訓詁學在中國有悠久的歷史，但在已往，學者常依據《說文》來談訓詁，由於《說文》所釋未必是正確的本義，因此訓詁學家所談的訓詁現象，有一些是可以商榷的。在甲骨、金文、戰國、秦漢文字大量出土的今天，我們可以更正確地說明一個字詞的本義、引申、假借、訛誤、音讀等現象。本文從尋本義、辨引申、明假借、正訛字、考韻讀等五方面，舉了皇／匡、專、早／蚤、水／沙、躬／身、音／意等例子來說明古文字對訓詁學的貢獻。

Traditional scholars of Chinese Exegetics used to rely on the Shuo Wen as the only authentic source to understand the original meaning of each character. But what they have found is not always correct. Now we have collected many archaeologically excavated oracle bones, bronze and bamboo scripts, with which we can decipher more correctly the original meaning, extended meaning, etc of those characters. This article selects some examples to prove the thesis.