If you don't read ancient books well, you may get food poisoning. "Shi Shuo Xin Yu" tells a story that one day after situ caimo of the Jin Dynasty escaped the war and crossed the Yangtze River southward, he saw a ten legged aquatic creature Peng Xiang. He thought it was a crab and was very happy. He recited the words in the "persuasion chapter" written by his ancestor Cai Yong - "a crab has eight legs, with two pincers", and ordered people to cook it and eat it. Without thinking about it, after eating, Cai Mo vomited and diarrhea, seriously weakened and depressed. Later, Cai Mo talked about this with his friend Xie Shang and was laughed at by Xie Shang: "who makes you unfamiliar with Erya? This is not, it almost killed by persuasion." If Cai Mo is familiar with Erya, he can read the relevant records of Peng Xiang in the chapter of fish interpretation, and he can know that although Peng Xiang is also "Eight Legged and two claws", he is "like a crab and small", which is still different from a crab. It can be seen that there are differences in life experiences between reading ancient books and not. Erya mentioned in the story is the first dictionary in China, containing more than 2000 entries. In the title of the book, er means "near", and Ya means "true". Together, it means "close to true", which is to make dialects and ancient languages close to official languages. Yayan was Putonghua at that time, a common language in formal occasions. The authors of ancient books in the pre Qin period are generally confused, as is Erya. Predecessors said it was the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, but there was no conclusive evidence. The summary of the general contents of the Siku Quanshu said: "it should be the result of the primary school scholars in the Qin and Han Dynasties collecting, sorting out and compiling the exegetical documents of their predecessors. The statements of Duke Zhou and Confucius are all words of support." This is reasonable and credible. The "primary school" mentioned therein refers to the ancient knowledge of studying characters, phonology and exegesis. The book is divided into 19 chapters, namely: exegesis, speech, training, relatives, palaces, instruments, music, heaven, earth, hills, mountains, water, grass, wood, insects, fish, birds, animals and livestock. These 19 articles can be divided into two categories. The first three articles explain general words, and the difference is not very obvious; The last 16 articles classify and explain various famous objects, and each article continues to be subdivided. For example, "explaining relatives" explains the names of relatives and social relations, which are divided into four categories: clan, mother party, wife party and marriage. Erya has been valued by scholars of all ages and praised as "the examination of the seven classics and the stage of learning". Those who study exegesis and write commentaries are based on it, and even include it in the thirteen classics as a tool for interpreting scriptures. It is known as the key to interpreting scriptures, and is highly respected. Today, it is exaggerated, and the classification is unscientific, but its value cannot be erased: it preserves many ancient meanings of Chinese words and can be used to explain other ancient books in the pre Qin Dynasty - it does not have to be used to interpret scriptures. It is an important tool for people to learn ancient documents and inherit cultural heritage today. Without this book, not only some Pre-Qin works are difficult to understand, but also the historical context of the semantic development of ancient Chinese is not easy to grasp and explore. For example, what does the idiom we often use today mean "as if in mourning"? "Erya" mentioned in the clan category of the chapter "Shi Qin": "the father is the test, and the mother is the test." These two names of parents are no longer used today, but only exist in ancient books. Without reading Erya, "parents" are difficult to distinguish. For example, in the famous Fu "Tokyo Fu" by Zhang Heng, a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are two sentences: "Bulbul perches in autumn, Uighur perches chirp in spring. Ju Jiuli is yellow, and Guan Guanying" which are simply unclear to read. "Bulbul, Uigur, Ju Jiu and Li Huang" are all bird names, "Guan Guan and Yingying" are all bird sounds. These words have corresponding explanations in Erya. If you don't read Erya, you can't tell the birds from each other. Therefore, it will be easier to read this book and other ancient books. In addition, many interesting and even strange famous objects are recorded in Erya. For example, in Jin Yong's novel "Eagle heroes", it is mentioned that the little dragon girl has a "palace sand" on her arm, which can verify whether a woman is a virgin. Is this a fabricated plot? What is palace guarding? Turn over Erya and you will know that the palace guarding is also known as the dragonfly, which is the alias of gecko. Yan shigu's annotation in the book of Han Dynasty, biography of Dongfang Shuo, also made a relevant explanation: "guarding the palace, the name of the worm is also. The magician Yun raised it with tools, ate it with dansha, filled with seven kilograms, smashed it with ten thousand pestles, and touched the female body. It will not be destroyed for life. If there is something about the room, it will be destroyed." In this way, the mystery of "shougongsha" is clarified. Although there is no scientific basis, it is not fabricated, but an ancient "scientific" concept. It is Erya that provides clues to the initial cracking. It can be seen that the book contains rich cultural information and is the entry point for today's understanding of traditional culture and ancient society. "Erya" has a great influence on later generations. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Ji, a scholar of the Cao Wei Dynasty, wrote "Guangya". According to the structure of "Erya", he expanded the scope of interpretation, and collected more information on semantic interpretation in the pre Qin and Han Dynasties. In addition, there are a series of "Ya" works such as "Ya", "Shi Ya", "Bi Ya", "Mao Ya", "shuoya", "Shiyao Erya", "materia medica Erya", "pianya", "Dieya", "bieya", "Qiang Erya", "fanerya", "fo Erya", which are magnificent. (outlook new era)