Erya is a dictionary in ancient China, a book to explain the meaning of words, the first comprehensive dictionary compiled according to the category of meaning, an important reference book of ancient Chinese vocabulary in ancient literature, including the Five Classics and one of the Confucian classics, so it was included in the Thirteen Classics.
This is the allusion that Xie Shang criticized Cai Mo for not reading Er Ya well, which led to a joke.
When Cai Mo crossed the river, he didn't know there were many dragonflies by the river, but he thought of the sentence "A crab has eight legs, so he took it for granted that they were crabs, so he caught them and steamed them and enjoyed them as delicious food.
But after eating these "crabs", Cai Mo vomited and diarrhea and almost died.
So Cai Mo told Xie Shang, the general of Zhenxi.
Xie Shang said, "You don't know Er Ya very well, and you were almost persuaded to die!"
Later, the classic of Chinese medicine also left the story of "Cai Mo's wife".
Encouraging Learning is a famous work by Cai Yong, a great scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was written according to Dai Li's Persuasion of Learning in the Spring and Autumn Period.
There is a cloud in the book "Li Ji: Persuading to Learn": "Crabs have two claws and eight feet, and those who are not snake holes have nothing to do, and they are impetuous."
There is a saying in Cai Yong's "Encouraging Learning" that "a crab has eight legs, so it should be chelated".
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, after Cai Yong's death 100 years, Cai Yong's great-grandson Cai Mo became Stuart in the DPRK.
Because "Encouraging Learning" is the work of our ancestors, Cai Mo attaches great importance to it and can recite it by heart.
The story of Cai Mo's Wife tells the world that a miss is thousands of miles away. Careless "taking for granted" will lead to mistakes of others and yourself.
Erya, the ancestor of dictionaries, has collected a wealth of ancient Chinese vocabulary.
In fact, Er Ya is not a classic, nor is it a vassal of a classic. It is an independent dictionary and the core of China traditional culture.
Erya is the first known dictionary. Er means "near" and Ya means "positive", which means "elegant character", that is, a standard language that conforms to the norms in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
Erya means approaching and conforming to elegance, that is, explaining the elegance of archaic words and dialect words to make them close to norms.
The upper limit of Er Ya's completion will not be earlier than the Warring States Period, because some materials used in the book come from Chu Ci, Liezi, Zhuangzi, Lv Chunqiu and other books, and these books are all works of the Warring States Period.
Some animals mentioned in the book, such as sister-in-law (suān ní, one of the nine sons of the dragon, shaped like a lion), did not exist before the Warring States Period.
The lower limit of the book Er Ya will not be later than the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, because Dr Er Ya was established by Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, and Er Ya Zhu, regarded as literature, appeared by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.
In history, Erya was highly respected.
It is precisely because Erya summarizes and explains the ancient meanings of many ancient words in pre-Qin ancient books that it has become an important reference book for Confucian scholars to read and understand classics.
Learning Erya can help you "learn more about birds, animals, plants, insects and fish" and increase all kinds of knowledge.
Erya was regarded as a Confucian classic in the Han Dynasty. When Tang Wenzong carved the Classic of Stone as an adult, he was included in the Classic Department. It was listed as one of the thirteen classics in Song Dynasty.
In fact, Er Ya is not a classic, nor is it a vassal of a classic. This is an independent dictionary.
With the help of this dictionary, people can read ancient books and study ancient vocabulary. You can learn about ancient society and increase all kinds of knowledge.
Erya occupies a prominent position in the history of linguistics and lexicography in China.
The style of sorting according to meaning and various methods of explaining words initiated by Erya have had a great influence on the development of post-pronoun books and quasi-pronoun books.
Later generations imitated Erya and wrote a series of ci books with the theme of Ya, such as Xiao Er Ya, Guang Ya, Yi Ya, Tong Ya and Bieya. Shu Ya study has become a science, which is called "elegant study".
Reading link:
Catalogue of "Reading the World Together, Saying New Words Together"