No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
It is well known that the verb yen
to “say” has some very peculiar usages in early Chinese. In about forty instances in the Book of Odes it obviously has not its normal meaning “to say” (or “what is said”, i.e. words). For example (Legge's edition, p. 62), 
does not mean “The duke says he bestows a goblet”, but simply “The duke bestows a goblet”.
1 Hu Shih Wên Tsun, vol. ii, p. 1.Google Scholar See also Shih-ch'ang, Wu, “A new interpretation of the word yen in the Shih Ching,” Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, No. 13 (06, 1934), pp. 153–170.Google Scholar
1 2nd ed., 1925. p. 71: “He broke a stick so that it said poqo.” i.e. snapped. Also the same writer's The Bantu Languages, 1919, p. 158: “The cloth which says red,” i.e. red cloth.Google Scholar
2 A sign of grief. Legge says, “We must cast about surely for some other meaning.” But there is no getting round the fact that people who have been crying do snivel.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.