William Baxter's transcription for the Middle Chinese fanqie spellings can be easily derived from the data below. Baxter's notation is extremely useful and convenient because it is a fully typable transcription for the Qieyun fanqie spellings of 601 A.D. To use the data below, you will need to know the Guangyun rhyme for the word you are researching. You will also need to know the chart, column, and row ("division") for the word in the Yunjing rhyme chart. This latter information will be useful in determining the syllable initial and medial from the data.
See William H. Baxter, A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter (1992) for further details on Middle Chinese, and for a new reconstruction of Old Chinese.
To illustrate, here's an example using a poem by Li Bai. A translation titled "The Bravo of Chao" may be found in Robert Payne, ed., The White Pony. The data on Middle Chinese syllable finals and initials is presented after the poem, followed by an example showing how to use the data to find the rhyme words in Li Bai's poem.
李白﹐俠客行 Li Bai (LiX Baek), "Travels of a Knight-errant" 趙客縵胡纓 吳鉤霜雪明 mjaeng 銀鞍照白馬 颯沓如流星 seng 十步殺一人 千里不留行 haeng 事了拂依去 深藏身與名 mjieng 閑過信陵飲 脫劍膝前橫 hwaeng 將炙啖朱亥 持觴勸侯嬴 yeng 三盃吐然諾 五嶽倒為輕 khjieng 眼花耳熱後 意氣素霓生 srjaeng 救趙揮金槌 邯鄲先震驚 kjaeng 千秋二壯士 烜赫大粱城 dzyeng 縱死俠骨香 不慚世上英 'jaeng 誰能書閤下 白首太玄經 keng Li Bai's rhyme words: 明 [微庚開三] ming2 < mjaeng 'bright' 星 [心青開四] xing < seng 'star' 行 [匣庚開二] xing2 < haeng 'travel, conduct' 名 [微清開四] ming2 < mjieng 'name, fame' 橫 [匣庚合二] heng2 < hwaeng 'horizontal, across' 嬴 [以清開四] ying < yeng 'full, surfeit' [name] 輕 [溪清開四] qing < khjieng 'light, trivial' 生 [生庚開二] sheng < srjaeng 'live, grow, produce' 驚 [見庚開三] jing < kjaeng 'startle' 城 [禪清開三] cheng2 < dzyeng 'town' 英 [影庚合三] ying < 'jaeng 'glory, hero' 經 [見青開四] jing < keng 'canon, classic'
NOTES: The five volumes of Guangyun (廣韻) are indicated by the letters A, B, C, D and E followed by the rhyme sequence number. For example, A01 東 is the first rhyme in volume A. For C and D tone rhymes, see "A Quick Guide to the Yunjing Rhymes" below. The apostrophe, as in 'jaengX (影), is a glottal stop. Initial h- is a voiced guttural fricative; initial x- is a voiceless guttural fricative. Suffix -X indicates 'rising' tone; suffix -H indicates 'falling' tone. -yj- is written -y-. -r- represents retroflex articulation. A plus sign (+) indicates a high central unrounded vowel between i and u. The eight Middle Chinese vowels (six for Old Chinese) can be described as follows:
front central back
high i + u
mid e o
low-mid ea
low ae a
---
As an example of how to use this data, the rhyme word in Li Bai's first line is ming2 明 'bright'. Look up ming2 in the Guangyun rhyme dictionary.
Since ming2 happens to be the first word in a sequence of homophones, it occurs immediately after a period (a small circle), and it is followed by several definitions, the fanqie spelling for ming2 and its homophones, and the number of homophones (five).
First look to the top of the list of rhyme words until you find the initial entry word for the rhyme. The head rhyme word typically occurs at the top of a new column and is preceded by a number indicating its sequence among all of the rhymes in that volume (juan4). In this case, the head rhyme word is Geng 庚 and it is preceded by the number 12. Since Geng is in volume 2, I refer to it as Rhyme B12.
If you prefer, you can simply use a text editor with a search function to quickly find 'B12' in the data above. You will find that Rhyme B12 occurs twice, first under the Division II (row 2) finals:
-(w)aeng B12 庚 geng < kaeng
Rhyme B12 is a Division II rhyme and the entry word, Geng, will be found in Yunjing chart number 33, row 2. Next, you will also find Rhyme B12 listed above under the Chongniu (重紐) finals:
B12 庚 geng < kaeng 3: -j(w)aeng
Some of the words in this Rhyme are also placed in row 3 of the Yunjing chart; and, in fact, you will see the character for ming2 in Yunjing chart number 33, row 3. (Yunjing shows only the first word for each homophone group.) Since Chart 33 has the caption "Kai" (for kaikou, 'open' or 'unrounded' mouth), we ignore the -w- and choose -jaeng for the final. As for the initial, since ming2 is placed in Yunjing column 4, we need only scan the syllable initial data above (Row 4 under Labials) to see that it had Middle Chinese initial m-, and so, in a fairly simple and mechanical fashion, we come up with the MC spelling mjaeng.
For help in finding a character's location in the Yunjing, see A Quick Guide to the Yunjing Rhymes.
Using this method, there is also no need to examine the individual fanqie spellings; but if you do, you will notice that ming2 is spelled 武兵切 ['martial weapon'] which would be read wu bing => wing in Beijing, but obviously this is no longer correct! Needless to say, the sounds of the modern Beijing dialect have changed some since Middle Chinese; but if we read the fanqie in modern Cantonese we still get the correct result: mou ping => ming.
This poem is written in 'Old Style' (Guti shi) which was presumably not as strict as 'New Style' poetry (Jinti shi) about using exact rhymes. In this poem we find words with mid-front vowels, -eng (from B14 清 and B15 青) rhyming with words with low-front vowels, -aeng (from B12 庚). It is interesting to note, however, that if we read Li Bai's poem in the literary diction of modern Xiamen (夏門讀書音) the rhyme words do rhyme exactly: bing, sing, hing, bing, hing, ing, khing, sing, king, sing, ing, king.
In 'New Style' poetry, I expect Baxter's notation will often reveal exact rhymes. This probably reflects the dominant poetic practice and standard dialect of the day. In Liu Fanping's poem, "Spring Aversion," for example, although the rhyme words are taken from three separate Qieyun rhymes, they were not distinguished in the rhyme books of Xiahou Gai (夏候該﹐韻略) or Yang Xiuzhi (陽休之﹐韻略), and they are marked "tongyong" 同用 (used in common) rhymes in the Guangyun (廣韻).
劉方平﹐春怨 紗窗日落漸黃昏 (A23) hun1 < xwon 金屋無人見淚痕 (A24) hen2 < hon 寂寞空庭春欲晚 (C20) wan3 < mjonX (C20 rhymes with A22) 梨花滿地不開門 (A23) men2 < mwon
Liu Fangping, "Spring Aversion"
Through lacework windows the sun sinks, fading into the yellow dusk.
In her golden chamber there is nobody to see the tear-streaked scars.
Hushed and desolate, the vacant courtyard; spring will be late.
Pear blossoms inundate the ground; the gate will not open.
-Stanley Goertzen
"With twilight passing her silken window,
She weeps alone in her chamber of gold;
For spring is departing from a desolate garden,
And a drift of Pear-petals is closing a door."
-Bynner & Kiang, Jade Mountain
Your comments are always welcome. Please send your e-mail to
sgoertzen@yahoo.com
Stanley Goertzen
sgoertzen@yahoo.com
Revised 28 September 2001