A Cognitive Analysis Of The Metaphors In Zhong Rong’s Shipin

Zhong Rong’s Shipin,written in Liang Dynasty,is a highly representative work of the poetic critiques in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in the history of China when the awareness of literature began to awake.Shipin is deemed as one of the first works that enlightened the traditions of the Chinese poetic criticism.It is also the first critique with a focus on the five-character-quatrain format in history.After stating his theories of the "functions of poems" and the "tastes of poems",Zhong Rong reviews the developments of five-character quatrains,categorizes and ranks the representative poets of this new tradition,and analyzes in detail their styles,characteristics and the origins of their works.The structural arrangements and appraisal principles of Shipin have had profound influences on the later critical works in China.Plenty of researchers have done exegetic analyses on the contents of Shipin and scholars from the field of ancient literary theories have also explored and expounded on Shipin in depth.This study starts from a cognitive linguistic perspective and uses Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory to analyze the conceptual metaphorical phenomena in Shipin.For this purpose,a customized metaphor identification process(MIP)based on that of the Pragglejaz Group is utilized in order to distinguish literal and metaphorical usages of Zhong Rong’s wording at his time.Since Shipin was compiled during Northern and Southern Dynasties(A.D.425-A.D.581),two ancient exegetic works,Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi(Han Dynasty,B.C.221-A.D.206)and Gu Yewang’s Yupian(approximately of the same period of Zhong Rong),are set as the upper and lower limits to pinpoint the intended meanings and possible metaphorical usages;a later exegesis in Song Dynasty,Dagungyi Yupian,and Wang Li’s contemporary comprehensive exegetic dictionary are also consulted as references.After the aforementioned procedure,97 Chinese characters are identified as metaphorically-used in Shipin.These metaphorical uses are further categorized as ontological metaphors and appraisal metaphors.The notion of "ontological metaphor"follows the definition in Lakoff and Johnson’s(1980)tripartite division while the notion of "appraisal metaphor" is based on Grady’s(1997)notion of "primary metaphor".In this research "appraisal metaphor" refers to the primary metaphor which establishes mappings between sensory-perceptual experiences and the qualities of poems.Such mappings are realized via a conceptual metaphor with appraisal value,viz.SALIENCE IN PERCEPTION IS EXCELLENCE IN QUALITY,or a conceptual metaphor objectifying poems,viz.AN ABSTRACT ENTIY IS A CONCRETE OBJECT,thus enabling the qualities of poems to be assessed in sensory-perceptual terms.There are four kinds of ontological metaphors,involving target domains like ideas of "poem"perse(POEM),the poet’s mastering of words(WORDING IN POEMS),the general styles of poems(STYLE IN POEMS)and the feelings embodied in poems(SENTIMENT IN POEMS).The source domains of metaphors on "poem" per se involve the concepts of LIGHT and HUMAN;the source domains of WORDING metaphors are WATER/LIQUID,FIRE,PLANT,BROCADE,CARVINGS and a unique combination of FLOWER/RAIN.The metaphors on STYLE mainly focus on the source domains of FIRE and FOOD while the source domain of SENTIMENT metaphor focuses on WEATHER.This study also finds seven categories of appraisal metaphors in Shipin,which can be specified into twenty-one kinds.These seven categories are sensory-perceptions(visual,gustatory/olfactory and thalposis),spatial dimensions(width,depth,height and volume),force-dynamic schema(moving objects,mass&gravity and physical strengths)and certain complex notions(CLARITY/PURITY,GRADIENT,MOISTURE/SATURATION,FINESSE and VITALITY/HEALTH).Among the twenty-one kinds of appraisal metaphors,there are six kinds which are negotiable:quantity,sentiments,auditory features,markedness,archaicness and orthodoxy.