Xin Deyong
"Chiseling" is a commonly used word and a word with a "story". Now the more authoritative Chinese dictionary, such as the Hanyu Da Dictionary, explains it as:
1. Open roads.
2. Out of thin air; chiseled.
Obviously, the latter should be an extension of the former, that is, the semantics of "out of thin air" or "chiseled" derived from the opening of roads. Whether it is with the mountains and logs, or the junchuan set sail, it is a real thing, how can it be derived from the meaning of "out of thin air" or "chiseling"? This is really inexplicable.
To understand well the origin of this semantics, it is better to go back to its original meaning and see how the so-called "open road" interpretation comes from the "History of the Great Wanlie".
The Biography of Dawan Lie records that Zhang Qian wrote about Shuyun after his envoy to the Western Regions during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty:
Also, worship for the big line, listed in the Nine Qing. Years old, died.
Wusun made the Han people rich and rich, and returned to his country, and his country was beneficial to the Han. In the following years, Qian's envoys to the great Xia were quite popular with others, so the northwest kingdom began to pass through the Han Dynasty. However, Zhang Qian chiseled the air, and the subsequent envoys were all called Bowanghou, believing that they were hostage to foreign countries, and foreign countries believed in them.
The earliest of the three commentaries in the "Shi ji", that is, Liu Song Pei Xiao's "Interpretation of the Collection of Historical Records", explains this "chiseling empty" phrase:
Su Lin said: "Chisel, open; empty, through also." Qian opened the Western Regions Road. ”
In short, the literal meaning of "chiseling" is "opening", and whether the object of "opening" is an ordinary "road" or a specific "Western Dao" or something else, it is only interpreted with the text, and is not the inherent meaning of the term "chiseling".
Does this explanation work or does it not work? The context is read along, and it is clear, but it does not necessarily conform to the original meaning of the word "chiseled". Because simply looking at its word-building form, "chiseling" is more like a verb-object structure, that is, "open" is a verb, and "empty" is the object of "open".
Until the Tang Dynasty Sima Zhen wrote the "History of Suoyin", he explained the word "chiseling":
It is said that the western region is dangerous, there is no road, and now it is hollow and clear.
This expression of "chiseling the void and passing through it" shows that in Sima Zhen's view, "chiseling the void" does not seem to need to be understood as "opening", but should be a phrase of the dynamic object structure I am talking about. For if that were the case, he should say "chiseled and passed", not "chiseled and passed".
Late Ming Dynasty Jiguge inscribed "History of Suoyin"
People who know a little about the history of the Qin and Han Dynasties know that the Book of Han written by Ban Gu uses a lot of the contents of the "Historical Records". In the "Biography of Zhang Qian" in the Book of Han, there are also roughly the same records as the "Biography of Shi Ji Dawan Lie" when the narrative and related matters are also described, and the cao Wei shiren Su Lin's statement quoted above is originally from Su Lin's annotation of the "Book of Han And Zhang Qian Biography". However, after quoting Su Lin's statement, the Tang Dynasty Yan Shigu made his own annotations:
Empty, hole also. Say the hole also. Therefore, it is "dangkō", and the "Tale of the Western Regions" is also called "Kong Dao".
Yan Shigu said, "This is the 'dangky road'", that is, the following in the "Book of Han and Zhang Qian's Biography", "The Han envoys are lacking, resentful, and attack each other." Lou Lan and Gushi Xiaoguo, when the karate, attacked and robbed the Han envoy Wang Hui, especially the "Yunyun Incident", and this "empty road" seems to refer to the following sentences in the "Book of Han and the Biography of the Western Regions":
At the beginning, Emperor Wu felt Zhang Qian's words and was willing to pass through the kingdoms of Dawan, and the emissaries looked at each other in the Tao, up to more than ten generations in one year. Lou Lan and Gu Shi were in charge, bitter, and attacked han to make Wang Hui and so on.
The "Dang Dao" in the text corresponds to the record of the "Biography of Zhang Qian", so it is quite suspected that the "Book of Han" according to Yan Shigu was the book "Dang Kong Dao", but now the word "Kong" has been removed, so Yan Shi will make the above annotation in the "Biography of Zhang Qian".
