Piya


The Piya (; "Increased [Er]ya") was a Chinese dictionary compiled by Song Dynasty scholar Lu Dian (陸佃/陆佃, 1042-1102 CE). He wrote this Erya supplement along with his Erya Xinyi (爾雅新義 "New Exegesis of the Erya") commentary. Although the Piya preface written by his son Lu Zai (陸宰/陆宰) is dated 1125, the dictionary was written earlier; Liu (1963:87) estimates around the Yuanfeng era (元豐, 1078-1085).

Lu Dian arranged the Piya into 8 semantically-based chapters that closely correspond with the last ''Erya'' chapters 13-19. The only exceptions are Chapter 5 ("Explaining Horses") that is contained in Erya 19 ("Explaining Domestic Animals") and Chapter 8 ("Explaining Heaven") that anomalously corresponds with the first part of the Erya.

<table class = "wikitable" > <tr><th> Chapter </th><th> Chinese </th><th> Pinyin </th><th> Translation </th><th> Erya Chapter </th></tr> <tr><td> 1</td><td> 釋魚</td><td> Shiyu</td><td> Explaining Fishes</td><td>16</td></tr> <tr><td> 2</td><td> 釋獸</td><td> Shishou</td><td> Explaining Beasts</td><td>18</td></tr> <tr><td> 3</td><td> 釋鳥</td><td> Shiniao</td><td> Explaining Birds</td><td>17</td></tr> <tr><td> 4</td><td> 釋蟲</td><td> Shichong</td><td> Explaining Insects</td><td> 15</td></tr> <tr><td> 5 </td><td> 釋馬</td><td> Shima</td><td> Explaining Horses</td><td> (19)</td></tr> <tr><td> 6</td><td> 釋木</td><td> Shimu</td><td> Explaining Trees</td><td> 14</td></tr> <tr><td> 7</td><td> 釋草</td><td> Shicao</td><td> Explaining Plants</td><td> 13</td></tr> <tr><td> 8</td><td> 釋天</td><td> Shitian</td><td> Explaining Heaven</td><td>8</td></tr></table>

The preface explains Lu's motives for defining flora and fauna terminology. Since Song officials changed the basis for the Imperial examination from mastering poetry to jingyi (經義/经义 "expounding on a classical quotation"), literati no longer studied the lyrical names for plants and animals.

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