Dr. Zhong Zhenzhen was born in 1950 in Nanjing. He is currently a professor at Nanjing Normal University, a doctoral supervisor, the director of the Institute of Ancient Literature Collation, and a distinguished professor of Tsinghua University. He is also the guiding professor of the "Chinese Culture Research Scholarship for Foreign Scholars" of the China Scholarship Council, the honorary president (former president) of the Chinese Rhyme Literature Society, the vice president of the Global Chinese Poetry Association, the consultant of the Chinese Poetry Society, the general consultant of the CCTV "Poetry Conference", the consultant of the poetry platform of "Listening to the Rain in Xiaolou", and the distinguished professor of the Wenjin Forum of the National Library. He has been invited to give lectures at more than 30 famous overseas universities such as Yale and Stanford in United States.
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Is the Han poem "Yang Zijiang" in the Qing · Song Dynasty a mistake of "Yangtze River"?
Yang Zijiang Zhouci (one of the two)
Song Zhihan
The moon is born at night by the river, and the sunlight reflects the water.
The round sand heron flies down, and the fine fire fishing boat is extinguished and regained sight.
Rong Ma Yuntun resigned from the country of Lu, and the drum thunder moved into Wucheng.
Tourists in different places laugh at the sound of wheat in the air.
Netizen Chi An asked: Teacher, is the "Yang Zijiang" here written wrongly? It seems that there is only the "Yangtze River".
Zhong Zhenzhen replied: That's right. "Yangzijiang" is "Yangtze River".
A very important way to make Chinese characters is "shape sound". Generally speaking, the characters on the side of "扌" and the characters on the side of "wood" belong to the shape and sound characters. The word that indicates the movement of the hand is mostly used "扌" side; Words that indicate the type of tree or related to wood, often use "wood" on the side. Theoretically, there is a clear difference between the two. However, due to the similarity of the two side characters, especially the cursive script, it is very common for the characters on the side of "扌" and the words on the side of "wood" to be mixed in ancient classics. In the face of this objective reality, we cannot mechanically judge right and wrong according to the rigid principle of "words that indicate the movement of the hand" from "扌" and "words that indicate the type of tree or related to wood" from "wood", but can only adopt the expedient measure of "the law does not hold the public accountable", analyze specific problems in detail, treat them separately, and deal with them flexibly. Where there are a large number of mixed authors and classics, we will be lenient and say that a certain character is "the same" and "connected" with a certain character, and recognize its "legitimate" existence; Where there are very few mixed authors and classics, for example, there are only one or two cases, or even unique "isolated evidence", then they must be strictly examined and cannot be easily let go.
Of course, this is also said in general and in principle. There are exceptions to everything, and in some special cases, generalizations cannot be made. For example, in ancient times, there were a large number of manuscripts, manuscripts, and even printed copies, which were written by people with a very low level of folk culture, and circulated among people with a very low level of folk culture, where all kinds of typos abounded, and even if there were many use cases, it was not easy to say that they were all "legitimate" without screening. Because, if the scale is too wide, we don't know how much to increase the number of common and fake characters, vulgar characters, and variant characters of our Chinese characters. Fortunately, these texts are studied and processed by professional workers, and we ordinary readers are not very likely to have access to these texts, so their impact on our mass reading is minimal.
There is an exception to the opposite. Some mixed words, although the use case is "solitary evidence", it is found in classic writers and classic works, and has always been recognized by the academic community. That's a different story.
Is this the "snobbery" and "double standard" of cultural elitists? From a certain point of view, there is a little suspicion. If you don't agree, it's normal and understandable. However, after all, classic writers and classic works are the crystallization of national wisdom, and I believe that most rational and intellectual readers will not adopt an "anti-intellectual" attitude towards this.
It's off, but it's back to the point. The reason why I say "Yangtze River" can be written "Yang Zijiang" is precisely because it has a large number of use cases in ancient texts.
The Yangtze River, in a narrow sense, refers to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River below Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, until it enters the sea. It also refers to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River below present-day Nanjing to the section of the river into the sea. This name has existed in the Eastern Jin Dynasty at the latest, and it was called "Yang Zijiang" at that time. Southern Dynasty Song · Liu Jingshu's "Alien Garden" Volume 7: Liu Muzhi tasted Yang Zijiang. (Qing Wenyuan Pavilion Siku Quanshu) and the literature of the book "Yangtze River", which can be seen today, is not earlier than this.
Since then, from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the use cases of "Yang Zijiang" in the classics of the past dynasties have emerged one after another.
In the volume of Tang · Rui Tingzhang's "National Show Collection", Meng Haoran's poem "Crossing the Yang Zijiang" said: Gui Ji is looking at the middle of the river, and the two sides of the Beijing River are bright. Lin Kai Yangzi Station, the mountain out of Runzhou City. According to, "Jingjiang", the section of the Yangtze River that flows through Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province. "Runzhou", that is, Zhenjiang City. Zhenjiang City and Yangzhou City face each other across the river. Its river surface is the Yangtze River.
Yin Fan's "Collection of Heroic Souls of Heyue" volume on Liu Yanxu's poem "Yang Zijiang Sends Meng Haoran in Twilight Autumn" says: The cold flute is in Beijing, so he is in Xiangyang. Yongslao tonight, the Han River is far away. (Four series of Jingming translated the Song book) press, "Jingkou", also for today's Zhenjiang City.
Quan Deyu's "Quan Zai's Anthology" volume 6 has the poem "Crossing the Yang Zijiang River at Night but Sending Jiangnan to the Hometown" (four series of Jingqing Jiaqing Edition).
Liu Yuxi's "Liu Mengde Anthology" outer collection volume 8 "Willow Branches" poem says: Yang Zijiang is a fan of smoke and scenery, and the Sui family palace tree blows the golden embankment. (Four series of Jing Songben)
Tang · Duan Chengshi's "Youyang Miscellaneous" first collection volume 3 "Bei Bian" said: The monks and their entourage are poor and have strange skills. Kaiyuan tasted drought, and Xuanzong ordered to pray for rain. One line: If you have a weapon, you can only cause rain if you have a dragon-like device. The order is all over the inner library, and they are all incompatible. A few days later, he pointed to an ancient mirror nose disc dragon, and said: This is a real dragon. It was held into the dojo, and it rained overnight. Or the cloud is entered by Yangzhou, when the initial model is into, there are strangers to, please close the door and enter the room. After a few days of opening an account, the model has been completed, and the person has been lost. There are pictures and passed on to the world. This mirror was cast in the heart of Yang Zijiang on May 5. (Four series of Jingming) press, "Yangzhou", that is, Yangzhou City.
Wei Zhuang's "Huanhua Collection" Volume 4 "Accompanying the Night Banquet in the Xiangzhong Hall of Jinling Mansion" poem says: But the sorrowful banquet is scattered, and Yang Zijiang's head moon is half oblique. (Four series of Jingming) press, "Jinling", that is, Nanjing City. The Nanjing River is also known as the Yangtze River.
(To be continued)
Author/Zhong Zhenzhen Editor/Feng Xiao