Article published in:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 40:1/2 (2013) ► pp. 3–37

“Preferring Omission over Falsity”

The politics of compilation in the Kangxi Classic of Characters 康熙字典

| Harvard University
Neglected in the current scholarship on Qing dynasty court compilations, the dictionary commissioned by the Kangxi emperor in 1710 is an important source for understanding the nature of court-commissioned reference works in the early Qing. The Kangxi Classic of Characters, although typically believed to have improved on Ming and early Qing dictionaries by virtue of its greater inclusion of source materials, in fact had a more complicated relationship with its predecessors. In the process of delegitimizing earlier, privately compiled works, the editors of the Kangxi Classic of Characters actively promoted the exclusive authority of the court in their composition of dictionary definitions. Further, their manipulation of definitions in earlier dictionaries was not a straightforward process of greater inclusion and deletion of redundancy, but rather a reflection of contemporary intellectual developments. This can be seen in the compilers’ attempts to bring the definitions in line with a number of trends in Confucian thought, which were taking form at the court during this period.
Published online: 08 March 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.40.1-2.02ved
References

A.Primary sources

Da Qing Shengzu Ren (Kangxi) huangdi shilu
大清聖祖仁(康熙)皇帝實錄 [The Veritable Records of Shengzu, the Emperor Ren (Kangxi) of the Great Qing]. Vol. 61 1978 Taibei: Xin wenfeng chubanshe.Google Scholar
Gu Tinglong 顧廷龍
ed. 1992 清代硃卷集成 [The Complete Collection of Qing Dynasty Vermillion Papers]. Vol. 2101. Taibei: Chengwen chubanshe.Google Scholar
Mei Yingzuo 梅 膺 祚
1615 字 彙 [The Assemblage of Characters]. Anhui: [published by the author’s family members].Google Scholar
Tuotuo 脫脫
et al. eds. 2003 [1343–1344] 宋史 [History of the Song]. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jisuan zhongxin. Online at http://​hanji​.sinica​.edu​.tw/. Consulted on 21 Dec. 2012.
Wang Yinzhi 王引之
1959 [1831] 字典考證 [Evidentiary Research on the Classic of Characters]. Taibei: Yiwen yinshu guan.Google Scholar
Wu Renchen 吳任臣
1995–1999 [1711] 字彙補 [Supplement to the Assemblage of Characters]. (= Xu xiu Siku quanshu edition, 233.) Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhang Yushu 張玉書
et al. eds. 1716 康熙字典 [Kangxi Classic of Characters]. Beijing: Neifu.Google Scholar
Zhang Zilie 張自烈
1685 正字通 [The Comprehensive Rectification of Characters]. Beijing: Qingwei tang.Google Scholar

