Collection of Papers on Linguistics and Philology

Author: Xu Jialu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Over the past few years, I have almost abandoned the study of textual research and ancient Chinese. The reason, as my friends know and understand, is twofold: first, my official duties have never been relaxed, and reading ancient texts, consulting literature, and thinking about issues require relatively complete time; during the writing stage, it is best for the thoughts to be continuous. For me, achieving this is nearly an impossibility. Second, over the past decade, my engagement in the study and research of Chinese information processing and cultural issues has occupied any spare time I had, and it has also made me more timid—previously, discussing language in terms of language or discussing characters in terms of characters (as Mr. Hu Yushu called it "‘closed-door’ research," see the preface to Rhetoric of Address Terms), while still necessary, is not as good as having a broader perspective. And once I attempt to observe language and characters from more diverse angles, I immediately feel the inadequacy of my knowledge and the narrowness of my thinking, making me increasingly aware of my own superficiality. Thus, even though I have "opened the door," the results have been insignificant, and I naturally hesitate to pick up my pen. As a result, I have neither completely given up writing nor produced anything worth publishing. Therefore, what I can offer readers here has no new progress or information, which makes me feel a sense of guilt and I must apologize to my friends and readers. The articles in this collection, "Reading," have not been published in any journal, mainly because I wanted to take more time to polish them and make the arguments more rigorous. But since I gave a lecture at the College of Chinese Language and Culture, Beijing Normal University, I haven’t been able to find the time since then. The students are still just the "young ladies" sent ahead, and it’s not a problem if they haven’t seen the "aunt" or "uncle" for a long time. It’s better to hear the opinions of readers in a broader context, so I included them among some lectures and articles on culture and published them as Unsatisfied Collection (Guizhou People’s Publishing House, 2005). They are now included in this collection as well. This lecture, although I feel it is not yet mature, has been included in two collections with this intention: it is another attempt to combine textual research and cultural studies, one of the trial products of such research, hence the subtitle "The Study of Erya from a Cultural Perspective." After years of exploration (including articles like "On ‘Zhengse’—A Study of Color Words" and other issues I am currently considering), I seem to have gained some insights, but I’m not yet sure if this is the right path. I am very eager for guidance from the learned, so I dare not be humble in this regard. The other articles in this collection are the results of my recent "diversion." Those on language and culture, as well as Chinese character literacy teaching, are naturally of concern to those who study language and also engage in teaching. The articles on language and character standardization reflect the fruits of my recent "passive" efforts in this area. Chinese information processing has been my most distant interest over the past few years, so I have recorded my findings in writing. I recently wrote another article reflecting the progress in this field, but I didn’t have time to include it in this collection. This collection is entirely the result of the efforts of my friends Zhu Ruiheng and Shu Yali, Huang Xiaojun in collecting and organizing it. The editor-in-chief Shi Jianqiao may have put even more effort into it, and I should express my special gratitude here. The Commercial Press has always been renowned for publishing high-level academic works, and now they have included my collection in their publishing plan for the linguistic essays of many famous scholars. I should be even more grateful, and I must say that this makes me feel ashamed and uneasy. I should regard this as an encouragement and a. April 24, 2005, at night in the "House of Reading One Volume of Books"