{"id":51554,"date":"2021-07-21T05:34:39","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T10:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51554"},"modified":"2021-07-21T05:47:37","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T10:47:37","slug":"ambling-shambling-rambling-wandering-wondering-the-spirit-of-master-zhuang-chuang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51554","title":{"rendered":"Ambling, shambling, rambling, wandering, wondering:  the spirit of Master Zhuang \/ Chuang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All the talk of <a href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51540\">moseying and ambling<\/a> propelled me into a customary mode of mind.\u00a0 Those who have taken classes with me know that, though I may start at a certain point in my lectures, it is difficult to predict how we will get to our intended destination, though we are certain to pass through many interesting and edifying scenes and scenarios along the way.<\/p>\r\n<p>As I have stated on numerous occasions, my favorite Chinese work of all time is the <i><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhuangzi_(book)\">Zhuang Zi<\/a> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhuang_Zhou\">Chuang Tzu<\/a> <\/i><span lang=\"zh-Hant\">\u838a\u5b50 (ca. 3rd c. BC).<\/span>\u00a0 The English title of my translation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Wandering-Way-Chuang-Tzu\/dp\/082482038X\"><i>Wandering on the Way<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 The publisher wanted something more evocative than \"Master Zhuang \/ Chuang\" or \"Zhuang Zi \/ Chuang Tzu\", so I spent a couple of days coming up with about sixty possible titles, and they picked the one that I myself preferred, \"Wandering on the Way\", which is based on the first chapter of the book:\u00a0 \"Xi\u0101oy\u00e1o y\u00f3u \u900d\u9059\u904a\" (\"Carefree wandering\").<\/p>\r\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\r\n<p>Now, when we dive deep into the spirit of xi\u0101oy\u00e1o \u900d\u9059 (\"carefreeness; being free and easy\"), we find that it gets to the very soul of Master Zhuang.<\/p>\r\n<h3><span id=\"Etymology\" class=\"mw-headline\">Etymology<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">A <a title=\"reduplicative\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/reduplicative\">reduplicative<\/a> <a title=\"ideophonic\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/ideophonic\">ideophonic<\/a> word, originally meaning \u201cto walk leisurely\u201d. As a concept in Chinese philosophy, <i>xiaoyao<\/i> was featured prominently in the ancient text of <i><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"wikipedia:Zhuangzi (book)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhuangzi_(book)\">Zhuangzi<\/a><\/i>. Compare the similar reduplicative formations of:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span class=\"Hani\" lang=\"zh\"><a title=\"\u62db\u6416\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E6%8B%9B%E6%90%96#Chinese\">\u62db\u6416<\/a><\/span> (<i><span class=\"tr Latn\"><span title=\"Old Chinese\">OC<\/span> *tjew lew<\/span><\/i>, \u201cto walk freely &gt; to act pretentiously\u201d)<\/li>\r\n<li><span class=\"Hani\" lang=\"zh\"><a class=\"new\" title=\"\u512a\u6e38 (page does not exist)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/w\/index.php?title=%E5%84%AA%E6%B8%B8&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">\u512a\u6e38<\/a><\/span> (<i><span class=\"tr Latn\"><span title=\"Old Chinese\">OC<\/span> *qu lu<\/span><\/i>, \u201cat leisure\u201d)<\/li>\r\n<li><span class=\"Hani\" lang=\"zh\"><a class=\"new\" title=\"\u592d\u7d39 (page does not exist)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/w\/index.php?title=%E5%A4%AD%E7%B4%B9&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">\u592d\u7d39<\/a><\/span> (<i><span class=\"tr Latn\"><span title=\"Old Chinese\">OC<\/span> *qrow djew\u0294<\/span><\/i>), <span class=\"Hani\" lang=\"zh\"><a class=\"new\" title=\"\u8981\u7d39 (page does not exist)\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/w\/index.php?title=%E8%A6%81%E7%B4%B9&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\">\u8981\u7d39<\/a><\/span> (<i><span class=\"tr Latn\"><span title=\"Old Chinese\">OC<\/span> *qew djew\u0294<\/span><\/i>, \u201clithe; relaxed\u201d)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3><span id=\"Etymology\" class=\"mw-headline\">Reconstructions<\/span><\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Middle Chinese\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Middle_Chinese\">Middle Sinitic<\/a>: <span class=\"IPA\">\/si\u1d07u\u00a0 ji\u1d07u\/<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div class=\"vsSwitcher\" data-toggle-category=\"pronunciations\">\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Old Chinese\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Old_Chinese\">Old Sinitic<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<dl>\r\n<dd><small>(<i><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Zhengzhang Shangfang\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhengzhang_Shangfang\">Zhengzhang<\/a><\/i>)<\/small>: <span class=\"IPAchar\">\/*sew\u00a0 lew\/<\/span><\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 80px;\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E9%80%8D%E9%81%99\">source<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n<p>Examining the construction of the sinographs used to write these four words in characters &#8212; xi\u0101oy\u00e1o \u900d\u9059 (\"carefreeness; being free and easy\") plus the three words in the indented section just above &#8212; it is clear that the discrepant semantophores are largely irrelevant.