Comparative Study Of The Ancient Chinese Sound Systems Of Six School

The study of archaic Chinese phonology,an important subject in the study of Chinese history,has a long history and fruitful achievements.The study of archaic Chinese phonology is of great value in clarifying the venation of the development history of Chinese phonetic and explaining the evolvement rule of ancient and modern phonetic evolution.With the introduction of western linguistic methods and means,the focus of the study of archaic Chinese phonology shifted from the division of Poetic rhyme and separation or confluence of consonants to the construction of phonetic system during the period of the Republic of China.At present,the most representative old Chinese reconstrustion are Bernhard Karlgren,Dong Tonghe,Wang Li,Li Fanggui,Zhou Fagao and Zheng Zhangshangfang.This paper,for the first time,takes these six old Chinese reconstrustion as the main research objects.On the basis of comparing their research on materials and methods,discusses the similarities and differences in the phonetic values construction of initials and finals,and analyzes the reasons for the differences.When discussing individual issues,we should not be limited to the viewpoints of the six scholars,but absorb the research of each scholar comprehensively,choose the best one and learn from it.The initials part mainly discussed six topics on different aspects.Such as “An discussion about the existence of ancient initial consonant Xie(邪)” “The Xiesheng system of Yu(喻)of the fouth class and Lai(来)and their origins”“The relationship between the initial consonants of Qun(群),Xia(匣),Yun(云)(Yu(喻)of the third class)”“Whether the turbid initials are aspirated” “Questions related to the initial consonant Ming(明)that sound likeinitial consonan Xiao(晓)”and “Whether initials consonant clusters exists in old Chinese ”.In the finals part,five aspects are discussed in details.Such as “the division of old Chinese rhyme” “the difference of the reconstruction of old main vowel” “the reconstruction of old head vowel” “the reconstruction of old tail vowel” and “the thirty-one mereology theory about old Chinese rhyme”.The main research contents and results of this paper are as follows:The first one is,After exhaustively observing the initial consonants of Xie(邪)in the harmonic sound system of Shuo Wen Jie Zi.The initial consonant Xie(邪)must have already been in existence in ancient time.The initial consonant Xie(邪)is voiced and the initial consonant Xin(心)is voiceless.Wang Li and Lu Zhiwei supposed that the pronunciation of this initial consonant is *z-and they were right.The second one is,I disagree with the initial consonant Yi(以)(*l-)can exchange phonetic value with the initial consonant Lai(来)(*r-)and do not agree the initial consonant Lai(来)was lateral consonant *l-in old Chinese.The initial consonant(Yu(喻)of the fouth class included)should be close to the tone of initial consonant Ding(定).It is desirable that Li Fanggui think the initial consonant(Yu(喻)of the fouth class included)was *r-.The third one is,by observing the Xiesheng system of initial consonants of Qun(群),Xia(匣),Yun(云)(Yu(喻)of the third class)in materials in Shuo Wen Jie Zi,we believe that views of Lu Zhiwei and Shao Rongfen etc.explain well of complex relationship among the three initial consonants Qun(群),Xia(匣),Yun(云).They divide initial consonant Xia(匣)into two pieces.One sound voiced obstruents with initial consonant Qun(群),the other one sound voiced fricative with initial consonant Yun(云).The forth one is,by exhaustive statistics of Xiesheng system of initials consonants Bing(并),Ding(定)(initials consonants Cheng(澄)included),Cong(从)(initials consonants Chong(崇)included),Chuan(船),Qun(群)etc.in Shuo Wen Jie Zi.we discover that three voiced initials Bing(并),Cong(从)(initials consonants Chong(崇)included),Qun(群)close to unaspirated initials Bang(帮),Jing(精)(initials consonants Zhuang(庄)included),Jian(见).On the contrary,initial consonant Ding(定)(initials consonants Cheng(澄)included)close to aspirated initials.Overall,words with voiced initials should more close to voiceless unaspirated consonant.We agree with the viewpoints from scholars Lu Zhiwei,Li Fangwei,Zhou Fagao,Zheng Zhangshangfang etc.that voiced obstruent initials close to voiceless unaspirated consonant.The fifth one is,by observing Xiesheng systems,we are in favor of current phonetic pattern of ancient single consonants.We disagree that words with other Xiesheng initial with initial consonant Lai(来)close to consonant cluster with *-l-(or*-r-).The Xiesheng issue of initial consonant Ming(明)and Xiao(晓)could be explained by clear nasal initials,which is reconstructed by Dong Tonghe and Li Fanggui.The study of humorous characters should pay attention to the level of humorous sounds,and the exception of humorous sounds in the humorous series should be treated with caution.Exception in Xiesheng systems could be explained from views of variant pronunciation.,and they cannot be used as evidence for the reconstruction of complex consonants.The six one is,the reconstruction of main vowel mainly discuss about two questions,one is how many vowels in one rhyme class,the one is about length,tightness and broadness of vowels.We agree with views of Wang Li,Li Fanggui,Zhou Fagao,Yan Xuejiong that one rhyme class has one vowel.We disagree with views of Bernhard Karlgren,Dong Tonghe,Zheng Zhangshangfang that distinct ancient Chinese by vowels’ length,tightness and broadness.The seven one is,we think that the reconstruction of the final nasal rhythm is questionable.Scholars of Wang Li,Chen Xinxiong,Long Yuchun,Zheng Zhangshangfang,He Jiuying demonstrate them from rhyme in Book of songs,character component in Xiesheng,sound coordination,linguistic type,contract of the same language,phonetic evolution,Chinese dialects.They all disagree Yin rhyme is constructed by coda consonants.In conclusion,this article has made a more comprehensive combing and comparison of the ancient phonetic systems reconstructed by six scholars,Bernhard Karlgren,Dong Tonghe,Wang Li,Li Fanggui,Zhou Fagao,and Zheng Zhang Shangfang.The research in this article provides a correct understanding of ancient Chinese phonetics and their evolution.It has important theoretical value to treat all kinds of questions in the academic circle scientifically and to promote the research of Chinese phonetics history.