An Earliest Rhyme Book: Shenglei by Li Deng
最早的韻書：李登《聲類》
It is generally believed that Shenglei 聲類 by Li Deng李登 (ca. 250), and Yunji 韻集 by Lu Jing 呂靜 (ca. 280) were among the earliest rhyme books in China.[1] Both works were arranged according to the “five sounds” (wusheng 五聲) — the five Chinese musical scales gong 宮, shang 商, jiao 角, zi 徵 and yu 羽 — which was not known to be the case for other rhyme books.[2]
Citation Lineage
Shenglei is no longer extant. The work was first mentioned by Jiang Shi 江式 in his Lun Shu Biao 論書表 (514) and last quoted by Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223—96) in his Yuhai 玉海. Chronologically, Shenglei was discussed or cited in the following works:
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Jiang Shi 江式, Lun Shu Biao 論書表 (514) (no mention of number of juan);[3]
-
Yan Zhitui 顏之推 (531—?591), Yanshi Jiaxun 顏氏家訓 (no mention of number of juan);[4]
-
Suishu 隋書 (636) (mentioned as in 10 juan);[5]
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Xuan Yin 玄應 (ca. 640), Yiqiejing Yinyi 一切經音義 (649) (no mention of number of juan);[6]
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Feng Yan 封演 (ca. 770), Fengshi Wenjianji 封氏聞見記 (mentioned as in 10 juan);[7]
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Hui Lin 慧琳 (737—820), Yiqiejing Yinyi 一切經音義 (no mention of number of juan);[8]
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Xi Lin 希麟, Xu Yiqiejing Yinyi 續一切經音義 (no mention of number of juan);[9]
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Li Fu 李涪 (ca. 850), Lishi Kanwu 李氏刋誤 (no mention of number of juan);[10]
-
Fujiwara no Sase 藤原佐世, Nihon genzai-shomoku 日本見在書目 (889—97) (mentioned as in
10 juan);[11] -
Tangshu 唐書 (945) (mentioned as in 10 juan);[12]
-
Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (ca. 1060) (mentioned as in 10 juan);[13]
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Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1103—62), Tongzhi 通志 (1161) (mentioned as in 10 juan);[14]
-
Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223—96), Yuhai 玉海, which quoted the “Bibliographical section” of Suishu (mentioned as in 10 juan).[15]
Shenglei was last mentioned in Tongzhi and then indirectly quoted in Yuhai. Since then, it was not recorded in the bibliographical section of Songshi 宋史藝文志 or in any other important private catalogues. This rhyme book is generally said to have disappeared in Tang time,[16] or, with the lineage revealed above, we may say it was lost in Song time.
Textual Fragments
With the understanding that the result is not scientific or impeccable, here are fragments of Shenglei, recovered through meticulous textual mining of the Qing 清 scholars:
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Chen Shan 陳鱣, Shenglei Shicun 聲類拾存, in 1 juan;[17]
-
Ma Guohan 馬國翰, Shenglei, in 1 juan;[18]
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Huang Shi 黃奭, Shenglei, in 1 juan;[19]
-
Ren Dazhuang 任大樁, Shenglei;[20]
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Gu Zhenfu 顧震福, Shenglei, in 1 juan;[21]
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Long Zhang 龍璋, Shenglei, in 1 juan.[22]
The Author
Li Deng was hardly mentioned in history. From what little we know about him, Li held the post of Left Superintendent 左校令 in the Board of Labor 將作監[23] in the last years of the Wei Dynasty 魏朝.[24]
The Work
In his Lun Shu Biao, Jiang Shi said of Lu Jing as modeling his rhyme book Yunji after Shenglei, dividing it into five chapters under the headings of gong, shang, jiao, zi and yu.[25] In the preface to Yunzuan 韻纂, Pan Hui 潘徽 paid tribute to both Li Deng and Lu Jing as pioneers in distinguishing qing 清 and zhuo 濁,[26] as well as the categories of gong, shang, etc. However, the originality was obviously not quite appreciated, as Pan proceeded to blast the two works as in lack of acknowledged tradition, and that they were too shallow and narrow to be used as rhyming reference for poetry writing.[27]
