A Study On The Vocabulary Of The Imperial Edicts In Tang Dynasty

This essay researches into the vocabularies of officialese from edicts of Tang Dynasty.The vocabularies of officialese relate to the words used in political and institutional documents,concerning various aspects such as politics,economies,and laws.The edicts of Tang Dynasty is a typical kind of official documentaries with lots of officialese issued by monarchs.In Song Dynasty,Song Minqiu compiled the book of Tang Da Zhao Ling ?????,edicts of Tang Dynasty.In addition,many edicts can still be find in classified books ?? like Wenyuan yinghua,(The Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature ????)and Cefu Yuangui,(Book Prefecture First Tortoise????).Previous scholars have not comprehensively studied vocabularies in edicts of Tang Dynasty,thus this essay researches into vocabularies in edicts of Tang Dynasty in follow aspects:1.Allusion.These vocabularies are a common type of vocabularies in written language,including two different kinds.One is made up of words and phrases from classics,named Yudianci ???.The other one,Shidianci ???,is the use of language which recalls a historical incident.Readers should consider specific words and phrases from classics in order to explore the meaning of ???,and look up corresponding historical incidents to understand the meaning of ???,as well.This essay traces back to the origin source of allusion phrases,to explain the meaning of these phrases,and investigate the use of them at later periods.2.Official titles.Official titles,which have close connection with political system,are an initial part of officialese.Studying official titles is helpful to explore the operating pattern of political administration of Tang Dynasty.Words definition is the first step in studying official titles,and studying political institutions follows.3.Common words.These words are prevalent in officialese,yet they are not allusions and official titles.The two kinds mentioned above form the backbone of officialese,while common words enrich the language of officialese.For commons words involve a wide range of words,this essay tries to classify and explain these words.Moreover,this essay discusses two problems.First,Antithesis.Antithesis,a matching of both sound and sense in two poetic lines,is a rhetoric method in ancient times.This process creates many words.If these words are used for a long time,the word formations become stable.Second,the spread of words and phrases.Officialese is created without spoken languages.It is essential to discuss how these words become a part of written languages.This article put forward two proposals.First,these words become a part of written languages through imperial examination.Second,people change forms of these words and keep their meanings fixed.By looking through these words,this essay proposes some fields for further study.