Question: What is the difference between the ancient four tones and the present four tones? How to distinguish in leveling? It is best to contact the professor of ancient literature, thank you!

Four tones, here refers to four tones in ancient Chinese. To know the four tones, we must first know how the tones are formed. So let's start with the tone.

Tone is the characteristic of Chinese (and some other languages). The tone of Chinese is composed of the ups and downs and the length of the voice, and the ups and downs are the main factors. Take the tone of Mandarin as an example. There are four tones in * * * month: Yin Ping's tone is Gao Pingtiao (it is flat if it doesn't rise or fall); The upper voice is a rising tone (not high or low); The rising tone is a low rising tone (sometimes a low flat tone); Voiced is a high tone. Ancient Chinese has four tones, but it is not exactly the same as Mandarin today. The four tones in ancient times were: (1) flat tones. This tone is divided into Yin Ping and Yang Ping in later generations.

(2) in sound. Part of this tone will become unvoiced in future generations.

(3) go to the sound. This tone is still unvoiced in later generations.

(4) if you are born. This sound is short. Modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places still preserve the milk sheng. There are also many places in the north (such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia) where raw milk is preserved. The tone of entering tone in Hunan is not short, but it also retains the tone category of entering tone. In most spoken languages in the north and southwest, the entering tone has disappeared. In the north, some entering tones are flat, some are flat, some are rising and some are falling. As far as Putonghua is concerned, Rusheng has become the most disyllabic word. Followed by Yangping; Become the most silent. The entering tones of southwest dialects (from Hubei to Yunnan) have all become yangping. What is the shape of the ancient four-tone ups and downs? I can't know in detail now. According to tradition. The flat tone should be the middle tone, the rising tone should be the rising tone, the falling tone should be the falling tone, and the entering tone should be the short tone. In front of Kangxi Dictionary, there is a formula of a song called "Four Tones": the level tone should be flat, the top tone should be fierce and strong, the end tone should be clear and sad, and the tone should be short and urgent.

This narrative is not scientific enough, but it also gives us a general understanding of the ancient four tones.

The relationship between four tones and rhyme is very close. In the rhyme book. Words with different tones cannot be regarded as homophones. In poetry. Words with different tones generally don't rhyme.

It is very clear in the rhyme book that what words belong to what tune. It is quite clear that a word belongs to a certain tone in Chinese dialects that still retain the tone of entering tone today. Pay special attention to reading a word twice. Sometimes, a word has two meanings (often different parts of speech) and two pronunciations at the same time. For example, when the word "for" is used as a verb, it is interpreted as "doing", and it reads flat (rising tone); When used as a preposition, it is interpreted as "because" and "for the sake", and the sound is silent. In ancient Chinese, this situation is much more than that in modern Chinese. Now give a few examples: riding, flat voice, verb, riding; Disyllabic, noun, cavalry.

Thinking, flat voice, verb, absence; Remove sounds, nouns, thoughts and feelings.

Fame, flat voice, verbs, praise; Disyllabic, noun, reputation, filth, flat voice, adjective, filth; Disyllabic, verb, dirty, number, consonant, verb, calculation; Disyllabic words, nouns, numbers, fate; Such as sound (read like new moon), adjective, frequent.

Teach mute. Noun, enlightenment, education; Life, verb, make, let.

Command, silence, noun, command; Life, verb, make, let.

Forbidden, silent, noun, forbidden, forbidden; Life, verb, can stand.

Kill, Rusheng, transitive verb, kill; Voiced (reads like the sun), intransitive verbs, decadent.

Some words, originally pronounced in a flat voice, were later changed to disyllabic, but their meanings and parts of speech have not changed. "Looking", "sighing" and "looking" all belong to this category. "Wang" and "Tan" have been pronounced in Tang poetry, and the word "Kan" is often pronounced in a flat voice (as a publication) until modern orthodox poetry. In modern Chinese, except the word "Watcher", the word "Look" is always pronounced. There are more complicated situations: for example, when the word "Guo" is used as a verb, it should be read twice. As for the use of nouns, when they are interpreted as wrong, they have to be read again.

To distinguish a flat tone, you must first know the four tones. Four tones are four tones in ancient Chinese. Tone refers to the level, fluctuation and length of sound.