In Fengshi Wenjianji, Shenglei was said to have consisted of 10 juan and a total of 11,520 words that were arranged under the “five sounds” (wusheng: gong, shang, jiao, zi and yu) but not in rhyme groups.[28] So Shenglei was likely the first rhyme book which carried a classification of the five sounds and initiated the distinction between qing and zhuo. The fact that the monk Hui Lin (737—820) quoted from Shenglei extensively[29] shows that the rhyme book was still in wide circulation by mid-Tang time. It therefore appears a bit atypical for Lu Fayan 陸法言 (?562—?610) not to mention Shenglei in his preface to Qieyun 切韻 (601), especially when the monk Xuan Yin, a younger contemporary of Lu, quoted more than two hundred citations from Shenglei in his Yiqiejing Yinyi.[30] This prompts a suggestion that Lu Jing’s Yunji (which was cited first in Lu Fayan’s preface) had probably incorporated all the main features of Shenglei and some more, so that mentioning one was representative enough for both.[31]
As to the influence of Shenglei, at least one scholar has shown with examples that in some words the glossing in Shenglei could supplement those in Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字.[32] Also, being one of the earliest works to employ the fanqie 反切 scheme to gloss sounds of characters, Shenglei served to preserve examples that would help to rectify mistakes in later rhyme books.[33]
After examining Huang Shi’s 黃奭 collection of Shenglei fragments,[34] Gao Ming 高明 discovered that some glosses there had indicated ancient and contemporary forms of characters (有言古今字者);[35] others had indicated alternate forms (有言字形之異者);[36] many had given definitions.[37] Together, these features had set up a model structure for later rhyme books.[38] Among the fragments in Huang’s collection, nine citations employed zhiyin 直音 and twenty-eight the use of fanqie 反切 as methods of glossing sounds.[39] By comparing these fanqie compositions with those in later rhyme books, Gao Ming has found some that were kept unchanged all through Tang and Song times.[40] Most of them, though, varied in the fanqie composition but the glossed sounds have remained the same.[41] Where the fanqie compositions were found different in later rhyme books as compared with those in Shenglei, Gao Ming rightly pointed out that these instances have provided evidence that speech changes over time.[42]
[1] See Dai Jen 戴震, “Yunshu zhishi 韻書之始,” Shengyun Kao 聲韻考, juan 1, in Daiyuan Congshu Chuji 貸園叢書初集 (vol. 12, n.p., 1789 preface), pp. 5b—6a.
[2] Based on this author’s compilation of a list of rhyme books and their respective rhyme categories, beginning with Shenglie down to Guangyun 廣韻 (1008). All other rhyme books were arranged by the four tones (sisheng 四聲) — pingsheng 平聲、shangsheng 上聲、qusheng 去聲、rusheng 入聲.
[3] See Weishu 魏書 (in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3, [Shanghai: Kaiming Bookstore, 1935; reprint Hong Kong: Xianggang wenxue yenjiushe香港文學研究社, 1959]), 91/2097.4 (“Biography of Jiang Shi”).
[4] See Yan Zhitui 顏之推, Yanshi Jiaxun Huizhu 顏氏家訓彙註, annotated by Zhou Fagao 周法高, (Nanjing: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1960), v. 1, pp. 108b, 122a.
[5] See Suishu 隋書 (in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3), 32/2445.1 (“Bibliographical section”); and 76/2524.3 (“Biography of Pan Hui 潘徽傳”).
[6] See Zhou Fagao, “Xuan Yin Yiqiejing Yinyi yinyongshu suoyin 玄應一切經音義引用書索引,” in Xuan Yin Yiqiejing Yinyi (Nanjing: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1962), pp. 52, 83—84. Although there are in total 207 citations of Shenglei here, only once is the author and title given together; the rest are indicated by title only.
[7] See Feng Yan 封演, Fengshi Wenjianji Jiaozheng 封氏聞見記校證, collated by Zhao Zhenxin 趙貞信 (Harvard-Yenching Index Series, No. 7. Beiping: Yenching University Library, 1933), 2.2.
[8] See Hui Lin Yiqiejing Yinyi yinyongshu suoyin 慧琳一切經音義引用書索引 (Commercial Press, n.p., 1938), pp. 364b—382a. There are in total 625 citations with some quoted only by title, others by author and title together. Gao Ming 高明 counted a total of 653 citations (see his article “Huangji Li Deng Shenglei ba 黃輯李登聲類跋,” Zhonghua Xueyuan 中華學苑 7 [ March 1971], p. 19), which was probably due to a miscount caused by adding the 28 citations quoted by Xi Lin 希麟 in Xu Yiqiejing Yinyi 續一切經音義.
[9] See Hui Lin Yiqiejing Yinyi yinyongshu suoyin, pp. 382a—383a. Xi Lin has made 28 citations, some by title, others by author and title together.
[10] See Li Fu 李涪, Lishi Kanwu 李氏刋誤, collected in Xuejin Taoyuan 學津討原, ce 冊 114 (Shanghai: Hanfenlou 函芬樓, n.d.), xiajuan 下卷, p. 8b.
