毕业设计论文外文文献原文.docx

毕业设计论文外文文献原文.docx

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毕业设计论文外文文献原文

TheArtofChinesepoetry

JamesJ.Y.Liu

From:

TheArtofChinesepoetryUniversityofChicagoPress,1962:

3－16.

1

THESTRUCTUREOFCHINESECHARACTERS

ItisgenerallyrealizedthatChineseiswrittenwithcharactersinsteadofanalphabet—afeaturewhichistheultimatesourceofmanyofthecharacteristicsofChinesepoetry.However,thereisafallacystillcommonamongWesternreadersoutsidesinologicalcircles,namely,thatallChinesecharactersarepictogramsorideograms.ThisfallacyonthepartofsomeWesternenthusiastsforChinesepoetryhashadsomecuriousresults.ErnestFenollosainhisessay,‘TheChineseCharacterasaMediumforPoetry’,stressedthismisconceptionandadmiredChinesecharactersfortheirallegedpictorialqualities.Whileonecanunderstandhisenthusiasmforalanguagethatheimaginedtobefreefromthetendenciestowardsjejunelogicalityofsuperiorpoeticqualitiestoone‘smothertongue,onehastoadmitthathisconclusionsareoftenincorrect,largelyduetohisrefusaltorecognizethephoneticelementofChinesecharacters.Yetthisessay,throughEzraPound,hasexertedconsiderableinfluenceonsomeEnglishandAmericanpoetsandcritics.Thismaybeahappyexampleoftheso-calledcatalyticeffectofscholarship,butasanintroductiontoChinesepoetry,theFenollosaapproachis,tosaytheleast,seriouslymisleading.

Toclearawaythisbasicmisconception,wehavetoexaminetheprinciplesunderlyingthestructureofthecharacters.TraditionalChineseetymologypostulatessixprinciplesknownastheLiuShu.Thistermhasbeentranslatedas‘TheSixScripts’,thoughinfactitdoesnotrefertosixclassesofcharactersbutsixprinciplesregardingtheformationofcharacters,andmaythereforeberendered‘TheSixGraphicPrinciples’.ThedefinitionandcorrectorderofthesixprincipleshavebeensubjectsofcontroversyamongChinesescholarsforcenturies,andwecannotenterhereintointricateargumentsaboutthem.Ishallsimplydescribeeachprincipleinthewaythatseemstometobemostreasonable,withoutquotingsourcesandauthoritiestosupportmyinterpretations.IfanySinologueshouldobjecttothis,IcanonlyforestallhisobjectionbypointingoutthatIamwritingonChinesepoetryforanon-specialistpublic,notonChinesephilologyforexperts.

TheFirstGraphicPrincipleisHsiang-basing象形,or‘ImitatingtheForm’.Forinstance,thecharacterforri（‘sun’）is日（ancientform）;thatforyue（‘moon’）is月（ancientform）;thatforren（‘person’）is人（ancientform）;thatformu（‘tree’）is木（ancientform）;thatforyang（‘sheep’）is羊（ancientform）.ThesecharactersbasedontheFirstPrinciplemaybecalledSimplePictogramsandrepresentedbytheletterP.

TheSecondGraphicPrincipleisZhi-shi指事,or‘pointingattheThing’.Charactersbasedonthisprinciplearesymbolsofabstractnotions,notpicturesofconcreteobjects.Forexample,thenumberyi,er,san（‘one,two,three’）arerepresentedbythecorrespondingnumbersofstrokes:

一,二,三.SuchcharactersmaybecalledSimpleIdeogramsandrepresentedbytheletterI.SometimesaSimpleIdeogrammayconsistofanalreadyexistingSimplePictogramwithanadditionalindicator,e.g.thecharacterfor‘tree’withastrokeacrossitstopbecomesthecharacterformo（‘treetop’）:

末（ancientform）,andthesamecharacterwithastrokeacrossitsbasebecomesthecharacterforpen（‘treeroot’）:

本（ancientform）.ThesecharactersmayberepresentedbytheformulaI=P+i,whereImeansindicator.

TheThirdPrincipleisHui-yi会意or‘UnderstandingtheMeaning’.Thisconcernsthecombinationoftwoormoresimplecharacterstoformanewcharacterinsuchawayastosuggestthemeaningofthenewone.Forinstance,thecharacterforming（‘bright’）is明（ancientform）,whichconsistsofawindowandamoon（notsunandmoon）;thecharacterfornan（‘man’）is男（ancientform）,whichconsistsof‘field’and‘strength’.SuchcharactersmaybecalledCompositeIdeogramsandrepresentedbytheletterC.EachcomponentpartofaCompositeIdeogrammaybeaSimplePictogram,SimpleIdeogram,oranotherCompositeIdeogram,asthecasemaybe.（C=P+P`;C=P+I;C=I+I`;C=C`+P;C=C`+C``.）

