Guóyǔ bǔyīn 國語補音
Supplemented Phonological Glosses to the Guóyǔ by 宋庠 (supplementer)
About the work
A three-juǎn phonological apparatus to the KR2e0001 Guóyǔ assembled by the early Northern-Sòng senior statesman Sòng Xiáng 宋庠 (996–1066). The work is a stratified compilation: the inherited Táng-period one-juǎn anonymous yīn 音 (phonological gloss) for the Guóyǔ is reproduced as the substrate, and Sòng Xiáng’s own substantial supplements — drawn principally from Lù Démíng’s 陸德明 Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文, the Shuōwén 說文, and the Jíyùn 集韻 — are interleaved beneath the marker 補注 (“supplementary gloss”). The work is the only Sòng phonological treatment of the Guóyǔ to survive intact and is one of the more important early-Sòng witnesses to received Táng phonology.
Tiyao
A Táng-period older work; supplemented and rounded out by Sòng Xiáng 宋庠 of Sòng. Xiáng’s zì was Gōngxù 公序; he was a man of Ānlù 安陸 who relocated to Yōngqiū 雍邱. He took first place at the jìnshì examination in Tiānshèng 2 (1024), rose through the offices of Examiner-of-Records Grand Mentor and Joint Manager of Affairs (jiànjiào tàiwèi píngzhāngshì 檢校太尉平章事), Commissioner of Military Affairs (shūmìshǐ 樞密使), was enfeoffed Duke of Jǔ 莒國公, retired with the title of Minister of Works (sīkōng 司空), and was canonized Wénxiàn 文憲. His record is in the Sòngshǐ biography. Of those who annotated the Guóyǔ from Hàn times onward — Jiǎ Kuí 賈逵, Wáng Sù 王肅, Yú Fān 虞翻, Táng Gù 唐固, Wéi Zhāo 韋昭, and Kǒng Cháo 孔晁, six in all — none provided a phonological gloss. In Sòng times there was a one-juǎn anonymous yīn in circulation; Xiáng inferred from its mention of “Shàn Prefecture” 鄯州 that it was Táng work, but it was extremely sparse. He drew on the Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文, Shuōwén 說文, and Jíyùn 集韻 and so completed this compilation. In the table of contents, the twenty-one chapter titles are listed first, with detailed notes on the variant titles in the various recensions; afterward the three juǎn of supplementary phonological glosses are listed, with interlinear notes; the postface saying “Xiáng wrote it himself” is appended at the end. From this we know that the work originally accompanied Wéi Zhāo’s annotated Guóyǔ; later, because Wéi’s annotation was so widely circulated in independent editions, the yīn was extracted to circulate separately. The Míng prints further redistributed it into the body of the text under each phrase, often introducing omissions and errors — and these are not the original form. The present recension follows the Sòng print: the older Táng yīn are placed first; where they were silent, or where they gave only a zhíyīn 直音 (homophone gloss) and lacked a fǎnqiè 反切, Xiáng’s additions are inserted character by character and marked with the two-character tag bǔzhù 補注. For glosses on the main text, the lemma is in large characters and the phonological gloss in interlinear small characters. For glosses on Wéi Zhāo’s annotation, the lemma is again in large characters but is preceded by the marker zhù 註 (“annotation”), to distinguish it. Compared with Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén, in which classic and commentary were originally distinguished by red and black ink but eventually merged together through repeated copying, this presentation is much more reader-friendly. Xiáng’s own colophon notes that the older recensions were quite uneven; eventually he obtained the recension of his examination class-mate Sòng Jiān 宋緘, the most thoroughgoing of all, took fifteen or sixteen recensions of public and private provenance, and through cross-collation produced the present text. The textual argumentation is exceptionally rigorous and detailed. It is regrettable that the first twenty-one juǎn (i.e. the original Wéi Zhāo–annotated text to which the yīn was attached) are entirely lost and only this yīn remains. Furthermore, since Xiáng absorbed the entire Táng older text and added his own observations, the work is properly entitled “supplemented.” The various bibliographic catalogs list it under Xiáng’s name alone — a definite oversight; here we therefore mark “Táng” first, to preserve the truth. Respectfully presented, sixth month of Qiánlóng 44 (July 1779). Chief compilers: your servants Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊 (printed in source as 陸鍚熊, in error), Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅.
Abstract
The Guóyǔ bǔyīn is the principal surviving early-Sòng xiǎoxué 小學 (philological) treatment of the Guóyǔ. It is a yīn 音 — a treatise restricted to phonological notation through fǎnqiè 反切 and zhíyīn 直音 — directed at the lemmas of the Guóyǔ main text and at Wéi Zhāo 韋昭’s commentary as transmitted through the standard 21-juǎn recension. Sòng Xiáng worked on the basis of an inherited anonymous Táng Guóyǔ yīn in one juǎn (which he correctly identified as Táng on the toponymic evidence of “Shàn Prefecture” 鄯州, a place name introduced under the Táng), and supplemented its many gaps using the Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文, Shuōwén jiězì 說文解字, and Jíyùn 集韻 — the last placing the work definitely after the Jíyùn’s presentation in 1037 and before Sòng Xiáng’s death in 1066, hence the date bracket given here. Sòng Xiáng’s preface records that he collated some fifteen to sixteen variant recensions, including a particularly thorough one obtained from his examination cohort-mate Sòng Jiān 宋緘. The work originally circulated as part of the Guóyǔ main text alongside Wéi Zhāo’s commentary; the underlying Guóyǔ + Wéi Zhāo apparatus that Sòng Xiáng worked from is no longer extant in his recension, and only the supplemented yīn survives, although the Guóyǔ itself naturally survives in other parallel transmissions. The Sìkù compilers note that the Míng-period habit of redistributing yīn into the running text introduced extensive corruption, and praise the present (Sòng-derived) version for preserving the cleaner two-stratum format with the Táng base in larger script and Sòng Xiáng’s additions marked bǔzhù 補注. The Sìkù editors also correct an old bibliographic mis-attribution: although later catalogs list the work under Sòng Xiáng’s name alone, it must properly be regarded as a supplementation of the anonymous Táng work.
Translations and research
- Wāng Yuǎnsūn 汪遠孫 (1789–1835). Guóyǔ míngdào běn jiào yì 國語明道本校異 (and related collation studies). Used Sòng Xiáng’s apparatus throughout.
- Yáng Bójùn 楊伯峻. 1981. Guóyǔ jí 國語譯注. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí. (Modern critical edition; reprints Sòng Xiáng’s bǔyīn selectively.)
- Xú Yuángào 徐元誥 (compiler), Wáng Shùmín 王樹民 and Shěn Chángyún 沈長雲 (eds.). 2002. Guóyǔ jíjiě 國語集解. Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú. (Includes the bǔyīn in its critical apparatus.)
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Guóyǔ bǔyīn is one of a small number of pre-Jíyùn–postdating Sòng phonological treatments of a major historiographical text and is therefore important for any reconstruction of Sòng-period received pronunciations of place names and personal names from the Chūnqiū — Zhànguó states; modern dialectology of the WǔYuè 吳越 region in particular has used Sòng Xiáng’s glosses to establish that the Táng base preserved a markedly archaic phonological layer.