B.Secondary literature

Allsen, Thomas T.
2000 “The Rasulid Hexaglot in its Eurasian Cultural Context”. The King’s Dictionary: The Rasulid Hexaglot. Fourteenth century vocabularies in Arabic, Persian, Turkic, Greek, Armenian and Mongol ed. by Denis Sinor & Nicola di Cosmo, 25–49. Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill.Google Scholar
Bai, Limin
2005 Shaping the Ideal Child: Children and their primers in late imperial China. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Benner, Margareta & Emin Tengström
1977 On the Interpretation of Learned Neo­Latin: An explorative study based on some texts from Sweden (1611–1716). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.Google Scholar
Berger, Patricia Ann
2003 Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist art and political authority in Qing China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bottéro, Françoise
1996 Sémantisme et classification dans l’écriture chinoise: Les systèmes de classement des caractères par clés du Shuowen jiezi au Kangxi zidian. Paris: Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, Collège de France.Google Scholar
Bottéro, Françoise & Christoph Harbsmeier
2008 “The Shuowen Jiezi Dictionary and the Human Sciences in China”. Asia Major, 3rd series 21:1.249–271.Google Scholar
Chan, Hok-lam
2005 “Xie Jin (1369–1415) as Imperial Propagandist: His role in the revisions of the Ming Taizu Shilu ”. T’oung Pao 91:1.58–124. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Wing-tsit
1975 “The Hsing­li ching­i and the C’heng-Chu School of the Seventeenth Century”. The Unfolding of Neo­Confucianism ed. by William Theodore De Bary, 543–579. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Chow, Kai-wing
1995 “The Development of Sung Learning in Ch’ing Thought, 1660s–1830s”. Hanxue yanjiu 13:2.47–76.Google Scholar
1994 The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, classics, and lineage discourse. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chunhua 春花
2008 清代滿蒙文詞典研究 [Research on Manchu and Mongolian Dictionaries of the Qing Dynasty]. Shenyang: Liaoning minzu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Crossley, Pamela Kyle & Evelyn S. Rawski
1993 “A Profile of the Manchu Language in Ch’ing History”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 53:1.63–102. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Deng Wenbin 鄧文濱
2002 中國古代語言學史 [A History of Premodern Linguistics in China]. Chengdu: Bashu shushe.Google Scholar
Durand, Pierre-Henri
1992 Lettrés et pouvoirs: Un procès littéraire dans la Chine impériale. Paris: Editions de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A.
1990 Classicism, Politics, and Kinship: The Ch’ang­chou school of New Text Confucianism in late imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
2007 “Collecting and Classifying: Ming dynasty compendia and encyclopedias (leishu)”. Qu’était­ce qu’écrire une encyclopédie en Chine? / What did it Mean to Write an Encyclopedia in China? ed. by Florence Bretelle-Establet & Karine Chemla, 131–158. Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes.Google Scholar
2000 A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
1984 From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and social aspects of change in late imperial China. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fang Houshu 方厚樞
1979 “中國辭書史話” [“A Historical Narrative of Chinese Word-Books”]. Cishu yanjiu 辭書研究 1979:11.217–228.Google Scholar
Fei, Si-yen
2009 Negotiating Urban Space: Urbanization and late Ming Nanjing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Feng Fengfeng 丰逢奉
1988 “《康熙字典》編纂理論初探” [“A Preliminary Investigation into the Compilation Theory of the Kangxi Classic of Characters ”]. Cishu yanjiu 辭 書 研究 1988:21.72–80.Google Scholar
Fernandez, Heberto & Monique C. Cormier
2010 “ ‘For the Better Understanding of the Order of this Dictionarie, Peruse the Preface to the Reader’: Topics in the outside matter of French and English dictionaries (1580–1673)”. Adventuring in Dictionaries ed. by John Considine, 1–13. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Fuller, Michael Anthony
