A Critical Analysis of the

Pronunciation and the Meaning of the

Word 樂 in the Jingdian Shiwen

(A Summary)

Wong Kuan Io

In the Jingdian shiwen 經典釋文 the word 樂 is pronounced in three ways:

• As a homophone of 岳 (nok) when it means "music."
• As a homophone of 洛 (lok) when it means "happy."
• As represented by the fanqie 反切 spelling 五教反 (nau) when the word means "to be delighted" or "to take delight in."

The fanqie spelling or zhiyin 直音 of the word 樂 appears 357 times in the Shiwen. These entries, together with the contexts in which the word 樂 appears, provide us with a basis for the study of the standard pronunciations of the word in Middle Chinese, as well as the correlation between pronunciation and meaning.

Another aim of this paper is to trace historically the changes in the pronunciation of the word 樂 through the ages.