Xing Shaoshan
Xuancheng Historical and Cultural Research, No. 937
Xuancheng, ancient name Wanling, ancient county name, Han Chuzhi, Sui changed its name to Xuancheng. The average Xuancheng people pronounce "Wanling" as "Wan(wǎn) Mausoleum", whether this reading is correct or not, it is necessary to discuss the pronunciation of the word "Wan".
Chinese characters are often polysyllabic and polysetic, that is to say, a word with different pronunciations has different usages; that is, a word, the same pronunciation, also has different usages. "Wan" is such a polysyllabic, polysemantic word, but also a shape sound word, up and down. It is pronounced in three cases.
First, pronounced "wan" (wǎn late), it can be used as an adjective, verb, adverb, and noun, with different parts of speech.
Wan, if used as an adjective, has three main meanings. The first is that it can be "bent" to speak, such as the "Book of Han • Yang Xiong Passed Down": "If it is a person who wants to talk, he will stick to his tongue." "Tongue-twisting, tongue curled, unable to speak. The second is that it can be said as "euphemism and euphemism", such as "Water Margin": "While packing up gifts, go straight to Tokyo, and stay with the officials of the provincial court, let them play well before the Son of Heaven, and don't make a turn." The third is when "the four sides are low and the central is high", such as "Wanzhong, Wanqiu" in "Erya Shiqiu". The fourth is to speak as a "small appearance", such as "Poetry • Xiao Ya • Xiao Wan": "Like a dove, Han Fei Tian". "Wan, small look. Dove, bird name, like a mountain magpie and small. Han Fei, Goofy. Meaning: That little spotted dove, struggling to fly high, can sometimes get close to the clouds in the sky!
Wan, if used as a verb, also has three main meanings. The first is that it can be said when "bending the cover", because this word is originally a shape sound word, from the mián (mián) sound, the sound of yuàn complaining, like the grass in the house bending itself. The "Sayings" says, "The grass is self-covering." The second is to speak when "shaking and shaking", such as "Bai Juyi Shude Shu love forty rhymes, Shangxuan She Cui Zhongcheng": "Qingye Xia Feiqi, Spring Suburb Liu Wansi." The third is when "dissipating" is said, such as "Zhuangzi" "chaotic and seemingly", Cheng Xuanyingshu: "The appearance of disunity and dispersion is also." ”
Wan, if used as an adverb, has four main meanings. The first is to speak as "as if, as if", such as "Liaozhai Zhiyi • Promoting Weaving": "As if it is still there". Second, it can be said as "true image, very similar", such as the "Book of Han • Li Guangsu Jian's Biography": "Sealing knowledge is like this." It means that the original sealed mark is still like that. The third is when "round field, round into", such as Ming Feng Menglong's "Cautionary Circular": "The master folded five or two pieces of silver, there is no place to ask, simply make a turn." Fourth, it can be said when "tossing and turning," such as "Xu Xia's Travels and Travels to Huangshan": "The road is like turning stones." , there may be some other usages.
Wan, if used as a noun, is generally used for surnames. In ancient China, there was a man named "Wanchun", who was a Zheng Guo person in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Doctor of Wei Guo.
The second way to pronounce it is "Wan" (yù玉), through "Yu", when "intense", such as the "History of Bian Que Cang Gong Lie": "Cold and warm Qiwan, and Yuan Yutong." This is a generic word. Tongfa is the meaning of "universal, borrowed", that is, to replace the original word with a word with the same or similar pronunciation. When the ancients wrote or recorded, they could not think of the original word for a while, so they created a word, or replaced it with words with the same or similar sounds, and gradually people recognized it, and it became a common word. Although the first person wrote it in this way was the other word mentioned earlier, but later generations have imitated it and it is "legal".
