Myths and Legends of China Part 37

_h_ as _ch_ in Scotch _loch_.

_hs_. A slight aspirate preceding and modifying the sibilant, which is, however, the stronger of the two consonants; _e.g. hsing_ = _hissing_ without the first _i_,

_j_. Nearly the French _j_ in _jaune_; the English _s_ in _fusion_.

_k_. _c_ in _car_, _k_ in _king_; but when following other sounds often softened to _g_ in _go, gate_.

_k'_. The aspirate as in _ch'_. _Ki_ck-ha_rd_ without the italicized letters = _k'a_; and _ki_ck-he_r_ == _k'e_.

_l_ as in English.

_m_ as in English.

_n_ as in English.

_ng_. The italicized letters in the French mo_n ga_lant = _nga_; mo_n gai_llard = _ngai_; so_n go_sier = _ngo_.

_p_ as in English.

_p'_ The Irish p.r.o.nunciation of _p_arty, _p_arliament. _Sla_p-ha_rd_ without the italicized letters = _p'a_.

_s_ as in English.

_sh_ as in English.

_ss_. Only in _ssu_. The object of employing _ss_ is to fix attention on the peculiar vowel-sound _u_ (see above).

_t_ as in English.

_t'_ The Irish _t_ in _t_orment. _Hi_t-ha_rd_ without the italicized letters = _t'a_.

_ts_ as in _jetsam_; after another word softened to _ds_ in _gladsome_.

_ts'._ The aspirate intervening, as in _ch'_, etc. _Be_ts-ha_rd_ without the italicized letters = _ts'a_.

_tz_. Employed to mark the peculiarity of the final _u_; hardly of greater power than _ts_.

_tz'_ like _ts'_. This, _tz_, and _ss_ used only before _u_.

_w_ as in English; but very faint, or even non-existent, before _u_.

_y_ as in English; but very faint before _i_ or _u_.

Tone

The correct p.r.o.nunciation of the sound (_yin_) is not sufficient to make a Chinese spoken word intelligible. Unless the tone (_sheng_), or musical note, is simultaneously correctly given, either the wrong meaning or no meaning at all will be conveyed. The tone is the key in which the voice is pitched. Accent is a 'song added to,' and tone is emphasized accent. The number of these tones differs in the different dialects. In Pekingese there are now four. They are best indicated in transliteration by numbers added to the sound, thus:

_pa_ (1) _pa_ (2) _pa_ (3) _pa_ (4)

To say, for example, _pa_ (3) instead of _pa_ (1) would be as great a mistake as to say 'grasp' instead of 'trumpet.' Correctness of tone cannot be learnt except by oral instruction.

Rhythm

What tone is to the individual sound rhythm is to the sentence. This also, together with proper appreciation of the mutual modifications of tone and rhythm, can be correctly acquired only by oral instruction.

NOTES

[1] The inventions of the Chinese during a period of four thousand years may be numbered on the fingers of one hand.

[2] _East of Asia Magazine_, i, 15-16.

[3] _Cf_. Aristotle's belief that bugs arose spontaneously from sweat.

[4] For the Buddhist account see _China Review_, xi, 80-82.

[5] Compare the j.a.panese legend, which relates that the Sun-G.o.ddess was induced to come out of a cave by being tempted to gaze at herself in a mirror. See _Myths and Legends of j.a.pan_, F. Hadland Davis, pp. 27-28.

[6] See _Myths of the Nors.e.m.e.n_, by H. A. Guerber. These resemblances and the further one--namely, the dualism in the prechaotic epoch (a very interesting point in Scandinavian mythology)--ill.u.s.trate the danger of inferring ident.i.ty of origin from similarity of physical, intellectual, or moral results. Several remarkable parallelisms of Chinese religious and mythological beliefs with those recorded in the Hebrew scriptures may also be briefly noted. There is an age of virtue and happiness, a garden with a tree bearing 'apples of immortality,' guarded by a winged serpent (dragon), the fall of man, the beginnings of l.u.s.t and war (the doctrine of original sin), a great flood, virgin-born G.o.d-men who rescue man from barbarism and endow him with superhuman attributes, discipleship, worship of a Virgin Mother, trinities, monasticism, celibacy, fasting, preaching, prayers, primeval Chaos, Paradise, etc. For details see _Chinese Repository,_ vii, 520-521.

[7] _Cf._ the dwarfs in the Scandinavian myth.

[8] See Legge, _Shu ching_, ii, 320, note.

[9] In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is as well to note that the mention of the _t'ai chi_ in the _Canon of Changes (I ching_) no more const.i.tuted monism the philosophy of China than did the steam-driven machinery mentioned by Hero of Alexandria const.i.tute the first century B.C. the 'age of steam.' Similarly, to take another example, the idea of the earth's rotundity, though conceived centuries before Ptolemy in the second century, did not become established before the sixteenth century. It was, in fact, from the _I ching_ that the Chinese derived their _dualistic_ (not their monistic) conception of the world.

[10] "Formerly, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt that I was a b.u.t.terfly, flying about and feeling that it was enjoying itself. I did not know that it was Chou. Suddenly I awoke and was myself again, the veritable Chou. I did not know whether it had formerly been Chou dreaming that he was a b.u.t.terfly, or whether it was now a b.u.t.terfly dreaming that it was Chou." _Chuang Tzu_, Book II.

[11] See the present writer's _China of the Chinese_, chapter viii.

[12] See Du Bose, pp. 282, 286, 361, 409, 410, and _Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society_, x.x.xiv, 110-111.

[13] Du Bose, p. 38.

[14] He is sometimes represented as a reincarnation of Wen Chung; see p. 198.

[16] See footnote, p. 107.

[17] _Religion_, p. 177.

[18] See _Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists_, by Sister Nivedita and Ananda Coomaraswamy.

[19] The native accounts differ on this point. _Cf._ p. 16.