The Pronunciation of the Word "Decline" in "The Local accent has not changed"
Selected from Chinese Cultivation and Chinese Teaching in Middle Schools (Peking University Press, 1996). Linguist Tang Zuofan.
Tang zuofan
He, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, was selected into the first volume of junior middle school Chinese textbooks. Most people with primary education can recite it, but they are often not clear about the pronunciation of the word "decline" or have different opinions. Here are some personal opinions.
The word "decline" has three pronunciations in modern Mandarin:
1. Nian Su doesn't think so. Say Wen Yi cloth: "loser, grass raincoat". Most of the classic ancient books handed down are "hemp", originally raincoats made of straw, and most of them are made of brown hair in the south, commonly known as "hemp". The sound and meaning of the word "decline" is no longer used in modern spoken language, and it is completely replaced by the word "fade".
2. read Cu:. There are two common meanings: one refers to the old mourning clothes made of coarse cloth, which was later written as "slap". "Guang Yun Grey Rhyme": "A slap, six inches long and four inches wide, is also a decline." First, it is used for "equal decline", that is, the meaning of decreasing from big to small according to a certain level, such as "Zuo Zhuan Huan Gong Er Nian": "Therefore, the son of heaven founded the country, the princes established the family, and the township set up a side room. There are two husbands and scholars, and Shu Ren's industry and commerce have their own relatives, all of which have the same decline. " Extend to decline. "The Rhyme of Guang Yun": "Decline, small, decrease and kill." These usages are very common in classical poetry, but they are seldom used now.
3. read shuā i. decline, decline, weakness, etc. The Analects of Confucius: "Feng Xi Feng Xi, He De's decline!" Guangyun: "Those who fail are weak." This is also a common sound and meaning in modern times.
Then, what is the pronunciation of the word "decline" in which the local accent has not changed? Do you want to read shuāi or Cu ā? The meaning of the word "decline" here is very clear, which means that the sideburns are reduced and scattered, not aging. Judging from the rhyme of the whole quatrain, the word "decline" is accompanied by the "back" in the first sentence of "leaving home young" and the "coming" in the last sentence of "laughing and asking where the guest came from". These three words belong to the same gray rhyme in Poetry Rhyme, that is, "horizontal rhyme". Their vowels (main vowels) and endings are the same, both ai, but the opening and closing of the rhyme head (middle tone) are different. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, due to the phonetic evolution, the vowels of the original gray rhyme words in Beijing dialect and many other northern dialects (that is, Guang Yun), such as "Ying, Kai, Zi, Ai, Ai, Fetus, Taiwan, Lai, Zai, Guess, Cai, Gill", were changed to-ai; The vowels of Hekou (the grey rhyme of Guang Yun), such as "rose, helmet, grey, hui, mast, extinction, decline, heap, thunder, cup, Pei, embryo and plum", are changed to -ui or -ei.
Therefore, no matter from the meaning of the word or the rhyme of the whole poem, the word "decline" in this poem should naturally be read as Cu and. Not only do we talk and read books in class like this, but the first volume of junior high school Chinese textbook published by People's Education Publishing House, Selected Reading of Tang Poetry compiled by the Institute of Literature of China Academy of Social Sciences (Volume I, People's Literature Publishing House, April 0978 1 Edition, 68 pages), and the Appreciation Dictionary of Tang Poetry published by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House (1983, 6544 pages).
Some people say that although the word "decline" rhymes with the word "benefit", it rhymes differently with the word "come" and cannot be compared. This is the difference between modern pronunciation. As mentioned above, it is the result of the evolution of speech. In the Tang Dynasty where he lived, there was no doubt that it rhymed. This ancient poetic rhyme, originally very harmonious, has become a very common phenomenon due to the development of history. For example, the third paragraph of Du Fu's "Ten Poems of Accompanying General He's Mountain Forest": "There are tall bamboos beside the house and evening flowers between the fences. There are no horses in the whirlpool, but snakes are hidden in the vines. Words are useless, and mountains are not on credit. Try your best to sell books and ask the boss. " The rhymes "Hua, Jia" and "Snake, Xin" belong to the same rhyme in Tang rhyme, but now Mandarin and some dialects also have different vowels.
