Phags-pa Script : Baijiaxing Mengguwen

Introduction

The Chinese Version

The "Hundred Surnames" (Băijiāxìng 百家姓) is an elementary text that simply comprises a list of the most common Chinese surnames written out in quadrisyllabic rhyming couplets (see the bottom of this page for a transcription of the standard Chinese text). This work was composed by an anonymous Song dynasty author, and in fact lists some 503 surnames, although the exact figure often varies from one edition to another. The text is divided into two sections :

• The first 51 lines list 408 single-character surnames;
• The last 20 lines list 61 double-character surnames, interspersed with 34 single-character surnames.

The Phags-pa Version

A version of this text with Phags-pa spellings for each surname was produced during the Yuan dynasty, probably as an aid to Chinese officials who were required to learn the new script. This is the only surviving example of a Chinese literary text (albeit a very simple one) written in the Phags-pa script.

The Phags-pa version of the "Hundred Surnames" is entitled Băijiāxìng Mĕnggŭwén 百家姓蒙古文 [bay gya sing mung gu wun] "The Hundred Surnames in the Mongolian Script".

Between the various exant editions of the Phags-pa version of the "Hundred Surnames", 407 single-character surnames and 20 double-character surnames, in total 427 surnames, are given. These include all of the surnames in the single-character surnames section of the Chinese text, but only about a third of the double-character surnames in the original Chinese text.

Another difference between the Chinese and Phags-pa versions is that three of the more unusual single-character surnames in the original Chinese text have been replaced by graphically similar ideographs which, although incorrect, are more commonly encountered :

• The surname 鈄 dŏu (No.246) in the original Chinese text has been replaced by the ideograph 針 zhēn.
• The surname 庾 yŭ (No.343) in the original Chinese text has been replaced by the ideograph 庚 gēng;
• The surname 厙 shè (No.371) in the original Chinese text has been replaced by the ideograph 庫 kù;

Editions of the Phags-pa Text

The Phags-pa version of the "Hundred Surnames" was probably first published as an individual pamphlet, but now only survives in the Yuan dynasty popular encyclopaedia, Shìlín Guăngjì 事林廣記, originally compiled by Chen Yuanjing 陳元靚 during the Northern Song. There are several extant editions of Shilin Guangji, all of which are revised and expanded versions of the original text published during the Yuan dynasty or later :

• A Japanese Genroku 元祿 12 [1699] reprint of a Yuan Taiding 泰定 3 [1325] edition using recarved printing blocks (hereafter referred to as the 1699 edition) [facsimile published in Hekeben Leishu Jicheng 和刻本類書集成 Vol.1 (Shanghai : Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1990)]
• A Yuan edition published by the Chunzhuang Shuyuan 椿莊書院 publishing house during the Zhishun 至順 period (1330-1333) [facsimile edition published as Shilin Guangji 事林廣記 (Beijing : Zhonghua Shuju, 1963)]
• A Yuan edition published by the Jicheng Tang 積誠堂 publishing house in Zhiyuan 至元 6 [1340] (hereafter referred to as the 1340 edition)
• A Ming edition published by the Cuiyan Jingshe 翠巖精舍 publishing house in Yongle 永樂 16 [1418] (hereafter referred to as the 1418 edition)

The main differences and similarities between these four editions with respect to the text of the Phags-pa "Hundred Surnames" are summarised in Table 1 below :

The 1330-1333 edition and the 1340 edition are almost exactly identical, other than a very few instances where one or other of the two editions has a corrupt form of a Phags-pa letter which is correctly formed in the other edition.

The 1418 edition is very close to the 1330-1333 and 1340 editions, for example missing surnames Nos.97-112, and mislocating surnames Nos.321-328. It even shares many of the same corrupt Phags-pa letters that are found in the two Yuan dynasty editions (e.g. in the title the word sing for 姓 xìng "surname" is written with the letter I ligated unnaturally to the letter SA in the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions; Surname No.14 沈 shĕn should be spelled shim, but in the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions the letter SHA is identically malformed). However, it does include one surname (No.366) which is missing in both the 1330-1333 edition and the 1340 edition, but which is also present in the 1699 edition, from which we can deduce that the 1418 edition cannot have been derived from the 1330-1333 edition or the 1340 edition.

