许慎《淮南子注》成书时间考

A Study of the Completed Time of <The Annotations to the Book of Huainanzi> by XU Shen

许慎最早为西汉淮南王刘安主持撰写的《淮南子》作注,而《后汉书》不载。对于许君这部《淮南子注》的成书时间,不仅无任何文献明确记载,而且也无学者专门进行考究,以致众说纷纭。但从北宋本卷首题识"太尉祭酒臣许慎记上"考证,并结合许慎生平史料,《淮南子注》成书时间当为汉安帝永初五年,即公元111年。

XU Shen was the scholar that firstly noted the book Huainanzi presidedly written by LIU An,the prince of Huainan,but this matter isn＇t written in The History of Later Han Dynasty.With regard to the completed time of the annotation book by XU Shen,there is not any document that records it as well as not any scholar that specially studies,which leads to many arguments.However,according to the textual research of XU Shen,an Honorable Officer published in the period of North Song dynasty,and combining with the historical record about XU Shen,we may speculate about that the completed time of The Annotations to the Book of Huainanzi may be in the fifth year of Yongchu（111 A.C）.