Research on Dynamic Auxiliary Verbs in the Zutang Ji

Author: Lin Xinnian
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-04-01
Features: The Zutangji was compiled in the tenth year of the Baoda era of the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties period (952), recording the dialogues and discourses of 246 Zen Buddhist masters and disciples. The ninth century was a crucial period in the evolution from Middle Chinese to Modern Chinese. The most significant changes in the history of Chinese language were the substantial increase in disyllabic words and the incorporation of colloquial vocabulary and sentence structures into written language. In Zen Buddhist dialogues, The Zutangji serves as a fundamental resource for Middle Chinese, and since its photocopied edition was transmitted back to China from Japan, it has been a highly focused corpus for scholars studying the history of Chinese vocabulary and grammar. In 2001, Xinnian began my research on Chinese vocabulary. My focus on vocabulary studies began in the 1990s, coinciding with my doctoral studies, with the goal of integrating colloquial and dialectal languages, bridging Modern Chinese and Ancient Chinese, and conducting comparative analyses of common words (both lexical and functional words) in both vertical and horizontal directions to explore their evolutionary patterns. The vast amount of data from ancient and modern, northern and southern Chinese makes comparative studies extremely challenging. With limited time and energy, one can only select a relatively smaller topic and conduct a detailed comparison to achieve deeper research. After discussion, Xinnian chose the topic "Dynamic particles in The Zutangji." Over three years, he persevered, from studying previous research, compiling corpus data, analyzing issues, to writing the paper, putting in tremendous effort, and finally achieving gratifying results. This book is based on his doctoral dissertation. Although only seven major dynamic particles were analyzed, many functional words and sentence structures were involved, and the gradual process of lexicalization was examined. The workload was substantial, and it indeed provided comprehensive theoretical and methodological training. What is particularly valuable is that during the research process, Professor Wu Fuxiang provided assistance, offering selfless care and meticulous guidance. This supplemented my shortcomings and enabled Xinnian's research to achieve outstanding results, earning unanimous praise from the examination committee during the dissertation defense. It can be said that the examination of the grammaticalization process of these functional words has advanced the research of previous scholars by another step. Academic research is like a relay race, and the study of the history of Chinese grammar is like a skyscraper. Every scholar has different capabilities, but as long as they can take up the baton from the previous generation and run forward, contributing one brick and one tile to the construction of the skyscraper, it is all a form of contribution. More importantly, they learn skills and can continue to strive, forging their own new path.