Textual Criticism on the Category “Zhou” of Exegesis on Shuowen Jiezi(《说文解字注》)
Abstract: Shuowen Jiezi(《说文解字》) is the first dictionary which systematically analyses grapheme, illustrates meaning and identifies pronunciation with the six categories of characters theory. It is a famous work in our linguistics history. Since the Dynasty tang and song, many people has studied Shuowen Jiezi(《说文解字》), such as Duan Yucai, Zhu Junsheng, Gui Fu, Wang Yun, and so on. Duan Yucai worked on Shuowen Jiezi, his achievement is outstanding and influential, his Exegesis on Shuowen Jiezi(《说文解字注》) is at the peak .After being published, this book won the lofty prestige from academic circles quickly .Duan Yucai cited plenty of ancient books to prove his views. On the basis of those ancient books, his views are dependable. At the same time those words of ancient books are proved. But the exegeses are often inconsistent with general ancient books .Now, we take the category “Zhou” (舟) for example, inspect language material of original ancient books, and carry on collating. From the analysis, we can see that Duan made some mistakes while cited from ancient books, because of following Xu Shen blindly, extreme self-confident, different edition as well as being collated by his apprentices. But he collected many materials and carried out research carefully, so this book is praised worthy very much. Although there are shortcomings, the flaw does not cover the fine jade. It is our best choice to study Shuowen Jiezi.
Key words: Exegesis on Shuowen Jiezi ; exegesis by Mr Duan; textual criticism