Hashimoto_1983_pan_dish_and_drink_in_chinese

'PAN' , 'DISH' AND 'DRINK' IN CHINESE A Case Study bì Longitudinal and Latitudinal D eveloprTIer1ts of Languagesl Mantaro J. Hashimoto National Inter-University Research Institute of Asian and African Languages and Cultures, Tokyo ABSTRACT: An attempt is made t。由tablish in some principled way the direction of linguistic developments in the East Asian continent, based on the basic lexical items of the Chinese language related to eating and drinking, 'cooking vessels' , '(cooked) dishes' and the verb 'to drink'. In order to determine the developmental direction, a) some historical evolutions of the shape and function of cooking vessels and b) regional expansions/reductions of the semantic contents of the verb 'to drink' were examined, in addition to the chronological order of these v臼sels' transformations and the semantic chang臼 of the verb 'to drink' 但tablished with the archaeological and philological evidence. The direction and 。rder of the developments were then double-checked with the synchronic distributional patterns of modern Chinese 2 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS , Vol 11 , No. 1 dialectal vocabulary corresponding to these vessel names and various diachronic variants for '(cooked) dishes' and 'to drink'. Despite the successive occurrences , in the historical documents , of the diachronic variants of these words primar- ily in the order of the synchronic distribution from the southeastern to the northwestern corner of the continent , it is argued that this order does notnecessarily reflect the actual order in which these words came into being in the regional variants of the C hinese language, and some philo- logical evidence for that argument is presented. The order we 臼tablished reflects the mere appearance order of th臼e diachronic forms in the written history , while the actual words themsel ves had mostly come into being in the earliest period of the Chinese language. In other words, what is normally d臼cribed 凶 a linear , longitudinal development along the ti m e axis in the history of the C hin臼e language often turns out , upon close examination, to be a horizontal 。r at least diagonal tracing of synchronic distribution of various linguistic phenomena completed in an early stage of the historical period of the language. Here lies , we believe, part of the reason for the beautiful correlations between the longitudinal and latitudinal ∞currenc臼 of lexical items discussed in this study. The direction we 臼tablished here by examining the Chin臼e lexical items related to eating and drinking is supported by the distributional pattern of river names in the East Asian continent examined by geographers. 'PAN' , 'DISH' , AND 'DRINK' 3 1. INTRODUCTION D臼pite at least several waves of its partial popula- tion's more or less large scale migrations,2 and despite the repeated invasions by the nomadic tribes of north Asia into the so-called Central Plains , the East Asian continent pre- serv臼， at least in its major parts , clear traces of the gradual linguistic developments of its inhabitants because of the stability of the primarily agrarian society. The scale of the geographical width as well 皿 tim←depth of the linguis- tic developments and, hence, of their trac臼 is unparalleled by that of any other known area in the world. It is certainly larger than that of the Indo-European peoples whose insta- bility of settlement seldom allows linguistic geographers t。 draw linguistic ma庐 within regions larger than those occu- pied by subgrou庐 like Romance, Slavic, etc. The richn臼s of written documents preserved by the peoples in the East Asian continent even beyond the boundari倍。