Guangya 廣雅

Guangya 廣雅 "Extended [Er]ya" is a glossary compiled during the Three Empires period 三國 (220-280) by Zhang Yi 張揖 (early 3rd cent.), courtesy name Zhirang 稚讓.

It was written as an extension of the glossary Erya 爾雅, which is only quite selective and does not cover all words in the sense of a dictionary. The arrangement follows that of the Erya. In bibliographies, the Guangya belongs to the category of books of "lesser learning" (Xiaoxue 小學), often translated as "lexicography".

The Guangya includes many sources from the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), including contemporary dictionaries like the Fangyan 方言 and the Shuowen jiezi 說文解字. The Guangya was originally divided into 3 juan, but was rearranged during the Sui period 隋 (581-618), when Cao Xian 曹憲 (c. 541-645) wrote phonetic comments to the Guangya glossary. During this time the title was changed to Boya 博雅 in order to avoid the personal name of emperor Sui Yangdi 隋煬帝 (r. 604-617), Yang Guang 楊廣. After the Sui period the title was changed back to Guangya.

The version including Cao's commentary was 4 juan long, according to other sources, 10 juan.

During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), Wang Niansun 王念孫 (1744-1832) wrote the commentary Guangya shuzheng 廣雅疏證. Wang's scholarly approach was that characters with similar sounds should also have a similar meaning. His commentary influenced Hao Yi's 郝懿 commentary on the Erya and Qian Yi's 錢繹 (early 19th cent.) commentary on the Fangyan, and vice versa.

The oldest extant prints of the Guangya are full of errors which were amended by Wang Niansun and his son Wang Yinzhi 王引之 (1766-1834). There are three printings of the Wang commentary available: the Xuehaitang Studio 學海堂 print, that included in the series Jifu congshu 畿輔叢書, and a private printing of the family Wang. There is also a supplementary chapter (Buzheng 補正) written by Wang Yinzhi. It is included in the print of the Shanghai Guangcang Xuejiong Press 上海廣倉學窘 from 1918 and Luo Zhenyu's 羅振玉 (1866-1940) edition of the series Yinlizaisitang congshu 殷禮在斯堂叢書 from 1929.

There is another Qing-period commentary, namely Qian Dazhao's 錢大昭 (1744-1813) Guangya yishu 廣雅義疏. Recent publications of this commentary, like the print of the Japanese Seikadō Studio 靜嘉堂 also include a comment by Lu Wenchao 盧文弨 (1717-1795).