The Erya is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary or Chinese encyclopedia. Bernhard Karlgren (1931: 49) concluded that "the major part of its glosses must reasonably date from" the 3rd century BC.

Chinese scholars interpret the first title character er" (; "you your; adverbial suffix") as a phonetic loan character for the homophonous er (; "near; close; approach") and believe the second ya (; "proper; correct; refined; elegant") refers to words or language. According to W. South Coblin (1993: 94): "The interpretation of the title as something like 'approaching what is correct proper refined' is now widely accepted." It has been translated as "The Literary Expositor" "The Ready Rectifier" (both by James Legge) and "Progress Towards Correctness" (A. von Rosthorn). "Approaching Elegance/Refinement" Alex Kolesnikov.

The book's author is unknown. Although it is traditionally attributed to the Duke of Zhou Confucius or his disciples scholarship suggests that someone compiled and edited diverse glosses from commentaries to pre-Qin texts especially the Shijing. The Erya was considered the authoritative lexicographic guide to Chinese classic texts during the Han Dynasty and it was officially categorised as one of the Thirteen Confucian Classics during the Song Dynasty. The best-known textual annotations include the Western Jin Dynasty Erya zhu (; "Erya Commentary") by Guo Pu (; 276-324 CE) the Northern Song Dynasty Erya shu (; "Erya Subcommentary") by Xing Bing (; 931-1010) the Song Dynasty Eryayi (; "Wings to the Erya") by Luo Yuan (; 11361184) and the Qing Dynasty Erya zhengyi (; "Correct Meanings of the Erya") by Shao Jinhan (; 17431796) and Erya yishu ( "Subcommentary on Meanings of the Erya") by Hao Yixing (; 17571825).

The Erya has been described as a dictionary glossary synonymicon thesaurus and encyclopaedia. Karlgren (1931: 46) explains that the book "is not a dictionary in abstracto it is a collection of direct glosses to concrete passages in ancient texts." The received text contains 2094 entries covering about 4300 words and a total of 13113 characters. It is divided into nineteen sections the first of which is subdivided into two parts. The title of each chapter combines shi ("explain; elucidate") with a term describing the words under definition. Seven chapters (4 8 9 10 12 18 and 19) are organized into taxonomies. For instance chapter 4 defines terms for: paternal clan () maternal relatives () wife's relatives () and marriage (). The text is divided between the first three heterogeneous chapters defining abstract words and the last sixteen semantically-arranged chapters defining concrete words. The last seven concerning grasses trees insects and reptiles fish birds wild animals and domestic animals describe more than 590 kinds of flora and fauna. It is a valuable document of natural history and historical biogeography. Contents 1 Contents 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Contents Chapter Chinese Pinyin Translation Subject 1 Shigu Explaining the Old Words verbs adjectives adverbs grammatical particles 2 Shiyan Explaining Words verbs adjectives adverbs 3 Shixun Explaining Instructions adjectives adverbs mostly with reduplication 4 Shiqin Explaining Relatives kinship marriage 5 Shigong Explaining Dwellings architecture engineering 6 Shiqi Explaining Utensils tools weapons clothing and their uses 7 Shiyue Explaining Music music musical instruments dancing 8 Shitian Explaining Heaven astronomy astrology meteorology calendar 9 Shidi Explaining Earth geography geology some regional lore 10 Shiqiu Explaining Hills topography Fengshui terms 11 Shishan Explaining Mountains mountains famous mountains 12 Shishui Explaining Rivers rivers navigation irrigation boating 13 Shicao Explaining Plants grasses herbs grains vegetables 14 Shimu Explaining Trees trees shrubs some botanical terms 15 Shichong Explaining Insects insects spiders reptiles etc. 16 Shiyu Explaining Fishes fish amphibians crustaceans reptiles etc. 17 Shiniao Explaining Birds wildfowl ornithology 18 Shishou Explaining Beasts wild animals legendary animals 19 Shichu Explaining Domestic Animals livestock pets poultry some zoological terms

In the history of Chinese lexicography nearly all dictionaries were internally organized with systems of character radicals first introduced in the Shuowen Jiezi. However a few notable exceptions followed the Erya's arrangement by semantic categories like Heaven and Earth. The Ming Dynasty scholar Lang Kuijin () categorized and published the Wuya ( "Five Eryas"): Erya Xiao Erya ("Little Erya") Guangya ("Expanded Erya") Piya ("Increased Erya") and Yy ("Lost Erya" or the Shiming). Chinese leishu (Chinese: ; WadeGiles: lei-shu; "reference works arranged by categories; encyclopedias") such as the Yongle Encyclopedia were also semantically arranged.

Owing to its laconic lexicographical style the Erya is the only Chinese classic that has not been fully translated into English. However there are several unpublished PhD dissertations translating particular chapters. See also Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Erya (in Chinese) Xiao Erya Shiming Guangya Piya References Coblin W. South (1993). "Erh ya" in Michael Loewe (ed.) Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide pp 9499 (Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China) ISBN 1-55729-043-1. Karlgren Bernhard. (1931). "The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 3: 159. Von Rosthorn A. (1975). The Erh-ya and Other Synonymicons. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 10.3 137145. External links The Erya Complete text in Chinese The Erya Dictionary Chinaknowledge article Erh-ya photo of a rare Song Dynasty edition in National Palace Museum (Taipei) v d ePre-1911 Chinese dictionaries and lists

Zhou standard (800 BC 1.000 ) Li Si standard (ca 215 BC 3.000 ) Erya Fangyan Shuowen Jiezi (ca 100 AD 9.353) Shiming Yupian Guangya Guangyun (ca 1011 AD 26194 ) Kangxi dictionary (1716 AD 40.545 ) v d eDictionaries of Chinese Chinese dictionaries Character dictionaries ( Zdin) Zhonghua Da Zidian Hanyu Da Zidian Shuowen Jiezi Shiming Longkan Shoujian Kangxi Dictionary Ganlu Zishu Fangyan Zhonghua Zihai Phrase dictionaries ( Cdin) Zihui Zhengzitong Ziyuan Zhongwen Da Cidian Zhengzitong Yupian  Xinhua Zidian Xiao Erya Piya Jingdian Shiwen Hanyu Da Cidian Xiandai Hanyu Cidian Guangya Erya Rime dictionaries Qieyun Guangyun Jiyun Yunjing Qiyin le Menggu Ziyun Zhongyuan Yinyun Qi Lin Bayin Peiwen Yunfu Foreign dictionaries of Chinese Chinese characters or Sino-Xenic vocabularies Character dictionaries ( Zdin) Hn Vit T in (Vietnam) Phrase dictionaries ( Cdin) Dai Kan-Wa jiten (Japan) Han-Han Dae Sajeon (South Korea) CEDICT Adsotrans Thesaurus Linguae Sericae List of Chinese dictionaries v d eConfucian Texts The Four Books The Great Learning The Doctrine of the Mean The Analects The Mencius The Five Classics Classic of Poetry Classic of History Classic of Rites Classic of Changes Spring and Autumn Annals The Three Commentaries The Commentary of Zuo The Commentary of Gongyang The Commentary of Guliang The Thirteen Classics The Book of Poetry The Book of Documents The Rites of Zhou The Ceremonies and Rites The Record of Rites The Book of Changes The Commentary of Zuo The Commentary of Gongyang The Commentary of Guliang The Analects Luxuriant and Refined Words The Classic of Filial Piety The Mencius Other Han Kitab Interactions Between Heaven and Mankind Old Texts The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.