f language families 3 can be compared in this world only with that of the Indo-Europeans , though the non-phonetic (at least not 阳rely phonetic) writing system for the former often ob- scur臼 the linguistic information contained in those docu- ments. Thanks to this relative stability of East Asian agra- rian societi臼 and to the richn臼s of their historical docu- 4 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS , Vol 11 , No. 1 ments , the synchronic , "latitudina!T', linguistic information of the East Asian continent doubles or triples its power in linguistic inquiries , once it is combined with the diachronic , "longitudinal" , information. Observations and analyses of these East Asian linguis- tic developments in their syntactic , phonological (both segmental andsuprasegmental-phonotactic) and , to some extent , lexical aspects have been reported elsewhere.4 Since diachronic developments in the syntactic structures of East Asian languages coincide in principle with synchronic transitions of structur臼 observed from the southern to the northern variety of speech in the continent , we were able to determine that th臼e historical developments were primarily a diffusion of northern features toward the southern type, or a "diluting" of the southern featur臼 with those of the north. In this study we want to elaborate on the exact direction of this north-to-south diffusion, seeking evidence in the lexical transitions among modern C hinese dialects , but "doublechecking" the arguments with this richn臼s of historical documents and archaeological discoveries. Our discussion on the archaeologic副部pects are purely speculative, though 臼 we note we have had some chance of briefly consulting authoriti臼 in this field. Hence' further comments and sugg臼tions from anthropologists , archaeologists , geographers , historians 部 well 陋。f linguists are particularly earn臼tly solicited. 'PAN' , 'DISH' , AND 'DRINK' 3 2. COOKING VESSELS According to what East Asian archaeology teaches us , the earliest cooking vessel developed in the East Asian continent seems to be 且(磊 gliek/liek/以 a good many uncovered specimens of which are from the prehistoric Long-shan culture period through the Yin dynasty (1 766-1122 B.C.) and up to the Zhou dynasty (1122-722 B.C.) (see Ill. 1) • . L豆μiw臼… specimens of which are also from the Long-shan period but some d也atωe back all the way up tω。 the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) (see Ill. 2). Li is said to have given rise first t。 a cooking vessel 创led 1.旦旦 (画~ \ ngi~n/ngi9n/yen or ngian/ 'II1II二ngi苔n/yen) before 豆坦亘. But 1.旦旦 is apparently intermediate in form between li and 旦旦， and thωcan be saf ely excluded from our discussion for the sake of simplicity. In fact 1.旦旦， t。因 at least , looks more like a composite of li and 旦旦; the upper part is shaped li ke 旦旦， and the lower portion is indeed 且 This seems also to be modern archaeologists' understanding. But Chin臼e philological sources provide us with a slightly different explanation. The ~huo-wen Ji• zi by Xu Shen (1 00 A.D.), the major source of homogeneous lin- guistic information for Archaic Chin臼e， defines 芷旦旦回 a bottomless cooking vessel. 主旦旦's are indeed separated into the upper and lower halves by a grill. Could it then be the case that in fact only the upper half was this 1.旦旦 - a V臼sel for holding foods to be cooked - and that the lower 6 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS, Vol 11, No. 1 工工工. 1 工i 工工工. 2 且与 'PAN' , 'DISH' , AND 'DRINK' 7 part merely held water for steaming , though it was perfectly natural that the whole thing was nevertheless referred to as Z旦旦， just as any contemporary barbecue grill , even though the word (morpheme, to be precise) 'grill' (from 'grill e> , of, for instance, a cashier window?) itself means the gridiron part only. But this is of course a layman's speculation. When we say 'li' , 'yan' or 'ding' , we are quoting the modern standard C hin臼e equivalents of the Archaic C hinese 吨liek ， *ngiã'n, and 叫ieng 臼 reconstructed by B. Karlgren) respectively. These words are already long obsolete in the Chinese language and do not survive as living words in any variety of modern northern Chinese dialects including modern standard C hinese. The modern standard C hinese (or modern northern Chinese dialect , for that matter) word for archaic ..!i.，凹，剧组 b 旦(刽 k咄咄kuo) (町 its slight regional variants). The C hinese character repr臼enting this .&旦旦 does not appear in the 5huo-wen Ji• zi. But it does appear in the S生旦旦 (601 A.D.) and its revised and enlarged version, the Guang-yur1, of Ancient Chin臼e. Since the word for cooking V臼sel is a fairly basic morpheme for any language, we can naturally consider that the word 旦旦 is ， at least 臼 a stan- dard Chin臼e w。