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《說文》形聲商榷
A Critical Review of phonograms in the Shuowen Jiezi
摘要
《說文》為二千年來研究文字學之寶典，乃集漢以前文字及文字說解之大成，且皆有其歷史之依據。然《說文》簡奧，後人不明斯理，見《說文》解說義異常訓，則喜攻訐許書，往往以已見穿鑿附會，別標新解，眾說紛紜。復以歷代傳抄諸儒並非盡為文字學者，故今所及見之《說文》頗多訛誤，急待重新商榷。今為探究，所獲心得有：（一）《說文》「形聲」一語雙關，兼有「形于聲」及「半主義，半主聲」之意。（二）《說文》形聲字之聲符表物音，鳥獸之名取其鳴自呼，如「狗」字，《說文》云：「从犬，句聲」。「句」象小犬之叫聲「句句」(kau55 kau55 )。（三）《說文》形聲字聲子必從母音，如「欻」字，《說文》云：「有所吹起。从欠，炎聲。讀若忽。」然「欻」（許勿切，「曉」母，八部）與其聲母「炎」（依曾運乾考定，當作余廉切，「喻」母，古歸「定」母，三十二部）卻聲韻畢異。故「炎」非聲，當為「从欠、炎」，會意。「欻」字當為張口吹氣助燃，使火盛，炎光上騰，吹氣聲近似「忽忽」(xu□t xu□t)也。以上諸端期能有助於《說文》形聲疑義之釐清。
並列摘要
＂Shuowen Jiezi＂(hereafter abbreviated to ＂Shuowen＂) is a two thousand year-old classic work of philology. The work collects pre-Han Chinese characters and definitions, each of which is backed by historical evidence. However, due to the fact that ＂Shuowen＂ is both concise and profound in nature, scholars of later times did not always fully comprehend its subtleties. Consequently, these scholars attacked Xu Shen's work because the definitions within ＂Shuowen＂ differed significantly from established teachings, and offered instead a wide variety of own distorted interpretations and personal opinions on the work. In addition to this, many of the ancient Confucian scholars responsible for the handwritten copying of books were by no means etymologists, and therefore there are many textual errors in the version of ＂Shuowen＂ that has reached us today, which are in urgent need of further study. From the extensive research into this topic that I am currently conducting, I hope to gain a better understanding of: 1) the two elements of phonograms in ＂Shuowen＂, as well as the meaning of ＂one half for sense, one half for sound＂.2) the phonetic element of phonograms in ＂Shuowen＂ as a representation of animal sounds, and the determination of the names of birds and animals on the basis of their call or cry. For example ＂Shuowen＂ says of the character 狗, or dog, that ＂the signific is 犬, the phonetic is 句 [kau].＂ 句 [kau] sounds like the bark of a small dog, ＂句句＂ [kau55 kau55]. 3) ＂Shuowen＂ states that the pronunciation of a pictophonetic character follows the phonetic component of the character. For example, ＂Shuowen＂ says of the character 欻 that ＂the signific is 欠 which may make sense in the action of blowing, the phonetic is 炎, pronounced as 忽 [xu□t].＂ However, 欻(with the fanqie spelling composed of 許 and 勿, Its consonant(syllable-initial ) is listed under 曉, and its vowels(syllable-final) listed under the radical 8) and its final part 炎 (which should have the fanqie ＂spelling＂ composed of 余 and 廉, the consonant 諭, was categorized as having consonant 定 in ancient times, and its vowels is listed under the radical 32, as confirmed by Zeng Yunqian) are completely differently in terms of their syllable initial-final structure. Thus, 欻 is not pronounced as 炎, and it can be treated as an ideogram compound consisting of a visual ＂definition＂ of 欠 and 炎. The meaning of 欻 is apparently to blow air from the mouth to aid burning, fan flames, and cause firelight to shine upward, the sound of which action is similar to 忽忽 (xu□t xu□t). I hope that the points mentioned above can help to clarify the understanding ofphonograms within ＂Shuowen＂,