Tángyùn zhèng 唐韻正
Corrections to the Táng Rhyme-book by 顧炎武 (Gù Yánwǔ, 1613–1682), the fourth of his Yīnxué wǔshū
About the work
Gù Yánwǔ’s systematic correction of the Sòng-period Guǎngyùn / Jíyùn rhyme-book line — referred to here under its Táng-period title Tángyùn (which Gù treats as effectively continuous with the Guǎngyùn) — by reference to Old phonology. 20 juàn. Each Guǎngyùn graph is examined: where its modern reading agrees with its Old reading, no gloss; where the modern reading is a corruption of the Old (i.e., the rhyme-book copyists have introduced errors), the gloss “gǔyīn mǒu” (Old reading X) is given, with citations from Classics and traditions. The work’s distinctive methodological commitment: where existing rhyme-books only knew “X graph belongs in Y rhyme-class” (i.e., entries should be added), Gù argues that the rhyme-book has graphs that should be removed from one rhyme-class and added to another — i.e., re-sequencing entries between rhyme-classes on Old phonological evidence. The Sìkù tíyào judges the procedure exemplary in clarity and the best of Gù’s Old phonological corrective work — alongside his Yùn bǔ zhèng KR1j0083. The book’s title — zhèng (correcting) the Tángyùn — is methodologically slightly strained: the Tángyùn (or Guǎngyùn) is a four-tone modern-phonology reference, not an Old phonology reference; describing post-Táng phonological drift as “errors” rather than as legitimate “change” is loose. Yet substantively the work stands.
Tiyao
The Tángyùn zhèng in 20 juàn. Composed by Gù Yánwǔ of the present dynasty — the fourth of his Yīnxué wǔshū. The book uses Old phonology to correct the errors of the Tángyùn: graphs in a rhyme-class whose modern and Old readings agree get no gloss; graphs whose readings differ — i.e., transmitted-rhyme-book corruptions — get the gloss “gǔyīn mǒu” with citations to Classics and traditions. Where a whole rhyme-class is in agreement except for a few graphs, only those graphs are glossed (e.g., yī dōng — first dōng); where the whole rhyme-class is in error, every graph is glossed (e.g., sì jiāng — fourth jiāng); where half are in agreement, the agreeing get a brief gloss and the disagreeing a full gloss, and Gù further notes which two rhyme-classes were originally separate in Old phonology and have been wrongly merged (e.g., wǔ zhī — fifth zhī); where a rhyme-class is in complete agreement and unmiscarried, no gloss (e.g., èr dōng / sān zhōng). The procedure proceeds graph by graph: those that should move out, move out; those that should move in, move in. Compared with other writers who, holding fast to the modern rhyme-classification, can only debate which graphs should be added, this method is methodologically exemplary — paired with the same author’s Yùn bǔ zhèng, both are model works. Yet Yùn bǔ is a book of errors, where calling them errors is appropriate; the Tángyùn however is a four-tone-classification, not specifically an Old phonology book; sound shifts with the world — these are changes, not errors — so describing all under “zhèng” (correction) is somewhat loose. Presented Qiánlóng 45 / 12 (1780). General Editors Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Tángyùn zhèng (1643–1667) is the corrective volume of Gù Yánwǔ’s Yīnxué wǔshū: a 20-juàn graph-by-graph re-examination of the Guǎngyùn rhyme-book against Old phonological evidence. The work is methodologically the most ambitious volume of the set: it argues not merely that Old phonology is a coherent system distinct from the rhyme-books (the Yīn lùn point), but that the rhyme-book itself contains transmissible errors that Old-phonology evidence can identify and correct. The Sìkù tíyào finds the substantive work exemplary but the zhèng (correction) framing somewhat overdrawn — phonological drift over a millennium is change, not error. Modern phonology adopts Gù’s substantive corrections but largely abandons his framing. notBefore = 1643; notAfter = 1667.
Translations and research
- Wáng Lì 王力. 1985. Hàn-yǔ yǔ-yīn shǐ. — Treats Táng-yùn zhèng as Gù’s principal corrective work.
- Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1984. Middle Chinese. — Notes Gù’s Táng-yùn zhèng as the prototype for the modern philological practice of using rhyme-book entries with critical re-sequencing.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s critique — that “sound shifts with the world; these are changes, not errors” — is the explicit methodological recognition that synchronic and diachronic phonology are different problems. This is one of the most theoretically advanced statements in the Sìkù tíyào set: it foreshadows by 200 years the modern distinction between historical phonology (the change) and orthography (the system at a specific synchronic point).