Research On The Characters In The Five Rhyme Tables Of Song And Yuan Dynasty

Deng Yun Xue(等韵学)is one of the difficult and rare subjects in the area of traditional linguistics, related research on which is not abundant. Previous research mainly focused on the introduction of rhyme tables, general theory and concepts of Deng Yun Xue(等韵学),Deng Yun Men Fa(等韵门法)and the collation of rhyme tables. During the later time, some scholars began to study the phonetic system of rhyme tables. But no one has conducted a comprehensive study on the rhyme tables of certain period. The rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty are such important contents of Deng Yun Xue(等韵学)that the comprehensive and intensive study on them would have a significant value for the study of medieval phonetic system, phonology as well as the history of Chinese.The comprehensive research on rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty is a huge and systematic project, many issues about which can be examined. While the study of characters in rhyme tables is the most important and basic work, and only if we clear up the use of characters in rhyme tables, the latter part of research can build on a solid basis.The existing representative rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty are YunJing(韵镜),QiYinLue(七音略),Si Sheng Deng Zi(四声等子),Qie Yun Zhi Zhang Tu(切韵指掌图)and Jing Shi Zheng Yin Qie Yun Zhi Nan(经史正音切韵指南).There are more than three thousand characters collected in every table, and altogether five thousand four hundred kinds of characters. According to the different style of each rhyme table, we can determine the phonetic status of each character. After comparing with Guang Yun(广韵),Ji Yun(集韵)and Wu Yin Ji Yun(五音集韵),we can ascertain the sources of the characters. Also we can find the similarities and differences of phonetic status as well as grapheme of the characters between the rhyme books and rhyme tables. In addition, after comparing the characters from different rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty, we can see the evolution of rhyme tables in this period.Every rhyme table has more than 80% characters consistent with Guang Yun(广韵),and many of the different characters are consistent with Ji Yun(集韵)or Wu Yin Ji Yun (五音集韵),which shows that the rhyme tables mainly based on Guang Yun(广韵),and then have been revised according to Ji Yun(集韵)or Wu Yin Ji Yun(五音集韵)We can find the difference between rhyme tables and Guang Yun(广韵)from the following respects:1,Different small rhymes:It refers to there are different small rhymes listed in rhyme tables and Guang Yun(广韵),which probably due to the following two points:(1)There are some small rhymes supplemented to the rhyme table base on the other rhyme books, such as QiYinLue(七音略) just has many small rhymes from Ji Yun(集韵),and all the small rhymes of Jing Shi Zheng Yin Qie Yun Zhi Nan(经史正音切韵指南)are the same with Wu Yin Ji Yun(五音集韵)(2)The small rhymes of rhyme tables have been adjusted according to the actual phonetic phenomena, such as Si Sheng Deng Zi(四声等子)has compressed forty-three tables to twenty and made the two hundred and six rhymes merged into one hundred and six, which lead to many small rhymes could not be listed.2,Choose different characters to list:In general, the rhyme tables would like to choose the first characters to represent the small rhymes, but not every small rhyme followed it. There are some reasons:(1)The character is the first one in the other rhyme books such as Ji Yun (集韵), and the rhyme table list representative character following the other rhyme books.(2)The author choose the representative characters of small rhymes by his subjective will.3,Different phonetic status:It refers to the characters both existed in the rhyme tables and Guang Yun, but they have different initials, vowels, tones or deng(等).There are three conditions:(1)There are two characters represent the small rhyme(the condition is consistent in Guang Yun(广韵)and Ji Yun(集韵)).(2)The author place the character by mistake (especially on the adjacent grid).(3)The character has been adjusted according to the phonetic change.4,Different shapes:The character from the same small rhyme and the same phonetic status, and is also the first one of the small rhyme, but the shape is different: (1)Make use of the variant forms of the character in the rhyme table.(2)Make use of the vulgar form or the false form of the character in the rhyme table.There are many differences between the five rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty, but more than half of the characters between YunJing(韵镜)and QiYinLue(七音略),QiYinLue(七音略)and Si Sheng Deng Zi(四声等子),Si Sheng Deng Zi(四声等子)and Qie Yun Zhi Zhang Tu(切韵指掌图),Qie Yun Zhi Zhang Tu(切韵指掌图)and Jing Shi Zheng Yin Qie Yun Zhi Nan(经史正音切韵指南)are consistent, which shows the succession of the development of rhyme tables of Song and Yuan Dynasty.