The etymonic determinatives of wanq [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].

• Author: Van Auken, Newell Ann

IF ONE WERE TO COME ACROSS the character [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in a modern Chinese text, he might note that the phonetic component is immediately apparent: [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] wang. And indeed the phonetic values associated with [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and correspond neatly both in modern Mandarin and in Old Chinese reconstruction, [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] wanq < mjang(H) < *mjang(s) and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] wang

THE GRAPHS [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] AND [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] IN INSCRIBED AND MANUSCRIPT TEXTS

In the Western Jou bronze inscriptions the form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [:[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is far more common than [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [:[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]]. The Jinwen guulin [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (JWGL) cites twenty-three occurrences of the bronze form corresponding to [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (entry 8-1118) but only two of the form corresponding to [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (entry 12-1621). (2) It is difficult to say which is earlier, based on the dates of the bronzes on which they are inscribed, since in many cases the vessels cannot be dated precisely. (3) We can only note that in the bronze inscriptions the graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was predominant.

We can infer from the shell and bone inscriptions (SBI) that [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was the earlier form, since the SBI graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] contains [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which is a constituent of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] but not of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In other words, [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] appears to be composed of the SBI graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] with the element [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] added. According to the analysis of Sheu Shenn [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (ca. 55-ca. 149) in the Shuowen jieetzyh [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (SWJTz), the graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is derived from [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which functions in abbreviated form as the phonetic component of the graph (see below for full translation of t he SWJTz entry). All this evidence indicates that is the earlier of the two.

While in terms of its components, the SBI graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] corresponds to the kaeshu [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] modern scholars often transcribe it [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. In the bone inscriptions this graph is most frequently taken to stand for a proper noun, either the name of a place or of a clan; it has also been understood as a verb meaning "look," though it is uncertain whether or not it should be conceived of as having the connotation "look into the distance" that the word wanq later carried (Shima 1971, 110-11; Matsumaru and Takashima 1994, 249). The graph itself is traditionally explained as a pictograph of an "eye" raised up vertically, as though straining to look, on top of a "person" A standing on a "mound of earth" [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (see, e.g., Chyou Shiguei 1995, 150-51, and Jaw Cherng 1 972, 334; this understanding is undoubtedly based on the SWJTz analysis of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as tsorng ren tuu [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] "derived from [the graphic components] 'person' and 'earth"'). It is possible that the interpretation of the SBI graph as representing a word meaning 'look into the distance' (rather than simply 'look') arose from the meaning of the word wanq in later transmitted texts rather than any contextual evidence in the SBI texts themselves, and even the explanation of the graph's composition may have been influenced by later glosses of the word wanq. Nevertheless, the transcription is as reliable as any transcription of a bone form can be, for the SBI form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] corresponds closely to the bronze form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] found on an early W. Jou vessel, the Bao yeou [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and this graph represents the word wanq 'full moon', wh ich elsewhere throughout the bronzes is written [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (4)

The late fourth to early third century B.C. Guodiann (GD) [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] MSS, published in the 1998 Guodiann Chuumuh jwujean [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], contain a total of five occurrences of graphs that are transcribed [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], with three distinct variants. The graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] corresponds precisely to [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and a second form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], is an abbreviated variant of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] lacking the [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] element. These two forms occur twice each. The form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] perhaps the most interesting of the three, occurs only once. All three GD variants contain the components [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and the graph [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] does not appear at all. (5)

Both [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] occur in the W. Jou bronzes, but the older form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] does not appear in the GD MSS, and we know that ultimately it fell out of use and was completely replaced by [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which became the standard form. Thus we might expect that in the MS texts found at Maawangduei [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], which date to the early second century B.C., the form [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] would predominate. This is not the case. An examination of the MSS published in the first and third volume of Maawangduei Hannmuh borshu [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (hereafter MWD 1 and MWD 3) reveals a total of nineteen occurrences of the older form (written [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and none of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (6) The manuscript texts extant today are but a small sample of those that must have been written during the period from the late fourth to early second century B.C., and we have no way of knowing to what extent the preference for [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the MWD MSS or its absence from the earlier GD MSS was representative of contemporary usage. The evidence only allows us to conclude that [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] had not completely displaced [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] by the beginning of the W. Hann.

WORDS DEFINED IN THE SHUOWEN JIEETZYH

In the SWJTZ, Sheu Shenn distinguishes the two characters [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] as representing different words. His entry for [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] reads as follows:

[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Wanq refers to the moon being full. [The moon] and the sun gaze at each other. [This] resembles paying court to the lord. [The graph] is derived from [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] derived from [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and derived from [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [The element] \\ is the court. (p. 391) (7)

The subsequent entry for the archaic variant reads:

[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [The graph] is an archaic form. It is an abbreviation of [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] wanq. (p. 391)

Compare the entry for [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]:

[CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Wanq refers to someone having gone out and disappeared abroad, [the act of] gazing for his return. It is derived from [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] is abbreviated and serves as the phonetic component. (p. 640)

In short, Sheu Shenn treats the two forms as different characters representing different words, \\ standing for a noun meaning "full moon," and \\ for a verb meaning "look into the distance," rather than understanding them as graphic variants. In a note to the Shuowen entry for [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], Duann Yuhtsair \\ (1735-1815) further remarks that the two graphs were frequently confused with each other (SWJTz, p. 640), demonstrating that he accepted Sheu Shenn's belief that they were not simply interchangeable allographs. (8)

USAGE IN WESTERN JOU BRONZE INSCRIPTIONS

Evidence from bronze inscriptions shows that the prescriptive distinction made by Sheu Shenn did not apply during the W. Jou, for the two graphs [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] and [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] were not and strictly distinguished, but were used interchangeably in reference to the lunar phase "full moon." In the bronzes wanq [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] meaning "full moon" typically occurs in the phrase jih wanq [CHINESE CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'after the full moon', as in the...