Notes on Middle Chinese: Fanqie and Tones
中古漢語筆記：反切和聲調
The occurrence of rhyme dictionaries in Chinese literary history demonstrates that necessity is the mother of invention. It is, after all, mainly for the needs of a handy reference when composing rhyming poetry that rhyme dictionaries were invented, and then improved to better meet the challenge.[1] Phonological analysis was not the principal intent of the first rhyme books. Using rhyme dictionaries as a source to try to understand and reconstruct Middle Chinese phonology has been a scholarly activity that only began in the Qing period 清代 (1644--1911) and continues to today.
Rhyme dictionaries, or rhyme books, are arranged by tones and rhymes--the two basic components of writing an intelligible traditional Chinese poem.[2] But as we all know, the tradition of poetry writing in China preceded the existence of the earliest rhyme dictionaries by some twenty-odd centuries.[3] Reasons why the primary aid to authors in writing rhyming poetry came so late were likely the following:
a) Though poetry writing in China could be dated as early as the twenty-sixth century B.C.,[4] the rhyming schemes used before the Six Dynasties 六朝 (220--589) were rather loose and relatively simple. Rhyme dictionaries were not particularly necessary then.[5]
b) More importantly, knowledge of fanqie 反切 and tones, the two cornerstones of the structure of rhyme dictionaries, was not consciously known before the Han period 漢代 (206 B.C.--220 A.D.) Without such knowledge, the existence of rhyme dictionaries was not possible.
Structure of Rhyme Dictionaries
A traditional rhyme dictionary is a book that has words arranged by tones and rhymes (finals). Generally, ancient rhyme dictionaries are divided into four parts according to the four tones: pingsheng 平聲, shangsheng 上聲, qusheng 去聲 and rusheng 入聲. The number of rhymes included in each rhyme dictionary varies, depending on the authors’ understanding of the divisions, but the number is generally between 106 and 206. Guangyun 廣韻, the most-studied rhyme book, consists of 206 rhymes or rhyme groups, which in turn encompass a total of 26,194 rhyme-words.[6] These rhyme-words are divided into the four-tone categories, with pingsheng being the largest group and rusheng the smallest.
Because of the large number of rhyme-words included in the pingsheng category, it is further divided into two parts: the shangpingsheng 上平聲, as juan 卷 1, and xiapingsheng 下平聲 as juan 2.[7] The remaining three tones each occupy one juan, making a total of five juan for the whole Guangyun. The first rhyme-word in each rhyme group is called yunmu 韻目, which serves as a name for the whole rhyme group. When we say there are a certain number of rhymes in a rhyme dictionary, what we mean is the number of rhyme groups in that rhyme dictionary; and when we want to specify a rhyme group, it is a matter of convention to do so by using the first rhyme-word in the rhyme group, or the yunmu. The different yunmu in Guangyun have been adopted by most other rhyme dictionaries. They were arbitrarily picked in the beginning, and then became accepted and used by most authors of rhyme dictionaries, probably because fixed yunmu are easier to remember.[8]
In each rhyme group, rhyme-words of the same sound are gathered together, and a circle is put on top of the first rhyme-word of each set. The fanqie for the whole set, in Guangyun's case, is given only after the first rhyme-word, and the number of rhyme-words in the set is indicated by a number immediately after the fanqie. Sometimes a rhyme-word may have more than one pronunciation, in that case, a 又XX切 is given after that particular rhyme-word. As an illustration, we are showing the first two sets in the first rhyme group in juan 1 of the Guangyun as follows:
[9]
一 (first) indicates the first rhyme group in juan 1, which is shangpingsheng. 東 (dong) is the yunmu for the whole rhyme group; and the rhyme (final) of the whole group is therefore ong. Notice that there is a circle on top of 東, denoting it as the first rhyme-word of a set which shares the same sound. Under 東, the fanqie is given, which is valid for the rest of the rhyme-words of the set. In the set, there is a total of seventeen characters, as is shown by the number after the fanqie. The next set is headed by 同 (tong), which is again distinguished by a circle above it. In the 東 set, two rhyme-words, 涷 and 凍, have a different pronunciation in addition to dong, and both are shown by 又都貢切. In the 同 set, there are four rhyme-words which have pronunciations other than tong. 鮦 has three pronunciations because it is followed by two fanqie other than 徒紅切.
Fanqie
Chinese is a monosyllable-structured language. Its characters or words are composed of single syllable sounds. Fanqie, as we understand it today, is a method of indicating pronunciation by dividing the single-syllable word into two parts: the initial (shengmu 聲母) and the final (yunmu 韻母).[10] Using this method, the pronunciation of an unknown word can be represented using two known sounds, one for the initial and one for the final of a given syllable.
