Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den

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The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den (simplified Chinese: 施氏食狮史; traditional Chinese: 施氏食獅史; pinyin: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ) is a famous example of constrained writing by Yuen Ren Chao which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound shi in different tones when read in Mandarin. The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken out in Standard Mandarin or when written romanized in Standard Mandarin.

PRC linguists suggest that Yuen Ren Chao, as the leader who designed Gwoyeu Romatzyh, believed in romanization of Mandarin (which incorporates tones and foreign cognate spellings) but believed it suitable only for writing modern vernacular Chinese and not Classical Chinese. As a result, Classical Chinese should be abandoned and vernacular Chinese should be promoted. Other linguists, however, see the text as a demonstration of how absurd it could be when the Chinese language is romanized. It sometimes causes confusion rather than giving assistance for the learners.

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[edit] The text

The following is the text in Hanyu Pinyin and Chinese characters. Pinyin orthography recommends writing numbers in Arabic numerals, so the number shí would be written as 10. To preserve the homophony in this case, the number 10 has also been spelled out in Pinyin.

« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.
《施氏食獅史》
石室詩士施氏,嗜獅,誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時,適十獅適市。
是時,適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅,恃矢勢,使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍,適石室。
石室濕,氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭,氏始試食是十獅。
食時,始識是十獅,實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。

Meaning in English:

In a stone den was a poet Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that those ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.

[edit] Explanation

Since the passage is written in Classical Chinese, homophony is not an issue. Classical Chinese is a written language and is very different from spoken Chinese. Different words that have the same sound when spoken aloud will have different written forms, comparable to deer and dear in English.

Also, many characters in the passage had distinct sounds in Middle Chinese. All the various Chinese spoken variants have over time merged and split different sounds. For example, when the same passage is read in Cantonese, there are seven distinct syllables - ci, sai, sap, sat, sek, si, sik - in six distinct tone contours, leaving 22 distinct morphemes. In Min Nan or Taiwanese, there are six distinct syllables - se, si, su, sek, sip, sit – in seven distinct tone contours, leaving 15 distinct morphemes. Even with Dioziu (Chaozhou/Teochew), there are eleven distinct syllables - ci, cig, sai, se, seg, si, sib, sig, zab, ziah, zioh - in six distinct tone contours, leaving 22 distinct morphemes. However, it is still debatable whether the passage is any more comprehensible when read aloud in other dialects than it is in Mandarin.

« Si1 si6 sik9 si1 si2 » (Cantonese Jyutping)
Sek9 sat7 si1 si6 si1 si6, si3 si1, sai6 sik9 sap9 si1.
Si6 si4 si4 sik7 si5 si6 si1.
Sap9 si4, sik7 sap9 si1 sik7 si5.
Si6 si4, sik7 si1 si6 sik2 si5.
Si6 si6 si6 sap9 si1, ci5 ci2 sai3, si2 si6 sap9 si1 sai6 sai3.
Si6 sap9 si6 sap9 si1 si1, sik7 sek9 sat1.
Sek9 sat7 sap1, si6 si2 si6 sik7 sek9 sat1.
Sek9 sat7 sik1, si6 ci2 si3 sik9 si6 sap9 si1.
Sik6 si6, si6 sik7 si9 sap9 si1, sat9 sap9 sek9 si1 si1.
Si3 sik7 si6 si6.
« Si--sī Si̍t-si Sú » (Min Nan or Taiwanese)
Se̍k-sek si-sū Si--sī, sī su, sè si̍t si̍p-su.
Sī sî-sî sek-sī sī-su.
Si̍p-sî, sek si̍p-su sek-sī.
Sī-sî, sek si--sī sek-sī.
Sī sī sī si̍p-su, sī sí sè, sú sī si̍p-su sè-sè.
Sī si̍p sī si̍p su-si, sek se̍k-sek.
Se̍k-sek sip, sī sú sī sit se̍k-sek.
Se̍k-sek sit, sī sí sì si̍t sī si̍p-su.
Si̍t-sî, sí sek sī si̍p-su, si̍t si̍p se̍k-su-si.
Sī sek sī-su.
« si1 si6 ziah8 sai1 se2 » Teochew
zioh8sig4 si1se6 si1si6, si7 sai1, si7 ziah8 zab8 sai1.
si6 si5si5 sêg4 ci6 si6 sai1.
zab8 si5, sêg4 zab8 sai1 sêg4 ci6.
si6 si5, sêg5 si1si6 sêg4 ci6.
si6 si6 si6 zab8 sai1, si6 si2 si3, sai2 si6 zab8 sai1 si7si3.
si6 sib8 si6 zab8 sai1 si1, sêg4 zioh8sig4.
zioh8sig4 sib4, si6 sai2 si6 cig4 zioh8sig4.
zioh8sig4 cig4, si6 si2 ci3 ziah8 si6 zab8 sai1.
ziah8 si5, si2 sêg4 si6 zab8 sai1, sig8 zab8 zioh8 sai1 si1.
ci3 sêg4 si6 se7.

