Chapter 7 five puzzling
Speaking and reading classical Chinese, sometimes you will encounter "incomprehensible" situations.The so-called incomprehensible here is different from the situation where the meaning of ancient words, allusions, names and objects cannot be determined without research.Difficulty in explaining old vocabulary and so on is the difficulty felt by unfamiliarity with classical Chinese.Puzzling means that even if you are familiar with classical Chinese, you often feel inexplicable difficulties.Puzzling has various situations, and the way to deal with it naturally varies with the nature.Let's talk about some common ones, as examples, for reference when speaking and reading classical Chinese.
(1) There are typos in the ancient biography.Books before the Five Dynasties were all manuscripts, and their circulation was naturally unavoidable through copying.When copying, sometimes because the characters are similar in shape, as the usual saying "Lu Yu Hai Hog", it is because of carelessness that the characters are written wrong.People who are well-versed in copying and revising by themselves will inevitably be careless and make clerical errors.From the pre-Qin period to the Five Dynasties, this lasted for one or two thousand years. Today, it is very difficult to know the true face of ancient documents.It's not the real face, it can be explained.Others are not.For example:
1. "The Analects of Confucius Xiangdang": "Se Si lifts up, flies and then gathers." Both Han and Song people's notes say that this is about flying birds. The first half is translated into the current words, and the bird flies up when it "colors". It is how it happened? "Annotations to the Analects of Confucius" quoted Ma Rong as saying, "If you see a bad color, you will go away." Zhu Xi's "Annotations to the Analects of Confucius" put it in more detail, "When a bird sees a person with a bad color, it will fly away."There are two points that make no sense in this explanation: one is that birds are not actually so alert;In short, although it seems to make sense, after all, it can't help but make people feel, I'm afraid it's far-fetched.I read Mr. Shang Chengzuo's article before, saying that "color" was originally regarded as "dangerous", but it was misunderstood because of the close shape of ancient characters.Although this inference has no basis in the version, it is more reasonable than the original "color".
2. "Historical Records: Biographies of Huozhi": "The rich will benefit from the power, and the guests will have nothing to do if they lose power. If they are not happy, the barbarians will benefit." ", Sima Zhen's "Suoyin", etc., there are no annotations, Japan Takigawa Kametaro's "Historical Records Huizhu Textual Research" has annotations, which is: "Wu Chengquan said: 'With, already, and the same, the words lose their richness. If you don’t have attachments, you will not be happy.” Zhongjing Jide said: “It seems that there is a mistake in using the phrases without music.’” Of the two explanations, the latter one is obviously better, because the meaning of “not being happy already” is the same. unclear.In a place like this, rather than just explaining it, it is better to assume that there is a typo in it.
There are wrong words, the original face is hidden, so it is difficult to understand.In order to get a definite explanation, it is of course best to get back to the original face, and some sinologists in the Qing Dynasty liked to do this.But it's often not easy, and, if done wrong, can come across as fanciful.Therefore, the safer way is to take the general meaning according to the context; for individual words that are difficult to say, we have to be content with doubts.
More complicated than typos are errors in slips and confusion in scripture annotations, which are too specialized for the scope of collation, so I won’t discuss them here.
(2) It may be fake, because it is rare, it is not sure what it is, and it becomes difficult to understand.When we speak or write now, the choice of words and sentences requires standardization.The ancients did not require this, or did not know it at all. Moreover, due to different regions, different inheritance, and personal writing habits, the same word can be written in different ways.Some of these different ways of writing are commonly used, and everyone who sees them knows and understands them.Some are not, and not everyone knows and understands them.In order to change the difficult solution to the easy solution, we say that the latter word "passes" the former word.There are a few or very few, we don't know what to understand, and this becomes incomprehensible.For example:
1. "The Analects of Confucius Shuer": "Wen Mo is still a human being, and if I practice a gentleman, I will not gain anything." Common sayings are not good. Those who are not like me are still human, and all words and writing are not better than others." "Annotations to the Analects of Confucius" said: "Mo, doubtful words. Like people, words can't surpass others but can still reach others." Song people's The explanation is more concise than that of the Han people, but the narrative tone is changed to a questioning tone, and the loss is exactly the same as that of the Han people: the Han people are talking nonsense, and the Song people are wrong.Liu Taigong of the Qing Dynasty said in "The Analects of Confucius Pianzhi": "Yang Shen's "Danqianlu" quoted Jin Luanzhao's "The Analects of Confucius" and said: "Yan Qi said that it is barely Wenmo." "Wenmo" is included in the article "Strider", and it is believed that "Strider", "Wenmo", "Zan Mian", "Min Fang", "Mo Mo", and "Mi Wu" are different ways of writing the same word.In this way, "Wen Mo Wu You Ren Ye" becomes "When it comes to hard work, I am the same as others", which seems clear and easy to understand.
