The Middle Chinese tones through Japanese eyes

Chinese Linguistics in Europe 歐洲漢語語言學叢書

CLE n°2

Chinese Linguistics in Leipzig

漢語語言學在萊比錫

Edited by Redouane Djamouri, Barbara Meisterernst & Rint Sybesma

ÉCOLE DES HAUTES ÉTUDES EN SCIENCES SOCIALES Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale

Paris – 2008

The Middle Chinese tones through Japanese eyes

ELISABETH M. DE BOER

1. Introduction

Most people interested in the historical development of the Chinese tones will be familiar with the description of the Late Middle Chinese tones by the Japanese monk Annen 安然 .1 In his work Shittan-zō 悉曇蔵 , finished in 880, Annen included four different descriptions of the tones of Late Middle Chinese. This text has been used by Arisaka (1936), Mei (1970), Pulleyblank (1978) and Endō (1988) among others, in their studies on the origin and nature of tone in Middle Chinese. Far from standing on its own, Annen’s text formed the starting point of a long

tradition of Chinese phonological study by Buddhist monks in Japan. In the following centuries however, the Japanese Buddhist tone theories became increasingly theoretical and symmetrical. So much so that what were supposed to be the tones of Chinese, eventually had little to do with the tones of a natural spoken language any more. At the same time however, the Buddhist interest in the tones also led to the compilation of dictionaries that included tone dot markings. In these dictionaries tone dots representing the tones of Chinese were not only added to Chinese characters, as they had been until then, but also for the first time to the syllables of Japanese. This material still forms the most important source on the Middle Japanese tone system. In the following pages I will elucidate the background of the Japanese interest in the tones of Late Middle Chinese, as well as some of the more peculiar features of the Japanese tone theories after Annen. I will show, first of all, that an unnatural and idealized Chinese tone system rather than Late Middle Chinese formed the basis of the tone dot markings. I will then argue that the failure to realize that the markings were based upon a theoretical construct, and not on the tone system of a natural language, has led to serious misunderstandings in the interpretation of the materials in modern times.

1 I use the Hepburn Romanization system for transcribing modern Japanese, as well as for book titles and personal names, but I use the Kunrei system for transcribing pre-modern Japanese forms.

CHINESE LINGUISTICS IN LEIPZIG

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2. The background of the Japanese interest in the tones of Chinese

Although the Chinese script, and with it the Chinese language, was first introduced into Japan in the 5th to 6th centuries (probably via Korea, and in the context of the promulgation of Buddhism) the first evidence that there was an interest and an awareness of the Chinese tones stems from a much later period. This was in the 7th and 8th centuries, which was the time when the character reading tradition known as Kan-on was introduced in Japan. The introduction of this new way of pronunciation was a state sponsored effort. Native speakers from China, but also Koreans who were well versed in the official reading pronunciation of the Tang dynasty, were appointed in the official government school as on-hakase 音博士 or ‘teachers of sound’. What was being taught was almost certainly the standard language of the Tang dynasty, i.e. Late Middle Chinese. (The Japanese government would not have been interested in adopting a more local variant of Chinese, as such variants would have been considered substandard.) In this period there definitely was some interest in the tones of Chinese on the part of the Japanese educated elite, if only because knowledge of the tone categories of the Chinese characters was required for the composition of poetry in the Chinese style. A much more profound interest in the Chinese tones however, only developed later, and in different circles. This happened in the 9th century, when Buddhist monks of the Tendai and Shingon schools developed a strong interest in the tone system of Chinese. The sudden importance of the Chinese tones in Japan was the indirect result of political developments that had started at the end of the 8th century with the move of the capital from Nara to Heian-kyō (modern Kyōto): This move was part of an attempt to free the government from the influence of the powerful Buddhist clergy and their many monasteries in Nara. Part of the effort to wrestle influence away from the traditional Buddhist clergy was the promotion of new forms of Buddhism that had been recently introduced from China. These fashionable new schools were the Tendai and the Shingon schools, both representing esoteric Buddhism. Esoteric Buddhism puts great value on ritual and magic, and in the rituals of the Tendai and Shingon schools, magical formulae (mantras and dhāran�ī) played an essential role. These magical formulae were originally written in the Sanskrit Siddham script. (This is a medieval Sanskrit orthography that has fallen out of use in India.) In China however, they had been transcribed by means of Chinese characters, and it is in this form that they reached Japan.

