Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca

Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca (chữ Hán: 嗣德聖製字學解義歌; 'Emperor Tự Đức's sagely creation about character learning and explanation song') is a Vietnamese book that teaches Chinese characters (chữ Hán) through chữ Nôm. It was complied by the emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, Tự Đức (1848–1883), around the 19th century. The book itself contains 13 volumes which are organized into 7 major categories. It is written in the Vietnamese lục bát 六八 verse form. It is considered to be an important dictionary for chữ Nôm researchers as it is a fairly complete Hán-Nôm dictionary with no ambiguous characters.

Background The book and its 13 volumes contains 4,572 verses written in lục bát 六八 verse form. Within all of these verses, contains 32,004 characters with 9,028 of them being Chinese characters. It can be considered as a bilingual Literary Chinese - Vietnamese character dictionary. The book shows Chinese characters being glossed with chữ Nôm in smaller print. The annotations can range from one character to multiple characters, for example on the fifth line, 月 and 日 are annotated with 𩈘𦝄 and 𩈘𡗶 respectively.

Kham dư loại 堪輿類: (Volumes 1–2; 上-下) contains characters about both astronomy and geography. Nhân sự loại 人事類: (Volumes 3–5; 上-中-下) contains characters about human relationships and society. Chính hóa loại 政化類: (Volumes 6–7; 上-下) contains characters about education. Khí dụng loại 器用類: (Volumes 8–9; 上-下) contains characters about object of everyday use. Thảo mộc loại 草木類: (Volumes 10–11; 上-下) contains characters about plants and trees. Cầm thú loại 禽獸類: (Volume 12) contains characters about wild animals. Trùng ngư loại 虫魚類: (Volume 13) contains characters about insects, shrimp, and fishes.

According to statistics by Nguyễn Thị Lan, Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca holds the largest collection of Chinese characters that are annotated with chữ Nôm. Hà Đăng Việt states that the Nôm in the book mainly uses three methods of creating characters, giả tá 假借 (phonetic loan), hình thanh 形聲 (phonosemantic compounding), and hội ý 會意 (compound ideographs). But most characters fall into the method of hình thanh 形聲 (phonosemantic compounding) as it was seen as the correct way of writing chữ Nôm.

+BookNumber of Chinese characters嗣德聖製字學解義歌 Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca9,028大南國語 Đại Nam quốc ngữ4779南方名物備考 Nam phương danh vật bị khảo4461指南玉音解義 Chỉ nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa 3394三千字解音 Tam thiên tự giải âm2988日用常談 Nhật dụng thường đàm2560難字解音 Nan tự giải âm1066千字文解音 Thiên tự văn giải âm1000 The book itself has been transliterated into the Vietnamese alphabet by Trần Kinh Hòa and was republished by Chinese University of Hong Kong (香港中文大學) in 1971.

Text +The first few lines of the bookChinese characters and chữ NômVietnamese alphabetEnglish translation天𡗶地𡐙位𡾵Thiên trời địa đất vị ngôi"Thiên" heaven, "Địa" earth, "Vị" seat覆𩂏載𬩅流㵢滿𣹓Phú che tái chở lưu trôi mãn đầy"Phú" to cover, "tái" to deliver, "lưu" to flow, "mãn" to overflow高高博𢌌厚𠫆Cao cao bác rộng hậu dầy"Cao" tall, "bác" wide, "hậu" thick晨𣈕暮𣋁轉搓移移Thần mai mộ tối chuyển xây di dời"Thần" dawn, "mộ" dusk, "chuyển" to revolve, "di" to move月𩈘𦝄日𩈘𡗶Nguyệt mặt trăng nhật mặt trời"Nguyệt" the moon, "nhật" the sun照𥋸臨細世𠁀年𢆥Chiếu soi lâm tới thế đời niên năm"Chiếu" to shine, "lâm" to arrive, "thế" generation, "niên" year

Words in bold are words that rhyme. The book is written in lục bát 六八 verse form as can be seen with these lines (six and eight syllable alternating verses). Words are rhymed every sixth and eighth syllable.

Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca

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