Research on the Grammar of the Contemporary Shangshu

Author: Qian Zongwu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-10-01
Features: This book is a result of the Ministry of Education's "Nineth Five-Year Plan" project and is part of our library's series on ancient Chinese language studies. It provides a thorough research and analysis of the important grammatical features and rules of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu." The main contents include: the grammatical features of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu"; the main word-formation methods of compounding nouns, verbs, and adjectives; statistical analysis and research on numerals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbial particles, and interjections; and studies on judgment sentences, passive sentences, ellipsis sentences, and double-object sentences. It is a specialized research work on ancient Chinese with high academic value.
Excerpt: Preface In the early 1980s, Mr. Qian Junzongwu studied the "Shang Shu" under his mentor, Mr. Zhou Bingjun, and it has been twenty years since then. Mr. Qian Junzongwu has dedicated himself to the linguistic study of the "Shang Shu" for twenty years, with extensive knowledge and relentless writing, producing millions of words of academic papers and monographs, full of profound insights and achievements, forming a unique style in "Shang Shu" linguistic research, influential both at home and abroad. The "Shang Shu" is the literature of the Tang, Yu, and Three Dynasties, with a long history of transmission. Its language is ancient, obscure, and difficult to understand, with errors in punctuation and awkward phrasing. Adding to the complexity of its numerous and varied editions, it has been difficult to discern its authenticity. As a result, it has been historically challenging to read. Since the Han Dynasty, there have been countless scholars who have studied the "Shang Shu," and by the Qing Dynasty, the field had expanded significantly, becoming a grand spectacle. After the Qing Dynasty, research continued without interruption. Their famous works are numerous, but those who systematically studied the linguistic aspects of the "Shang Shu," especially its grammar, are rare. According to my knowledge, the earliest specialized discussion on the grammar of the "Shang Shu" may be the article "The Grammar and Date of the Shang Shu" published in the Journal of the Language and History Research Institute of National Sun Yat-sen University in 1928. The author, Mr. He Dingsheng, primarily aimed to determine the dates of the various chapters of the "Shang Shu" through grammatical analysis, thus only studying some words in categories such as pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and particles, occasionally touching on adverbs, which cannot be considered a systematic study of the "Shang Shu" word formation, let alone its grammar. In the following six decades, there were no significant developments until 1996, when Mr. Qian Junzongwu's "Linguistic Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" was published, marking a new era in the study of the "Shang Shu" language and the emergence of the first specialized monograph on the subject. The author conducted in-depth analyses and scientific discussions on the linguistic value, text, vocabulary, and grammar of the "Shang Shu," filling a gap in the study of Chinese linguistic history. Today, Mr. Qian Junzongwu has completed the sequel to "Linguistic Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'," titled "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'." On the path of scientific advancement, Mr. Qian Junzongwu's spirit of perseverance, diligence, and active progress is truly admirable! "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" is the third major work in Mr. Qian Junzongwu's series on "Shang Shu" linguistic research. This monograph maintains the unified style of his "Shang Shu" linguistic research while showcasing many features of specialized book grammar studies. First, it is distinctive and profound. After twenty years of uninterrupted research on the "Shang Shu," the author has become exceptionally skilled in handling the linguistic phenomena of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu." The book's part accurately and comprehensively outlines the numerous grammatical features of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" from both lexical and syntactic perspectives, leaving a vivid and profound impression while also sparking readers' interest in further exploration. For example, while previous classical Chinese grammar works considered the feature of classical Chinese personal pronouns to be the same form for both singular and plural, the author points out that in the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu," the first-person pronoun does not share the same form for singular and plural but uses different forms of synonyms. In the following specialized discussions, the author thoroughly explains the complementary relationships between "wo" (I), "yu" (you), and "zhen" (I) in terms of grammatical cases and singular/plural expressions. "Zhen" is primarily used in the genitive case to indicate singular, while "wo" and "yu" are mainly used in the nominative case, with "wo" often indicating plural and "yu" almost always indicating singular in the nominative case. In appositive phrases, "wo" often indicates plural, while "yu" almost always indicates singular. The other three low-frequency words, "yin," "tai," and "wu," are phonetically related to "wo," "yu," and "zhen." "Yin" is a phonetic variant of "wo," and both "yin" and "wo" were part of the same initial consonant group in ancient Chinese. "Tai" is a phonetic variant of "yu," and both "tai" and "yu" were part of the same initial consonant group in ancient Chinese. "Zhen" forms its own group. "Wu" is a later revision, with the original ancient form being "yu," which may be the same as "yu." "Wu," "yu," and "yu" were all part of the same vowel group in ancient Chinese. "Yu" had the same initial consonant group as "ying." "Wu" and "yu" had the same initial consonant group as "yi." The initial consonant groups "ying" and "yi" are phonetically close, allowing for mutual substitution. The author's arguments are well-supported and truly impressive. Second, it offers comprehensive and comparative analysis with rich linguistic data. Comparative research is also a distinctive feature of Mr. Qian Junzongwu's "Shang Shu" linguistic studies. The author is skilled in using both synchronic and diachronic linguistic data. For example, when discussing the judgment sentences in the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu," he compares them with judgment sentences in synchronic classical Chinese, discovering the earliest form of Chinese judgment sentences. He also compares them with synonymous judgment sentences in the "Shang Shu" section of the "Records of the Grand Historian," clarifying the developmental trajectory of Chinese judgment sentences from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Qin Dynasty. His conclusion is that the basic form of ancient Chinese judgment sentences is "subject + nominal predicate." This form is not only the basic form of judgment sentences in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions and the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" but also the earliest form. This form has persisted in written language. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the character "ye" appeared after the nominal predicate to serve as a sentence terminator, aiding in judgment. The "subject + nominal predicate + ye" form became a common pattern for judgment sentences in the Qin and Han dynasties. Similarly, the character "zhe," as an interjection, appeared after the subject to identify the subject of the judgment sentence, indicate pauses, and strengthen the sentence's tone. The "subject + zhe + nominal predicate" form also became a common pattern for judgment sentences in the Qin and Han dynasties. The appearance of both "zhe" and "ye" led to the typical form of ancient Chinese judgment sentences, "subject + zhe + nominal predicate + ye," which had developed into a relatively mature form in the "Records of the Grand Historian." Using rich and detailed linguistic data, the author's comparative research provides readers with a clear understanding of the origins and developments of Chinese judgment sentences. The discussions on other lexical and syntactic aspects are often similar.
