107-527: Fusang is an atonal romanization of a Chinese name referring to various entities in ancient Chinese literature , chiefly a mythical tree or location far east of China. In the Classic of Mountains and Seas and several contemporary texts, the term refers to a mythological tree of life , alternatively identified as a mulberry or a hibiscus , allegedly growing far to the east of China, and perhaps to various more concrete territories which are located to
214-495: A Zhūrúguó 侏儒國 "pygmy/dwarf country" located south of Japan, associated with possibly Okinawa Island or the Ryukyu Islands . Carr cites the historical precedence of construing Wa as "submissive people" and the "Country of Dwarfs" legend as evidence that the "little people" etymology was a secondary development. Since early Chinese information about Wo/Wa peoples was based largely on hearsay, Wang Zhenping says, "Little
321-469: A dead grandparent and three days for a dead brother or sister. During their mourning periods, the people were not supposed to consume food, they could only drink water. They had no Buddhism . The Book of Liang also describes the conversion of Fusang to the Buddhist faith by five Buddhist monks who were from Gandhara : In former times, the people of Fusang knew nothing of the Buddhist religion, but in
428-617: A designation for 'Japan' in Chinese poetry . Since Japanese name Nihon ( 日本 , lit. 'Root [ i.e. source, birthplace, origin] of the Sun') or the Chinese name Riben was a name of Japan , some Tang dynasty poets believed that Fusang "lay between the mainland and Japan." For instance, Wang Wei wrote a 753 farewell poem when Abe no Nakamaro (Chinese Zhao Heng 晁衡 ) returned to Japan, "The trees of your home are beyond Fu-sang." Fusang
535-518: A five-level scale is used, visualized with Chao tone letters . The values of the pitch for each tone described by Chao are traditionally considered standard, however slight regional and idiolectal variations in tone pronunciation also occur. The Chinese names of the main four tones are respectively 阴平 ; 陰平 ; yīnpíng ; 'dark level', 阳平 ; 陽平 ; yángpíng ; 'light level', 上 ; shǎng or shàng ('rising'), and 去 ; qù ; 'departing'. As descriptions, they apply rather to
642-413: A general rule, vowels in open syllables (those which have no coda following the main vowel) are pronounced long , while others are pronounced short. This does not apply to weak syllables, in which all vowels are short. In Standard Chinese, the vowels [a] and [ə] harmonize in backness with the coda. For [a] , it is fronted [a̟] before /i, n/ and backed [a̠] before /u, ŋ/ . For [ə] , it
749-399: A glide is followed by the vowel of which that glide is considered an allophone, the glide may be regarded as epenthetic (automatically inserted), and not as a separate realization of the phoneme. Hence the syllable yi , pronounced [ji] , may be analyzed as consisting of the single phoneme /i/ , and similarly yin may be analyzed as /in/ , yu as /y/ , and wu as /u/ . It
856-502: A language such as English. Since Chinese syllables usually constitute whole words, or at least morphemes , the smallness of the syllable inventory results in large numbers of homophones . However, in Standard Chinese, the average word length is actually almost exactly two syllables, practically eliminating most homophony issues even when tone is disregarded, especially when context is taken into account as well. (Still, due to
963-562: A neutral tone that appears on weak syllables. This article uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to compare the phonetic values corresponding to syllables romanized with pinyin . The sounds shown in parentheses are sometimes not analyzed as separate phonemes ; for more on these, see § Alveolo-palatal series below. Excluding these, and excluding the glides [ j ] , [ ɥ ] , and [ w ] , there are 19 consonant phonemes in
1070-467: A possible presence of Japonic speaking populations who were albeit grouped together with the Koreanic speaking 韓 Han . The Japanese endonym Wa 倭 "Japan" derives from the Chinese exonym Wō 倭 "Japan, Japanese", a graphic pejorative Chinese character that had some offensive connotation, possibly "submissive, docile, obedient", "bowing; bent over", or "short person; dwarf" in modern times. 倭理
1177-519: A power struggle or political situation in the mid-2nd century CE. There were over 100 chiefdoms before the civil war. Afterward there were around 30 chiefdoms left that were ruled by shaman queen Himiko of Yamatai-koku ( 邪馬台国 ) . Himiko restored peace and gained control of the region around 180 CE. Possibly the earliest use of Wa occurs in the Shan Hai Jing . The actual date of this collection of geography and mythological legends
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#17327658310751284-440: A sacrifice to a volcano god who held the elixir of life . Apparently, two expeditions were undertaken by Xu Fu , the court sorcerer, in order to seek the elixir of life. The first expedition returned c. 210 BC because Xu Fu claimed that a giant sea creature was blocking his men's path. Archers were then sent to kill this monster when the expedition set out a second time, but it was never heard from again. However, "... asides in
1391-401: A sibilant consonant ( z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, r in pinyin) followed by a syllabic consonant (also known as apical vowel in classic literature): Alternatively, the nucleus may be described not as a syllabic consonant, but as a vowel: Phonologically, these syllables may be analyzed as having their own vowel phoneme, /ɨ/ . However, it is possible to merge this with the phoneme /i/ (to which it
1498-402: A special phoneme, or as an instance of the phoneme /ŋ/ , although it can also be treated as no phoneme (absence of onset). By contrast, in the case of the particle 啊 a , which is a weak onset-less syllable, linking occurs with the previous syllable (as described under § Syllable reduction , below). When a stressed vowel-initial Chinese syllable follows a consonant-final syllable,