TheFourthPrincipleisXie-sheng谐声,or‘HarmonizingtheSound’.Thisreferstotheuseofonecharacterasacomponentpartofanothertoindicatethesoundofthelatter.WhenthususeditisknowninEnglishasa‘phonetic’.Atthesametime,theotherpartofthecompositecharacter,whichsignifiesthemeaning,iscalledthe‘radical’or‘significant’.Thus,ifweusetheletterNtorepresentaCompositePhonogram,itusuallyconsistsofaphonetic（p）andasignificant（s）,whilethephoneticandthesignificantinthemcouldbeSimplePictograms,SimpleIdeograms,CompositeIdeograms,orotherCompositePhonon-grams.（N=p+s;p=P,I,C,N`;s=P`,I`,C`,N``.）Thus,theCompositePhonogramforzhong（‘loyalty’）is忠,whichconsistsofaphoneticzhong中andasignificantxin心（‘heart’）.Thephoneticzhonginitselfmeans‘middle’,andisaSimplePictogram,showingalinecuttingthroughthemiddleofasquare;中（p=I）;whilethesignificantxin心（ancientform）isaSimplePictogramoftheheart,whichheresignifiesthat‘loyalty’hassomethingtodowiththeheart（s=P）.OccasionallywefindaCompositePhonogramwithonephoneticandmorethanonesignificant.Forexample,thecharacterforbao（Archaicpronunciationbao;‘treasure’）is宝,whichconsistsofaphoneticfo缶（Archaicpronunciationpiog）,andthreesignificant‘roof’宀,‘jade’玉,and‘mother-of-pearl’贝.（N=p+s+s`+s``.）

TheFifthPrincipleisZhuan-zhu转注,or‘MutuallyDefining’,whichisconcernedwiththeuseofsynonymouscharacters.

TheSixthPrincipleisJia-jie假借,or‘borrowing’,whichconcernstheloanofhomophones.

Itwillbeseenthatthelasttwoprinciplesareconcernedwiththeextendeduseofalreadyexistingcharactersandnotwiththeformationofnewones.Thusinfactthereareonlyfourbasicprinciplesunderlyingthestructureofthecharacters,andconsequentlyfourmaincategoriesofthem:

SimplePictograms,SimpleIdeograms,CompositeIdeograms,andCompositePhonograms.Thefirsttwoformonlyasmallminority,butsincetheyarethecharactersforthemostcommonobjects（e.g.sun,moon,tree）orthemostessentialconcepts（e.g.number,above,below,middle）,theytendtodisguisethefacttheyareonlyaminority.ThemajorityofChinesecharactersbelongtothelastcategoryandcontainaphoneticelement.Moreover,eventhosecharacterswhichwereoriginallyformedonapictographicprinciplehavelostmuchoftheirpictorialquality,andintheirmodernformsbearlittleresemblancetotheobjectstheyaresupposedtodepict.（AcomparisonoftheancientformswiththemodernformsoftheSimplePictogramsgivenabovewillprovethis.）ThefallacyofFenollosaandhisfollowersshouldnowbeevident.

AnotherpopularfallacyaboutwrittenChineseistheconfusionbetween‘word’and‘character’,withtheconsequentfallacythatChineseisamonosyllabiclanguage.A‘word’inChinese,asinanyotherlanguage,isaunitofspeech,whichmaybeofoneormoresyllables,andhencewrittenwithoneormorecharacters.A‘character’isawrittensymbolwhichcorrespondstoonesyllableandmayformonewordorpartofaword.Theoreticallyeachcharacterhasameaning,butinactualusagesomecharactersdonotoccurindependentlybutonlytogetherwithothercharacters,e.g.ying-wu鹦鹉（‘parrot’）,xi-shuai蟋蟀（‘cricket’—theinsect,notthegame,ofcouse!

）,miao-tiao窈窕（‘graceful’）,andpu-tao葡萄（‘grapes’）.Thesearetoallintentsandpurposesdisyllabicwords,eachwrittenwithtwocharacters.Wordsofmorethantwosyllablesarerare,exceptfortransliterationsofforeignwords,e.g.Ah-mi-tuo-fo阿弥陀佛（AmitabhaBuddha）.Sometimesacharactermayeitheroccurindependentlyortogetherwithanothercharactertoforma‘compound’.ThecharacterXian先（‘first’）andthecharactersheng生（‘tobeborn’）caneachoccurbyitself,buttogethertheyformacompoundxian-sheng（‘sir,gentleman,teacher’）.Adisyllabiccompounddiffersfromadisyllabicwordinthateachconstituentpartofacompoundcanoccurseparately,thoughnotnecessarilyinthesamesenseasinthecompound.Usuallythemeaningofacompoundisderivedfromthoseofitsconstituentparts,thoughthismaynotbeobvious.Themeaningsofxian-sheng,‘sir,gentleman,teacher’,arederivedfromtheliteralsensesofxianandsheng:

‘firstborn’,hence,senior,toberespected,etc.aspecialcasemustbemadeofcompoundscontainingallusions,whosemeaningdifferfromtheliteralsensesoftheirconstituentpartsputtogether.Forinstance,zhi-xue志学,literally‘wishtostudy’,isanallusiontoConfucius’sremark,‘AtfifteenIsetmymindonstudying’,andthecompoundisthereforenottobetakenliterallybutasaconventionalwayofsaying‘fifteenyearsofage’.SuchallusivecompoundsarenumerousinChineseandsetaconstanttrapfortheunwary.

2

IMPLICATIONSANDASSOCIATIONSOFWORDSANDCHARACTERS

AsinEnglish,andtoanevengreaterdegree,awordinChinesedoesnotalwayshaveoneclear-cut,fixedmeaning,butoftencoversdifferentmeanings,someofwhichmaybemutuallyexclusive.Takeasimpleexample:

sheng;thisword,usedasaverb,couldmean:

tolive,togivebirthto,tobeborn;asanoun:

life,youngman,student;asanadjective:

alive,raw,strange,innate,natural,lively.TheembarrassdecboixpresentedbysuchwordsinChinesehasbeendemonstratedbyProfessorI.A.RichardsinhisMenciusontheMind,andmaybecomeasourceofconstantobscurity.Whilethismaybeaseriousdrawbackinexpositoryprose,itcanbe