Aspects of the liu shu 六書 theory continue to be used today to analyse Chinese characters, yet most scholars are unaware of the historical context out of which the theory emerged and the controversies surrounding its both initial and subsequent interpretations. I trace the origins of the theory to the Eastern Han and compare its three earliest rival formulations. Subsequent centuries saw a proliferation of interpretations which rendered any attempt at a unified vision of Chinese writing impossible. The trend of adding new explanations was only reversed by the Qing scholars Dai Zhen and Duan Yucai who, drawing on some of the earliest explanations, argued that the theory encapsulated not only the way characters were composed but also their exegesis. Even if they laid the ground for a shared interpretation, Dai and Duan’s take on the Eastern Han scholar Xu Shen did not go unchallenged. I discuss Zhang Taiyan’s and Lu Zongda’s criticism and their attempts to reconcile aspects of the traditional framework with modern linguistics. I finally contrast this updating of an ancient theory with the approach of Qiu Xigui who selectively discards one of the principles and thereby the very feasibility of the framework as a whole.

六書理論的各方面至今仍被用來分析漢字，然而大多數學者對該理論產生的 歷史背景及其最初和後續的詮釋中的爭議不甚了解。本文追溯了該理論的起源時期，六 書理論起源於東漢，然後本文比較了六書理論最初的三種具有爭議的解釋。隨後的幾個 世紀，有關六書理論的詮釋大量增加，這導致漢字書寫已不可能形成統一觀念。解釋新 增的趨勢直到在清代學者戴震和段玉裁的努力下才得以逆轉，他們借鑒了一些最早的解 釋，並認爲該理論不僅包含了漢字的構成方式，還包括了其義理的詮釋。儘管戴、段爲 共識的詮釋奠定了基礎，但他們對東漢學者許慎的觀點並未能免於爭議。本文討論了章 太炎和陸宗達對戴、段觀點的批評，以及他們試圖將傳統框架的某些方面與現代語言學 相協調的嘗試。最後，本文將這一古老理論的更新與裘錫圭的方法進行了對比，裘錫圭 選擇性地摒棄了其中一個原則，從而使整個架構的可行性受到質疑。

The Zhou Li Context
The Yiwen Zhi Narrative
Three rival conceptions
The ordering of the six principles
The Primacy of Abstraction
Dai Zhen’s philosophical grounding of the principles
Duan Yucai and the paradigm for philology
Two Exegetical Principles and Establishing Common Ground
Corroborating Xu Shen’s Theory with the Body of His Dictionary
Han Modes of Interpretation
Criticizing Dai Zhen Using His Own Method
Zhang Taiyan, Dialect Convergence, and Indo-European ComparativeLinguistics
Lu Zongda and the Objective Diachronic Perspective
Qiu Xigui and Discarding the Traditional Framework
Direction of Further Research
References

• Jan VIHAN(Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences)