On the Rhymes of Zeng Gong's Regulated Verse

Compared with those in the traditional rhyming dictionary, GuangYun which, rhymes in ZengGong's regulated verses demonstrates' distinctive features in the practical application of a single rhyme and several rhymes, including the four tones of classical Chinese pronunciation: Rhyming words in ZengGong's regulated verses cover most of the rhymes and are in strict accordance with a tonal pattern. However, they don't always follow the established practice. Rhymes of Dong(东) and Dong(冬),for example, were in a process of sharing the same rhyme, and rhymes of Wen(文), Hun( 魂), Zhen(真) and Zhen(臻) were in a same verse and so were Zhi(支)、Hui(灰) and Yu(鱼). All these reflect some characteristics of the speech souds at that time in a way or other, thus offering some clues in the research into the evolutionary law of pronunciation at that time.