For example, the fanqie for 東 is 德紅. The initial of 德 (d/e) is d, and the final of 紅 (h/ong) is ong. d + ong --> dong. This shows that the initials of 東 (d/ong) and 德 (d/e) are both d; which is referred to as shuangsheng 雙聲. The finals of 東 (d/ong) and 紅 (h/ong) are also the same: ong; which is called dieyun 叠韻. Shuangsheng and dieyun are set rules in fanqie.[11] Also, the initial determines if the word is voiceless (qing 清) or voiced (zhuo 濁);[12] and the final determines the tone of the word.[13] This method of indicating pronunciation is roughly what we understand today as fanqie. We are not sure if it was used in the same way during ancient times, but it is generally assumed that there were differences.[14]
The origin and the earliest application of fanqie is still an unsettled issue among scholars.[15] For one thing, there is no record of the first time the ancient Chinese making a distinction of a character into the initial and final components. The combination of two characters, not necessarily of an initial and a final, to give the reading of a third character, though, has examples from texts as early as the Shi Jing 詩經, Zuo Zhuan 左傳 and other works of the late Zhou 周代 (ca. 4th to 2nd centuries B.C.) and early Han periods. A collection of these examples can be found in Gu Yanwu' s 顧炎武 (l6l3--82) Yin Lun 音論.[16] A few of these examples are as:
不可 --> 叵, 之乎 --> 諸, 蒺藜 --> 茨, 奈何 --> 那.
Some of these examples may by chance fit exactly into our present day requirement of fanqie, but many of them do not. An obvious fallacy of reading two characters together is that it would include the unnecessary final of the first character and the initial of the second. Before the Chinese knew about the romanization system,[17] it was not easy for them to separate a character into two sounding constituents. For a long time, therefore, the fanqie we are familiar with today was not well understood by the Chinese; and many believed that fanqie was a method of pronouncing a character by reading two other characters together quickly.[18] The difficulty of understanding fanqie is reflected by the fact that as recent as 1842, Chen Li 陳澧 (1810--82) still had to devote a section exclusively to the explanation of the use of fanqie in his Qieyun Kao 切韻考.[19]
Earlier Phonetic Methods
From an evolutionary point of view, we do not believe the Chinese before the Han period could have skillfully used fanqie, for the fact that most sound glossing methods used then were more primitive than it. It is said that when the Chinese invented characters, they did so under the “Six Graphic Principles” (liushu 六書),[20] of which one is the “Principle of Phonetic Compound” (xingsheng 形聲). The phonetic compounds 形聲字 are characters that have one side denoting the meaning, usually developed from the hieroglyphics 象形文字; the other side denoting sound--the phoneme 音位. Because of its compound nature, the phonetic compounds are believed to have come later than the hieroglyphics--an invention by the forefathers to attempt to unify Chinese language with Chinese speech.[21] In Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 (l2l A.D.), about eighty per cent of the characters included are phonetic compounds.[22] No phonetic principle was used for the other five types of characters, to which pronunciations were not indicated.
Later, when the function of the phonemes became gradually blurred because of the increase of dialects and the change of speech through time, a more general method called pikuang 譬況 was adopted. In early Han commentaries, characters were glossed as long 長言, short 短言, quick 急言, or slow 徐言. This pikuang approach obviously lacked precision. To rectify the shortcoming, methods of glossing by using characters of similar sound (duruo 讀若, or duru 讀如) or same sound (zhiyin 直音) were employed. The majority of sound glossing schemes in Han commentaries used one of these three methods.[23] The obvious deficiency of these methods is that they would not work if both characters are not known to the reader. Also, duruo and duru are not precise pronunciations. By comparison, fanqie is obviously an improved system. It is for this reason that we believe fanqie came into use after duruo, duru and zhiyin. An examination of the classical texts would confirm that fanqie was dominantly used from the Six Dynasties (220--589) on, while duruo, duru and zhiyin were used most often in the Han commentaries.[24]
Invention of Fanqie
Another important factor that fanqie should arrive in China at this particular time was the introduction of Buddhism into China shortly before the Christian era, near the end of the Western Han Dynasty 西漢.[25] Through cultural interaction and translation of Buddhist texts, the Chinese became familiar with the splitting of Sanskrit or Pali syllables into initial and final parts and applied the system to glossing Chinese syllables.[26]
There have been debates as to who first invented fanqie. After reading through the arguments, I agree with the opinion proposed by Yan Zhitui 顏之推 (551--?590). Yan claimed that fanqie could be traced to Sun Yan 孫炎 (ca. 200), a scholar of philology and the classics.[27] I choose this theory over the rest for the following reasons: a) Yan Zhitui was an expert in philology himself;[28] b) he was closer to what was happening; and c) Sun Yan
(ca. 200) lived during the end of the Han period, which was when fanqie became more widely used, as we have discussed above. Taking side as I am with Yan Zhitui, I do not, however, believe that Sun Yan could have “invented” fanqie all by himself (in that case, we would not be able to explain the examples collected by Gu Yanwu and other scholars); rather, I think the fanqie method was to become more refined and exact in the hands of Sun Yan.[29]
Tones in the Chinese Language
Chinese is a tonal language. It means for a given sound, the variance in the pitch creates a different representation of meaning to the listener. The reason for having these tones is that the Chinese language has very few possible syllables--407 in total, according to the researchers of Speech Research Group, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.[30] In comparison, syllables in the English language range between 12,000 and 100,000, depending on the methods of counting.[31] For this reason, there are more homophonic words--words that are pronounced alike but differ in meaning--in Chinese than in most other languages. Having tones help the relatively small number of syllables to multiply and thereby ease the problem.
