Gǔyīn cóngmù 古音叢目
Anthology Index of Old Phonology by 楊愼 (Yáng Shèn, 1488–1559, zì Yòngxiū 用修, hào Shēngān 升菴)
About the work
A Míng-period catalogue of Old-Chinese phonological readings, in 5 juàn. The first instalment of Yáng Shèn’s four-part gǔyīn (Old-phonology) project: catalogued by the Sìkù as Gǔyīn cóngmù 古音叢目 (5 juàn), Gǔyīn lièyào 古音獵要 (5 juàn), Gǔyīn yú 古音餘 (5 juàn), Gǔyīn fùlù 古音附錄 (1 juàn) — together transmitting Yáng’s lifelong collection of Old-period rhyme evidence. The Sìkù compilers note that the four works in fact overlap heavily — sharing 13 graphs in dōng / dōng alone — and were issued sequentially as Yáng accumulated material rather than as a finished single work. Each adopts the structure of Wú Yù’s 吳棫 Yùn bǔ KR1j0059: full Guǎngyùn rhyme-class arrangement with each entry-graph cross-referenced to its Old-period rhyme partner. Thoroughness of biǎozhèng (text-evidence citation) varies: many graphs in the Gǔyīn cóngmù are entered with only “Shī” or “Chǔcí” without specific reference. Where Yáng departs from Old phonology to invent a xiéyùn assignment — e.g., putting 龍 into the jiāng 江 rhyme to re-rhyme with 封 — the Sìkù tíyào points out that 龍 / 紅 / 封 are demonstrably dōng / zhōng class graphs (citing Yìshuōguà commentaries by Yú Fān and Gàn Bǎo, and the Zhōulǐ Jīnchē gloss). The tíyào concludes Yáng is broader-read than Chén Dì 陳第 but does not understand Old-phonology root-and-branch — a useful raw collection but unreliable for principled research.
Tiyao
The Gǔyīn cóngmù in 5 juàn, Gǔyīn lièyào in 5 juàn, Gǔyīn yú in 5 juàn, Gǔyīn fùlù in 1 juàn. Composed by Yáng Shèn of the Míng — already noted under his Tángōng cóngxùn. Although these four are separately fascicled, examination shows their tǐlì (organisational principles) follow a single book; only sequential issue prevented their consolidation. As a sample: Gǔyīn lièyào under dōng / dōng lists 鞠 / 朋 / 衆 / 務 / 調 / 夢 / 窻 / 誦 / 雙 / 明 / 萌 / 用 / 江 (13 graphs) — all duplicated in Gǔyīn cóngmù, and 5 of them again in Gǔyīn yú — i.e., produced by occasional recall and reaching the press piecemeal. The tǐlì throughout follows Wú Yù’s Yùn bǔ: the full rhyme arrangement of the yùnshū, with Old phonological partners assigned to each entry. But the analysis is often imprecise: the Yì’s Huàn liùsì, Wúwàng liùsān, the Xìcí’s Qián yǐ yì zhī, the Shén ér huà zhī — Yáng marks under Cóngmù’s zhī rhyme: 丘 with only “Shī”, 牛 with only “Chǔcí”, 能 unmarked, 宜 with only “Chǔcí”; under the Cóngmù’s 4 zhǐ rhyme: 婦 cited only via the Xījīng fù’s fángguǐ qiè — none of these is documented to root sources. The Fēng liùèr’s 蔀 / 斗 / 主 — and the Xìcí zhuàn’s 母 / 度 / 懼 — appear in Cóngmù’s yǔ / yú rhyme: 斗 with “Máo Shī”, 母 with “Yìlín” — superficial. — Old phonology rests on root-readings, not casually-shifted xié assignments. The jiāng rhyme’s 江 / 窻 / 雙 / 控 — Lièyào puts in dōng; Cóngmù puts dōng’s 紅 and dōng’s 封 / 龍 (3 graphs) into jiāng. Examining the Yì shuōguàzhuàn “Zhèn wèi léi wèi lóng”, Yú Fān and Gàn Bǎo both have 龍 — and the Zhōulǐ Jīnchē “Gélù lónglè” gloss has 龍 — proving 龍’s root reading is in dōng, not to be re-assigned to jiāng. Likewise 封 is fēng-classed, 紅 is gōng-classed — each retains its root rhyme. The arrangement is therefore methodologically loose. — Yet Yáng’s reading is wider than Chén Dì’s 陳第; what he lacks is grasp of the foundations. So his harvest of pre-Qín / Hàn texts is broad but the placement is often misplaced — leading to contradictions. As his evidence is so rich it cannot be passed over, we record the books while noting that they are to be used selectively. Presented Qiánlóng 46 / 10 (1781). General Editors Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Gǔyīn cóngmù (with its three companions Lièyào / Yú / Fùlù) is a Míng-period collection of Old-Chinese phonological evidence — datable broadly to Yáng Shèn’s mature career (c. 1530s–1559) and probably issued piecemeal during his exile in Yúnnán. Conceptually still within the xiéyùn paradigm of Wú Yù’s 吳棫 Yùn bǔ — i.e., reading Old-phonology as ad-hoc shifts from a Sòng-rhyme base — and therefore, for the Sìkù compilers, methodologically inferior to Chén Dì’s 陳第 Máo Shī gǔyīn kǎo KR1j0072 (1606) and Gù Yánwǔ’s 顧炎武 later Yīnlùn KR1j0078 (1667). The work is significant chiefly as an evidence-gathering exercise — Yáng’s reading-range across pre-Qín texts is broad — that later Qīng gǔyīnxué (Gù, Jiāng Yǒng 江永, Duàn Yùcái) drew on selectively. Date bracket follows Yáng Shèn’s lifedates 1488–1559.
Translations and research
- Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1962. The Consonantal System of Old Chinese. Asia Major, n.s. 9. — Surveys the Wú Yù → Yáng Shèn → Chén Dì → Gù Yán-wǔ trajectory of Old-phonology research.
- Wáng Lì 王力. 1985. Hàn-yǔ yǔ-yīn shǐ. — Standard modern history; treats Yáng Shèn as a transitional figure between xié-yùn and gǔ-yīn-xué.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s observation that the four titles overlap by design — being chronological re-issues of the same project as Yáng accumulated material — is bibliographically useful; later Qīng catalogues sometimes treat them as distinct works.