A Study On Using The Ancient Script Materials To Make Textual Criticism Of Shuowen During The Late Qing Dynasty And The Republic Of China

Shuowen(说文)is the first monograph of Chinese philology which uses the theory of the six principles of writing(六书)to make a systematic analysis on graphic shapes of Chinese characters.It still has great academic value and application value today.On the one hand,Shuowen(说文)records a large amount of ancient script materials for us,as well as the research results of writing in the author Xu Shen(许慎)’s time.On the other hand,as a result of conditional limitation,there are many wrong graphic shapes in guwen(古文),zhouwen(籀文)and small seal script(小篆).And sometimes Xu Shen(许慎)cannot analyse accurately the component structure and the original meaning of some Chinese characters.In addition,on account of the repeatedly copying and publishing,there are some mistakes in the current versions of Shuowen(说文).Although the scholars of all dynasties has made great efforts to correct the mistakes in Shuowen(说文),the real breakthrough came after the rise of ancient philology in modern times of China.The discovery of a large number of the archaic chinese character materials and the continuous progress of its research have made more and more people realize the importance of the archaic Chinese character materials in the study of Shuowen(说文).The mutual reflection between Shuowen(说文)and the ancient chinese characters has become a new perspective in the research field of Shuowen(说文)in today.The scholars in the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China have made remarkable achievements in the textual research on Shuowen(说文)by using the ancient Chinese character materials.We can see a good many constructive points based on the ancient textual materials about correcting or proving the views of Shuowen(说文),not only in the academic works focusing on Shuowen(说文),but also in the books,theses,notes,and the inscriptive writings about the oracle and bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions.In general,the current understanding and summary of the scholars’research achievements of the period on using the ancient characters to correct or verify Shuowen(说文)are still not enough.Many early research results have not received due attention.And some opinions that have been regarded as wrong by academics are still advocated as correct conclusions.This article is mainly from the perspective of philology.It gives acomprehensive and systematic summary of the achievements,characteristics and shortcomings of the study on using the ancient script materials to correct and proof the text of Shuowen(说文)during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The introduction mainly introduces some important concepts involved,the existing research situation,the significance of the research and the research approach.The first chapter mainly discusses the academic background closely related to the study of Shuowen(说文)in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China which is divided into five parts.First,the academic tradition of using the Jinshi characters to make textual criticism of Shuowen(说文);The second is the development of the philology of ancient Chinese characters in the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China and the innovation to the traditional philology of Shuowen(说文);Third,the different responses in the academia of Shuowen(说文)at that time to the discovery and research of the underground new materials.The second chapter introduces and summarizes the academic process of Shuowen(说文)study refered in particular to the aspect using the ancient Chinese characters in the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.We have divided it into four stages.The first stage,from the year of 1883 when Wu Dacheng(吴大澂)’s masterpiece Shuowen Gu Zhou Bu(说文古籀补)was published to the eve of oracle bone Inscriptions’discovery;The second stage,from the discovery of inscriptions on oracle bones in Yin ruins in 1899 to the publication of Research Methods of Shuowen Jiezi(说文解字研究法)by Ma Xulun(马叙伦)in 1929;The third stage,from the 1930s to the year of 1949 when the founding of the People’s Republic of China.The third and fourth chapters are both the illustrations of the scholars’achievements on using the ancient Chinese characters to make textual criticism of Shuowen(说文)in the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The third chapter mainly investigates and records the scholars’achievements,from the aspects of utilizing the ancient script materials to verify the single characters and the old sayings preserved in Shuowen(说文),correcting the errors in the small seal script and the interpretation of pattern,pronunciation and meaning,exploring the initial form of the character and the evolution of character forms in Shuowen(说文).The fourth chapter focuses on the period scholars’concrete achievements of using the ancient script materials to examine the form of guwen(古文)and zhouwen(籀文)in Shuowen(说文).The fifth chapter is about the discrimination and analysis of errors in the study of Shuowen(说文)in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.The period scholars made many mistakes in the study of Shuowen(说文),which were caused by various reasons.We classify and summarize the types of failures and their causes,with specific examples in each category.The conclusion is an overall evaluation of the scholars’study on using the ancient script materials to make textual criticism of Shuowen(说文)in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,as well as the relevant issues needing attention.The appendix is the catalogue of relevant works in shuowen(说文)during the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.