A General Theory of Ancient Chinese

Contents
Chapter 1 Prologue
1.1 What is Ancient Chinese Language?
1.2 Ancient Chinese Language and Modern Chinese Language
1.3 Objectives and Requirements of Ancient Chinese Learning
1.4 Methods of Learning Ancient Chinese
Chapter 2 A Brief Introduction to Form and Meaning of Chinese Characters & Dictionaries
2.1 Form, Pronunciation and Meaning of Chinese Characters
2.2 Formation of Chinese Characters
2.2.1 Pictographs and Self-Explanatory Characters
2.2.2 Associative Compounds
2.2.3 Phono-Semantic Characters
2.2.4 Phonetic Loan Characters
2.3 Original Form and Original Meaning; Exploration into the Original Meaning
2.4 The Original Meaning and Extended Meaning
2.5 Phonetic Loan Characters and Variant Forms
2.6 Calligraphic Varieties
2.6.1 To Invent New Characters by Adding Pictographic Element and/or Phonetic Element on Ancient Characters
2.6.2 Variation of Character Forms
2.6.3 The Phonetic Loan Character Used for a Modern Character
2.7 Dictionaries
2.7.1 Arrangements of Dictionaries and Their Objectives
2.7.2 From Kangxi Dictionary to Ci Hai
2.7.3 Two Great Dictionaries in Ancient China—Erya and Shuowen Jiezi
2.7.4 Dictionaries for Specific Purposes
Chapter 3 “Cognate Words with Similar Pronunciation” ( 義存於聲) and “Interchangeable Words with Similar Pronunciation” ( 聲近義通) in Exegesis
3.1 “Cognate Words with Similar Pronunciation” and “Interchangeable Words with Similar Pronunciation”
3.2 Theory of “Interchangeable Words with Similar Pronunciation”; Fenbie Wen5 and Youwen Shuo6
3.2.1 Theory of “Interchangeable Words with Similar Pronunciation”
3.2.1 Fenbie Wen and Youwen Shuo
3.3 Lianmian Zi
3.3.1 Introduction to Lianmian Zi
3.3.2 Key and Function of Understanding Lianmian Zi
Chapter 4 Interpretation of Word Meaning
4.1 Problems in Interpreting Word Meaning
4.1.1 Exploring the Meaning from the Context
4.1.2 Similarity and Difference of Word Meaning
4.1.3 Word Meaning in Different Ages
4.2 Imaginary Numbers; Generic Names and Proper Names; Taboos and Euphemism; Figurative Meaning; Compound Words with Partial Meaning; Literary Allusive Words
4.2.1 Imaginary Numbers
4.2.2 Generic Names and Proper Names
4.2.3 Taboos and Euphemism
4.2.4 Figurative Metaphors
4.2.5 Compound Words with Partial Meaning
4.2.6 Literary Allusive Words
Chapter 5 Sentences
5.1 How to Make a Sentence?
5.2 Long Sentences and Short Sentences; Sentence Segmentation
5.3 Phrases
5.3.1 The Endocentric Phrase of “其” Converted from Subject-Predicate Structure as an Attributive
5.3.2 Prepositional Structure
5.3.3 “ 者” and “ 所”
Chapter 6 Judgment Sentences and Declarative Sentences
6.1 Judgment Sentences
6.2 Declarative Sentences
6.2.1 The Serial Verb Structure and the Concurrent Structure
6.2.2 Passive Structure
6.2.3 Optative Verb Structure
6.2.4 “見” and “相”
