The Ruiju myōgishō, alternatively misread as Ruijū myōgishō, is a Japanese dictionary from the late Heian Period. The title, sometimes abbreviated as Myōgishō, combines the ruiju from the Wamyō Ruijushō and the myōgi from the Tenrei Banshō Myōgi. Additional Buddhist titles, like Sanbō ruiju myōgishō, use the wordsanbō because the text was divided into butsu, hō, and sō sections. The origins of the Ruiju myōgishō are uncertain. Bailey concludes it was "compiled early in the twelfth century, presumably by a priest." Kaneko believes the received edition dates from the late 12th century, but the original version was compiled around 1081-1100 CE. There are various received texts of the Ruiju myōgishō and several indexes. Like other early Japanese dictionaries, the Ruiju myōgishō borrowed heavily from Chinese dictionaries, in particular the Yupian and the Qieyun. For collation of character entries, the ChineseYupian has a system of 542 logographic radicals. The Ruiju myōgishō cuts them down into 120 radicals, even simpler than the Japanese Shinsen Jikyō system of 160. The Ruiju myōgishō lists over 32,000 characters and compounds. The entries give both on'yomi Sino-Japanese borrowings and kun'yominative Japanese readings for kanji, using Chinese fanqie spellings, Man'yōgana, and katakana. Meanings are often illustrated by quotations from over 130 Chinese classic texts and classical Japanese literature. These quotes have two types of Kanbun annotations, shōten for Chinese tones and Japanese accents, and occasional kunten for Japanese pronunciations. "Many passages contain no Japanese readings at all," says Bailey, "but there are a total of approximately 10,000 Japanese readings given in the whole work." While special care is needed for its commentarynature, the Ruiju myōgishō remains a standard Japanese source of information regarding Heian era pronunciation.
Editions
There are various extant editions that still exist today. The main editions include:
The Zushoryō edition. It is part of the Shoryōbu collection in the Imperial Household Agency. Compiled between 1081 and 1100. It retains signs of the original; however, it is incomplete and only contains the first half of the hō section. It provides detailed literary citations for entries.
The Kōzan-ji edition. Part of the Tenri Central Library collection. It is entitledSanbō ruiju jishū, and is a revised edition. It only contains the butsu section and part of the 巻上 section found in the Kanji-in edition.
The Hōbodai-in edition. It is part of the Tō-ji Hōbodai-in collection. Revised and incomplete.
In addition to the above, the Ren'jō-in and Sainen-ji revised editions exist, but both are incomplete.
