Page 1507 of Modern Chinese Dictionary points out that the word "Xie" has only one pronunciation, but it has three meanings: ① adjective, neither parallel nor perpendicular to a plane or straight line; 2 verbs, tilt; ③ Last name.
Page 173 1 of the Ancient Chinese Dictionary points out that there are three pronunciations of the word "Xie": ① xié; ②Xiá； ③yé, the name of Zhong Nanshan Valley in Shaanxi Province. According to its annotation, "Xia" reads obliquely. In other words, the word "Xie" was pronounced as "xiá" in ancient times.
I quoted the pronunciation of the word "Xie" in two ancient poems:
One is The Wind by Li Qiao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. The original text of this poem is like this:
It can blow off the golden leaves in autumn and bloom beautiful flowers in spring. Scraping the river surface can set off several huge waves in thousands of feet, and blowing bamboo can make tens of thousands of poles tilt.
The other one is "Mountain Walk" by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty. The content of this poem goes like this:
As far away as Hanshan, the stone path is oblique, and people are in Bai Yunsheng. Stop and sit in the maple forest late, and the frost leaves are red in February flowers.
In the previous annotations, it was suggested that the word "Xie" in the poem could be pronounced as "Xi×" in order to rhyme. However, in recent years, the pronunciation of "Xi×" has been cancelled for the sake of "standardizing pronunciation", so that even authoritative dictionaries such as Modern Chinese Dictionary show that the word "Xie" has only the pronunciation of "Xi". However, even for the sake of "standardizing pronunciation", I still think this change is debatable for the following reasons:
First, ancient poetry is not only a kind of knowledge, but also an excellent culture of a nation. The outstanding feature of this national culture is its strong sense of rhythm, catchy reading and particularly infectious sound. The above two ancient poems both rhyme with "A". If the word "oblique" is read as "xié", the charm of the whole ancient poem will be greatly reduced.
Secondly, judging from the wording rules of many ancient poems, the word "Xie" should have the pronunciation of "Xiá" in ancient China. For example, there is such a word "Xie" in Han Yong's poem "Cold Food" in the Tang Dynasty. This poem is written like this:
In late spring, Chang 'an city is full of songs and dances, and countless flowers fall. The east wind of the Cold Food Festival blows on the willow trees in the royal garden.
As night fell, the palace was busy lighting candles, and smoke drifted to the house of the prince and the marquis.
Another example is the word "oblique" in the poem "Wuyi Lane" by Liu Yuxi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty:
There are some weeds blooming by the Suzaku Bridge, and there is only sunset at the corner of Wuyi Lane.
Swallows under the eaves of Wang Dao and Xie An have now flown into the homes of ordinary people.
These two poems also rhyme with "A", and the word "oblique" also happens to appear in the last word of the first, second and fourth sentences of the poem, which is called "rhyme angle". The authors of these two poems were both famous poets at that time. How can they not even pay attention to the rhythm? If the word "Xie" was not the pronunciation of "Xi×" at that time, how could the poet use it in such a position?
However, the word "Xie" is not only the sound of "Xi×" in China's ancient poems, but also has an example on page 173 1 in the Ancient Chinese Dictionary. For example, in Du Mu's poem "Old Tour in Huaizhongling", "It's a thousand steps to the west mountain and the weather in Hongqiao"; Zhang Shi's "Fishing Songs" "Before the egrets fly to Mount Cisai, the peach blossoms are flowing and the mandarin fish are fat. The word "oblique" in "Green bamboo hat and green coir" is pronounced as "xié". Therefore, judging whether the word "oblique" in ancient poetry is pronounced as "xié" or "xiá" depends on the whole poem or word to see if there is any rhyme problem involved. If rhyme is involved, generally read "xiá", if not, generally read "xié".