THE MIDDLE CHINESE TONES THROUGH JAPANESE EYES

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In order to pronounce the magical formulae correctly (which was essential) the Japanese monks relied on these Chinese transcriptions. They were interested in the Siddham script itself as well, but here too, they had to rely on Chinese works for explanations on how the script worked and how to pronounce it, and in these works the correct pronunciation of the Siddham syllables was again shown by means of transcriptions into Chinese. The correct pronunciation of the mantras and dhāran�ī therefore required a thorough knowledge of Chinese phonology, including the tones.2 In this way esoteric Buddhist monks became the specialists in Chinese phonology in Japan. It is therefore no coincidence that Annen, the author of Shittan-zō was a Japanese Tendai monk. 3. The oldest tone description in Japan and the complications involved in its

interpretation: Shittan-zō (880) by the Tendai monk Annen

The title of Annen’s work (‘Siddham treasury’) clearly betrays the background of Annen’s interest: Shittan-zō is the first explanation of the correct pronunciation of the Siddham script written in Japan. Annen’s description of the tones contains valuable information, which explains why it has often been used in the investigation of the nature and origin of tone in Middle Chinese, but Annen’s text is also notoriously hard to interpret. One complicating factor is that Annen compares four different descriptions of the Chinese tones. Two of them are older ones that were handed down to him and these almost certainly stem from two official ‘teachers of sound’ (Biao 表 and Jin 金) who had been appointed at the government school in the 8th century.3 He also includes however, two 9th century descriptions from Japanese Tendai monks (Sei

2 The almost excessive interest shown in the tones, especially in later ages, may be due to the fact that the context was religious chanting. As a memory aid, the Chinese characters that were used in the dhāran�ī transcriptions were for instance marked with so-called tone dots at the four corners, which represented the Chinese tones. 3 The one attributed to Biao in Annen’s text most likely represents the Late Middle Chinese standard, as it is mentioned that in Biao’s tone system shang tone syllables with voiced aspirated initials (called ‘heavy’ in Annen’s text) had merged with the qu tone. This is a well-known merger that must have formed part of the standard language of the Tang dynasty, as all modern dialects that descend from the Tang standard language have this merger. In Pulleyblank’s interpretation (1978:181) this merger occurred because the syllable-final glottal stop of the shang tone was changed to aspiration under the influence of the voiced aspiration of the initial. The description attributed to Jin is somewhat more archaic, as Jin’s system does not include this merger. Because of Jin’s name, Mabuchi (1962:340) has suggested that he may have been a Korean from Shilla. The fact that the historical record Sandai jitsuroku 三代実録 (901) mentions a Jin Lixin 金礼信, who is identified as a scholar of the Tang era and as a naturalized Chinese on the other hand, shows that this does not necessarily have to be the case.


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正 and Sō 聡) who had recently returned from study in China. These two most likely describe the tone system of the 9th century dialect of Chang’an. The problem is that instead of presenting them all neatly separated, Annen often explains one particular tone in one of the descriptions by comparing it to another tone in one of the other descriptions or by describing it as a combination of two other tones from one of the other tone descriptions. Even worse is that some of the terminology that he uses is ambiguous, for instance his use of the terms ‘heavy’ and ‘light’. Pulleyblank (1978) has pointed out that in the two older descriptions that were handed down to Annen ‘heavy’ refers to voiced aspiration (or breathy voice quality), while ‘light’ refers to clear voice. This is also the sense in which the term ‘heavy’ is used in Chinese works on the Siddham script, as it is used to describe the voiced aspirated consonants of Sanskrit. Pulleyblank’s analysis agrees well with the fact that in Biao’s tone system the ping tone is said to have a ‘heavy’ and a ‘light’ variant while at the same time being called inherently 低 ‘low/falling’. In Pulleyblank’s interpretation, this description means that in Biao’s tone system the distinction between ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ was not yet based on a difference in tone height, but that ‘heavy’ meant that the voiced aspiration of the ‘heavy’ initials had spread through the syllable in the ping tone, giving it a murmured or breathy quality (1978:179). The two later descriptions on the other hand, clearly describe a tone system that has gone through the well-known split in a higher (yin) and a lower (yang) register, the so-called yin/yang tonal split, and in these descriptions the difference between the categories ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ is now clearly described in terms of tone height. ‘Light’ is used to refer to the higher register (which had developed from the voiceless initials) and ‘heavy’ is used to refer to the lower register (which had developed from the voiced initials).4 A further complication is that in classical Chinese (the language in which Shittan-zō is written) the characters that are used to describe tone height (低 and 昂), can mean ‘low’ and ‘high’, but also ‘falling’ and ‘rising’ and context has to decide in which passage a translation as a level tone (L or H) is appropriate and in which passage a translation as a contour tone (F or R) is appropriate.

4 The idea that the yin/yang tonal split reported by the two 9th century Tendai monks caused them (or Annen) to apply the terms ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ in a broader sense is a key insight from Pulleyblank’s analysis of Annen’s text. This idea is lacking in Arisaka, Mei and Endō’s treatment, who interpret ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ throughout as referring to tone height, also in the two older traditions quoted by Annen. Pulleyblank’s analysis is superior, as it enables him to explain a number of puzzling features in the description of the shang and ping tones in the tone systems of the two 9th century Tendai monks (Pulleyblank, 1978:183-185).


