Riding the wind of rebirth

"This not only proves that the ancient characters '只' and '亦' had similar finals, but also, based on the fanqie (a method of indicating pronunciation) records in ancient texts, proves the Middle Chinese pronunciation of '石'."

"We only need to combine the initial consonant of 'soeng' and the final vowel of 'jik' to pronounce it as 'sik'. This pronunciation is exactly the same as the Cantonese pronunciation of 'stone', and similar to the Mandarin pronunciation of 'color'."

"This allows us to deduce the ancient pronunciation of the character '石' from ancient rhyme books and dialects, which gradually evolved into the modern Mandarin pronunciation of 'shi'."

"Therefore, in ancient books, this character actually has only one formal pronunciation. In modern Mandarin, if we are reading ancient books, the formal pronunciation of this character should naturally be shi, not dan."

"Then why do so many people pronounce it as 'dan'?"

"This brings us to another issue with ancient writing: phonetic loan characters," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "It's when people often use simple, common, or simplified Chinese characters to replace complex ones."

"This phenomenon was common during the Song and Ming dynasties. During the Song and Ming dynasties, the spread of writing began to become secularized, and more people in the city became literate and had a need to use writing. However, due to their limited knowledge, many of them could only write some simple characters." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Such practices can be seen in paintings that depict urban life, such as Zhang Zeduan's 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' in the Song Dynasty and Qiu Ying's 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' in the Ming Dynasty."

"In ancient times, 'shi' was a unit of weight. For example, high-ranking officials above the rank of prefect in the Han Dynasty were called 'two thousand shi'. One shi was equal to ten dou. In the pre-Qin period, one shi was a fixed unit of weight of 120 jin. In the Han Dynasty, it was about 60 jin. By the Song Dynasty, the conversion relationship with hu was adjusted and became a relationship of measuring the amount of grain by volume. One shi was equal to two hu, ten dou, and further subdivided units such as dou, sheng, and he were derived."

“After the Song Dynasty, one shi (石) was 120 jin (斤), which was exactly two baskets of grain. Two baskets of rice were called ‘one dan’ (担) in the Jianghuai canal transport area at that time.”

"Well, from this time on, one stone and one load became the same concept in people's minds at that time."

"Therefore, later on, people got used to using the simple character '石' when writing, and the commonly known character '担' when speaking. Later, '石' became a phonetic loan character for '担'. Further development led to '石' becoming a polyphonic character in modern Chinese."

"In other words, if it's a book from the Ming Dynasty or later, and it's used to indicate weight, I pronounce it 'dan,' while in books from before the Ming Dynasty, when it's used to indicate weight, I pronounce it 'shi.'"

"Hahahaha..." Zhou Zhi laughed uncontrollably: "That's not what I meant. If I were to advocate for it personally, then we should cancel the polyphonic pronunciation of 'stone' and just pronounce it as 'shi', because that is the correct pronunciation and there will be no mistake."

"If it is in books after the Ming Dynasty, then it must be when recording the usage of common characters, such as in novels, ancient people's notes on life, or even in the records and newspapers of the Republic of China, when it is used as a unit of weight, then it is fine to pronounce it with two sounds."

“Indeed, this seems to be more rigorous.” Shamaricong, a teacher, expressed his admiration for Zhouzhi’s rigor: “This is something we can talk to the school’s Chinese teacher about, and have him explain it to the students.”

"Now you know what my doctoral dissertation was about, right?" Zhou Zhi said. "It's similar to the method used to deduce the ancient pronunciation of the character 'stone'. By combining ancient records and modern dialectal remnants, we can deduce the ancient pronunciation of each character and correct some of the deviations in current research on ancient phonology."

"What's gone astray?"

"Well... it's like what Old Yang just said. The character '石' (shí) is marked as '常只切' (cháng zhǐ qiē) in ancient phonological books. '常' (cháng) is pronounced 'chang' in modern times. If you don't know that the character '常' (cháng) was pronounced 'soeng' in Cantonese in ancient times, then you might mistakenly assume that the '常只切' (cháng zhǐ qiē) recorded in ancient books should be pronounced 'chi'. This is a classic example of arriving at the wrong answer based on correct logic when the premise is wrong." "What's most laughable is that this phenomenon has become widespread in modern scholars' research and reconstruction of ancient phonology. This is a flawed approach that phonology inherited from the 'closed-door' research methods of Qing Dynasty scholars."

"But the reason why scholars in the Qing Dynasty did this was because it was the only way they could do it. After all, not every scholar had the opportunity to travel all over the world and conduct field investigations across the country like Xu Xiake."

"But if modern people have these conditions and still continue to follow the path of the ancients without making improvements, then it is our fault."

"You're awesome, Zhou Zi!" He Shiqing gave Zhou Zhi a thumbs up: "What you did is very meaningful."

"Let's go back to the phenomenon of borrowing. In fact, there were many similar uses in ancient times. As they were used, they were even used as formal usages."

"Could you give another example?"

“Hmm, for example, the word ‘dismemberment’,” Zhou Zhi said. “The earliest meaning of this word was actually a form of punishment in ancient China that involved dismembering the limbs of a person, which can be traced back to the pre-Qin period. The word is recorded in classics such as the ‘Strategies of the Warring States’ and the ‘Gongyang Commentary’, and it often appears alongside cruel punishments such as ‘dismemberment by chariot’.”

"So the word should actually have been 'dismemberment' in its earliest form, but soon the word was written as 'branching' and 'dismemberment'."

"The first way of writing it is called 'erhua' in classical Chinese. The so-called 'erhua' is actually a misspelling, but later everyone got used to using it as the formal usage, and the misspelling became 'correct'."

"The second usage is simplification. In ancient times, when writing was recorded with knives and pens, simplified characters were often used to replace the original characters, as long as it did not cause misunderstanding."

"As a result, the frequency of dismemberment in Chinese is much higher than that of 'dismemberment' because 'dismemberment' is obviously much more civilized when used metaphorically to express the idea of ​​'dividing a whole thing' than 'dismemberment'."

"It's a pity I'm not a Chinese literature major," Liang Hong said regretfully. "If you add detailed research to what I just said, it could be a bachelor's thesis, right?"

“That’s definitely possible.” Zhou Zhi didn’t mince words: “At least finding information in ancient paintings about the street signs, advertisements on carriages, and borrowed characters on the small flags carried by pedestrians selling goods, which were left by the painters in a realistic style, is already considered interdisciplinary research. Nowadays, you can even get extra points for doing this kind of paper!”

"Why don't you give Xinyi or Ye Xin a call?"

"Isn't this cheating wrong?" He Shiqing frowned. (End of Chapter)