A Comprehensive Study On The Pronunciations And Meanings Of Multitone Characters Of Hongwu Zhengyun

Hongwu Zhengyun was written at Ming Hongwu years(AD 1375)by the government when the Ming dynasty was just founded,which came into two versions:76 rhyming dictionary and 80 rhyming dictionary.In this paper,we mainly study on the 76 rhyming dictionary.There are a lot of multitone characters in Zhengyun worthy of studying,which give expression to plentiful relationships and resources between pronunciations and meanings.We set up a database to study on the pronunciations and meanings of yinsheng multitone characters,hoping to learn about their phonetic and semantic features.We start on analysis of statistics of Yinsheng multitone characters of Hongwu Zhengyun.Then we study on their relationships between pronunciations and meanings in terms of Sheng.Yun and Diao.After that,we analyze their inheritance way of semantic changes and literature resources.At last,we compare their combination modes of pronunciations and meanings in five rhyming dictionaries,which include Hongwu Zhengyun,Guangyun,Jiyun,Zengxiuhuzhulibuyunlue and Gujinyunhuijuyao,to see how Zhengyun inherit resources of the multitone characters from other rhyming dictionaries.Believed through our research,the system of multitone characters of Yinshengyun of Hongwu Zhengyun embody abundant characteristics of times of Ming dynasty,which cotains a lot of resources of tradition rhyming dictionaries.