Four Tones
As a matter of practicality, tones have probably existed in Chinese speech for a long time, and may have a history older than the Han race 漢族.[32] However, tones, and specifically, the four tones (sisheng 四聲), in Chinese speech and poetry were not an issue until the Six Dynasties 六朝 period (220 - 589). It is generally agreed that the pioneers who set the rules of the four tones for Chinese poetry and coined the terms 平、上、去、入 to designate them were Shen Yue 沈約 (441--513), Zhou Yong 周顒 (?--485) and their circle of friends.[33] As often is the case with scholarly endeavors, there have been objections to associating Shen and Zhou as discoverers of the four tones.[34] My opinion on the matter is as follows: We all agree that tones had existed in Chinese speech long before Shen Yue's time; but naming them as such, theorizing and writing a rhyme book based on the theory, as shown in history, was clearly first attempted by Shen Yue and his friends.[35] Their influence is confirmed by the fact that rhyme dictionaries since then have basically adopted the four-tone scheme.
Unfortunately, the works by Shen Yue (the Sisheng Pu 四聲譜 [ca. 502--13]) and Zhou Yong (the Sisheng Qieyun 四聲切韻) on the four tones no longer exist. We do not know much about the phonological quality of the original four tones except that ping 平, shang 上, qu 去 and ru 入 are really names depicting the quality[36] and that ru tone ended in -p, -t, -k.[37] However, through the reconstruction work of modern linguists, Middle Chinese phonology is fairly well understood. From other existing rhyme dictionaries of the Middle Chinese period,[38] we also know the distribution of rhyme-words over the four tonal categories, as well as the tonal variations that some rhyme-words had with particular meanings, since the rhyme dictionaries give pronunciations aberrant from their “basic” ones through the 又XX切 scheme.[39]
Five Sounds
Before Shen Yue and his group of friends articulated the four tones in speech, based on which they devised a system of rhyming for poetry composition, there already existed in the literary circle a schema of five sounds (wusheng 五聲) since late Han or early Six Dynasties. Shen Yue and his friends had applied wusheng to their writings,[40] but doing so seemed to be the exceptions rather than the norm at the time.[41]
Wusheng by itself is not difficult to comprehend, since it generally refers to the five Chinese musical scales, with their individual notes--gong 宮, shang 商, jiao 角, zheng 徵 and yu 羽, equivalent to the Western pentatonic scale c d e g a.[42] Yet, two of the earliest rhyme books: Shenglei 聲類 (ca. 250 A.D.)[43] and Yunji 韻集 (ca. 280 A.D.),[44] are known to have had a division of wusheng.[45] The wusheng scheme likely evolved into the sisheng system used by Shen Yue and others, and then was adopted by later rhyme dictionaries. Because of this relationship, it is suspected that the wusheng in the two early rhyme books was also based on tonal categories. Since the two rhyme books are lost and no other reliable source concerning wusheng as tonal categories is left, all studies on this subject are to some degree speculation.[46]
As to how wusheng was divided and its relationship to the four tones, it seems there are more disagreements than agreements.[47] On the suspicion that wusheng was used as tonal categories in the two early rhyme books, I would like to volunteer a random thought of my own. Tones in our present day speech refer to pitch quality. Though there is not yet a consensus among modern linguists that Middle Chinese tones were also a matter of pitch, it is at least agreed upon by most that Middle Chinese tones were related to pitch.[48] Wusheng as musical scales are also concerned with pitch. It is because of their similar nature, I suspect, that wusheng was incorporated into the rhyme dictionaries. By the time Shenglei and Yunji were written, the term sisheng 四聲 (four tones) had not been invented yet. Once the more appropriate term was known, later rhyme dictionaries all employed sisheng. This is a case of natural selection.
