The Study Of Language Materials Value In Shi Ji

Research on Chinese language materials is the important cornerstone of the noumenon study of the history of Chinese language. Covering broad field and being abundant in quantity, Chinese language materials of official history are of great importance to the study of the history of Chinese language. As the first official history book in Chinese history,Shi Ji is a good sample to exploit the material value of official history language.Shi Ji, composed by Sima Qian, selects contents from various aspects. Except from the six Confucian classics, it also refers to other books such as Shiben, Guo Yu, Intrigues of the Warring States, the Spring and Autumn Annals of Chu and Han and so on, and material files and factual materials derived from investigation of that time as well. As a result, its language materials conclude rather complex stratification planes. In view of this, this dissertation is to take the stratification distinction of language materials as the center of the study.The clue and working procedure of this dissertation are as follows:First, to make directional recollection of the history origins in Shi Ji and to draw comparison of different contexts, peeling off different reference planes to provide a foundation for the stratification distinction of the language materials of Shi Ji; Then, to apply the method of historical linguistics to examine and confirm the accuracy and reliability of the language material stratification distinction of Shi Ji.The dissertation is composed of five parts:Introduction, Chapter One to Three, and Conclusion.Introduction part mainly discusses three issues:First, the author of Shi Ji and its composing process, references and editions; Second, the study history of language materials and linguistics of Shi Ji, making a brief review of the research process and the present situation of the language materials of Shi Ji; Third, a general introduction to the clue and study methods of this dissertation.Chapter One mainly carries on the stratification distinction of language materials in Shi Ji, resulting in three types of language materials:quoted from literatures before, cited directly form the articles of the biography heroes, and written by Sima Qian. Taking Chin Shihuang as the time boundary, language materials quoted from literatures before belong to the first layer which was earlier, and the parts written by Sima Qian belong to the second layer which was rather late, and the parts directly cited from the articles of the biography heroes may belong to both of these two layers.Chapter Two mainly compares the contents of Shi Ji and its original literature materials, from which we can see the diachronic evolvement of Chinese langugage. By comparing the relative parts of Shi Ji and the Book of History, Zuo’s Commentary, Guo Yu and Intrigues of the Warring States, the language material value of Shi Ji is revealed.When quoting from the Book of History,Shi Ji used new words to translate the ancient ones. For example, he changed "Yu(於)" into "Yu(于)", which showed the language characteristics in the time of Sima Qian. When quoting from Zuo’s Commentary, the changes in Shi Ji reflected two important aspects of language development in the later period:one is the glossary diplophonia, the other is the complication and precision of syntax structure. When quoting from Guo Yu, there were more diplophonia words and more complete syntax structures in Shi Ji, with more perfect noun phrases, more in quantity and more complicated in structure. When quoting from Intrigues of the Warring States, there were frequent exchanges of synonymy verbs.Chapter Three makes a study of the parts of language materials written by Sima Qian. Based on this, we discuss the language features in early West Han dynasty, including the features of word formation and syntax grammar.Conclusion part makes some important conclusions of the dissertation,From the study, we conclude that it’s suitable to separate the language materials of Shi Ji into three types of language materials and two layers, and this fits the fact of the language materials. From such stratification langugage materials, it’s not only possible but also necessary to find out its language features of different times. In the future, to build better foundation for the study of the history of Chinese language, we should do further stratification distinction of the official history materials besides Shi Ji.