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Eastern Han Chinese or Later Han Chinese is the stage of the
Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
revealed by poetry and glosses from the
Eastern Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
period (first two centuries AD). It is considered an intermediate stage between
Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
and the
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
of the 7th-century '' Qieyun'' dictionary.


Sources

The rhyming practice of Han poets has been studied since the Qing period as an intermediate stage between the ''
Shijing The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
'' of the
Western Zhou The Western Zhou ( zh, c=, p=Xīzhōu; c. 1045 BC – 771 BC) was a royal dynasty of China and the first half of the Zhou dynasty. It began when King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty at the Battle of Muye and ended when the Quanrong noma ...
period and
Tang poetry Tang poetry () refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, (June 18, 618 – June 4, 907, including the 690–705 reign of Wu Zetian) and/or follows a certain style, often considered as ...
. The definitive reference was compiled by Luo Changpei and Zhou Zumo in 1958. This monumental work identifies the rhyme classes of the period, but leaves the phonetic value of each class open. In the Eastern Han period, Confucian scholars were bitterly divided between different versions of the classics: the officially recognized New Texts, and the
Old Texts In Chinese philology, the Old Texts () refer to some versions of the Five Classics discovered during the Han Dynasty, written in archaic characters and supposedly produced before the burning of the books. The term became used in contrast with Mode ...
, recently found versions written in a pre-Qin script. To support their challenge to the orthodox position on the classics, Old Text scholars produced many philological studies. These include
Xu Shen Xu Shen ( CE) was a Chinese calligrapher, philologist, politician, and writer of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-189). He was born in the Zhaoling district of Run'an prefecture (today known as Luohe in Henan Province). During his own lifetime, ...
's ''
Shuowen Jiezi ''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the '' Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give ...
'', a study of the history and structure of
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
, the ''
Shiming The ''Shiming'' (), also known as the ''Yìyǎ'' (逸雅; ''I-ya''; ''Lost Erya''), is a Chinese dictionary that employed phonological glosses, and "is believed to date from ''c''. 200 E. This dictionary is linguistically invaluable because it ...
'', a dictionary of classical terms, and several others. Many of these works contain remarks of various types on the pronunciation of various words.
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
also expanded greatly in China during the Eastern Han period. Buddhist missionaries, beginning with
An Shigao An Shigao (, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148-180 CE) was an early Buddhist missionary to China, and the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a pri ...
in AD 148, began translating Buddhist texts into Chinese. These translations include transcriptions in Chinese characters of
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
names and terms, which were first systematically mined for evidence of the evolution of Chinese phonology by
Edwin Pulleyblank Edwin George "Ted" Pulleyblank (August 7, 1922 – April 13, 2013) was a Canadian sinologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. He was known for his studies of the historical phonology of Chinese. Life and career Edwin G. ...
. The ''Shiming'' glosses were collected and studied by
Nicholas Bodman Nicholas Cleaveland Bodman (July 27, 1913 – June 29, 1997) was an American linguist who made fundamental contributions to the study of historical Chinese phonology and Sino-Tibetan languages. Bodman was born in Chicago in 1913. He entered Harva ...
.
Weldon South Coblin Weldon South Coblin, Jr. (born February 26, 1944) is an American Sinologist, linguist, and educator, best known for his studies of Chinese linguistics and Tibetan. Life and career Coblin attended the University of Washington as an undergraduate st ...
collected all the remaining glosses and transcriptions, and used them in an attempt to reconstruct an intermediate stage between
Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
and
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
, both represented by the reconstructions of
Li Fang-Kuei Li Fang-Kuei ( Chinese: 李方桂, Cantonese: Lei5 Fong1 Gwai3 ej˩˨ fɔŋ˦ gʷaj˧, Mandarin: Lǐ Fāngguì i˨ faŋ˦ gʷej˥˩ 20 August 190221 August 1987) was a Chinese linguist known for his studies of the varieties of Chinese, his r ...
. Axel Schuessler included reconstructed pronunciations (under the name Later Han Chinese) in his dictionary of Old Chinese. The customary writing style of the period was strongly modelled on the classics, and thus provides only occasional glimpses of contemporary grammar. However, some works, while generally following the conventional archaizing style, contain passages in a more colloquial style thought to reflect contemporary speech, at least in part. Many such examples are found in translated Buddhist literature, particularly
direct speech As a form of transcription, direct or quoted speech is spoken or written text that reports speech or thought in its original form phrased by the original speaker. In narrative, it is usually enclosed in quotation marks, but it can be enclosed in ...
. Similarly, Zhao Qi's commentary on ''
Mencius Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucianism, Confucian Chinese philosophy, philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confuc ...
'' includes paraphrases of the classic written for the benefit of novice students, and therefore in a more contemporary style. Similar passages are also found in the commentaries of Wang Yi,
Zheng Xuan Zheng Xuan (127– July 200), courtesy name Kangcheng (), was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer near the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Gaomi, Beihai Commandery (modern Weifang, Shandong), and was a student of Ma R ...
and
Gao You Gao You (–212) was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician during the Eastern Han dynasty under its last emperor and the warlord Cao Cao. Life Gao You was born in Zhuo Commandery ''Zhuōjùn''; present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei). around ...
.