\u00a0 What matters are the phonemes that constitute these kindred expressions.\u00a0 As is true with most ancient disyllabic morphemes, the radicals \/ classifiers \/ semantophores were added later in the evolution of the Sinographic forms.<\/p>\r\n<p>Xi\u0101oy\u00e1o \u900d\u9059 (\"carefreeness; being free and easy\") ended up with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kangxi_radical\">Kangxi radical<\/a> 162 &#8212; chu\u00f2 \u8fb5 (\u2ecc\u3001\u2ecd\u3001\u2ece), which means \"walk\" &#8212; nicely compatible with the notion of \"wandering\".<\/p>\r\n<p>There's an ancient Sinitic disyllabic word &#8212; w\u0113iy\u00ed \u59d4\u86c7 \/ \u9036\u8fe4 (and there are many other different graphic representations [I think that I once counted a dozen variants]) &#8212; that means \"meandering; winding; sinuous\".\u00a0 Neither of the syllables by itself means anything germane to this expression.\u00a0 It's one of those disyllabic morphemes, of which there are plenty in Sinitic: q\u00edl\u00edn \u9e92\u9e9f (\"kirin\" [not \"unicorn\"] \u2014 see \"<a title=\"Permanent link to Of reindeer and Old\r\n        Sinitic reconstructions\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=41164\" rel=\"bookmark\">Of reindeer and Old Sinitic reconstructions<\/a>\" [12\/23\/18]), f\u00e8nghu\u00e1ng <span id=\"result_box\" class=\"short_text\" lang=\"zh-TW\"><span title=\"\u51e4\u51f0\">\u9cf3\u51f0<\/span><\/span> (so-called \"phoenix\"), p\u00edp\u00e1 \u7435\u7436 (\"biwa; lute\"), p\u00fat\u00e1o \u8461\u8404 (\"grape\"),\u00a0 zh\u012bzh\u016b \u8718\u86db (\"spider\"), sh\u0101nh\u00fa \u73ca\u745a (\"coral\"), qi\u016by\u01d0n \u86af\u8693 (\"earthworm\"), x\u012bshu\u00e0i \u87cb\u87c0 (\"cricket\"), g\u016bl\u00f9 \u8f42\u8f46 (\"wheel\"; cf. \"<a title=\"Permanent link to Archeological and\r\n        linguistic evidence for the wheel in East Asia\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=46397\" rel=\"bookmark\">Archeological and linguistic evidence for the wheel in East Asia<\/a>\" [3\/11\/20]), h\u00fadi\u00e9 \u8774\u8776 (\"butterfly\" \u2014 of mythical proportions, deftly dissected by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_A._Kennedy_%28sinologist%29\">George Kennedy<\/a> (1901-1960), the brilliant Yale professor), and so forth.\u00a0 See \"<a title=\"Permanent link to \" href=\"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=23775\" rel=\"bookmark\">'Butterfly' words as a source of etymological confusion<\/a>\" (1\/28\/16).\u00a0 Most of these expressions are ancient and have more than one Sinographic form, and several of them have Iranian or other foreign antecedents.\u00a0 All of them provide powerful evidence of the priority of sound over written Sinographic form.\u00a0 One such disyllabic morpheme that has a special place in my heart is \u5c34\u5c2c (simpl.) \u5c37\u5c2c (trad.) \/ \u5c32\u5c2c (the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of this word for Modern Standard Mandarin [MSM] is g\u0101ng\u00e0).\u00a0 A decidedly colloquial expression, it has at least 10 different Sinographic forms known to me.<\/p>\r\n<p>I believe that a detailed study of the historical phonology of all of these expressions would handsomely repay whomever undertook it.<\/p>\r\n<p>Finally, a brief look at the last (the third) Sinograph of the title of the first chapter of the <i>Zhuang Zi <\/i>\/<i> Chuang Tzu<\/i>, viz., y\u00f3u \u904a (\"travel, tour; wander, roam; <span style=\"color: #ff1229;\">play<\/span>; walk; move freely\").<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">From <span class=\"etyl\"><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Sino-Tibetan languages\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sino-Tibetan_languages\">Sino-Tibetan<\/a><\/span>. Cognate with <span class=\"etyl\"><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Lhasa Tibetan\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lhasa_Tibetan\">Tibetan<\/a><\/span> <i class=\"Tibt mention\" lang=\"bo\"><a title=\"\u0f62\u0f92\u0fb1\u0f74\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E0%BD%A2%E0%BE%92%E0%BE%B1%E0%BD%B4#Tibetan\">\u0f62\u0f92\u0fb1\u0f74\u0f0b<\/a><\/i> <span class=\"mention-gloss-paren\r\n        annotation-paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"mention-tr tr Latn\" lang=\"bo-Latn\">rgyu<\/span>, <span class=\"mention-gloss-double-quote\">\u201c<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss\">to go; to walk; to move; to wander<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-double-quote\">\u201d<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-paren