In Cantonese, 48 of the story's 92 syllables are read si in one of six tones, 13 are read sik in one of two tones, 12 are read sap in one of two tones, 6 each are read sek or sat in one of two tones, 4 are read sai in one of two tones, and 3 are read ci in one of two tones.

[edit] Poem text in vernacular Chinese

While the sound changes merged sounds that had been distinct, new ways of speaking those concepts emerged. Typically disyllabic words replaced monosyllabic ones. If the same passage is translated into modern Mandarin, it will not be that confusing. The following is an example written in Vernacular Chinese, along with its pronunciations in Pinyin; Chinese characters (simp.) with pinyin transcription added using ruby annotations.

(shī) (shì) (chī) (shī) (zi) ()

(yǒu) () (wèi) (zhù) (zài) (shí) (shì) () (de) (shī) (rén) (jiào) (shī) (shì)(ài) (chī) (shī) (zi)(jué) (xīn) (yào) (chī) (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi)

() (cháng) (cháng) () (shì) (chǎng) (kàn) (shī) (zi)

(shí) (diǎn) (zhōng)(gāng) (hǎo) (yǒu) (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi) (dào) (le) (shì) (chǎng)

() (shí) (hòu)(gāng) (hǎo) (shī) (shì) () (dào) (le) (shì) (chǎng)

() (kàn) (jiàn) () (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi)便(biàn) (fàng) (jiàn)() () (shí) (zhi) (shī) (zi) (shā) () (le)

() (shi) () () (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi) (de) (shī) ()(dài) (dào) (shí) (shì)

(shí) (shì) (shī) (le) (shuǐ)(shī) (shì) (jiào) (shì) (cóng) () (shí) (shì) () (gān)

(shí) (shì) () (gān) (le)() (cai) (shì) (shi) (chī) () (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi)

(chī) (de) (shí) (hòu)(cái) () (xiàn) () (shí) (zhī) (shī) (zi)(yuán) (lái) (shì) (shí) (zhī) (shí) (tóu) (de) (shī) (zi) (shī) ()

(shì) (shi) (jiě) (shì) (zhè) (jiàn) (shì) (ba)

Chinese characters (trad.) Chinese characters (simp.)

《施氏吃獅子記》

有一位住在石室裏的詩人叫施氏,愛吃獅子,決心要吃十隻獅子。
他常常去市場看獅子。
十點鐘,剛好有十隻獅子到了市場。
那時候,剛好施氏也到了市場。
他看見那十隻獅子,便放箭,把那十隻獅子殺死了。
他拾起那十隻獅子的屍體,帶到石室。
石室濕了水,施氏叫侍從把石室擦乾。
石室擦乾了,他才試試吃那十隻獅子。
吃的時候,才發現那十隻獅子,原來是十隻石頭的獅子屍體。
試試解釋這件事吧。

《施氏吃狮子记》

有一位住在石室里的诗人叫施氏,爱吃狮子,决心要吃十只狮子。
他常常去市场看狮子。
十点钟,刚好有十只狮子到了市场。
那时候,刚好施氏也到了市场。
他看见那十只狮子,便放箭,把那十只狮子杀死了。
他拾起那十只狮子的尸体,带到石室。
石室湿了水,施氏叫侍从把石室擦干。
石室擦干了,他才试试吃那十只狮子。
吃的时候,才发现那十只狮子,原来是十只石头的狮子尸体。
试试解释这件事吧。

Pinyin Transcription of the Vernacular Chinese

«Shī Shì chī shīzi jì»

Yǒu yí wèi zhù zài shíshì lǐ de shīrén jiào Shī Shì, ài chī shīzi, juéxīn yào chī shí zhī shīzi.
Tā chángcháng qù shìchǎng kàn shīzi.
Shí diǎnzhōng, gānghǎo yǒu shí zhī shīzi dào le shìchǎng.
Nà shíhòu, gānghǎo Shī Shì yě dào le shìchǎng.
Tā kànjiàn nà shí zhī shīzi, biàn fàng jiàn, bǎ nà shí zhī shīzi shā sǐ le.
Tā shí qǐ nà shí zhī shīzi de shītǐ, dài dào shíshì.
Shíshì shī le shuǐ, Shī Shì jiào shìcóng bǎ shíshì cā gān.
Shíshì cā gān le, tā cái shìshi chī nà shí zhī shīzi.
Chī de shíhòu, cái fāxiàn nà shí zhī shīzi, yuánlái shì shí zhī shítou de shīzi shītǐ.
Shìshi jiěshì zhè jiàn shì ba.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den has the source text and audio files of the text pronounced in Mandarin and Cantonese. (Note that the recordings in Mandarin carry marked accents e.g. many tones are wrongly pronounced and the place of articulation of the initial sh is too advanced. Serious learners of Mandarin are advised not to follow the pronunciations.)
  • The Three "NOTs" of Hanyu Pinyin has a similar but different text, and it explains that the intention of Zhao Yuanren (Yuen Ren Chao) was not to oppose Chinese Romanization.