1605-649: A syllable that in fact ends with a long nasalized vowel. See also § Syllable reduction , below. The consonants listed in the first table above as denti-alveolar are sometimes described as alveolars , and sometimes as dentals . The affricates and the fricative are particularly often described as dentals; these are generally pronounced with the tongue on the lower teeth. The retroflex consonants (like those of Polish ) are actually apical rather than subapical , and so are considered by some authors not to be truly retroflex; they may be more accurately called post-alveolar. Some speakers not from Beijing may lack
1712-524: A transcription of the Japanese first-person pronouns waga 我が "my; our" and ware 我 "I; oneself; thou" to Wa as 倭 implying "dwarf barbarians", and summarizes interpretations for * ʼWâ "Japanese" into variations on two etymologies: "behaviorally 'submissive' or physically 'short' ". The first "submissive; obedient" explanation began with the (121 CE) Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. It defines 倭 as shùnmào 順 皃 "obedient/submissive", graphically explains
1819-432: A vowel) are taken to begin [t͡ɕj] , [t͡ɕʰj] , [ɕj] , [t͡ɕɥ] , [t͡ɕʰɥ] , [ɕɥ] . The actual pronunciations are more like [t͡ɕ] , [t͡ɕʰ] , [ɕ] , [t͡ɕʷ] , [t͡ɕʰʷ] , [ɕʷ] (or for speakers using the dental variants, [t͡sʲ] , [t͡sʰʲ] , [sʲ] , [t͡sᶣ] , [t͡sʰᶣ] , [sᶣ] ). This is consistent with the general observation (see under § Glides ) that medial glides are realized as palatalization and/or labialization of
1926-584: A 女 woman working with the 禾 grain." The oldest written forms of 倭 are in Seal script , and it has not been identified in Bronzeware script or Oracle bone script . Most characters written with this wěi 委 phonetic are pronounced wei in Standard Chinese : The unusual Wō 倭 "Japan" pronunciation of the wěi 委 phonetic element is also present in: A third pronunciation is found in the reading of
2033-488: Is mid whereas /a/ is low (open). The precise realization of each vowel depends on its phonetic environment. In particular, the vowel /ə/ has two broad allophones [ e ] and [ o ] (corresponding respectively to pinyin e and o in most cases). These sounds can be treated as a single underlying phoneme because they are in complementary distribution . The mid vowel phoneme may also be treated as an under-specified vowel, attracting features either from
2140-698: Is a common adjective in Sino-Japanese compounds like Washoku 和食 " Japanese cuisine ", Wafuku 和服 " Japanese clothing ", Washitsu 和室 "Japanese-style room", Waka 和歌 "Japanese-style poetry", Washi 和紙 "traditional Japanese paper", Wagyu 和牛 "Japanese cattle". In Chinese, the character 倭 can be pronounced wēi "winding", wǒ "an ancient hairstyle", or Wō "Japan". The first two pronunciations are restricted to Classical Chinese bisyllabic words. Wēi 倭 occurs in wēichí 倭遲 "winding; sinuous; circuitous; meandering", which has numerous variants including wēiyí 逶迤 and 委蛇. The oldest recorded usage of 倭
2247-626: Is also Japan [ 日本 ]. Its original name was Wa [ 倭 ], but became ashamed of that name. They claim themselves Japan [Origin of the Sun] because they are in the extremity of the East. Now they are vassal to Goryeo. This could be referring to the numerous tributary missions sent to Goryeo by the Muromachi shogunate during the Nanboku-chō period to gain international recognition to establish legitimacy over
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#17327658310752354-421: Is also a difference in syllable length. Full syllables can be analyzed as having two morae ("heavy"), the vowel being lengthened if there is no coda. Weak syllables, however, have a single mora ("light"), and are pronounced approximately 50% shorter than full syllables. Any weak syllable will usually be an instance of the same morpheme (and written with the same character) as some corresponding strong syllable;
2461-404: Is also possible to hear both from the same speaker, even in the same conversation. For example, one may hear the number "one" 一 ; yī as either [jí] or [í] . The glides can also occur in medial position, that is, after the initial consonant but before the main vowel. Here they are represented in pinyin as vowels: for example, the i in bie represents [j] , and
2568-711: Is certain about the Wo except they were obedient and complaisant." According to Whitman the Wei Shu states that “Chinhan men and women are close to Wa (男女近倭)” the ethnonym for the contemporary inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago and like the Wa tattoo their bodies. The Hou Han Shu identifies this as a feature of Byeonhan , stating that “their country is close to Wa, therefore they frequently have tattoos.” Wa like toponyms have been found in Byeonhan and Jinhan confederacies, hinting at
2675-399: Is essential for intelligibility because of the vast number of words in the language that only differ by tone (i.e. are minimal pairs with respect to tone). Statistically, tones are as important as vowels in Standard Chinese. The following table shows the four main tones of Standard Chinese, together with the neutral (or fifth) tone. To describe the pitch of the tones, its representation on
2782-553: Is fronted [ə̟] before /n/ and backed [ə̠] before /ŋ/ . Some native Mandarin speakers may pronounce [wei̯] , [jou̯] , and [wən] as [ui] , [iu] , and [un] respectively in the first or second tone . Standard Chinese features syllables that end with a rhotic coda /ɚ/ . This feature, known in Chinese as erhua , is particularly characteristic of the Beijing dialect ; many other dialects do not use it as much, and some not at all. It occurs in two cases: The r final
2889-422: Is historically related), since the two are in complementary distribution – provided that the § Alveolo-palatal series is either left un-merged, or is merged with the velars rather than the retroflex or alveolar series. (That is, [t͡ɕi] , [t͡sɨ] , and [ʈ͡ʂɨ] all exist, but *[ki] and *[kɨ] do not exist, so there is no problem merging both [i]~[ɨ] and [k]~[t͡ɕ] at the same time.) Another approach
2996-615: Is illustrated by " demütig [humble; submissive; meek], gehorchen [obey; respond]" Praktisches zeichenlexikon chinesisch-deutsch-japanisch [A Practical Chinese-German-Japanese Character Dictionary] (1983). Gamma (Γ) "type definitions such as " depreciatingly Japanese" (e.g., A Beginner's Chinese-English Dictionary of the National Language (Gwoyeu) 1964) include usage labels such as "derogatory," "disparaging," "offensive," or "contemptuous". Some Γ notations are restricted to subentries like " Wōnú 倭奴 (in modern usage, derogatively)