Postscript by Wang Danyan, written at Yue Lu Mountain, Jie De Village, Xin Si Year, Middle of Winter Afterword: "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" is the final outcome of the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Jiangsu Province's Philosophy and Social Sciences Research "Nineth Five-Year Plan" project. It may be the first specialized book on the grammar of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu." Of course, since the Han Dynasty, who commented on the "Shang Shu" have noted some grammatical phenomena and discussed certain grammatical issues, but these were not systematic discussions, scattered like scattered gold and jade fragments, lost in the vast body of commentarial materials. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, some scholars have also used "Shang Shu" linguistic data to write specialized grammar books, but the systematic book grammar study of the "Shang Shu" was still not addressed. The earliest specialized discussion on the grammatical issues of the "Shang Shu" may be "The Grammar and Date of the Shang Shu," an article by Mr. He Dingsheng published in the Journal of the Language and History Research Institute in 1928. Unfortunately, there have been no significant developments in the following six decades. The grammatical study of the "Shang Shu" is of great importance. First, it is urgently needed for in-depth research on the "Shang Shu" itself. Mr. Zeng Yundian and my mentor, Mr. Zhou Bingjun, have resolved many textual difficulties in the "Shang Shu" using grammatical methods, which is a clear example. Additionally, the specialized book grammar study of the "Shang Shu" holds significant theoretical value for the study of the history of Chinese grammar. The Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" and Shang-Zhou bronze inscriptions are contemporaneous linguistic data. Bronze inscriptions are limited by factors such as length and style, unable to fully reflect the linguistic features of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" has rich linguistic data, primarily focused on recorded speech, with both narrative and descriptive elements, possessing both written and spoken language characteristics. The Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" is an invaluable and irreplaceable source for studying Shang-Zhou grammar. "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" was initially drafted to be three times the length of the final version. The larger volume of the manuscript increased publishing costs, so it had to be repeatedly reduced, with extensive quantitative and qualitative analyses of linguistic examples being cut to focus on the more important grammatical features and rules of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu." "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" is a sequel to "Linguistic Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'," which was published by Yue Lu Press in 1996. At the time, the publisher considered the target audience and economic benefits of the book and only printed 1,000 copies. Unexpectedly, the book sold out shortly after being placed on shelves. The publisher's reader service department received a series of requests from readers, and I also received numerous letters from scholars and friends asking for copies. Mr. Xia Jianqin, the president of Yue Lu Press, discussed with me several times about reprinting the book, but for some reason, it was never reprinted. "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" retains some content from the grammatical part of "Linguistic Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'." Because important grammatical phenomena in the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" must be discussed in both specialized grammar studies and the grammatical sections of linguistic studies, some overlap in content is inevitable. All the grammatical features and rules in "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" are summaries and conclusions drawn from detailed analyses of all linguistic examples. For grammatical features and rules with fewer examples, the process of deductive analysis is emphasized, while for those with more examples, the focus is on explaining the conclusions and reasoning, with detailed tables and analyses of linguistic examples reserved for a future large-volume specialized grammar book on the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu." "Grammatical Study of the Confucian Canon's 'Shang Shu'" is the third book in my series on "Shang Shu" linguistic research and the sixth book I have written on the "Shang Shu." Although I have been working on this book for five or six years, each revision still leaves room for improvement. My mentor, Mr. Zhou Bingjun, often warned us to be cautious in writing books and establishing theories. His "Easy Explanation of the 'Shang Shu'" was completed as early as 1946, and in 1950, Mr. Yang Yufu wrote a preface praising it, yet my mentor continued to revise it until it was finally published in 1984. My mentor spent 38 years painstakingly refining and revising his already completed book. This rigorous and solid academic spirit and strong social responsibility are an eternal spiritual legacy he left us. However, we often cannot avoid the temptation. Recently, the research management department notified me that the project on the grammar of the Confucian Canon's "Shang Shu" had reached the stage where it must be completed, so I had no choice but to present this book, hoping only that it will be reviewed favorably by the experts, to which I pray with all sincerity! Qian Zongwu, Xin Si Year, Middle of Spring, at the in Guangling