Erya

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The Erya or Erh-ya is the first surviving Chinese dictionary. The sinologist Bernhard Karlgren concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from the 3rd century BC."^[1]

Title

Chinese scholars interpret the first title character ěr (

The book's author is unknown. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, or his disciples, scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre-Qin texts, especially the Shijing. Joseph Needham et al. place the Erya's compilation between the late 4th and early 2nd centuries BCE, with the possible existence of some core text material dating back to the 6th century BCE, and the continued additions to the text as late as the 1st century BCE.^[4]

The first attempts to date the different parts of the Erya separately began when the Tang scholar

The format of Erya definitions varies between the first section treating common terms (chapters 1–3) and the second treating specialized terms (4-19). Entries for common terms are defined by grouping synonyms or near-synonyms and explaining them in terms of a more commonly used word, and additional explanations if one of the words had multiple meanings. For instance, "Qiáo (喬), sōng (嵩), and chóng (崇) all mean 'high' (高). Chóng also means 'to fill' (充)." (ch. 1). Entries for specialized terms are defined by grouping related words and giving them a description, explanation, classification, or comparison. For example: "A woman calls her husband's father jiù (舅), and her husband's mother gū (姑). While alive they are called jūnjiù (君舅) and jūngū (君姑). After their death they are called xiānjiù (先舅) and xiāngū (先姑).[10]

Owing to its laconic lexicographical style, the Erya is one of a few Chinese classics that have not been fully translated into English.

See also

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Erya (in Chinese)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erya.

• Xiao Erya
• Shiming
• Guangya
• Piya
• Urra=hubullu, Babylonian glossary

References

Citations

Sources

• ISBN 1-55729-043-1
  .
• Creamer, Thomas B. I. (1992). "Lexicography and the history of the Chinese language". In Ladislav Zgusta (ed.). History, Languages, and Lexicographers. Niemeyer. pp. 105–135.
• Karlgren, Bernhard (1931). "The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (3): 1–59.
• Mair, Victor H. (1998). "Tzu-shu 字書 or tzu-tien 字典 (dictionaries)". In William H. Nienhauser, Jr. (ed.). The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature. Vol. 2. SMC Publishing. pp. 165–172.
  ISBN 978-0253334565
  .
• Needham, Joseph; Lu, Gwei-djen; Huang, Hsing-Tsung (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6 Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1 Botany. Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-0521087315
  .
• Von Rosthorn, A. (1975). "The Erh-ya and Other Synonymicons". Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. 10 (3): 137–145.
• Xue, Shiqi (1982). "Chinese Lexicography Past and Present". Dictionaries. 4: 151–169.
  doi:10.1353/dic.1982.0009
  .

• The Erya Complete text in Chinese
• The Erya 爾雅 Dictionary, Chinaknowledge article
• photo of a rare Song dynasty edition in National Palace Museum (Taipei)