Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Duan Yucai

Duan Yucai , courtesy name Ruoying was a of the Qing Dynasty. He made great contributions to the study of Historical Chinese phonology, and is known for his annotated edition of ''Shuowen Jiezi''.

A native of Jintan, Jiangsu, he resigned his government post at the age of 46 to concentrate on his studies. A student of Dai Zhen, he divided the s of Old Chinese into 17 groups. He suggested that "characters sharing the same must belong to the same rime group " . He also suggested that there is no in Old Chinese.

His monumental ''Shuowen Jiezi zhu'' , which he spent 30 years to complete, was published shortly before his death . Wang Niansun, in his preface to the work, says that "it has been 1,700 years since a work of the same quality appeared" , suggesting that it is the greatest Chinese philological work since ''Shuowen Jiezi'', which was published during the early 2nd century.

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