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In later Japanese works on the tones, reading notes in Japanese were added to these two characters, indicating that they were consistently read as ‘falling’ and ‘rising’ irrespective of context, and so in these later texts there is no ambiguity. Annen’s text however, still lacks such reading notes, which leaves room for different interpretations. 4. Later interpretations of Annen’s text: The Japanese tone theories current

in esoteric Buddhist circles (11th to 14

th century)

Forty years before Annen finished Shittan-zō, in the middle of the 9th century, official contact with China had been severed. No more emissaries were sent to China, and no more ‘teachers of sound’ were appointed at the government school. Annen’s description is therefore not only the oldest description of the Late Middle Chinese tones in Japan, it is also the only one that stems from a period when contact with actual spoken Chinese was still relatively recent. All other tone descriptions stem from a much later time, and it can be shown that these works, instead of being based on spoken Chinese, were based on meticulous interpretations and reinterpretations of Annen’s authoritative but ambiguous description in Shittan-zō. It can be seen for instance, that the later interpreters of Annen’s work strived at bringing all of Annen’s remarks into the greatest possible agreement with each other, by creating tone theories that incorporated all features mentioned by Annen: When one remark in one of the tone descriptions is in clear contradiction with another remark in one of the other tone descriptions, both remarks are incorporated and some way is devised to reconcile the two remarks.5 If some feature is attributed to one particular tone in one of Annen’s tone descriptions it is automatically applied to this tone in general. In line 6 of Biao’s tone description for instance, it is mentioned as something exceptional that “in the ping tone the nu-sounds are not distinguished from the heavy” (平中怒声与重無別). According to Arisaka (1936), the term ‘nu-sounds’ referred to what in the rhyme tables are called the ci zhuo 次濁 or ‘second muddy’ initials (nasals, laterals, the lax fricative [V] and the ‘zero initial’ or [K]), and it is clear that this is how Annen’s use of this term was interpreted by the Siddham scholars in due course.6 It is however possible that Annen used this term

5 See the way in which Ryōson posits 8 tones based on Sei and Sō’s description, and then reduces them based on certain remarks in Biao’s description (section 4.2 below). 6 The terms qing 清 ‘clear’ (voiceless) and zhuo 濁 ‘muddy’ (voiced aspirated) were already in use in Annen’s time (Iida (1955:68), but terms such as ci qing 次清 ‘second clear’ (voiceless

aspirated) and ci zhuo 次濁 ‘second muddy’ (voiced unaspirated) that had been developed in the


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to refer specifically to the nasal initials.7 Assuming (with Pulleyblank) that in Biao’s tradition ‘heavy’ still referred to voiced aspiration, this description most likely means that the nasal initials (which are thought to have been realized as prenasalized voiced stops in Late Middle Chinese) had acquired a breathy register offset in the ping tone by analogy with the other voiced stops (which were likewise accompanied by voiced aspiration). In the earlier two tone systems, not all of the tones had a ‘heavy’ variety (with voiced aspiration spreading through the syllable) as well as a ‘light’ variety (with clear voice). In the later two tone descriptions, which had gone through the yin/yang tonal split, all the tones have a ‘light’ (higher) as well as a ‘heavy’ (lower) variant. The yin/yang tonal split was triggered by the contrast between voiced vs. voiceless initials, and in tone systems that have been through such a split, we would have expected the voiced ‘second muddy’ initials to join the lower ‘heavy’ register. We see however, that in Japan characters with ‘second muddy’ initials belong to the higher ‘light’ register in all tones, except the ping tone. It is highly unlikely that this unusual distribution goes back to the faithful transmission of some form of 9th century spoken Chinese. It is much more likely that it developed from intensive study of Annen’s text: From Biao’s remark the later Japanese tone theorists must have reasoned that in all tones other than the ping tone, the nu-sounds belonged to the ‘light’ category. Another example which shows that the later Japanese tone theorists based themselves on interpretations of Annen’s text and not on a natural form of Chinese, is the fact that the tonal split into a higher and a lower register shows up in such a strangely distorted form: We would have expected the ‘heavy’ yang register to be lower or at least to have a lower onset of the tone, as it derived from voiced initials, which are known to have a lowering effect on pitch. But instead, the yang register is described as starting with a falling tone contour, so it in fact starts on a higher pitch. The ‘light’ yin register which derived from voiceless initials is described as starting with a rising tone contour meaning that this register,

rhyme tables, were not yet known in Japan, as the rhyme tables were only transmitted to Japan in the 13th century. 7 The term nu-sounds 怒声 or ‘angry sounds’ originally referred to the voiced and the voiced aspirated consonants of Sanskrit. In the transcription system devised by Amoghavajra in the 8th century, Sanskrit voiced consonants were transcribed by means of Chinese nasal (ci zhuo) initials and Sanskrit voiced aspirated consonants were transcribed by means of Chinese voiced aspirated (zhuo) initials. As the zhuo initials became increasingly devoiced in Late Middle Chinese, the Sanskrit voiced aspirated consonants were now sometimes transcribed by Chinese nasal initials instead. The fact that Chinese nasals were now used to transcribe all nu-sounds of Sanskrit resulted in a strong association between the two categories, which was strengthened even more by the fact that the character 怒 itself happens to have a nasal initial.


