Shuowen Jiezi, first etymological dictionary of Chinese characters
Shuowen Jiezi, primer diccionario etimológico de caracteres chinos
- Date
- 100 (presentado en 121) · confidence high
- Place
- Luoyang, Henan, China
- Credited to
- Xu Shen
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A work analysing some 9,353 characters, sorting them under 540 radicals and explaining their structure. It inaugurated the radical-based dictionary, the foundation of all Chinese lexicography.
Completed around 100 and presented to the throne in 121 by his son Xu Chong. Its etymologies do not always match oracle-bone forms, unknown then.
What it led to
- character ordering by radicals
- the study of Chinese graphic etymology
- later dictionaries such as the Kangxi