Beyond Logography: The Phenomenon of zhuanzi [phrase omitted] in the Chinese Writing System.

• Author: Olech, Marian

The earliest attested usage of the term [phrase omitted] zhuanzi comes from Wang Yun's [phrase omitted] (1784-1854) Shuowen shili [phrase omitted], in which, among other examples, Wang refers to the graph [??] hui 'to defame' as the zhuanzi of hui [??] 'destroy' as in huiyu [phrase omitted] 'to defame, to destroy one's reputation' [phrase omitted] (see Chen [2002] 2014: 222). (1) The term, sometimes rendered as zhuanyongzi [phrase omitted] (Zhao 1993: 86; Chen [2002] 2014) or zhuanzaozi [phrase omitted] (Chen 2011: 300), has since gained increasing currency in Sinophone scholarship, being the object of variously phrased definitions, most of which fall within the scope delineated by Jin Guotai [phrase omitted] (2003a: 3), who described zhuanzi as "graphs used specifically to write a specific meaning (zhuanyi) of a word" [phrase omitted], reflected in the choice (i.e., addition or alteration) of the semantic component in a compound graph. (2)

The phenomenon of zhuanzi is best viewed from a position of clear differentiation between the levels of writing and language; Jin's definition is therefore rightfully constructed on the juxtaposition of 'graph' ([phrase omitted]) and 'word' ([phrase omitted] ci). Such perspective is also explicitly assumed by Zhang Wei [phrase omitted] (2016: 213): "although zhuanzi are created to represent a specific meaning (zhuanyi), [at the same time] there is no fully corresponding, specific word ([phrase omitted]

zhuanci) that would emerge in the language" [phrase omitted]. However, as this paper seeks to demonstrate, the ambiguous 'specific meaning' [phrase omitted] zhudnyi misrepresents the actual kind of information contained within many of the instances of zhuanzi. In the following sections I will first present and discuss typologically grouped examples of the phenomenon in question, and subsequently attempt to set up a coherent theoretical approach accounting for the nuanced reality of zhuanzi. (3)

GENDER- AND DIVINITY-RELATED ZHUANZI

Although instances of zhuanzi are found throughout the history of Chinese writing, an apt starting point for the present analysis is provided by the shapes familiar from the very first steps in the acquisition of this script by a contemporary learner: the graphs for personal pronouns in modern Mandarin. Triggered by contact with gender-specific pronouns of Western languages and facilitated by the reforms of the New Culture Movement in the first half of the twentieth century, the third person pronoun ta, earlier invariably written as [??], came to be graphically differentiated between different classes of referents. After a rather lengthy process of invention and evolving usage, a full account of which lies beyond the scope of this paper, the graphs [??] and [??] are today employed for men and women respectively, while [??] is used in reference to non-human entities. Moreover, the form [??], originally interchangeable with [??], in Taiwan has been established as exclusive to animals. The feminine-specific graph [??] for the second-person pronoun ni, used marginally since the 1920s, has been discarded in the PRC, while gaining popularity in Taiwan (for a detailed discussion, see Chen and Tang 2022). The graphs [??] ta and [??] ni, traceable also to the first half of the twentieth century as translations of the capitalized "He" and "Thou" in Christian contexts, have been gaining traction in Taiwan, also in the extended reference to all supernatural beings, such as deities, spirits, deceased ancestors, etc. (4)

The emergence of zhuanzi with the semantic component [??] used specifically for female referents has some historical precedents, possibly as early as the Spring and Autumn period. Zh5u (2017: 359) indicates that the graph [??] in the inscription on Zeng Meng Zhu Ji fu [phrase omitted] (TC 5803 (5)) writes the word meng 'oldest child' in reference to a woman. Zhang (2017: 74) observes that in the Dunhuang text Mei wang ri [phrase omitted] (lit., "the day of younger sister's death") the word haizi [phrase omitted] 'child' is purposely written as [phrase omitted], the graph [??] being intentionally used as a female-specific zhuanzi of hai ([phrase omitted]). (2003a: 5) also points to another twentieth-century instance of gender-related zhuanzi: Lu Xun [phrase omitted] in his essay "Peng bi" zhi yu "[phrase omitted] (1925) uses the idiom wuming xiaozu [phrase omitted] 'a nobody' (lit., 'nameless little soldier') in reference to a woman, and creatively writes zu 'soldier' with the graph [??], with an ad hoc addition of the component [??] 'woman' to the regularly used [??]. A humorous invention of Lu Xun, the form [??] nevertheless belongs among the cases discussed above.

