The Yunjing is the oldest existing Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 rime table

Rime table

A rime table or rhyme table is a syllable chart of the Chinese language, a significant advance on the fǎnqiè analysis used in earlier rime dictionaries...

. Current versions of the Yunjing date back to the 1161 and 1203 editions published by Zhang Linzhi (張麟之; Chang Lin-chi).

In theory, the Yunjing is a two-dimensional representation of the Middle Chinese

Middle Chinese

Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...

phonological system. The preface lists 36 initial consonants (shengmu 聲母/声母 "sound mothers"); see the (Chan) link below. The Yunjing contains 43 charts (zhuan 轉 "turns; revolutions"), each of which tabulates combinations of a particular final rime (in rows) with various initials (in columns), in up to four tones. A detailed description of this native Chinese phonological system can be found at the rime table article. The publications of Coblin (1996) and Pulleyblank (1998) cover the translation, use and application of the Yunjing.

External links

• Yunjing: 36 Initials, Marjorie Chan

(homepage fo information on Middle Chinese pronunciation of specific characters