Some people say that this quatrain rhymes by reading the word "decline" as shuāi or Chu ā i. There is obviously something wrong with this proposition, which neither conforms to the meaning of the word nor deviates from the ancient rhyme and its evolution law. Because the grey rhyme of the ancient poem "Ping Yun Shui" is combined with words, there is no -uai vowel in Mandarin today, and the grey rhyme belongs to the first-class rhyme of crab, and it is ignorant and presses the initial consonant, so there can be no words that have evolved into the initial consonant. Only when the rhyme and the word "mouth" are combined, can we read -uai vowels today, such as "hey, old, handsome, rate (leading)" and so on. Moreover, this poem is about grey rhyme, not fat rhyme, and there is also the word "Hui", and huái is not pronounced in Mandarin.
Some people say that the rhyme "Hui, Decline and Lai" of this poem rhymes with dialects, because there are many ancient sounds preserved in dialects, such as Pingyao dialect in Shanxi. However, Chinese dialects are complex and unbalanced in development, and the archaic components maintained by dialects in different places are quite inconsistent. What dialect should I use to read ancient poems? If you use Pingyao dialect in your hometown, it is very harmonious to read He's My Hometown Book. However, reading Du Fu's "Ten Poems of He Jiangjun Traveling in the Forest" doesn't necessarily rhyme, because the rhyme of "Hua, Jia" and "Xin, Snake" in Pingyao dialect is also inconsistent, which belongs to different rhymes (see Investigation Report of Shanxi Dialect edited by Hou Jingyi and Wen Duanzheng, Shanxi University Sanlian Publishing House, 1993). But people in some dialect areas in the south read it harmoniously again. Another example is Li Shangyin's Le You Tomb: "I am driving in the Le You Tomb with the shadow of dusk. To see the sun, for all his glory, buried by the coming night. " The rhyme "Yuan" and "Hun" belong to the Yuan rhyme in "Ping Shui Yun" and are naturally adjacent. However, many dialects in modern North and South (including Mandarin and Pingyao) have different vowels. How can a gentleman who advocates reading ancient poems in dialect change his reading of ancient poems?
Therefore, we agree with the decision of the State Education Commission to promote Putonghua throughout the country and promote schools at all levels to learn Putonghua. Especially in Chinese teaching, whether reading texts (including ancient and modern prose) or reciting ancient poems, Mandarin should be used. Where there is a rhyme that does not match, you can tell the students that this is the difference between ancient and modern sounds. It is not surprising that the older the poems and songs are, the more places you can read now. This can help students establish a correct historical materialism.
As for individuals who like to read ancient poems in their own dialects and recite them aloud behind closed doors, that is their hobby and freedom, and it doesn't matter if others don't understand them; Just like our country promotes simplified characters, you learn calligraphy by yourself and like to write traditional characters. You can do whatever you want, but you can't force others to learn Pingyao's hometown dialect from you.
Reading points
From the perspective of meaning and rhyme, the author thinks that the word "decline" in the whole poem should be "sparse" rather than "aging" and should be pronounced as Cuι rather than Shu ā i. The author further points out that the pronunciation of the three rhyming words in this poem is not completely rhymed due to the historical evolution of language, which is a common phenomenon in the history of phonetic development.
Some people say that the rhyme of this poem rhymes with dialects, because there are many ancient sounds preserved in dialects. The author thinks this proposition is not desirable, because the dialects in China are complicated, and the archaic components maintained by dialects in different places are quite inconsistent. Sometimes an ancient poem rhymes harmoniously in the language of one dialect, but not necessarily in the language of another dialect. Therefore, the author advocates that all ancient poems should be read in Mandarin today. It is enough to know whether they rhyme or the difference between ancient and modern sounds, and it is not necessary to use dialects to change the pronunciation of words.
"A Tree" and "Several Points"
The ancients had a word teacher. In the past, they said that the flag was not easy, and it was a hundred times more wonderful when you lit it. Zhang Juxuan's poem "It rains at night when the water is half flowing, where does a tree come in early spring?" Yuan Yishan said: "Good is good, but there is a sense of insecurity. Since it is called "a tree", where is it? It is better to change' a tree' to' a few points' and feel that it will fly. "