The Iraqi magistrate said: "People who speak secular language to Mr. Zhu, but not to the north and the south, refer to my eastern Confucianism, that is, the master of Confucius;" The west is another religion, known as the sage of the west. Taking these two ends is enough to cover everything. I'm sorry I didn't hear about it at that time. "I tasted Ji Wenda, a private teacher, and the teacher smiled and said," Shi Jun believes in that religion, so he said so. "However, I heard the commander of the Ming Dynasty (referring to Emperor Chongzhen) occasionally ask Ci Chen," Today's shop trade is not as good as the North and South in terms of buying things. Why? Zhou Yanru, the assistant minister, said to him, "There is fire in the south and water in the north. At dusk, I knocked on people's doors to ask for fire and water, and no one gave it, so I just talked casually. "Siling and good. I said that Zhou is a villain. I took the argument for a while and found nothing conclusive. " "The Biography of Zhang Yu, the Book of the Southern Qi Dynasty" says:' What did you get in a hundred years? If you stop on a hundred things, you will gain something. "It seems that at that time, it was said that things had changed, and products were everywhere, just like the four seasons in the history of Judah.
This essay expresses four meanings: first, the statement that "East" represents Confucianism and "West" represents Buddhism is not credible; Second, the dialogue between Emperor Chongzhen and Chen Ci is "inconclusive"; Third, in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the article called "things"; Fourth, because things are produced in the east, west, north and south, they are called "things" for short, just as "spring, summer, autumn and winter" in history is called "spring and autumn" for short.
The dialogue between Emperor Chongzhen and Chen Ci actually means that the word "thing" originated from "five elements". About this statement, it is said that it first happened between Zhu, a Neo-Confucianism scholar in the Song Dynasty, and his old friend Sheng Wenru. The story says that Zhu met his friend Sheng Wenru with a basket on the road and asked, "Where are you going?" Answer: "Go shopping." Zhu asked again, "Why can't you buy North and South?" The answer is no, because according to the five elements, it matches east, south, west, north and middle, the east belongs to wood and the west belongs to gold. Anyone who belongs to Jin Mu can hold a basket, while the south belongs to fire and the north belongs to water. The basket can't be held. You can only buy "things" but not "north and south". There are three similar stories, but they are all later than the Qing Dynasty: First, Emperor Qianlong asked Ji Xiaolan for advice, the same question and the same answer. Second, it's also Gan Long. He said that he visited the Hanlin Academy incognito, and four Hanlin bachelors were playing cards and gambling. Seeing Gan Long coming, he quickly packed up his gambling tools and put them in a wicker basket. Gan Long deliberately asked what was in the wicker basket, and an old academician replied as above. Third, once upon a time, there was an Hanlin official who went out to Beijing to play. In a temple, he saw several bamboo craftsmen chopping bamboo from the mountain to make bamboo products, and asked the abbot, "What are they doing?" What's the use? "The abbot quickly replied," They are making baskets for things. " Hanlin doesn't understand why he can only say "East and West" but not "North and South". The abbot's answer is the same as above. Therefore, there are many versions of the theory that "things" originated from "five elements", which should be said to be in line with the connotation of China culture, but none of them points out when and where it originated.
Regarding the view that "East, West, North and South" is roughly "East and West", the late famous scholar Chen Wangdao also held the same view in The Origin of Rhetoric, and quoted Liang Zhangju's words as proof. But the author believes that this statement is still illogical. "Spring, summer, autumn and winter" refers to time, but it still refers to the time after "Spring and Autumn", with the same meaning. But "east, west, north and south" refers to the direction, and after "east and west" refers to the object, with very different meanings. So, I can only talk about it.
So, what is the origin of the word "thing"? According to an article, Goodwell Gong, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, believed that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, businessmen were mostly concentrated in Luoyang, Tokyo and Xijing Chang 'an, and they traveled here and there to buy goods. As the saying goes, "buy east" or "buy west", "thing" has become synonymous with goods. The author thinks that this theory is quite close to the essence, which was inferred as early as the Han Dynasty, and it should be a reliable source of the word "thing", because it can echo the records in Zhang Yu Wang Ben Zhuan, indicating that it is logical to call things "things" in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Unfortunately, the author has never found Gong Wei's original work, and I don't know why.
Looking forward to an updated textual research.