Quick Answer: What Are Chinese Rhyme Tables?
Chinese rhyme tables（韻圖，yùntú）, also called rime tables, organize character readings in a grid. The Yunjing（韻鏡，Yùnjìng）is a major surviving example.[1]
- Initials: Columns classify the beginnings of syllables.
- Rhymes and tones: Rows organize endings and historical tone categories.
- Divisions（等，děng）: Further row positions distinguish categories whose interpretation requires care.
A chart gives relationships within a phonological system. To use it, identify its particular layout and labels before attaching a modern pronunciation or scholarly reconstruction. The grid explanation below follows the Yunjing. For a different work, check whether the major blocks group tones or divisions before applying the same reading order.
A rhyme table can look like a page of characters separated by empty circles and fine rules. The positions carry the classification. A character’s place connects it to an initial, a rhyme category and a tone. Reading the page means understanding those relationships, rather than sounding every character in modern Mandarin.
What Rhyme Tables Add to Rhyme Dictionaries
A rhyme dictionary groups readings and supplies pronunciation glosses. Fanqie（反切，fǎnqiè）uses two other characters: one contributes the initial, the other the final and tone. A rhyme table adds a named, organized framework in which related readings can be compared. It makes the categories and their combinations visible across the page.[2]
Guangyun（廣韻，Guǎngyùn）, the rhyme dictionary, belongs to the dictionary tradition. The Yunjing and Qiyin lüe（七音略，Qīyīn lüè）belong to the table tradition. Keep those book types distinct when looking at a digital result: a definition, a fanqie gloss and a chart coordinate answer different questions.
The origin of the table tradition is less certain than a single inventor story suggests. In the Yunjing preface dated 1203, Zhang Linzhi discusses a possible Buddhist attribution, then acknowledges that its authorship remained unknown. That is evidence of uncertainty within the transmitted text itself, not proof of the proposed author.[3]
A dated preface establishes a stage of transmission. It does not automatically establish the invention date of the entire system. When citing a scanned or transcribed edition, retain the edition information as well as the work’s name; an old text and a later printing have different dates.
How a Yunjing Chart Organizes a Syllable
The Yunjing has 43 charts. Its basic arrangement has 16 rows: four tone groups, each containing four divisions. The four historical tone categories are level tone（平聲，píngshēng）, rising tone（上聲，shǎngshēng）, departing tone（去聲，qùshēng）and entering tone（入聲，rùshēng）. These historical tones are not simply the four numbered Mandarin tones. The entering category contains syllables ending in stops such as -p, -t or -k. Divisions and tones are separate dimensions, despite both involving groups of four.[4]
Read the column heading together with the row position. Column classifications concern initial consonants; the rhyme label and the subdivisions of the row concern the rest of the reading. Looking only at the large character beside a block leaves part of the coordinate unrecorded.
Chart labels also include open-mouth（開口，kāikǒu）and closed-mouth（合口，hékǒu）categories. These are conventionally connected with the absence or presence of a rounded element, rather than instructions simply to open or close your jaw. “Inner” and “outer” are further chart labels whose interpretation is less straightforward.[4]
For a first pass, copy the labels faithfully without turning each into an exact sound. Record the chart number, initial classification, tone group and division. Keep the written labels beside any English explanation so you can check the coordinate against the source later.
A Worked Reading: One Column, Different Initials
In Jacques’s Yunjing example, one shared column has these level-tone entries:[1]
| Character and row position | Initial in Jacques’s analysis |
|---|---|
| 珊, division I | s- |
| 删, division II | sr- |
| 羶, division III | sy- |
| 先, division IV | s- |
The row distinguishes s- from sr- and sy-. Elsewhere, 仙 occupies a fourth row while its rhyme is analyzed as division III.[1]
Distinguish the character’s physical row from the rhyme’s analytical classification. Counting down to “four” and writing “division-IV rhyme” can produce the wrong conclusion. Keep both the observed position and the interpretation in your notes.
The symbols s-, sr- and sy- here follow the cited analysis. They are not Pinyin spellings or instructions to pronounce those Latin letters independently. This worked example explains how the grid carries information; it does not supply a complete reconstruction of every entry.
Use the Table Without Mistaking It for a Recording
The phonetic interpretation of the divisions remains a scholarly question. Georg Orlandi’s 2021 study reviews competing explanations and argues for an interpretation based on articulatory stricture in later Chinese discussions. That argument should be identified as an interpretation, not substituted silently for every other reconstruction.[5]
Use a repeatable reading procedure:
- Identify the source. Record the work, edition and chart number. Check whether you are viewing an old page, a transcription or a modern rearrangement.
- Locate the entry. Copy the character and its column, tone group and row position. Preserve any relevant chart-wide labels.
- Consult the explanation. Read the work’s prefatory rules or a scholarly account of that layout. Resolve compressed or shared categories before assigning an initial or final.
- Label the interpretation. If adding a reconstructed form, name its author or system. Keep it separate from a modern dictionary reading.
That distinction matters when comparing sources: different transcriptions can describe related categories with different symbols. A difference in notation is not automatically a difference in the historical evidence.[2] The Middle Chinese guide provides the broader reconstruction context.
For reading a poem, also check the relevant rhyme tradition and period. A chart coordinate is one piece of evidence; it does not by itself settle every question about a poet’s local speech or permitted rhyme practice.
FAQs About Rhyme Tables in China
Is a rhyme table the same as a rhyme dictionary?
No. A table organizes phonological categories in a grid; a dictionary supplies entries, glosses and pronunciation information.
Are the four divisions the four tones?
No. In the Yunjing, each tone group has four division rows. They are separate classifications.
What does an empty position mean?
It is a gap in that table’s represented combinations, not proof that no Chinese variety could have such a syllable.
Can I read the table using modern Mandarin?
Modern readings help identify characters, but cannot replace the chart’s historical categories or a clearly named reconstruction.
Fuentes
[1] Guillaume Jacques. Traditional Chinese Phonology
[2] David Prager Branner. Introduction: What Are Rime Tables and What Do They Mean?
[3] Yunjing, transmitted prefaces and text. 古逸叢書二十六種：韻鏡卷首并正文
[4] William H. Baxter. A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, chapter 2 preview
[5] Georg Orlandi. On the four grades / four calls of Chinese rime tables