2. "Historical Records The Family of Prime Minister Chen": "Shang said: 'Every dog has its own master, but what is the matter with the king's master?' Ping Xie said: 'Master!...'". The term "master minister" is very strange. "Ji Jie" explains it like this: "Zhang Yan said: 'If people thank you today, they are afraid. Meng Kang said: "The master minister is also the master of the group of ministers. If you say that the person is the master." Wei Zhao said: "If you speak the master minister's way, you dare not deceive me." According to Ma Rong's "Ode to the Dragon and the Tiger", it can be concluded that Meng Kang and Wei Zhao's explanation must be wrong.But why use "Master" to express fear?Wang Xianqian's "Han Shu Supplementary Notes" said: "Gai is a minister to the Lord, and he is afraid of himself." ("Zhang Chen Wang Zhou Biography") It is still hard to convince people like Meng Kang and Wei Zhao.In fact, we might as well suspect that such a statement is a pseudonym of a certain two characters, because we don't know how to understand it, so it becomes difficult to understand.
For such incomprehensions, it is of course good to be able to figure out what is going on.If not, it is best to deduce its general meaning according to the context; as for why it is said so, it is not a bad idea to be content with not asking for a deep understanding.
(3) The statement is ambiguous, and it is difficult to know its definite meaning.The so-called ambiguity here refers to those who want to explain clearly and should explain clearly but fail to explain clearly.There are also things in the language that are deliberately not explained clearly, such as hidden words, which are not intended to be understood by outsiders.Others, such as hexagrams and lines, prophetic ballads, and the so-called cleverness of Zen quotations, etc., either intend to explain one thing or the other, or they intend to pretend to be sublime, and they are unwilling to make it clear.There is another situation that is similar to deliberately not explaining clearly, because the content is difficult to say or wants to explain, so the expression is expressed in mysterious and curved words, thinking that the meaning is clear, but ordinary readers feel confused.For example, Bao Shichen's "Yi Zhou Shuang Ji" talked about the brushwork, quoting Huang Yisheng's words as "before the Tang Dynasty, all the books started from Gen to dry, and after the Southern Song Dynasty, all the books started from Sun and ended in Kun".This kind of incomprehensible statement is often found in professional classics, and people who are professional may think it is not difficult to understand, so it does not need to be classified into the ambiguous category.There is no need to write nonsense words, sometimes due to carelessness in the writing, or seeking grievances, there will be incomprehensible situations.For example:
1. "Sou Shen Ji · Tomb of the Three Kings" tells about the sword casting by the general Mo Xie. Before the general was killed by the king of Chu, the last words said that the place where the Xiongjian was hidden was: "Go out and look at Nanshan, the pine stone is on the rock, and the sword is on his back." Does "Qi" refer to pine, or does it refer to stone?Whether it refers to pine or refers to stone, what is its "back"?If we are asked to look for it, we must feel that the last words are too unclear.
2.Gong Zizhen wrote "Shanghai Li's Collection of Books" for Li Yunjia, a Shanghai bibliophile. After talking about the origin and development of Li's collection of books and the magnificence of Li's collection, he concluded by expressing his praise: "In my life, Jiang Zuojun's beauty of visiting guests is as beautiful as that of Jiang Zuojun. But I don’t forget Li’s family very much. Southeast Gu, he is in the middle of the sky.” “Southeast Gu” means that the author’s own activities are probably no problem; what is it?people?Book?No matter whether it is a person or a book, how can it "occupy half of the sky"?Gong Zizhen always wants to be different when writing articles, so she seeks for surprises; as for the surprises that readers can't understand, it is always too much.
For ambiguities like this, we can't ask about the author, and we can only guess the general meaning based on the context, and let it go.
