书名考

传统认为《尔雅》书名中「尔」通「迩」，是「近」的意思；「雅」为「正」之义，为官方语言，即「雅言」。「读音尔雅」就是正确的、接近于故训的语言。

辛德勇认为「尔雅」不宜理解为述宾短语「近正」，其中「尔」通「薾」，是「美盛」的意思。援引《史记·儒林列传》「文章尔雅，训辞深厚，恩施甚美」与《史记·三王世家》「称引古今通义，国家大礼，文章尔雅」，认定「尔雅」实为汉代习语，意即「美丽典雅」。以此为名，表明全书记载的是各类华辞雅言及其训释。

「尔」「雅」二字上古声纽也相近，亦有可能为一双声联绵词，与「咿呀／咿哑」「袅娜／袅娜」类似。

历史

它的作者历来说法不一。相传《尔雅》为周公、孔子或其弟子所撰。《汉书》只记录《尔雅》三卷二十篇，未有姓名；张辑《上广雅表》中指出了几种猜测：「周公著尔雅一篇⋯⋯今俗所传三篇尔雅，或言仲尼（即孔子）所增，或言子夏所益，或言叔孙通所补，或言𨙶郡梁文所考，皆解家所说⋯⋯疑莫能名也。」

也就是说，《尔雅》大可能是一种故训汇编。但唯周公所作之说是完全无根据的，以其中文字考虑，最有可能是周秦之际，汉武帝之前（即公元前二世纪之前），因为汉武时代已见《尔雅注》。学者们认为，《尔雅》应是摘自对先秦文本，特别是《诗经》的注疏。李约瑟等(1986:191)将《尔雅》的成书年代置于公元前4世纪晚期到公元前2世纪早期之间，核心部分可能有部分可以追溯回公元前6世纪，后续补充可能持续到公元前1世纪。

首先试图对《尔雅》不同部分分别定年的尝试始于初唐经学家陆德明(556-627)，他认为周公只参与编写了《尔雅·释诂》，剩馀部分的年代要更晚些。日本史学家、汉学家内藤湖南分析《尔雅》文本，推断其可能源自战国初期，稷下学宫自约325 BC开始掌握了大量资料，文本在秦汉年间被进一步扩充并稳定化。内藤湖南将《释诂》与儒家学派的第一代(450-400 BC)相关联，《释亲》至《释天》是荀卿时代(300-230 BC)的产物，也有晚至90 BC的增补，地理内容《释地》至《释水》则是战国晚期至汉初的(300-200 BC)，博物学内容《释草》至《释兽》则延续到文帝末年（300-160 BC）最后一章《释畜》是汉文帝或汉景帝(180-140 BC)时期的。

《尔雅》是汉代中国古代经典中最有权威的词典学指南，宋代儒学家们将其归入十三经。目前唯一传世的早期注疏是郭璞(276–324)所作《尔雅注》(c. 310)，其他已散佚注疏主要有刘歆《尔雅樊氏注》(1世纪初)、三国经学家孙炎作《尔雅音义》(3世纪晚期)，其中用反切注音。

上述《尔雅》注疏在唐朝大多还有保留，但到宋朝大都亡佚了，于是人们重振了对《尔雅》的兴趣。北宋初学者邢昺著有《尔雅疏》(c. 1000)，其被普通文学作品和医学本草经大量引用。一个世纪后，陆佃著《埤雅》(1096)和《尔雅新义》(1099)。南宋学者罗愿著有(1174)《尔雅翼》。清朝学者邵晋涵（1743–1796）著有《尔雅正义》，博物学家郝懿行著有《尔雅义疏》(1808-1822)。

在汉语辞书学史上，几乎所有词典都以部首排序，此方法最早见于《说文解字》。以《尔雅》为首的「雅书」则是以语义类别来排序。明朝学者郎奎金分类并编篡了《五雅》：《尔雅》(c. 150 BC)、《小尔雅》(c. 200)、《佚雅》、《广雅》(c. 230)和《埤雅》(1125)。后期更重要的雅书是明代思想家方以智所编《通雅》（1579）、朱谋㙔《骈雅》(1587)、吴玉搢《别雅》（c. 1745）和史梦兰《叠雅》（1864）。《永乐大典》(1408)等《类书》实际上也用的是语义排序法。