3103-776: Is known as the "round-sharp" distinction [ zh ] . The change took place in the last two or three centuries at different times in different areas. This explains why some European transcriptions of Chinese names (especially in postal romanization ) contain ⟨ki-⟩ , ⟨hi-⟩ , ⟨tsi-⟩ , ⟨si-⟩ where an alveolo-palatal might be expected in modern Chinese. Examples are Pe k ing for Bei j ing ( [kiŋ] → [tɕiŋ] ), Chung k ing for Chong q ing ( [kʰiŋ] → [tɕʰiŋ] ), Fu k ien for Fu j ian (cf. Hokkien ), Tien ts in for Tian j in ( [tsin] → [tɕin] ); S in k iang for X in j iang ( [sinkiaŋ] → [ɕintɕiaŋ] , and S ian for X i'an ( [si] → [ɕi] ). The complementary distribution with
3210-816: Is limited to Chinese-Japanese and Chinese-German dictionaries. The Γ type " derogatory " notation occurs most often among Japanese and European language dictionaries. The least edifying Δ "(old name for) Japan" type definitions are found twice more often in Chinese-Chinese than in Chinese-Japanese dictionaries, and three times more than in Western ones. Even the modern-day Unicode universal character standard reflects inherent lexicographic problems with this ancient Chinese Wō 倭 "Japan" affront. The Unihan (Unified CJK characters ) segment of Unicode largely draws definitions from two online dictionary projects,
3317-554: Is no transgression for an abridged Chinese dictionary to give a short Δ "Japan" definition, but adding "an old name for" or "archaic" takes no more space than adding a Γ "derogatory" note. A Δ definition avoids offending the Japanese, but misleads the dictionary user in the same way as the OED2 defining wetback and white trash without usage labels. The table below (Carr 1992:31, "Table 8. Overall Comparison of Definitions") summarizes how Chinese dictionaries define Wō 倭. Today, half of
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3424-612: Is noted in early historical references to Japan." Examples include "Respect is shown by squatting", and "they either squat or kneel, with both hands on the ground . This is the way they show respect.". Koji Nakayama interprets wēi 逶 "winding" as "very far away" and euphemistically translates Wō 倭 as "separated from the continent." The second etymology of wō 倭 meaning "dwarf; short person" has possible cognates in ǎi 矮 "short (of stature); midget, dwarf; low", wō 踒 "strain; sprain; bent legs", and wò 臥 "lie down; crouch; sit (animals and birds)". Early Chinese dynastic histories refer to
3531-632: Is pronounced Fusō in Japanese , from classical Fusau , and it is one of the names which is used as a designation for ancient Japan . Several warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy were named Fusō (the Japanese ironclad warship Fusō , or the World War II battleship Fusō ). Several companies, such as Fuso , also bear the name. Gustaaf Schlegel believed that Fusang was most probably "the long island of Karafuto or it
3638-450: Is pronounced with a relatively lax tongue, and has been described as a "retroflex vowel". In dialects that do not make use of the rhotic coda, it may be omitted in pronunciation, or in some cases a different word may be selected: for example, Beijing 这儿 ; 這兒 ; zhèr ; 'here' and 那儿 ; 那兒 ; nàr ; 'there' may be replaced by the synonyms 这里 ; 這裡 ; zhèlǐ and 那里 ; 那裡 ; nàlǐ . Syllables in Standard Chinese have
3745-777: Is read as *YEli in Old Korean and appears to have been the Korean word for "Japanese" and was attested as 예〯 yěy in Middle Korean . Its morphological quality is unknown along with the differing phonetic value of the first syllable. The Chinese character 倭 combines the 人 or 亻 "human, person" radical and a wěi 委 "bend" phonetic . This wěi phonetic element depicts hé 禾 "grain" over nǚ 女 "woman", which Bernhard Karlgren semantically analyzes as: "bend down, bent, tortuous, crooked; fall down, throw down, throw away, send away, reject; send out, delegate – to bend like
3852-507: Is reported that they have maintained intercourse with China through tributaries and envoys. Emperor Wu of Han established this Korean Lelang Commandery in 108 BCE. Historian Endymion Wilkinson says Wa was used originally in the Hanshu , "probably to refer to the inhabitants of Kyushu and the Korean peninsula. Thereafter to the inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago." The c. 297 CE 魏志 ; Weìzhì ; 'Records of Wei',
3959-454: Is that of the sentence-final exclamatory particle 啊 a , a weak syllable, which has different characters for its assimilated forms: Standard Chinese, like all varieties of Chinese , is tonal . This means that in addition to consonants and vowels, the pitch contour of a syllable is used to distinguish words from each other. Many non-native Chinese speakers have difficulties mastering the tones of each character, but correct tonal pronunciation
4066-1043: Is the Shi Jing (162) description of a wēichí 倭遲 "winding; serpentine; tortuous" road; compare (18) using wēituó 委佗 "compliant; bending, pliable; graceful". Wǒ 倭 occurs in wǒduòjì 倭墮髻 "a woman's hairstyle with a bun, popular during the Han dynasty ". The third pronunciation Wō 倭 "Japan; Japanese" is more productive than the first two, as evident in Chinese names for "Japanese" things (e.g., Wōkòu 倭寇 "Japanese pirates" above) or "dwarf; pygmy" animals. Reconstructed pronunciations of wō 倭 in Middle Chinese ( c. 6th–10th centuries CE ) include ʼuâ (Bernhard Karlgren), ʼua (Zhou Fagao), and ʼwa (Edwin G. Pulleyblank). Reconstructions in Old Chinese ( c. 6th–3rd centuries BCE ) include * ʼwâ (Karlgren), * ʼwər (Dong Tonghe), and * ʼwə (Zhou). In Japanese,
4173-402: Is to regard the syllables assigned above to /ɨ/ as having an (underlying) empty nuclear slot ("empty rhyme", Chinese 空韵 ; kōngyùn ), i.e. as not containing a vowel phoneme at all. This is more consistent with the syllabic consonant description of these syllables, and is consistent with the view that phonological representations are minimal (underspecified). When this is the case, sometimes
4280-509: Is uncertain, but estimates range from 300 BCE to 250 CE. The 《海內北經》 ; Haineibei jing ; 'Classic of Regions Within the North Sea'; chapter includes Wa among foreign places both real (such as Korea) and legendary (e.g. Penglai Mountain ). The State of Gai is south of Great Yan and north of Wo. Wo belongs to Yan. Chaoxian [Chosŏn, Korea] is east of Lieyang, south of Haibei Mountain. Lieyang belongs to Yan. Nakagawa notes that
