“Ji jiu pian” within the context of traditional Chinese lexicography

Abstract

The paper reflects some results of the study of the “Ji jiu pian” (“Quick access [to characters]”), which was compiled in the 1st century BC by Han dynasty official Shi You. “Ji jiu pian” is the earliest Chinese primer survived to the present day. Some issues of the “Ji jiu pian” history are highlighted in this article. However, the main attention is focused on its text structure, formal and thematic division of the word list. The early Chinese wordbooks had multiple functions: recorded orthographic norms served as textbooks to teach basic literacy as well as scopes of basic knowledge about the world which students had to learn. Such wordbooks can be considered as prototypes of the later encyclopedias. “Ji jiu pian” was compiled as a handbook for the members of the royal court retinue. Also, it could be used to teach children of the royal family. Hence it became the textbook for children. “Ji jiu pian” represents the minimum set of the words and characters, which was required in everyday and household routine of the Han dynasty. The “Ji jiu pian” lexical items can be divided into three big parts: “Peoples’ names”, “Things” and “Governing the Empire and its officials”. In its turn, the word list of the biggest part “Things” can be subdivided into 24 thematic groups. This part represents a semantic classification of the commonly-used words (domestic, household, industrial and environmental) which was founded by Shi You in the 1st century B.C.