The Evolution of Basic Color Terms in Chinese

Jianshe Wu

The Vietnamese system of color terms contains at least a dozen items from Late Old Chinese (LOC) and Early Middle Chinese (EMC), though core color terms in Vietnamese are still largely native items (Vietic, Viet-Muong, or Vietnamese (i.e. no other identifiable source)). Some of the Sino-Vietnamese (SV) terms have retained their older senses in earlier stages of Sinitic (‘yellow/gold’, ‘white/silver’, and ‘pink’), thereby supporting phonological evidence that places these loans in the early to mid-first millennium CE. That Sinitic had such a lexical impact on the color system in this variety of Vietic supports the assumed period of Sinitic-Vietic language contact from the Han to Tang Dynasty. While there is archaeological evidence to associate words for metals with related colors, accounting for the borrowing of other color terms will require further ethnohistorical study to determine specific sociocultural factors (e.g. cultural customs/practices, clothing and implements, art and decorations, etc.).

Previous work on colour lexicons focussed on universal patterns in their structure and evolution. We collected new colour naming data in Japanese and three under-described Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Miyako and Yaeyama) to investigate semantic variation and change in the colour lexicon of related languages in a modern context. We found several new colour terms (e.g., midori and guriin for ‘green’) in the lexicon of Ryukyuan speakers, apparently resulting from contact with Standard Japanese and English. A comparison of our data with historical data suggests that modern Ryukyuan colour systems are closer to modern Japanese than they are to their historic pasts. However, we also found that modern-day Ryukyuan languages are more similar to each other than they are to Japanese. These findings show the scope of semantic changes that can occur through outside influence and highlight the need for fresh empirical data in the study of semantics in related languages.

This paper deploys formal, experimental, and corpus-based evidence to demonstrate that, despite being psychologically salient in Modern Standard Mandarin, .+"#&* is not yet encoded by a monomorphemic monosyllabic single-character colour term, and the possible candidates do not possess the entire set of the criteria to become ‘basic’. It also suggests an additional analysis of the syntaxico-semantic ‘distributional potential’ criterion, which is a precondition for colour terms’ basicness. Keywords: basic colour term, colour naming, mnemonic, chì-chéng-huáng-lǜ-qīng-lán-zǐ

THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE Jianshe Wu Beijing International Studies University ABSTRACT This paper makes an attempt to construct a framework of how Chinese basic color terms evolve over the past 4000 years, which is divided into several periods, by an analysis of the relevant literature in history on the basis of word frequency counts. Then we discuss what stage each period should be classified into under Berlin & Kay’s framework and its recent developments. Against these findings, the similarities and differences between our corpus and Berlin & Kay’s assumptions are analyzed and presented. In addition, the replacement of Chi by Hong is also discussed with reference to the Lexical Diffusion theory. SUBJECT KEYWORDS Basic Color Terms Diachronic Study Lexical Diffusion Color Category 1. INTRODUCTION In 1969, Berlin & Kay advanced the following two hypotheses: [1] the referents for the basic color terms of all languages appear to be drawn from a set of eleven universal perceptual categories, and [2] these categories become encoded in the history of a given language in a partially fixed order (Berlin & Kay 1969: 4-5). Accordingly, they formulated a temporal-evolutionary ordering as follows: Figure 1: The Berlin & Kay’s hierarchy of basic color terms (1969: 4) THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 77 Their theory of color universals runs counter to then standard Whorfian doctrine and marks a “phase-shift” in our understanding of the color categories. Before their work the prevailing view was that color categories were culturally relative. Since 1969, the dominant view has shifted toward a belief in color universals. Following Berlin & Kay’s (1969) study, a large amount of cross-linguistic data concerning the basic color terms have been collected. This has led to four substantial theoretical revisions (Kay & McDaniel 1978; Kay, Berlin & Merrifield 1991; Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield 1997; Kay & Maffi 1999). First, according to Kay & McDaniel (1978), the idea of exactly eleven universal perceptual categories has been replaced with the six Hering (1964) primaries (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue) along with a restricted subset of their possible unions (i.e. Composite categories such as [red or yellow],[blue or green]) and intersections (i.e., Derived categories such as [orange], [purple], [pink], [gray], [brown]). In this formulation, sets of color categories below Stage V must include at least one composite category and any composite categories should have dissolved into the two primary categories before the appearance of any derived categories; all languages with more than six basic color terms should have at least one derived color category; and “grey” has been listed as “Less predictable” (as shown in Figure 2). Figure 2: The evolution of basic color categories (Kay & McDaniel, 1978: 639) Second, based on the findings of the World Color Survey (WCS), Kay, Berlin & Merrifield (1991) propose some relaxations to the constraints of Kay & McDaniel’s (1978) version. The composite category “grue (green or blue)” could be accompanied by the derived categories “brown” or “purple” and either brown or 78 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) purple or both not infrequently appear before the green/blue composite is dissolved; and a scheme (see Figure 3), allowing nine of the logically possibly 63 composite categories to occur, has been proposed to include the composite categories so far observed; at the same time, they present five evolutionary possibilities at Stage III and three at Stage IV. Figure 3: Permissible composite categories: Observed composite categories (Kay et al. 1991) Third, Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield (1997) classify the 110 basic color terminology systems of the WCS into eleven basic types, based on the combinations of Hering’s primary terms they contain (Figure 4 [This is an adapted version consisting only of nine types]). Their theory now concern only those basic color terms and derived color categories are not incorporated in those types, where every stage contains one more basic color term than the preceding stage and an arrow indicates the transitions from the type occurring on its left to the type toward which it points. Figure 4: Types and evolutionary stages of basic color term systems (Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield 1997, as cited in Kay & Maffi 1999: 748) THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 79 Fourth, Kay & Maffi (1999) place 83% (91 out of 110 languages, see numbers in Figure 5) of the languages somewhere on the main line of five evolutionary trajectories of basic color term systems. And a model of one language-based principle [Partition] and three color-appearance-based principles [Black & White, Warm & Cool and Red] has been presented to account for the data in WCS. In this model, they claim an order of application of those principles as 0) Partition Principle: languages tend to assign significata to lexical items in such a way as to partition the denotata of the domain; 1) Black & White Principle: “black” and “white” should be distinguished; 2) Warm & Cool Principle: the warm primaries (red and yellow) should be distinguished from the cool primaries (green and blue); and 3) Red Principle: “red” should be distinguished. Figure 5: Main line (Trajectory A) of evolutionary development of basic color lexicons (Kay & Maffi 1999: 750) By adopting the above-mentioned revisions, it is believed that the theory of universality and evolutionary emergence of basic color terms moves gradually out of anthropological linguistics into color science (Saunders 2000). In the wake of this process, revolving around two questions ([1] Is color naming across languages largely a matter of arbitrary linguistic convention? [2] Do cross-language differences in color naming cause corresponding differences in color cognition? [Kay & Regier 2006]), a number of empirical studies (Heider 1971, 1972; Heider & Olivier 1972; Rosch 1973; Berlin & Berlin 1975; Kay 1975; Kay & Kempton 1984; Ratliff 1976; De Valois & De Valois 1993; MacLaury 1997; Davies & Corbett 1998; Regier, Kay & Cook 2005), computer modeling and simulations (Belpaeme 2002; Steels & Belpaeme 2005; Belpaeme & Bleys 2005; Dowman 2002, 2007, 2008) and disputes (Wierzbicka 1990; Saunders 1992, 1999,2000; Saunders & Brakel 1997, Lucy 1997a, 1997b; Lyons 1997; Roberson, Davies & Davidoff 2000, Roberson, Davidoff, Davies & Shapiro 2005) ensue. 