4387-409: The "mouth" radical 口 . Carr explains: Graphic replacement of the 倭 "dwarf Japanese" Chinese logograph became inevitable. Not long after the Japanese began using 倭 to write Wa ~ Yamato 'Japan', they realized its 'dwarf; bent back' connotation. In a sense, they had been tricked by Chinese logography; the only written name for 'Japan' was deprecating. The chosen replacement wa 和 'harmony; peace' had
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4494-449: The Beijing dialect of Mandarin . However, pronunciation varies widely among speakers, who may introduce elements of their local varieties . Television and radio announcers are chosen for their ability to affect a standard accent . Elements of the sound system include not only the segments —e.g. vowels and consonants —of the language, but also the tones applied to each syllable. In addition to its four main tones, Standard Chinese has
4601-518: The Chinese classic texts . Within the official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories , Japan is mentioned among the so-called ' Eastern barbarians '. The historian Wang Zhenping summarizes Wa contacts from the Han dynasty to the Sixteen Kingdoms period: When chieftains of various Wo tribes contacted authorities at Lelang , a Chinese commandery established in northern Korea in 108 B.C. by
4708-625: The Lunheng ' s titled 《儒増》 ; Rŭzēng ; 'Exaggerations of the Literati'; mentions both 'Wa people' and 越裳 ; Yuèshāng , a people in the southern part of Guangdong province, near the Annamese frontier, presenting tribute during the Zhou dynasty . While disputing legends that ancient Zhou bronze ding tripods possessed magical power to ward off evil spirits, Wang says: During
4815-565: The Record of the Historian imply that its leader Xu Fu had returned to China long ago and was lurking somewhere near Langya , frittering away the expedition's impressive budget." In Chinese mythology , Fusang refers to a divine tree and an island which are both located in the East, from where the sun rises. A similar tree, known as the Ruomu ( 若木 ) exists in the west, and each morning, the sun
4922-797: The Southern Liang court (502–557) in 502. When these ambassadors arrived in China, they acquired official titles, bronze mirrors, and military banners, which their masters could use to bolster their claims to political supremacy, to build a military system, and to attempt to expand its influence towards southern Korea. In the section on the Goryeo kingdom, within the sixth volume of his 圖畵見聞志 ; Táng yánlìběn wáng huì tú ; 'Depicted Records of Things Seen and Heard'—also known as Experiences in Painting —Guo Ruoxu ( 郭若虛 ) writes: The Kingdom of Wa
5029-474: The final element in some syllables. These are commonly analyzed as diphthongs rather than vowel-glide sequences. For example, the syllable bai is assigned the underlying representation /pai̯/ . (In pinyin, the second element is generally written ⟨-i⟩ or ⟨-u⟩ , but /au̯/ is written as ⟨-ao⟩ .) The syllables written in pinyin as zi , ci , si , zhi , chi , shi , ri may be described as
5136-551: The high vowels : [i̯, y̯, u̯] . This is possible because there is no ambiguity in interpreting a sequence like yao/-iao as /iau/ , and potentially problematic sequences such as */iu/ do not occur. The glides may occur in initial position in a syllable. This occurs with [ɥ] in the syllables written yu , yuan , yue , and yun in pinyin; with [j] in other syllables written with initial y in pinyin ( ya , yi , etc.); and with [w] in syllables written with initial w in pinyin ( wa , wu , etc.). When
5243-731: The phonetic value of a Japonic ethnonym with a respectively differing semantic connotation. In the 8th century, the Japanese started using the character 和 , wa , 'harmony', 'peace', 'balance' instead due to the offensive nature of the former. Although the etymological origins of Wa remain uncertain, Chinese historical texts recorded an ancient people residing in the Japanese archipelago (perhaps Kyūshū ), named something like * ɁWâ , transcribed with Chinese character 倭, pronounced * ʔuɑi < * ʔwɑi in Eastern Han Chinese . In modern Chinese dictionaries, Carr surveys prevalent proposals for Wa' s etymology ranging from
5350-514: The southern court , which originally had the better claim to legitimacy as it possessed the imperial regalia of Japan and the original Emperor Go-daigo . (In the later war-torn Sengoku period , various daimyo would send tributes to Goryeo to gain legitimacy over their rivals, even into the Joseon dynasty.) The Wa kingdoms on Kyushu were documented in the Civil war of Wa , which originated from
5457-423: The u in duan represents [w] . There are some restrictions on the possible consonant-glide combinations: [w] does not occur after labials (except for some speakers in bo , po , mo , fo ); [j] does not occur after retroflexes and velars (or after [f] ); and [ɥ] occurs medially only in lüe and nüe and after alveolar-palatals (for which see above ). A consonant-glide combination at
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#17327658310755564-426: The "person; human' radical with a wěi 委 "bent" phonetic, and quotes the above Shi Jing poem. According to the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary (倭又人名 魯宣公名倭), 倭 was the name of King Tuyen (魯宣公) of Lu (Chinese: 魯國; pinyin: Lǔ Guó, c. 1042 – 249 BCE). "Conceivably, when Chinese first met Japanese," Carr suggests "they transcribed Wa as * ʼWâ 'bent back' signifying 'compliant' bowing/obeisance. Bowing
5671-538: The American hypothesis was all but refuted by the time of the First World War . In later Chinese accounts, other, even less well-identified places were given the name Fusang. An earlier account claims that in 219 BC, emperor Shi Huang sent an expedition of some 3,000 convicts to a place which was located far off to the east, across the ocean, a place which was called Fusang, where they were required to make
5778-491: The Beijing dialect. In phonological analysis, it is often assumed that, when not followed by one of the high front vowels [i] or [y] , the alveolar-palatals consist of a consonant followed by a palatal glide ( [j] or [ɥ] ). That is, syllables represented in pinyin as beginning ⟨ji-⟩ , ⟨qi-⟩ , ⟨xi-⟩ , ⟨ju-⟩ , ⟨qu-⟩ , ⟨xu-⟩ (followed by
