Ruijū Myōgishō
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The Ruijū myōgishō or Ruiju meigishō (類聚名義抄? "Classified dictionary of pronunciations and meanings, annotated") is a Japanese dictionary from the late Heian Period. The title, sometimes abbreviated as Myōgishō, combines the ruiju ("classified dictionary") from the Wamyō Ruijushō and the myōgi ("pronunciation and meaning/definition") from the Tenrei Banshō Myōgi. Additional Buddhist titles, like Sanpō ruiju myōgishō (三宝類聚名義抄), use the word sanpō (三宝 "Three Jewels") because the text was divided into butsu (仏 "Buddha"), hō (法 "Dharma"), and sō (僧 "Sangha") sections.
The origins of the Ruijū myōgishō are uncertain. Bailey (1960:6) concludes it was "compiled early in the twelfth century, presumably by a priest." Okimori (1996:269) believes the received edition dates from the late 12th century, but the original version was compiled around 1081-1100 CE. There are various received texts of the Ruijū myōgishō and several indexes.
Like other early Japanese dictionaries, the Ruijū myōgishō borrowed heavily from Chinese dictionaries, in particular the (ca. 543 CE) Yupian and the (601 CE) Qieyun. For collation of character entries, the Chinese Yupian has a system of 542 logographic radicals. The Ruijū myōgishō cuts them down into 120 radicals (bu 部), even simpler than the (ca. 900 CE) Japanese Shinsen Jikyō system of 160.
The Ruijū myōgishō lists over 32,000 characters and compounds. The entries give both on'yomi Sino-Japanese borrowings and kun'yomi native Japanese readings for kanji, using Chinese fanqie spellings (from the Qieyun), Man'yogana, and katakana. Meanings are often illustrated by quotations from over 130 Chinese classic texts and classical Japanese literature. These quotes have two types of Kanbun ("Chinese writing") annotations, shōten (声点 "tone marks") for Chinese tones and Japanese accents, and occasional kunten (訓点 "reading marks") for Japanese pronunciations. "Many passages contain no Japanese readings at all," says Bailey (1960:6), "but there are a total of approximately 10,000 Japanese readings given in the whole work." The Ruijū myōgishō remains a standard Japanese source of information regarding Heian era pronunciation.
[edit] References
- Bailey, Don Clifford. (1960). "Early Japanese Lexicography". Monumenta Nipponica 16:1-52.
- Kaneko Akira 金子彰. (1996). "類聚名義抄 (Ruijū myōgishō)." 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. 269-272. Tokyo: Ōfū. ISBN 4-273-02890-5
[edit] External links
- 類聚名義抄, late Kamakura Period edition of Ruijū myōgishō, Tenri Central LibraryLate Old Japanese texts
