Chinese Euphonics: Phonological Patterns, Phonorhetoric and Literary Artistry in Early Chinese Narrative Texts

Jeffrey R. Tharsen

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Chinese Euphonics

Phonological Patterns, Phonorhetoric and Literary Artistry in Early Chinese Narrative Texts

Jeffrey R. Tharsen
Funded by: SAGW

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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Volume 29 | Welten Ostasiens / Worlds of East Asia / Mondes de l’Extrême Orient

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Open Access

What did Old Chinese prose sound like? Supported by digital texts, modern technologies and historical linguistics, Chinese Euphonics is a deep dive into the types of sound patterns that occur throughout the earliest corpora of narrative texts in the Chinese canon: the Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, the Classic of Documents《尚書》and the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals《春秋左傳》.

Tharsen demonstrates how sound patterns in the speeches preserved in these foundational texts functioned in concert with form and meaning to create "phonorhetoric," a tactic employed by some of the most eminent figures from Chinese antiquity to beautify and strengthen their arguments and ideas by making use of extensive phonological patterning and the power of sound.

Containing both a broad history of the study of prose rhyming and a wealth of new evidence, Chinese Euphonics lays the groundwork for a new and more comprehensive approach to the study of early Chinese texts.

Author / Editor information

Jeffrey R. Tharsen, University of Chicago, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	V
Contents Open Access Download PDF	VII
List of Figures Open Access Download PDF	IX
Chapter 1 Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 Euphony, Phonological Patterns, and Literary Aesthetics in Early Chinese Texts Open Access Download PDF	4
Chapter 3 Early Chinese Rhetoric and Phonorhetoric Open Access Download PDF	22
Chapter 4 On Euphony and Phonorhetoric in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions Open Access Download PDF	38
Chapter 5 Analyses of Euphony and Phonorhetoric in Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions Open Access Download PDF	46
Chapter 6 On Euphony and Phonorhetoric in Early Chinese Transmitted Texts Open Access Download PDF	95
Chapter 7 Analyses of Euphony and Phonorhetoric in the Classic of Documents Open Access Download PDF	118
Chapter 8 Analyses of Euphony and Phonorhetoric in Selected Speeches from the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals Open Access Download PDF	175
Chapter 9 Conclusions and Further Research into Euphony and Phonorhetoric in Early Chinese Texts Open Access Download PDF	211
Appendix 1: Tools for a Digital Age: The Digital Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese 1.0 Open Access Download PDF	221
Appendix 2: Old Chinese Phonology and Current Reconstruction Systems Open Access Download PDF	225
Appendix 3: Layout and Notation Open Access Download PDF	229
Appendix 4: A Comparative Analysis of the Phonology of the Word min in Old Chinese Open Access Download PDF	233
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	239
Index Open Access Download PDF	249

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

December 30, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9783110663204

Hardcover published on:

December 30, 2024

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110663105

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

8

Main content:

250

Illustrations:

5

Coloured Illustrations:

4

Tables:

14

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110663204

eBook ISBN: 9783110663204

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110663105

Keywords for this book

Paleography; Chinese Philology; Phonorhetoric; Western Zhou

Audience(s) for this book

Academics (Sinology, East Asian Studies, East Asian Linguistics)

Creative Commons

BY-NC-ND 4.0

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Chinese Euphonics

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About this book

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