5885-551: The Chinese CEDICT and Japanese EDICT . The former lists Chinese wo1 倭 "Japanese; dwarf", wokou4 倭寇 "(in ancient usage) the dwarf-pirates; the Japs", and wonu2 倭奴 "(used in ancient times) the Japanese; (in modern usage, derogatively) the Japs". The latter lists Japanese yamato 倭 "ancient Japan", wajin 倭人 "(an old word for) a Japanese", and wakou 倭寇 "Japanese pirates." The earliest textual references to Japan are in
5992-587: The Chinese character 倭 has Sinitic on'yomi pronunciations of wa or ka from Chinese wō "Japan" and wǒ "an ancient hairstyle", or wi or i from wēi "winding; obedient", and native kun'yomi pronunciations of yamato "Japan" or shitagau "obey, obedient". Chinese wō 倭 "an old name for Japan" is a loanword in other East Asian languages including Korean 왜 wae or wa , Cantonese wai or wo , and Taiwanese Hokkien e . In modern dictionaries, an article by Michael Carr "compares how Oriental and Occidental lexicographers have treated
6099-845: The Fusang country. The Fusang which is described by Huishen has variously been posited to be the Americas , Sakhalin Island, the Kamchatka Peninsula or the Kuril Islands . The American hypothesis was the most hotly debated one during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, after the 18th-century writings of Joseph de Guignes were republished and disseminated by Charles Godfrey Leland in 1875. Sinologists , including Emil Bretschneider , Berthold Laufer , and Henri Cordier , refuted this hypothesis, however, and according to Needham,
6206-598: The Han dynasty, [Wa envoys] appeared at the Court; today, thirty of their communities maintain intercourse [with us] through envoys and scribes. This Weizhi context describes sailing from Korea to Wa and around the Japanese archipelago. For instance: A hundred li to the south, one reaches the country of Nu, the official of which is called shimako , his assistant being termed hinumori . Here there are more than twenty thousand households. Tsunoda suggests this ancient 奴國 ; Núguó ; 'slave country', Japanese Nakoku ,
6313-615: The Japs" ( Zuixin shiyong Han-Ying cidian 最新實用和英辭典 [A New Practical Chinese-English Dictionary] 1971). Delta (Δ) "Japanese" is the least informative type of gloss; for instance, "an old name for Japan" ( Xin Han-Ying cidian 新漢英詞典 [A New Chinese-English Dictionary] 1979). Carr evaluates these four typologies for defining the Chinese 倭 "bent people" graphic pejoration. From a theoretical standpoint, A "dwarf" or B "submissive" type definitions are preferable for providing accurate etymological information, even though it may be deemed offensive. It
6420-818: The Western Han court, they sought to benefit themselves by initiating contact. In A.D. 57, the first Wo ambassador arrived at the capital of the Eastern Han court (25–220); the second came in 107. Wo diplomats never called on China on a regular basis. A chronology of Japan–China relations from the first to the ninth centuries reveals this irregularity in the visits of Japanese ambassadors to China. There were periods of frequent contacts as well as of lengthy intervals between contacts. This irregularity clearly indicated that, in its diplomacy with China, Japan set its own agenda and acted on self-interest to satisfy its own needs. No Wo ambassador, for example, came to China during
6527-540: The Western language dictionaries note that Chinese Wō 倭 "Japanese" means "little person; dwarf", while most Chinese-Chinese definitions overlook the graphic slur with Δ type "ancient name for Japan" definitions. This demeaning A "dwarf" description is found more often in Occidental language dictionaries than in Oriental ones. The historically more accurate, and ethnically less insulting, "subservient; compliant" B type
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#17327658310756634-678: The Wo delegation dispatched to the Western Jin court (265–316) in 306. With the arrival of a Wo ambassador at the Eastern Jin court (317–420) in 413, a new age of frequent diplomatic contact with China began. Over the next sixty years, ten Wo ambassadors called on the Southern Song court (420–479), and a Wo delegation also visited the Southern Qi court (479–502) in 479. The sixth century saw only one Wo ambassador pay respect to
6741-536: The Zhou time there was universal peace. The [Yueshang] offered white pheasants to the court, the [Japanese] odoriferous plants. Since by eating these white pheasants or odoriferous plants one cannot keep free from evil influences, why should vessels like bronze tripods have such a power? Another chapter titled 《恢國》 ; Huīguó ; 'Restoring the Nation'; similarly records that Emperor Cheng of Han (r. 51–7 BCE)
6848-430: The adjacent sounds or from default rules resulting in /ə/ . (Apparent counterexamples are provided by certain interjections , such as [ɔ] , [ɛ] , [jɔ] , and [lɔ] , but these are normally treated as special cases operating outside the normal phonemic system. ) Transcriptions of the vowels' allophones (the ways they are pronounced in particular phonetic environments) differ somewhat between sources. More details about
6955-495: The air one day. Some scholars have identified the bronze trees which were found at the archaeological site Sanxingdui as these Fusang trees. Japan was one of the interpretation place for Fusang . However, Huishen's report differentiates Fusang from the ancient Japanese kingdom of Wo , which has been tentatively located in the Kinki , Kyūshū , or it has been located on the Ryukyu Islands . The term Fusang would later be used as
7062-559: The belittling origins of Wō , Carr divides definitions into four types, abbreviated with Greek alphabet letters Alpha through Delta. For example, Alpha (A) type includes both overt definitions like "The land of dwarfs; Japan" ( Liushi Han-Ying cidian 劉氏漢英辭典 [Liu's Chinese-English Dictionary] 1978) and more sophisticated semantic distinctions like "(1) A dwarf. (2) Formerly, used to refer to Japan" ( Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage 1972). Beta (B) "compliant; Japanese"
