Title

On the Meanings Meanings of ch’i-ts’o and ch’i-mi In the Period of the Six Dynasties

Author

Sherman Chu

Genre

Article  

Pages

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Language

Key words

ch’i-ts, ch’i-mi

Abstract

     To explicate the ideas and theories of a certain literary work, it is necessary to fully comprehend what has been said in that work. In the absence of this ground work, academic studies face the danger of becoming creative writings. In order to comprehend the meaning of a literary work, one has to know how it had been comprehended by the first generation’s readers. Although writers may wish to be appreciated for thousands of years to come, yet the majority of them write mainly for their contemporaries. This is why a firm grasp of the original historical and cultural background is essential to the commentaries of those literary works. One of the touchstones as to whether this condition has been satisfied is whether commentators have grasped the idiomatic phrases and their meanings used in a certain literary work of a certain period.

    It is hoped that this paper has provided sufficient texture evidence to certify the meanings of two idiomatic phrases, ch’i-ts’o and ch’i-mi, appeared in two passages often cited in the studies of Chinese medieval literature theories and criticism.