目录构成

班固在《汉书·艺文志》著录有《尔雅》3卷20篇。唐朝以后《尔雅》被列入「经部」，成为了儒家经典之一。现存《尔雅》为19篇，与班固所说的20篇不同。有人认为这主要是分篇的方法不同，而清朝的宋翔凤则认为原来有一篇「序」失落造成的。

现存十九篇为：

• 《释诂》——对古代同义词的解释

• 《释言》——对动词和形容词等常用词的解释

• 《释训》——对联绵词和词组及形容词和副词等情貌描述词的解释

• 《释亲》——对亲属的称呼的解释

• 《释宫》——对宫室建筑的解释

• 《释器》——对日常用具、饮食、衣服的解释

• 《释乐》——对乐器的解释

• 《释天》——对天文历法的解释

• 《释地》——对行政区划的解释

• 《释丘》——对丘陵、高地的解释

• 《释山》——对山脉的解释

• 《释水》——对河流的解释

• 《释草》——对花草的解释

• 《释木》——对树木的解释

• 《释虫》——对昆虫的解释

• 《释鱼》——对鱼类的解释

• 《释鸟》——对鸟类的解释

• 《释兽》——对动物的解释

• 《释畜》——对动物的解释

由于对古人的词语分类原则并不是很清楚，因此对前3篇诂、言、训之间的界限，现在并没有明确的认识，这3篇的解释也很模糊。13-19篇是对于生物的一些解释。但是其分类与现在很多地方差异很大，这主要是由于不同时代的观点有别之故。例如「鼯鼠」由于会飞行，便将它归到释鸟中。

注疏

因尔雅解释甚简，其所涉及之许多语言知识不易为人理解，故之后出现许多注释、考证尔雅之著作，如：

• 《尔雅注疏》——晋郭璞注《尔雅注》；北宋邢昺疏《尔雅疏》。十三经注疏之一。

• 《尔雅古注》——清马国翰。

• 《尔雅正义》——清邵晋涵。

• 《尔雅义疏》——清郝懿行。

• 《尔雅匡名》——清严元照。

• 《尔雅草木虫鱼鸟兽释例》——清王国维。

评价与影响

批评略览

《尔雅》虽然于古代，是一本文人必读经典，且是通往仕途之路上的必修课。但是如果从当代文字学之角度来评论，尔雅还是有缺点的，对于此点，历代小学家皆有批评，在此引用王力之论点，为学者之参考：

• 不明确多义，易误解。比如《释言》中有：「贻，遗也」，而《说文》中又有：「遗，亡也。」假使以贻字解释亡，就将造成错误等。

• 不明确用处，易误传。比如恪、钦二字皆是「敬也」，而此词性则不同，却被一同罗列。诸如此类，还有同字多义也会造成误会。

• 不明确定义，多讹合。

故而后人作书时，常常注意到这些点，进而有了改进，见朱骏声之《说雅》、陈奂之《毛诗传义类》等书。

《尔雅》被视为中国名物的不祧之祖。而其对「名物训释方式和分类方式影响了后世训诂学著作的编纂，从而形成了中国古代以尔雅及其嫡传诸书为中心，旁及《方言》《释名》及其各种专业书、类书等的名物研究系统。」

对周边国家之影响

在律令制下的日本（公元7世纪至10世纪），大学寮制度中将其作为与《昭明文选》和正史并列的文章道（纪传道）之教科书。平安朝中期源顺还受其影响编撰了和名类聚抄一书，至今仍是研究和训和古汉语的重要材料。而到了江户时代，又有仿者贝原好古作《和尔雅》（1694年）和新井白石作《东雅》（1719年，「东瀛尔雅」之意）。

