A Study Of Zi Jian

In the history of development of philology, the book of Zi Jian is regarded highly more and more. In the synopsis of Si Ku Quan Shu, Zi Jian is even highly appraised. Many researchers put Zi Zian in an important position in the past few years. They think Zi Jian has significant value in the historyof development ofphilology.Nowadays, researchers have already noticed that Zi Jian is of great value to their studies as well as engaged in overall research. This paper mainly evaluates Zi Jian from seven aspects.Firstly, the paper introduces Zi Jian's author, its formation and its writing purpose.Secondly, the stylistic rules and layout and the edition's circulation of Zi Jian are investigated.The third part verifies difference of script between Zi Jian and Shuo Wen Jie Zi. The author draws a conclusion that analysis of Zi Jian's character pattern is identical with inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty, which illustrates that Li Wenzhong, the author of Zi Jian has practical and realistic academic attitude. Especially, much analysis of Zi Jian's character pattern are similar to original pattern and original connotation of Chinese character extremely, which is extraordinary.The forth part discriminates several books verified by Zi Jian, such as Zeng Yun, Jian Yun, Pei Xi, Wu Jing Wen Zi, Gan Lu Zi Shu, Guang Yun, etc. It proves that some are true and some are false.Fifthly, the author analyses popular form of characters in Zi Jian. A lot of popular form of characters in Zi Jian are the same as modern simplified characters. It is indicated that modern simplified characters has its origin respectively. In this part, the author also sorts out some popular form ofcharacters which are recorded by Zi Jian but not recorded by Chinese Dictionary, which provided material to dictionary compiling.The sixth part verifies the different scripts of Shuo Wen Jie Zi quoted by Zi Jian. Some proved the false of Xu Xuan's Shuo Wen Jie Zi, but a great quantity of those maintained its origin.At last, the paper points out the merits and weak points of Zi Jian. As far as Zi Jian's value is concerned, it is revealed in many aspects. For example, it analyzed and grasped Chinese character's pattern correctly. It showed open attitude in affirming popular form of characters. It dissected the course of development and evolution of Chinese characters. It discussed characters which has similar pattern and similar component. It realized the phenomenon of Chinese character's evolution from Xiao Zhuan to official script. Moreover, stylistic rules and layout of arrangement in vowel order also is one of its advantages. Of course, Zi Jian has its defects, too, such as its self-contradiction and its conservative feature.