Along with personal pronouns, demonstratives also changed in the 7th–5th centuries BCE. Previously, the main pronoun of this class was 茲 zī "this," "this." Now it is gradually being replaced by a new demonstrative pronoun with the same meaning—此 cǐ.
此 cǐ could be used as a subject, object, or attribute:
此 何 人 哉 cǐ hé rén zāi "What kind of people are these?"
賢 者 亦 樂 此 乎 xián zhě yì lè cǐ hū "Does the wisest also rejoice in this?"
唯 此 中 行 百 夫 之 防 wéi cǐ zhōng háng băi fū zhī fáng "And this Zhonghang alone is worth a hundred men!"
Thus, 此 cǐ differs in its grammatical function from the demonstrative pronoun 之 zhī, which can only be an object.
On the other hand, the pronoun 此 cǐ differs from the earlier 茲 zī in that it now has an antonym, 彼 bǐ "that", "that":
唯 此 哲 人 謂 我 劬 勞，唯 彼 愚 人 謂 我 宣 驕 wéi cǐ zhé rén wèi wǒ jú láo, wéi bǐ yú rén wèi wǒ xuān jiāo "And a wise man will hear him, he will say that our labor is immeasurably great; "And a foolish man will hear it and say, 'This cry is born of pride'" (literally, "This wise man will say... that foolish man will say...")*.
Subsequently, the pronouns 彼 bǐ and 此 cǐ began to be used in the combination 彼此 bǐ cǐ with the meaning "mutually".
* Shijing. P. 231.
The pronoun 諸 zhū means "all," "many." It often serves simply to express a plurality of corresponding objects or persons.
In ancient Chinese, number has no formal expression. However, in some cases it is desirable or necessary to emphasize that in a given context the name is used in the plural. In such cases, this attributive pronoun is used:
孌 彼 諸 姬 luán bǐ zhū jī "How lovely are those [girls from the Ji clan]."
Among the modal predicatives found in Late Preclassical language sources, 肯 kěn "to want," "to desire," "to agree" is found.
It should be noted that if a predicate with a modal predicative has an inverted direct object, the latter takes the position before the modal predicative. This occurs, for example, in negative sentences with a direct object expressed by a personal pronoun:
不 我 肯 顧 bù wǒ kěn gù "They don't want to take care of me."
Conversely, if a predicate with a modal predicate has a forward indirect (prepositional) object, the latter is placed between the modal and main predicates:
不 可 與 處 bù kě yǔ chǔ "You can't live with [them]."
In the early preclassical language, the function word 乃 (迺) năi was a formal indicator of logical connection or chronological sequence between statements. In the 7th–6th centuries BCE, A new function word with the same meaning appears—遂 suì:
雨 我 公 田, 遂 及 我 私 yǔ wǒ gōng tián, suì jí wǒ sī "Water our communal fields with rain, and then reach our private plots."
In the late pre-classical language, the word 無 wú can be used as a negation with a modal (prohibitory) meaning, i.e., as a synonym for 勿 wù and 毋 wù:
黄 鳥 黄 鳥 無 集 于 桑 huáng niăo huáng niăo wú jí yú sāng "Oriole, oriole, don't land, don't flock here."*.
* Shijing. P. 238.
In the preceding discussion, we already noted that the function word 唯 wéi in the late pre-classical period lost its meaning as an emphatic particle and began to be used as a restrictive particle meaning "only," "merely."
In this meaning, it is also used in a construction indicating that the predicate's action extends only to a limited number of complements, for example:
唯酒食是議 wéi jiǔ shí shì yì "to care only about wine and food" (the same phrase with direct word order: 議酒食 yì jiǔ shí "to care about wine and food").
In ancient Chinese poetic texts, particularly in the "Shijing," we find several unusual words.
The point is that they are completely devoid of any meaningful meaning, but at the same time, they cannot be classified as function words. They are used when it is necessary to add a missing syllable to a line and thereby maintain its rhythm.
These kinds of "empty" words, characteristic of the Shijing language, include 言 yán, 云 yún, 載 zài:
言 旋 言 歸 yán xuán yán guī "Ah, I'll go away, I'll return home."*
乃 生 男 子 載 寢 之 床 năi shēng nán zǐ zài qǐn zhī chuáng "If sons are born, let them be laid to sleep on the bed with honor."**.
* Shijing. P. 238.
** Ibid. P. 241.
One of the meanings of the function word 斯 sī is to indicate a change in the logical flow of a preceding thought; 斯 sī is here a synonym for the function word 則 zé (for more information on this meaning of 則 zé, see 29.1).
Let's take a look at two characters encountered in this lesson (text #2). They are similar in their spelling and have the same reading. These are 榖 gǔ and 穀 gǔ. The first means "mulberry" (the name of a tree); one of the meanings of the second is "good" or "to treat kindly."
These characters should not be mixed.