Zì zhǐ 字指
A Guide to Graphs by 李彤 (撰)
About the work
A modern reconstruction of 李彤 Lǐ Tóng’s lost Zì zhǐ 字指, a Jìn-period paleographic glossary recorded in the Suí shū jīngjí zhì 隋書‧經籍志 (xiǎoxué) in two juàn. Lǐ Tóng’s paleographic compilations (Zì zhǐ plus the parallel-title Jí gǔ zì 集古字 / Jí zì 集字 / Qí zì 奇字 — frequently cited together by Guō Zhōngshù KR1j0026 Hànjiǎn) constitute one of the most important Jìn paleographic reference suites; all are lost. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2f1215) draws principally from Guō Zhōngshù’s Hànjiǎn, the Guǎngyùn 廣韻, and Buddhist yīnyì citations.
Abstract
The surviving fragments are almost all in the Hànjiǎn paleographic-gloss format: archaic graph (here rendered &-;) → current-script equivalent. Representative entries: an archaic graph = qú 衢 (cited by Guō Zhōngshù as “from Lǐ Tóng’s Jí zì 集字”); another archaic graph = jǐng 穽 (same source).
The textual pattern 郭忠恕《汗簡》卷上上之二引李彤《集字》 (“Hànjiǎn 卷上上 2 cites Lǐ Tóng’s Jí zì”) is the principal evidence for connecting the surviving paleographic citations to Lǐ Tóng’s Zì zhǐ (and its sister-works); the CHANT editor treats Zì zhǐ, Jí zì, Jí gǔ zì, and Qí zì as a single referenced corpus.
Dating bracket (280–420): broad Jìn span; no firmer evidence preserved. Lǐ Tóng has no documented court office.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located.
- Rén Dàchūn 任大椿, Xiǎoxué gōuchén 小學鉤沈.
- Mǎ Guóhàn 馬國翰, Yùhánshānfáng jíyìshū 玉函山房輯佚書.
Other points of interest
Lǐ Tóng’s Jí zì / Jí gǔ zì / Qí zì parallel titles raise a textual-bibliographic problem unresolved since the Qīng: whether they are alternative names for the same work, separate compilations of differing periods of Lǐ Tóng’s career, or partly-overlapping recensions. Rén Dàchūn treats them as separate; CHANT treats them as a single citation-corpus; modern Chinese scholarship has yet to decide.
Links
- Suí shū jīngjí zhì — xiǎoxué: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=613103
- Hànjiǎn: see KR1j0026