Understanding the Aesthetic of the “Trivial”: The Great Music of Dao in the Subtle Melody of Function Words[1]

(Johnson Country Community College, U.S.A)

Understanding the Aesthetic of the “Trivial”: The Great Music of Dao in the Subtle Melody of Function Words

Shudong Chen

(Johnson Country Community College, U.S.A)

Between William James, the eminent American pragmatist philosopher of the nineteenth century, and Liu Dakui （刘大櫆）, the famous Chinese essayist of the Qing dynasty, there should not have been any conceivable connection. Their works however do reveal something particularly compatible and invaluable especially regarding what I call“an aesthetic of the trivial” . From utterly different cultural backgrounds, they both notice the indispensable but often overlooked role of function word （功能词） or “xuci”（虚词）, which influences reading and writing in ways beyond our usual consciousness. As indicated in various related works, （or xuzi虚字） and function word may not be so perfectly interchangeable, but they are used interchangeably in the paper for the convenience of discussion. Function word here, in other words, refers to other than “content word” whether in the name of “xuci” “gongnengci”“zhuci” （助词 auxiliary word）, or “zhudongci”（助动词）, etc. Moreover, even though Feng’s discussions on the formation of “prosodic word” （韵律词） does not focus on “function word”, the undisputable importance of function word is, nevertheless, still acknowledged in the discussions. It is acknowledged, for instance, in a footnote (No. 4) of his discussion on the formation of prosodic word, in which Feng indicates that the subject of function word, given its importance, deserves being dealt with separately with a focus on itself while explaining why he deliberately excludes discussion of function word from his cases on prosody.冯胜利Feng Shengli，《汉语的韵律，词法与句法》 [Interactions between Morphology Syntax and Prosody in Chinese]（北京[Beijing]：北京大学出版社[Peking University Press]，1997），23。The paper thus suggests how to read and re-read the familiar texts with a special attention to the often“invisible” but indispensable role of function word especially with regard to the cases of parallelism in the prosodically “pragmatic” ways that both James and Liu indicate along with the contemporary Chinese linguists, such as Feng Shengli（冯胜利）. With references to the classical Chinese texts and some additional examples from Geoffrey Chaucer, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Baudelaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and the compatible cases in classical and modern Japanese, the paper argues that the function word, other than their usual grammatical function, also creates the vital narrative impact, such as setting up the live syntactic-prosodic verbal environment, and thus indicates not only a crucially “local” but also “global” phenomenon yet to be further understood.

prosody; rhetoric; comparative literature; translation; function word

1. Introduction: Serendipitously Ubiquitous Dao of the Trivial

Dao

is in “the shit and piss” （道在屎溺） 庄子Zhuangzi, , trans. Martin Palmer, et al (London: Penguin, 2006), 193., which means

dao

is everywhere even in the least noticeable place. To catch

dao

in the texts, it should therefore probably start with the least noticeable whether we identify