The 1699 edition is markedly different from the other three editions in several important respects :

• It includes Surnames Nos.97-112 which are missing in the other three editions;
• Surnames Nos.321-328 have been mislocated in the other three editions, but are in the correct place in the 1699 edition;
• It includes four surnames (勿商歸遲) at the end of the section of single-character surnames that are not found in any of the other three editions, and which are not expected there from the Chinese version of the text (歸 guī and 商 shāng are located in the double-character surnames section of the traditional Chinese text, whereas 勿 wù and 遲 chí are not found in the traditional Chinese text at all);
• It includes five fewer double-character surnames than the other three editions;
• It has a number of Phags-pa spellings for surnames that do not concur with the spellings given in the other three editions.

This last point is of particular interest. The 1699 edtion generally concurs with the readings given in the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions, but there are quite a few examples of surnames where the Phags-pa spellings in the 1699 edition diverges from the spellings given in the other three editions, not due to textual corruption, but either due to the correct ideograph being misread as a graphically similar but incorrect ideograph, or the Phags-pa spelling representing an alternate reading of the ideograph. These examples are all listed in Table 2 below :

From these examples it would seem that some intelligent (as opposed to mechanical) textual corruption has taken place during the course of the textual transmission of the Phags-pa version of the Hundred Surnames. It is quite probable that the divergent readings in the 1699 edition are due to a later editor of Shilin Guangji trying to repair unclear or illegible Phags-pa spellings by copying Phags-pa spellings for Chinese ideographs from a Phags-pa dictionary such as the Yuan dynasty rhyming dictionary Menggu Ziyun 蒙古字韻. This work lists ideographs under multiple Phags-pa spellings where an ideograph has multiple readings, and so if the editor was not greatly familiar with the Phags-pa script he might easily select the first Phags-pa spelling for a given ideograph that he finds in the dictionary, not realising that it is a spelling for an invalid reading of the ideograph as a surname.

Despite these differences between the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions on the one hand and the 1699 edition on the other, all four editions do share some features that suggest a common ancestry. For example, all editions, including the 1699 edition, mislocate surnames 113-136 of the traditional Chinese text between surnames 96 and 97. Possibly this reflects the misplacement of a single folio in ancestral edition of the text (perhaps the original printed edition of the text that the first Shilin Guangji version was based upon). If this were the case, then each half-folio of the ancestral edition would only have listed twelve surnames, which is quite possible if the Phags-pa words and Chinese ideographs were written very large, as is often the case with elementary texts.

Facsimiles

Facsimiles of the start of the text of the "Hundred Surnames" in the various editions of Shilin Guangji are given below.

A facsimile of the entire text of the "Hundred Surnames" given in the 1340 edition is also available :

• 1340 Edition Page 1 (Surnames 1-28)
• 1340 Edition Page 2 (Surnames 29-84)
• 1340 Edition Page 3 (Surnames 85-96, 113-136, 97-112, 137-156)
• 1340 Edition Page 4 (Surnames 157-212)
• 1340 Edition Page 5 (Surnames 213-268)
• 1340 Edition Page 6 (Surnames 269-320, 329-332)
• 1340 Edition Page 7 (Surnames 333-336, 321-328, 337-365, 367-381)
• 1340 Edition Page 8 (Surnames 382-410, 412, 411, 418, 434, 415, 432, 416, 438, 435, 437)
• 1340 Edition Page 9 (Surnames 429, 428, 436, 425, 413-414, 419, 433)

1330-1333 Edition

Source : Basibazi Baijiaxing jiaokan 八思巴字百家姓校勘 page 267.

1340 Edition

Source : Basibazi yu Yuandai Hanyu 八思巴字與元代漢語 pages 59-60.

1418 Edition

Source : Le Po Kia Sing en Écriture Phags-Pa page 49.

1699 Edition

Source : Hekeben Leishu Jicheng 和刻本類書集成 Vol.1 page 272.

Prefaces

1330-133 and 1340 Edition

This is the preface to the Phags-pa text of the "Hundred Surnames" that is given in both the 1330-1333 and 1340 editions. It may possibly be derived from the preface that went with the original standalone edition of the Phags-pa Hundred Surnames.

蒙古之書，前乎斈者之所未觀。近風化自北而南，新斈尚之。盖自科斗之書廢，而篆隸之制作，其躰皆古也。其後眞草之書雜行于世。今王化近古風俗遠淳。蒙古之斈設為專門，初斈能復熟此篇，亦可以爲入仕之捷徑云。

Mongolian writing is something that had never been seen by scholars before [this dynasty]. Recently the customs and ways of the North have come to the South, and new scholarship thinks highly of it [the new Mongolian writing]. It is the case that after the [archaic] Tadpole style of [Chinese writing] was abandoned, the Seal Script and Official Script forms of writing were devised, which both preserved the ancient forms of ideographs. Only later did the [modern] book-hand and cursive forms of writings gradually come into use. Now the teachings of the king have an affinity towards the customs and habits of ancient times, and tend away from the pure and uncomplicated. The study of Mongolian [writing] has been established as a special subject, and if you can become proficient in this text at an early stage you will find it to be a shortcut to a career as an official.