(4) Pretending to be difficult and going too far, thus becoming incomprehensible.Scholars have been working hard for ten years, and have learned a lot. Sometimes it is inevitable that they want to be known, so they like to show off their knowledge unconsciously.There are many ways to show off learning, one of which is to write articles to avoid the easy and become difficult, or to win by surprise. If this is too much, it will easily become confusing.For example:
1.In the Tang Dynasty, there was a Master Fan who could write articles.Han Yu thought highly of him, recommended him to the court when he was frustrated, and made an epitaph for him after his death.There are only two or three works handed down from generation to generation. Among them, "Jiang Shouju Garden Pond" is very famous because, or mainly, it is so difficult that it is difficult to break sentences.Liberal arts such as Ouyang Xiu, in his poem "Jiang Shou Ju Yuan Chi", also said: "A single sentence asks a hundred pans", "Sentence breaks to learn from Pan Geng's book", "Use strange corrections to frighten the group of fools", "I think about it. artificial hesitation".Later generations are of course even more daunting.So many people want to work hard to explain it, and not only one family just "reads" it.To illustrate, let's look at the first three lines:
Crimson is Dongyong's ginseng, ginseng, solid, subdivided, qi, and two rivers, moistened with Tao, Tang and Hebei. I think about Jin, Han and Wei. It is also obscene and inhospitable to live in the state or people who have been prosperous since ancient times (Ming Qiangu copied the "Youzhi Continued Edition", the original has no sentences)
It is too polite to say that it wants to learn "Shangshu Pangeng"; to be honest, it should be said that although the paper is full of Chinese characters, they cannot be connected together.
2.In the late Ming Dynasty, the Gong'an faction headed by the Yuan Hongdao brothers rebelled against the restoration of the seven sons of the front and back, creating a fresh and fluent body.As time goes by, people regard it as superficial because of its simplicity, so Zhong Xing and the Jingling School tried to remedy it with depth, but it slipped and became obscure.Later, Liu Tong and Yu Yizheng's "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" intensified, such as the article "Shangfangshan" in Volume 8:
At the beginning of the earth's birth, rocks and gullies were formed.It is Huaixiang, dangling soup, it is a god of heaven and dragon, it collapses and touches, who can predict it?People travel everywhere, speak and speak, and the mountain is named at the beginning.There are those who are famous in the early days, there are those who are famous in the near and far, there are those who are famous in the suburbs of the capital, and there are those who are famous in the late days, and there are people who are ancient and unknown, and the mountains are not famous today.The name never tires of being familiar, the mountain never tires of being born, and the deepest is not as deep as what is not reached. (Text and punctuation are based on Beijing Ancient Books Publishing House)
This can be said straight and twisted, and can be said shallowly and deeply. The content is ordinary, but it makes people feel like looking at flowers in a fog, seemingly intelligible but hard to think about.
Fortunately, the content of this kind of literature that is pretending to be difficult and incomprehensible is not heavy. Look at it, and it is good to know that there is such a style that is not enough for training; There is nothing wrong with that.
(5) Due to the simplification of the text, the content that should be stated clearly is not explained clearly, which will also cause confusion.For example:
1. "Zuo Zhuan" in the thirty-three years of Duke Xi: "Qin Bosu obeyed the suburbs, and the village teacher cried and said, he violated his uncle, humiliated his second and third sons, the sin of the orphan, not replacing Meng Ming, the fault of the lonely, what is the doctor Sin, and I will not cover up great virtue with a single blemish." (To express a puzzling situation, only a sentence is broken.) The problem lies in "not replacing Meng Ming". "Not to replace" means "not to replace".According to the literary theory, "not for Meng Ming" and "I'm alone" seem to be said in succession, but read this way, the meaning seems strange.First, it was Uncle Qin himself who sent Meng Ming to attack Zheng, and Meng Ming was not responsible; second, the above did not mention the fact that he should be replaced but was not replaced; That's all.Why do you have to do it again?This doubt is based on the opinion of his father Wang Niansun in the seventeenth chapter of "Jingyi Shuwen" cited by the Qing Dynasty. The interlude is intended to explain the handling of this matter, because Meng Ming has nothing to do with it, so he will not be replaced; there should be the word "日" under it, followed by Uncle Qin's words.It is reasonable to think about it this way; but in terms of the original text, it is too simple.
2.Gui Youguang's "Xiang Jixuan Zhi": "My wife returned to Ning, and all the younger sisters said:'I heard that my sister's family has a pavilion, and what is a pavilion?" In the following, the words are clearly spoken after returning to her in-law's house.The meaning is entangled, and the problem is that there is one less word "return"; if it is written as "my wife returns to Ning", wouldn't it just disappear?
For such incomprehensions, we might as well try to add some words according to the context; although this may not be 100% true to the original meaning, as long as the unreasonable becomes reasonable, it will be satisfied.
