Mandarin Pronunciation And Modern Vernacula Chinese Poetry Rhyme

The literary creation of a nation in a certain period is closely related with the language research and the popularity of the language, such as the relations between "The Book of Songs" and the Chinese language in Zhou and Qin Dynasties, Poetry of the Tang Dynasty and medieval Chinese, novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern colloquialism Chinese. The writing of literary composition in rhyme is also closely related with the pronunciation of the national language in the period, such as the relations between parallel prose and four tones of Chinese, Tang-Song Poetry and Guangyun,"Libu yunlue" dramas of Yuan Dynasty and Zhongyuan Rhymes, modern vernacular Chinese poetry and mandarin pronunciation and rime books of the Republic of China.Language, language pronunciation and the creation of parallel prose have always progressed in step with each other.The Mandarin Campaign originated from the Movement of Qieyin Characters. From Qieyin Movement of the Late Qing Dynasty to the Unified Mandarin Movement, modern Chinese had always considering how to unify the Mandarin in pronunciation and how to record the pronunciation. After the mediaeval times, especially after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the focus of Chinese language studies was shifted to pronunciation; the modern language movement from the Late Qing Dynasty tothe Republic of China continues to focus on the pronunciation, exploring the pronunciation standard of theUnified Mandarin. The problem of standard language is actually a matter of standard pronunciation. Thus, to unify Mandarinpronunciation becomes the first issue of modern language movement historically.The two final aims of editing Chinese rime books , "appreciating the pronunciation" and"broadening the writing" make it a necessity that the pronunciation studies in the Republic of China relates to the verse creation in vernacular literature.Rime books of the Republic of China are the bridge between Mandarin pronunciation and modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme. The first Mandarin pronunciation rhyme book after the May 4th Movement is Zhao Yuanren's "Mandarin Pronunciation Poetry Rhyme" , Hushi's "Experiment" is the first modern vernacular Chinese poetry book, and"Chinese Xinyun" is the first new Chinese rhyme book issued by the government. Also, it is the last one in the history of Chinese rhyme book editing. The 3 "first" certainly bring together Chinese rime books, Mandarin pronunciation and modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme, establishing codes for Chinese pronunciation, the editing of rime books in serving the modern vernacular Chinese verse writings.This thesis is a thorough study to the symbiotic relationship among Mandarin pronunciation, Rime books of the Republic of China and modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme. It is in 5 chapters, the last part is postscript.In the introduction, some key concepts and terminology are combed and defined to avoid ambiguity. Then, the research situation of the topic around the founding of the PRC is commented, classifying the concerned documents, analyzing some problems on the relations among Mandarin pronunciation, rime books of the Republic of China and modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme, exploring some potential dimensions in studying the relationship of Mandarin pronunciation and modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme and expounding some research thoughts, methods, compositions and the significance.In Chapter 1, the relationship of Mandarin pronunciation unification and vernacular Chinese movement is discussed. The progress of Qieyin Characters to Mandarin Movement is analyzed. The conclusion is that Qieyin Characters Movement is the beginning of sound-notating alphabet, which lays a foundation for Mandarin pronunciation unification. The Vernacular Chinese Movement establishes a golden rule for Mandarin pronunciation. Mandarin unification is actually a matter of pronunciation unification. The author also thinks that Mandarin pronunciation unification of the Republic of China makes it a necessity for the Chinese research shifting from meaning to pronunciation. The last part analyses in details the progress and the basis of the interaction between Mandarin pronunciation unification and vernacular Chinese movement.Chapter 2 focuses on 2 rime books of the Republic of China, deeming they are the bridge from Mandarin pronunciation to modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme,explaining the editing aims of the books. By a scientific validity perspective, the part discusses the language pronunciation standard and the progress of the rime books of the Republic of China helped by the official rhymeChinese Xinyun, for example, the question of separation and combination, different patterns of the rhyme class in rime books of the Republic of China, the name of the rhyme class and its order, the number of syllables and their order, the proper processing of the old fourth tone in rime books of the Republic of China. Finally, the rhyme examples in all kinds of old and new verse writing are expounded.Chapter 3 reviews the rhyming thoughts of vernacular Chinese poetry written by scholars of the Republic of China. The focus is whether modern vernacular Chinese poetry should be written with rhymes or not. If the poems should apply rhyme, what pronunciation standard the rhymes should be determined? And what is the aesthetic value of rhyming. It also expounds some opinions of the rhyming group and the rhyme-abandoning group. Finally, considering the rime books of the Republic of China, it combs comprehensively the rhymes of modern vernacular Chinese poetry.Chapter 4 discusses the interaction between modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhythm and Mandarin pronunciation. The focus is to comment on Hu Hsih's new poetry thoughts by the examples of modern vernacular Chinese poetry. It makes a statistics of the unstressed characters in Experiment and other 14 poems, which are considered to be really modern vernacular Chinese poems by Hu Hsih, expounding the relationship between Hu Hsih's natural syllables and thepatterns of level and oblique tones of the old poetry and the interaction between Hu Hsih's modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhythm and his studies of the neutral tone of Mandarin. Hu Hsih's transformation is to strengthen unconsciously the trend of stressed-unstressed rhythm of modern vernacular Chinese poetry. By the new rhythm, he replaced level and oblique tones, which is the necessary result of Hu Hsih's modern vernacular Chinese literature. By the variants of spoken language in North China, Hu Hsih used neutral tone to break the rhythm pattern of level and oblique tones. Thus, he differedthe rhythm pattern of modern vernacular Chinese poetry from that of old poetry, increasing a new pattern to the rhythm of modern vernacular Chinese poetry. However, it is not so proper that he exaggerated the use of neutral tones, ignoring the tradition of Chinese, trying to replace the rhythm pattern of old poetry with stressed-unstressed rhythm in Europe and America.By the example of Hu Hsih's Experiment, Chapter 5 and 6 discusses the rhyme in rime books of the Republic of China and modern vernacular Chinese poetry. By discussing the rhyming thoughts of Hu Hsih's modern vernacular Chinese poetry, the part studies the rhymes of the poems in Experiment, and prepares a rhyme chart for the poems. Also, the part includes the discussion of the relation between Hu Hsih's rhyming in changed tones and the neutral tones of Mandarin, the former question is to compare the rhyming standard in Experiment and in rime books of the Republic of China, the relation between Ru Rhyme and the 5th tone of old mandarin. Finally the impetus of the rhyming in Experiment to modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme is discussed. The author thinks that in Experiment, modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme is in a transition period. The old rhyming standard is ruined, and the new pronunciation standard is not established yet. The rhyming of Hu Hsih is based on the current Mandarin pronunciation standard conforming to the standard in rime books of Mandarin. Because of some limits, a few poems applied the rhyming pattern of localism or Ancient rhyme.The postscript part extends the topic. The rhyming inHu Hsih's Going Abraod, the old poetry of Lu Xun and Mao Zedong are taken as examples, this part discusses the influence of Mandarin pronunciation, rime books of the Republic of China to modern vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme. The conclusion is that the unifiedMandarin pronunciation standard not only establishedmodem vernacular Chinese poetry rhyme, but also created a new situation:modem vernacular Chinese poetry, represented by Experiment, rid itself of the overwhelming influence of old poetry rhyme. Mandarin pronunciation rhymes became the dominant, helped by a few localism or Ancient rhyme. It is the first time that the rhyming of poetry writing unified with the practical language pronunciation; a more significant result is that the golden standard mandarin pronunciation enjoyed a popular support, becoming an unconscious standard in speaking and rhyming in writing. Even the old-style poetry, applied partly the golden standard,breaking partly the fetters of flat rhyme.