Erya

The Erya (Chinese: 爾雅/尔雅; Wade–Giles: Erh-ya) is a Chinese reference work on natural history dating to about the 3rd century BCE. "Erya" literally means "progress to correctness", and has been translated as The Dictionary of Terms. The book's author is unknown, although it is traditionally attributed to Confucius. The major commentaries are the Erya zhu (Chinese: 爾雅主; Wade–Giles: Erh-ya chu) "Erya Commentary" by Guo Pu (Chinese: 郭璞; Wade–Giles: Kuo P'u, 276-324) and the Erya shu (Chinese: 爾雅疏; Wade–Giles: Erh-ya shu) "Erya Sub-commentary" by Xing Bing (Chinese: 邢昺; Wade–Giles: Hsing Ping, 931-1010).

Erya is a combination of a dictionary and an encyclopaedia, and describes more than 590 kinds of animals and plants. It is divided into nineteen sections, the last seven concerning grasses, trees, insects and reptiles, fish, birds, wild animals, and domestic animals. It is a valuable document on historical biogeography. The title of each chapter combines shi (explain; elucidate) with a term describing the words under definition. The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining "abstract" words and the last sixteen semantically-arranged chapters defining "concrete" words.

Contents

Chapter	Chinese	Pinyin	Translation	Subject
01	釋詁	Shigu	Explaining Old Words	verbs, adjectives, adverbs, grammatical particles
02	釋言	Shiyan	Explaining Words	verbs, adjectives, adverbs
03	釋訓	Shixun	Explaining Instructions	adjectives, adverbs, mostly with reduplication
04	釋親	Shiqin	Explaining Relatives	kinship, marriage
05	釋宮	Shigong	Explaining Dwellings	architecture, engineering
06	釋器	Shiqi	Explaining Utensils	tools, weapons, clothing, and their uses
07	釋樂	Shiyue	Explaining Music	music, musical instruments, dancing
08	釋天	Shitian	Explaining Heaven	astronomy, astrology, meteorology, calendar
09	釋地	Shidi	Explaining Earth	geography, geology, some regional lore
10	釋丘	Shiqiu	Explaining Hills	topography, Fengshui terms
11	釋山	Shishan	Explaining Mountains	mountains, famous mountains
12	釋水	Shishui	Explaining Rivers	rivers, navigation, irrigation, boating
13	釋草	Shicao	Explaining Plants	grasses, herbs, grains, vegetables
14	釋木	Shimu	Explaining Trees	trees, shrubs, some botanical terms
15	釋蟲	Shichong	Explaining Insects	insects, spiders, reptiles, etc.
16	釋魚	Shiyu	Explaining Fishes	fish, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles, etc.
17	釋鳥	Shiniao	Explaining Birds	wildfowl, ornithology
18	釋獸	Shishou	Explaining Beasts	wild animals, legendary animals
19	釋畜	Shichu	Explaining Domestic Animals	livestock, pets, poultry, some zoological terms

Sources and external links

• Guo Pu — ChinaCulture.org
• Alain Peyraube, Some Reflections on the sources of the Mashi Wentong (PDF)
• The Erya 爾雅 Dictionary, Chinaknowledge article
• Erh-ya, rare Song Dynasty edition, National Palace Museum