论“婉”:词学核心概念的字源学谱系分析样例-《南京师大学报》（社会科学版）

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Title:: The Chinese Character婉: A Case of Etymologicaland Genealogical Studies on the Core Concepts in Chinese Ci Poetry

Keywords:: 婉(wan); studies on ci poetry; etymology; aesthetics of Chinese characters; genealogical analysis

摘要:: “婉约”为词学的核心概念,“婉”的含义,可从“夗-宛-婉”的谱系中寻绎。“夗”训“卧”,在甲骨文及金文中,系由两个或一个弯曲的人体所构成的象形字。“夗”含有“屈、曲、圆、转”等义; “宛”从宀从夗,由宀(馆室)这一部件,增加并引申有“深、幽、凄、清”等义; “婉”从女从宛,增加了“顺、丽、娈、媚”等义。“宛、婉、惋、怨”等夗族字,可与意义相近或相关的字组成诸多双音节词,并进一步组成四音节词组,用以形容描写对象,或用以评论词人词作,并在漫长的演变过程中,选择出“婉约”一词,作为词学的核心概念。夗族字所组成的词语及词组,其分布及使用情况,提示“宛”、“婉”等字的构形,与该字实际使用时在特定语境中的意义高度相关。

Abstract:: Wan-yue 婉约(elegant and restrained)is one of the core concepts of Chinese ci poetry. The rich implication of the Chinese character 婉(wan)can be detected from its membership of the character family consisting of夗(yuan), 宛(wan)and 婉(wan). Originally, the character夗 meant “lie down” which was engraved, as an ideograph, on the animal bones and bronze wares in the image of one or two persons lying down. Later, it obtained such meanings as “bent”, “curved”, “round”, and “revolving”. The character宛, which was made by adding to夗 the radical 宀which referred to a room, was extended to take such meanings as “deep”, “quiet”, “sad”, and “clear”. The character婉, with adding the radical 女(n&#252;)to the root宛, gained such meanings as “obedient”, “beautiful”, and “lovely”. In the Chinese language, the 夗 family characters including宛, 婉, 惋(wan)and 怨(yuan)can form a lot of two-character words and four-character idioms, which can be used to describe and comment on ci poetry. In this way, there appeared the word wan-yue婉约 which constitutes one of the core concepts of ci poetry studies. The夗 family characters and the words and phrases closely related to them, bearing a strong connection with such characters as 宛 and 婉 in shape, are usually distributed and used in specific contexts to convey rich aesthetic meanings.