群雅之象

后世还出了许多依假《尔雅》而写的著作，其谓「群雅」。大有：

• 托名孔鲋之《小尔雅》（抽自伪书《孔丛子》第十一篇）

• 三国魏张揖《广雅》

• 宋朝陆佃《埤雅》

• 宋朝罗愿《尔雅翼》，共三十二卷。

• 明朝万历年间朱谋《骈雅》

• 明朝方以智《通雅》

• 清朝孔鲋《小尔雅义证》

• 清朝王煦《小尔雅疏》

• 清朝吴玉搢《别雅》

• 清朝洪亮吉《比雅》

• 清朝史梦兰《叠雅》

• 清朝葛其仁《小尔雅疏证》

• 清朝光绪十六年（1890年）宋翔凤《小尔雅训纂》

• 清朝《小尔雅校证》

相关论著

以下是相关参考论著资料书目（更多后世参考文献见中国哲学书电子化计划：《尔雅》 ）：

• 晋郭璞注北宋邢昺疏：《尔雅注疏》

• 清邵晋涵：《尔雅正义》

• 清郝懿行：《尔雅义疏》

• 清严元照：《尔雅匡名》

• 冯汉骥：《中国亲属称谓指南》

相关

• 许慎《说文解字》

注释

Title

Chinese scholars interpret the first title character ěr (lang=zh尔; "you, your; adverbial suffix") as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous ěr (lang=zh迩; "near; close; approach"), and believe the second yǎ (lang=zh雅; "proper; correct; refined; elegant") refers to words or language. According to W. South Coblin: "The interpretation of the title as something like 'approaching what is correct, proper, refined' is now widely accepted" (1993:94). It has been translated as "The Literary Expositor" or "The Ready Rectifier" (both by Legge), "Progress Towards Correctness" (von Rosthorn), "Near Correct" (Xue), "The Semantic Approximator" (Needham), and "Approaching Elegance" (Mair).

History

The book's author is unknown. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou, Confucius, or his disciples, scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre-Qin texts, especially the Shijing. Joseph Needham et al. (1986:191) place the Erya's compilation between the late 4th and early 2nd centuries BCE, with the possible existence of some core text material dating back to the 6th century BCE, and the continued additions to the text as late as the 1st century BCE.

The first attempts to date the different parts of the Erya separately began when the Tang scholar Lu Deming (556-627) suggested that the Duke of Zhou only compiled the Shigu (释诂 Shígǔ) chapter (1), while the rest of the text dated from later . The Japanese historian and sinologist Naitō Torajirō analyzed the Erya text and concluded it originated in the early Warring States period, with the Jixia Academy having a considerable hand in it from c. 325 BCE onwards, and the text was enlarged and stabilized during the Qin and Western Han dynasty. Naitō connects the Shigu chapter (1) with the first generations of the Confucian School (450-400 BCE), places the family relationships, astronomy, and meteorology chapters (4-8) in the time of Xun Ching 荀卿 (300-230 BCE) with additions as late as 90 BCE, allocates the geographical chapters (9-12) to the late Warring States, Qin, and beginning of Han (300-200 BCE), puts the natural history chapters (13-18) between 300 and 160 BCE, and ascribes the last chapter (19) on domestic animals to the time of Emperor Wen or Emperor Jing of Han (180 to 140 BCE).

The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han Dynasty, and Song dynasty Confucians officially categorized it as one of the Thirteen Classics, "making it one of the more revered works in the history of Chinese literature, not to mention lexicography" . Although the only ancient Erya commentary that has come down to us is the (c. 310) Erya zhu (尔雅注, "Erya Commentary") by Guo Pu (276–324), there were a number of others, including the (early 1st century) Erya Fanshi zhu (尔雅樊氏注, "Mr. Fan's Erya Commentary") by Liu Xin, and the (late 3rd century) Erya Yinyi (尔雅音义, "Sounds and Meanings of Erya") by Sun Yan, which popularized the fanqie system of pronunciation glosses .

