Shuowen

Shuowen, or Shuowen Jiezi, is an influential ancient Chinese dictionary compiled by Xu Shen in the early 2nd century CE during the Han dynasty. It is widely regarded as one of the first systematic dictionaries of Chinese characters and a foundational reference in Chinese philology. The work collects about 9,000 characters and analyzes their graphic structure, meanings, and historical forms, drawing on earlier sources and seal-script forms.

The entries are organized by radicals and use a 540-radical system, a predecessor to later radical-based dictionaries. Each entry provides a character’s form, a concise interpretation, and often notes on its etymology and origin. Xu Shen expounds the Six Writings (liushu) framework for character classification: pictographs, simple indicatives, associative compounds, phono-semantic compounds, derivative cognates, and loan characters. The project emphasizes the relationship between shape and sense and sometimes cites ancient pronunciations and glosses.

Shuowen Jiezi exerted a profound influence on subsequent Chinese lexicography and textual criticism. It served as the standard reference for scholars studying Old Chinese phonology and character etymology and informed later dictionaries, such as the Kangxi Dictionary. Surviving editions preserve a wealth of specimen forms, often in seal script, and have been the basis for many modern editions, commentaries, and scholarly research. While valued for its historical insight, some etymologies reflect early philological theories and are treated cautiously by contemporary linguists.