The tones of ancient Chinese are divided into four tones: flat, rising, going and entering. "Ping" refers to the flat tone in the four tones, including Yin Ping and Yang Ping. "Cue" refers to four tones, including up, down and middle. According to tradition, a flat tone is a flat tone, a rising tone is a rising tone, a falling tone is a falling tone, and an entering tone is a short tone. Ming dynasty "jade key to release vacuum" said:

"Don't be dejected and despondent,

The voice above shouted fiercely and strongly:

It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan,

The urgent voice is short and urgent. 」

To put it simply, the key to the difference between flatness and unevenness lies in "unevenness is flatness".

Contemporary Chinese

In modern Chinese, there are four tones: even tone, rising tone, rising tone and falling tone.

In modern Chinese, the tones of Gupingsheng are divided into Yin Pingping and Yang Pingping, which are called the first sound and the second sound.

In modern Chinese, the tone of ancient "Shangsheng" is partly disyllabic and partly Shangsheng. Shangsheng is the third consonant in modern Chinese.

In modern Chinese, the tone of ancient disyllabic is still disyllabic, that is, the fourth tone.

The ancient Rusheng does not exist in modern Chinese. It has become a flat tone, a rising tone, a falling tone.

The modern Chinese four-tone tone table is as follows:

Yin Ping and Yang Ping walked up and down.

The first sound, the second sound, the third sound and the fourth sound.

For example:

BRIC

(flat tone) (rising tone) (rising tone) (falling tone)

In short, among the four tones in modern Chinese, the first and second tones are flat tones; The third and fourth sounds are ligatures.

Nine Tones of Cantonese

Modern Cantonese also has four tones of "Ping, Shang, Qu and Ru", which are subdivided into nine tones, namely Yin Ping, Yin Shang, Yin Qu, Yang Ping, Yang Qu, Yin Ru, Zhong Ru and Yang Ru.

The nine tones of Cantonese are as follows:

cloudy

sun

Yin is in the middle and Yang is in the middle.

Go flat, go flat, go in and out.

si 1 si2 si 3 si 4 si 5 si 6 si 7 si 8 si 9

Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi Xi Shi

Among the nine tones of Cantonese, the first and fourth tones (upper and lower tones) are flat tones, while the other seven tones (upper, lower and upper tones) belong to Nuo tones.

When you look up a dictionary (such as a business dictionary) in the future, just look at which number 1-9 is on its phonetic notation (usually in the upper right corner) and you will know whether it is flat or not.

Postscript:

The ancients recited poems with ancient sounds. Reading the ancient couplet of this kind of sound is easy to misunderstand that the level and level of the ancients do not conform to the law. For example, "suck in river water to make new tea;" Sell out the castle peak painting screen. "

Press four tones in Mandarin,

Suck into the river to make fresh tea;

Very flat, very flat.

Sell all the green hills as painting screens.

It is flat. It is flat.

According to the ancient four tones,

Suck into the river to make fresh tea;

Flat and light, flat and light.

Sell all the green hills as painting screens.

Ordinary, ordinary, ordinary.

Judging from the above arrangement, the use of ancient sounds is the law of linking sounds, while the use of modern sounds is inconsistent (at least the law of upper and lower levels is inconsistent). Therefore, when we talk about Lianzhong Pingzhuan in the future, we must first find out whether the creator is based on ancient sound, modern sound or local dialect; Otherwise, it will make a joke.

Four tones and even tones

Four tones, here refers to the four tones of ancient Chinese. To know the four tones, the heart must first know how the four tones are formed. So let's start with the tone.

Tone is the characteristic of Chinese (and some other languages). The tone of Chinese is composed of the ups and downs and the length of the voice, and the ups and downs are the main factors. Take Putonghua as an example, * * * has four tones: the flat tone is Gao Pingtiao (it is called flat if it doesn't rise or fall); The upper voice is a rising tone (not high or low); The rising tone is a low rising tone (sometimes a low flat tone); Voiced is a high tone.

Ancient Chinese has four tones, but it is not exactly the same as Mandarin today. The ancient four tones are:

(1) flat voice. This tone is divided into Yin Ping and Yang Ping in later generations.

(2) on the sound. Part of this tone will become unvoiced in future generations.

(3) sounding. This tone is still unvoiced in later generations.

(4) if you are born. This sound is short. Modern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places still preserve the milk sheng. There are also many places in the north (such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia) where raw milk is preserved.