7169-500: The claim that deer were domesticated and milked. Fusang was mentioned in a map of Marco Polo 's voyages to the Far East which was supposedly made (or copied) by his family, the map includes the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska . The map has been dated to the 15th or 16th century, which means that at best, it is a copy of the original map. However, the ink wasn't dated, so it's also possible that Alaska could've been added later on when
7276-411: The consonant does not directly link with the vowel. Instead, the zero onset seems to intervene in between. 棉袄 ; mián'ǎo ("cotton jacket") becomes [mjɛnʔau] , [mjɛnɣau] . However, in connected speech none of these output forms is natural. Instead, when the words are spoken together the most natural pronunciation is rather similar to [mjɛ̃ːau] , in which there is no nasal closure or any version of
7383-494: The country. The majority of the people were law-abiding citizens. The country had no army or military defense but it did have two jails, one jail was located in the north and the other jail was located in the south of the country. Those people who had committed serious crimes were sent to the north and they stayed there for their entire lives. However, these inmates could get married. If they got married and produced children, their sons became slaves and their daughters became maids. On
7490-503: The distances which are given by Huishen (20,000 Chinese li ) would mean that Fusang is located on the west coast of the American continent, when the ancient Han-period definition of the Chinese li is taken into account. Some 18th-century European maps locate Fusang north of California , in the area of British Columbia . An American location does not match with the claim that horses were sighted (because horses did not exist in either North or South America at that time) nor does it match with
7597-503: The east of China (according to Joseph Needham , Dahan corresponds to the Buriat region of Siberia). Huishen arrived in China from Kabul in 450 AD and went by ship to Fusang in 458 AD, and upon his return in 499 reported his findings to the Liang emperor. His descriptions are recorded in the 7th-century text Book of Liang by Yao Silian , and they describe a civilization which inhabits
7704-403: The east of the mainland. A country which was named Fusang was described by the native Buddhist missionary Huishen ( 慧深 , Huìshēn ), also variously romanized as Hui Shen, Hoei-sin, and Hwai Shan. In his record dated to AD 499 during China's Northern and Southern dynastic period , he describes Fusang as a place which is located 20,000 Chinese li to the east of Dahan, and it is also located to
7811-518: The existence of it became known. According to the report of Huishen to the Chinese during his visit to China, which is described in the Book of Liang : Fusang is 20,000 li to the East of the country of Dàhàn (lit. 'Great Han'), and located to the east of China (lit. the 'Middle Kingdom'). On that land, there are many Fusang plants that produce oval-shaped leaves which are similar to paulownia and edible purplish-red fruits which are like pears. The place
7918-506: The expense of including underlying glides in their systems). Edwin G. Pulleyblank has proposed a system which includes underlying glides, but no vowels at all. More common are systems with two vowels; for example, in Mantaro Hashimoto 's system, there are just two vowel nuclei, /ə, a/ . In this analysis, the high vowels [i, u, y] are analyzed as glides /j, w, ɥ/ which surface as vowels before ∅ or /ən, əŋ/ . * ㄧㄞ As
8025-504: The fact that Japan's first written name was a Chinese Wō < * ʼWâ 倭 'short/submissive people' insult." It evaluates 92 dictionary definitions of Chinese Wō 倭 to illustrate lexicographical problems with defining ethnically offensive words. In modern dictionaries, this corpus of monolingual and bilingual Chinese dictionaries includes 29 Chinese-Chinese, 17 Chinese-English, 13 Chinese to other Western Languages, and 33 Chinese-Japanese dictionaries. To analyze how Chinese dictionaries deal with
8132-643: The first of the Records of the Three Kingdoms , covers the history of Cao Wei (220–265 CE). The "Encounters with Eastern Barbarians" section describes the Wa people based upon detailed reports from Chinese envoys to Japan. It contains the first records of Yamatai-koku , shaman-queen Himiko , and other Japanese historical topics. The people of Wa dwell in the middle of the ocean on the mountainous islands southeast of [the prefecture] of Tai-fang. They formerly comprised more than one hundred communities. During
8239-422: The following character: Nara period Japanese scholars believed that Chinese character for Wō 倭 "Japan", which they used to write "Wa" or "Yamato", was graphically pejorative in denoting 委 "bent down" 亻 "people". Around 757 CE, Japan officially changed its endonym from Wa 倭 to Wa 和 "harmony; peace; sum; total". This replacement Chinese character hé 和 combines a hé 禾 "grain" phonetic (also seen in 倭) and
8346-593: The four main tones , and some degree of stress . Weak syllables are unstressed , and have neutral tone . The contrast between full and weak syllables is distinctive; there are many minimal pairs such as 要事 yàoshì "important matter" and 钥匙 yàoshi "key", or 大意 dàyì "main idea" and (with the same characters) dàyi "careless", the second word in each case having a weak second syllable. Some linguists consider this contrast to be primarily one of stress, while others regard it as one of tone. For further discussion, see under Neutral tone and Stress , below. There
8453-530: The individual consonant sounds are given in the following table. All of the consonants may occur as the initial sound of a syllable, with the exception of /ŋ/ (unless the zero initial is assigned to this phoneme; see below ). Excepting the rhotic coda , the only consonants that can appear in syllable coda (final) position are /n/ and /ŋ/ (although [m] may occur as an allophone of /n/ before labial consonants in fast speech). Final /n/ , /ŋ/ may be pronounced without complete oral closure, resulting in
8560-458: The individual vowel allophones are given in the following table (not including the values that occur with the rhotic coda ). Zhuyin represents vowels differently from normal romanisation schemes, and as such is not displayed in the above table. The vowel nuclei may be preceded by a glide /j, w, ɥ/ , and may be followed by a coda /i, u, n, ŋ/ . The various combinations of glide, vowel, and coda have different surface manifestations, as shown in
