There are many records of Yue people's "bird language" in ancient literature. For example, in the story of Duchamp in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, it is said that a bird looks more and more like a bird. Mencius said to Teng Wengong, "Take the tongue of man". ? Tongue, figurative voice is difficult to understand, like the cry of a stork. "Lu Chunqiu's fame and fortune" said: "On the contrary, it is extremely vulgar and different." Gao's words are contrary to China's, because they are called "anti-tongues" in ancient documents, such as Yuejueshu, Wuyue Chunqiu, Guoyu, Dialect, Shuoyuan and so on. , preserving some records of the ancient Yue language.
There is a "Mountain Talk" in "Shuo Yuan" written by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty, which records the vivid story that Chu made Yin E listen to Yue people singing on a cruise ship in the Spring and Autumn Period. This song sung by Yue people was recorded in Chinese characters and translated. "Said YuanShan said" contains:
Hubei gentlemen are boating in the new wave, and the bells and drums will be exhausted. The more people hug and sing. Song said, "What's the matter? Is the grass often rampant? Why did you give it to Changzhou, Zhangzhou and Zhan Zhou, and what did you give to Zhao Wei and Qin Gui? Follow the rivers and lakes. "
The gentleman in Hubei said:? "I don't know how to sing. Let me try to say it for me." So it's called Yue Yi, which is what Chu said: "When is the evening? I am in the middle of the European continent. What day is today? Together with the prince. I'm ashamed. I don't deserve my humble opinion. My heart is stubborn and uneasy, and I know the prince. There are trees and branches in the mountains, and my heart says you don't know. "
Therefore, Hubei gentlemen, repair their clothes, hold their clothes and embroider their clothes. Hubei gentleman, the mother of relatives and the younger brother, the official is Jun Yin, and the Jue is the executive? A list? The more you do this, the more you have to have sex.
According to Shuo Yuan, the story of Yue Song took place during the official visit to You Yin. According to Records of the Historian Chu Family, Zi is the son of the king of Chu and the half-brother of King Kang of Chu (Zhao) and King Ling of Chu (Wei). Zi Xi briefly served as Chu Lingyin before 528 BC, that is, before 2538 BC. At that time, there were frequent exchanges between Chu and Yue, and there were many Yue people in Chu, but Vietnamese and Chu were still not good. Therefore, if a gentleman in Hubei wants to listen to Yue songs, he must ask a Yue translator to translate Chu dialect for him. Chinese characters can only remember moon songs by recording sounds.
The ancient Vietnamese speak a unique language, which is incompatible with ancient Chinese. Vietnamese is an ancient national language, which basically disappeared two thousand years ago. However, ancient books such as Yuejueshu still provide important clues for us to study this extinct language. Yue Jue Shu contains the following Vietnamese words:
"The record of repairing the spear in Chifeng cave, more people say? People are also. "
"More and more people buy the instrument dust of Ark Airlines."
"Governance must care about, call the people on board? Must be worried. "
"It's about" Yi ". Yi, Hai also. "
"Stay in lai. Lai, Ye Ye. "
"To the single. Single, blocked. "
"Ma Linshan, mountainous. Sentence Jian wants to attack Wu, planting hemp as a bowstring, so that Qi people can keep it, and the more Qi people shout? Many', so it is called' Marindo'. "
"Zhu Yu, salt officer also. The Vietnamese name is Shao Yue? Yu. "
From the records in Yuejueshu, we know that the pronunciation of the ancient Yue language is "Chi Ji Qin", that is, the Chinese character "Man Qi" (Qi, an ancient weapon, that is, big spear); Vietnamese "buy musical instrument dust", that is, Chinese "flowing"; Vietnamese "must pay attention", that is, Chinese "boat"; The meaning in Vietnamese refers to the sea in Chinese. Vietnamese "lai", that is, Chinese "ye"; Vietnamese "single", that is, Chinese "blocking (city gate)"; "Duo" in Vietnamese means "Qi" in Chinese; Vietnamese "Yu", that is, Chinese "salt"; Vietnamese "Zhu", that is, Chinese "official" and so on.
