A Study On Words And Phrases Of Mencius

This thesis discusses two aspects of the words and phrases of Mencius: polysyllables of Mencius and idioms and aphorisms derived from Mencius.Firstly, the paper establishes a standard of Chinese polysyllables in light of Mencius' writings. According to this standard, the book contains 406 polysyllables. By means of classification, generation and comparison, the paper describes polysyllables concerning formation, meaning, parts of speech, and word sequence, and compares them with other books written during the Warring States period in order to unveil the developing trend of Chinese disyllables in middle of the Warring States period.Secondly, the paper reviews Ciyuan's entry adoption and instances of polysyllables from Mencius and sorts out idioms and aphorisms derived from Mencius by consulting Zhongguochengyudacidian and Jingyumingjucidian. Consequently, we discover that the words and phrases of Mencius had a deep influence on later Chinese language.Moreover, the paper points out some of the problems in Ciyuan such as word omission and outdated instances. At the end of the paper, polysyllables from Mencius are listed in the index for convenient reference.