Pic: | Jingdian Shiwen - Chinese Dictionary Museum.JPG |
Piccap: | Jingdian Shiwen scrolls in the Chinese Dictionary Museum, Jincheng, Shanxi |
L: | Explaining words used in the classics |
P: | Jīngdiǎn shìwén |
Bpmf: | ㄐㄧㄥ ㄉㄧㄢˇ ㄕˋ ㄨㄣ |
W: | Ching¹-tien³ shih⁴-wên² |
J: | Ging1din2 sik1man4 |
Y: | Gīngdín sīkmàhn |
Suz: | Cin1tie3 seq7ven2 |
Poj: | Keng-tián siak-bûn |
Mc: | keng tenX syek mjun |
Oc-Bs: |
|
Hanja: | 經典釋文 |
Hangul: | 경전석문 |
Rr: | Gyeongjeon seongmun |
Mr: | Kyŏngjŏn sŏngmun |
Kanji: | 経典釈文 |
Hiragana: | けいてんしゃくもん |
Romaji: | Keiten shakumon |
The Jingdian Shiwen, often simply referred to as the Shiwen by Chinese philologists, was a Chinese dictionary compiled by the scholar Lu Deming . Based on the works of 230 scholars whose work spanned the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties periods, the work provides exegetical commentary on the evolution of words present in the Confucian Thirteen Classics and the Daoist Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi. Namely, it tacks the gradual shifts in both the meaning and pronunciation of classical words. to It also cites numerous ancient works that no longer exist; citations which for some constitute the only documentary evidence of their previous existence.
The dictionary's pronunciations are given by fanqie annotations, and have proved invaluable for historical linguists studying the Middle Chinese stage of the language's history. Sinologist Bernhard Karlgren considered the Jingdian Shiwen and the Qieyun, a rime dictionary assembled in 601, as the two primary sources for the reconstruction of Middle Chinese. Many studies in Chinese historical linguistics use data from the Jingdian Shiwen .