Zì tǒng 字統
A Comprehensive Treatment of Graphs by 楊承慶 (撰)
About the work
A modern reconstruction of 楊承慶 Yáng Chéngqìng’s lost Zì tǒng 字統 — one of the most ambitious Northern Wèi 北魏 character lexicons. Suí shū jīngjí zhì 隋書‧經籍志 records the work in twenty juàn, comparable in scale to Gù Yěwáng’s Yùpiān KR1j0022 (30 juàn) and a major work in the Shuōwén / Yùpiān lineage. It was lost between the Táng and Sòng. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2f1222) draws principally from Gù Yěwáng’s Yùpiān (in the Sòng Chóngxiū recension and in Japanese Yùpiān fragments), the Guǎngyùn 廣韻, and Shì Xuányìng 釋元應’s Yīqièjīng yīnyì 一切經音義.
Abstract
The Zì tǒng — its title “Comprehensive Treatment of Graphs” — was a systematic character lexicon in the bù-shǒu 部首 (radical) format inherited from the Shuōwén. Surviving fragments show short head-graph + meaning gloss + (sometimes) literary attestation.
Representative entries: nà 蒳 = “xiāng-cǎo 香草, a fragrant herb” (cited from Gù Yěwáng’s Yùpiān ‧ Cǎo-bù 玉篇‧艸部); è 齶 = “kǒu zhōng yín-è 口中齗齶, the gums and palate in the mouth” (cited from Guǎngyùn entering-tone 19 duó è character note).
The cross-citation of Zì tǒng by Gù Yěwáng in the Yùpiān (presented in 543) places Yáng Chéngqìng’s work no later than the early 540s — useful as a Northern-Wèi terminus for a work whose author has no biographical record. The CHANT editor groups it with the northern xiǎoxué cluster (KR1j0108 Zì lüè, KR1j0113 Yùn lüè) that supplies the northern parallel to the Liáng southern Yùpiān / Wénzì jí lüè lineage.
Dating bracket (386–534): broad Northern-Wèi span; the Yùpiān (543) cross-citation is the best available terminus ante quem.
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
The twenty-juàn extent of the lost Zì tǒng — comparable to the surviving Yùpiān — makes its loss particularly grievous: it is one of the largest pre-Suí character lexicons of which only fragments survive, and a fuller transmission would offer a direct measure of Northern-Wèi character-coverage against the Liáng southern Yùpiān. Its appearance in Gù Yěwáng’s citations also confirms that Northern-Wèi xiǎoxué circulated freely in the Liáng south despite the political division.
Links
- Suí shū jīngjí zhì — xiǎoxué: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=613103