Tones in Old Chinese[49]
For tones of the Chinese language prior to the Six Dynasties period, even less is known. However, one thing modern scholars have come to agree upon is that the rhyme-words of Shi Jing 詩經 have shown a strong tendency to rhyme with the tonal categories of Middle Chinese.[50] But this only tells us that words in Old Chinese, meaning words in the Shi Jing period (12th to 6th centuries B.C.), may fall under two, three, or four categories, depending on which theory one believes in.[51]
Lastly, in between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese, the language of the Han period is the least studied of all.[52]
[1] See Mo Youzhi 莫友芝 (1811--71), “The rhyme books of today have been developed as rhyming reference for poets since Sui and Tang,” (今韻者，隋唐以來歷代詩家承用之譜也。) Yunxue Yuanliu 韻學源流 (Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1962), p. 10. A line in Lu Fayan's
陸法言 (around 600 A.D.) preface to Qieyun 切韻 testifies to the close relationship of rhyme dictionaries to literature: “One must understand sounds and rhymes for all matters of literature.” (凡有文藻，即須明聲韻。) Guangyun Jiaoben 廣韻校本 (Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1960), vol. 1, p. 15.
[2] For a brief but illustrative discussion of the auditory mechanism of Chinese verse, see James J.Y. Liu, The Art of Chinese Poetry 中國詩學 (l962; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 20--38. For a more comprehensive study, one could refer to Wang Li's 王力 classic Hanyu Shiluxue 漢語詩律學 (l962; rpt., Hong Kong: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1973).
[3] The earliest and oldest anthology of Chinese verse is the Shi Jing 詩經; the songs in it were written between 12th and 6th century B.C. Songs and verses written before the Shi Jing period were collected mostly in Yang Shen's 楊慎 Fengya Yipian 風雅逸篇, 10 juan 卷, Feng Weina’s 馮惟訥 Fengya Guangyi 風雅廣逸, 10 juan, and the first 10 juan of Feng’s Gushiji 古詩紀. The content of the latter two collections are the same, according to Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 (see Heyin Siku Quanshu Zongmu Tiyao ji Siku Weishou Shumu Jinhui Shumu 合印四庫全書總目提要及四庫未收書目禁燬書目 [Taipei: Taiwan Commercial Press, 1971], v. 5, p. 4196.) Some of these antiquated songs are dated as early as the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor 黃帝 (ca. 2697 B.C.); however, the dating is still in debate (see Lu Kanru 陸侃如 and Feng Yuanjun 馮沅君, Zhongguo Shishi 中國詩史 [l931; Taipei: Minglun Publishing, 1969], pp. 5--6.) The earliest rhyme dictionaries, on the other hand, appeared between 250 and 280 A.D. (see notes 43 and 44.)
[4] Ibid.
[5] See Wang Li, Hanyu Shiluxue, p. 4.
[6] See the preface to Guangyun, Guangyun Jiaoben, v. 1, p. 11.
[7] Though this seems clear to us now, it was still a debatable matter in the latter part of the last century, especially when people got 上下平 mixed up with 陰陽平 of Mandarin. See Chen Dun 陳鈍, “Shangxiaping shuo上下平說,” Zhongshan Daxue Yuyen Lishi Yanjiusuo Zhoukan中山大學語言歷史研究所周刊 3.25, 26, 27 (1928), p. 145; also Yang Lien-sheng 楊聯陞, “Zhongguo yuwen zhaji: yinyangping gen shangxiaping 中國語文剳記：陰陽平跟上下平,” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 39.1 (1969), pp. 205--215.
[8] For occasional different choices of yunmu in major rhyme dictionaries, I have compiled a list by comparing the rhyme books. This may be the topic for a future paper.
[9] For convenience’s sake, I have put the Chinese text in its usual order, from right to left, top to bottom. The explications of the words are not given here because they have nothing to do with our present purpose. The original text can be found in Guangyun Jiaoben, v. 1, pp. 24--26.
[10] Shengmu 聲母 and yunmu 韻母 are relatively modern terminology. It is believed that the concept of analyzing a syllable (reading character) into what we now call shengmu and yunmu came after the establishment of fanqie (see Dong Tonghe 董同龢, “Shengmu yunmu de guannian he xiandai de yuyin fenxi lilun 聲母韻母的觀念和現代的語音分析理論,” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 4 (1961), p. 681). In ancient time, the more or less equivalent terms were niu 紐 and yun 韻. Yet modern researchers believe that niu and yun are not quite the same as shengmu and yunmu. Roughly speaking, while the palatalization and non-palatalization of the initial consonant are regarded as different shengmu, they were treated as the same niu; the yun of a word includes the main vowel and the final consonant, but the yunmu includes everything after the initial consonant. For details, see Bernhard Karlgren, Études sur la phonologie (Leyde: E.-J. Brill, 1915--26), pp. 24--25.
