Shizhoupian 史籀篇

Shizhoupian 史籀篇 "The scribe's characters" is a said to be China's oldest character dictionary. There is a commentary written during the Republican period (1911-1949) by Wang Guowei 王國維 (1877-1927), Shizhoupian shuzheng 史籀篇疏證.

The imperial bibliography Yiwen zhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 says, the Shizhoupian was 15-chapters long. It was allegedly compiled during the reign of King Xuan 周宣王 (r. 827-782 BCE) of the Zhou dynasty 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE) and survived the "literary inquisition" of the First Emperor of Qin 秦始皇 (r. 246-210 BCE), hidden in the walls of the mansion of the Kong family 孔, descendants of Confucius.

For a long time, the characters 史籀 were interpreted as the name of the compiler, a certain Shi Zhou or "Scribe Zhou". The word zhou 籀 is used to designate an old-style script usually translated as "large seal script" (zhouwen 籀文 or dazhuan 大篆).

Wang Guowei found out that the characters of the Shizhoupian correspond to those common in the region of Shaanxi in the west, and it must have been compiled during the end of the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE) in the state of Qin 秦.

The Shizhoupian is only perserved in fragments, of which a collection is inclued in the series Guangcang xuequn congshu 廣倉學宭叢書 and Wang Guowei's literary remains, Wang Zhongquegong yishu 王忠愨公遺書.