Views on Classical Allusion(Part 2)

典故私論(下)

Views on Classical Allusion(Part 2)

Creators Kawaguchi Yoshiharu

Chinese classical literature has two typical rhetorical devices: Duiju 対句 and Diangu 典故, that is, classical allusion.The purpose of this article is to describe several personal views on classical allusion in Chinese literature.This article is divided into two parts.Part 2 researches the generation of words (poetic words), and considers the possibility that previous texts influence present texts in Chinese classical works. From "Chen Kang yu Boyu wen" 陳亢於伯魚問, an episode of Lunyu Jishi 論語季氏篇, two words were generated as classical allusion: Guoting 過庭 and Quting 趨庭。The meaning of both of these words is the same, that is, “taking lessons from the father”. Guoting began to be used from the middle period of the Han 漢 dynasty, but Guoting was also sometimes used to mean its literal meaning “pass through the garden”. The usage of Guoting was not always based on the Lunyu episode. Thus, the new word, Quting, began to be used starting at the end of the Nanbeichao 南北朝 period and the beginning of the Sui 隋 dynasty. Quting has been bound more strongly to the Lunyu episode than Guoting. Generally, in terms of classical allusion of Chinese literature, the meaning and interpretation of the present text　should be unambiguously, in other words, have a so-called one-to-one relationship, bound by the previous text. Therefore, it seems to be difficult to discover examples where the previous text influences and transforms the meaning and interpretation of the present text.　Nevertheless, this paper endeavors to exemplify some such examples. For this purpose, this paper regards Du Fu's 杜甫 verse "Deng Yanzhou chenglou"登兗州城楼 and Chen Ziang's 陳子昂 prose "Shang shang Gaoshi muzhiming" 上殤高氏墓誌銘 as the present texts and the Lunyu episode as the previous text. With that in mind, it becomes very important that Qu of Quting has two kinds of interpretation in the commentaries of Lunyu. One is “run”, and the other is not “run”, but is a formal way of carriage, walking briskly in front of the father. Du Fu's verse takes the later interpretation and expands Quting to mean visiting the father, emphasizing that, in the Lunyu episode, the most important attribute appears to be the solemn relationship between the father, Kongzi 孔子, and his son, Kong Li 孔鯉(Boyu 伯魚). In contrast, Chen Ziang's prose uses the former interpretation of Quting,understanding that the episode does not have a solemn atmosphere, and also that Kong Li is merely scampering around the garden when Kongzi advises him to study hard. These typical examples can be used to reconsider the meaning and interpretation of the previous text by reading the present text.

[ISSN]2189-4825