Yupian (Jade Chapters) Dictionary, Segment of Volume 9

Yupian is a dictionary of Chinese characters that was compiled during the Datong era (535–536) by Gu Yewang (519–581) and originally comprised thirty volumes. It is the second oldest Chinese dictionary after Xu Shen’s Shuowen jiezi (Explaining and Analyzing Characters) of the Later Han dynasty. Yupian organizes characters by radical. Each entry focuses first on pronunciation, using the fanqie system, and then follows with a commentary on meaning.
This fragmentary scroll is made up of three adjacent sheets of paper. These were separated at the latest in the Edo period from another fragment of Yupian’s volume 9, now owned by Waseda University. From the style of script used, we can date this manuscript to China’s Tang dynasty, seventh or eighth century. On the backside of the manuscript is a partial copy of the esoteric Buddhist text Jingang jie siji ( J. Kongōkai shiki, Commentary on the Vajra Realm), which was transcribed in the eighth month of the year 1021 ( Jian 1). Thus we know that this manuscript had already been imported into Japan by the middle of the Heian period.