- 有銅錢就做, 嘸沒銅錢勿要做 ’yeu dóng díen dzieu‘ tsú‘, m meh dóng díen veh yau‘ tsú‘, if you have money do it, if not you need not do it.
- 各人要心平勿要做怨恨 koh niun yau‘ sing bing veh yau‘ tsú‘ yön‘ hung‘, every one ought to be contented, and not dissatisfied.
Obs. This figure of speech would in many of its examples be intolerable in English, but the brevity and rhythmical structure of Chinese sentences make it agreeable. It gives an air of simplicity to conversation, and allows the speaker time to prepare his next idea, without forcing his thinking faculties to a too rapid productiveness. The same advantage is obtained by the use of a long group, where in English, one or two of its constituent words would be sufficient.
423. Of antithetical propositions some of the most ornamental are those that consist of the words of a common group lengthened into clauses.
- 上有天理下合人情 ’záng ’yeu t’íen ’lí, ’hau heh niun zing, it coincides with the law of heaven on one hand, and the natural sentiments of mankind on the other.
- 先有風後有雨 síen ’yeu fóng ’heu ’yeu ’ü, wind comes first and rain after.
- 明醫家會救人, 笨醫家會殺人 ming í ká wé‘ kieu‘ niun, pun‘ í ká wé‘ sah niun, a good physician can cure men, while an incompetent one can kill them.
- 遠水救勿得近火 ’yön ’sz kieu‘ veh tuh ’giun ’hú, distant water cannot save from a fire that is near.
- 前世無讐今世無寃 zíen sz‘ vú zeu kiun sz‘ vú yön, if in a former life you were the enemy of no one, you will have no enemy in this.
- 東耳𦕰進西耳𦕰出 tóng ’ní ’tú tsing‘ sí ’ní ’tú t’seh, enter by the left ear and disappear by the right.
- 推勿轉頭挬勿轉腦 t’é veh ’tsén deu peh veh ’tsén ’nau, he cannot be brought to change for the better.
Obs. This is a principal means of decorating the 文章 vun tsáng, the literary compositions on which the educated class expend so much time and effort. With the classics before them, and ten or twenty thousand words at command, there is a wide field for variety. In addition to the care required in the general structure of the essay, that all its parts may be conformed to rule, the separate sentences must be framed in obedience to the laws of grouping and antithesis, so that there may be no infringement of the order of the words, as they stand in the ancient books.
424. Another class of antithetical propositions consists of such as correspond word for word with each other in structure and relative meaning. Many proverbs are of this kind.
- 債有生寃有頭 tsá‘ ’yeu ’tsû yön ’yeu deu, to every debt there is a creditor, and to every enemy a foe.
Obs. Prémare has a large collection of such proverbs, to which the reader is referred.
Section 10. On Rhythmus.
425. Chinese sentences spoken or written are symmetrically arranged. The same rhythmus that pleases and aids the reader, in such works as the Historical Novels exists in a less elaborated form in the colloquial medium of daily life. In the style of a fluent Chinese speaker, clauses of four words each, will be found to occur more frequently than of any other length. This measure may be called for the Shánghái dialect the Double Iambus, the accent being on the last syllable of a group of two words; e.g. 財主人家有喪事要請和尚道士做做攻德 ze-tsú-niun-ká ’yeu song zz‘ yau‘ ’t’sing hú-zong‘-’tau-’zz tsú‘-tsú‘ kúng-tuh, rich men at a funeral will invite Buddhist and Taúist priests, to perform a religious service. Here there are 3 groups of four.