时， a newcomer in the history of the Chin臼e language. In fact this can be 臼certained with some unmistakable philological evidence. Although the 5huo-wen Jie-zi d。由 not list the character for the Archaic Chinese 8 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS , Vol 11 , No. 1 morpheme which should correspond to the Ancient Chinese word 旦旦， the book does contain an uncommon (and of course long obsolete) charaωr昌斗 , the Archaic Chinese morpheme to be represented by which should certainly be a cognate to the later Ancient C hinese morpheme 旦旦旦. In the shuo-wen Ji• zthis obsolete character is accompanied by a note saying that it is for a Qin (northwestern) word for 'clay cooking pot'. Through this note we learn for sure that the word, or the modern standard Chinese word 豆豆豆 for that matter, is indeed a newcomer from the northwestern frontier of China. A word designating some kind of cooking vessel and 01ω，1d宇可r t仙ha肌n 豆旦旦旦 but cer川ta副in川1y newer thanu 且J.!!y旦主n/也豆旦总坦旦 (咱笠吏 g旷'哺咄wd咄~k叮〈U/qJw2衔k/t价/川hu川叫uω10。 wen J币ie←-z剧 again ， a 1arge cooking pan without the three legs which uniquely characterize li's and 旦旦's. All in all , East Asian archaeo1ogy and phil010gy give us the re1ative chrono1ogy of 且.y旦，旦旦，旦旦旦 and 旦旦， deve10ped in this order as the basic cooking v臼sels preva- lent around the Centr创 Plains and the surrounding 盯ea of the East Asian continent. not restricted to any particu1ar region of the continent. 3. EVOLUTION AND RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY OF COOKING VESSELS One thing very interesting about these cooking vessels 'PAN' , 'DISH' , AND 'DRINK' 9 and wor由 repr臼enting them is: it seems that we could make some quite independent , feasible speculations on the relative chronological order of development 一 independent from archaeologists' theories 一， judging from the shape and functions of these four or five cooking vessels. The msot efficient use of heat from burning firewood for cooking (or for heating liquid , to be specific) is t。 contain the liquid in a slender container and place the container into the top part of the flames in its entirety. That is exactly what we witness 臼 daily practices among the C hinese people - a product of C hinese ingenuity since the pr• war period. By examining the shap臼 of 且 and 旦旦， 。ne can certainly speculate that certain transformations of their shapes reflect definite improvements of cooking vessels. The longer and more slender legs we find in 1..旦旦's and 旦旦's (in contrast to丑's) enabled the archaic people a) to place the bottom of the major body of the cooking V臼sels to the hottest part of the flam臼一 the tip, and b) to insert those three legs entirely into the flam臼 with the great臼t efficiency. One will also suspect that , without 旦旦旦's long legs，且's could possibly be utilized to cook foods 。nly with ambers , not with burning flames. According to Wan Jia-bao, contemporary East Asian arc haeologists' opinions 盯e still divided as to the deter- mining featur臼 of li's and 豆旦's - namely what uniquely 6 characterizes li's in contrast to 旦旦's.~ One clue is the 10 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS , Vol 11 , No. 1 presence (旦旦) or absence 但) of ears (see illustrations 1 and 2); the other is whether the three legs are hollow (li) or not (旦旦旦)， though the pr臼ent author has seen an obvious 旦旦 having hollow legs. But one thing is quite clear: 臼 mentioned above，旦旦's legs are definitely longer and more slender than li's. Whichever clue one may rely on in judging the evolutionary aspects of these vessels , one may conclude that 旦旦's show some definite improvements over li's. If 旦旦's ， at least some of them , maintaied hollow legs , they enabled people to heat the liquid kept inside extremely efficiently. But above all , the ears on the rims of 旦旦's made it possible to adjust the height of the vessel above burning fires (which was not possible for 且's) when they placed the vessel on some kind of stand. In any event , we can conclude from this that 旦旦's are definitely a later invention. The evolution from li's t。