A Study Of Chinese Folk Proverbs In Proverbs And Common Sayings From The Chinese

Ming Enpu(1845-1932),formerly known as Arthur Henderson Smith,was a missionary of the American Christian Congregation in China.He lived in China for 54 years,during which he published a wealth of articles and books about China.Most of them were translated into Chinese,which attracted the widespread attention of Chinese scholars,including Lu Xun.Ming Enpu was regarded as an expert on China at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century.However,the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese,which was compiled and published based on Ming Enpu’s early materials after his arrival in China,has never been paid due attention by the academic circles.There are few relevant research results at present.This paper focuses on the proverbs in the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese,and explores Ming Enpu’s cultural interpretation of Chinese folk proverbs,and the value and significance of the and Common Sayings from the Chinese in the development of Chinese proverb studies.The main part of the paper includes the following three chapters:The first chapter discusses the background of the era in which the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese was complied,and clarifies there are differences in proverb compilation between western scholars dominated by missionaries and Chinese scholars.On this basis,it discusses Ming Enpu’s purpose of compiling proverbs and his process of collecting and publishing them.Ming Enpu took the literary genre of proverbs as an entrance to understand Chinese people and Chinese culture,so as to communicate with the people and carry out missionary activities.Proverbs became the basis for his understanding and interpretation of Chinese culture.At the same time,he shared his knowledge of China formed by proverbs with his fellow Christians in China and also conveyed it to the further western world.Proverbs became a critical window for westerners to learn about China.The second chapter analyzes and interprets the text content of proverbs in the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese,and discusses the sources,categories and cultural connotations of proverbs.First,this chapter selects 227 proverbs in the book and presents their sources in the form of charts,including Confucian classics,historical books,works of hundreds of schools,literary works,Buddhist books and oral sayings.Second,this chapter categorizes the proverbs with reference to the classification criteria in the Detailed Rules for Integrated Editing of Chinese Proverbs,sorts out and analyzes the specific text contents of major categories and subcategories,and observes the focus and significance of Ming Enpu’s proverb collection.Third,by tracing back the time of Ming Enpu’s published publication,comparing with other works of Ming Enpu,and intensively reading the introduction to the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese,we can find that the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese is the formation basis of his view of China,thus illustrating that this book is of great significance to the study of his view of China.This chapter selects the top three categories with the largest number of subcategories in the classification of proverbs in the second chapter,"Family","Humanity" and"Virtue",and probes into the connotation of these proverbs and Ming Enpu’s interpretation.The third chapter elaborates on the characteristics and values of proverbs in the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese,which is the focus of this paper.Based on the interpretation of the text in the second chapter,this chapter summarizes the content characteristics and compilation characteristics of proverbs in the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese by comparing with Du Wenlan’s Ancient Sayings and Proverbs in a similar period,and analyzes the causes of these proverbs’characteristics in combination with the identity and life experience of the author.Ming Enpu.Through the analysis of the characteristics of proverbs,this paper discusses the development of "western route" in the initial stage of Chinese folk proverb research and the significance of the Proverbs and Common Savings from the Chinese in the course of Chinese proverb research.In summary,Ming Enpu’s collection,compilation and research on Chinese folk proverbs present characteristics that are different from those of contemporary Chinese scholars.In this regard,he is even more pioneering and forward-looking than those scholars after the May 4th Movement,and he brings new ideas and directions in the study of Chinese proverbs.Although his explanations and comments on proverbs in the Proverbs and Common Sayings from the Chinese inevitably have prejudice and misinterpretation under the western centralism,it can also manifest Ming Enpu’s view of China and even contemporary westerners’ view of China,thus facilitating our investigation of the image characteristics of China as the "other" in the era.