[11] See Wang Zuyou 王祖佑, Fanqie Shili 反切釋例 (1957); and Wang Li 王力, “Shuangsheng dieyun de yingyong ji qi liubi 雙聲叠韻的應用及其流弊” Wenxue Nianbao 文學年報 3 (1937), pp. 21--23.
[12] Qing 清 and zhuo 濁 are quite complicated terms, particularly so in the historical development of their connotation. The literal meanings of these two terms are “clear” and “muddy,” respectively. As special terms, they are also used in music and phonology. In music, qing is a high note, zhuo a low note. For example, in violin playing, sul ponticello is known in Chinese as 濁弓, flautando as 清弓. In Middle Chinese phonology, the terms were often used without ever being clearly defined. Modern linguists generally agree to distinguish the use of the terms into two traditions. When they were used before the end of the Tang Dynasty 唐朝 (ca. 850), it is believed that they were mainly concerned with the categorization of vowels. According to Tang Lan 唐蘭, words with vowels like i, e, and a would be categorized as qing words, and zhuo words were with vowels like u and o (see Tang Lan, “Lun Tangmo yiqian de qingzhong he qingzhuo 論唐末以前的輕重和清濁,” Beijing Daxue Wushi Zhounian Jinian Lunwenji 北京大學五十周年紀念論文集 (l949), 20 pages.) When qing and zhuo were used after Tang times, they were mainly concerned with the different categorization of initial consonants. Voiceless initial consonants are called qing; voiced are called zhuo. Modern usage of the terms is in line with this context.
Usually, a voiceless (qing) sound carries a higher pitch than the voiced (zhuo) sound; as a result qing and zhuo may be distinguished by the difference of pitches. Here, some people confuse qing zhuo with tones. Tones, as we know today, are defined by pitch. If there were a distinction of qing (higher pitch) and zhuo (lower pitch) in each of the four tones, there would be eight tones. Trying to clear up the confusion, Chao Yuen-ren 趙元任 suggests we use yin 陰 and yang 陽 when we are speaking of tones, leaving the use of qing and zhuo for distinguishing initial consonants only (see Chao Yuen-ren, “Shuo qingzhuo 說清濁,” Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 30.2 (1959), pp. 493-497.)
[13] This is only a very simple explanation of the mechanism of fanqie. For a selection of literature on this subject, see the references in Wang Li, Hanyu Yinyunxue 漢語音韻學 (1957; rpt.. Hong Kong: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1972), pp. 113--120.
[14] Ibid.
[15] For a summary of the main views on the origin of fanqie, see Li Weifen 李維棻, “Fanyu qiyuan xinzheng 反語起源新證,” Tamkang Review 淡冮學報 5 (November 1966), pp. 85--92; also Gao Ming 高明, “Fanqie qiyuan lun 反切起源論,” Wenjiao Luncong 文教論叢 1 (December 1970), pp. 153--169.
[16] See Gu Yanwu 顧炎武, Yinlun 音論 (collected in Yinxue Wushu 音學五書, published by Futian Shuhai 福田書海, n.p., n.d.), juan 2, pp. 7a--11b.
[17] A romanization system is a method of using letters of the Roman alphabets (ABCD...) to recreate the sounds of a language whose writing system may or may not use the Roman alphabets. A Chinese romanization system would thus be a method of using the Roman alphabets to pronounce Chinese characters used in Chinese languages.
[18] See Gu Yanwu 顧炎武, Yinlun 音論, juan 2, p. 8b. He cited Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1102--60) as one of those scholars who believed this.
[19] See Chen Li 陳澧, Qieyun Kao 切韻考 (l842; Taipei: Guangwen Bookstore, 1966), juan 6, pp. 12a--b. Qieyun Kao shangpian 上篇 was finished by 1842, see Wang Zongyan 汪宗衍, Chen Dongshu Xiansheng Nianpu 陳東塾先生年譜 (1935; Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1964). pp. 28--29.
[20] The translation of 六書 as “Six Graphic Principles” is owed to James J.Y. Liu (The Art of Chinese Poetry, p. 4). Western sinologists have been translating the term as “Six Scripts,” e.g., L. C. Hopkins’s translation of Dai Tong’s 戴侗 Liushu Gu 六書故 as The Six Scripts of Tai T’ung, Cambridge University Press, 1954. 六書 in fact does not refer to six classes of characters but six principles regarding the formation of characters, and may therefore be rendered more correctly as the “Six Graphic Principles.” A theory on the origin and the names of 六書 can be found in Xu Shen’s 許慎 postface to Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 (Hong Kong: Taiping Bookstore, 1966), p. 314b. One should also be aware that there are at least three traditions of 六書, and the names and orders of 六書 vary; see Zhongwen da Cidian 中文大辭典 (Revised edition, Taipei: Huagang Publishing, 1973), v. 1, pp. 1446--47.
