Qīndìng xiéyùn huìjí 欽定叶韻彙輯
Imperially-Determined Compendium of Cross-Rhymes by 梁詩正 (Liáng Shīzhèng, 1697–1763, fèngchì zhuàn) and 蔣溥 (Jiǎng Pǔ, fèngchì zhuàn) et al., on imperial command, Qiánlóng 15 (1750)
About the work
A 58-juàn imperial-Qīng compendium of xiéyùn (cross-rhyme) usage — i.e., a Qián-lóng-era reference that systematically catalogues the xiéyùn assignments found in pre-Qín, Hàn, WèiJìn, TángSòng poetic and prose corpora, organised under the Pèiwén shīyùn 佩文詩韻 framework. Imperially commissioned Qiánlóng 15 / gēngwǔ (1750) per Qiánlóng’s preface; chief compilers Liáng Shīzhèng and Jiǎng Pǔ. Conceptually a successor and partial corrective to Wú Yù’s 吳棫 Yùn bǔ KR1j0059 and Yáng Shèn’s 楊愼 Gǔyīn cóngmù KR1j0069, the work uses (a) the modern Pèiwén rhyme-classes as outer structure but (b) re-distributes characters by the principle of “ancient rhymes shared by modern divisions”: e.g., 江 stands alone in the Pèiwén system but its Old phonology is shared with 東 / 冬 — the book accepts the distinction. Each rhyme-class carries an appended xiéyùn list giving each character with its Old reading and the source-text witnessing the cross-rhyme: e.g., 蒙 with “mòbāng qiē” appended after the jiāng class (Shī-witness); 江 with “hùgōng qiē” appended after the combined dōngdōng classes; 魚 with “yújī qiē” appended after the combined zhī / wēi / qí classes. The Sìkù tíyào praises the work as a methodologically-clean compendium of Old-rhyme evidence — citing only ancient-text-attested readings, organising them into modern rhyme-classes, neither inventing nor over-extending. Praised especially as having broken the SòngMíng xiéyùn polemic deadlock.
Tiyao
The Qīndìng xiéyùn huìjí in 58 juàn. Composed in Qiánlóng 15 by imperial command. Character-count and rhyme-divisions follow the Pèiwén shīyùn exactly; only by the 离合 (separation-vs-union) of modern rhymes does it discriminate among Old rhyme classes. Where the modern jiāng rhyme stands alone, this book treats it as one rhyme-class. Where modern dōng / dōng are paired (tóngyòng), this book treats them as one rhyme-class; modern zhī / wēi / qí, paired, are one rhyme-class — and so on. Each rhyme-class adds an appended xiéyùn list — broadly after Wú Yù’s Yùn bǔ. Wú’s book however lists xiéyùn under each modern rhyme-class; this book lists xiéyùn once at the end of an independent rhyme-class, or once at the end of a paired set: e.g., 蒙 mòbāng qiē added at the end of jiāng; 江 hùgōng qiē added at the end of the joint dōngdōng; 魚 yújī qiē added at the end of the joint zhīwēiqí. — The phonological system’s gradual change is like the gradual change of script types — large-seal to small-seal, lì to bāfēn — sometimes flowing into each other, sometimes wholly separate; sometimes close, sometimes wholly distinct. To use the wholly-distinct sounds in poetic application: although they have ancient witness, they will not match modern usage. The Táng-period Old poems are mostly close-sounds. So 東 / 冬 / 江: the Old reading is shared, but this book makes 東 / 冬 one rhyme-class and 江 separate; 支 / 微 / 齊 / 佳 / 灰: the Old reading is shared, but this book makes 支 / 微 / 齊 one rhyme-class and 佳 / 灰 separate — taking what is not too far from antiquity but workable for the present. — As to the xiéyùn polemic since the Sòng, ever more entangled — some say “庚 closes the nasal, zhēn closes the throat, the two not cross-rhyming,” yet the Lísāo’s jiāmíng / língjūn couplet shows them rhyming; others say “江 originally fluted with 東, 陽 with 庚, the pairs not cross-rhyming,” yet Xú Líng’s fù’s chéngshuāng / yuānyāng couplet shows them rhyming — this clearly different yet that clearly the same; this is cross-rhyming yet that is blocked: each side holds one principle, victory and defeat alternating. Truly “the more one tries to govern, the more one tangles.” This book records only what is actually attested in the Old text-glosses, sorts by category, makes earlier evidence the basis of later application, and does not extend by analogical argument to introduce new tangles. Excellent unraveling. Of the many centuries of gǔyùn discussion, this is the alone that gets the right balance. Presented Qiánlóng 46 / 10 / 10 (1781). General Editors Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Qīndìng xiéyùn huìjí is the Qīng imperial compendium of cross-rhyme attestation, completed Qiánlóng 15 (1750). 58 juàn, organised by the Pèiwén shīyùn (the orthodox 106-rhyme imperial píngshuǐyùn) framework, with each rhyme-class appended a list of Old / Hàn / WèiJìn / TángSòng cross-rhyme citations and reconstructed readings. The work is the methodological successor to Wú Yù’s Yùn bǔ KR1j0059 and Yáng Shèn’s Gǔyīn cóngmù KR1j0069, improving on both by (a) anchoring every cross-rhyme in attested ancient-text gloss and (b) acknowledging gradient phonological change rather than binary “agree / disagree” merger. Compiled under Liáng Shīzhèng 梁詩正 (Hànlín Dàxuéshì) and Jiǎng Pǔ 蔣溥 (Hànlín member). The Sìkù tíyào gives the work an unusually warm assessment, calling it the only methodologically clean treatment of xiéyùn in the centuries of the genre. notBefore = notAfter = 1750.
Translations and research
- Yú Mǐn 余敏. 2008. Qīng-dài yīn-yùn-xué shǐ 清代音韻學史. — Treats the Xié-yùn huì-jí as the imperial-mainstream of Qián-lóng gǔ-yīn-xué.
Other points of interest
The work’s recognition of “gradient phonological change” — as analogous to the gradient change in script-types — anticipates by some 200 years the modern phonological-historical conception of sound-shift as a continuous process rather than a binary state. The Qiánlóng Pèiwén shīyùn outer framework is the orthodox poetic-rhyme system in Qīng poetry.