Quick Answer: What Is the Shiming?
The Shiming (释名, Shìmíng), or Explaining Names, is a lexicographical work attributed to Liu Xi (刘熙, Liú Xī) of the Eastern Han (东汉, Dōng Hàn). It explains names and words by connecting their sounds with descriptions of what they signify.[5]
- Structure: Eight juan (卷, juàn); the preface identifies twenty-seven chapters.[1]
- Range: The sky, landscape, people, clothing, buildings, tools, vehicles and other subjects.
- Reading unit: A word, a related-sounding expression and an explanation linking them.
“Names” here chiefly means the names of things and concepts. The book is not a personal-name generator, nor is every proposed connection a proven historical derivation.
A garment is something a person relies on; a bed is something that bears the body. In the Shiming, such descriptions are joined to words through similar sounds. Reading the explanation after the pairing reveals what the short formula is trying to establish.
Liu Xi and the Arrangement of Names
The preface starts from an everyday puzzle: people repeatedly use names without knowing why those names fit their subjects. It proposes to explain their sense and application, moving between natural phenomena, institutions and objects used in ordinary life.[1]
The received arrangement below groups twenty-seven named chapters into eight juan. A juan is a larger textual division, not one chapter and not necessarily a separately bound modern volume.[1]
| Juan | Subjects covered |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sky, land, mountains, water, hills and roads. |
| 2 | Regions and states; the body. |
| 3 | Appearance, age and kinship. |
| 4 | Speech, food, textiles and head ornaments. |
| 5 | Clothing and buildings. |
| 6 | Beds and furnishings; writing; classical texts and arts. |
| 7 | Utensils, musical instruments, weapons, carts and boats. |
| 8 | Illness terminology and mourning arrangements. |
This subject arrangement gives the work a different reading path from an alphabetical English dictionary. Start with an object or domain, then locate the individual entry. Read the final chapters as historical vocabulary, rather than as present-day medical or funeral instructions.
How Sound Glosses Connect a Name with an Explanation
The method is commonly called shengxun (声训, shēngxùn): explaining a word through another word with the same or a similar sound. The association supports a claim about meaning, function or the reason for a name.[6]
These examples retain the explanation after the sound pairing. The pinyin supplies modern Mandarin reading aids, not reconstructions of Han pronunciation.[2][3][4]
| Word and associated expression | What the gloss connects |
|---|---|
| chun (春, chūn), spring; chun (蠢, chǔn), stirring | The season is explained through movement and growth. |
| yi (衣, yī), clothing; yi (依, yī), relying on | People depend on clothing for protection from cold and heat. |
| chuang (床, chuáng), bed or sitting platform; zhuang (装, zhuāng), bearing or loading | The object supports a person sitting or lying on it. |
The clothing entry does more than notice two similar sounds: it gives protection as the garment’s purpose. The bed entry links its name with support and use. Omitting those clauses would turn a short explanation into a pair of disconnected words.
Keep the word and its written form distinct when reading Chinese characters. A sound gloss proposes a relation between expressions; it need not be a story about how the strokes of a character were originally drawn. A resemblance in sound, an account of function and a history of the writing system are different questions.
What the Entries Reveal—and What They Do Not Prove
The opening sky entry makes pronunciation differences explicit. It associates tian (天, tiān), sky or heaven, with xian (显, xiǎn), manifest or conspicuous, in the regions called Yu (豫, Yù), Si (司, Sī), Yan (兖, Yǎn) and Ji (冀, Jì), and with tan (坦, tǎn), broad or open, in Qing (青, Qīng) and Xu (徐, Xú). The passage also comments on how the sounds are articulated.[2]
Those observations matter because the text is not treating every speaker’s pronunciation as identical. They should prompt investigation of the historical setting, rather than an assumption that today’s Chinese languages and regional varieties preserve exactly the same regional boundaries or sounds.
A reader can separate two questions. First, what relationship did the compiler perceive between the words? Second, does that relationship establish a common historical origin? The first is directly present in the gloss; the second requires additional linguistic evidence. Present-day homophony alone cannot answer it.
The entries also preserve distinctions among objects and their uses. The clothing section describes where garments are worn and records regional labels; the furnishings section distinguishes things used for sitting, lying, covering and screening. Such descriptions help interpret material vocabulary even when a proposed sound explanation remains open to question.[3][4]
The Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字, Shuōwén Jiězì) is a separate work. A comparison should identify what each particular entry explains, rather than assume that all early dictionaries use one method or provide interchangeable definitions.
How to Read an Entry and Choose Further Study
- Locate the headword: Record its subject chapter and juan, then keep its written form visible.
- Read the whole gloss: Separate the associated-sounding word from the clause explaining a property, use or naming rationale.
- Test the scope of the claim: Distinguish an ancient explanation from evidence about historical pronunciation, an object’s form or a proven word origin.
Nicholas Cleaveland Bodman’s 1954 A Linguistic Study of the Shih Ming: Initials and Consonant Clusters offers an English research route into the text. Its stated topic is linguistic analysis. Check the coverage of any study or translated selection before treating it as a translation of the entire collection.[7]
For a further comparison, select an entry in the Erya (尔雅, Ěryǎ) and ask what kind of explanation it gives. Comparing the words and their context is more useful than ranking the books by age or assuming every disagreement is a copying mistake.
FAQs About the Shiming
Is the Shiming a guide to naming people?
No. It chiefly explains words and the names of things, phenomena, relationships and institutions. “Explaining Names” does not mean choosing a modern personal name.
Is the Shiming the same book as the Shuowen Jiezi?
No. They are distinct early lexicographical works. Identify the entry and its method rather than using one title as another name for the other book.
Does every sound gloss give a proven word origin?
No. A perceived sound connection can support an ancient explanation without proving common ancestry. Read the full gloss, then distinguish its naming rationale from a modern historical-linguistic conclusion.
Sources
[1] Public-domain Chinese text. Shiming: preface and eight-juan contents
[2] Public-domain Chinese text. Shiming, juan 1: sky, land and other categories
[3] Public-domain Chinese text. Shiming, juan 5: clothing and buildings
[4] Public-domain Chinese text. Shiming, juan 6: beds, writing and arts
[5] Ministry of Education, Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary. Shiming: author and sound-based explanations
[6] Ministry of Education, Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary. Shengxun: explanation through similar sounds
[7] CiNii Books catalogue. Nicholas Cleaveland Bodman, A Linguistic Study of the Shih Ming (1954)