The function word 者 zhě first appears at the very end of the Late Preclassical Period. It belongs to the same class as 所 suǒ, being a predicative neutralizer.
However, in its grammatical meaning, as well as in its position relative to the predicative, 者 zhě differs from 所 suǒ.
者 zhě does not precede the predicative to which it refers, but rather follows it:
始者不如今 shǐ zhě bù rú jīn "What began cannot be compared to the present time."
Here 者 zhě neutralizes the predicative meaning of 始 shǐ "to begin."
桑者閑閑兮 sāng zhě xián xián xī "The mulberry leaf pickers are loitering."
桑 sāng is a notional word meaning "mulberry tree" or "mulberry leaves." In the sentence above, it is used predicatively to mean "to pick mulberry leaves" and nominalized with the function word 者 zhě, resulting in the noun phrase 桑者 sāng zhě "one who picks mulberry leaves."
知我者谓我心忧 zhī wǒ zhě wèi wǒ xīn yōu "Those who know me say that my heart is sad."
Here, the predicative phrase 知我 zhī wǒ "to know me" is neutralized with 者 zhě.
Thus, if a predicative neutralized with 所 suǒ acquires the meaning of an object, then a similar phrase with 者 zhě corresponds to the subject of the action expressed by the neutralized predicative.
Compare: 人譖我 rén zèn wǒ "people slandered me"; 人所譖 rén suǒ zèn "the one slandered by people"; 譖我者 zèn wǒ zhě "the one who slandered me".
Of course, a noun phrase with 者 zhě or 所 suǒ can function in a sentence in any nominal function.
The word 兮 xī is used in poetry and represents a caesura, i.e., it serves to indicate a rhythmic pause. By itself, 兮 xī has no meaning and does not rhyme.
In its meaning, 已 yǐ corresponds to the earlier 既 jì, denoting the completion of an action expressed by a predicate:
朋友已譖 péng yǒu yǐ zèn "Friends slandered [each other]."
The function word 甚 shèn indicates a superlative degree of quality and is placed after the corresponding predicative:
熯大甚 hàn dà shèn "The drought has reached its limit."
甚 shèn can also be used before a qualitative predicative. In this case, it means "very," "extremely":
其人甚遠 qí rén shèn yuăn "His master is very far from here."
In the late preclassical language, 而 ér can link nouns (22.2). Another function of 而 ér is to formalize the coordinating relationship between predicatives. In this case, the predicative that follows 而 ér denotes the main action, and the one preceding it denotes the accompanying action:
爾還而入, 我心易也 ěr huán ér rù, wǒ xīn yì yě "When you return and enter me, you will fill your heart with such joy."*
桑之落矣其黄而隕 sāng zhī luò yǐ qí huáng ér yǔn “But the mulberry leaves dry up, they fall to the ground, yellow”**.
* Shijing. P. 268.
** Ibid. P. 75.
Another demonstrative pronoun characteristic of the late preclassical language is 是 shì. It is synonymous with 此 cǐ both in its function and in the meaning of "this," "this":
正是四國 zhèng shì sì guó "He put these four states in order."
成是貝錦 chéng shì bèi jǐn "They wove this brocade with a shell pattern."
In ancient Chinese, there was a rule that a pronoun acting as an object in a negative sentence could not follow the predicate, but always preceded it (5.2; 15.3). This rule only became obsolete in the first centuries of our era.
However, the Shijing contains a few, very few, exceptions to this rule. We encountered one of them in the text of this lesson: 不知我者 bù zhī wǒ zhě "those who do not know me."
This phenomenon can apparently only be explained by the fact that the modern text of the Shijing contains certain later interpolations, the result of the processing of the text during the Eastern Han period.
The word 哉 zāi, which we encountered in the emphatic construction with the inversion of the qualitative predicate (22.3), is also used as a final particle. It is an exclamatory particle and is used primarily in rhetorical questions:
此何人哉 cǐ hé rén zāi "What kind of people are these?!"
The production of silk fabrics in China dates back to ancient times. The Yin people already knew how to make silk fabrics. Brocades were usually decorated with intricate patterns. Our text refers to "brocade with a pattern of cowrie shells."