Gu yin xie 古音諧 [Harmonizations of Ancient Rhymes]

Six vols. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, new stitching. Suzhou: Zhenxin shushe 振新書社, n.d.




An uncommon work on historical Chinese phonology. "Mr. Yao was of the opinion that 'In antiquity, the character yun 韻, 'rhyme', ought to have been xie 諧, 'harmonization'. Only later did it shift to yun. This book takes harmonized sounds (xiesheng 諧聲) as its basis, hence the title Gu yin xie [Harmonizations of Ancient Rhymes]. It merges the even, rising, and departing tones of Guangyun 廣韻 [Expanded Rhymes] into 17 groups, spread out over 7 categories. The entering-tone characters are divided into 9 groups, all gathered in 1 category. Under every group, characters from rhymed text from the Zhou, Qin, and Han periods are included, arranged in tonal order. Following every tonal section, there is a 'comprehensive investigation' (zongkao 總考), in which the rhyming characters under a given tone are connected to all the characters with which it is said to be similarly pronounced (xiesheng) in Shuo wen jie zi 說文解字 [Explain the Graphs to Unravel the Written Words]; a brief recount of the number of rhymes for each character; and, if the pronunciation has changed, an account of the changes. After every rhyme group, the phonetic character components used in characters with which it rhymes are listed in order to show that these characters are to be included in the group in question. This is followed by a discussion of the relationship of this rhyme group to other groups...Mr. Yao investigates ancient pronunciations by means of rhymed texts from antiquity and characters listed as having similar pronunciations in Shuo wen jie zi. On the basis of mismatches between rhymes and Shuo wen sound glosses, Yao examines the similarity and interrelated use of certain rhyme groups. Mr. Yao raises two points that demand our attention: first, his theory of changing pronunciations, i.e., his belief that sound changes depending on the geography; second, his theory of the multiplicity of character pronunciations in antiquity" (Xu, Chuantong yuyanxue cidian, 136).


The colophon is dated 1845 (Daoguang yisi), but our edition might be later. WorldCat 30388464, perhaps of the same edition, is inferred to have been printed in 1845. By contrast, WorldCat 35173496 is conjectured to have been published in the 1920s. We cannot be certain of the date of printing of our copy.


Fine set preserved in a hantao.


❧ Têng, Ssŭ-yü. "Yao Wên-t'ien." In Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. Vol. 2. Edited by Arthur W. Hummel. G.P.O., 1944. Xu Jialu 许嘉璐, ed. Chuantong yuyanxue cidian 传统语言学辞典. Shijiazhuang: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe, 1990.