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which we would have expected to be high, in fact has a low onset of the tone. This strange feature can be traced back to the following passage in Annen’s text, the second part of line 22: 重低軽昂 ‘Heavy’ is low/falling and ‘light’ is high/rising. We can be quite certain that Annen, who still described a natural form of Chinese, must have intended these characters to be read or understood in this passage as L and H. ‘Heavy’ after all refers to the register that derived from voiced initials and so it should be L, and ‘light’ refers to the register derived from voiceless initials, and so it should be H, but as I have already mentioned, the later Japanese tone theorists always read these two characters as ‘rising’ and ‘falling’. The reading notes that are added to them are quite clear about this, and looking at the contemporary Japanese dictionary Ruiju myōgi-shō 類聚名義抄, it can be seen that the readings of these two characters there too are mostly verbs, and that they indicate contour tones: ‘falling’ and ‘rising’. The character 低 for instance has the following readings: taru ‘to droop, to hang down’, katabuku ‘incline, lean, slant, tilt, go down’, mizikasi ‘short’, tosi ‘sharp, swift, early’, tahiraka ni ‘evenly’. The character 昂 has the following readings: agaru ‘to rise up’, ahugu ‘to look up (from a humble position), to revere’, nozomu ‘hope, expect’, and saka ‘slope’. The adjectives hikisi/hikusi (‘low’) and takasi (‘high’) simply do not occur. My conclusion is, that the strange form which the register split takes in the Japanese tone theories can be traced back to a misinterpretation of an ambiguity in Annen’s text by later generations of monks, who were not modern linguists and who could therefore hardly be aware of the fact that voiced consonants normally have a lowering effect on tone. Another strange feature of the later Japanese tone theories is the fact that the tones were cut up into two separate parts, a beginning and an ending, which each had their own tone contour and which were intoned consecutively. This idea was introduced by Myōgaku 明覚 (1056-1122), the most influential Siddham scholar after Annen, whose interpretation of Annen’s work had a decisive influence on all subsequent tone theories. (According to Mabuchi (1963:402), the Shingon school and the Tendai school were both deeply influenced by Myōgaku’s work.) The idea that the tones could be divided in a beginning and an ending part is suggested by a number of passages in Annen’s text.8 In Myōgaku’s mind it was also in accordance with the fanqie 反切 spelling method: Just as the two characters of the fanqie have to be combined to form the reading of the character as a whole, he saw the tone of a character as made up of two separable

8 In Sei’s description for instance: 17上有軽重 The shang tone has ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ 18軽似相

合金声平軽上軽 ‘light’ is like combining the ‘light’ ping and the ‘light’ shang tone of Jin 19始平

終上呼之 beginning with the ping tone and ending with the shang tone.


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components that had to be combined. According to Myōgaku, the first part of the tone of a character was rising or falling depending on whether the first character of the fanqie with which this character was spelled was ‘heavy’ or ‘light’, and the tone contour of the second part was determined by the traditional tonal category of the second character of the fanqie. 4.1. Myōgaku’s Han’on Sahō 反音作法 (1093)

In the following passages from Han’on sahō (1) Myōgaku explains in what way the Chinese tones are expressed by the first and the second character of the fanqie. He calls the sound expressed by the second character of the fanqie the jishū-on 字終音 ‘final sound of the character’ and the sound expressed by the first character of the fanqie the jisho-sei 字初声 ‘initial tone of the character’. (1)

字終音低タレルヲハ

云二平声ﾄ

一 When the final sound of the character is falling (tareru) it is called the ping tone,

終音昂云二上声一。 when the final sound is rising it is called the shang tone.

終音ユガムヲ

云二去声ﾄ

一。 When the final sound is bent (yugamu) it is called the qu tone.

終ニ

有二フツクチキ一云二入声一。 When the final sound is hu, tu, ku, ti, ki 9 it is called the ru tone.

故四声ハ

依二下字一也。 Therefore the four tones depend on the second character (of the fanqie).

渉二四声一字ノ

初ノ

声ノ

昂ルヲ

名レ軽。 Concerning all of the four tones, if the initial tone of the character is rising (the ending -ruindicates the reading agaru) it is called ‘light’.