Dialects

Several texts contain evidence of dialectal variation in the Eastern Han period. The '' Fangyan'', from the start of the period, discusses variations in regional vocabulary. By analysing the text,
Paul Serruys Paul Leo-Mary Serruys C.I.C.M. (19 November 191216 August 1999) was a Belgian missionary, sinologist, and academic best known for his studies on the grammar of Classical Chinese, oracle bone script, and on the varieties of Chinese. He was a memb ...
identified six dialect areas: a central area centred on the Central Plain east of
Hangu Pass Hangu Pass or Hanguguan is a pass separating the upper Yellow River and Wei valleys—the cradle of Chinese civilization and seat of its longtime capital Xi'an—from the fertile North China Plain. It lies on the south bank of the Yellow Rive ...
, surrounded by northern, eastern, southern and western areas, and a southeastern area to the south and east of the lower
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
. Distinct rhyme systems of the Han period poets identified by Luo and Zhou broadly correspond to these dialect areas. The most influential dialect was the Qin–Jin dialect, from the western group, reflecting the ascendency of the state of
Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...
. Second was the Chu dialect, from the southern group, which spread both to the south and to the east. These two dialects were also the principal sources of the Han standard language. The central dialects of the area of former states of Lu,
Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
and Wei were the most conservative. The dialects of the eastern area, which had been more recently and slowly Sinified, include some non-Chinese vocabulary. The Eastern Han glosses come from 11 sites, all to the north of the
Huai River The Huai River (), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...
. They often show marked phonological differences. Many of them exhibit mergers that are not found in the 7th-century '' Qieyun'' or in many modern varieties. The exception is the Buddhist transcriptions, suggesting that the later varieties descend from Han-period varieties spoken in the region of
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
(in the western part of the central dialect area). The southeastern dialects are not reflected in Eastern Han texts. They were known as Wu () or Jiangdong () dialects in the
Western Jin Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
period, when the writer
Guo Pu Guo Pu (; AD 276–324), courtesy name Jingchun () was a Chinese historian, poet, and writer during the Eastern Jin period, and is best known as one of China's foremost commentators on ancient texts. Guo was a Taoist mystic, geomancer, collector ...
described them as quite distinct from other varieties. Jerry Norman called these Han-era southeastern dialects Old Southern Chinese, and suggested that they were the source of common features found in the oldest layers of modern Yue,
Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
and
Min Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Am ...
varieties.


Phonology

Eastern Han Chinese syllables consisted of an initial consonant, optional medial
glide Glide may refer to: * Gliding flight, to fly without thrust Computing *Glide API, a 3D graphics interface *Glide OS, a web desktop *Glide (software), an instant video messenger *Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr ...
s, a vowel and an optional coda.


