What does [晋] mean in a "Reference Literature" section?

[Ichini]

Hello! I came across this in the "Reference Literature" part while translating an article.

 

[ 晋] 郭璞, 注, 袁珂点, 校. 山海校注[M] . 上海: 古籍出版社, 1980.

 

So I was wondering what did "晋" mean in the square brackets? Also If you know what the M means it would help immensely! Thanks in advance!

[Shelley]

晋 surname jin, the jin dynasties.

 

Maybe the M means male? Just a guess, could be totally wrong.

[Ichini]

You're right, it's probably referring to the Jin dynasty! Thanks! I don't have a clue about that M though, it's right after the title of the book and I can't figure it out! 

[Guest123]

M here doesn't mean male, it means monograph. There are other letters used in this way: J means periodical, journal, D means dissertation, C means collection, P means patent, and so on.

晋 is a surname, a name of a few states in different periods in the history of China, also a short name for 山西 (Shanxi).

[Shelley]

Didn't really think it meant male it was a stab in the dark.

 

Your answer is so obviously correct, its all a matter of context and knowledge of this kind of thing.

[Guest123]

People, we should more often use Google 

I copied the nqme of the author in the reference and I got this:

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%AD%E7%92%9E

 

So I suppose [ 晋] at hte beginning of the reference means 西晋, period when the man lived.

[Shelley]

Or install a popup dictionary to use in your browser.

[Demonic_Duck]

Or install a popup dictionary to use in your browser.

That's not a good substitute for research. The problem wasn't just the meaning of the character in general (it has quite a lot of meanings), but the meaning in this particular context.

 

On the other hand, that wiki page @Edita linked to says he was born in 西晋 period, was famous in 东晋 period and lived in what is currently 山西, all of which are possible meanings... my guess would be that it means 晋朝 in general (i.e. 西晋 and 东晋)?

[Shelley]

I only suggested it so the OP could have a starting point for further research. if you don't know what to search for you are not going to get far.

[Demonic_Duck]

"Or" suggests it's a suitable alternative to what was mentioned previously (i.e. Google). Apples and oranges.

[Guest123]

I'd say the problem is that some people who learn chinese use only dictionaries. But, as lots of terms, names and places are not in the dictionary, quite often they feel lost. Sometimes a common sense is rather helpful - a simple copy-paste can resolve your problems. Especially wikipedia. Maybe it's not 100% reliable, but it gives some basic informations and, what's important for learners of chinese, many articals have their versions in other languages. So, if your chinese is not good enough, you can switch to english, french or anything else.

 

As for 晋, I'm not sure about that kind of reference, but I know that for works of art and artists they usually put the name of dynasty, when the artist lived, or things like 宋人， 清人.. So I suppose that it must be the same thing here. 

[Shelley]

ok point taken Demonic Duck.