176 pp. November 2001
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-2770-0, $20.00
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Keywords: |
Asia
China
language
literature
history
anthropology
textbook |
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ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs (Yanyu)
ed. by John S. Rohsenow
“The index ... is surprisingly effective to use. The editing and proofing of the main entries is superb.... It is a rare book that can bring new scholarly attention to a topic while also introducing it to the general public. This new offering does both admirably and should be widely emulated.” —Modern Language Journal 89 (2005)“Rohsenow begins his book with a magesterial and inclusive discussion of the multifaceted aspects of Chinese proverbs, both as an oral and literary mode of formulaic and sapiential language. A massive index of English key-words allows non-Chinese speakers to locate individual proverbs, making this book of great use to Sinologists but also the scholars who work comparatively but do not know the Chinese language. The publication of ABC Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs is a major event for Sinologists and international paremiologists.” —Wolfgang Mieder, chair of the Department of German and Russian, University of Vermont, and editor of Proverbium
This Chinese-English dictionary of proverbs (yanyu) consists of approximately 4,000 Chinese proverbs alphabetically arranged by the first word(s) (ci) of the proverb according to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription and Chinese characters (standard simplified), followed by a literal (and when necessary also a figurative) English translation. Additional data such as brief usage notes, sources, parallel expressions, cross-references, and famous instances of use are provided where available. The proverbs are supplemented by an index of key words (both Chinese and English) found in all entries and of all topics addressed. The author has provided a scholarly introduction analyzing the definition, structure, usage, and history of these yanyu in traditional and contemporary China as well as a bibliography of collections and relevant scholarly studies of yanyu. This work, the first such scholarly collection to appear since the Reverend Scarborough’s 1926 collection, will be of use not only to sinologists in a wide variety of fields, including anthropology, literature, sociology, psychology, and history, but also to non-Chinese readers interested in Chinese culture or comparative ethnolinguistic and paremiological research. Not for sale in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East
John S. Rohsenow is associate professor of linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Read an exerpt from the introduction (PDF).
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