Initial consonants

The consonant clusters postulated for Old Chinese had generally disappeared by the Eastern Han period. One of the major changes between Old Chinese and Middle Chinese was palatalization of initial
dental stop In phonetics and phonology, a dental stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the tongue in contact with the upper teeth (hence dental), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonant). Dental and alveolar stops are ...
s and (in some environments)
velar stop In phonetics and phonology, a velar stop is a type of consonantal sound, made with the back of the tongue in contact with the soft palate (also known as the velum, hence velar), held tightly enough to block the passage of air (hence a stop consonan ...
s, merging to form a new series of palatal initials. Several Eastern Han varieties show either or both of these palatalizations. However,
Proto-Min Proto-Min is a comparative reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. Min varieties developed in the relative isolation of the Chinese province of Fujian and eastern Guangdong, and have since spread to Taiwan ...
, which branched off during the Han period, has palatalized velars but not dentals. The retroflex stops and sibilants of Middle Chinese are not distinguished from plain stops and sibilants in the Eastern Han data. There is some uncertainty whether the Middle Chinese initials ''g-'', ''ɣ-'' and ''j-'' can all be derived from a single Old Chinese initial , or whether an additional fricative initial or must be reconstructed. Most Eastern Han dialects have a single initial in such words, but some of them distinguish and . Some Eastern Han dialects show evidence of the voiceless sonorant initials postulated for Old Chinese, but they had disappeared by the Eastern Han period in most areas. The Old Chinese voiceless lateral and nasal initials yielded a initial in eastern dialects and in western ones. By the Eastern Han, the Old Chinese voiced lateral had also evolved to or , depending on syllable type. The gap was filled by Old Chinese , which yielded Eastern Han and Middle Chinese ''l''. In some Eastern Han dialects, this initial may have been a lateral tap or flap.


Medial glides

Most modern reconstructions of Old Chinese distinguish labiovelar and labiolaryngeal initials from the velar and laryngeal series. However, the two series are not separated in Eastern Han glosses, suggesting that Eastern Han Chinese had a medial like Middle Chinese. Moreover, this medial also occurs after other initials, including syllables with Old Chinese and before acute codas (, and ), which had broken to and respectively. Most OC reconstructions include a medial to account for Middle Chinese retroflex initials, division-II finals and some ''
chongniu ''Chóngniǔ'' () or rime doublets are certain pairs of Middle Chinese syllables that are consistently distinguished in rime dictionaries and rime tables, but without a clear indication of the phonological basis of the distinction. Description ...
'' finals, and this seems to have still been a distinct phoneme in the Eastern Han period. Since the pioneering work of
Bernhard Karlgren Klas Bernhard Johannes Karlgren (; 15 October 1889 – 20 October 1978) was a Swedish sinologist and linguist who pioneered the study of Chinese historical phonology using modern comparative methods. In the early 20th century, Karlgren conducte ...
, it has been common to project the palatal medial of Middle Chinese division-III syllables back to an Old Chinese medial , but this has been challenged by several authors, partly because Eastern Han Buddhist transcriptions use such syllables for foreign words lacking any palatal element. However, Coblin points out that this practice continued into the Tang period, for which a ''-j-'' medial is generally accepted. Scholars agree that the difference reflects a real phonological distinction, but there have been a range of proposals for its realization in early periods. The distinction is variously described in Eastern Han commentaries: * He Xiu (何休, mid 2nd century) describes syllables that gave rise to Middle Chinese ''-j-'' as 'outside and shallow' ( ), while others are said to be 'inside and deep' ( ). *
Gao You Gao You (–212) was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician during the Eastern Han dynasty under its last emperor and the warlord Cao Cao. Life Gao You was born in Zhuo Commandery ''Zhuōjùn''; present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei). around ...
(early 3rd century) describes the former as 'urgent breath' ( ) and the latter as 'slack breath' ( ).
Pan Wuyun Pan Wuyun (, born March 1943) is a leading Chinese linguist and specialist in historical Chinese phonology. Career Pan was born in Rui'an, Zhejiang in 1943. After graduating from high school, he was unable to attend college because of his famil ...
and
Zhengzhang Shangfang Zhengzhang Shangfang (; ; 9 August 1933 – 19 May 2018) was a Chinese linguist, known for his reconstruction of Old Chinese. Zhengzhang was born as Zheng Xiangfang ( ; ) in Yongjia County, on the outskirts of Wenzhou. As and have the same ...
interpreted this as a short/long distinction, but a more literal reading suggests a tense/lax contrast.


