A Study On Rhyme Of Yuanqu

The phonology of Yuan Dynasty is an important part of the latter-day Chinesephonology, and Yuan Dynasty is also a significant period on Chinese phonology. Yuansongs is a kind of popular literature which rhymed with the real spoken language of YuanDynasty. It is helpful to restore the pronunciation of Yuan Dynasty by studying Yuansongs' rhyme. The Yuan songs' Rhyming-Category was an important part of ChineseRhyming-Category. Comprehensive utilization of other scholar's studies results, we cancompletely observe the changes of Chinese phonology from antiquity to the latter-day.Furthermore, researching on Yuan songs' rhyme can provide comparative materials to thestudy of Zhongyuanyinyun(中原音韻), because of the close relationships between them.The previous scholars mostly discussed the rhyme of a single dramatist or dramatistsfrom the particular regions, and there is no study ground on all the existent Yuan songs yet,the researches we've made are pioneered. The foregoing researches of Zhongyuanyinyunare worthy of acclaim, but there are few studies of comparing Yuan songs' rhyme withZhongyuanyinyun.There are 234 dramatists in Yuan Dynasty whose works still exist today. We totallycollected 13275 songs including 160 Za-ju(雜劇), 887 Xiao-ling(小令), 402Tao-shu (套數). We analyzed all the songs with computer base on mathematical statistics.Firstly we proofread all the Yuan songs text, secondly marked with XML, chose themessages we need, and built a database finally.This paper drew the following conclusions:1. The rhyming-classes of Yuan songs should be divided into 19 categories:Dong-zhong (東鍾) , Jiang-yang (江陽), Zhi-si (支思), Qi-wei (齊微), Yu-mo (魚模),Jie-lai(皆來), Zhen-wen(真文), Han-shan(寒山), Huan-huan(桓歡),Xian-tian(先天), Xiao-hao (蕭豪), Ge-ge (歌戈), Jia-ma (家麻), Che-zhe (車遮),Geng-qing (庚青), You-hou (尤侯), Qin-xun (侵尋), Jian-xian (監咸), Lian-xian (廉2. The major features of Yuan songs phonology were: some characters fromGeng-she (梗攝) and Zeng-she (曾攝) turning to be tong-she (通攝); Yuan-Yun usedwith Shan-she (山攝) completely, which the labial ones was used with Han-shan andothers with Xian-tian; Shan-she was divided into Han-Shan, Huan-huan, Xian-tianaccording to Deng (等) and Hu (呼); Xian-she was divided into two categories accordingto Deng, which the first and second entered into Jian-xian, third and fourth becameLian-xian; to the labial words, the consonant "m" had already developed into the consonant "n"; Kai-kou (開口) dental words in Zhi-she (止攝) became to Zhi-si; thelabial words in You and Hou-yun (尤侯韻) entered into Yu-mo; Jia-she (假攝) wasdivided into two categories according to Deng, which the first and second entered intoJia-ma, third and fourth became Che-zhe.3. The dramatists in Yuan Dynasty mainly came from Zhejiang, Dadu, Shanxi,Shandong, Hebei, and the difference between their rhymes wasn't so obvious.4. Base on our researches, Zhongyuanyinyun basically reflected the rhyme ofdramatists in Yuan Dynasty.5. Zhongyuanyinyun was not finished purely by summarizing the rhyme of Yuansongs, there were differences with Yuan songs in the ascription of some single words andRu-tone.6. Zhongyuanyinyun and the rhyme of Yuan songs reflected the real pronunciation,represented the Mandarin in Yuan Dynasty.7. In Yuan songs, 97.6 percent of Quan-Zhuo-Ru (全濁入) words developed intoPing-tone (平聲), 89.5 percent of Ci-Zhuo-Ru (次濁入) developed into Qu-tone (去聲),which was similar with Zhongyuanyinyun; 33.5 percent of Qing-Ru (清入) developedinto Shang-tone (上聲), which are dramatically different from Zhongyuanyinyun. Butwe could not proof that Zhongyuanyinyun was unreasonable, because the tonesummarized from the Yuan songs could not reflect the real ascription of Qing-Ru.This paper has acquired following innovated achievements on the basis of previousstudies:1. We completely analyzed all rhyming-sections of existent Yuan songs firstly, andargued the rhyme-class should be divided into 19 categories.2. According to the relationship between the categories, we sorted the 19 categorieslike this: Qin-xun, Zhen-wen, Geng-qing, Dong-zhong, Jiang-yang, Huan-huan,Hen-shah, Jian-xian, Lian-xian, Xian-tian, Xiao-hao, Ge-ge, Jia-ma, Che-zhe,Jie-lai, Qi-wei, Zhi-si, Yu-mo, You-hou.3. We compared the rhyme of Yuan songs with Zhongyuanyinyun from theRhyming-Category, words and tone for the first time, provided new evidence to theresearch on Zhongyuanyinyun.4. We firstly analyzed all the Ru-tone (入聲) words rhymed in Yuan songs.5. We established Yuan songs database with Computer-aid Research andMathematical Statistics methods.This paper consists 10 chapters and the number of words amouts to 230,000. Chapter1 was the introduction. Chapter 2 introduced the materials. Chapter 3 discussed theComputer-aid Research method. Chapter 4 and 5 discussed the 19 categories of Yuan songs. Chapter 6 argued the Crossing-Rhyming. Chapter 7 discussed the Ru-tone wordsrhymed in Yuan songs. Chapter 8 compared the rhyme of Yuan songs withZhongyuanyinyun. Chapter 9 drew conclusions and innovated achievements. Chapter 10displayed the total Yun-pu (韻譜).