切韻的綜合性質

THE COMPOSITE NATURE OF THE CH'IEH-YÜN

切韻系統之龐大，絕對不會代表一時一地的活方言。切韻是採取以前的韻書的韻類加以系統化而成的。以前的韻書，對於切韻分韻影響最大的是呂靜韻集和夏侯該的韻略。呂靜韻集是晉朝北方韻書，夏侯該韻略是梁朝南方韻書。切韻的韻類的劃分是根據書本上的材料，與口語有一段距離。當時“知音”者稀，是說很多人的讀音不夠標準。也就是說，讀者多以方音所礙，讀音與切韻中所定的標準不合。切韻的讀音大概是齊梁時代文人的讀書音。切韻的產生與齊梁時代音韻學的發達有關。齊梁時代音韻學的發達與佛教的影響有關。齊竟陵王子良在這方面的貢獻恐怕很大。可惜我們知之甚少。

The source materials for the different periods of Chinese phonological history differ in nature. In the modern period, we have records of various individual living dialects and we know the different localities they represent. For the Archaic period, we base our reconstruction on the riming patterns of the Shih-ching and the analysis of phonetic compound characters; we assume that these materials are more or less homogeneous and that they represent the literary pronunciation of the middle course of the Yellow River Basin during the Chou Dynasty. Although the songs of the Shih-ching derived from different sources, they had become the common property of the educated in the Chou Dynasty, whose custom it was on various social occasions to recite certain passages from memory.