hi

[hero]

hi,

anybody know who write and publish the first chinese dictionary?
there is a big debate in sci.lang in www.my-deja.com.
where many koreans tried to claim they are the real originator of chinese
language and others stuffs.

[Thomas Chan]

hero wrote:
> anybody know who write and publish the first chinese
> dictionary?
> there is a big debate in sci.lang in www.my-deja.com.
> where many koreans tried to claim they are the real
> originator of chinese
> language and others stuffs.

The first work that can be considered a "dictionary" is the _Erya_ 爾雅
(3rd century B.C.), which is reputed to have been written by an earlier
figure, the Duke of Zhou 周. It's one of the Confucian classics. But the
_Erya_ is really more like what what we'd now call a "thesaurus"--it
defined words by giving synonymous words.

But the first "real" dictionary is the _Shuowen Jiezi_ 說文解字 (AD 100), by
Xu Shen 許慎, which was a dictionary of characters (what we'd call
a "zidian" 字典, as opposed to "cidian" 辭典). It was a dictionary of lesser
seal script characters.

Anyway, there was Chinese language and Chinese writing long before
anyone wrote the first Chinese dictionary.


Thomas Chan
tc31@cornell.edu

[hero]

is xu shen a han?

[Thomas Chan]

hero wrote:
> is xu shen a han?

What you do you think? He lived during the Han 漢 dynasty in what is
now Henan 河南 province.


Thomas Chan
tc31@cornell.edu

[hero]

now the threads reach 770 !
anybody who know well about oracle bone inscription, dong yi, tungustic,
relationship between cantonese & korean, 3 han ( not chinese han),
ban-jeol 反切 , pls visit here.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=ms&l ... p=sci.lang