China's first dictionary was Er Ya. China's chronological history book is Chunqiu.

A book in China that compiles ancient cultural classics is called Shangshu.

The general history of chronicles that has far-reaching influence on later generations is Zi Tongzhi Jian; Written by Sima Guang in the Northern Song Dynasty.

The largest book series I read in ancient times is Siku series, which is divided into four parts: Jing, Shi, Zi and Ji. It was the seal repair during the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty.

China's First Big Dictionary —— Shuowen Jiezi

The picture shows fifteen volumes of Shuowen Jiezi, a block-printed edition of Ji Gu Pavilion.

Shuowen Jiezi, or Shuowen for short. The author is Xu Shen, a Confucian scholar and philologist in the Eastern Han Dynasty (dedicated to Emperor Han An). Shuo Wen Jie Zi was written in the 12th year of Han Yongyuan (100) to the first year of Andy Jianguang (12 1).

Xu Shen founded 540 radicals according to the glyphs, and classified 9353 words into 540 parts. 540 parts were combined into 14 according to the shape system. According to this 14 category, the dictionary text is divided into 14 articles, with a title at the end of the volume and 15 articles in the whole book.

In the word formation method, the theory of "six books" is put forward, that is, pictographic, ideographic, knowing, pictophonetic characters, phonetic symbols and borrowed sounds. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi. Xu gave a comprehensive and authoritative explanation of Six Books. Since then, "Six Books" has become a specialized knowledge.

What is a pictogram?

hieroglyph

Pictograph refers to a word-making method that uses objective entities summarized by words to express the meaning of words. Words created in this way are generally tangible and visual reference nouns. Such as "sun, moon, water, mountains" and so on. Xu Shen's explanation for this is: "Ideographic characters are painted into their objects, followed by the body, and the sun and the moon are also."

Classification of pictographic characters: according to the physical structure, it can be divided into two categories: single pictographic characters and combined pictographic characters.

The characteristics of hieroglyphics: First, simplicity. Pictograph "painted into its object" is not painting, but writing symbols and characters. When describing objective entities, they only outline and pay attention to the simplicity of glyphs. The second is typicality, that is, focusing on the typical characteristics of objective entities, thus enhancing the different functions of pictographic characters in writing words and expressing meanings.

Limitations of pictographic characters: it is difficult for pictographic characters to express intangible and abstract things.

Pictographs laid the foundation for the formation of words that refer to things, understand and sound.

Xu Shen was born in Zhaoling, Runan (now Yancheng, Henan).

This book is the first word book in China that systematically analyzes the forms of Chinese characters and studies their sources, and it is also the most popular Chinese essential reference book.

Shuowen Jiezi summarizes the achievements of literature in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and preserves the form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters. It is an indispensable bridge for learning Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions and ancient sounds, and for training and visiting. In particular, the interpretation of word meaning in Shuowen generally retains the oldest meaning, which is more helpful for understanding the word meaning in ancient books.

Preserving and studying the historical and cultural materials of ancient society is an important step for us to sort out China's outstanding cultural heritage. Shuowen includes explanations of various meanings and reflects ancient politics, economy, culture, customs and habits. For example, Shuowen, "The floorboard of cars and wheels was made by Xizhong in Xia Hou". According to the explanation in Shuowen, it can be confirmed that there was a "car" as a means of transportation in Xia Dynasty. Another example is the word "surname" from "female" and a series of surnames beside "female" such as "Jiang", "Ji" and "Yao", which can reveal the traces of ancient matriarchal society. It can be seen that Shuowen reflects some historical situations and all kinds of knowledge in ancient times, which helps us to make the past serve the present and understand the present.

Historically, there are countless versions of Shuo Wen Jie Zi. Based on Chen Changzhi's engraving, this book uses handed down documents and unearthed documents, and follows the principle of "truthfulness, reliability, convenience and practicality" to arrange the representative glyphs in each small seal script that can reflect the evolution order of Chinese characters in the unit, so as to facilitate users' comparative study. At the same time, a radical stroke dictionary and a phonetic sequence dictionary are attached to facilitate readers to find and use them.

Shuowen Jiezi, or Shuowen for short, is the first Chinese dictionary arranged by radicals compiled by Xu Shen in Han Dynasty. It was originally written from 100 to 12 1, but it has been lost. Most of them are the Song version or Duan Yucai's annotation in Qing Dynasty. The original text is written in Xiao Zhuan, and the source of the font is explained word by word. The whole book is divided into 540 radicals with 9353 words, and there are 1 163 variants and * * 105 16 words.

Xu Shen, the title of Shuo Wen Jie Zi, explains this:

At the beginning of writing, it was an pictograph, so it was called Wen. After that, the form and sound benefit each other, that is, the word. The writer is the foundation of image; Words, words breed milk and so on.

Shuo Wen Jie Zi *** 15 volume, including preface 1 volume. In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Xu Shen systematically expounded the law of Chinese characters-Liu Shu.

The style of Shuowen Jiezi is to list the seal script first, and if the ancient prose is different from the Shu prose, it will be listed later. Then explain the original meaning of words, and then strengthen the relationship between fonts and the meaning or pronunciation of words. The arrangement of radicals in Shuo Wen Jie Zi is based on the principle of similarity in form or meaning.

Shuowen Jiezi pioneered the radical search for Chinese characters, which was mostly adopted by later dictionaries. Duan Yucai called this book "an unprecedented book, written by Xu Jun".

Many scholars have studied Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the past dynasties, and the study in Qing Dynasty was the most prosperous. Duan Yucai's Notes on Shuowen Jiezi, Zhu's Notes on Shuowen Jiezi and Gui Fu's Notes on Shuowen Jiezi; In particular, Wang Yun's "Shuo Wen Zhu Wen Du" was highly praised, and the four of them were also honored as "four masters of Shuo Wen".