[21] See Zhou Zumo 周祖謨, “Hanzi de chansheng he fazhan 漢字的產生和發展,” Wenxue Ji 問學集 (Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1966), v. 1, p. 7.
[22] Out of a total of 9,353 characters in the Shuowen Jiezi, 7,697 belong to the phonetic compounds. See Lin Yin 林尹, Wenzixue Gaishuo
文字學概說 (Taipei: Zhengzhong Bookstore, 197l), p. 137. Today, the phonetic compounds consist of more than ninety per cent of the Chinese characters, see Zhou Zumo, “Hanzi de chansheng he fazhan,” Wenxue Ji, v. 1, p. 11.
[23] For a treatise on the methods of sound glossing used before fanqie, see Gao Ming, “Fanqie yiqian Zhongguozi de biaoyinfa 反切以前中國字的標音法,” Zhonghua Xueyuan 中華學苑 4 (July 1969), pp. 1--10.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Before the “official” introduction of Buddhism into China in 67 A.D., Buddhism had been known there. According to Weishu 魏書, a Chinese scholar at court was instructed in a Buddhist scripture by an envoy; and Hou Hanshu 後漢書 has mentioned that three Buddhist terms, Buddha, upaasaka (Buddhist disciples), and srama.na (monk), appeared in an official document in 65 A.D. See Wing-Tsit Chan, “Transformation of Buddhism in China,” Philosophy East & West (October 1957 - January 1958), v. 7, no. 3/4, pp. 107--116, particularly n. 1.
[26] See n. 15.
[27] See Yanshi Jiaxun Huizhu 顏氏家訓彙註 (Nanjing: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1960), v. 1, pp. 119a--b; see also Deng Siyu 鄧嗣禹, Family Instructions for the Yen Clan (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), pp. 188--189. Sun Yan 孫炎, zi 字 Shuyan 叔言, whose dates are not known. There is a passing note in Sanguozhi 三國志 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3, Shanghai: Kaiming Bookstore, 1935; reprint Hong Kong: Xianggang Wenxue Yenjiushe 香港文學研究社, 1959] 13/0959.3, which mentions that Sun Yan was a student of Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (l27--200). In Yanshi Jiaxun, it relates that Sun Shuyan wrote Erya Yinyi 爾雅音義, which proves that only near the end of Han did scholars begin using the fanyu 反語 glossing system. Erya Yinyi is no longer extant. Fragments of it are collected in Ma Guohan’s 馬國翰 Yuhan Shanfang Jiyishu 玉函山房輯佚書 (1884). The commentary of Yanshi Jiaxun actually makes a mistake by saying that Erya Yinyi, in 8 juan, written by Sun Yan, is listed in the bibliographical section of Suishu 隋書經籍志. In fact, what is listed there is Sun Yan's Erya Yin 爾雅音 (see Suishu 隋書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 32/2444.3).
[28] See the Introduction to Family Instructions for the Yen Clan, particularly the section “His Superiority Complex in Philological Matters.”
[29] See also Gao Ming’s concluding paragraphs (p. 167) in his article “Fanqie qiyuan lun 反切起源論.”
[30] See Bo Xu, Bing Ma, Shuwu Zhang, Fei Qu and Taiyi Huang, “Speaker-independent Dictation of Chinese Speech with 32K Vocabulary,” http://www.asel.udel.edu/icslp/cdrom/vol4/372/a372.pdf.
[31] In the lecture notes “Tones” on Chinese 101, Haiwang Yuan & Shizhen Gao of Western Kentucky University state that there are about 12,000 syllables in English (see http://www.wku.edu/~shizhen.gao/Chinese101/pinyin/tones.htm.) Herbert Stahlke of Ball State University told me in an e-mail that a paper by the late Victoria Fromkin about 40 years ago showed that English could construct over 100,000 well-formed syllables. Neither I nor Dr. Stahlke could locate Professor Fromkin’s paper. It was done when Dr. Stahlke was a graduate assistant to Professor Fromkin at UCLA in 1968. However, Dr. Stahlke said that the different number of syllables in English might result from whether monomorphemic or polymorphemic syllables were counted. He said Professor Fromkin did the latter.
As to the reason for the high number of syllables in English, Elizabeth Pyatt of Pennsylvania State University informed me in another e-mail, saying that in English there are typically 11 vowels, 3 diphthongs and 23 consonants, in addition to a large number of syllable types including consonant-vowel (CV) combinations such as CV, CVC, CCV, CCVC, CCVCC, VC, VCC, CCCVC and so forth. Though not every possible sound in every CV combination is allowed, but even so, the numbers could add up quickly.
[32] See Dong Tonghe 董同龢, Zhongguo Yuyinshi 中國語音史 (Taipei: Zhonghua wenhua chuban shiyeshe 1954), pp. 3--5, 38.