Vowels

Most recent reconstructions of Old Chinese identify six vowels, , , , , and . Eastern Han rhyming practice indicates that some of the changes found in Middle Chinese had already occurred: * The vowels and had merged before , and . * The finals and had merged (Middle Chinese ''-æ''). * The following splits and mergers of finals had occurred: The Middle Chinese final ''-jæ'' occurs only after plain sibilant and palatal initials, with no known conditioning factor.


Codas

The Middle Chinese codas ''-p'', ''-t'', ''-k'', ''-m'' and ''-ng'' are projected back onto Eastern Han Chinese. The Middle Chinese coda ''-n'' also appears to reflect in most cases, but in some cases reflects vocalic codas in some Eastern Han varieties. Baxter and Sagart argue that these words had a coda in Old Chinese, which became in
Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
and adjacent areas, and elsewhere. Middle Chinese syllables with vocalic or nasal codas fell into three tonal categories, traditionally known as even, rising and departing tones, with syllables having stop codas assigned to a fourth " entering tone" category.
André-Georges Haudricourt André-Georges Haudricourt (; 17 January 1911 – 20 August 1996) was a French botanist, anthropologist and linguist. Biography He grew up on his parents' farm, in a remote area of Picardy. From his early childhood, he was curious about technol ...
suggested that the Middle Chinese departing tone derived from an Old Chinese final , later weakening to . Several Buddhist transcriptions indicate that was still present in the Eastern Han period in words derived from Old Chinese . Other departing tone syllables may have become by the Eastern Han period, as suggested by a slight preference to use them to transcribe Indic long vowels. Based on Haudricourt's analysis of Vietnamese tones,
Edwin Pulleyblank Edwin George "Ted" Pulleyblank (August 7, 1922 – April 13, 2013) was a Canadian sinologist and professor at the University of British Columbia. He was known for his studies of the historical phonology of Chinese. Life and career Edwin G. ...
suggested that the Middle Chinese rising tone derived from Old Chinese . Syllables in this category were avoided when transcribing long vowels in the Eastern Han period, suggesting that they were shorter, possibly reflecting this final glottal stop.


Grammar

In comparison with Warring States texts, colloquial Eastern Han texts display a massive increase in compound
content word Content words, in linguistics, are words that possess semantic content and contribute to the meaning of the sentence in which they occur. In a traditional approach, nouns were said to name objects and other entities, lexical verbs to indicate acti ...
s in clearly distinguished word classes. They also make much less use of
function word In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s in favour of
periphrasis In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
. The monosyllabic words of the classical period were largely replaced by disyllabic compounds with clearly defined syntactic roles: * verbs, such as 'mourn', 'rejoice', 'be beautiful' and 'activate'; * nouns, such as 'house', 'acquaintance', 'place', 'body' and 'people'; * adverbs, such as 'all', ''shēn zì'' 'personally', 'together' and 'then'. Old Chinese had a range of personal pronouns, including case distinctions. In the Eastern Han, these were reduced to first person and second person . Similarly, the demonstratives were almost exclusively reduced to 'this', 'such' and 'that'. Both kinds of pronouns were often used with plural suffixes , and . Most of the interrogatives of Old Chinese were replaced with periphrastic forms. The word also came to be used as a
copular verb In linguistics, a copula (plural: copulas or copulae; abbreviated ) is a word or phrase that links the subject of a sentence to a subject complement, such as the word ''is'' in the sentence "The sky is blue" or the phrase ''was not being'' in ...
in sentences of the form A B (as in modern Chinese), replacing the typical classical pattern A B (). The negative copula was retained from the classical language; unlike any other verb, was not negated with . In classical texts, the particle marked a rhetorical question, for which a negative answer was expected, but in the Eastern Han it was a general question marker. At the same time, a new question marker appeared.


Notes


References


Citations


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reprint of . {{Han dynasty topics History of the Chinese language Han dynasty culture