Tenrei Banshō Meigi

Tenrei Banshō Meigi

The is the oldest extant Japanese dictionary of Chinese characters. The title is also written 篆隷万象名義 with the modern graphic variant "ban" (万 "10,000; myriad") for "ban" (萬 "10,000; myriad").

The prominent Heian Period monk and scholar Kūkai, founder of the Shingon Buddhism, edited his "Tenrei banshō meigi" around 830-835 CE, and based it upon the (circa 543 CE) Chinese "Yupian" dictionary. Among the Tang Dynasty Chinese books that Kūkai brought back to Japan in 806 CE was an original edition "Yupian" and a copy of the (121 CE) "Shuowen Jiezi". One of the National treasures of Japan held at the Kōzan-ji temple is an 1114 copy of the "Tenrei banshō meigi".

The Chinese "Yupian" dictionary defines 12,158 characters under a system of 542 radicals ("bùshǒu" ), which slightly modified the original 540 in the "Shuowen jiezi". The Japanese "Tenrei banshō meigi" defines approximately 1,000 "kanji" (Chinese characters), under 534 radicals ("bu" ), with a total of over 16,000 characters. Each entry gives the Chinese character in ancient seal script, Chinese pronunciation in fanqie, and definition, all copied from the "Yupian". The American Japanologist Don Bailey writes:

At the time of its compilation, calligraphic style and the Chinese readings and meanings of the characters were probably about all that was demanded of a dictionary, so that the "Tenrei banshō meigi" suited the scholarly needs of the times. It was compiled in Japan by a Japanese but is in no sense a Japanese dictionary, for it contains not one "Wakun" (Japanese reading). (1960:3)
In modern terms, this dictionary gives borrowed on'yomi "Sino-Japanese readings" but not native kun'yomi "Japanese readings". A later Heian dictionary, the (898-901 CE) "Shinsen Jikyō" was the first to include Japanese readings.

Ikeda Shoju has studied the conversion of JIS encoding to Unicode in order to create an online "Tenrei banshō meigi".

References

*Bailey, Don Clifford. (1960). "Early Japanese Lexicography". "Monumenta Nipponica" 16:1-52.
*Mori Shiten 林史典. (1996). "篆隷万象名義 ("Tenrei banshō meigi")." In "Nihon jisho jiten" 日本辞書辞典 ("The Encyclopedia of Dictionaries Published in Japan"), Okimori Takuya 沖森卓也, et al., eds., pp. 196-197. Tokyo: Ōfū. ISBN 4-273-02890-5

External links

* [http://homepage3.nifty.com/shikeda/kkg178.html A Database for Tenrei-Bansho-Meigi 篆隷万象名義データベース] , Ikeda Shoju 池田証寿 (in Japanese)


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Japanese dictionary — Japanese dictionaries have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized… …   Wikipedia

  • Yupian — The Yupian (zh cpw|c=玉篇|p=Yùpiān|w=Yü p ien; Jade Chapters ) is a circa 543 CE Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang (顧野王; Ku Yeh wang; 519 581) during the Liang Dynasty. It arranges 12,158 character entries under 542 radicals, which differ… …   Wikipedia

  • Dictionary — For other uses, see Dictionary (disambiguation). For Wikimedia s dictionary project visit Wiktionary, or see the Wiktionary article. A multi volume Latin dictionary by Egidio Forcellini. A dic …   Wikipedia

  • List of Japanese classic texts — This is a list of Japanese classic texts. These classical works of Japanese literature are grouped by genres in a chronological order. Contents 1 Genres 1.1 Buddhism 1.2 Confucianism and philosophy 1.3 Diary …   Wikipedia

  • Iroha Jiruishō — The is a 12th century Japanese dictionary of Kanji ( Chinese characters ). It was the first Heian Period dictionary to collate characters by pronunciation (in the iroha order) rather than by logographic radical (like the Tenrei Banshō Meigi ) or… …   Wikipedia

  • Shinsen Jikyō — The is the first Japanese dictionary containing native kun yomi Japanese readings of Chinese characters. The title is also written 新選字鏡 with the graphic variant sen ( choose; select; elect ) for sen ( compile; compose; edit ).The Heian Period… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”