This book, the first in its field in a Western language, examines China’s native phonological tool with regard to reconstruction, theory, and linguistic philosophy. After an introductory essay on the nature of the tables and the history of their interpretation, the book concentrates on three areas: application of rime table theory to reconstruction, the history of rime table theory, and the application of the tables to descriptive linguistics. An appendix details a number of 20th century systems for transcribing their phonology into Roman letters. Major topics include Altaic contact-influence on Chinese, early native understanding of the tables’ meaning, the phonological work of Yuen Ren Chao, and Stammbaumtheorie/diasystemic thinking about Chinese. New reconstructions of Han and “Common Dialectal” phonology appear here, as do complete texts and translations of the Shouwen fragments and Yunjing preface.

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As the first volume of a two-volume set that studies Chinese rhyme tables, this book focuses on their emergence, development, structure, and patterns. Rhyme tables are tabulated tool constituted by phonological properties, which helps indicate the pronunciation of sinograms or Chinese characters, marking a precise and systematic account of the Chinese phonological system. This volume first discusses the emergence of the model and factors that determined its formation and evolution, including the Chinese tradition of the rhyme dictionary and the introduction of Buddhist scripts. The second part analyzes the structure and arrangement patterns of rhyme tables in detail, giving insights into the nature of “division” (deng): the classification and differentiation of speech sounds, of vital significance in the reconstruction of middle Chinese. The author argues that deng has nothing to do with vowel aperture or other phonetic features but is a natural result of rhyme table arrangement. He also reexamines the principles for irregular cases (menfa rules) and categorizes the 20 rules into three types. The book will appeal to scholars and student studying linguistics, Chinese phonology, and Sinology.

As the second volume of a two-volume set that studies the Chinese rhyme tables, this book seeks to reconstruct the ancient rhyme tables based on the extant materials and findings. A rhyme table is a tabulated tool constituted by phonological properties, which helps indicate the pronunciation of sinograms or Chinese characters, marking an accurate and systematic account of the Chinese phonological system. The book first explores the relationship and identifies the prototype of the extant rhyme tables. Then the principles and methods for collating and rebuilding the ancient rhyme table are introduced. It then looks at the general layout, including tables, table order, shè, zhuǎn, rhyme heading, rhyme order, light and heavy articulations, rounded and unrounded articulations, and initials. The final chapter presents the reconstructed rhyme tables with detailed annotations and add-on indexes. The book will appeal to scholars and students studying Sinology, Chinese linguistics, and especially Chinese phonology.

By studying the emergence, development, structure, and pattern, the two-volume set seeks to reconstruct the ancient rhyme Chinese tables based on extant materials and findings. A rhyme table is a tabulated tool constituted by phonological properties, which helps indicate the pronunciation of sinograms or Chinese characters, marking an accurate and systematic account of the Chinese phonological system. The first volume discusses its formation and evolution and analyzes the structure and arrangement patterns of rhyme tables in detail. The author gives insights into principles for some irregular cases (menfa rules) and the nature of "division" (deng), a method of classifying and differentiating speech sounds vital to the reconstruction of Middle Chinese. The second volume first explores the relationship and identifies the prototype of the extant rhyme tables and then presents the reconstructed rhyme tables with detailed annotations and add-on indexes. The book will appeal to scholars and students studying Sinology, Chinese linguistics, and especially Chinese phonology.

A comprehensive account of the phonological history of Chinese, exploring the development of its standard phonological systems over the past 2500 years. It will be a key reference work for historical linguists and phonologists in general, as well as being of particular interest to students and scholars of Chinese/Asian languages and their history.