初声低ルヲ

名レ重。 If the initial tone is falling (the ending -ruindicates the reading taru) it is called ‘heavy’.

故二字相合成二一字音一時、 Therefore when the two characters arecombined to form the sound of one character,

軽重猶依二上字一也。 ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ still depend on the first character (of the fanqie).

Mabuchi (1962:431, 1963:185)

9 -hu, -tu, -ku, -ti, -ki is the Japanese rendering of Chinese syllable final -p, -t, -k.


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Below is a summary (2) of the features that are typical of the tone systems ever since Myōgaku, and the lines in Annen’s text that these features go back to: (2) Features Relevant lines from Annen’s text There are 8 tones 14四声之中各有軽重 Each of the four

tones has ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ ‘Heavy’ = beginning falling (低) ‘Light’ = beginning rising (昂)

22 重低軽昂 ‘Heavy’ is low/falling and ‘light’ is high/rising

Ping = short falling (低) 2表則平直低 According to Biao pingwas straight and low/falling

Shang = short rising (昂) 3 上声直昂 Shang is straight andhigh/rising

Qu = long and ‘bent’10 4去声稍引 Qu is a little drawn out Ru = rising (昂)when ‘light’, falling (低) when ‘heavy’

22 入有軽重重低軽昂 Ru tone has ‘light’ and ‘heavy’. ‘Heavy’ is low/falling and ‘light’ is high/rising

4.2. Ryōson’s Shittan rinryakuzu-shō 悉曇輪略図抄 (1287)

Most copies of Ruiju myōgi-shō (cf. 1179, 1241, 1251, 1350), which is the most important source of Middle Japanese tone dot material, stem from the Shingon school. As a second example of the later Buddhist tone theories I will therefore introduce the theory of Ryōson了尊 (3), as Ryōson’s theory is representative of the Shingon school in the 13th century.11 (3) 右先明二四声軽重一者、私頌云、 I will give my personal explanation of the

‘light’ and ‘heavy’ of the four tones shown earlier above:

平声重初後倶低、 the ‘heavy’ ping tone is beginning and ending both falling;

平声軽初昂後低、

the light ping tone is beginning rising and ending falling;

上声重初低後昂、

the ‘heavy’ shang tone is beginning falling and ending rising;

10 The fact that the qu tone is not described as ‘straight’ in Annen’s text (in contrast to the ping and shang tones), may have led to the idea that it was ‘bent’. 11 Ryōson was a pupil of Shinpan信範 (1223-1296), who was the first to make use of the Chinese rhyme tables. With Annen and Myōgaku, they belong to the important figures in the history of Japanese phonological study.


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上声軽初後倶昂、

the ‘light’ shang tone is beginning and ending both rising;

去声重初低後偃、

the ‘heavy’ qu tone is beginning falling and ending bending down;

去声軽初昂後偃、

the ‘light’ qu tone is beginning rising and ending bending down;

入声重初後倶低、

the ‘heavy’ ru tone is beginning and ending both falling;

入声軽初後倶昂。

the ‘light’ ru tone is beginning and ending both rising.

但入、久津布千鬼。 However, the ru tone ends in ku, tu, hu, ti or ki.

重通レ平、軽通二上声一。

‘Heavy’ corresponds to ping and ‘light’ corresponds to shang.

四声各軽重八声。

All the four tones have ‘heavy’ and ‘light’,which makes eight tones.

上重摂二去声之重一、

The ‘heavy’ qu tone acts in place of the ‘heavy’ shang tone,

去軽摂二上声之軽一。

and the ‘light’ shang tone acts in place of the ‘light’ qu tone.

除二上重去軽一六声。

Removing the ‘heavy’ shang tone and the ‘light’ qu tone leaves six tones.

Konishi (1948:502-503)

Ryōson’s text lacks the kind of reading notes that enable us to see how the characters that are used to describe tone height were read, but we have already seen that according to Ruiju myōgi-shō, which stems from the Shingon school just like Ryōson, the characters 低 and 昂 were read as ‘falling’ and ‘rising’. The character 偃, which is used to describe the qu tone in the Shingon school has a number of readings in Ruiju myōgi-shō, the most standard being husu ‘to bend, bow down, bend one’s head, stoop’. Furthermore there are tahuru ‘to fall, come down’, haihusu ‘to crouch down (on hands and knees)’, yasumu ‘to rest, sleep’ (< lie down?), nokesama (to lie down) on one’s back’. The readings kakuru ‘to hide’ (< to crouch down?) and arasu ‘to ruin, damage, disturb’ (< to pull down?) can probably be regarded as related.12 Looking at the many readings above there can be little doubt that this character was used at the time to convey the meaning 12 There are also a number of readings related to a bending, flapping or averting movement: nabikasu ‘to make something bend, to let something flutter’, ahugu ‘to fan, fan a fire’, sorasu ‘to bend, warp, avert, divert’, nogu ‘to get out of the way, step aside’, nigasu ‘to let escape, let go, husegu ‘to defend against, ward off’. Finally there is wonodukara ‘spontaneously, of itself’.