The tone of entering tone in Hunan is not short, but it also retains the tone category of entering tone. In most spoken languages in the north and southwest, the entering tone has disappeared. In the north, some entering tones are flat, some are flat, some are rising and some are falling. As far as Putonghua is concerned, the entering tone words become the most disyllabic, followed by the upper tone, and the upper tone words become the least. In the southwest dialect (from Hunan to Yunnan), the entering tone is changed to Yangping.

What is the shape of the ancient four-tone ups and downs? Now we can't know in detail. Traditionally, the flat tone should be the middle tone, the rising tone should be the rising tone, and the falling tone should be the falling tone.

The entering tone should be short. There is a Song formula in front of Kangxi dictionary, which is called "Four Tones Division". It says "smooth voice, smooth road, Modion",

The voice above shouted fiercely and strongly:

It's a long way to go, Xiu Yuan,

The tone is short and urgent.

This narrative is not scientific enough, but it also gives us a general understanding of the ancient four tones.

The relationship between four tones and rhyme is very close. In rhyme books, words with different tones cannot be regarded as homophones. In poetry, words with different tones generally cannot rhyme.

It is very clear in the rhyme book that what words belong to what tune. It is quite clear that a word belongs to a certain tone in Chinese dialects that still retain the tone of entering tone today. Pay special attention to reading one word and two words. Sometimes, a word has two meanings (often different parts of speech) and two pronunciations. For example, the word "for" is used as "because" and "for". In ancient Chinese, this situation is much more than that in modern Chinese. Now give a few examples:

Ride, flat voice, verb, ride; Disyllabic, noun, cavalry.

Thinking, flat voice, verb, absence; Out of tune, nouns, thoughts and feelings.

Fame, flat voice, verbs, praise; Disyllabic, noun, reputation.

Dirty, flat voices, adjectives, filth; Voiced, verb, dirty.

Number, consonant, verb, calculation; Disyllabic words, nouns, numbers, fate; Such as sound (read like new moon), adjective, frequent.

Teaching, desensitization, noun, enlightenment, education; Life, verb, make, let.

Command, silence, noun, command; Life, verb, make, let.

Forbidden, silent, noun, forbidden, forbidden; Life, verb, can stand.

Kill, Rusheng, transitive verb, kill; De-sounding (sounds like Sun), intransitive verbs, fade.

Some words, originally pronounced in a flat voice, were later changed to disyllabic, but their meanings and parts of speech have not changed. Words such as "Wang", "Han" and "Kan" all belong to this category. "Wang" and "sigh" have been pronounced in Tang poetry, and the word "Wang" always has pronunciation. There are more complicated situations: for example, when the word "Guo" is used as a verb, it is sometimes read twice. As for the use of nouns, when they are interpreted as wrong, they have to be read again.

Distinguishing four tones is the basis of distinguishing flat tones. Next we will discuss the problem of leveling.

Flat tone

Knowing what four tones are, it is easy to understand the flat tone. Flat tone is a term of poetic meter: poets divide four tones into two categories, flat tone is flat tone, and flat tone is three tones. Well, literally, it means uneven. What makes it possible to divide it into two categories? Because the flat sound does not rise or fall, it is long, while the other three sounds do rise or fall (the incoming sound may also slightly rise or fall), and it is short, so it forms two types. If these two tones are interlaced in poetry, they will make the tones diversified instead of monotonous. The so-called "sonorous voice" of the ancients is one of the important factors, although there are many stresses.

How are the flat lines in poetry staggered? We can sum it up in two sentences:

(1) even lines appear alternately in this sentence;

⑵ Flat lines and even lines are opposites in the dialogue. This kind of flat and even rule is particularly obvious in metrical poems.

For example, the fifth and sixth sentences of Chairman Mao's poem "The Long March" say: Jinsha River is warm in the clouds and cliffs, while Dadu Bridge is cold on the crossbar.

These two poems are flat: flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat | flat. As far as this sentence is concerned, every word has a rhythm. Pingping's sentence is followed by Xu Wei, followed by Pingping, and the last one is Xu Wei. When you start a sentence, it is flat, followed by flat, and finally flat. This is alternation. As far as sentences are concerned, "Jinsha" is flat to "Dadu", "Shuipai" is flat to "Qiaodu" and "Yunya" is flat to "Tiesuo". This is opposition.

