A study of the descriptives in the 'Fu' of Yang Xiong (Chinese text, China)

Fu, as a genre of archaic poetry, not only deal with many subject matters elaborately, but employ a great amount of descriptives when they capture natural scenes or describe matters. This gives their readers an impression of splendor but wordiness. To understand Fu, especially the main theme of the grand Fu of Han, and appreciate their beauty, merely knowing the matters they deal with is not enough. It is necessary to investigate the meanings and the nuances of the descriptives they used. This dissertation will focus on the descriptives in Fu by Yang Xiong. Yang Xiong was a big figure among the authors of Fu during Xi Han period and the amount of his extant works is greater than that of Sima Xiong-ru, another important Fu author.; In this dissertation, first, the grammatical theories concerning the descriptives will be studied so that the meaning and characteristics of the descriptives can be examined phraseologically and grammatically. Second, a framework will be established to collect the descriptives, in which the descriptives in Yang Xiong's Fu will be categorized according to their syllabic pattern. The Book of Songs, Chu Ci and other Fu in Wen Xuan will also be used as references and examples. Third, the descriptives in Yang Xiong's Fu will be analyzed and summarized by their characteristics in phonetics, semantics and grammar. Forth, by using the methods of comparison and examining the various forms and usages of the descriptives, this dissertation will investigate their meaning. The result will then be used to compare with and complement the comments by other ancient Chinese scholars on Yang Xiong's Fu . This study hopefully will facilitate the study of ancient Chinese grammar and contribute to the study of Yang Xiong's Fu.