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of ‘bending down’ or ‘falling down’. The difference with the ping tone was most likely a difference in length; the qu tone was regarded as the longest tone in Japan because of Annen’s remark that it was “slightly drawn out”. Although in theory Ryōson distinguishes 8 tones, he mentions that in practice the ‘heavy’ shang tone is not used, as it is replaced by the ‘heavy’ qu tone, and that the ‘light’ qu tone is not used at it is replaced by the light shang tone. This is a good example of how the later tone theorists tried to bring all of the remarks included in Annen’s text in agreement with each other: On the one hand Ryōson posits 8 tones, as this is clearly mentioned in the later two tone descriptions of Sei and Sō, but at the same time he also wishes to acknowledge the following remarks included in the tone description of Biao: (4) 3 上声直昂有軽無重 Shang is straight and high/rising and has ‘light’ but

no ‘heavy’ 4 去声稍引無軽無重 Qu is a little drawn out and has no (distinction

between) ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ 7上中重音与去不分 In the shang tone the ‘heavy’ are not divided from

the qu tone

Lines 3 and 7 made Ryōson remove the ‘heavy’ shang tone, while the removal of the ‘light’ qu tone (which merged with the ‘light’ shang tone) was probably inspired by line 4. This merger, which - as far as I know - is unique to Japan, may also have been born from a desire for symmetry. Summarizing Ryōson’s tone description (5) we have: (5) ‘light’ ping 初昂後低 R + F = RF ‘heavy’ ping 初後倶低 F + F = F ‘light’ shang 初後倶昂 R + R = R ‘heavy’ shang 初低後昂 F + R = FR (not used in practice) ‘light’ qu 初昂後偃 R+ ‘bending down’ = RF: (not used in practice) ‘heavy’ qu 初低後偃 F + ‘bending down’ = F: ‘light’ ru 初後倶昂 R + hu, tu, ku, ti, ki (< -p, -t, -k) ‘heavy’ ru 初後倶低 F + hu, tu, ku, ti, ki (< -p, -t, -k)

These later Japanese tone systems are theoretical constructs that have little or nothing to do with the tones of Late Middle Chinese. This realization is fundamental, as the misunderstanding that this tone system is a faithful representation of the tones of some form of real spoken Chinese has made modern Japanese scholarship reluctant to accept the tone descriptions at face value.


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5. Reasons why 20

th century Japanese linguists decided to adapt the

translations of the Buddhist tone descriptions

Tone descriptions like the ones by Myōgaku and Ryōson make no sense when read with a natural Chinese tone system in mind. Because of this, scholars like Kindaichi Haruhiko (1951) and Mabuchi Kazuo (1968) decided to read the character 低 (‘falling’) as L, and to read the character 昂 (‘rising’) as H, despite the fact that the readings in contemporary dictionaries say otherwise, and despite the fact that when reading notes are added to these characters, these indicate ‘falling’ and ‘rising’ and not L and H.13 It is true that adjusting the translation of these characters makes the Buddhist tone systems look much more like a form of natural Chinese, but however tempting this may be, the fact remains that this is not how these characters were read by the monks themselves in the period when these tone theories proliferated. Another reason why modern scholarship chose to translate these characters as level tones is because from the late 11th century on, the tone dots were no longer only used to mark the tone of Chinese characters used in dhāran�ī and mantra transcriptions, but also to mark the tones of the syllables of Japanese. The tone dots that were used to mark the tones of Japanese were: ‘heavy’ ping (F), ‘light’ shang (R) and ‘heavy’ qu (F:). The three tones that were selected to mark the tones of Japanese were the simpler contour tones, but they were nevertheless contour tones. Everything we know of Middle Japanese on the other hand, indicates that Middle Japanese had a basically level tone system. There were contour tones but these were rare and most likely the result of contractions (and most likely lengthened: R: and F:). A reading of these characters as contour tones therefore seemed illogical from the viewpoint of Japanese as well as Chinese. In my opinion however, the two reasons that made Kindaichi and Mabuchi adapt the Buddhist tone descriptions are both based on misunderstandings. The

13 Tone descriptions to which such reading notes have been added include Shittan-hi 悉曇秘

(1090) by Myōgaku (Konishi, 1948:371, 490), Shittan-jiki-shō 悉曇字記抄 (1142) by Jūyo 重誉

(Mabuchi, 1962:483), Shoshasan shōmyō-shō 書写山声明抄 (14th c.) anonymous (Konishi,

1948:501), Shittan-jiki shōgaku-shō 悉曇字記創学抄 (1380) by Kenpō 賢宝 (Mabuchi,

1962:657) and Hoke-kyō onkun 法華経音訓 (1386) by Shinkū 心空 (Kindaichi, 1951:693). In

case of Shittan yōketsu 悉曇要決 (1101) by Myōgaku, older manuscript versions of the text do not yet contain reading notes (such as the version quoted by Mabuchi, 1962:428-431 and Konishi, 1948:492), while later woodblock print versions do (such as the version quoted by Kindaichi, 1951:62).