(6) In order to express unspeakable feelings or thoughts that are difficult to speak directly, sometimes one has to evade words.Written in this way, the reader sees that it is like fishing for a moon in the water, as if he has touched something, but on second thought it seems plausible, so it becomes incomprehensible.This is often the case in poetry.For example:
1.The first song of Li Shangyin's "Three Poems of the Bicheng": "The twelve curved rails of the Bicheng, the rhinoceros wards off the dust and the jade wards off the cold. There are many books in Langyuan, and there are many cranes attached to it. There are no trees on the women's bed, and there is no luan to live in. The stars sink to the bottom of the sea. See you at the window, and the rain Cross the river source and look at it from another seat. If the pearl is bright and stable, it will grow a pair of water essence plates." The rhetoric and rhyme are very particular, and there is even a beautiful feeling when reading it, but what does it mean?As Feng Hao said in his commentary, "Xiang Mo determined the solution". 2.Nalan Chengde's "Partridge Sky": "Immediately sing into the Yalu River, and the sky will send the air to the boudoir. I hate it for a long time and close the gold shop in the dark. Flowers laugh three Han Yu on a bed. Adding choked sobs and desolation, who can teach students to be full of fragrance So far in Qinghai every year, I still feel heartbroken for the photos of the Xiao family." (The text is based on the writing page) "The air is paid to the boudoir" and "the body is full of fragrance", which obviously refer to something, but what do they refer to?Elusive.
It is naturally difficult to figure out the background of such incomprehensions; but the general situation of thoughts and feelings can still be seen between the lines. As long as the basics are not far from the ten, it is enough to understand and get some sympathy when reading. .
(7) Due to rhetorical requirements, or innovation is considered high, sometimes it is not spoken according to language habits, so it becomes difficult to understand.For example:
1.Jiang Yan's "Farewell Fu": "Because the other side is uncertain, don't care about thousands of names; if there is a difference, there will be resentment, and if there is resentment, it will be filled, which will make people feel terrified and frightened." It is the bone that can be broken, not the heart; it is the heart that can be shocked, not the bone.It should be said that "the fracture is frightened" but the reverse is probably for the sake of novelty, and the result becomes unreasonable. 2.The eighth of Du Fu's "Eight Poems of Autumn Prosperity": "Kunwu's royal residence is meandering, and Zige Peak is shaded into Mipi. The fragrant rice pecks the remaining parrot grains, and the green phoenix perches on the old phoenix branches...." The last two sentences are the same as "heart breaking bone Like "surprise", it is also difficult to understand because of the transposition of words: how can "fragrant rice" be "pecked"? How can "Biwu" go to "habitate"?It should be said that "the parrot pecks the rice grains with lingering fragrance, and the phoenix perches on the old green wuzhi", but it is reversed. Some people say that it is wonderful here. Always a small loss, right?
The reason for this kind of incomprehension is relatively obvious. According to language habits, it is enough to explain the reversed words in reverse order.
(8) The words are vague, or should be detailed and specific but not specific, so there are more than one possible explanation, and it is even difficult to determine which one is right, so it becomes incomprehensible due to ambiguity.For example:
1.The second part of Du Fu's "Three Poems of Qiang Village": "I am forced to steal a life in my old age, and return to my family's joy. Jiaoer never leaves her knees, fearing that I will return and go away..." "Fearing that I will return and leave", some people understand it as "Jiaoer Afraid that I will leave home again", someone interpreted it as "Jiao'er ran away from me again because of my bad complexion and was frightened".This issue has been hotly debated in recent years. Both sides have many reasons and supporters. After many rounds, it seems that it is still hard to tell the winner.In fact, the problem lies in the ambiguity. If there is ambiguity, it is not easy to get a definite solution.
2.Fang Bao's "Miscellaneous Notes in Prison": "Yu Tong, Zhu Weng, Yu Sheng, and a fellow official monk in prison, died of the epidemic, and should not be severely punished." "Tongguan" in "Tongguan monk" can be understood as a place name , can also be understood as a colleague of the same official office; "Sengmou" can be understood as someone surnamed monk, or as a monk (understood in this way, "same official" can only be used as a place name).As far as the gist of the full text is concerned, it doesn't matter how these four words are understood; but as far as the requirement of "expression is enough", such a brief introduction is always inappropriate.
