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Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den

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"Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" is a short narrative poem written in Literary Chinese, composed of around 92 to 94 characters (depending on the specific version) in which every word is pronounced shi ([ʂɻ̩]) when read in modern Standard Chinese, with only the tones differing.[1]

Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
A stone lion
Traditional Chinese施氏食獅史
Simplified Chinese施氏食狮史
Literal meaningThe story of Mr. Shi eating lions
Hanyu PinyinShīshì shí shī shǐ
Bopomofoㄕ ㄕˋ ㄕˊ ㄕ ㄕˇ
Gwoyeu RomatzyhShy-shyh shyr shy shyy
Wade–GilesShih1-shih4 shih2 shih1 shih3
Tongyong PinyinShih-shìh shíh shih shǐh
IPA[ʂɻ̩́ ʂɻ̩̂ ʂɻ̩̌ ʂɻ̩́ ʂɻ̩̀]
Yale RomanizationSī-sih sihk sī sí
JyutpingSi1-si6 sik6 si1 si2
IPA[si˥ si˨ sɪk̚˨ si˥ si˧˥]
Hokkien POJSi-sī si̍t sai sú

The poem was written in the 1930s by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao as a linguistic demonstration. The poem is coherent and grammatical in Literary Chinese, but due to the number of Chinese homophones, it becomes difficult to understand in oral speech. In Mandarin, the poem is incomprehensible when read aloud, since only four syllables cover all the words of the poem. The poem is somewhat more comprehensible when read in other varieties such as Cantonese, in which it has 22 different syllables, or Hokkien, in which it has 15 different syllables.

The poem is an example of a one-syllable article, a form of constrained writing possible in tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese, where tonal contours expand the range of meaning for a single syllable.

Excerpt

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The following is the first six characters of the text in Hanyu Pinyin, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (Chao's own romanization system), and Chinese traditional/simplified characters. Pinyin orthography recommends writing Chinese numbers in Arabic numerals, so the number shí (十) would be written as 10. However, to preserve the homophony in this case, the number 10 has also been spelled out in Pinyin.

  • Pinyin: Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì
  • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Shyrshyh shyshyh Shy Shyh
  • Traditional Chinese: 石室詩士施氏
  • Simplified Chinese: 石室诗士施氏
  • Translation: In a stone den was a poet with the family name Shi...[2]

Explanation

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The Chinese languages are tonal—meaning that changes in pitch can change the meaning of words. When written using a romanized script, the poem is an example of Chinese antanaclasis.[3] The poem shows the flexibility of the Chinese language in many ways, including wording, syntax, punctuation, and sentence structures, which gives rise to various explanations.[4]

The poem can be interpreted as an objection to the romanization of Chinese, demonstrating the author's critique of proposals to replace Chinese characters with Latin letters—a move that could potentially lead to the marginalization or elimination of traditional Chinese script. The 20th-century linguist Yuen Ren Chao utilized this poem to illustrate the complexities and unique attributes of the Chinese language, arguing that simplification and romanization would undermine its rich tonal and logographic system.[5][6]

Yuen Ren Chao's poem illustrates the difficulty of translating the nuanced tones and homophones of Classical Chinese into a romanized script. It contrasts Classical Chinese's literary and formal tradition with the spoken vernacular languages of China, and in doing so implies that attempts to phoneticize the written Chinese language for easier usage may cause it to lose some of its representational capacity.[5]

The written poem is easy to understand for those familiar with Chinese characters, each of which is associated with a distinct core meaning. It remains intelligible in its spoken form in varieties of Chinese other than Mandarin. However, in its romanized form or when spoken in Mandarin, it becomes confusing.[5]

Evolution

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The loss of older sound combinations in Chinese over the centuries has greatly increased the number of Chinese homophones. Many words in the passage had distinct sounds in Middle Chinese, but over time, all of the varieties of Chinese have merged and split different sounds. For example, when the same passage is read in Cantonese there are seven distinct syllables—ci, sai, sap, sat, sek, si, ik—in six distinct tone contours, producing 22 distinct character pronunciations. In Southern Min, there are six distinct syllables—se, si, su, sek, sip, sit—in seven distinct tone contours, producing fifteen character pronunciations. Therefore, the passage is barely comprehensible when read aloud in modern Mandarin without context, but easier to understand when read in other Sinitic languages, such as Cantonese.

The same excerpt in other dialects:

Vernacular translation

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As sound changes over the years merged characters that had different pronunciations, new ways of speaking those concepts emerged. Often, disyllabic words would replace monosyllabic ones. As such, if the same excerpt from Chao's original poem is translated into modern Mandarin, it will not sound as confusing.

The same excerpt written in vernacular Chinese, along with its Pinyin pronunciation:

  • Traditional characters: 有一位住在石室裡的詩人叫施氏
  • Simplified characters: 有一位住在石室里的诗人叫施氏
  • Pinyin: Yǒu yíwèi zhù zài shíshì lǐ de shīrén jiào Shīshì

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Behr, Wolfgang (2015). "Discussion 6: G. Sampson, "A Chinese Phonological Enigma": Four Comments". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 43 (2): 719–732. ISSN 0091-3723. JSTOR 24774984.
  2. ^ Chao, Yuen Ren. Chinese Linguistics: A Chapter from the History of Oriental Studies in the United States, 1840-1940. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1974. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/rohoia/ucb/text/chineselinguistph00chaorich.pdf).
  3. ^ Forsyth, Mark (2011). The Etymologicon. Cambridge: Icon. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-1-848-31322-4.
  4. ^ Hengxing, He (2018-02-01). "The Discourse Flexibility of Zhao Yuanren [Yuen Ren Chao]'s Homophonic Text". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 46 (1): 149–176. doi:10.1353/jcl.2018.0005. ISSN 2411-3484. S2CID 171902133.
  5. ^ a b c Peng Zerun (彭泽润) (2009). 赵元任的"狮子"不能乱"吃"——文言文可以看不能听的原理 [Zhao Yuanren's "lion" cannot be "eaten": the reasons why Classical Chinese can be read instead of being listened to]. 现代语文：下旬．语言研究 (in Chinese) (12): 160.
  6. ^ Zhang Juling (张巨龄) (11 January 2015). 赵元任为什么写"施氏食狮史" [Why Zhao Yuanren wrote Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]. Guangming Daily (in Chinese). Retrieved 22 May 2019.
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