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Buddhist tones do not directly reflect the tones of Late Middle Chinese at all, nor do they directly reflect the tones of Middle Japanese: It has to be kept in mind that the Buddhist tone systems were devised for the correct recitation of the magical formulae in a highly ritualized context, and not for the purpose of marking the tones of Japanese. That was a by-product that developed later, but because the tone dot material is so important in the study of the history of the Japanese language, it is easy to loose sight of this fact.

An even more important point is that I think it can also be shown that their decision to translate 低 as L and 昂 as H is wrong. This has to do with the fact that if you follow their translation, the marking of the rare Japanese contour tones becomes illogical. 6. Contradictions in the system used to mark the Japanese contour tones

The two tones that were predominantly used to mark the tones of Japanese were ‘heavy’ ping (usually simply called ping) and ‘light’ shang (usually simply called shang). There can be no doubt that one of these two tones expressed Japanese L tone and the other Japanese H tone. The use of the ‘heavy’ qu tone was much rarer, and it is clear that qu was used to express a contour tone. The following examples show that in Japanese words the qu tone was used to mark a ping-shang (平上) sequence on one syllable: nu 去, but also nuu 平上 ‘marsh’, hagi 去平, but also haagi 平上平 ‘shank’, hi 去 but also hii 平上 ‘shuttle’ (Mochizuki, 1974). As Kindaichi and Mabuchi interpreted ping 低 (‘falling’) as L and shang 昂 (‘rising’) as H, they were forced to interpret qu 偃 (‘bending down’) as ‘rising up’. This is indeed what Kindaichi (1951:691) and Mabuchi (1962:437) have done, even though this is in direct contradiction with the description of this tone by the monks themselves. Secondly, the shang tone actually did double service. It was not only used to mark H tone in the interpretation by Kindaichi and Mabuchi, but also to mark a shang-ping (上平) sequence on one syllable.14 In their interpretation of shang and ping this means that shang was sometimes used to mark H tone, and sometimes used to mark a falling tone contour, even though this is in direct contradiction with the description of this tone by the monks themselves as ‘rising’.

14 In some of the earlier texts a separate tone dot (‘light’ ping) was used to mark shang-ping sequences on one syllable. Even though this marking system fell out of use in the 12th century, it is not thought that the shang-ping tone contours disappeared from the language at that stage. (See for instance Suzuki Yutaka’s overview of the different marking strategies in Akinaga et al. (1998:580-581.)


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We therefore have the following two contradictions in the standard interpretation of the system to mark the pitches of Japanese: A tone that is described as ‘rising’ is used to mark a falling tone contour, and a tone that is described as ‘bending down’ is used to mark a rising tone contour. It will be clear that something in the standard interpretation of the Japanese tone dot material is fundamentally wrong. So what is the correct way to look at these strange tone theories, and how were these Buddhist contour tones used to mark the tones of Japanese? As said, there is no need to change these descriptions in order to make them look more like a natural form of Chinese. Annen’s description should be read with a natural Chinese tone system in mind, but these later theoretical creations are a different matter, so we can accept the exaggerated and unnatural contour tones in these tone systems for what they are. The question is now, how these contour tones were applied to mark the predominantly level tones of Japanese.

7. How was the Buddhist tone system used to mark the tones of Japanese?

The choice of which tones to use to mark the H and L tones of Japanese must have been based on the auditory impression that the tones made. Which of these contour tones reminded the monks most of H in their own language and which reminded them most of L? To my ears a short falling tone sounds H and a short rising tone sounds L, so it

seems to me that the onset of a contour tone leaves the strongest auditory impression. Agreeing with this idea are the fact that a HL interval is subject to F0 polarization, so that a H tone may be significantly greater in height when followed by L tone. In order to become more prominent, a H tone may for instance change to F tone (Hyman, 1978). A LH interval on the other hand, is subject to F0 compression, and may be leveled out to LM (Hyman, 2007). I therefore think that the short falling tone was used to mark H, and the short

rising tone was used to mark L. In other words: (‘heavy’) ping was used for H and (‘light’) shang was used for L, as well as for the occasional rising tone contour. The long falling ‘heavy’ qu tone was used to mark the occasional falling tone contour of Middle Japanese: ‘Heavy’ ping = F, used to mark Japanese H tone. ‘Light’ shang = R, used to mark Japanese L tone, as well as the (rare) R: tone. ‘Heavy’ qu = F:, used to mark the (rare) Japanese F: tone. Summarizing we can say that Mabuchi and Kindaichi’s way to solve the discrepancy between the contour tones of the Buddhist scholars and the basically level tone system of Japanese has been to adapt the translation of the tone descriptions. My solution to this same discrepancy is to make the adaptation one


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step later, at the stage of the application of the tones to the Japanese language. As we have just seen, the difference between the outcomes of these two strategies is fundamental.

