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“Si Sheng Pian Hai” compiled by Han Daozhao of Jin Dynasty is formerly known as “Wu Yin Zeng Gai Bing Lei Ju Si Seng Pian”. It is a collection book of “Yu Pian”, “Long Kan Shou Jian”, “Xi Yun”, “Yu Wen”, “Lei Pian”, “Chuan Pian” and “Sou Zhen Yu Jing”. It contains more than 50,000 words, reaching the peak of numbers of words containing in dictionaries. It is divided into 444 parts. The radicals are arranged according to the sound types, and the characters of each radical are arranged according to the number of strokes. Due to the convenience of retrieval, it was very popular in the Ming Dynasty, and there are still many published editions in existence, which also have profound impacts on the editions of later dictionaries. Most of the dictionaries of the Ming Dynasty were written with additions, deletions and adaptations on the basis of “Si Sheng Pian Hai,” such as “Zong Ding Zhi Yin Pian”, “Zheng Zi Yi Yun Lu Hai Pian Xin Jing” , “Zhong Kan Xiang Xiao Pian Hai” , “Pian Hai Lei Bian” , “He Bing Zi Xue Ji Pian”, “Zi Hui” , “Zi Yun He Bi”, “Wu Hou Zheng Zi Hai” , and so on. Among these dictionaries influenced by “Si Sheng Pian Hai”, “Zi Hui” had the most far-reaching influence on compilations of later dictionaries. “Zheng Zi Tong” and “Kang Xi Zi Dian” of the Qing Dynasty were developed on the basis of “Zi Hui.” “Sisheng Pianhai” inherited “Yu Pian” by Gu Yewang of Liang Dynasty, and influenced “Zi Hui” by Mei Yingzuo of the Ming Dynasty and “Kang Xi Zi Dian” by Zhang Yushu et al. of the Ching Dynasty. Thus, “Si Sheng Pian Hai” can be seen as an important piece of the puzzle in the development of regular script dictionaries. The value of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” is reflected in its styles, collection of characters and influence on future dictionaries. This research discusses the origin, style and collection of characters of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” respectively. The full text is divided into five chapters: The first chapter is an introduction, which explains the motivation, scope and method of the research with the current version of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” as explanations. It also classifies and summarizes the relevant literature of the former studies of “Si Sheng Pian Hai.” The second chapter is a description of the problems related to the completions of “Si Sheng Pian Hai.” It introduces the author, explains the reasons for writing the book and traces the sources of the editing of “Si Sheng Pian Hai”. Besides, it discusses the development of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” on the basis of the previous dictionaries including the inheritance and innovation of the editing styles. The third chapter analyzes the way how radicals of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” are established. First, it compares the four hundred and forty-four chapters of “Si Sheng Pian Hai,” the five hundred and forty chapters of “Shuo Wen Jie Zi” , the five hundred and forty two chapters of “Yu Pian,” and the two hundred and forty-two volumes of “Long Kan Shou Jian,” explaining the deletion and merging of the radicals of “Si Sheng Pian Hai.” Second, according to the conditions of merging radicals and generalizing words to radicals, the current study summarizes the rules of merging radicals and generalizing words to radicals. The fourth chapter firstly introduces uses of the collection characters, meanings of the symbols and problems of unifying the prefix from the collection of “Si Sheng Pian Hai,” and further discusses the sources of its collection of characters. Also, it describes how “Si Sheng Pian Hai” dealt with prefixes collected from each dictionary. Moreover, the current study discusses the problems of variant Chinese characters caused by the collection examples. The fifth chapter is a conclusion, summarizing creation of editing styles of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” and its influence on the compilation of later dictionaries and narrating limitations and deficiencies in the collection of “Si Sheng Pian Hai.” It is hoped that a more objective way to use materials of “Si Sheng Pian Hai” could be found.
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