and complete the Feet in Chinese prosody; a line of five monosyllables therefore, contains two feet and an extra syllable, and one of seven, three. 1 But the influence of this rule does not end here, it extends through the Couplet the tones of the second, fourth, and sixth syllables, in the second line must be the opposite of those in the first; so that if the second syllable in the first line, have the direct accent, that syllable in the second line must have one of the oblique accents, and thus with the rest. In both lines however, the first, third, and fifth syllables may be filled up with either the direct or oblique tones, at the will of the writer; and thus variety in the feet is insured through the whole couplet. The accent or tone of the last syllable of the line, is regulated by the rhyme of the Stanza. If the couplets in the stanza rhyme with each other, which is generally the case, the accent of the last syllable in the first couplet, influences that of all the rest, and indeed, of all the intermediate lines; as, if the first couplet end with a monosyllable having the direct tone, the other couplets must end with one having the same tone as well as the same sound, and the intermediate lines of each couplet end with an opposite accent. Thus while each couplet ends with the same accent, there is still a variety in the lines of the stanza, taken as a whole. Perhaps the most exceptionable part of Chinese prosody is the Rhyme. Four, six, or even eight couplets in a stanza often end alike; nay the Chinese sometimes prolong the same sound through a second stanza of eight couplets, and thus have sixteen couplets rhyming with each other. To an English ear which is disgusted with even two couplets ending alike, this would be insupportable; but the taste of a Chinese differs. The following ode exemplifies most of the rules mentioned. 蕭揮 揮落 蕭手 日 蕭蕭班 馬暘 Chhing shan kwung puh kwöh Tsé chyú yih wy pyěh Fyeu yuen yeu tsé eè Khuy shyêu tsè tse khù 送友人 青山横北郭 城郭 Puh shooi hyão toong chhing Koo p'hoong wàn lee ching Loh yih koò yin tsing Syao syao pan má ming Parting with a Friend. "Where the verdant mountains incircle the city on the north, And the limpid stream washes it on the east, There did I once part with my beloved friend, Now like the down of the phoong* borne by the wind a thousand leagues; His desire to proceed, irresistible as the flying cloud, Mine to detain him, vain as the attempt to stay the setting sun; Courteously waving the hand, he then went from me, Our parting lamentation like that of the generous steed for his mate." Here, shan, the second word in the first line, has the p'hing or direct *Phoong,' described by the Catholic Missionaries as an herb resembling wormwood, which produces a downy seed. tone, and puh, the fourth, one of the tsuh, or oblique tones; and on the contrary shooi the second word in the second line of the couplet, has an oblique accent, and the fourth, toong the direct accent. Further, chhing, which ends the first couplet, having the direct tone, ching, tsing, and ming, which end the others, have the same; but kwŏh, kyeh, eè and khù, which end the intermediate lines, have all of them oblique tones. The four couplets of the stanza also rhyme with each other. It does not appear that poetry is neglected by the Chinese at the present day. The poem of the late emperor on tea is well known in Europe; and the author has now by him a Chinese Gradus ad Parnassum, (if the term may be allowed,) printed in 1758, which contains more than twenty thousand phrases of classical authority, duly arranged according to the various tones of the language. * Beside the Ko,' of which three examples have been given already, there are several other kinds of ode, as, the tse, or common elegy; thelooi, or elegy on deceased friends; and the khyuh, or lighter song. In all these however, the alternate position of the tones is generally neglected; hence, they are not dignified with the name of Shee.' They are also quite irregular both in Measure and Rhyme; and, as they, differing from the regular ode only in admitting a looser mode of structure, develope no new principle in Chinese Prosody, it seems scarcely necessary to detain the reader by any example of them. See the stanzas ascribed to Shun and Yu. OF DIALECT. When treating of Dialect in the Chinese language, it may be proper to notice a fact, which cannot have escaped those who have carefully perused the foregoing pages, that China contains in reality two languages, the Colloquial and the Written; nearly alike indeed in grammar and idiom, but still so distinct from each other, that no extent of acquaintance with the former, can put a man in possession of the latter, even in the smallest degree. Nor does this arise merely from one word being applied equally to designate perhaps ten characters totally different in their meaning;. but from there being no natural connection between the words of the colloquial, and the component parts of the written language. Did ngai designate no character but that expressing 'love,' still what natural connexion is there between ngai, love, and the character? between sin, the heart, and the character? between yin, virtue, and the character? Were a man of parts therefore, deprived of the advantages of education, to become by an extensive intercourse with society, completely acquainted with the language colloquially, this would little assist him in attaining the written language. His case would differ widely from that of a man in our native country in similar circumstances, for whom, a few months' acquaintance with letters would be sufficient to bring his colloquial acquisitions into full use, and enable him to read to almost any extent. A Chinese, however, with the fullest colloquial acquaintance with his own language, has still to acquire and associate character after character before he can read, as the English scholar has to acquire one Latin word after another, before he can read a Latin author; the only advantage he possesses, being, that the construction of the written language has a greater affinity with that of the colloquial, than the construction of Latin has with English.* What the disadvantages of a system are, which compels every learned native of China to acquire two distinct languages, it is not our business here to enquire. It is evident however, that this must place him nearly on a level with a foreign student of Chinese literature, to whom the acquisition of the written language may be equally open. It is not therefore matter of astonishment, if the precepts of Confucius be familiar to the sovereigns of Cochin-china and Japan, as well as to the emperor of China. One effect resulting from the written language being thus unconnected with the colloquial, is however worthy of notice; it has conferred on the former a character of permanent perspicuity, which renders it equally intelligible to the inhabitants of the most distant provinces in that vast empire, * Nor indeed is the construction of the written language so completely like that of the colloquial, as to leave no difficulty for the colloquial student to overcome. That the two should differ, will not appear improbable to those who consider how much the style of conversation, particularly when provincial, differs from that of respectable authors even in England; how many expletives, and uncouth modes of construction prevail in the one which So much is this the case indeed, that an author who lives in the country can imnever appear in the other. prove his style only in proportion as he studies, as in point of style the conversation around him can afford him little assistance. If it be thus in a language wherein the colloquial medium is commensurate with the written, how much more then in a language wherein the colloquial medium is confined to a few hundred monosyllables, while the written has a distinct character to represent every idea? How many adjuncts, explanatives, &c. must be necessary in the one, which would be both needless and improper in the other? Hence the many instances in the foregoing pages wherein a word or phrase is used in conversation, which has no place in the best writers in the language. So great indeed is the difference, that a man who forms his ideas of Chinese style from colloquial, or familiar epistolary, intercourse, will find himself scarcely able to comprehend the standard authors in the language, till he has gradually familiarized himself with their construction and phraseology. |