8667-560: The inventory. Between pairs of plosives or affricates having the same place of articulation and manner of articulation , the primary distinction is not voiced vs. voiceless (as in French or Russian ), but unaspirated vs. aspirated (as in Scottish Gaelic or Icelandic ). The unaspirated plosives and affricates may however become voiced in weak syllables (see § Syllable reduction below). Such pairs are represented in
8774-500: The label 鉅燕 ; Ju Yan refers to the kingdom of Yan ( c. 1000 –222 BCE ), and that Wa ("Japan was first known by this name.") maintained a "possible tributary relationship" with Yan. The Lunheng ( 論衡 ; 'Discourses Weighed in the Balance';) is a compendium of essays written by Wang Chong c. 70 –80 CE, on subjects including philosophy, religion, and the natural sciences. The chapter within
8881-599: The limited phonetic inventory, homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese are very common and important in Chinese culture . ) For a list of all Standard Chinese syllables (excluding tone and rhotic coda) see the pinyin table or zhuyin table . Syllables can be classified as full (or strong ), and weak . Weak syllables are usually grammatical markers such as 了 le , or the second syllables of some compound words (although many other compounds consist of two or more full syllables). A full syllable carries one of
8988-466: The maximal form (CG)V(X) , traditionally analysed as an "initial" consonant C, a "final", and a tone T. The final consists of a "medial" G (which may be one of the glides [j, w, ɥ] ), a vowel V, and a coda X, which may be one of [n, ŋ, ɚ̯, i̯, u̯] . The vowel and coda may also be grouped as the " rhyme ", sometimes spelled " rime ". Any of C, G, and X (and V, in some analyses) may be absent. However, in some analyses, C cannot be absent, due to
9095-412: The other three series. The existence of the above-mentioned dental variants inclines some to prefer to identify the alveolo-palatals with the dentals, but identification with any of the three series is possible (unless the empty rime / ɨ / is identified with /i/ , in which case the velars become the only candidate). The Yale and Wade–Giles systems mostly treat the alveolo-palatals as allophones of
9202-507: The phoneme is described as shifting from voiceless to voiced, e.g. sī becoming /sź̩/ . Syllabic consonants may also arise as a result of weak syllable reduction; see below . Syllabic nasal consonants are also heard in certain interjections ; pronunciations of such words include [m] , [n] , [ŋ] , [hm] , [hŋ] . Standard Chinese can be analyzed as having between two and six vowel phonemes. /i, u, y/ (which may also be analyzed as underlying glides) are high (close) vowels, /ə/
9309-542: The pinyin system mostly using letters which in Romance languages generally denote voiceless/voiced pairs (for example [p] and [b] ), or in Germanic languages often denotes fortis/lenis pairs (for example initial aspirated voiceless/unaspirated voiced pairs such as [pʰ] and [b] ). However, aspirated/unaspirated pairs such as /pʰ/ and /p/ are represented with p and b respectively in pinyin. More details about
9416-406: The plants were one of their food sources. They raised deer for meat and milk, just as the Chinese raised cattle at home, and they also produced cheese with deer's milk. They traveled on horseback and transported their goods with carts or sledges which were pulled by horses, buffalo, or deer. On the organization of the country: An emperor, or a main chief, with the help of several officials, governed
9523-568: The preceding consonant (palatalization already being inherent in the case of the palatals). On the above analysis, the alveolar-palatals are in complementary distribution with the dentals [t͡s, t͡sʰ, s] , with the velars [k, kʰ, x] , and with the retroflexes [ʈ͡ʂ, ʈ͡ʂʰ, ʂ] , as none of these can occur before high front vowels or palatal glides, whereas the alveolo-palatals occur only before high front vowels or palatal glides. Therefore, linguists often prefer to classify [t͡ɕ, t͡ɕʰ, ɕ] not as independent phonemes, but as allophones of one of
9630-448: The predecessor Middle Chinese tones than to the modern tones. Wa (Japan) Wa is the oldest attested name of Japan and ethnonym of the Japanese people . From c. the 2nd century AD Chinese and Korean scribes used the Chinese character 倭 ; 'submissive', 'distant', 'dwarf' to refer to the various inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago , although it might have been just used to transcribe
9737-528: The retroflex series arose when syllables that had a retroflex consonant followed by a medial glide lost the medial glide. A full syllable such as ai , in which the vowel is not preceded by any of the standard initial consonants or glides, is said to have a null initial or zero onset . This may be realized as a consonant sound: [ ʔ ] and [ ɣ ] are possibilities, as are [ŋ] and [ ɦ ] in some non-standard varieties. It has been suggested by San Duanmu that such an onset be regarded as
9844-420: The retroflexes in their native dialects, and may thus replace them with dentals. The alveolo-palatal consonants (pinyin j , q , x ) have standard pronunciations of [t͡ɕ, t͡ɕʰ, ɕ] . Some speakers realize them as palatalized dentals [t͡sʲ] , [t͡sʰʲ] , [sʲ] ; this is claimed to be especially common among children and women, although officially it is regarded as substandard and as a feature specific to
9951-542: The retroflexes; Tongyong Pinyin mostly treats them as allophones of the dentals; and Mainland Chinese Braille treats them as allophones of the velars. In standard pinyin and bopomofo , however, they are represented as a separate sequence. The alveolo-palatals arose historically from a merger of the dentals [t͡s, t͡sʰ, s] and velars [k, kʰ, x] before high front vowels and glides. Previously, some instances of modern [t͡ɕ(ʰ)i] were instead [k(ʰ)i] , and others were [t͡s(ʰ)i] ; distinguishing these two sources of [t͡ɕ(ʰ)i]
10058-570: The same Japanese wa pronunciation as 倭 'dwarf', and - most importantly - it was semantically flattering. The notion that Japanese culture is based upon wa 和 'harmony' has become an article of faith among Japanese and Japanologists. In current Japanese usage, Wa 倭 "old name for Japan" is a variant Chinese character for Wa 和 "Japan", excepting a few historical terms like the Five kings of Wa , wakō (Chinese Wōkòu 倭寇 "Japanese pirates"), and Wamyō Ruijushō dictionary. In marked contrast, Wa 和