8. Conclusion

Almost thirty years ago S.R. Ramsey argued that the Middle Japanese tone system had been reconstructed ‘upside down’. Based on dialect geography and on a study of the pitch patterns of the modern Japanese dialects, he concluded that the tones as they had been reconstructed in the standard theory had to be exactly reversed. At the time, no one (except the Sinologist Hashimoto Mantarō) expressed support for his ideas, an important reason being that Ramsey’s view of the tones did not agree with the prevailing interpretation of the Buddhist tone descriptions by Kindaichi and Mabuchi. It now turns out, that this interpretation has many problems, and that - contrary to what has been thought - it is in fact easier to reconcile the Buddhist tone descriptions with Ramsey’s theory than with the standard theory. My conclusion is therefore, that a correct appreciation of the nature and purpose of the old Buddhist descriptions of the Chinese tones is indispensable for a correct reconstruction of the tones of Middle Japanese.

References

AKINAGA Kazue et al. eds. 1998. Nihongo akusento-shi sōgō shiryō, kenkyū-hen. Tokyo : Tōkyō-dō Shuppan.

ARISAKA Hideyo. 1936. Shittan-zō shoden no shisei ni tsuite. Onsei-gaku kyōkai kaihō 41 (Reprinted in Koku-go on’in-shi no kenkyū 1957, 591-599. Sansei-dō).

DE BOER Elisabeth. 2005. The historical development of Japanese pitch accent; Part I: The accent patterns of the modern dialects, Part II: The introduction and adaptation of the Middle Chinese tones in Japan, Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden University.

ENDŌ Mitsuaki. 1988. Shittan-zō no chūgoku-go seichō. In OZAKI Yujiro, ed., Kango-shi no sho- mondai, 39-53. Kyōto Daigaku Jimbun-kagaku Kenkyū-sho.

GULIK van Robert. 1953. Siddham. New Delhi (Reprinted in Śata-Pitaka Series, 247, New Delhi, 1980).


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HASHIMOTO Mantarō. 1978. Ajia no naka no Nihongo. Gengo seikatsu 322:18-27.

HASHIMOTO Shinkichi. 1920. Nyūtō-sō Chisō to Shittan-zō no Sō-hōshi. (Reprinted in Denki tenseki kenkyū, 123-133. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1972).

HYMAN Larry M. 1978. Historical tonology. In Fromkin Victoria A., ed., Tone, a linguistic survey, 257-269. New York: Academic Press.

HYMAN Larry M. 2007. Universals of tone rules: 30 years later. In GUSSENHOVEN, Carlos & Riad TOMAS, eds., Tones and tunes: Studies in word and sentence prosody. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

IIDA Toshiyuki. 1955. Nihon ni zanson-seru Chūgoku kinsei-on no kenkyū. Komazawa Daigaku Chūgoku-bungaku Kenkyū-shitsu.

KINDAICHI Haruhiko. 1951. Nihon shisei kogi. In Terakawa et al., eds., Kokugo akusento ronsō, 629-708. Hōsei Daigaku Shuppan-kyoku.

KONISHI Jin’ichi. 1948. Bunkyō hifuron-kō, Kenkyū-hen (jō). Ōyashima. MABUCHI Kazuo. 1962 & 1963. Nihon ingaku-shi no kenkyū I & II. Nihon

Gakujutsu Shinkōkai. MASAMUNE Atsuo, ed. 1970. Ruiju myōgi-shō (hensan, kōtei). Kazama Shobō. MEI Tsu-lin. 1970. Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the

rising tone. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 30:86-110. MOCHIZUKI Ikuko. 1974. Ruiju myōgi-shō yonshu shōten-tsuki wakun shūsei.

Tōkyō: Kasama Shoin. PULLEYBLANK Edwin. 1978. The nature of the Middle Chinese tones and their

development to Early Mandarin. Journal of Chinese linguistics 6:173-203. RAMSEY Samuel R. 1979. The Old Kyōto dialect and the historical development

of Japanese accent. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39:157-175. RAMSEY Samuel R. 1980. Nihongo akusento no rekishi-teki henka. Gengo 9(2):

64-76. RAMSEY Samuel R. 1982. Language change in Japan and the Odyssey of a

Teisetsu. Journal of Japanese studies: 97-131.

The Middle Chinese tones through Japanese eyes

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