Shuo Wen Jie Zi (Analytical Dictionary of Characters), or Shuo Wen for short, was composed by Xu Shen in the first year of Jianguang during the reign of Emperor An (121 A.D.) in Eastern Han Dynasty. It was the first word book giving systematic analysis and study on grapheme and origin of words in China, which laid the foundation for latter books of the kind.

The book contains 14 pieces of writing and a preface. The text features mainly 9353 words in small seal script, 1163 words in variant forms such as the classical Chinese writing and large seal script, while giving commentary to 133,441 words. The book was repeatedly amended throughout time, with the current version being the one revised by Xu Xuan.

As the pioneering work of Chinese philology, Shuo Wen Jie Zi has gradually become a special learning ever since it came out, with pursuers of latter generations mushrooming. Among them, the most famous are Xu Kai in Southern Tang with his work Shuowen Jiezi Xizhuan, Yu Cai with his Annotation to Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Gui Fu with his Shuowen Jiezi Yizheng, Wang Jun with his Shuowen Judou and Shuowen Shili and Zhu Junsheng with his Shuowen Tongxun Dingsheng in Qing Dynasty.