[33] See the “Biography of Lu Jue 陸厥,” Nanshi 南史 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 48/2658.2, 3; and Nanqishu 南齊書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 52/1748.3--1749.1.
[34] See, e.g., Zhao Yi 趙翼, “Sisheng buqiyu Shen Yue 四聲不起於沈約,” Gaiyu Congkao 陔餘叢考 (in Zhenbei Quanji 甄北全集, v. 2, n.p., 1811), juan 19, pp. 13b--14b.
[35] See n. 33. The first rhyme dictionary based on the four tones was likely Zhou Yong’s 周顒 (?--485) Sisheng Qieyun 四聲切韻. Shen Yue’s 沈約 (441--513) Sisheng Pu 四聲譜 was a theoretic work on tones and guidelines for poetry writing that Shen himself was proud of (see the “Biography of Shen Yue” in Liangshu 梁書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 13/1954.2. Both works are no longer extant.
[36] See Bernhard Karlgren, “Tones in Archaic Chinese.” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (BMFEA) 32 (1960), p. 113. When sisheng 四聲 was first introduced, 平、上、去、入 were not the established terms to designate them. There were other terms depicting the quality of the four tones used by people who perhaps wanted to show off their new knowledge. Some of these terms were 天子聖哲, 天保寺剎, 天子萬福 (see Zhao Yi, “Sisheng buqiyu Shen Yue,” Gaiyu Congkao, juan 19, p. 14b), or 王道正直 (see Jiang Yong 江永, “Bian sisheng 辨四聲,” Yinxue Bianwei 音學辨微 [Taipei: Guangwen Bookstore 1966], p. 4). As to how these terms relate to the four tones, let’s take 天子聖哲 as an illustration. According to Liangshu 梁書, the reigning Emperor 梁武帝 asked Zhou She 周舍, “What are the four tones?” to which Zhou She replied:
Tian 天 zi 子 sheng 聖 zhe 哲
‘heaven’ ‘son’ ‘enlightened’ ‘wise’
i.e., ‘The Son of Heaven (= Emperor) is enlightened and wise,’ where 天子聖哲 represents the tones according to the schema of Chinese at the time. This transpired in the early 6th century. See the “Biography of Shen Yue,” in Liangshu 梁書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 13/1954.2.
[37] This does not necessarily mean that the only characteristic of ru tone in Middle Chinese was to end with -p, -t, -k. It just means that this is the only characteristic of ru tone we know of so far.
[38] Middle Chinese is a stage in the development of the Chinese language that roughly corresponds to the period in Chinese history from the Six Dynasties through the reunification under Sui 隋, then Tang 唐, and Song 宋 dynasties (3rd through 13th centuries A.D.). The most important rhyme dictionary during this period is Qieyun 切韻 (601 A.D.) by Lu Fayan 陸法言 (?562--?610), preserved in parts from collated works of the Qing scholars until a Tang Dynasty version was discovered in Dunhuang 敦煌. Adopting the same system and fully extant is of course Guangyun 廣韻 (1007 A.D.), by Chen Pengnian 陳彭年 (961--1017) and others. Essentially an extended version of Qieyun, and until the Dunhuang discovery, Guangyun was the representative rhyme dictionary of the Middle Chinese.
[39] For a general introduction to the Middle Chinese tones, see Mei Zulin’s 梅祖麟, “Tones and Prosody in Middle Chinese and the Origin of the Rising Tone,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) 30 (l970), pp. 86--110. A Chinese translation of the article is done by Huang Xuanfan 黃宣範, “Zhonggu Hanyu de shengdiao yu shangsheng de qiyuan 中古漢語的聲調與上聲的起源,” Youth Monthly 幼獅月刊 40.6 (December 1974), pp. 69--76. Mei’s theory is that the rising tone (shangsheng 上聲) in Middle Chinese was developed through the loss of a final glottal stop.
[40] See n. 33.
[41] Ibid.
[42] See Wu Nanxun 吳南薰, Luxue Huitong 律學會通 (Beijing: Guoxue chubanshe, 1964), pp. 56--59, also Wang Pei-lung 王沛綸, Dictionary of Music 音樂辭典 (Hong Kong: Culture Book House, 1968), p. 380.
[43] Shenglei 聲類, written by Li Deng 李登 (ca. 250), is no longer extant. The work was first mentioned by Jiang Shi 江式 in his Lun Shu Biao 論書表 (514), as seen in the “Biography of Jiang Shi,” that appeared in Weishu 魏書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 91/2097.4 , and last quoted in Tongzhi 通志 by Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 (1102--60). Since then, it was not recorded in the bibliographical section of Songshi 宋史藝文志 or in any other important private catalogues. So, Shenglei was likely lost after the late Song time. Fragments of the rhyme book were collected from the classics and the encyclopedias and preserved in a number of Qing works.