1418 Edition

This edition does not preserve a preface to the Hundred Surnames text.

1699 Edition

This is the preface to the Phags-pa text of the "Hundred Surnames" that is given in the 1699 edition. It is completely different to the preface found in the 1330-1333 and 1340 editions, and its reference to the placing of the "Hundred Surnames" immediately after the section on the Seal Script (within the fourth volume of Shilin Guangji, devoted to book-learning and calligraphy) indicates that it was written by the compiler or editor of Shilin Guangji rather than having been inherited from the original Phags-pa Hundred Surnames text as may have been the case with the preface preserved in the 1330-1333 and 1340 editions.

古篆之外，世有所見。今得蒙古所篆（撰？）《百家姓》，字母見一格，皆世所未見者。謹刻次于古篆揮毫斈，此向乎筆走龍蛇矣。

In addition to the ancient Seal Script, there are other [scripts] in the world. Now I have obtained this version of the "Hundred Surnames" written in the Mongolian script – its letters are distinctive, and are all previously unknown. I have carefully engraved [this text] after the section on the brushstrokes of the ancient Seal Script, as the writing of this [Mongolian script] is close to calligraphy.

Transcription

The 427 surnames in the 1340 and 1699 editions of the Phags-pa version of the Hundred Surnames are transcribed in the table below, together with their ancient and modern pronunciations, and their reading as given in the Phags-pa Rhyming Dictionary Menggu Ziyun 蒙古字韻. In almost all cases the Baijiaxing spellings are identical to the Menggu Ziyun spellings.

The order of the surnames given in each edition of Shilin Guangji vary somewhat (see Table 1 for details), and for convenience the surnames are listed in the order that they are given in the traditional Chinese text.

Notes

1. Where the Chinese ideograph for a surname given in the 1699 edition differs from the ideograph given in the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions, the ideograph given in the 1699 edition is given in parentheses after the correct ideograph in the first column. Where the 1330-1333, 1340 and 1418 editions give an incorrect or non-standard form of the ideograph used for a surname, the correct form of the ideograph is given in brackets.
2. The Phags-pa spellings of the surnames have been transcribed as accurately as possible, and no attempt has been made to correct mistakes and/or graphic corruptions. In particular there are many surnames in which the Phags-pa vowel EE is written for the graphically similar Phags-pa semivowel Y or vice versa, but in all cases what is actually written is preferred over what can be assumed to have been the original spelling. There are also several cases in the 1699 edition where the vowel I has clearly been corrupted to the similar vowel U, but again the transcription reflects the actual spelling rather than the presumed spelling. Some obvious corruptions have been noted in the Notes column, but not all. Where a Phags-pa letter is illegible or corrupted to a point where its true value cannot be recognised, the missing letter is replaced by an asterisk (*) in the transcription.
3. Ancient Chinese readings are the phonetic reconstructions of the fănqiè 反切 pronunciations given in the Song dynasty Guăng Yùn 廣韻 rhyming dictionary (completed in 1008, but based in part on the earlier Tangyun 唐韻, compiled by Sun Mian 孫愐 in 751, which itself was based on a Sui dynasty dictionary of pronunciation, Qieyun 切韻, compiled by Lu Fayan 陸法言 et al. in 601). The reconstructions are according to Hanzi Guyin Shouce 漢字古音手册, which is based upon the work Wang Li 王力. The tones have been omitted from the reconstructions given here, as tonal differences are not reflected in the Phags-pa spellings.
4. The pinyin readings are the modern pronunciation of the characters when used as a family name. These pronunciations may in some cases differ from the expected pronunciations based on Ancient Chinese or Phags-pa readings.
5. The Menggu Ziyun 蒙古字韻 readings are the Phags-pa spellings given in the Yuan dynasty rhyming dictionary of this name (see my Menggu Ziyun page for further details). Note that the only extant copy of Menggu Ziyun lacks one or more folios covering syllables ending in -a and -e.

Original Text

The following is the original Chinese text of the "Hundred Surnames", written out in rhyming couplets. Double-character names are indicated by underlining. Note that the last four characters 百家姓終 "The hundred surnames finished" are not part of the list of surnames.

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