annotation-paren\">)<\/span>, <span class=\"etyl\"><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Lepcha language\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lepcha_language\">Lepcha<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"mention-gloss-paren annotation-paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"mention-tr tr Latn\" lang=\"lep-Latn\">y\u016d<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-paren annotation-paren\">)<\/span>, <span class=\"etyl\"><a class=\"extiw\" title=\"w:Rawang language\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rawang_language\">Rawang<\/a><\/span> <i class=\"Latn mention\" lang=\"raw\"><a title=\"y\u0268\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/y%C9%A8#Rawang\">y\u0268<\/a><\/i> <span class=\"mention-gloss-paren\r\n        annotation-paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-double-quote\">\u201c<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss\">to flow<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-double-quote\">\u201d<\/span><span class=\"mention-gloss-paren annotation-paren\">)<\/span> (<a title=\"Wiktionary:About Chinese\/references\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Wiktionary:About_Chinese\/references#S\">Schuessler, 2007<\/a>).<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Same word as <span class=\"Hani\" lang=\"zh\"><a title=\"\u6e38\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E6%B8%B8#Chinese\">\u6e38<\/a><\/span> (<i><span class=\"tr Latn\"><span title=\"Old Chinese\">OC<\/span> *lu<\/span><\/i>, \u201cto swim\u201d).<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E9%81%8A\">source<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n<p>When we replace the radical 162 (\"walk\") of y\u00f3u \u904a (\"travel, tour; wander, roam; <span style=\"color: #ff1229;\">play<\/span>; walk; move freely\") with the radical 85 (\"three dots water\"), this results in y\u00f3u \u6e38 (\"swim\").\u00a0 Bearing in mind the rule of the late attachment of radicals \/ classifiers \/ semantophores, one realizes that with y\u00f3u \u904a (\"walk; roam; play\", etc.) and y\u00f3u \u6e38 (\"swim\"), we are dealing with a single etymon, one that conveys the notions of leisurely roaming, swimming (flowing-floating along with a current), and playing.\u00a0 That's the excursive ludic propensity of my alter ego, Zhuang Zi \/ Chuang Tzu.<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to Mosey\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51540\" rel=\"bookmark\">Mosey<\/a>\" (7\/19\/21)<\/li>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to GA\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=33963\" rel=\"bookmark\">GA<\/a>\" (8\/6\/17) &#8212; for GANGA (\"awkward; embarrassed\")<\/li>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to Goblet word\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=47302\" rel=\"bookmark\">Goblet word<\/a>\" (5\/30\/20)<\/li>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and\r\n        animal style art in southern China\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=44944\" rel=\"bookmark\">Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China<\/a>\" (11\/11\/19)<\/li>\r\n<li>Graham, A. C. \"Chuang-tzu and the Rambling Mode.\"\u00a0 In T. C. Lai, ed., The Art and Profession of Translation:\u00a0 Hong Kong:\u00a0 Hong Kong Translation Society, 1976. Pp. 61-77.<\/li>\r\n<li>Mair, Victor H., tr. <i>Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of <a title=\"Zhuang Zhou\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zhuang_Zhou\">Chuang Tzu<\/a><\/i> (Honolulu: <a title=\"University of Hawaii Press\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Hawaii_Press\">University of Hawaii Press<\/a>, 1998; first ed. New York:\u00a0 Bantam, 1994); also available as <i>Zhuangzi Bilingual Edition<\/i>, translated by Victor H. Mair (English) and Minci Li (Modern Chinese) (Columbus:\u00a0 The Ohio State University Foreign Language Publications, production of the National East Asian Languages Resource Center, OSU, 2019) \u2014 this is actually a trilingual edition, since the 736 pages volume also includes the original Classical Chinese version.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>[Thanks to all of my students who join me in my playful wandering \/ wondering]<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All the talk of moseying and ambling propelled me into a customary mode of mind.\u00a0 Those who have taken classes with me know that, though I may start at a certain point in my lectures, it is difficult to predict how we will get to our intended destination, though we are certain to pass through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,316,178,218,260,51,24,292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borrowing","category-colloquial","category-etymology","category-language-and-literature","category-language-and-philosophy","category-morphology","category-phonetics-and-phonology","category-reconstructions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51571,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51554\/revisions\/51571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}