What language is Vietnamese? Mr. Liang Qichao's article "Ethnic Studies in the History of China" holds that Vietnamese is a "polyphonic language family, which is different from those who use monosyllabic languages in summer". Mr. Lin's article "The Relationship between Nanyang Malays and Ancient Nationalities in South China" holds that the ancient Vietnamese language is a kind of glue language. He said: "In ancient times, Vietnamese was really different from northern languages. Its nature was really not like an isolated language with one word and one sound, but like a multi-tone bonding language. Therefore, it takes two or three words to translate in northern languages, which is very inappropriate. For example, Zuo Zhuan said that the doctor's name of Yueguo (commonly known as literary genre) has only one word, but it is recorded as Zhu in Guoyu, which shows that some sounds in Vietnamese are very special, and there are not enough words in Chinese, but too many words. This should be because Vietnamese is a glue language, which is composed of multiple sounds, unlike Chinese, which is an isolated language with only one sound. " ?
At the same time, the rules of word formation in Vietnamese are different from those in Chinese. In Vietnamese, salt is called "Yu" and officials call it "Zhu". According to Chinese word formation rules, Yan Guan should be translated as "Yu Zhu", but in Vietnamese, it is called "Zhu Yu". In other words, salt officials in ancient Chinese are called official salt in Vietnamese. This is the inversion of word order in Vietnamese word formation, that is, adjectives or adverbs are placed after nouns or verbs. In addition, the names of Vietnamese leaders are mostly wordless, such as Wu Yu, Wu Ren, Wu Qiang, Wu Yu and Wu Chuan. Some scholars believe that the word "Wu" means king or leader. If translated into Chinese literally, it means Wang Yu, etc. It means that the ordinary name is put in front of the proper noun and the professional title is put in front of the personal name, which seems to be called "Chairman Wang" instead of "Chairman Wang"; Obviously not according to the law of ancient Chinese, but according to the law of ancient Vietnamese. In the article "Xia, Yue and Han: An Introduction to Language and Culture" written by Mr. Roman, those who call their job status first and then their specific names are called "Yue appellations". On the other hand, those who call their names first and then their job status are called "Chinese appellations".
Second, the more people? "Bird Book"
Did the ancient Yue people have writing? What kind of writing is that? The literature is lacking in records. Later, a special script was found on the Wu and Yue bronzes, called "Bird Book", which was considered to be the script used by the Yue people during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Scholars have done a lot of research on the text nature, popular time, scope of use, structural form, collection and interpretation of Bird Book, and achieved fruitful results. For example, Mr. Rong Geng has accumulated 30 years of research on "Bird Book", recorded 40 bronzes with bird seal characters one by one, and wrote "Bird Book Examination". Mr. Ma Guoquan made a comprehensive study on the background, origin, evolution and physical characteristics of A Tale of Birds and Insects, and wrote the manuscript of A Tale of Birds and Insects. Mr. Cao researched the known inscriptions of birds and insects one by one and wrote A Mirror of Birds and Insects.
"Bird Book" is also called "Bird Seal" and "Bird Insect Book". The book of birds and insects was originally called the book of insects. Because in ancient times, the meaning of "insect" used to be very broad, including not only "birds" but also all animals. Therefore, it is vaguely called "insect book", and it becomes a "bird book" by analysis. These two names first appeared in Xu Shen's Preface to Explaining Words. He put forward Insect Book when describing Qin Shu's eight styles, and Bird and Insect Book when describing Xin Mang's six books. Commenting on the book of birds and insects in Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu, Duan Yucai said: "The book of birds and insects mentioned above is called the book of birds and insects, which means that it is like a bird or an insect, and birds are also called feather insects." The so-called "feather worm" is an animal with wings, that is, a bird. Xu Shen's Shuowen explains the word "worm" as follows: "A worm, that is, a spider, is three inches in size, its head is as big as a broken finger, it looks like it is lying, and things are as thin as rows or flies, or it is hairy or swollen, or it is scaly and looks like a worm." The scope is quite extensive. Wei Heng of Jin Dynasty only talked about "bird book" and not "worm book" when describing "six books of Xin Mang" in Four Books. "Bird Book" is also called "Bird Seal". For example, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the story of the emperor and the biography of Cai Yong are all called "Bird Seal".
