Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby 1 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby William Dolby William Dolby became known as one of the foremost experts on the Chinese language, culture and history. As a highly respected and renowned lecturer in Mandarin, researcher of Classical Chinese and father of five, he spent his life surpassing academic excellence. William Dolby sadly passed away in 2015, but right to the last he freely shared his deep love of a subject and in so doing created a truly inspirational and sound foundation in those who took the time to listen. As a true master the respect that he gained from his peers and from students, friends and colleagues was indisputably a priceless rarity. Beavering away for over fifty years he produced an amazing selection of works, some of which are captured in his ‘Chinese Culture Series’ - 33 volumes of classical Chinese translation, research and insight. These volumes, through many kind donations are now becoming available in digital format, with this work, the second to be digitised, showcasing a way towards the preservation of a great legacy and for future students of the subject to access. Ieuan Dolby October 2015 For More Information Visit: The Chinese Research and Translations of William Dolby http://www.williamdolby.com 2 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED, REPRINTED OR COPIED http://www.williamdolby.com 3 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby CHINESE ALLUSIONS 中文典故小辭典 A short dictionary by William Dolby CHINESE CULTURE SERIES No.28 4 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby Chinese Allusions (No.28 of the CHINESE CULTURE SERIES) translated by William Dolby PRINT EDITION First Published by Carreg Publishers of Edinburgh, 2012 DIGITAL EDITION First Published by Straight Back Publishing of Dundee, 2015 Straight Back Publishing The Copyright of this work, and the individual volumes of the Chinese Culture Series © Ieuan Dolby, 2015. All rights are reserved. This Edition and all other works may not be distributed, portrayed, developed, adapted or copied in any format or by any means without express permission from the owners. 5 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby …………… to all great minds, students and researchers of classical Chinese ……………. 6 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby 7 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby PREFACE The Chinese written character, being of strong visual impact as well as conveying, like other writing systems, the basic meaning and sound, enables Chinese literature at its best to transmit an unusual density of meaning. This visual aspect and the density of meaning make fine Chinese literature often immensely difficult, and sometimes, it should be admitted, quite untranslatable into other languages. Moreover, of this fine literature, much defies adequate translation for another reason: the use of allusion. Brief allusions to momentous happenings, vast concepts, subtle wit, borrowing the magnitude of what is alluded to, and in so doing importing to the knowing reader sometimes enormous extra density of meaning. This extra meaning can sometimes be rendered into another language by the use of an introduction or of annotation, but such devices at the same time diminish the immediacy and solidity of semantic impact, and can by some be regarded as too intellectual or simply too distracting from the main body of the literature, thus diminishing the enjoyment and appreciation of the foreign reader, and in-turn reducing the value of the original work. It may be that, one day in the distant future, there will be enough excellent translations of Chinese source works into foreign languages for the foreign reader with no knowledge of the Chinese language to have acquired so much deep and precise knowledge of the allusive materials and their wider cultural and social contexts as to require no footnoting or other explanations outside the main text of the translation. Meanwhile, we must work towards that goal of creating more profound and nuanced understanding, to assist the proper conveyance of the original meaning and value. It is hoped that this dictionary, addressing many of the most famous allusions, but encompassing but a small part of the range of Chinese allusions, can contribute something towards that process. My copious use of the slash is irritating to me, as it will no doubt be to the user, and I have often sworn never to make my dictionaries rely on symbols and “See such-and- such”, but the only alternative in this case would surely be to expand the dictionary several times over. The reader should quickly get used to such obstacles, and rapidly overcome them, or at least cease to fume about them. It was rarely the fate of dictionaries to be loved, and curses are perhaps more often the response to them, however useful they prove. But that’s maybe beside the point. Just glance at the riches of allusion, and imagine them multiplied hundreds of times in the original civilisation. This book includes work published in the 1980s and earlier, which has since undergone long mulling-over, but all the same is only “work in progress”, no doubt leaving room for embellishment and rectification. It’s a step towards fuller and more ready access to Chinese language and literature. Many of the key phrases pointing to the allusions have become “ready-made sayings (ch’eng-yü), idioms that are sometimes treated more casually, since so familiar, in modern than in ancient Chinese, but that still add colour, precision, insight and other positive qualities to the Chinese language, and will continue, in some ways perhaps increasingly, to do so. William Dolby, Bruntsfield, 2010 8 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby 9 Chinese Allusions, a short dictionary by William Dolby A. A-FANG WU-T’IEN 阿房舞殿: “A-fang’s dancing palace-hall”: [Used as an image for sumptuousness and splendour. A-fang was the name of an imperial palace during the Ch’in dynasty (221 BC-207 BC). Tu Mu (803-852) in his A-fang Palace rhapsody (A-fang kung-fu 阿 房宮賦) says: “In the dancing palace-hall the sleeves are cold” Cf. YI-CHÜ A-FANG.] AI-ERH PU-SHANG 哀而不傷: “to be sad but not damagingly so” – [of songs, poetry, music, etc.] to be beautifully sorrowful in effect, to just the right and seemly degree, but not exciting extravagant grief, [extended to mean:] to do something to just the right degree and with restraint, neither too little nor excessively [Lun-y Lun-y 3.20. says: “In the song Ospreys quarking of Shih-ching,” said Sir Confucius, “there’s humour, but not excessive humour, and sadness, but not damaging sadness.” This refers to the sadness evoked.]; AI-HUI KU-LI 哀毀骨立: “to be destroyed by sadness and stand like a bone” – because of the death of one’s parent/ parents to be so sad that one is reduced to emaciation, to be reduced to emaciation by sadness. [Fan Yeh (398-455) describes how Wei Piao (AD ?-AD 89) “was perfect in his pure loving compliance to his parents, and when his father and mother died, kept to his bed in his cottage for three years, and at the end of that mourning period was so emaciated that he was like a standing bone/ bones (i.e. a skeleton?), quite altered in appearance. And it took medical treatment for several years before he was able to rise from his bed again.” So this phrase was later used in praise of the devotedly filial child, but can also be used in the more general sense without connotations of filiality.]; AI-HUNG PIEN-YEH 哀鴻遍野: “lamenting snow-geese are all over the countryside” – displaced, homeless, suffering people are all over the country [i.e. because of economic, social and political breakdown, government oppression or inadequacy, etc. “Lamenting snow- geese” in this sense is used in Shih-ching.]; AI-JEN KUAN-CH’ANG 矮人觀場: “a dwarf/ shorty/ short person watching a (stage-) performance in the open square” – to lack one’s own point of view and simply follow/ fit in with other people’s 10