旦旦's might have depended rather heavily on the improved materials - mainly clay for li's but bronze for 旦旦、 If this 总 the case，旦旦's have a perfect , absolute chronology, namely the beginning of the bronze age. The lengthened legs of 旦旦's may also hint a change of life - a change from primarily sitting on the ground to the use of chairs. But the longer legs may have been more for ease and comfort of handling these cooking vessels, since 飞he Chinese seem to have accepted chairs from the western "barbarians" rather late in their history. 'PAN' , 'DISH' , AND 'DRINK' 11 The fact that the Archaic C hinese expression 坦-尘旦旦 (胡床， from 虫'副ien'μus 尘旦旦 'bed') for 'chairs' was , at the Sui (581-618 A.D.) emperor's order , changed to ji旦旦二 旦旦(交床， from且 'fold-up' plus 旦旦旦旦 'bed' - still an expression redolent of unset t1ed livesD indicates that the introduction of chairs into Chinese life does not date back to too early a period. The expression j!旦o-ch旦旦旦K 'fold-up' plus 'bed' for 'chairs' could alternatively be taken as a trace of its nomadic tribe's background. There is one more piece of evidence for the improv• ment of 旦旦's over 且's. Zhang Guang-zhi points out that 豆旦旦's two handles (our 'ears') made in the early Yin and W臼tern Zhou periods were placed on the rim , but later , such as in the Warring States period , were "sometimes" lowered tothe body and had t。 be bent (see Iu-3).7T。 us ， this transformation of 旦旦's general shape seems to reflect that 旦旦's ears were originally for placing those cooking vessels over burning fires (a b盯 W臼 perhaps put in these ears and was placed on some primitive stand; see Ill. 4), but later, as better furnaces became generally available for cooking in more settled lives , they functioned more 臼 handles , pretty much like thωe of modern hibachi's. The shortened legs of 豆盟's in these later periods also seem to confirm this speculation - developing furnaces in the set- t1ed liv臼 made it increasingly unnecessary to have three long legs on th臼e cooking vessels. /F 「;二费\ 工11. 3 Late 且2年 (from Zhang 197乃 p. 370) 也 'PAN' , 'D15H' , AND 'DRINK' 13 Huo's , in contrast to their predecessors , are charac- terized by their lack of legs; they are also much larger in size than li's or even 旦旦's. The lack of the three legs implies the use of some kind of kitchen range or furnace. ln other words , the presence of these three legs in pre-坦旦 vessels may imply that the users were leading unsettled if not necessarily nomadic lives. The furnace for 坦o's could have been the most primitive ones - maybe some simple stands on which they placed two ends of bars inserted into the two ears. But the use of K旦旦's presupposes some well developed furnace or stove or range. By examining the shape and functions of cooking vessels , we come to the conclusion that the line of evolution is: from li's to 旦旦's (through 旦旦'的， to 旦旦旦's and , finally to 旦旦's. 4. SYNCHRONIC D15TRIBUTI0N OF WORDS FOR COOKING VESSELS The fascinating thing about the poor mobility of human settlement and the stability of society they built in the East Asian continent , is that most if not all of these words for cooking vessels are still quite in daily use in modern tongu臼。f the continent - not merely in daily use but in use showing regional distribution patterns with beau- tiful wave forms from the northeastern to the southeastern corners. The only exception 比 the earli臼t v四el，且. To our 14 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS , Vol 11 , No. 1 knowledge，且's do not survive in any living language of the continent , as shown in map 1. In order to avoid some unnecessary misunderstanding , let us reiterate that these waves represent the contempo- rary distribution of words (morphems , to be precise) 旦旦， 旦旦 and K旦旦 - or more strictly speaking, d臼cendants of ^- ^ Archaic Chinese *tieng, *g'wäk and *kwä respectively. This map neither means that these three-legged , two-eared archaic cooking vessels are still in use in the 旦旦 area of map 1 for instance, nor does it imply, for that matter , that archaic 旦旦's have been excavated exclusively in the archaeological sites of the 旦旦1i area; _nor