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Gujin xingshishu bianzheng 古今姓氏書辯證

Feb 5, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald

Gujin xingshishu bianzheng 古今姓氏書辯證 "A critical review to old and new books on family names" is an encyclopaedia compiled during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Deng Mingshi 鄧名世 (second half 12th cent.), courtesy name Yuanya 元亞, from Linchuan 臨川 in the prefecture of Fuzhou 撫州.

The book is a collection of family names through the ages, explaining the origin of the names and the history of the families bearing it. It focuses on personal names mentioned in the old histories Zuozhuan 左傳 and Guoyu 國語 and investigates the statements in the Tang-period 唐 (618-907) family register book Yuanhe xingzuan 元和姓纂 and the family register books Xining xingzuan 熙寧姓纂 and Song baiguan gongqing jiapu 宋百官公卿家譜. The compiler's son Deng Chunnian 鄧椿年 supplemented and revised the book.

The earliest print of the book from the Shaoxing reign-period 紹興 (1131-1162) is lost. The Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典 only contains fragmentary quotations from it. The scholar Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223-1296) was nevertheless able to tell something about the arrangement of the book: While the names of rulers were dealt with in the first part, those of other persons were arranged phonetically in a system similar to the encyclopaedia Yuanhe xingzuan. A modern reconstruction of the book has a length of 40 juan, plus an index of names and a chapter of corrigenda.

There is a print by Master Hong 洪氏 from 1802. The book is included in the series Shoushange congshu 守山閣叢書 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.

Sources:
Chen Shangjun 陳尚君 (2007). "Gujin xingshishu bianzheng jiaodianben de chengjiu he yihan 《古今姓氏書辯證》校點本的成就和遺憾", Guji wenxian yanjiu 古典文獻研究, 2007.
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 2039.
Wang Liping 王力平 (2006). "Deng Mingshi yu Gujin xingshishu bianzheng: Jian tan Songdai xingshi pudiexue de fazhan 鄧名世與《古今姓氏書辯證》——兼談宋代姓氏譜牒學的發展", Wenxian 文獻, 2006 (3): 41-49.
Zhao Hankun 趙含坤 (2005). Zhongguo leishu 中國類書 (Shijiazhuang: Hebei renmin chubanshe), 97-98.