However, even if the "Book of Han and The Tale of the Western Regions" does not do "Kong Dao" here, there is another record of "Kong Dao" in this book:
Out of yang pass, from the beginning of the near, known as the Qiang. The King of Wuqiang went to The King of Hulai. Go to Yangguan 1800 miles, go to Chang'an 6,300 miles, open in the southwest, not the hole road.
This statement of "improper Kong Dao" is exactly the same as the structure of the "Dangkong Dao" text in the "Biography of Zhang Qian", such as Yan Shigu Yun, and the words "empty" and "Kong" should have the same semantics. Yan Shigu also specifically commented on the words of the "Tale of the Western Regions": "The Confucian Daoist, who crosses the mountains and dangers is the Tao, is like a cave in the ear." ”
According to this, "emptiness" and "hole" are all "hole" ears, and Zhang Qian's "chiseling" is also said to be "chiseling hole", in the vernacular of the common people, that is, chiseling out a hole eye.
Yan Shigu's exhortation to use "Kong" as "empty" can also be found in the "Chronicle of Dawan" (史史·大萬列傳), that is, when Emperor Wu of Han launched a large-scale conquest of Dawan:
There is no well in the city of Wanwang, and all the water outside the city is drawn. So he sent the water workers to empty his city.
This "emptiness" of "water and emptiness", the "Interpretation of the Collected Histories" quotes Xu Guang, a liu song dynasty, to explain the clouds: "Emptiness, a 'cave', covers the city with water." Those who speak 'empty' make the city thirsty. This explanation is really not very decent, and it is inexplicable to read. The "Book of Han and The Biography of Zhang Qian" also recounts this matter, but according to Xu Guang's other books, the book is "So the water workers moved to the water under the city to burrow their city", Yan Shigu naishi said:
Empty, hole also. Those who migrate their cities into the water, order them to flow from him, and do not force their cities to do so. The void besieged its city with a hole and attacked it, so that the hole could be pierced. ...... One day: Not only to migrate its water, but not to let the city flow down, but because of its old hole in the city, attack and burrow.
Yan apparently cut this sentence out of it and split it into two sentences, which read: "So the water dispatchers moved to his city and went into the water, emptying his city." In fact, combined with the aforementioned commentary on Yan Shigu's ancient "empty path", that is, "Kong Dao", the word "water and air" here should be read consecutively as a word, meaning "water hole", and the Book of Han takes "the one who caves his city" from the current "History" as "the one who emptys his city". According to the Gai "Biography of the Great Wan lie", it is to remove the hole under the city wall to divert water into the city, and then further expand this hole and attack the city. In this way, the two phases are confirmed, which is enough to further prove the previous statement.
In fact, "emptiness" as "kong" is a more prominent example in the "Records of History", which is the story of Emperor Shun's father, Emperor Shun, who wanted to harm his body in the "Five Emperors Benji":
Later, Shun went through the well again, and Shun went through the well to hide the air. Shun went deep, and The Elephant went down to the well, and Shun came out of hiding and went. Shu Shu and Xiang Xi, with Shun as dead.
The "hidden void" mentioned here, Tang Zhang Shoujie's "History of Justice" ShiYun: "Yan Shun sneaked next to the perforation and came out of his well." Although what is said is not clear enough, the interpretation of the word "empty" as "hole" should be clear and unmistakable. The Qing dynasty Fang Bao interpreted the record of the "Records of History", saying that Taishi Gong was said to be "shun in the well as an empty space that can be hidden, and its empty bypass can also be out" (see Fang's "Notes on the History of History"). Therefore, to be precise, "hidden space" should be "dark hole". The Five Emperors Benji says that Shun dug a hidden hole in the side wall of the well and escaped when naifu buried the wellhead.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Fang Bao's "Supplementary Correction of Historical Records" was engraved
In addition, the well-known idiom of "empty hole to wind", its original semantics, is also "hole to wind". Song Yu's "Wind Endowment" sentence cloud: "The citrus sentence comes to the nest, the empty hole comes to the wind, and the person it entrusts is natural, then the atmosphere is special." "Qing Hu Shaoxuan's "Selected Notes" Vol. 15 Shiyun:
Note: "Zhuangzi said 'Empty reading comes to the wind'. Sima Biao said, "The portal is hollow, and the wind is good from it.". Duan's jade tailoring: "The ancient 'reading', 'cave' pass, 'empty', 'cave' overlapping words, 'hollow' is 'hole', Lao Tzu 'closes its door, plugs its exchange', 'exchange' means 'reading' of the provincial false loan word also." "Shao Xuan Press: Ancient times used "emptiness" as "hole". "Sayings": "Kong, trick also." ”
This is equivalent to a broader perspective, but also more forcefully confirm the rationality of Zhang Qian's "chiseling" as "chiseling hole".
