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; literally "The Story of Shi Eating Lions") is a 92-character modern poem written in Classical Chinese by Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982), in which every syllable has the sound shi (in different tones) when read in modern Mandarin Chinese. It is a famous example of constrained writing. The sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is an example of this type of writing in English.
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 in Modern Standard Chinese or when written in romanization.[citation needed]
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The text [edit]
The following is the text in Hanyu Pinyin, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, and Chinese traditional/simplified characters. Pinyin orthography recommends writing Chinese numbers in Arabic numerals, so the number shí ("十") would be written as 10. To preserve the homophony in this case, the number 10 has also been spelled out in Pinyin.
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Translation:
- « Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
- In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
- 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 these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
- Try to explain this matter.
Explanation [edit]
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 character pronunciations. In Min Nan or Taiwanese, there are six distinct syllables - se, si, su, sek, sip, sit – in seven distinct tone contours, leaving 15 character pronunciations. Even with Dioziu (Chaozhou/Teochew), there are eleven distinct syllables - ci, cik, sai, se, sek, si, sip, sik, chap, chiah, chioh - in six distinct tone contours, leaving 22 distinct character pronunciations. However, it is still debatable whether the passage is any more comprehensible when read aloud in other dialects than it is in Mandarin.[citation needed]
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Poem text in vernacular Chinese [edit]
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.
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| Chinese characters (trad.) | Chinese characters (simp.) | |
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《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。 |
《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。 |
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| Pinyin Transcription of the Vernacular Chinese | ||
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«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. |
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Classical Chinese pronunciation in antiquity [edit]
| Old Chinese pronunciation in IPA (according to Karlgren)[1] | Middle Chinese pronunciation in IPA[1] | |
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ɕia dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯ək ʂi̯ər sli̯əɡ dʲi̯ǎk ɕi̯ět ɕiəɡ dʑi̯əɡ ɕia dʲi̯ěɡ, dʲi̯ər ʂi̯ər, dʲi̯ad dʲi̯ək dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər. dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əɡ dʲi̯əɡ ɕi̯ěk dʲi̯əɡ dʲi̯ər ʂi̯ər. dʲi̯əp dʲi̯əɡ, ɕi̯ěk dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər ɕi̯ěk dʲi̯əɡ. dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əɡ, ɕi̯ěk ɕia dʲi̯ěɡ ɕi̯ěk dʲi̯əɡ. dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯ər dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər, dʲi̯əɡ ɕi̯ər ɕi̯ad, sli̯əɡ dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər dʲi̯ad ɕi̯ad. dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər ɕi̯ər, ɕi̯ěk dʲi̯ǎk ɕi̯ět. dʲi̯ǎk ɕi̯ět ɕi̯əp, dʲi̯ěɡ sli̯əɡ dʲi̯əɡ ɕi̯ək dʲi̯ǎk ɕi̯ět. dʲi̯ǎk ɕi̯ět ɕi̯ək, dʲi̯ěɡ ɕi̯əɡ dʲi̯ək dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər. dʲi̯ək dʲi̯əɡ, ɕi̯əɡ ɕi̯ək dʲi̯ěɡ dʲi̯əp ʂi̯ər, dʲi̯ět dʲi̯əp dʲi̯ǎk ʂi̯ər ɕi̯ər. ɕi̯əɡ ɕi̯ak dʲi̯ěɡ dʑi̯əɡ. |
ɕie̯ ʑie̯ː dʑi̯ək ʂi ʂiː ʑi̯ɛk ɕi̯ět ɕi dʑiː ɕie̯ ʑie̯ː, ʑi ʂi, ʑi̯ɛi dʑi̯ək ʑi̯əp ʂi. ʑie̯ː ʑi ʑi ɕi̯ɛk ʑiː ʑiː ʂi. ʑi̯əp ʑi, ɕi̯ɛk ʑi̯əp ʂi ɕi̯ɛk ʑiː. ʑǐe̯ː ʑi, ɕi̯ɛk ɕie̯ ʑie̯ː ɕi̯ɛk ʑiː. ʑie̯ː ʑiː ʑǐe̯ː ʑi̯əp ʂi, ʑi ɕiː ɕi̯ɛi, ʂiː ʑǐe̯ː ʑi̯əp ʂi ʑi̯ɛi ɕi̯ɛi ʑie̯ː ʑi̯əp ʑǐe̯ː ʑi̯əp ʂi ɕiː, ɕi̯ɛk ʑi̯ɛk ʑi̯ět. ʑi̯ɛk ɕi̯ět ɕi̯əp, ʑie̯ː ʂiː ʑi ɕi̯ək ʑi̯ɛk ɕi̯ět. ʑi̯ɛk ɕi̯ět ɕi̯ək, ʑie̯ː ɕiː ɕi dʑi̯ək ʑǐe̯ː ʑi̯əp ʂi. dʑi̯ək ʑi, ɕiː ɕi̯ək ʑǐe̯ː ʑi̯əp ʂi, dʑi̯ět ʑi̯əp ʑi̯ɛk ʂi ɕiː. ɕi ɕi̯ɛk ʑǐe̯ː dʑi. |
Related tongue-twisters [edit]
In certain Southern Mandarin-speaking areas of China, speakers have a tongue-twister similar to The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den:
四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。
This tongue-twister translates to "Four is four, ten is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty." In Standard Mandarin, it is pronounced as follows:
sì shi sì, shí shi shí, shísì shi shísì, sìshí shi sìshí.
In some southern dialects of Mandarin, however, where speakers do not pronounce the [ʂ] (sh) but replace it with [s], the tongue-twister is pronounced as follows, with all the syllables homophonous except for their tones:
sì si sì, sí si sí, sísì si sísì, sìsí si sìsí.
See also [edit]
- Homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese
- James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
- One syllable article
- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Chinese [edit]
- A list of other Classical Chinese texts based entirely on modern homophones
- 【整理】十一篇“同音文”的参考译文（有的译文相当强大！）_“缘定沧桑居”_百度空间
- 對聯：30. 巧聯妙對
References [edit]
- Forsyth, Mark. (2011). The etymologicon : a circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language. London: Icon Books. ISBN 978-1-84831-307-1.
External links [edit]
- 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.
- a YouTube video showing the text read aloud in Mandarin
