Word General Theory (Century Library)

Author: Wu Mei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: This book is a specialized work by the renowned master of onomastics, Professor Wu Mei, introducing onomastics and the history of its development. The author begins by guiding readers to understand onomastics and appreciate its works, explaining the fundamental knowledge of onomastics and the evolution of its terminology. Through introducing and commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of the works of onomastic masters throughout history, the author leads readers to grasp the infinite charm of onomastics. A General Discussion on Onomastics is a lecture note used by Wu Mei when teaching at university. The term "General Discussion" implies comprehensive and unified study, meaning to investigate onomastics from all aspects and perspectives. It is both macroscopic and microscopic, and more importantly, a combination of both. In the second issue of Onomastic Quarterly Journal published on August 1933, it was said: "This book first discusses tones and four tones, then rhyme, then musical theory, then writing methods. In the chapter on Musical Theory, it also includes the Comparison Table of the 84 Modes (Traditional and Modern Names), the Table of Pipe Colors and Killing Sounds, the Comparison Table of Ancient and Modern Music Notation, and the Comparison Table of Eastern and Western Musical Tones, which are the unique features of this book. Starting from the sixth chapter, it discusses the sources and changes of onomastics from the Tang and Five Dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the major onomastic masters and their representative works." In summary, it mainly discusses the relationship between onomastics and music, the methods of writing onomastics, the history of its development, and evaluations of famous onomastic masters and their works. Among them, from the second to the fourth chapters, they are respectively titled On Tones and Four Tones, On Rhyme, and On Musical Theory: all centered around musical issues when discussing onomastics. While the sixth to the ninth chapters, totaling four chapters, are all titled General Overview, they are actually discussions on the works of onomastic masters throughout history, forming a preliminary outline of the history of onomastics when connected together. Only the fifth chapter discusses the methods of writing onomastics, but in fact, every chapter touches upon it. At the beginning of the entire book, a Preface is added as the first chapter, revealing several important theoretical issues related to onomastics.