chinese allusions

314 Pages·2015·7.08 MB·English

Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby
William Dolby

William Dolby became known as one of the foremost experts on the Chinese language,
culture and history. As a highly respected and renowned lecturer in Mandarin,
researcher of Classical Chinese and father of five, he spent his life surpassing academic
excellence.

William Dolby sadly passed away in 2015, but right to the last he freely shared his deep
love of a subject and in so doing created a truly inspirational and sound foundation in
those who took the time to listen. As a true master the respect that he gained from his
peers and from students, friends and colleagues was indisputably a priceless rarity.

Beavering away for over fifty years he produced an amazing selection of works, some
of which are captured in his ‘Chinese Culture Series’ - 33 volumes of classical Chinese
translation, research and insight. These volumes, through many kind donations are now
becoming available in digital format, with this work, the second to be digitised,
showcasing a way towards the preservation of a great legacy and for future students of
the subject to access.

Ieuan Dolby

October 2015

For More Information Visit:
The Chinese Research and Translations
of William Dolby
http://www.williamdolby.com
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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby
CHINESE
ALLUSIONS

中文典故小辭典

A short dictionary
by
William Dolby

CHINESE CULTURE SERIES No.28

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

Chinese Allusions
(No.28 of the CHINESE CULTURE SERIES)

translated by William Dolby

PRINT EDITION
First Published by Carreg Publishers of Edinburgh, 2012

DIGITAL EDITION
First Published by Straight Back Publishing of Dundee, 2015

Straight Back Publishing

The Copyright of this work, and the individual volumes of the Chinese
Culture Series © Ieuan Dolby, 2015.
All rights are reserved.
This Edition and all other works may not be distributed, portrayed,
developed, adapted or copied in any format or by any means without
express permission from the owners.

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

…………… to all great minds, students
and researchers of classical Chinese …………….
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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby
PREFACE

The Chinese written character, being of strong visual impact as well as conveying, like
other writing systems, the basic meaning and sound, enables Chinese literature at its
best to transmit an unusual density of meaning. This visual aspect and the density of
meaning make fine Chinese literature often immensely difficult, and sometimes, it
should be admitted, quite untranslatable into other languages. Moreover, of this fine
literature, much defies adequate translation for another reason: the use of allusion.

Brief allusions to momentous happenings, vast concepts, subtle wit, borrowing the
magnitude of what is alluded to, and in so doing importing to the knowing reader
sometimes enormous extra density of meaning. This extra meaning can sometimes be
rendered into another language by the use of an introduction or of annotation, but such
devices at the same time diminish the immediacy and solidity of semantic impact, and
can by some be regarded as too intellectual or simply too distracting from the main
body of the literature, thus diminishing the enjoyment and appreciation of the foreign
reader, and in-turn reducing the value of the original work. It may be that, one day in
the distant future, there will be enough excellent translations of Chinese source works
into foreign languages for the foreign reader with no knowledge of the Chinese
language to have acquired so much deep and precise knowledge of the allusive
materials and their wider cultural and social contexts as to require no footnoting or other
explanations outside the main text of the translation. Meanwhile, we must work towards
that goal of creating more profound and nuanced understanding, to assist the proper
conveyance of the original meaning and value. It is hoped that this dictionary,
addressing many of the most famous allusions, but encompassing but a small part of
the range of Chinese allusions, can contribute something towards that process.

My copious use of the slash is irritating to me, as it will no doubt be to the user, and I
have often sworn never to make my dictionaries rely on symbols and “See such-and-
such”, but the only alternative in this case would surely be to expand the dictionary
several times over. The reader should quickly get used to such obstacles, and rapidly
overcome them, or at least cease to fume about them. It was rarely the fate of
dictionaries to be loved, and curses are perhaps more often the response to them,
however useful they prove. But that’s maybe beside the point. Just glance at the riches
of allusion, and imagine them multiplied hundreds of times in the original civilisation.

This book includes work published in the 1980s and earlier, which has since undergone
long mulling-over, but all the same is only “work in progress”, no doubt leaving room
for embellishment and rectification. It’s a step towards fuller and more ready access to
Chinese language and literature. Many of the key phrases pointing to the allusions have
become “ready-made sayings (ch’eng-yü), idioms that are sometimes treated more
casually, since so familiar, in modern than in ancient Chinese, but that still add colour,
precision, insight and other positive qualities to the Chinese language, and will
continue, in some ways perhaps increasingly, to do so.

William Dolby, Bruntsfield, 2010

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby

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Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby
A.

A-FANG WU-T’IEN 阿房舞殿: “A-fang’s dancing palace-hall”: [Used
as an image for sumptuousness and splendour. A-fang was the name
of an imperial palace during the Ch’in dynasty (221 BC-207 BC).
Tu Mu (803-852) in his A-fang Palace rhapsody (A-fang kung-fu 阿
房宮賦) says: “In the dancing palace-hall the sleeves are cold” Cf.
YI-CHÜ A-FANG.]
AI-ERH PU-SHANG 哀而不傷: “to be sad but not damagingly so” – [of
songs, poetry, music, etc.] to be beautifully sorrowful in effect, to
just the right and seemly degree, but not exciting extravagant grief,
[extended to mean:] to do something to just the right degree and with
restraint, neither too little nor excessively [Lun-y Lun-y 3.20.
says: “In the song Ospreys quarking of Shih-ching,” said Sir
Confucius, “there’s humour, but not excessive humour, and sadness,
but not damaging sadness.” This refers to the sadness evoked.];
AI-HUI KU-LI 哀毀骨立: “to be destroyed by sadness and stand like a
bone” – because of the death of one’s parent/ parents to be so sad
that one is reduced to emaciation, to be reduced to emaciation by
sadness. [Fan Yeh (398-455) describes how Wei Piao (AD ?-AD 89)
“was perfect in his pure loving compliance to his parents, and when
his father and mother died, kept to his bed in his cottage for three
years, and at the end of that mourning period was so emaciated that
he was like a standing bone/ bones (i.e. a skeleton?), quite altered in
appearance. And it took medical treatment for several years before
he was able to rise from his bed again.” So this phrase was later used
in praise of the devotedly filial child, but can also be used in the more
general sense without connotations of filiality.];
AI-HUNG PIEN-YEH 哀鴻遍野: “lamenting snow-geese are all over the
countryside” – displaced, homeless, suffering people are all over the
country [i.e. because of economic, social and political breakdown,
government oppression or inadequacy, etc. “Lamenting snow-
geese” in this sense is used in Shih-ching.];
AI-JEN KUAN-CH’ANG 矮人觀場: “a dwarf/ shorty/ short person
watching a (stage-) performance in the open square” – to lack one’s
own point of view and simply follow/ fit in with other people’s
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