"Annotations to Yue Proverbs"

Author: Hou Youlan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-04-01
Features: The Yue Yanyu (Sayings of Yue), written by Fan Yin during the Qing Dynasty, is a work that records the dialect of the Yue region (Shaoxing). The author spent several years, "lovingly collecting the local dialects and folk songs and rhymes of the old capital of Goujian," revolutionizing the collection of Yue dialectal expressions. He "compiled them into three volumes—Language, Names of Things, and Sound and Meaning—divided into upper, middle, and lower parts." He sought ancient meanings, traced origins, examined original characters, and distinguished colloquial characters, "ensuring that what was spoken could be fully expressed in writing, making the profound accessible to the modern, and the limited knowledgeable in ancient matters." After years of effort, he finally completed The Yue Yanyu in the fourth year of the Guangxu reign (1878), compiling it into a book. The book covers various aspects of Yue customs, ethics, weather, agriculture, and social conduct, with a strong emphasis on tracing the origins or historical context of Yue dialectal terms. It holds significant value for the study of the phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and culture of the Yue dialect in the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty.
The The Yue Yanyu currently available is from the collection of Gu Ying Shanfang, published in the mid-summer of the second year of the Guangxu reign (1878). Due to its woodblock printing, the text is in traditional characters arranged vertically, without punctuation, and contains many variant or abbreviated characters (with missing strokes). Additionally, to faithfully record the unique phonetic features of the dialect, Fan Yin created some unique Yue dialectal terms and characters, making it difficult for general readers to comprehend.
To facilitate broader understanding and further research into this valuable resource rich in Yue dialectal expressions and culture, and to expand the readership and research community for The Yue Yanyu, the book Annotated The Yue Yanyu primarily undertakes the following three tasks:
1. Punctuation: By breaking sentences and marking punctuation, it clarifies the structure of the text.
2. Character Standardization: First, traditional characters are converted to simplified characters, but if simplification leads to ambiguity or if the original text requires distinction in character meaning, the traditional form is retained. Second, variant characters or those with missing or added strokes due to different printing practices are generally standardized to common forms. In the original The Yue Yanyu, homophones are retained in the annotated edition, with notes indicating their homophonic equivalents.
3. Annotations: Following the original The Yue Yanyu format, the original terms are printed in 10-point (Kaiti), while annotations are in 5-point (Songti). When a term has two different expressions, it is indicated in parentheses, such as "（）," meaning both "" (corner of the door) and "" (corner of the wall). New annotations in the annotated edition are provided as footnotes.
The Yue Yanyu records the Shaoxing Yue dialect, which, as a dialect, has a long history and ancient origins, embodying rich cultural significance. The Yue dialect originated from ancient Yue language, and its development process has been quite complex. Since The Yue Yanyu is a work on the Yue dialect, it has been widely studied by the Yue people throughout history. However, many valuable research outcomes have been lost.