The Process of the Introduction of Western Punctuation System Into China and Its Influence Xinxin Zhang1,A
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Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 559 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Language, Art and Cultural Exchange (ICLACE 2021) The Process of the Introduction of Western Punctuation System Into China and Its Influence Xinxin Zhang1,a 1Beijing National Day School, Beijing, China aAuthor’s Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT The punctuation system existed both in ancient China and ancient Europe, but compared with the relatively complete and unified European punctuation system, the system of punctuation in ancient Chinese was not uniform, and there is not a national standard generally agreed way of use. In the West, to be more exact, in the European countries, the birth of punctuation marks actually also exists a process of gradual unification. This paper analyzes the process of the introduction of the western punctuation system into China and its influence. Keywords: Cultural exchange, Cultural communication, Language, Punctuation mark system 1. INTRODUCTION Chinese funeral writings are relatively simple, with only one mark indicating the space between sentences. Punctuation is the use of spacing, conventional “During the Han Dynasty, there were specific words to signs, and certain typographical devices as aids to the describe the pauses between sentences and the end of understanding and correct reading of the written text, sentences, which is called “Judu”. It is usually written whether reading silently or aloud. It is the practice, by placing two words between two sentences, or by action, or system of inserting points or other small using a vertical or dash line to mark the end of a marks into texts in order to aid interpretation, division of sentence. ”[1]In the Qing Dynasty, the use of text into sentences, clauses, etc., by means of such punctuation in ancient China had been entered the marks. In fact, most people believe that China only mature period and had a more standardized use method. introduced punctuation marks as one of the forms of In the punctuation usage norms issued by the Qing official written expression in modern times (after 1840), Dynasty, a large number of western punctuation systems and punctuation marks were introduced from the existed, and their usage was consistent with that of western literary system and were introduced into China, European punctuation systems. During the Qing which is a product of foreign culture. But in fact, in the Dynasty, due to the war and the colonial invasion of a ancient pre-Qin period (before 221B.C.）, there had been large number of European countries on China, a large punctuation marks in ancient China, as well as the ways number of foreign cultural products flowed into China, and rules of its use. which had a quite extensive impact on Chinese culture. Therefore, the punctuation standards of these officials 2. THE HISTORY OF PUNCTUATION are influenced by western culture, and these so-called BEFORE MODERN HISTORY IN CHINA punctuation marks cannot be called the punctuation system developed in native China. In a copy samples of Laozi, a calligraphy work in the But in fact, in ancient China, books with punctuation pre-Qin period (before 221 B.C.), most of the marks were always in the minority, and punctuation was calligraphy samples have circular punctuation marks at often expressed in a specific way. A large number of the end of sentences. In these calligraphy examples, books without any punctuation existed in ancient times. punctuation marks are used to separate two different For these books, there is often a particular way of sentences. Some scholar-officials in the Qi dynasty used representing punctuation. These expressions usually one or two short lines to represent heavy prose and depend on the reader's sense of language and familiarity punctuation marks to separate two different sentences. with mood particles and grammatical structures. There Of course, the punctuation marks in samples of ancient are special words used to indicate the end of a sentence. Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 280 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 559 For example, “the "Poetry", the collection of poems in European countries is gradually approaching maturity. ancient China, used repeated forms and neat sentences, Manusius (about 1450~1515), the Italian grammarian and the "Sao", a poetry written in pre-Qin period, used and publisher who was the founder of the new "xi" to indicate the end of a sentence.”[2][3]However, to punctuation system in the West, began to revise and have a sense of language and to learn mood particles, innovate the existing punctuation system in the West. grammatical structures need to be learned through a From the 15th century to the early 18th century, specific cultural language, and a sense of language punctuation in English was called "pointing", which is actually depends on the experience of a lot of reading. different from modern punctuation, but more to show These increased the process of cultural communication, the direction of the language. And the word increased the difficulty for the poor class to get in touch "punctuation," first recorded in the mid-16th century, is with a large number of cultural products, deepened the used in Hebrew texts for the insertion of vowels (marks cultural barriers, and increased the wider dissemination near consonants that indicate before and after vowels). of literary books to a certain extent. At the same time, The two words exchanged meanings between 1650 and this complicated method to distinguish sentence patterns 1750. He replaced the rules of reading with the rules of is also the reason why there are some misunderstandings grammar and established five types of printed in ancient literature. In the process of reading, punctuation: comma (,), semicolon (;). Colon (:) Period "ambiguity often appears, resulting in a (.) Question mark (?) ." Manusius has published nearly a misunderstanding of the words and sentences of the thousand books over the past 100 years, which has sold articles". This also deepens the dilemma that literary and well throughout Europe. These basic punctuation marks cultural products cannot be spread in a large range. have become widely used in all languages. But even if punctuation existed in ancient China, Under such social, historical and social context, the plenty of books used it and the crux of the problem was use of punctuation marks in several countries of Europe that the punctuation system was not uniform. “Almost is basically in a stable state. One is that the cultural everyone uses one system, but there are barriers background of most European countries is similar. between each other's punctuation systems, and it is There are no cultural barriers between each other, and impossible to understand the usage methods and the way of cultural transmission is relatively easier. At standards of each other's punctuation systems.”[4]As a the same time, the standardized and generalized result, many parts of the text are incomprehensible. punctuation system has played a catalytic role in the Given the chaotic background of such a punctuation dissemination of European literary works and culture, system, and the urgent need for a simple and making it more convenient for readers to understand the easy-to-understand way to facilitate people's contents of these documents, and deepening their understanding of sentences in literature, the ancient understanding and familiarity with the use methods of Chinese punctuation system would be deeply influenced punctuation system. by the western (to be more precise, European) punctuation system. To put it simply, firstly, there is no 4. THE PROCESS OF CHINESE BEING systematic, unified and stable punctuation system in INFLUENCED BY THE WESTERN China. Secondly, the language structure of Chinese PUNCTUATION SYSTEM requires that some simple symbols be used to represent the gaps between languages so that people can better China was influenced and impacted by western understand the example sentences. culture can be traced back to the beginning of modern times, the Opium War in 1840. Through war terms, 3. THE HISTORY OF PUNCTUATION IN cession and colonization, the West began to import a ANCIENT EUROPE large number of Western products into China, including religious and cultural products and other cultural Western punctuation originated in ancient Greece, products. And these cultural products have caused a most texts were still written in scriptura continua serious impact on some cultural products and other without any separation between words. “However, the ideological and literary products in China. After the Greeks were sporadically using punctuation marks shock, the Qing government, which was suppressed in consisting of vertically arranged dots—usually two all aspects of economy, politics and military, realized (dicolon) or three (tricolon)—in around the 5th century the significant differences in strength and culture B.C. as an aid in the oral delivery of texts.” [5]After 200 between China and the West. Thus, it launched the B.C., the Greeks used Aristophanes of Byzantium's Westernization Movement and introduced Western system (called théseis) of a single dot (punctus) placed military equipment, machine production and science and at varying heights to mark up speeches at rhetorical technology to save the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, divisions. a large number of outstanding students of the Qing After the development of punctuation in the Middle Dynasty were sent to the West and Japan to learn Ages and later periods, the use of punctuation in advanced culture and foundation, which provided a 281 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 559 more powerful labor resource for the country when they punctuation system as the standard to propose a returned to China. punctuation system suitable for China.