_
(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century
critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used.
(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century
critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used.
Waley - 170 Chinese Poems
But
it would not be impossible, by pointing out certain qualities of each,
to enable a reader to distinguish between the two styles.
_Rhyme. _--Most Chinese syllables ended with a vowel or nasal sound. The
Chinese rhyme was in reality a vowel assonance. Words in different
consonants rhymed so long as the vowel-sound was exactly the same. Thus
_ywet_, "moon," rhymed with _sek_, "beauty. " During the classical period
these consonant endings were gradually weakening, and to-day, except in
the south, they are wholly lost. It is possible that from very early
times final consonants were lightly pronounced.
The rhymes used in _lu-shih_ were standardized in the eighth century,
and some of them were no longer rhymes to the ear in the Mandarin
dialect. To be counted as a rhyme, two words must have exactly the same
vowel-sound. Some of the distinctions then made are no longer audible
to-day; the sub-divisions therefore seem arbitrary. Absolute homophony
is also counted as rhyme, as in French. It is as though we should make
_made_ rhyme with _maid_.
I will now attempt to distinguish between _Ku-shih_ (old style) and
_Lu-shih_ (new style).
_Ku-shih (Old Style).
_
(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century
critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used. They were, indeed, assonances
of the roughest kind.
(_b_) "Deflected" words are used for rhyming as freely as "flat" words.
(_c_) Tone-arrangement. The tones were disregarded. (Lines can be found
in pre-T'ang poems in which five deflected tones occur in succession, an
arrangement which would have been painful to the ear of a T'ang writer
and would probably have been avoided by classical poets even when using
the old style. )
_Lu-shih (New Style). _
(_a_) The rhymes used are the "106" of modern dictionaries (not those of
the Odes, as Giles states). Rhymes in the flat tone are preferred. In a
quatrain the lines which do not rhyme must end on the opposite tone to
that of the rhyme. This law is absolute in _Lu-shih_ and a tendency in
this direction is found even in _Ku-shih_.
(_b_) There is a tendency to antithetical arrangement of tones in the
two lines of a couplet, especially in the last part of the lines.
(_c_) A tendency for the tones to go in _pairs_, _e. g. _ (A lat, B deflected): AA BBA or ABB AA, rather than in _threes_. Three like tones
only come together when divided by a "cesura," _e.
it would not be impossible, by pointing out certain qualities of each,
to enable a reader to distinguish between the two styles.
_Rhyme. _--Most Chinese syllables ended with a vowel or nasal sound. The
Chinese rhyme was in reality a vowel assonance. Words in different
consonants rhymed so long as the vowel-sound was exactly the same. Thus
_ywet_, "moon," rhymed with _sek_, "beauty. " During the classical period
these consonant endings were gradually weakening, and to-day, except in
the south, they are wholly lost. It is possible that from very early
times final consonants were lightly pronounced.
The rhymes used in _lu-shih_ were standardized in the eighth century,
and some of them were no longer rhymes to the ear in the Mandarin
dialect. To be counted as a rhyme, two words must have exactly the same
vowel-sound. Some of the distinctions then made are no longer audible
to-day; the sub-divisions therefore seem arbitrary. Absolute homophony
is also counted as rhyme, as in French. It is as though we should make
_made_ rhyme with _maid_.
I will now attempt to distinguish between _Ku-shih_ (old style) and
_Lu-shih_ (new style).
_Ku-shih (Old Style).
_
(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century
critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used. They were, indeed, assonances
of the roughest kind.
(_b_) "Deflected" words are used for rhyming as freely as "flat" words.
(_c_) Tone-arrangement. The tones were disregarded. (Lines can be found
in pre-T'ang poems in which five deflected tones occur in succession, an
arrangement which would have been painful to the ear of a T'ang writer
and would probably have been avoided by classical poets even when using
the old style. )
_Lu-shih (New Style). _
(_a_) The rhymes used are the "106" of modern dictionaries (not those of
the Odes, as Giles states). Rhymes in the flat tone are preferred. In a
quatrain the lines which do not rhyme must end on the opposite tone to
that of the rhyme. This law is absolute in _Lu-shih_ and a tendency in
this direction is found even in _Ku-shih_.
(_b_) There is a tendency to antithetical arrangement of tones in the
two lines of a couplet, especially in the last part of the lines.
(_c_) A tendency for the tones to go in _pairs_, _e. g. _ (A lat, B deflected): AA BBA or ABB AA, rather than in _threes_. Three like tones
only come together when divided by a "cesura," _e.
