s own preface to the Qièyùn zhǐzhǎngtú (preserved in the Sìkù KR1j0058) — is one of the more historically interesting attribution-corrections in the tíyào set. The Jíyùn’s rhyme-mergers anticipate by nearly two centuries the formal collapse of the 206 Guǎngyùn rhymes into the orthodox 107/106 píngshuǐyùn of post-Sòng poetics.