Recent creation of the "divine" pronoun zhuanzi [??] ta and [??] ni with the semantic component [??] 'altar' also has earlier analogs. In the inscription on Sima Mao bianbo [phrase omitted] (TC 15768-69) from the early Warring States period we see the word xian [??] 'former' in phrases xianwang [phrase omitted] 'former kings' and xiangong [phrase omitted] 'former lord' (6) written with the graph [phrase omitted], aptly identified by Dong Lianchi [phrase omitted] (2011: 37) as "zhuanzi of xian ['former'] as in xianwang ['former king(s)'] and xiangong ['former lord(s)']" [phrase omitted]. In Xincai Geling [phrase omitted] Chu bamboo strips, the same form occurs in reference to san Chu xian [phrase omitted] "three ancestors of Chu" (Chen 2011: 307; Zhou 2017: 181). Despite their temporal remoteness, the graphs [??] xian, [??] ta and [??] are all used for the "divine" subset of all possible referents of their respective lexemes xian, ta and ni. The analogy is further reinforced by the fact that [??] ta can refer to dead ancestors, echoing the pre-Qin usage of [??] xian.

BUFFALO COWS AND ANTELOPE BULLS: SPECIES-RELATED ZHUANZI

By far the best-studied examples of species-related zhuanzi are the graphs historically used for the word pair pin

Although I am inclined to regard all these forms as zhuanzi of the words pin and mu for respective animal species (possibly sometimes read also as hewen), due to present spatial constraints I will limit my analysis only to the graphs [??] and [??], for which the evidence is most compelling. In the corpus of received texts, the words pin and mu, invariably written as [??] and [??] respectively, can be used in the abstract sense, such as pin mu zhi he [phrase omitted] 'the union of male and female' seen in Laozi [phrase omitted] and Yi Zhou shu [phrase omitted]. In the Shijing [phrase omitted] ode Si tie [phrase omitted], from the section Qin feng [phrase omitted], the word mu occurs in the phrase chenmu [phrase omitted], usually interpreted as 'male animal(s) of the season'. In a sacrificial context, [??] mu often denotes a bull, perhaps most unequivocally so in Zhou song [phrase omitted] Lidng si [phrase omitted] "They kill that bull that is seven feet high, curved are his horns" (Karlgren 1974: 251). In the Shying, [??] mu also denotes a stallion, most commonly in the noun phrase si mu [phrase omitted], lit., 'four stallions (drawing a chariot)', e.g., in Xidoyd [phrase omitted] Jugong [phrase omitted] si mu pang pang "the four stallions are fat" (Karlgren 1974: 123). Pin ft in Shijing is seen only in Ydng feng [phrase omitted], Ding zhi fdng zhong [phrase omitted], where it clearly refers to mares. (10)

However, in the Anhui University bamboo-strip version of Si tie (mid-Warring States period), mu in reference to stallions is written as [??] and the variant form [??], (11) and as [??] in the aforementioned phrase chenmu [phrase omitted]. It should be noted, though, that in the same Anhui University bamboo version of Xiaorong [phrase omitted] the form [??] is used for the stallion-related mu (see Zhou and Shao 2020: 21), an irregularity perhaps symptomatic of a transition from zhuanzi to non-specific use of [??]. Retracing other occurrences of pin and mu from the Warring States and earlier periods, one finds that these words in equine contexts are invariably written as [??] and [??]. In the inscription on the vessel hu of Ci [phrase omitted] from the state of Zh5ngshan [phrase omitted] (mid-Warring States period), we encounter [phrase omitted] si mu pang pang, clearly the same sentence as in Ju gong[phrase omitted], referenced above (Lin 2002: 329). In the bamboo strips from the tomb of Marquis Yi [??] of Zeng [??] (c. 433 BCE), both [??] and [??] occur in reference to carriage horses (see Xiao 2011: 114, 117, 190, 192 for relevant discussion). The Geng hu [phrase omitted] inscription (late Spring and Autumn period, ca. 547 BCE (12)) contains the phrase [phrase omitted] shengmu, otherwise familiar from the Shijing ode You bi [phrase omitted] from the section Lu Song [phrase omitted], translated by Legge as 'team of stallions', but perhaps better understood as 'chariot stallion(s)'. In the inscription on the Zi Fan bianzhong [phrase omitted] (mid-Spring and Autumn period, seventh century BCE) the [phrase omitted] si mu 'four stallions' and a chariot are among the gifts granted to Zi Fan by the king.

In oracle bone inscriptions, [??] and [??] appear in the following contexts:

[phrase omitted] (Heji 3411 (13))

The foal born to the little mare will be white. [Verification] It was not white. (14)

[phrase omitted] (Huadong 98)

If making a purchase, it should be stallion(s). It should be mare(s). (15)

In one case, mu referring to a stallion seems to be represented by the graph [??] alone (equivalent to the component [??] in [??]):

[phrase omitted]. (Hebu 9264)

Divined on Yiwei, Fu tested: (if) the chariot stallion(s) contributed by Shi [is/are] gelded, [it/they] will not die. (16)

In light of the diachronic continuity of the forms [??] and [??] throughout the Zhou period, which, based on the transmitted corpus, may be identified with certainty as "equine" zhuanzi of pin and mu, it is difficult to interpret the [??] and [??] in OBI as anything...