The content of ancient book annotations is very rich, which can be said to be all-encompassing. From the explanation of words and phonetic notation to the clarification of chapters and purposes, from the explanation of allusions to the identification system of names and things, from the analysis of sentence reading to grammatical suggestions, all the places that the annotator thinks may cause reading difficulties or understanding difficulties will be annotated or eliminated. Generally speaking, there are roughly the following contents:
(A) explain the meaning of words
Word meaning is the basis of understanding meaning. Therefore, the ancients generally began to annotate ancient books with word meaning, and explaining word meaning became the basic work of ancient book annotation. The old annotations in ancient books are different from dictionary dictionaries in explaining the meaning of words, which must be combined with specific context. It explains the meaning of words in a specific language environment, that is, the specific meaning or temporary meaning of words. There are two main ways to annotate old words in ancient books, one is to interpret words directly, and the other is to interpret words in sentence meaning. In addition, ancient annotations also pay attention to the differences between synonyms when explaining the meaning of words.
1, directly?
Is to explain the words in the original text directly. For example, in the previous example, we quoted the Book of Songs Mao Zhuan: "Ba (zǐ) has a distinctive appearance; (nǐ) Er, it looks good. " Jian Zheng: "Fresh and good." It is a direct interpretation. Sometimes, in ancient annotations, the same word will have different interpretations. For example, there are two interpretations of the word "Ti ǐ n" in the Book of Songs, which we quoted above: Mao Chuan: "Ti ǐ n, absolutely." Jian Zheng: "Just be shy (ti m 4 n), shy and kind." This requires us to decide the choice according to the situation.
2. Interpret the words in cross talk
Sometimes ancient annotations do not directly annotate the meaning of a word, but annotate the meaning of a sentence with a string. For example, Feng Xiangshu and Mao Chuan did not comment on the word "Yi" in the Book of Songs, but used a series of sentences to explain that "a rude righteous man, even in a high position, is still a dark journey". "Instrument" is interpreted as "etiquette".
3. Distinguish synonyms
When Gu Zhun annotates words, he also pays attention to the discrimination of synonyms. take for example
"The Book of Songs Daya Gong Liu": "Speak at that time, speak at that time." Mao Chuan: "Frankly speaking, it's hard to say." Uncle Kong: "Frankly speaking, one person said it himself, but the difficult answer is that two people are relative. Don't listen to the text, but if you disperse, the words will pass.
4. Annotate function words
Ancient annotations mainly annotated notional words and sometimes function words. take for example
Mozi Luwen: "The loser swam from southern Shandong to Chu, so how can he be the weapon of boat war?" Sun Yirang's Note: "What is good?" It is a comment on the function word "Yan".
(2) In addition to explaining the meaning, the annotations of ancient books often tell the general idea of the sentence.
The meaning of words depends on the meaning of words, and the meaning of words is clear in the story, and the two complement each other. For example, Mao Chuan in The Book of Songs said: "The water is so clean and dirty, but it is a river." Jian Zheng: "Ji's wife, Qi's daughter, came to marry. Her heart was originally for Yan Wan's people, so she was called Ji (jí), but she was not good at it. Holmium (qú) Holmium (chú), whispering softly, often observing people's color and making words, can't be embarrassed. " It's all gossip. The following "sparse" content is mainly based on cross talk and meaning. Or talk about the meaning of the text, such as dispelling "the new station is not fresh"; Or talk about the meaning of the note, such as dispelling "preach:' I can't bend over.' "
Ancient annotations are sometimes equivalent to the above translation or rewriting, and sometimes they also point out or explain the meaning of words. For example, "Songs of the South: Li Sao": "The sun and the moon suddenly do not drown, and the spring and autumn take their place." Wang Yi's note: "According to legend, the sun and the moon often travel, suddenly to the Spring and Autumn Period, the next generation. It's easy to say, time is easy, and people are easy to get old. " The annotation after the first word "Yan" is the translation of the original text, and the text after the last word "Yan" is to point out the meaning of the poem and help readers deepen their understanding. Some scholars (especially those in Song Dynasty) expressed or developed their own thoughts and opinions in the process of cross talk. We should observe carefully when reading such ancient annotations, so we won't give examples here.
(3) Pronunciation
Orthography means correcting typos. In the process of copying and engraving ancient books, there are often mistakes in words. In order to help readers understand the meaning of words correctly, ancient annotations often correct these mistakes. For example, the "Ti ǐ n" in Jian Zheng's The Book of Songs, Mrs. Feng Xin Li, is an example of orthography.
