Research On Guyanwu's "the Theory Of Chinese Phonology"

Traditional Chinese Phonology(汉语音韵) came to the scientific road and bore rich fruits in the Qing Dynasty, Guyanwu(顾炎武) had made great contributions. Gu's Chinese Phonology achievements embodied in his "Five Books About Chinese Phonology "."The Theory of Chinese Phonology" is the first book of his five books, In this book, Gu discussed fifteen major issues on Chinese Phonology. This thesis is to study Gu's points about fifteen major issues. The purpose of writing this paper is to correctly understand Gu's phonological theory, so that it can provide a reference for people who want to study Gu's Chinese Phonology achievements deeply.This thesis consists of eight parts: introduction, conclusion and six chapters of body text.The introduction part of this thesis describes the progress of study on Gu's Chinese Phonology achievements in academia, the purpose is to explain the significance of this thesis.Chapter I and II outline the life history and academic achievements of Guyanwu, especially achievements of Chinese Phonology. These two chapters focus on introducing the content and the creation purpose of "The Theory of Chinese Phonology", so that readers can acquire a preliminary understanding of Guyanwu and his book.Chapter III, IV and V are the subject of this paper. The third chapter of this thesis studies Gu's opinions on the yun(韵), yunshu(韵书) and yunpu(韵谱). Especially in yunpu, Gu compared the differences of yunpu of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, came out the change history of yunpu from the Sui Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Although there are some small omissions, the rest are "from beginning to end". It had provided a convenient to people who wanted to study ancient Chinese voice according to modern Chinese voice. Chapter IV of this thesis studies Gu's concept of ancient Chinese voice. Gu claimed that Chinese ancient rhyming was lax, the poets needn't change the pronunciation to rhyme. Gu believed that there was not the phenomenon of changing the pronunciation to rhyme in Chinese ancient poems. Gu demonstrated the origin of four ancient Chinese tones in detail, and pointed out that the four ancient tones could pass. As a result, the "xieyin(叶音)"concept, changing the pronunciation to rhyme, was destroyed completely. Gu also pointed out the systematic errors of modern rusheng(入声) and proposed that rusheng should be paired with yinsheng(阴声). All of these are the most commendable part of Gu's Chinese Phonology achievements. Of course, Gu's opinions are not perfect. The opinion that Chinese ancient rhyming was lax, the opinion that the four ancient Chinese tones could pass, and the opinion that rusheng was a flexible tone are debatable. In chapter V of this thesis, we study Gu's understanding about zhuanzhu(转注), fanqie(反切), and duruo(读若). Gu's understanding about zhuanzhu is not perfect, but it is closely linked to his opinion on four ancient Chinese tones. Chapter VI of this thesis discusses the influence of Gu's "The Theory of Chinese Phonology" in the history of Chinese Phonology, in order to further reflect the value of creating this thesis.The conclusion part of this thesis is self-evaluation. In this part we also put forward the idea of follow-up study.