The so-called bird book refers to an artistic font based on seal script and painted in the shape of a bird. Bird book is characterized by bird shape, whether it is included in the strokes or attached to the strokes, as long as there is a bird shape, it is called bird book. For example, the inscription "The Spear of Wang Yueguo": Zhou Wang's sentence started with a spear. Here "?" The seven words "Wang", "Zhou", "Zi", "Yi" and "spear" are all attached to the strokes, and they can still be written without birds. Except for the bird shape of the word "Zhou" and the word "spear", their shapes are different from each other. There is a bird on the upper left, a bird on the left and right of the word "Wang", two big birds under the word "Zi" and two birds under the word "Zha" and "Yong" with different shapes. In "sentence", the characters use bird feet, and the strokes are integrated with the bird shape. It can be seen that the collocation of birds often varies greatly.
About the time when bird books became popular. Cao's "A General Examination of Bird and Insect Books" said: "Bird and Insect Books are mainly popular in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and affect the Central Plains. In the pre-Qin countries, it can be found in Vietnam, Wu, Cai, Chu, Zeng, Song, Qi, Xu and other countries. As far as the age can be verified, the earliest one should be Prince Wu Ding of Chu (558 BC), and the latest one is Yue Wang without lightsaber (Yue Wang was not only the King of Yue, but also reigned in 4 1 1 ~ 376 BC), which has been popular for nearly 200 years. "
The bronzes of Yue State are the most abundant and diverse in the book of birds. The inscriptions on bronze wares in Yue State are the main source of information for studying bird books. According to Mr. Dong Chuping's Records of Wuyue Culture, there are 72 bronzes with Yue inscriptions and 6 kinds of artifacts. The inscriptions on the weapons of the State of Yue are all bird and insect books without exception, and there are six kinds of ritual vessels engraved with bird and insect books. For example, the King of Yue gave the bell inscription 52 words, and the culprit chimed the bell inscription 93 words. There is a bird and insect book engraved on the ritual vessel, which only Yue has seen. Among the bronzes that have been found with the inscription of Bird Book, there are the names of Yue, Wu, Chu, Cai and Song, but only the bronzes of Wu, Chu and Song with Bird Book are few, and the number of words is very small. Although Cai has as many as 24 bronzes of bird books, Cai Guoben has no tradition of bird books. Due to the influence of Yue State, it was not until Cai's post-natal period that bird books were popularized. The situation in Yue State is quite different from that in Wu, Chu, Cai and Song. Most bronzes with inscriptions have bird books. Not only bronzes, but also stone tools; There are weapons and ritual vessels. Yue is the most developed area of bird books, and it really has a soft spot for bird books.
Why does Yue have a soft spot for bird books? Scholars believe that it is related to the bird worship of the Yue nationality. Ma Guoquan's Book on Birds and Insects thinks that the bird books used in Song Dynasty are related to clan totem, but it is not certain whether the bird books used in Yue State are related to clan belief. He said: "The Song Dynasty is a descendant of the Shang Dynasty, which took Xuanniao as its family name. There is a saying in the Book of Songs National Wind that "the mysterious birds are born", so the bird books used in the Song Dynasty can be said to be related to clan totems. But what is the relationship between the use of bird books in countries such as Yue and clan or belief? Whether it is just for decoration remains to be discussed in the future. " In fact, it is an indisputable fact that the worship of Yueguo birds is prevalent. As early as the Hemudu culture period, the images of two birds carved by ancestors of the State of Yue in bone carving and ivory carving should be the earliest expression of bird totem and bird worship. On the jade cong and jade tablets unearthed from Liangzhu culture, there are a pair of god birds on both sides of the "God Emblem" engraved with the combination of god and beast, which is also related to bird worship. The bronze house unearthed from Tomb 306 in Potang, Shaoxing, has a totem pole on the roof and a dove sitting at the end of the pole, which should be a symbol of bird totem. It shows that the bird totem and bird worship rooted in clan society continued from the beginning of the Yue King's sentence Jian to the demise of Yue State. Mr. Wang's article "Some Issues on Bird Totem and Bird Worship in the State of Yue" found that the word "Wang" was written on the four generations of weapons of the State of Yue, that is, the sword, ge and spear donated by the son of the State of Yue, the grandson of the State of Yue and the grandson of the State of Yue. It is believed that "bird book is not only an art form in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but also related to bird worship, and it can even be said that it is produced from bird worship".