This article provides a short though comprehensive overview of the methodologies for reconstructing Old and Middle Chinese that existed before the pioneering works of Bernhard Karlgren (1889–1978), with an eye towards different approaches used for other language families. Special emphasis is also put on a series of pre-Karlgrenian Japanese treatises that have not received sufficient attention in the West.
reconstruction methodologies; Old Chinese; Middle Chinese; Chinese historical phonology; language reconstruction