1990 The Road to East Slope: The development of Su Shi’s poetic voice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Furuya Akihiro 古屋昭弘
1995 “《正字通》版本及作者考” [“A Study of the Editions and Authorship of The Comprehensive Rectification of Characters ”]. Zhongguo yuwen 中國語文 247:4.306–311.Google Scholar
Galambos, Imre
2004 “Dunhuang Characters and the Dating of Manuscripts”. The Silk Road: Trade, travel, war and faith ed. by Susan Whitfield & Ursula Sims-Williams, 72–79. Chicago: Serindia Publications.Google Scholar
Gao Ming 高明
1971 “Zheng Qiao yu Tongzhi Qiyin lue” “鄭樵與通志七音略” [“Zheng Qiao and the ‘The Essentials of the Seven Tones’ in The Comprehensive Treatises ”]. Bao Zunpeng jinian lunwen ji 包遵彭先生紀念論文集, 89–97. Taibei: Guoli zhongyang tushuguan.Google Scholar
Goodrich, L. Carrington
1935 The Literary Inquisition of Ch’ien­lung. Baltimore, Md.: Waverly Press.Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony
1997 The Footnote: A curious history. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
2001 Bring Out Your Dead: The past as revelation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harbsmeier, Christoph
1998 Language and Logic in Traditional China. (= Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 7:1.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
He Jiuying 何九盈
1995 中國古代語言學史 [A History of Linguistics in Premodern China]. Guangzhou: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Ho, Ping-ti
1998 “In Defense of Sinicization: A rebuttal of Evelyn Rawski’s ‘Reenvisioning the Qing’”. Journal of Asian Studies 57:1.123–155.Google Scholar
Hon, Tze-Ki
2005 The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical commentary and literati activism in the Northern Song period, 960–1127. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Hu Pu’an 胡樸安
1991 中國訓詁學史 [A History of Exegetical Studies in China]. Shanghai: Shanghai shudian.Google Scholar
Hu Qiguang 胡奇光
1987 中國小學史 [A History of Chinese Philology]. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Huang Yunmei 黃雲眉
1936 “康熙字典引書證誤” [“Citation Errors in the Kangxi Classic of Characters ”]. Jinling xuebao 金陵學報 6:2.173–181.Google Scholar
Hummel, Arthur W.
ed. 1970 Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period. New York: Paragon Book Gallery.Google Scholar
Jiang Cheng 姜誠
. Jan. 10 2002 “尘封三百年殿版初印《康熙字典》湖北露脸” [“Dusty 300 Year Old Palace First Edition of the Kangxi Classic of Characters Turns Up in Hubei”]. Chinanews.com. http://​www​.chinanews​.com​/2002​-01​-10​/26​/153261​.html. Consulted on 21 Dec. 2012.
Jiang Qiao 江橋
2001 康熙《御製清文鑑》研究 [Research on Kangxi’s Imperially Commissioned Mirror of the Manchu Language ]. Beijing: Beijing yanshan chubanshe.Google Scholar
Kim, Loretta
2002 “Illuminating the Ginggulere Hergen: Language, identity, and power in the prefaces of the Manchu Mirrors”. M.A. thesis, Harvard University. [Privately printed.]Google Scholar
Köhle, Natalie
2008 “Why Did the Kangxi Emperor Go to Wutai Shan?: Patronage, pilgrimage, and the place of Tibetan Buddhism at the early Qing court”. Late Imperial China 29:1.73–119. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Legge, James
2004 The Li Ki. Montana: Kessinger Publishing.Google Scholar
Li Shuping 李淑萍
2006 《康熙字典》研究論叢 [Essays on the Kangxi Classic of Characters ]. Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Li Guojun 李國鈞 & Wang Bingzhao 王炳照
eds. 2000 中國教育制度通史 [A Comprehensive History of the Education System of China]. Vol. 51. Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lin Qingzhang 林慶彰
1980 “中文辭典的源流與發展” [“The Origins and Development of Chinese Dictionaries”]. Shuping shumu 書評書目 81.12–23.Google Scholar
Lin Shixuan 林士鉉
2005 “清朝前期的滿洲政治文化與蒙古” [“Manchu Political Culture and Mongolia in the Early Qing Period”]. Doctoral dissertation, National Chengchi University 國立政治大學. Print.Google Scholar
Lin Yushan 林玉山
1992 中国辞书编纂史略 [A Brief History of Chinese Dictionary Compilation]. Beijing: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liu Yeqiu 劉葉秋
1992 中國字典史略 [A Brief History of Chinese Dictionaries]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.Google Scholar
Liu Zemin 劉澤民
2010 “《正字通》作者問題補證” [“Supplemental Evidence for the Problem of the Authorship of the Comprehensive Rectification of Characters ”]. Zhongguo yuwen 中國語文 2010:61.561–570.Google Scholar