The third reading is "wan" (yuān grievance), in which case the word "wan" (yuān grievance) is dedicated to place names or personal names. Xuancheng, known as Wanling in ancient times, is not pronounced "Wan (wǎn late) Mausoleum", but should be read as "Wan (Yuān) Mausoleum". In ancient times, it was not only Xuancheng that used the word "Wan" as a place name, but also Nanyang in Henan Province. Later, Wanyu domain name evolved into "Wancheng", "Wanxian", "Wanzhou", "Shangwan County", etc., and to this day, "Nanyang City" and "Wancheng District" are all referred to as "Wancheng".
In addition, dialects in different places are pronounced differently, cantonese, Hakka, Taiwanese four county dialect, Chaozhou dialect have different pronunciations.
Regarding the character for "Wan", Duan Yujie of the Qing Dynasty has a commentary in the Commentary on the Interpretation of Characters in the "Commentary on the Interpretation of Texts": "Wan, Qu Qi's self-covering also." As mentioned above, Wanye, Wanzhi Extended Righteousness. This is known as the self-defeating person, like the original meaning. By extension, wanqu, wanqu. For example, "Erya" is like Wanqiu, "Zhou Li" is Like Gui, all of which are like the righteousness of Qu. Everyone who looks good is like that. For example, Wei Feng chuan yue wan pei appearance, Tang Feng chuan yue wan dead appearance, "Kao Gong Ji" note "惌, small hole appearance" are all. "Wan" and "薀" have the same sound and meaning. Therefore, "Dialect" is known as Wan chu ye, "Li Ji" is known as rabbit as Wan Spleen, and "Spring and Autumn Dew" is known as Crane Wu Wan Qi. From the, the beep. Hey, turn and lie down also. Also shaped sound packet will be aware. Yu Nguyen Che. This passage of Duan Yujie, in addition to talking about the structure of the Wanzi character, it is on the top of the "bao gai head", the following is Ao, which is a upper and lower structure, and also talks about its original meaning and extended meaning, which is a polysyllabic and polysemantic word, and lists many examples in ancient texts. Finally, special emphasis is placed on its reading, although it is pronounced from "mián mian", but reading "夗" 夗 (yuàn grievance) sound is a form of sound plus understanding.
So, why do most of the xuancheng people in ancient times pronounce it as "wan (wǎn) tomb"? I think there are probably several reasons for this.
First, the formation of this ancient place name is thousands of years away from now, this kind of reading, the current Xuancheng people know very few people, probably only some experts and scholars who study the history of Xuancheng know, so it can not become a climate.
Second, the origin of the name Wanling is related to the geographical situation of Xuancheng. Wan, four square low central high; mausoleum, big earth mountain. The geographical situation of Xuancheng is similar to that of Nanyang in Henan Province, and since reading "wǎn late" has the meaning of a low-level basin, it seems reasonable to pronounce it as "Wan (wǎn) Late Mausoleum".
Third, this "wan (yuān grievance) character is phonetically a pinch call, and pronounced "wan (wǎn late)" is an open call, the voice is relatively loud, easy to spread, people often ask for a name loud. Judging from the composition of syllables, "Wan (yuān grievance) as a whole recognizes syllables, short tones, while "Wan (wǎn late)" has vowels and vowels, two pinyin syllables, long tones, and a longer residence time.
Fourth, language is a tool for people to exchange ideas, it has conventions, even if it is wrong, everyone recognizes it and reads it like this. For example, the "leaf" of the idiom "Ye Gong Hao Long" should be read as "shè She", and later everyone read it as "Leaf (yè page)", if someone reads it as "Ye (shè She) Gong Hao Long", it feels wrong.
However, then again, it is not that there is no mistake that cannot be corrected, but for the language of this thing, with the changes of the times and the crowd, it plays the role of expression on the line, and finally recognized by everyone, and the "Wanling Cinema", "Wanling Hotel", "Wanling Lake" and "Wanling Road" extended by "Wanling", it is another thing, and it is unlikely that people will read it as "Wan(Yuān) Mausoleum". Of course, as experts and scholars, especially those who study the history of Xuancheng, must know what is going on, and we must not "faint with ourselves" and make people "faint."
(The author is the former principal of Xuanzhou District No. 2 Middle School and a member of Xuancheng History and Culture Research Association)
Production: Tong Daqing