高本汉修订本《汉文典》管窥

An Examination of Karlgren's Grammata Serica Recensa

瑞典著名汉学家高本汉所著《汉文典》是一本有关汉字和古汉语词义的工具书,每一汉字附列上古音、中古音、现代音,以及字的本义、引申义和假借义,并择最甲骨文和金文。修订本《汉文典》是当代西方汉学界仍须参考的重要工具书,本文指出书中的缺点,并提出修订的意见,如果有人在高书的基础上,编制一本完善的有关汉字和古汉语词义的工具书,那实在是笔者的厚望。

The famous Swedish sinologist, Bernhard Karlgren(A. D. 1889 - 1978), first published the Grammata Serica in No. 12 of the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (BMFEA) in 1940. It is the first dictionary that systematically gives archaic, ancient and modern readings of Chi-nese characters in intemational phonetic symbols. The inclusion of oracle bone and bronze inscriptions in the dictionary unboubtedly helps to elucidate the form of characters. This work is certainly useful to scholars of Chinese studies, especially, those in the Western. The present study, however, points up many of Karlgen's errors regarding the meaning of Chinese words in his monumental work and proposes corretions and refinements which, the author hopes, will make Karlgren's study a even more useful reference.