An overview of the collocation and compilation of Sinitic brushtalk documents in Sinographic East Asia

Abstract

The practice of Sinitic brushtalk was first observed during the Sui and T‘ang dynasties. Many brushtalk documents compiled in Late Ch‘ing period were found. Eventually, the vanishing of the tributary system and thus the vernacularization movements in East Asia ‘killed’ this practice. In pre-modern East Asia, although the languages spoken in each country were totally mutually unintelligible, they share essentially the same culture. All the literati in this region were keen on learning Chinese classics. Inter-ethnic cross-border communication was mainly conducted through Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese was not studied extensively any more ever since the rise of written vernacular languages in these countries. In this paper, the author will first cite three early examples of Sinitic brushtalk. Then, a concise overview of the compilation of Sinitic brushtalk documents found in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam will be provided. Three kinds of brushtalk compilations will be introduced briefly: (a) brushtalk datasets, (b) collection of historical documents, and (c) on-line brushtalk database. 漢文筆談, 始於隋唐, 興於晩淸, 亡於終藩──古代東亞地域雖語言殊異, 然文化一致, 文人皆以學習漢文經典爲尙, 跨國交流以文言爲主, 及後宗藩體 系終結瓦解, 東亞各國紛紛捨漢習西, 同時亦發展各自之白話文, 知識分子不再視學習漢文爲必然之事, 由是漢文筆談漸趨式微。 本文首先擧出早期之漢文筆談, 分別爲小野妹子赴南岳取經、圓仁隨使團入唐、日僧奝然覲見宋太宗, 然後扼要介紹漢文筆談文獻於中日韓越之整理 匯編槪況。所介紹之資料有以下幾種： 筆談資料集三種： ≪大河內文書≫ ≪淸代首屆駐日公使館員筆談資料匯編≫ ≪宮崎滔天家藏──來自日本的中國革命文獻≫ 古文獻匯編四種： 江戶時代漂着唐船資料集 ≪燕行錄全集≫ ≪越南燕行文獻集成≫ ≪朝鮮後期通信使筆談唱和集飜譯叢書≫ 線上資料庫三種：中國思想與文化名家數據庫(近現代版) 韓使燕行錄全文檢索系統 燕行錄叢刊增補版