之言一直被訓詁家視為探求語源的術語，然經由本文對鄭玄 《 毛詩箋 》 「之言」術語所作的統計分析發現，其術語之施用範圍雖遍及於語源、同源字、轉注字或轉語、假借字、以本字為訓、合音字等項，然主要作用在於文本釋義，偶或探源。揆其緣由， · 則因鄭 《 箋 》 本為隨文釋義＿的訓詁專書，故其術語之運用主要出於訓詁學釋義的觀念。再則或受毛 《 傳 》 等訓詁家樸學的影響，而將 《 三禮注 》 中推源為主的「之言」術語轉化為釋義為主。自 《 毛詩箋 》 之後， 「之言」術語由探源而釋義的消長之勢已然形成，從而影響後世訓詁家之運用 「之言」術語、甚至聲訓，大多以釋義為主，可見鄭學影響之深遠。

While scholiasts usually define zhivan (之言) as a term used to indicate the origin of a Chinese character, this study makes a different discovery with a statistical analysis of zhivan in Maoshyian (《毛詩箋》) of Zheng Xuan (鄭玄). Though zhi van may indicate the orins of characters, cognates (同源字), Zhuan Zhu characters (轉注字), derivative cognates(轉語), Jia Jie characters (假借字), original characters for glosses (以本字為訓), and combined-syllable characters(合音字), its primary function is to elaborate the meanin of texts, and only occasionally is it applied to origins of characters. This is because of two reasons. First, since Maoshi7 is a scholiastic book, the application of zhivan is derived from the concept of scholium. Second, zhi van in Zheng’s Sanlizhu (《三禮注》) is applied to origins of characters, but afterward it is applied to the meanings under the influence ofMao’sChu,(毛《傳》).Since the publication of MaoshUian, zhivan has officially become a term applied to meanings of texts, causing the scholiasis of following generations to use zhi van and even sound glosses (聲訓) to indicate meanin. This transformation shows the profound significance of Zheng Xuan’s doctrine.