Xīyán lùn 析言論
Discourse on Distinguishing Words by 張顯 (Zhāng Xiǎn, fl. Jìn, dates obscure)
About the work
A lost Eastern Jìn 東晉 zǐbù treatise by Zhāng Xiǎn 張顯, in one juàn with an appended Gǔjīn xùn 古今訓 (Instructions Ancient and Modern). Reconstructed from quotations in 《北堂書鈔》, 《太平御覽》, 《藝文類聚》, 《爾雅·釋文》, and 《路史·後紀》. Not in the Sìkù quánshū; sourced from CHANT (CH2a1482).
Abstract
The Xīyán lùn is a zǐ-house treatise on the discrimination of language and meaning — xī yán 析言 being a long-standing term for the distinguishing of semantically close terms (as opposed to tōng yán 通言, the loose lumping of them). The surviving fragments engage in this kind of lexical-conceptual discrimination across the standard early-medieval lexicon — Ěr yǎ 爾雅 glosses, observations on the Lúnyǔ and the Shàng shū, and short essays on the proper use of moral terms. The appended Gǔjīn xùn — preserved alongside — supplies parallel observations on the rise and fall of moral conduct across history. Zhāng Xiǎn’s biography is not preserved in the standard histories; he is mentioned by name only in late Sòng bibliographic compilations and is conventionally assigned to the Eastern Jìn. The composition window is bracketed by the Eastern Jìn period (317–420); the received recension is a 19th-century jíyì.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Standard fragment-compilation: 嚴可均 Quán Jìn wén 全晉文 j. 144.
Links
- Suí shū jīngjí zhì 隋書經籍志.
- Lù shǐ 路史 (Luó Bì 羅泌, Sòng).