dao

with “qi” in terms of Tongcheng Pai （桐城派）’s “因声求气”(understanding

qi

through sound) or with “yi” according to Lu Zongda （陆宗达）’s “因声求义” (understanding meaning through sound). 陆宗达Lu Zongda，《训诂简论》 [On Xun’gu]（北京[Beijing]：北京出版社[Beijing Publishing House], 1983），104—117。Of all sources of inf uences discussed hereafter, the paper is particularly inspired by linguists, such as Feng and Tsai Wei-Tian with regard to their consistent self-conscious efforts in dealing with individual linguistic cases not merely as culturally specific or peculiarly local phenomena but as the important examples of a “universal grammar” which ultimately def nes humanity across cultures. While concentrating on cultural phenomena that ref ect subtle but vital differences beneath well-observed similarities and essential but over looked similarities behind noticeable differences, they both stress the message of balance to avoid, in Tsai’s words, “overgeneralization” or, in Feng’s, “excessively localization of a universal phenomenon”. For Tsai’s argument, see particularly his 1998 essay “On ‘Constancy’ and ‘Change’ in Linguistics: A Methodological Study” and for Feng’s, see especially the second section of Chapter 1 of his 2005 book and the last section of Chapter 6 of his 1997 book.Either way, first and foremost, we go with the least noticeable prosodically, that is, the sound of “trivial” function word. This is perhaps why both William James and Liu Dakui emphasize the importance of function words. For James, to acquire “immediate feeling” or our direct experience with the true rhythms of life, we should take these little things, such as “the conjunctions” as seriously “as primordial elements of ‘fact’ ... the distinctions and disjunctions” . He explains how and why we should pay attention to things that appear as trivial or insignificant as “prepositions, copulas, and conjunctions, ‘is’ ‘isn’t’ ‘then’‘before’ ‘in’ ‘on’ ‘beside’ ‘between’ ‘next’ ‘like’ ‘unlike’ ‘as’ ‘but’” . It is because these function words “compenetrate harmoniously” to make it possible for us to understand how life may “f ow out of the stream of pure experience, the stream of concretes or the sensational stream, as naturally as nouns and adjectives do, and ... melt into it again as fluidly when we apply [the function words] to a new portion of the stream” William James, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), 95, italics added.. Even though what James emphasizes may not be exactly the importance of sound but the syntactic and psychological significance of the function words, Liu, however, specifically refers to the importance of sounds or rhythms as one of the crucial roles of the function words in “Essay of Occasion”（论文偶记）.Regardless of its characteristic beauty of simplicity, classic writings before Confucius’ times, argues Liu, do not appear as much expressive as those of Confucius’ times. It is because, other than content words, emphasizes Liu, there are simply not enough function words for people to use then（上古文字初开，实字多，虚字少……至孔子之时，虚字详备，作者神态毕出……文必虚字备而后神态出，何可节损？）So when Confucius writes, he has enough function words to make his expression as vivid as he wants. This is why, as Liu further emphasizes, when one writes, there must be enough function words at one’s disposal to bring out he otherwise unutterable spirit or “qi” of composition, which is, as Liu sees it, only alive in the “rhythm” of the words as what is truly essential to writing. Imagine what would happen “should not there be enough ‘xuci’ for us to use?” This is exactly the rhetorical question that Liu makes us think. Indeed, without enough function words at our disposal to create the meaning-making, “qi” -making,

dao

-making, worldmaking, and even human-becoming rhythms of composition Reading and writing for the meaning of life in this way, certainly as Roger Ames and David Hall would so emphasize here, constitute a crucial part of an inf nitely “processual” and “provisional”process in terms of our efforts to understand Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall trans., , 77; the word thus also indicates or stands for a never ending or forever ongoing “meaning-making, “waymaking” “world-making” and even “human-becoming” process, as Ames has so phrased, on so many occasions, this central argument of his philosophy — one of his recognized major contribution to our understanding of ., it would be therefore impossible to depict something as unutterable and intangible as the

dao

-like meaning,

qi

, or the subtly profound emotion the way that Zhuangzi and Sima Qian（司马迁，ca. 145 or 135 B.C. — 86 B.C.） masterfully demonstrate in the eponymous book and in

Shiji

《史记》respectively. Ibid. “理不可以直指也，故即物明理，情不可以显言也，故即事寓情。即物以明理，《庄子》之文也；即事以寓情，《史记》之文也。” Indeed, scholars, such as Chad Hansen, do not believe that , or , ever transcend language or the “ways” we use language, which are often of the most 3“intuitive” and “performative” nature, Chad Hansen, (London: Oxford University Press, 1992), 216, such as Zhuangzi’s “lyricism,” which is, for instance, “f lled with creative onomatopoeia.” Ibid., 274. Such lyricism thus becomes, as Ames and Hall would added here, not only “meaning-making” but also “way-making” or “world-making” in using language.

2. Function Words in Chinese Classics

As in everyday life, a possible way to understand the value of an otherwise barely noticeable string is to see whether or how it makes an exquisite necklace by piecing together the otherwise scattered pieces of pearl. Similarly, to examine the crucial role of function word is to see how it functions in the “verbal context” By verbal context, I mean any combination of words that literally forms a vital verbal environment or “network” of verbal relationship or relatedness, and thus enables words to function as words both syntactically and prosodically. This verbal “context”, “environment”, or “network” could be as extended as in the form of the whole text or as simple as a kind of basic verbal relationship formed by two words, which nonetheless allows the words to express a clear and/or ambiguous idea, such as “Like Jazz”, the title of an album by David Basse, a well-known Kansas City jazz musician, a friend, a former as well as a current student of mine. Does it mean “I like jazz”, “It sounds like jazz”, or “No Jazz, like the elusive but ubiquitous Dao, ever really exists elsewhere but in the music that all sounds in so many different ways merely Jazz”? The two words of the title thus form an intriguing verbal context, from which the meaning, like Basse’s music, becomes so infinitely meaningful or indefinitely ambiguous. Does Basse’s music sound like Jazz that the musician likes so much? Does Jazz mean any type of music, “fantasies impromptu” or“rhapsody”, as long as one plays or improvises, like a virtuoso, the way his/her heart dictates and his/her skills allow? Or does it indicate that Basse humbly suggests that no one can ever play Jazz in ways that his contemporary masters Miles Davis (1926—1991) did or Bill Evens does? Thus, so literally, all could be possible in terms of this two-word verbal con/text in addition to the musician’s actual recording.especially in the form of parallelism, which is so widely used particularly in classic Chinese literature not only as expected in “fu” 赋 or “pian wen” 骈文 but also in “gu wen” 古文 for clear verbal imagery as well as subtle rhythm that enhances expression, even though the latter, represented by prominent writers, such as Han Yu （韩愈，768 —824）, is famous as a critical response to