There are many ways of phonetic notation in ancient notes. In the early days, except for reading if, the phonetic notation was mostly straight. For example, the words "zǐ", "Yin Ben", "Foul" and "Yin Wu" in the Book of Songs we quoted above all adopt direct phonetic notation. Later, the phonetic notation mostly used the anti-tangent phonetic notation method, or the combination of consonant sequence and anti-tangent. The previous example "The Book of Songs Li Feng Xintai" is a combination of homophonic and anti-tangential, and no more examples are given.
(d) Analysis of the chapter
The meaning of chapter and chapter in ancient Chinese is different from today, and "chapter" is greater than "chapter". For example, Cher is the first article in The Analects of Confucius, which is divided into many chapters. Moreover, each chapter is independent and unrelated, so the "chapter" is different from today's "paragraph" text structure, which is the organizational form of the article and the vein of the article's expression of ideas. Therefore, some annotations of ancient books not only explain words and sentences, but also explain themes and analyze text structures. Especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the annotation of chapter style often includes the analysis of the text structure in the context of cross talk, and there is a "chapter purport" after each chapter to point out the main content of the chapter. For example:
Mencius met Liang. The king said, "You have come a long way, but will it benefit our country?" Mencius said to him, "Why should you talk about profit? There is also righteousness. " ("Mencius Hui Liang Wang Shang") Zhu Note: "The benevolent, the heart of virtue, the principle of love; Righteousness, the system of mind, and the appropriateness of things. These two sentences are the big fingers of a chapter, and the following is a detailed statement. "
(5) Supplementary evidence of historical facts
Supplementary evidence of historical facts is also one of the important contents of ancient notes. The purpose of supplementing historical facts is to make people understand the content of the article more clearly and completely. For example, "Zuo Zhuan Xi Gong Four Years": "I am asking if Wang Zhaonan will go back." Du Pre-note: "Wang Zhao is the grandson of a king. Southern escort, involved in Korea, the ship broke down and drowned. Zhou people dare not go, and the princes don't know why they ask. " Confucius' Ying Da Book: "In ancient times, it was said that Hanbin people used plastic boats, so the water went bad and drowned."
(six) indicate the source of allusions
Citation is a common rhetorical expression used by ancient people to write articles. Writers after the Han Dynasty generally like to quote classics, especially during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. When annotating these works, it is necessary to indicate the source of allusions. Shan Li mainly pointed out the source of allusions and some words when commenting on Selected Works by Liang Xiaotong in Tang Dynasty. For example:
? Boxing loyalty. You can't list yourself. Confucius in the Book of Rites said that he got a good fist without losing it. Zheng? Xuan said that the appearance of boxing is holding, and the text is the decomposition of the column.
"The loyalty of boxing is endless" is a sentence in Sima Qian's "Bao Ren An". Shan Li noted that the word "fist" came from the Book of Rites (see the Book of Rites), which originally read: "Confucius said: If you repay others, you can choose the mean, and if you get good, you will lose your fist." ), and quoted Zheng Xuan's comments on the word. For the word "column", quote the explanation of Shuowen.
(seven) the system of interpreting place names and things.
Ancient documents reflect the rich social life in ancient times, among which there are naturally many records about social system, folk customs, artifacts and so on. With the evolution of time, all this is constantly changing, and the system of names and things of the previous generation will inevitably become less and less familiar to future generations and difficult to understand. Therefore, the interpretation of the system of names and things has become one of the contents of ancient book annotations. take for example
Zuo Zhuan Yin Gongyuan: "As soon as I heard it, I said,' Yes. I ordered a handsome car to cut Beijing 200 times. "Du Yu's note:" The ancients had three soldiers in one car, and seventy-two people stepped down. "Explain the ancient chariot system very clearly.
Zuo Zhuan was an official for two years: "Han Jue and Yumeko said to themselves,' About one pen. Therefore, in the Royal Family and Hou Ji. Du Note: "The middle person is not a marshal, and the middle person must stay on the left." Uncle Kong said, "Han Jue is a Sima, a general in the army. Take dreams as the principle, take the defense as the center, and it is clearly not in the middle, and non-defense comes first. If the imperial army is not in the middle, there is no need for the cloud to replace the imperial army, so that you can know that you are not a marshal, and the rest of the generals are in the middle and must be on the left. "
"Cai is on the left, Xu is on the right": "If relatives are in the army, they should be in the car, the guards are on the left, and the brave are on the right."
Understanding the historical facts and the system of famous things involved in ancient books is actually a higher level requirement for reading ancient books. Just to clear up the obstacles in writing, you can only say that you know ancient books. Therefore, the more detailed parts of ancient annotations are often supplementary historical facts or textual research on the system of names and things.