Xiao Erya

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The Xiao Erya (Chinese: 小爾雅/小尔雅; pinyin: Xiǎo Ěryǎ; Wade-Giles: Hsiao Erh-ya; "Little [Er]ya") was an early Chinese dictionary that supplements the Erya. It was supposedly compiled in the early Han Dynasty by Kong Fu (孔鮒 264?-208 BCE), a descendent of Confucius. However, the received Xiao Erya text was included in a Confucianist collection of debates, the Kongcongzi (孔叢子; K'ung-ts'ung-tzu; "The Kong Family Master's Anthology"), which contains fabrications that its first editor Wang Su (王肅, 195-256 CE) added to win his arguments with Zheng Xuan (鄭玄, 127-200CE). The Qing Dynasty scholar Hu Chenggong (胡承珙, 1776-1832), who wrote the Xiao Erya yizheng (小爾雅義證 "Exegesis and Proof for the Xiao Erya"), accepted Kong Fu as the author. Liu (2005) concludes the Xiao Erya reliably dates from the Western Han Dynasty and suggests its compiler was from the southern state of Chu.

The Xiao Erya has 374 entries, far less than the Erya with 2091. It simplifies the Erya's 19 semantically-based chapter divisions into 13, and entitles them with guang (廣 "expanding") instead of shi (釋 "explaining").

Section	Chinese	Pinyin	Translation	Erya Chapter
01	廣詁	Guanggu	Expanding Old Words	01
02	廣言	Guangyan	Expanding Words	02
03	廣訓	Guangxun	Expanding Instructions	03
04	廣義	Guangyi	Expanding Righteousness	04
05	廣名	Guangming	Expanding Names	X
06	廣服	Guangfu	Expanding Clothing	06
07	廣器	Guangqi	Expanding Utensils	06
08	廣物	Guangwu	Expanding Things	13, 14
09	廣鳥	Guangniao	Expanding Birds	17
10	廣獸	Guangshou	Expanding Beasts	18, 19
11	廣度	Guangdu	Expanding Length	X
12	廣量	Guangliang	Expanding Volume	X
13	廣衡	Guangheng	Expanding Weight	X

In comparison with the Erya chapter arrangement, Xiao Erya sections 1-3 (defining abstract words) are identical. Despite the different title with yi ("righteousness") instead of qin ("relatives"), both Section 4 and Chapter 4 ("Explaining Relatives") define kinship terms. Sections 6 and 7 divide Chapter 6 ("Explaining Utensils"). Xiao Erya Section 8 combines Chapters 13 ("Explaining Plants") and 14 ("Explaining Trees"); 9 mirrors 17; and Section 10 combines 18 ("Explaining Beasts") and 19 ("Explaining Domestic Animals"). Xiao Erya sections 5 (funeral terms) and 11-13 (units of measurement) are not included in the Erya.

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[edit] References

Liu Hong-Yan 刘鸿雁. 2005. "Xiao Erya buzheng" 《小尔雅》补证 [Supplementary Proof for the Xiao Erya]. Journal of Yan'an University (Social Science Edition) 延安大學學報(社會科學版) 27.6:110-112. (in Chinese), login is required