Lu Wanchang 陸萬昌 & Huang Zhen 黃震
2008 “論康雍乾的史學思想” [“On the Historiographical Thought of the Flourishing Age of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors”]. Heilongjiang shizhi 黑龍江史志 2008:221.29–31.Google Scholar
Nappi, Carla Suzan
2009 The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural history and its transformations in early modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ng, On Cho
2001 Cheng­Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing: Li Guangdi (1642–1718) and Qing learning. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Qian Jianfu 錢劍夫
1986 中國古代字典詞典概論 [An Outline of Premodern Chinese Dictionaries]. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Song Yang 宋揚
2006 《康熙字典》對《字彙》、《正字通》的繼承和發展 [The Kangxi Classic of Character’s Inheritance from and Development of the Assemblage of Characters and the Comprehensive Rectification of Characters ]. M.A. thesis, Tianjin Normal University 天津師範大學. China Academic Journals. Web. http://​www​.cnki​.net. Consulted on 21 Dec. 2012.
Spence, Jonathan
. “The K’ang-hsi Reign” 2002 The Cambridge History of China. Volume 91. Part One: The Ch’ing Empire to 1800 ed. by Willard J. Peterson, 120–182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1966 Ts’ao Yin and the Kang­hsi Emperor: Bondservant and master. New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wang Chongjun 王崇峻
2003 “監督與控制──清初(1644～1722)地方官學教育的實質內涵” [“Supervision and Control – the actual nature of education at local official academies in the early Qing (1644~1722)”]. Hualian shiyuan xuebao 花蓮師院學報 171.87–106.Google Scholar
Wang Jinxing 王進興
1997 “陳廷敬與《康熙字典》” [“Chen Tingjing and the Kangxi Classic of Characters ”]. Shanxi wenshi ziliao 山西文史資料 1997:6.70–73.Google Scholar
Wu Junxun 巫俊勳
2007 《字彙》編纂理論研究 [Research on the Compilation Theory of the Assemblage of Characters ]. Taipei: Hua Mulan wenhua chubanshe.Google Scholar
Xiao, Chi
2001 The Chinese Garden as Lyric Enclave: A generic study of the “Story of the Stone”. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Xiao Huilan 蕭惠蘭
2003 “ ‘字典’出處新探” [“A New Investigation into the Origin of the Term ‘zidian’”]. Yuyan kexue 語言科學 2:2.107–110.Google Scholar
Xu Hai 徐海 & Ding Shunru 丁順茹
eds. 2003 二十世紀中國辭書學論文索引 [An Index to 20th Century Articles on Chinese Lexicography]. Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Xu Shiyi 徐時儀
2009 “《康熙字典》的文化傳承和創新探論” [“A Discussion of the Cultural Inheritance and Innovation of the Kangxi Classic of Characters ”] 中華字典研究 [Research on Chinese Dictionaries]. Vol. I1, ed. by Zhu Ruiping 朱瑞平 & Shi Jianqiao 史建橋, 89–97. Beijing: Beijing shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yang, Paul Fu-mien
1985 Chinese Lexicology and Lexicography: A selected and classified bibliography. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Yong, Heming & Peng Jing
2008 Chinese Lexicography: A history from 1046 BC to AD 1911. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yu Wanli 虞萬里
2009 “《康熙字典》總閱官，纂修官行歷考實” “An Investigation into the Backgrounds of the Compilers of the Kangxi Classic of Characters ”. 中 華 字 典 研 究 [Research on Chinese Dictionaries]. Vol. I1, ed. by Zhu Ruiping 朱瑞平 & Shi Jianqiao 史建橋, 221–242. Beijing: Beijing shehui kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhang Minghua 張明華
1998 中國字典詞典史話 [A Historical Narrative of Chinese Dictionaries]. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Zhao Zhenduo 趙振鐸
1986 古代辭書史話 [A Historical Narrative of Premodern Dictionaries]. Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhou Zhenfu 周振甫
2009 “求是的讀書方法” [“A Reading Method for Seeking the Truth”]. Jiaoshi bolan 教師博覽 121.52–53.Google Scholar
Zou Feng 邹酆
1983 “《字彙》在字典編纂法上的創新” [“The Innovation of The Assemblage of Characters in Dictionary Compilation Method”]. Cishu yanjiu 辭書研究 1983:5.135–142.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Yang, Huiling
2014. The Making of the First Chinese-English Dictionary: Robert Morrison’sDictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts(1815–1823). Historiographia Linguistica 41:2-3 ► pp. 299 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 december 2018. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.