Chapter 7 Flexible Use of Parts of Speech
7.1 Parts of Speech in Ancient Chinese
7.1.1 Nouns
7.1.2 Verbs
7.1.3 Adjectives
7.1.4 Pronouns
7.1.5 Adverbs
7.1.6 Prepositions
7.1.7 Conjunctions
7.1.8 Interjections
7.1.9 Auxiliary Verbs
7.2 General Situation of Flexible Use of Parts of Speech
7.2.1 A Noun is Used as a Verb
7.2.2 An Verb or an Adjective is Used as a Noun
7.2.3 A Noun is Used as an Adverbial with Features of Adjectives.
7.3 Causative Structure and Conative Structure
7.3.1 Causative Usage
7.3.2 Conative Usage
Chapter 8 Modal Auxiliary Words and Affixes
8.1 Modal Auxiliary Words
8.2 Affixes
8.2.1 Suffixes of Adjectives and Adverbs
8.2.2 Suffixes of Pronouns
Chapter 9 Personal Pronouns and Demonstrative Pronouns
9.1 Personal Pronouns
9.1.1 First-Person Pronouns
9.1.2 Second-Person Pronouns
9.1.3 Third-Person Pronouns
9.2 Demonstrative Pronouns
9.2.1 Proximal Demonstrative Pronouns
9.2.2 Distal Demonstrative Pronouns
Chapter 10 Ellipsis and Word Order
10.1 Ellipsis
10.1.1 Subject Ellipsis
10.1.2 Verbal Predicate Ellipsis
10.1.3 Object Ellipsis
10.1.4 Pivot Word Ellipsis
10.1.5 Prepositional Object Ellipsis
10.1.6 Ellipsis of Prepositions “於” and “以”, and so on
10.1.7 Ellipsis of the Character “曰”
10.1.8 Attributive Ellipsis
10.2 Word Order
10.2.1 The Predicate Preceding the Subject
10.2.2 Position of the Object
Chapter 11 Declarative, Exclamatory, Interrogative and Imperative Sentences
11.1 Declarative Sentences
11.2 Exclamatory Sentences
11.3 Interrogative Sentences
11.3.1 Inquiring Interrogative Sentences
11.3.2 Conjecture Interrogative Sentences
11.3.3 Rhetorical Questions
11.4 Imperative Sentences
Chapter 12 Quantity and Comparison
12.1 Definite and Approximate Quantification
12.1.1 Definite Quantification
12.1.2 Approximate Quantification
12.2 Nominal Quantification, Verbal Quantification, and Classifiers
12.2.1 Classifiers of Nominal Quantification
12.2.2 Verbal Quantification
12.3 Comparison
Chapter 13 Compound Sentences and Conjunctions
13.1 Examples of the Compound Sentences
13.1.1 Coordinate Compound Sentences
13.1.2 Modifying Compound Sentences
13.2 The Usage of Some Conjunctions
13.2.1 “而” and “则”
13.2.2 “因”
13.2.3 “縱” and “雖”
Chapter 14 Sounds, Rhymes and Tones
14.1 Pronunciation Changes and Chinese Phonology
14.2 Fanqie (Cutting Sounds)
14.3 Tones
Chapter 15 Rhyme Books and Dengyun
15.1. Consonant Categories and Rhyme Categories, Alphabets and Rhyme Groups
15.2. Denghu
15.3 Rhyme Books and Dengyun Charts
Chapter 16 Ancient Speech Sounds
16.1 Early-Ancient Sounds and Medieval-Ancient Sounds
16.2 Rhyme Divisions of the Ancient Sounds
16.3 Consonant Categories of Ancient Sounds
16.4 Ancient Tones
Chapter 17 Tonal and Rhythmic Patterns
17.1 Rhyming Patterns and Antithetic Arrangements
17.2 The Rhyming Patterns in the Old Poetry
17.3 The Formation of Rhyming and Rhythmic Patterns, and Modern Style Poetry
17.4 The Metric and Rhyming Patterns in Ci Poetry (Lyrics)
17.5 The Tunes and Rhymes of Qu (Melody)
Chapter 18 Rhetorical Devices in Chinese Classic Literature
18.1 The Rhetorical Devices Related to Aesthetic Conceptions and Materials
18.1.1 Trope and Entrusting
18.1.2 Simulative Depiction
18.1.3 Diction and Substitution
18.2 The Rhetorical Devices Related to Phrasal and Sentential Arrangements
18.2.1 Parallelism and Antithesis
18.2.2 Loops
18.2.3 Irregularity and Inversion
18.3 The Rhetorical Devices Related to Phonological Features
18.3.1 Use of Rhymes
18.3.2 Alliterative Compounds, Rhyming Compounds, and Reduplicative Words
18.3.3 Rhythms
Chapter 19 General Knowledge of Classic Chinese Bibliography
19.1 Bibliography
19.2 “Seven Categories” and “Four Sections”
19.3 Annotations and Interpretations of Classics
19.3.1 Annotations and Interpretations of the Confucian Classics
19.3.2 Annotations and Interpretations of Other Classics
19.4 Series and Reference Books
19.4.1 Series
19.4.2 Reference Books
19.5 System of Compilation of Ancient Books
19.5.1 “Inner” and “Outer”
19.5.2 Prefaces
19.5.3 Variations and Adjunctions
19.5.4 Titles of “Parts” and “Scrolls”
Chapter 20 Doubtful Expressions in Ancient Books
20.1 Expressions in Reverse Order
20.1.1 Characters in Reverse Order
20.1.2 Sentences in Reverse Order
20.1.3 The Inverted Sequence of Writing
20.2 Ellipsis
20.2.1 Ellipsis in Repeating the Preceding Text
20.2.2 Ellipsis for the Sake of Conciseness
20.3 Repetition
20.3.1 Repetition with Synonymous Words
20.3.2 Repetition of Characters of the Same Function
20.3.3 The Repetitive Use of Character “曰” in Direction Quotations
20.4 Variations in Text
20.4.1 Implications in Text
20.4.2 Different Characters with the Same Meaning
20.4.3 Parenthesis
The Learning and Teaching of the Ancient Chinese Language
Preface to Shuowen Jiezi
Supplementary Notes to Preface to Shuowen Jiezi
Discussion of “Mutual Explanation”
Examples of “Interchangeable Characters” in Chinese
Discussion on Meanings of “無慮” in “Common Usages” in General Exegeses of the Classics
Explanation of the Character “門”
Preface to Ci Tong (Excerpt)
Discussion of “必以情” in “Cao Gui on War ”
Distinguishing Chinese Word Classes Through the Four Tones
Distinguishing the Pronunciations of Verbs
Modern and Ancient Pronunciations of the Thirty-Six Phonetic Alphabets: A Comparative Chart
Chart of the Use of Four Tones in Guangyun
Peiwen Yunfu
An Example of Dengyun Charts
Author’s Preface to Investigation of Ancient Pronunciation in the Mao Odes
Table of the Correspondence Between the 22 Divisions of Ancient Rhymes and the 206 Divisions in Guangyun
On Heavy Pronunciation of Light Labials in Ancient Times
On the Unreliability of Distinctions in Dental Sounds1
Introduction to the Rules of Annotations to the Chinese Classics
Postscript