Erya is the ancestor of dictionaries. Erya was first recorded in Hanshu Yiwenzhi, but the author's name was not included. This book has a rich collection of ancient Chinese words. It is not only the ancestor of dictionaries, but also one of the classics and thirteen classics, and it is the core component of traditional Chinese culture.
Erya is the first dictionary. Er means near, and Ya means right. This refers to Yayan, that is, the standard language that meets the standards in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Erya means to be close to elegance and conform to elegance, that is, to interpret ancient Chinese words and dialect words in an elegant way to make them close to norms.
Main contents:
Erya, as the earliest compilation of exegesis in ancient China, its style and exegetical methods have had a far-reaching impact on exegetics and lexicography in China. Modern ancient Chinese dictionaries and dialect dictionaries still embody their compiling purposes, that is, to interpret ancient sayings in modern languages and dialects in popular languages. This compiling purpose reflects people's most common and basic demand for dictionaries.
Er Ya explains words, compound words, four-character idioms and difficult sentences in ancient books. Most idioms and sentences come from The Book of Songs. Chinese dictionaries list idioms as entries, which also started from Erya. In a word, various exegetical methods in Erya are mostly inherited and developed by later exegetical works, dictionaries and dictionaries.