Most of these texts about the Erya were still extant in the Tang dynasty (618-907) but had disappeared by the Song dynasty (960-1279), when there was a revival of interest in the Erya . The Northern Song dynasty scholar Xing Bing (邢昺) wrote the (c. 1000) Erya shu (尔雅疏, "Erya Subcommentary"), which quoted many descriptions from both ordinary literature and medicinal bencao (本草, "pharmacopoeia; herbal") texts. A century later, Lu Dian (陆佃) wrote the (1096) Piya ("Increased Erya") and the (1099) Erya Xinyi (尔雅新义 "New Interpretations of the Erya") commentary. The Southern Song dynasty scholar Luo Yuan (罗愿) subsequently wrote the (1174) Eryayi (尔雅翼, "Wings to the Erya") interpretation. During the Qing Dynasty, Shao Jinhan (邵晋涵, 1743–1796) published the Erya Zhengyi (尔雅正义, "Correct Meanings of the Erya") and the naturalist Hao Yixing (郝懿行) wrote the (1808-1822) Erya yishu (尔雅义疏, "Subcommentary on Meanings of the Erya").

In the history of Chinese lexicography, nearly all dictionaries were collated by graphic systems of character radicals, first introduced in the Shuowen Jiezi. However, a few notable exceptions, called yashu 雅书 "Erya-type books", adopted collation by semantic categories such as Heaven and Earth. The Ming Dynasty scholar Lang Kuijin (郎奎金) categorized and published the Wuya (五雅 "Five Eryas"): Erya, (c. 150 BCE) Xiao Erya ("Little Erya"), (c. 200) Yiya ("Lost Erya" or the Shiming), (c. 230) Guangya ("Expanded Erya"), and (1125) Piya ("Increased Erya"). The more important Erya-type books of the subsequent period are the 1579 Tongya (通雅, Analogous to Erya) compiled by Fang Yizhi (方以智), 1587 Pianya (骈雅, A Book of Two-Syllable Words) by Zhu Mouwei (朱谋㙔), c. 1745 Bieya (别雅, Another Erya) by Wu Yujin (吴玉搢), and 1864 Dieya (叠雅, A Book of Double-Syllable Words) by Shi Menglan (史梦兰) . Chinese leishu encyclopedias, such as the (1408) Yongle Encyclopedia, were also semantically arranged. takes the Erya's derivative literature as the main line of descent for the encyclopedia in China.

Content

The Erya has been described as a dictionary, glossary, synonymicon, thesaurus, and encyclopaedia. explains that the book "is not a dictionary in abstracto, it is a collection of direct glosses to concrete passages in ancient texts." The received text contains 2094 entries, covering about 4300 words, and a total of 13,113 characters. It is divided into nineteen sections, the first of which is subdivided into two parts. The title of each chapter combines shi ("explain; elucidate") with a term describing the words under definition. Seven chapters (4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18, and 19) are organized into taxonomies. For instance, chapter 4 defines terms for: paternal clan (宗族), maternal relatives (母党), wife's relatives (妻党), and marriage (婚姻). The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining abstract words and the last sixteen semantically-arranged chapters defining concrete words. The last seven – concerning grasses, trees, insects and reptiles, fish, birds, wild animals, and domestic animals – describe more than 590 kinds of flora and fauna. It is a notable document of natural history and historical biogeography.

The format of Erya definitions varies between the first section treating common terms (chapters 1–3) and the second treating specialized terms (4-19). Entries for common terms are defined by grouping synonyms or near-synonyms and explaining them in terms of a more commonly used word, and additional explanations if one of the words had multiple meanings. For instance, "Qiáo (乔), sōng (嵩), and chóng (崇) all mean 'high' (高). Chóng also means 'to fill' (充)." (ch. 1). Entries for specialized terms are defined by grouping related words and giving them a description, explanation, classification, or comparison. For example: "A woman calls her husband's father jiù (舅), and her husband's mother gū (姑). While alive they are called jūnjiù (君舅) and jūngū (君姑). After their death they are called xiānjiù (先舅) and xiāngū (先姑) (ch. 4, ).

Owing to its laconic lexicographical style, the Erya is one of a few Chinese classics that have not been fully translated into English.