[44] Yunji 韻集, written by Lu Jing 呂靜 (ca. 280), is also lost. Its fate is similar to Shenglei, first mentioned in Lun Shu Biao, and last in Tongzhi. In Lun Shu Biao, Lu Jing is cited by Jiang Shi as modeling his Yunji after Shenglei, dividing the rhyme book into five juan: 宮、商、角、徵、羽 (see Weishu 魏書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 91/2097.4.) Pan Hui 潘徽, in his preface to Yunzuan 韻纂, attributed the pioneering efforts in distinguishing qing 清 and zhuo 濁, as well as setting the categories of 宮、商、角、徵、羽, to both Li Deng and Lu Jing. However, the pioneering work was obviously not quite appreciated, as Pan then proceeded to criticize the two works as lacking acknowledged tradition, and being too shallow and narrow to be used as rhyming reference for poetry writing (see the “Biography of Pan Hui,” Suishu 隋書 [in Ershiwu Shi 二十五史, v. 3] 76/2524.3.) Yunji has been studied in more details by scholars since Qing time, and more fragmented versions have been collected and preserved.
[45] Ibid. Also see Feng Yan 封演, Fengshi Wenjianji Jiaozheng 封氏聞見記校證, collated by Zhao Zhenxin 趙貞信 (Harvard-Yenching Index Series, No. 7. Beiping: Yenching University Library, 1933), 2.2.
[46] Some of the earlier suggestions are summarized in Chen Li’s Qieyun Kao, juan 6, pp. 7b--8a. Wang Guowei 王國維 has written an article “Wusheng shuo 五聲說,” (Guantang Jilin 觀堂集林 [Hong Kong: Zhonghua Bookstore, 1973], juan 8, pp. 341--349), in which he suggests the wusheng 宮, 商, 角, 徵 and 羽 are the same as 陽聲, 陰平, 陰上, 陰去 and 陰入. Wang’s theory has generally been disputed by other scholars. In “Sisheng sanwen 四聲三問,” Chen Yinke 陳寅恪 launches his idea on the relationship between sisheng and wusheng, saying that the latter was the traditional Chinese theory, the former the technique introduced from the West (India) (中學為體，西學為用) (Tsinghua Journal 清華學報 9.2 [April 1934], pp. 275--288).
[47] Ibid.
[48] See, for example, Chao Yuen-ren, “Sisheng 四聲,” Yuyan Wenti 語言問題 (Taipei: University of Taiwan, 1959), pp. 55--78; Bernhard Karlgren, “Tones in Archaic Chinese,” BMFEA 32 (1960), pp. 113--142; Dong Tonghe, Hanyu Yinyunxue 漢語音韻學 (l968; Taipei: Xuesheng Bookstore, 1973), pp. 77--78; Mei Zulin, “Tones and Prosody in Middle Chinese and the Origin of the Rising Tone,” HJAS 30 (l970), pp. 86--110.
[49] When Western linguists became interested in historical Chinese phonology, various names were given to this general phase of the development of the Chinese language. Bernhard Karlgren, for instance, named what we now call the Middle Chinese phase as “Ancient Chinese,” and the Old Chinese “Archaic Chinese.” This explains the titles mentioned in particularly n. 50.
[50] On this particular issue, the following scholars all agree: Zhou Zumo, “Guyin youwu shangqu ersheng bian 古音有無上去二聲辨,” Wenxue Ji, v. 1. pp. 32--80; George Kennedy, “Tone in Archaic Chinese,” in T.Y. Li, ed., Selected Works of George Kennedy (New Haven: Far Eastern Publication, Yale University, 1964), pp. 135--150; Bernhard Karlgren, “Tones in Archaic Chinese,” BMFEA 32 (1960), pp. 113--142; Zhang Risheng 張日昇, “A Study of the Tones in Archaic Chinese 論上古四聲,” The Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong 1 (l968), pp. 113--170.
[51] For a list of the theories, see Chou Fa-kao 周法高, “A Study of Archaic Chinese 論上古音,” The Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong 2.1 (l969), pp. 140--147; see also Wang Li, Hanyu Yinyunxue, pp. 303--313.
[52] There have been relatively few studies on the language of the Han period than on Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. The reasons for this “neglect” are suggested by Zhou Zumo to be: a) the rhyme-prose and verse of the Han period were not considered as important as Shi Jing and Chu Ci by the Qing scholars, who were responsible to propel the study of Old Chinese to an advanced level; and b) materials available in the Han period are too many and more difficult to master than the limited materials of Old Chinese and the rhyme dictionaries of Middle Chinese (see Zhou Zumo, “Liang Han yunbu lueshuo 兩漢韻部略說,” Wenxue Ji, v. 1, p. 24.