10165-589: The second century. This interval continued well past the third century. Then within merely nine years, the female Wo ruler Himiko sent four ambassadors to the Wei court (220–265) in 238, 243, 245, and 247, respectively. After the death of Himiko, diplomatic contact with China slowed. Iyoo , the female successor to Himiko, contacted the Wei court only once. The fourth century was another quiet period in China–Wo relations except for
10272-550: The second year of Da Ming of the Liu Song dynasty (485 AD), five monks who were from the Kipin ( Kabul region of Gandhara) traveled to that country by ship. They propagated the Buddhist doctrine, circulated scriptures and drawings, and advised the people to relinquish their worldly attachments. As a result, the customs of the people of Fusang changed. It is also reported that 1,000 li (415 km, 258 miles) beyond of Fusang, there
10379-424: The social practices: The marriage arrangement was relatively simple. If a boy wanted to marry a girl, he had to build a cabin next to the home of the girl and stay in it for a year. If the girl liked him, they would get married; otherwise he would be asked to go away ... When a person died in the community, his or her body would be cremated. The mourning period varied from seven days for a dead parent to five days for
10486-585: The start of a syllable is articulated as a single sound – the glide is not in fact pronounced after the consonant, but is realized as palatalization [ʲ] , labialization [ʷ] , or both [ᶣ] , of the consonant. (The same modifications of initial consonants occur in syllables where they are followed by a high vowel, although normally no glide is considered to be present there. Hence a consonant is generally palatalized [ʲ] when followed by /i/ , labialized [ʷ] when followed by /u/ , and both [ᶣ] when followed by /y/ .) The glides [j] and [w] are also found as
10593-418: The tables below. Any of the three positions may be empty, i.e. occupied by a null meta-phoneme ∅ . The following table provides a typical five vowel analysis according to Duanmu (2000 , p. 37) and Lin (2007) . In this analysis, the high vowels /i, u, y/ are fully phonemic and may form sequences with the nasal codas /n, ŋ/ . Some linguists prefer to reduce the number of vowel phonemes drastically (at
10700-452: The weak form will often have a modified pronunciation, however, as detailed in the following section. Apart from differences in tone, length, and stress, weak syllables are subject to certain other pronunciation changes (reduction). The example of shénme → shém also involves assimilation , which is heard even in unreduced syllables in quick speech (for example, in guǎmbō for 广播 guǎngbō "broadcast"). A particular case of assimilation
10807-399: The zero initial being considered a consonant. Many of the possible combinations under the above scheme do not actually occur. There are only some 35 final combinations (medial+rime) in actual syllables (see pinyin finals ). In all, there are only about 400 different syllables when tone is ignored, and about 1300 when tone is included. This is a far smaller number of distinct syllables than in
10914-519: The zero onset, and instead nasalization of the vowel occurs. The glides [ j ] , [ ɥ ] , and [ w ] sound respectively like the y in English yes , the (h)u in French huit , and the w in English we . ( Beijing speakers often replace initial [w] with a labiodental [ʋ] , except when it is followed by [o] or [u] . ) The glides are commonly analyzed not as independent phonemes, but as consonantal allophones of
11021-752: Was Sakhalin ". Joseph Needham added that "if Kamchatka and the Kuriles may also be considered, there is no better means of identifying it at the present day." Note that there was an ancient province of Japan which was named the Fusa-no kuni (the 'Country of Fusa') in eastern Honshū, which encompassed all of the modern-day Chiba Prefecture as well as the southwestern part of the modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture . According to some historians such as Charles Godfrey Leland and Joseph de Guignes ( Le Fou-Sang des Chinois est-il l'Amérique? Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome 28, Paris, 1761),
11128-473: Was a Land of Women, where "its female inhabitants were completely covered with hair, walked erect, and chattered a lot among themselves but were shy when they saw ordinary human beings. They gave birth to their young after six or seven months of pregnancy and nursed them on their backs. The babies were able to walk within 100 days and were fully grown in three or four years." Chinese tones The phonology of Standard Chinese has historically derived from
11235-616: Was presented tributes of Vietnamese pheasants and Japanese herbs. The c. 82 CE Han Shu ( Book of Han ) covers the Former Han dynasty (206 BCE – 24 CE) period. Near the conclusion of the Yan entry in the Dilizhi 地理志 ("Treatise on Geography") section, it records that "[ Wa ] encompassed over 100 [nations]". Beyond Lo-lang in the sea, there are the people of Wo. They comprise more than one hundred communities. It
11342-444: Was rich in copper deposits and it also contained traces of gold and silver but it did not contain iron. The native tribes in Fusang were civilized, living in well-organized communities. They produced paper from the bark of the Fusang plants for writing and they also produced cloth from the fibers of the bark, which they used for robes or wadding. Their houses or cabins were constructed with red mulberry wood. The fruits and young shoots of
11449-497: Was said to rise in Fusang and fall on Ruomu. According to Chinese legends, ten birds (typically ravens) lived in the tree, and because nine of the birds rested, the tenth bird would carry the Sun on its journey. This legend has similarities with the Chinese tale of the fictional hero Houyi , sometimes referred to as the Archer, who is credited with saving the world by shooting down nine of the suns when all ten suns simultaneously took to
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