УРОК 22

GRAMMAR COMMENTARY

22.1. Personal Pronoun 其 qí

One of the significant features distinguishing the late Preclassical language from previous periods is the transformation of the personal pronoun system.

Specifically, during this period, a new personal pronoun, 其 qí, appeared, replacing 厥 jué. In 6th-century BCE monuments, 其 qí, as a third-person personal pronoun used to describe a noun, coexists with the earlier 厥 jué. An example of this is the first part of Lesson 22, where phrases with the same meaning, "his ringing bell," use different pronouns: 厥和鐘 jué hé zhōng and 其和鐘 qí hé zhōng.

Later, the pronoun 厥 jué falls out of use. In classical texts, it appears only as an archaism: in quotations from the Shanshu and Shijing, as well as in official documents (treaties, ambassadorial speeches), etc.

Along with the gradual displacement of 厥 jué by 其 qí, the function word 其 qí in its original adverbial meaning is also disappearing. In this sense, texts from the 6th century BCE demonstrate the coexistence of old and new.

In this lesson, the word 其 qí appears both as a pronoun and as an adverb: 其 萬 年 無 疆 qí wàn nián wú jiāng "for ten thousand years to have no end."

22.2. Function word 而 ér

The word 而 ér, not found in the early preclassical language, is classified as a conjunction. We are already familiar with the conjunction 眔 dà, which typically connects names: 令 眔 奮 lìng dà fèn "Lin and Fen"; 馬 眔 羊 mă dà yáng "horses and rams".

Unlike 眔 dà, which connects two or more independent elements, the conjunction 而 ér is used to express a coordinating relationship between names that characterize the same object or person from different perspectives. In our text, 義楚之良臣 yì chǔ zhī liáng chén "the devoted servant of I-chu" and 僥之慈父 yáo zhī cí fù "the virtuous father Yao" are not two persons, but one (the same person is a servant of a certain I-chu and at the same time is the father of his son, named Yao). This circumstance is clarified by the introduction of the conjunction 而 ér between the names. The same in Lesson 23: 襄公之出而成公之女 xiāng gōng zhī chū ér chéng gōng zhī nǚ "Xiang Gong's sister's daughter, [also] Cheng Gong's daughter."

22.3. Predicate Inversion

In early preclassical Chinese, there was a construction used to logically emphasize the predicate. This construction was not applied to any predicate, but only to those that characterize the state of the subject and are expressed by a qualitative predicate.

In the late preclassical language, such predicates, when logically distinguished, are formed differently—with the function word 哉 zāi (in postposition). A sentence with an inverted predicate of this type acquires an emotionally emphasized stylistic tone: 善 哉 民 之 主 shàn zāi mín zhī zhǔ "How virtuous is the ruler of the people!" Lin Fang asked about the essence of the norms of relationships between people. The teacher exclaimed: "The question is most important!" A nominal predicate can be inverted in the same way: 君 哉 舜 也 jūn zāi shùn yĕ "Shun is the ruler!"