Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

Abstract

This paper is an analytical study on the uses of the twenty-three second person pronouns as used in Shih-shuo hsin-yu.  They are nu, kuan, kung, chun, ch'ing, ju, tzu, tsun, erh, pi-hsia, ming-fu, ming-kung, fu-tzu, fu-chun, ta-jen, lau-tsei, chun-hou, tsu-hsia, tsun-hou, chang-jen, shih-chun, hsien-sheng, and a-nu.  Ch'ing tops the list with the highest frequency of 187 times.  It is followed by chun, 95 times; ju, 64; kung, 30; pi-hsia, 14; erh, 13; ming-kung, 12; tzu, 11; tsu-hsia, 8; a-nu, 6; ming-fu, 5; chun-hou, tsun-hou, shih-chun, each 4 times; tsun, three times; fu-tzu, fu-chun, ta-jen, each twice; kuan, nu, lau-tsei, chang-jen, and hsien-sheng, each once.
Eighteen of these second person pronouns are used as addresses of respect: kuan, kung, chun, ch'ing, tzu, tsun, pi-hsia, ming-fu, ming-kung, fu-tzu, fu-chun, ta-jen, chun-hou, tsu-hsia, tsun-hou, chang-jen, shih-chun, and hsien-sheng. Of these eighteen, pi-hsia is used to address the emperor; shih-chun, the chou governor; ming-fu and fu-chun, the prefect or migistrate; chun-hou and tsun-hou, men of high station and office; tsun and ta-jen are used by children to address their parents or their spouses' parents; kuan is used by a subordinate to address his superior officer.  These are all special second person pronouns.  The remaining nine (kung, chun, ch'ing, tzu, ming-kung, fu-tzu, chang-jen, tsu-hsia, and hsien-sheng) are used generally to show respects.  Ming-kung is more respectful than kung and is used only when the latter is felt not respectful enough.  Ch'ing, originally used by emperors to address their officials and subjects, is later used by a superior officer in addressing his subordinates.  Still later, it is used between intimate friends in addressing each other.  The development of its use, however, does not stop with the use as a second person pronoun of respect; it further develops to be an address of intimacy and ceases to be respectful.  From this course of change, we can see clearly the gradual changing process of the meaning of ch'ing during the Wei and Tsin times.  The uses of chun present a case in the opposite direction: in those times, it is used to show respects instead of being used by an older person in addressing someone younger as it is the use of the present day.
Erh and ju are generally used by men of higher station to address someone inferior in station.  Nu and a-nu are used in the same way, but only applied to show, at the same time, affection.  Lau-tsei, another special second person pronoun, is employed in a joking manner. The use of erh and ju as addresses of intimacy is a later development; they are originally employed by the superior in addressing the inferior.  There is only one such case in Shih-shuo hsin-yu; but even when Sung Hau uses it to address the Wu Emperor of Tsin in an intimate sense, it is still mixed with respect. The use of Ch'ing as an address of intimacy is a similar case.  There are only two such cases in Shih-shuo hsin-yu: one is found in Entry 51 when Yu K'ai addresses Wang Yen as Ch'ing; the other is found in Entry 164 when Wang-yung's wife addresses him as such.  From these evidences, we may come to the conclusion that in the Wei and Tsin times these three pronouns are used mostly as addresses of respect; their use in an intimate sense is a later development.