Types and Quantities of Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

A Semantic Gloss in Chinese (義注, gichū) is an annotation of meaning that uses Chinese characters. It is also called a Semantic Gloss in Chinese in literary Chinese (漢文義注, kanbun gichū).

Character Count of Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

The Kanchi-in manuscript of the Ruiju Myōgishō contains approximately 12,600 Semantic Glosses in Chinese. Classifying these by the number of Chinese characters used in each gloss yields the following.

According to this, glosses of two characters are the most numerous, at approximately 6,100 — nearly half of the approximately 12,600 total Semantic Glosses in Chinese.

One-Character Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

A one-character Semantic Gloss in Chinese is a gloss in which the ‘也’ of the pattern ‘C也’ has been omitted. When a single Semantic Gloss in Chinese follows a Phonetic Gloss, and there is no risk of confusion with a Note on Character Form or Phonetic Gloss, the ‘也’ is often omitted. In the pattern ‘C也’, Headword A is glossed by Chinese character C using the form ‘C也’; in this case, A and C are shown to be synonymous.

Examples

1. hanzi_entry: 迀, definition: 進
2. hanzi_entry: 丕, definition: 多

For No. 1, ‘迀’, the Shuowen Jiezi gives ‘進也’ (to advance), and the Guangyun and the Song edition of the Yupian agree. ‘迀’ does not appear in the Banshō Meigi, but ‘迁’ is glossed there as ‘進也’. For No. 2, ‘丕’, the Shuowen Jiezi and the Guangyun give ‘大也’ (great), which does not match; but the Banshō Meigi gives ‘多也’ (many), which is the source of this gloss.

Two-Character Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

The two-character form using ‘也’ numbers more than approximately 2,400.

Examples

• hanzi_entry: 微, definition: 細也
• hanzi_entry: 偉, definition: 大也

Among the other types, common ones include ‘C名’ (approx. 480), ‘Bー(A)’ (approx. 250), ‘ー(A)B’ (approx. 190), ‘B声’ (approx. 80), ‘B属’ (approx. 80), and ‘B皃’ (approx. 70).

Several examples are given below.

Examples

1. hanzi_entry: 渭, definition: 水名
2. hanzi_entry: 狽, definition: 狼ー
3. hanzi_entry: 負, definition: 荷ー
4. hanzi_entry: 茱, definition: ー萸
5. hanzi_entry: 䓁, definition: ー閑 ナヲサリカテラ
6. hanzi_entry: 唄, definition: 梵声
7. hanzi_entry: 黽, definition: 蛙属
8. hanzi_entry: 粲／然, definition: 明皃

No. 1, ‘渭’ (the Wei River), is one of the tributaries of the Yellow River. It was on the northern bank of the Wei River that Taigong Wang, while fishing, met King Wen of Zhou. Within the Myōgishō, ‘水名’ (river name) occurs in 90 examples, followed by ‘地名’ (place name) with 33, ‘縣名’ (county name) with 31, ‘國名’ (state name) with 29, and ‘木名’ (tree name) with 22. This is an example of the ‘C名’ type.

No. 2, ‘狽’, uses the Substitution Mark ‘ー’ to show that the character is used as part of the compound ‘狼狽’ (lángbèi, flustered). This is an example of the ‘Bー(A)’ type.

No. 3, ‘負’, with ‘荷負’ (to carry), is likewise an example of the ‘Bー(A)’ type.

No. 4, ‘茱’, uses the Substitution Mark ‘ー’ to show that the character is used as part of the compound ‘茱萸’ (zhūyú, the fruit of the oleaster). ‘茱’ has the Guangyun fanqie ‘市朱切’ (Level tone, Yu rhyme, Chan III initial, homophonous with 殊), and ‘萸’ has ‘羊朱切’ (Level tone, Yu rhyme, Yu IV initial, homophonous with 逾), making ‘茱萸’ a diéyùn (畳韻, rhyming) compound. This is an example of the ‘ー(A)B’ type.

No. 5, ‘䓁’ (等), uses the Substitution Mark ‘ー’ to show that the character is used as part of the compound ‘等閑’ (idle, careless). This example is accompanied by the Japanese Native Reading (wakun) ‘ナヲサリカテラ’, derived from the line “秋月春風等閑度” (Autumn moon, spring breeze — days pass idly by) in the Biography of the Lute (琵琶行) of the Collected Works of Bai Juyi (白氏文集) (Funaki, Shuntarō. “Hakushi Monjū to Iroha Jiruishō” [The Hakushi Monjū and the Iroha Jiruishō]. Niigata Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyū 121 (2007)). ‘等閑’ is a compound formed by so-called ‘埋字’ (umeji, “buried-character”) or ‘分註式’ (bunchū-shiki, “split-gloss”) construction. This is likewise an example of the ‘ー(A)B’ type.

