A Study On The Close Relationship Between The Ancient [-?] Type Seventeen Rhyme Divisions

The study of archaic Chinese phonology has been going on for thousands of years.Its pace was once hindered after utilizing all materials while it benefited from inter-disciplinary theories and harvested fruitfully.In the Chinese Language History Draft(??????),Wang Li has laid down a phonic pattern,which includes eleven classes of twenty-nine rhyme categories along with a shifting theory of Yin(??),Ru(??),and Yang(??).Subsequently,he advocated the division of the Dong(?),so the ancient rhyme system consisting of thirty categories was formally established.However,in his later works such as Ancient Chinese(??????),Chinese Phonology(??????)and Historical Chinese Phonetics(???????),Wang Li revised the rhyme order,especially the first six classes of rhymes,time and again.Later generation colleagues often refer to different orders when quoting these rhymes,which make the beginners of phonology at a loss.Therefore,it is certainly worth discussing the relationships and orders of the the first six classes of rhymes scientifically.Tracing back to the relationships of ancient rhymes is a further improvement of phonological system as well as a prerequisite for the phonic shifting and inference meanings from sounds.Ancient phonologists arranged the rhyme order only according to the mutual rhymes in Pre-Qin(??)verses.However,limited rhyming words inevitably resulted in fragmentary and one-sided.In view of this,the thesis here replaces the verses with interchangeable Characters.Above all,there must be ancient phonetic links between the original and borrowed characters,which can retain reliable phonological cues.Next,a large number of interchangeable Characters are preserved in ancient books,which exactly compensate for the limitations of rhyming words.With the continuous emergence of unearthed documents,the value of interchangeable Characters highlights more increasingly.In order to make a comprehensive analysis of rhymes from the Yin Dynasties to the Han Dynasties,this thesis is mostly based on A Dictionary of the Interchangeable Characters in Unearthed Documents(?????????)which edited by Wang Hui(??)and published by Chinese Publishing House(????)in 2008.To begin with we sort 5443 sets of variant textssystematically and thus eliminated the synonymy substitution or script confusion accurately.After that,we take the ancient Chinese phonology as the starting point and judged the relationships of seventeen rhymes according to the phonetic loan frequency.Finally,the rhyme order can be rearranged.There are 8 parts in this paper.First is the introduction,followed by the detailed analysis of interchangeable characters which are subordinate to the six classes of rhymes.Each class is listed as a separate part.The conclusion will lie on the last part.The introduction mainly summarizes the origin and significance of this thesis,comments about previous trends and current states,and puts forward the materials and methods of this study.This section starts with the different order of rhymes,and shows the great significance of this open question clearly.Furthermore,we reveals the advantages of the interchangeable characters by investigating historical achievements and future prospects.Lastly,A Dictionary of the Interchangeable Characters in Unearthed Documents(?????????)was briefly illustrated.Meanwhile,the principles and methods which synthesize collection and statistics were clarified as well.The next six parts classify and enumerate the interchangeable characters in order of Zhi(?)Zhi(?)Zheng(?),You(?)Jue(?)Dong(?),Xiao(?)Yao(?),Hou(?)Wu(?)Dong(?),Yu(?)Duo(?)Yang(?),Zhi(?)Xi(?)Geng(?).The thesis would collate the Fanqie(??),the mediaeval phonology,the archaic phonology and homophonic radicals of the characters.Then we cite ancient documents to prove the interchangeability among them.The conclusion dissects the relationships between the seventeen rhymes using mathematical and statistical approaches.The rhyme order is identified as Xiao(?)Yao(?),You(?)Jue(?)Dong(?),Hou(?)Wu(?)Dong(?),Yu(?)Duo(?)Yang(?),Zhi(?)Zhi(?)Zheng(?),Zhi(?)Xi(?)Geng(?),and theory of phonic shifting will be presented in the end.