Regarding the rules of poetry, we will discuss them in detail from the following aspects: the rules of poetry, the rules of poetry. Now, let's talk about how to distinguish the level. If your dialect has an accent (for example, you are from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Hunan and South China), then the problem will be solved easily. In those dialects with entering tones, there are more than four tones, not only yin and yang, but also yin and yang. Like Guangzhou Rusheng, it can be divided into three categories. It's all easy to do: just combine them, for example, combine the level tone and the level tone into a flat tone, and combine the above-yin, above-yang, out-yin, out-yang, in-yin and in-yang into a flat tone. The problem is that you must first find out how many tones there are in your dialect. It is necessary to find a friend who understands the tone to help. It would be better if you had learned the corresponding rules of dialect tone and Mandarin tone in Chinese class, and made clear the tone of your own dialect.

If you are from Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northern Guangxi, all the Rusheng words in your dialect belong to Yangping. In this way, we should pay special attention to Yangping characters, some of which belonged to Rusheng characters in ancient times. As for which words belong to entering tone and which words belong to entering tone, you have to look them up in a dictionary or rhyme book.

If you are from the north, then the method of distinguishing flat tones is slightly different from that in Hubei and other places. Because most of the ancient entering tone words in Putonghua have become disyllabic, so disyllabic is also a disyllabic; The other part of the voice changed, and the voice was low. Therefore, the words from entry to change and from entry to change do not prevent us from distinguishing levels; Only when the entrance is leveled (Yin Ping and Yang Ping), it is difficult to distinguish leveled. We came across a place where rhyme was stipulated in the Law of Poetry, and the poet used a word that sounded very flat today, which aroused our suspicion. We can look it up in a dictionary or rhyme book.

Plane contour

Five laws are equal: the first word and the second word of the first sentence are flat.

The five laws start from the beginning: the first word and the second word of the first sentence are silent.

Seven laws are equal: the second word of the first sentence must be flat.

Starting with the seven laws: the second word of the first sentence must be linked.

Five is definitely equal to the rhyme of the first sentence.

The first sentence doesn't rhyme.

Flat (rhyming)

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

The first sentence of the five-element poem rhymes.

The first sentence of these five poems doesn't rhyme.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

The first sentence rhymes with the first sentence.

The first sentence doesn't rhyme.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

The first sentence of this quatrain rhymes.

The first sentence of this quatrain doesn't rhyme.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

The five laws rhyme with the first sentence.

The first sentence of the five laws doesn't rhyme.

Flat (rhyming)

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

The first sentence of the five laws rhymes.

The first sentence of the five laws doesn't rhyme.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light.

Fairness and flatness (rhyme)

The first sentence of the seven laws rhymes.

The first sentence of the seven laws does not rhyme.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

The first sentence of the seven laws rhymes.

The first sentence of the seven laws does not rhyme.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Very flat, very flat.

Flat (rhyming)

Flat and light, flat and light.

Flat Tiles Flat Tiles (rhymes)

Modern four tones are pronounced according to the pinyin of Chinese characters. Mandarin has four tones, and the four tone symbols are as follows:

The first sound, (flat, or flat, "ˇ");

The second sound, (rising tone, or rising tone, "ˊ");

The third sound, (Shang Sheng, or Shang Sheng, "ˇ");

The fourth tone, (falling tone, or falling tone, "ˋ");

There is also a special tone in Chinese, called light tone, sometimes called "five tones", which is not a standard tone in Chinese Pinyin. Some scholars think that the statement of "the fifth sound" is not accurate. Although light tone can distinguish semantics, tone is usually not listed as one of the "four tones" in Chinese because it is the pitch form of normal stressed syllables. In pitch, light tone only has the characteristics of sound area, and tone also has the characteristics of curved arch.

Each Chinese character consists of a syllable, which consists of a vowel and an initial. Tones should be marked in the upper part of vowels, which can be omitted for convenience.

The rules for the location of marked tones in Chinese Pinyin are as follows:

If there are two vowels, the first vowel is I, U or U. Mark the tone on the second vowel. In other cases, the tone should be marked above the first vowel.

Note that any word ending in -n or -ng will not be an entering tone word. As far as Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and northwestern Guangxi are concerned, there are basically no syllables such as ai, ei, ao and ou.

In a word, the problem of entering tone is the only obstacle to distinguish flat tones. This obstacle can only be eliminated by looking up a dictionary or rhyme book; However, the truth of leveling is easy to understand. Moreover, about half of China is reserved for entering tone, so people in those places have no problem in distinguishing flat tones.