No. 6, ‘唄’, is glossed ‘梵声’ (Sanskrit chant), an explanation similar to the Guangyun’s ‘梵音’ and the Song edition of the Yupian’s ‘梵音聲’.

No. 7, ‘黽’, is glossed ‘蛙属’ (frog family), presumably based on the Guangyun’s ‘蛙屬’. The ‘B属’ type also includes examples such as animals (‘豕属’, ‘鹿属’), plants (‘橘属’, ‘梨属’), and objects (‘楸属’, ‘匙属’).

No. 8, ‘粲然’, is glossed ‘明皃’ (a bright, clear appearance), meaning a clear or evident state. ‘皃’ is a variant character of ‘貌’ and is frequently used as a suffix indicating appearance or condition. In old manuscripts, it is also sometimes written as ‘㒵’ or ‘皀’.

Three-Character Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

A three-character Semantic Gloss in Chinese glosses Headword A in the form ‘CD也’. This form is also sometimes used to gloss a two-character idiom Headword AB.

Of the approximately 2,100 three-character Semantic Glosses in Chinese, the form ending in ‘也’ accounts for approximately 700, or about one-third. Besides ‘也’, characters such as ‘皃’, ‘名’, and ‘声’ are also used, each with more than 50 examples. Several examples are given below.

Examples

• hanzi_entry: 仞, definition: 一尋也
• hanzi_entry: 彗, definition: 衆星皃
• hanzi_entry: 韶, definition: 舜樂名
• hanzi_entry: 嚊, definition: 喘息声

An explanation of Semantic Glosses in Chinese of four characters or more is omitted here.

Types of Semantic Glosses in Chinese #

Single-Character Semantic Glosses #

A Single-character Semantic Gloss (単字注) conveys the meaning of a Chinese character either as a one-character Semantic Gloss in Chinese, or as a two-character Semantic Gloss in Chinese with ‘也’ added. For a detailed explanation, see the “One-Character Semantic Glosses in Chinese” and “Two-Character Semantic Glosses in Chinese” sections above.

Appearance Glosses (’～皃’) #

This is a frequently used form for expressing shape or manner in Semantic Glosses in Chinese. Examples include ‘睆　目出皃’, ‘岝　ー峉山皃’, and ‘懖　無知之皃’, which are transcriptions and citations of Chinese lexicographic sources (小学書). This ‘～皃’ type is frequently used in the early-Heian-period dictionary Shinsen Jikyō, but becomes less common in the Ruiju Myōgishō. The most distinctive feature of the treatment of ‘皃’ (㒵) in the Ruiju Myōgishō is that, rather than simply reproducing the ‘〜皃’ (in the manner of 〜) Semantic Gloss in Chinese (a state description) found in Chinese classics and earlier dictionaries, it fully translates and absorbs that description into practical Japanese predicates (verbs and adjectives) or phrases.

1. ‘矍’ (視遽皃 → miru, odoroku) Where ‘矍’ is defined in sources such as the Shuowen Jiezi as ‘視遽皃’ (the appearance of looking with alarm), the Ruiju Myōgishō decomposes and translates this into the two verbs ‘ミル’ (miru, to see) and ‘オドロク’ (odoroku, to be startled) as Japanese Native Readings (wakun). This is an example of an abstract manner being replaced with concrete Japanese verbs of visual action.

2. ‘瞚’/‘睻’ (揺動皃 → matataku, majiroku) Where the Shinsen Jikyō stage describes this group of “blinking” words in literary Chinese as ‘開𡈮目數揺動皃’ (the appearance of opening and closing the eyes and moving them repeatedly), the Ruiju Myōgishō reduces and organizes them into the Japanese verbs of eye movement ‘マタタク’ (matataku) and ‘マジロク’ (majiroku).

Parallel Couplets #

In the Shinsen Jikyō, examples such as ‘阜　小陵曰丘、无名曰阜’ and ‘耆艾　六十曰耆、五十曰艾’ — glossing the meaning of a single character or idiom (Compound Expression) through a parallel-couplet form ‘～曰甲、～曰乙’ ("… is called A, … is called B") — are often seen. However, such examples are rarely used in the Ruiju Myōgishō. The only three confirmed instances are ‘覡　男曰覡　女曰巫’, ‘邦　大曰邦　小曰國’, and ‘獾　牝曰ー牡曰狼’.

