說文解字

简 说文解字 · 繁 說文解字
Mandarin · pinyin Shuō wén Jiě zì

Meanings

  1. Shuowen Jiezi, the earliest systematic Chinese character dictionary, compiled by Xu Shen 許慎 Xǔ Shèn in the Eastern Han dynasty (2nd century), containing 10,516 entries
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Characters in this entry

說
shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
文
wén · literature, culture, writing
解
jiě · loosen, unfasten, untie; explain; hexagram ䷧
字
zì · letter, character, word
说
shuō · speak, say, talk; scold, upbraid
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2–3–4 · Shuo1 wen2 Jie3 zi4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

name

  1. Shuowen Jiezi (early 2nd-century Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

說文解字 · Shuo1 wen2 Jie3 zi4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 101,492
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record說文解字 说文解字 [Shuo1 wen2 Jie3 zi4] /Shuowen Jiezi, the earliest systematic Chinese character dictionary, compiled by Xu Shen 許慎|许慎[Xu3 Shen4] in the Eastern Han dynasty (2nd century), containing 10,516 entries/