And the "Zhou Li Dongguan Kao Gong Record" "wheel man" article recorded the cloud: "Chisel two and a half inches deep, two straight under, one chisel end." Zheng Xuan, the Great Confucian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, noted: "The chiseled deep pair is five inches, so as not to hurt Da Changye." The lower straight two, the chiseled lower straight and the upper low two points also. His bow is scratched, and the lower two parts of it are kept in, so that the dignity of the cover will not be scratched. End, inner question also. The "chiseling" in Zheng Xuan's note is the same semantic as the "chiseling" in the "History of the Chronicle of dawan Lie", that is, the meaning of "chiseling hole". Tang Lu Deming's "Classic Interpretation" for this "chiseled hollow" of the "empty" note: "empty, sound hole." This can further prove that Zhang Qian's "chiseling" is only the meaning of "chiseling hole", and the pronunciation of the word "empty" is originally used as a sound, and it is pronounced the same as "hole".
Further analyzing the origin of the semantic meaning of the word "empty", we can see that from the word "work", there was originally a "hole" meaning. For example, in ancient times, the iron ring used to penetrate the shaft between the inner and outer mouths of the hub was called "hammer", and its shape was like a round hole. Some people may think that my idea has the taste of a wild fox zen of "the skin of the wave water", but the article "The Evolution of Right Textual Theory in Hermeneutics and Its Interpretation" (see "Shen Jianshi's Academic Papers") focuses on the ideographic role of such sound symbols. Mr. Shen Jianshi is a person who studies literary exegesis, and "The Evolution of Right Text saying in hermeneutics and its deduction" is one of his masterpieces, which I think is still worth reading for historians.
Unearthed lanterns from the tomb of Marquis Haidian (according to the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Capital Museum, "Five Colors of Xuanyao - Archaeological Achievements of the Marquis of Haixiao in the Han Dynasty of Nanchang")
Derived from this meaning of chelu, there is a so-called "polish lamp", which has been excavated from the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of the Western Han Dynasty. If you look at the shape of this lamp, it is easy to understand that the meaning of the word "釭" is due to the smoke pipes on both sides, and this pipe is a hole in itself.
There is also the "anus" that each of us has, which is also related to the semantic meaning of the word "worker", and even some people think that it is also derived from the car. At the end of the "History of Bian Quecang Gonglie Biography", Tang Zhang Shoujie's "Justice" states:
The anus weighs twelve two, eight inches large, two and a half inches in diameter, two feet and eight inches long, and is one of the nine liters of the valley. , ingotium also. It is said that it is like a car, so it is called a gate.
Regardless of whether this statement conforms to the order of word generation, the anus and the car and the pipe of the smoke guide on the lamp are obviously similar in the state of a hole. Thinking of this, it can be vividly said that Zhang Qian's "chiseling" is equivalent to chiseling a hole for the Han Empire of Emperor Wu of Han to the northwest.
As for the meaning of "out of thin air" or "chiseled", I really don't know where to start. In my opinion, it can only be "chiseled" "out of thin air" - those who interpret and use it in this way must understand the "emptiness" word of "chiseling" as "emptiness" and "emptiness", that is, the meaning of "emptiness" that has nothing.
Editor-in-Charge: Zang Jixian
Proofreader: Shi Gong