pian wen

regarding its pervasive interest in parallelism. Regardless, even in Han Yu’s exemplary essays of

guwen

, such as “Yuan Dao” （原道）, parallelism is extensively used to such a degree that it would appear utterly impossible for the author to appear so persuasive without parallelism being so used.

古之时，人之害多矣。有圣人者立，然后教之以相生相养之道。为之君，为之师。驱其虫蛇禽兽，而处之中土。寒然后为之衣，饥然后为之食。木处而颠，土处而病也，然后为之宫室。为之工以赡其器用，为之贾以通其有无，为之医药以济其夭死，为之葬埋祭祀以长其恩爱，为之礼以次其先后，为之乐以宣其湮郁。为之政以率其怠倦，为之刑以锄其强梗。相欺也，为之符、玺、斗斛、权衡以信之。相夺也，为之城郭甲兵以守之。害至而为之备，患生而为之防。今其言曰：“圣人不死，大盗不止。剖斗折衡，而民不争。”呜呼！其亦不思而已矣。如古之无圣人，人之类灭久矣。何也？无羽毛鳞介以居寒热也，无爪牙以争食也。 韩愈Han Yu， 〈原道〉“Yuan dao”[The Original Dao] ，《古文观止》 [Gems from Chinese Classics]，吴楚材Wu Chucai，吴调侯 Wu Tiaohou编（北京[Beijing]：中华书局[Zhonghua Book Company], 1963），321—322。

In ancient time, not until the appearance of

Shengren

(sages), humans were under constant threats of immense dangers. It was

Shengren

who taught people how to survive in ways humanly possible; it was

Shengren

who at once governed and educated people; it was

Shengren

who taught them how to make it a homeland of the central plain cleared of wild animals and insects; it was

Shengren

who showed people how to cover themselves with clothes against cold weather; it was

Shengren

who taught people how to secure food from land; it was also

Shengren

who had people moved from unsafe forests and damp caves and sheltered them in the houses; it was they who made tools that people needed for manufacturing; it was they who advocated trade to let goods be available wherever wanting; it was they who developed medicine to care the sick and the dying; he formulated burial ceremony to cultivate love; he designed rituals to maintain order; it was they who used legal penalty to curb aggressive behavior. To prevent cheating, it was also

Shengren

who standardized systems of measurement; to prevent invasion, it was also they who had the cities well walled and guarded. For whatever might happen, it was they who were always fully prepared. Now listen to what someone still claims, “As long as there are

Shengren

, there would be endless robbery; as long as we do not abandon system of measurement, people would never stop fighting.” How could anyone still say anything such as this? Has he ever used his head? Had not been for

Shengren

, there would have been no human race a long, long time ago. Why? It is because neither did we have feathers or furs to fend themselves against harsh weathers, nor did we have teeth and claws sharp enough to fight for food against the wild beasts.

In the powerful “weizhi” 为之 structure, which sustains the famous piece with its enduring power of persuasive parallelism, the pronoun “zhi” （之）may not be literally stressed as a rule 冯胜利Feng Shengli,《汉语的韵律，词法与句法》 [Interactions between Morphology Syntax and Prosody in Chinese]（北京[Beijing]：北京大学出版社[Peking University Press], 1997），116。, but, as a marker, it is where a pause should occur to pave the way like a stepping stone for the next word to be stressed.

In this way, the function word “zhi” truly mediates for the metrical pattern of parallelism to function in ways so delicately enlivened with the essay’s overall rhythmical structure and beauty. This is why, as Liu Xie（刘勰，ca. 465—520）so emphasizes in 《文心雕龙》, “[], as if not of much use, is actually indispensable; in the hand of those good at using it, one single could make a coherent whole of discrete sentences” （据事似闲，在用实切。巧者回用，弥缝文体，将令数句之外，得一字之助矣）。刘勰Liu Xie，《文心雕龙

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