For this kind of incomprehension, if there is a slight difference between the two explanations, then you can choose the better one; (9) Dialogues, letters, etc. in the memorandum, because they are said to the other party in the bureau, some plots or things can be understood, so of course there is no need to say them.Most of such dialogues have been repaired by the writer of the note.The booklets are not the case, most of them are kept as they are and printed into books, so some of the words in them will be incomprehensible to outside readers because they don't know what to do, and this will become incomprehensible.For example:
1.Qian Qianyi's "Qian Muzhai Chidot and Mao Pijiang": "Shuangcheng got rid of the dust net, which is still the thing in front of the blue bird's window. Yu Zhong let go of the ancient Yamen, how dare the servant be greedy for heavenly merit"?The most difficult thing to understand is the sentence "Shuangcheng gets rid of the dust net": Who is "Shuangcheng"?How did you get rid of the dust net?It turned out that this was about marrying Dong Xiaowan under the pretense of Pijiang. The so-called Yuzhong once helped him with a thousand taels of silver, and Qian Qianyi and Liu Rushi also helped, so Dong Xiaowan was able to get married.Legend has it that the Queen Mother of the West had a maid named Dong Shuangcheng, so "Shuangcheng" is used here to replace the woman surnamed Dong.
2.Yuan Mei's "Suiyuan Chidot Response to Yang Lihu": "Even if the rascals see it in the garden, it is harmless to be happy." Self-modesty is common in the letters, and there is almost no self-swearing. very strange.When I read the letter from Yang Lihu, there was something like this: "I don't know how to offend Your Excellency, but I insulted you with the tip of the pen. It seems that this is vulgar. Although my brother is unworthy, it is not here." Only then did I realize that it was an irony. ; it is difficult to explain why without reference to incoming books.
It seems that there is no easy way to solve such incomprehensions except to search the relevant information.
(10) Sometimes, a piece of text, the words and sentences are clear and clear, but after examining its connotation, or the reason is inconsistent, or it is impossible in fact, in short, it is not logical, and it becomes incomprehensible.For example:
1.Wang Wan's "Jiang Tianyi Biography": "When Zhang Xianzhong broke Wuchang, the commander-in-chief Zuo Liangyu fled eastward, and the wolf soldiers under his command were on the way... When the wolf soldiers were killed, Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, was furious, and impeached the Hui people to kill the officers and soldiers..." The words are clear, but in general, there are two unsolvable problems: one is that the wolf soldiers are natives of Guizhou Zuo Liangyu started from the north, how could there be wolf soldiers?Second, it was Zuo Liangyu's subordinates who were killed. Why was Ma Shiying not only angry, but impeached?Check "Ming History Jin Sheng Biography": "(Chongzhen) sixteen years, Fengyang Governor Ma Shiying sent an envoy Li Zhangyu to conquer Guizhou soldiers to fight against thieves, and plundered Jiangxi in a devious way, which was rejected by the officials and people in Leping. Compared with Huizhou, the officials and people I thought it was a thief, and led the crowd to break it away. Zhang Yu's taboo changed drastically, and he said that he was the envoy of Wu Xiangfeng, the push official in Huizhou, and Shiying heard about it." Only then did I know that this was the case, and the author confused Zuo Liangyu and Li Zhangyu together indiscriminately. .
2.Song Lian's "Qin Shilu": "(Qin Shi said) 'Bi also has a rough knowledge of the book, why do you look at each other like tears? Today, I'm not going to drink quickly, and I want to spit out my grievances less. The Siku Shu can be asked by the king, but it can't be done. Answer, when blood is a blade.' The two students said: 'Is it true?' They picked up dozens of meanings from the seven classics and knocked them out. Bi Li listed and passed them down without leaving a single word. Re-inquiring about the history of the past dynasties, the three thousand years of history are as consistent as ever. Beads... (Two lives) returned, asked where he was and traveled, and I did not see him moaning with his book in his arms." It is obviously impossible to recite scriptures and pass downs with few books, and to be proficient in the history of the past dynasties, so this exaggeration statement is not credible.In summary, there are various kinds of incomprehensible situations in classical Chinese. Although the number may not be many, it is still a kind of difficulty of a special nature. Taking the road as a metaphor, even if the road is generally smooth, it is still beneficial to know where there are small bumps .
At the end, it should also be explained that the examples here are difficult to understand, and they are for beginners or classical Chinese for beginners.Difficulty in reading ancient books, especially pre-Qin books, is an old problem. People who governed the country in the past dynasties have come into contact with them to some extent.However, this kind of work is relatively specialized, and it is difficult for beginners to learn. After learning classical Chinese, it is of course beneficial to read it.