[11] See Fujiwara no Sase 藤原佐世, Nihon genzai-shomoku 日本見在書目, collected in Guyi Congshu 古逸叢書, ce 35 (Tokyo: Riben Dongjing Shishu 日本東京使署, 1884), p. 10b. Nihon genzai-shomoku was compiled by Fujiwara no Sase between 889—897, after the library of the Japanese monastery Reizeńin 冷然院 had been destroyed by fire in 875. This catalogue was first known to China when Li Shuchang 黎庶昌 reproduced it in his Guyi Congshu, published in 1884.
[12] See Tangshu 唐書 (in Ershiwu Shi, v. 4), 46/3261.3 (“Bibliographical section”).
[13] See Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (in Ershiwu Shi, v. 5), 57/3763.1 (“Bibliographical section”).
[14] See Zheng Qiao 鄭樵, Tongzhi 通志, collected in Shitong 十通 (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1936), 64/768.2.
[15] See Wang Yinglin 王應麟, Yuhai 玉海 (Zhejiang Bookstore 浙江書局, n.p., 1883), 44.33b.
[16] See, for example, Chen Shan 陳鱣, “Shenglei Shicun Xulu 聲類拾存敘錄,” reproduced in Xiaoxue Kao 小學考 (Zhejiang Bookstore, n.p., 1888), 29.1b.
[17] Collected in Xiaoxue Kao 29.1a—3b.
[18] Collected in Ma Guohan 馬國翰, Yuhanshanfang ji yishu 玉函山房輯佚書, as listed in Zhongguo Congshu Zonglu 中國叢書綜錄 (Beijing: Zonghua Bookstore, 1961), v. 2, p. 203b.
[19] Collected in Hanxuetang Congshu 漢學堂叢書 and Huangshi Yishu Kao 黃氏逸書考, as listed in Zhongguo Congshu Zonglu, v. 2, p. 204a.
[20] Collected in Xiaoxue Gouchen 小學鉤沈, as listed in Zhongguo Congshu Zonglu, v. 2, p. 205b.
[21] Collected in Xiaoxue Gouchen Xubian 小學鉤沈續編, as listed in Zhongguo Congshu Zonglu, v. 2, p. 206a.
[22] Collected in Xiaoxue Souyi 小學蒐佚, as listed in Zhongguo Congshu Zonglu, v. 2, p. 207b.
[23] For an explanation of the post, see Huang Benji 黃本驥, Lidai Zhiguan Biao 歷代職官表 (Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1965), pp. 15, 74.
[24] See Suishu (in Ershiwu Shi, v. 3), 32/2445.1 (“Bibliographical section”).
[25] See n. 3.
[26] For a discussion of the two terms, see this author’s paper “Notes on Middle Chinese: Fanqie and Tones 中古漢語札記：反切和聲調,” n. 12.
[27] See Suishu (in Ershiwu Shi, v. 3) 76/2524.3 (“Biography of Pan Hui”): 「末有李登《聲類》呂靜《韻集》，始判清濁，纔分宮羽；而全無引據，過傷淺局，詩賦所須，卒難為用。」
[28] See Fengshi Wenjianji Jiaozheng 2.2: 「以五聲命字，不立諸部。」
[29] See n. 8.
[30] See n. 6.
[31] See Luo Changpei 羅常培, “Qieyun xu jiaoshi 切韻序校釋,” Zhongshan Daxue Yuyen Lishi Yanjiusuo Zhoukan 中山大學語言歷史研究所周刊 3.25, 26, 27 (May 1928), pp. 6—25.
[32] See Chen Shan, “Shenglei Shicun Xulu,” reproduced in Xiaoxue Kao 29.2a.
[33] Ibid.
[34] Huang Shi’s collection of Shenglei fragments is included in Hanxuetang Congshu 漢學堂叢書 and Huangshi Yishu Kao 黃氏逸書考; and according to Gao Ming 高明, the Huangshi Yishu Kao version is the latest among all collections of Shenglei fragments, and the best. It consists of 252 citations (see Gao Ming, “Huangji Li Deng Shenglei ba 黃輯李登聲類跋,” Zhonghua Xueyuan 中華學苑 7 [March 1971],
p. 2).
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid.
[37] Ibid., p. 3.
[38] Ibid., p. 4.
[39] Ibid., p. 5.
[40] For example, 疼 —《聲類》：徒東反。
《切韻》：徒東反。
編 —《聲類》：布千反。
《切韻》：布千反。
Ibid., p. 15.
[41] For example: 疼 —《聲類》：徒東反。
《廣韻》：徒冬切。
編 —《聲類》：布千反。
《廣韻》：布玄切。
鴻 —《聲類》：胡公反。
《切韻》：胡籠反。
《廣韻》：户公切。
Ibid., p. 16.
[42] Ibid., p. 18.