In addition, ‘衡従’ (yokosama tatasama) derives from the line “蓺麻如之何、衡從其畝” in the “Nanshan” ode of the “Guofeng” section of the Classic of Poetry (詩経), corresponding to the parallel-couplet structure of ‘衡’ and ‘従’ in that line; its Japanese Native Reading (wakun) is likewise given in the parallel-couplet structure ‘ヨコサマ’ and ‘タタサマ’. The Seikadō Bunko manuscript (of the Maoshi Zhengjian 毛詩鄭箋) reads this as ‘ヨコサマニシ、タタサマニス’, but in the Ruiju Myōgishō the predicate elements ‘ニシ’ and ‘ニス’ are omitted, compressing it into the nominal parallel couplet ‘ヨコサマタタサマ’ — an abbreviation and streamlining suited to dictionary-style description.

Classification-name Glosses (’～名’) #

‘～名’ denotes a classificatory name for a thing or place. Since it is difficult to distinguish from ‘一名’ (see below), it is described here as ‘～名’. Classificatory names for things include ‘木名’ (tree name), ‘草名’ (plant name), ‘鳥名’ (bird name), and ‘獸名’ (animal name). Classificatory names related to place names include ‘國名’ (state name), ‘縣名’ (county name), ‘邑名’ (settlement name), ‘地名’ (place name), ‘山名’ (mountain name), ‘谷名’ (valley name), ‘水名’ (river name), and ‘江名’ (river name).

Alternative-Name Notation (‘一名’) #

‘一名’ is a term used to list an alternative name, as in ‘螻蛄一名ーー’ for ‘碩鼠’, ‘慈石一名’ for ‘玄石’, and ‘一名匙’ for ‘匕’.

Compound Expressions (連文) #

Compound Expression (連文, renbun), also called renji (連字), is a method of textual exegesis (kunko) that combines two synonymous or near-synonymous Chinese characters into a compound to more clearly indicate the meaning or usage of a single character; this is called ‘連文釈義’ (renbun shakugi) or ‘連文解義’ (renbun kaigi). For example, glossing the meaning of ‘嚚’ with the Compound Expression ‘頑嚚’, or glossing the meaning of ‘雇’ with ‘雇賃’, are instances of this.

Among such Compound Expressions, many form a shuāngshēng (双声, alliterative compound), in which the two characters share the same initial consonant, or a diéyùn (畳韻, rhyming compound), in which they share the same rhyme. These use phonetic resonance to describe the state of a thing sensorially and precisely. For example, ‘頑嚚’ (wányín) is an example of a shuāngshēng compound, indicating stubbornness and a lack of understanding of reason; ‘潺湲’ (chányuán, sen’en) indicates the murmuring sound of flowing water. In the Ruiju Myōgishō, glossing ‘嚚’ with ‘頑ー’ and ‘潺’ with ‘潺ー’ are examples of using a Compound Expression to explain a character’s meaning.

There are also Compound Expressions (state modifiers) formed by adding the suffix ‘然’ to a Chinese character to describe a state or psychological condition, in the form ‘～然’. For example, ‘騞然’ describes the sound/appearance of cutting something with a blade, and ‘睟然’ describes a lustrous appearance. In the Ruiju Myōgishō, glossing ‘騞’ with ‘ー然’ and ‘睟’ with ‘ー然潤澤皃’ are examples of using this construction.

Semantic Glosses in Chinese Mistaken for Katakana #

Scribal errors in Semantic Glosses in Chinese are common. It is important to search for the source text and confirm what meaning is being explained and in what context the gloss is used.

• kazama_location: K03009110, hanzi_entry: 髎, definition: 力遙反　尻骨謂之八ー(謂-詣イ、八ー-ハキ〈イ〉)　侖作膫非

This entry derives from Xuanying’s Yiqiejing yinyi. It can be surmised that the gloss text ‘八髎’ was transcribed as ‘八ー’, and mistakenly read as the katakana Japanese Native Reading (wakun) ‘ハキ’.

• kazama_location: K07039310, hanzi_entry: 𪗍, definition: 音同　等

Kusakawa’s Wakun Shūsei records ‘等’ as ‘ホ’ (ho), but this does not appear as ‘ホ’ in Masamune’s Index. The Shuowen Jiezi glosses ‘𪗍’ as ‘等也’. Kusakawa mistook the semi-cursive/cursive form (行草書) of ‘等’, which resembles ‘ホ’, for a Japanese Native Reading (wakun). Masamune, it is presumed, correctly read it as a Chinese character. The note ‘音同’ indicates that the pronunciation is the same as that of the preceding character ‘齊’.