A Study On The "Cao" Part Of Shuowenjiezi

Shuowenjiezi-Caobu recorded 445 words , mainly words related with herbaceous plants. There wasn't yet a term "herbage" in Xu Shen's time, but the words classification in Shuowenjiezi-Caobu indicates that the ancients had already formed a rough idea of "herbage".First,this paper exposits the meanings of the words in Shuowenjiezi-Caobu, and based upon it, it also systematically classify the words. Then, it makes a tentative research in the denomination of those words. Finally, it exposits the cultural meanings of the words, thus establishes a structural mechanism among the original meanings, the denominations and the cultural meanings of the word in Shuowenjiezi-Caobu.The introduction part is a few explanations for Shuowenjiezi-Caobu. It introduces the origin of writing, and defines the research scope and approaches. The first chapter establishes the meaning mechanism of Shuowenjiezi-Caobu, and classifies the words according to their meanings. In general, those words can be classified into 5 categories: the names of herbaceous plants, the position names of herbaceous plants, the appearance of graminaceous plants, the produces of and motions related to graminaceous plants.And accounted for the biggest proportion, names of herbaceous plants are the core of Shuowenjiez-Caobu, which can be further classified as names of grains, the names of vegetables, the names of edible plants, and names of other wild grass. The second chapter deals with the denomination. It analyses the origin of denomination, parses the denominated meaning and sums up the characteristics of plants' denominated meanings with the hope of discovering some common principles of denomination the ancients employed. The third chapter deals with the cultural implications. Shuowenjiezi-Caobu reflects the ancients' knowledge of herbage. It shows the close relation between plants and people's life as well as the cultural advancement of planting and food. As a result, analyzing Shuowenjiezi-Caobu is conducive for us to better understand the culture of herbaceous plants.