This doctoral dissertation is divided into two phases: "Mending
Co-rhyme Records" and "Corrective Homophone & Radical Records":
In Mr. Shi Qu’s Rhyme Records, such the statement as “there was no
‘departing tone’ in ancient time,” and the example of “original tone” and
“co-rhyme” are most from Jintan Duan Yucai. The Rhyme Records
carved by Lo Chenyu took rhyme table formulated by Mr. Shi in his early
years in the head of the edition, and to which the standard rhyme of each
book is according, as well as completely deletes “tone switch” and
“co-rhyme” marks, severely destructing the style of original book.
Thereafter, Bejing University obtained several books of manuscripts not
been carved from Lo Chenyu. Lu Zongda participated in compilation,
collecting 353 example entries of Co-Rhyme Records, and divided into
the schools of “Co-two rhymes” and “Co-three rhymes”. However,
Co-Rhyme Records were Mr. Lu’s manuscript so that omissions are
inevitable; Lu Zongda did not mark the words with co-rhyme, and then
repeated Lo Chenyu’s mistakes again. Although Hxu Shiying and Chen
Xinxiong conducted additions, it has not yet attained perfect. Now, the
rhyme examples in Rhyme Records, and Co-Rhyme Records were
checked one by one. Where the example exclusively used in certain part
depending on main Rhyme Records, having co-rhyme with other parts
can be seen in both Co-rhyme Records each other, so that main rhyme
and co-rhyme are created, and then the rhymes of each part can be
known.
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In addition, the author corrected rhymed characters and the font
structure of the text of Shuowen Jiezi mainly with small seal scripts,
supplemented by ancient characters, and then analyzed their homophone,
radicals and correlation. The attribution part of ancient tones is
completely subject to Mr. Shi Qu’s original meaning. The original
meaning can be got from Rhyme Records, Lu Records, Jing Yi Shu Wen,
rhyme tables, texts in writing, and Song Bao’s Homophone Supplements;
if they are not available, refer to the Part Attribution of Shuowen jiezi
annotated by Duan Yucai. Duan’s Part Attribution is based on the rhyme
part of each seal scripts for whether follow or identify it by additions.
Three tables as “With or Without Rhyme Examples”, “Similarities
and Differences of Rhyme Examples”, and “Similarities and Differences
of Part Attribution” were prepared in the end of text for comparison of
each records. “Rhymes of Each Part in Guangyun Attribution Table” was
prepared to observe the situation of the changed rhymes of each part into
206 rhymes in Guangyun. In addition a “Duan’s and Wang’s Part
Attribution Dissimilarity List” was prepared to analyze their advantages
and disadvantages.