80 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) Nonetheless, among all those inspiring works, it is very rare to locate a diachronic study of basic color terms, whether in English or in any other languages, based on the relevant literature in history available now. It is believed that the relationship between language and society could be understood in a more comprehensive way through such diachronic study and it will reveal to us additional information more reliable and interesting. And it is for this purpose that the present paper will turn to Chinese basic color terms. In the following parts, after a general review of contemporary works concerning the studies of basic color terms in Chinese, we attempt to conduct a corpus-based diachronic study of basic color terms in Chinese. We argue that the evolution of Chinese basic color terms might not fully match the main-line trajectory of Berlin & Kay’s hypothesis as illustrated above. Meanwhile, how words and naming are progressing with the development of society has been discussed in view of our findings. In so doing, we expect that such a diachronic perspective could provide a supplementary look at other synchronic studies and simulation studies. 2. BASIC COLOR TERMS RESEARCH IN CHINA There exist a number of researches on Chinese basic color terms (henceforth CBCT). In general, synchronic studies prevail. Some ground their studies solely on Oracle bone inscriptions (甲骨文, hereinafter called OBI), Bronze Inscriptions (金文 ), Shijing (诗经, or The Book of Songs), or Shuowen jiezi (说文解字, the etymological dictionary compiled by Xu Shen [许慎][c. A.D. 58-148] in the second century.)(Hu 1941, Zhang 1991, Xu 1995, Baxter 1983, Wang 1993); some review CBCT’s development from a lexical and / or grammatical point of view (Zhang 2001, Xu 2003, Li 2003); some attempt to explicate the cultural and social significance underlying CBCT; whereas, at the same time, a diachronic analysis of CBCT’s evolution could also be found. After analyzing each hieroglyph form of Bai ( “red”)(including Dan [ , “white”), Chi ( 赤 , , “red”] and Zhu [朱, “vermillion”]), Huang (黄, “yellow”), Hei (黑, “black”) and Qing (青, “black or grue [blue or green]”) in OBI, Hu (1941) deduces its respective process of being generated. Zhang (1991) bases his study on OBI, Bronze Inscriptions, Erya (尔 or Near Corretness), Shuowen jiezi, in which the semantic constituents of those color terms are introduced and the cultural connotations in “Chi, Hei, Huang, Bai” are revealed. THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 81 Xu (1995) relies his study more on Shuowen jiezi. All the color terms are counted and their frequencies are listed so as to determine which should be classified as CBCT (in China, the distinction between Zheng se [ 色, “Pure Color”] and Jian se [间色, “Secondary Color”] is more or less equal to the BCT and non-BCT ) while which not. Viewing from grammatical angle, Zhang (2001) lays more emphasis on the adjectives in OBI and his suggestion of the color terms used at that time are Bai, Hei, You (幽 or 黝, “bright black”), Chi, Huang, Li (利 or 黎, “multi-colored or black”). Xu (2003) also analyzes the adjectives in OBI. The color terms listed includes Chi, Huang, Zhi ( 戠 , “red or clayey”), Bai, You, Hei, Wu ( 勿 or 物 , “multi-colored”). Li (2003) has studied the grammar of OBI and at last produced a list of adjectives of the following color terms: Bai, Hei, You, Xuan, Chi, Zhi, Huang, Li. In Zhang (2003), he presents a general review of the studies on vocabulary and grammar of OBI. Therein Wang Shaoxin (王绍新) has mentioned: Bai, Chi, Huang, Lü (绿, “green”) as the color terms; Xiang Xi (向熹) has included Bai, Chi, Huang, Lü, You in his list of adjectives; and Guan Xiechu (管燮初) presents Bai, Huang, You while Cheng Mengjia (陈梦家) claims Bai, Huang, Hei, You, Chi instead. Liang Yinfeng (梁银锋) identifies seven color terms: Wu, You, Hei, Bai, Chi, Huang, Zhi and at the same time, Yang Fengbin (杨逢 ) reviews all the adjectives claimed by each scholar and at last figures out a list of You, Huang, Hei, Bai, Chi. Based on his study on the culture of the Shang (商) dynasty, Zhao (2000) works out a list of Chi, Huang, Hei, You, Bai. Moreover he points out the wider connotation as shown in each color terms. These studies are mainly concerned with the development of ancient Chinese. In contrast, a modern study of color terms could be found in Xie’s unpublished doctoral dissertation, in which each basic color terms are analyzed in terms of semantic field and codability. Consequently a list of contemporary color terms is given (Xie 2004). A more comprehensive work has been done by Yao (1988), who reviews the history of color studies and in view of Berlin & Kay’s theory of Basic Color Terms, divides the Chinese history into five stages: the Late Shang dynasty (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.), the Western and Eastern Zhou (西周周) through Qin (秦) dynasties (ca. 1121-207 B.C.), the Han (汉) through Jin (晋) to Southern & Northern dynasties 82 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS (南朝) (ca. 206 B.C. – 589 A.D.), the Tang (唐) through Song (宋) to Qing (清) dynasties (ca. 581-1911 A.D.) and Modern China ( Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) 当代中 ) (ca. 1911-present) so as to present an evolutionary pattern of basic color terms in Chinese. He concludes that the evolution of CBCT from the Late Shang to Tang Dynasty does not comply with Berlin & Kay’s theory, and he is expecting a more elaborated explanation. Three additional researches concerning Chinese basic color terms are carried out respectively by Baxter, a famous American sinologist, Wang Tao, a British citizen of Chinese origin, and Cheung Sauying (张秀英). Baxter has compared the CBCT in the Earlier Period (referring to the Shang and Western Zhou [西周] dynasties [ca. 1500-771 B.C.], having recourse to Shijing and the reconstruction of Old Chinese) with those in the Late Period (extending from the Eastern Zhou [ 周] through the Han [汉] dynasty [ca. 770 B.C. -220 A.D], with the help of Shuowen jiezi and Shijing) in relation to Berlin & Kay’s evolution theory of basic color terms. He proposes “two stages of the Chinese languages: a later period, perhaps ending with the Han dynasty, which had five basic color terms (a stage IV system: Bai, Huang, Hei, Chi and Qing), and an earlier period, probably ending with the end of the Western Zhou dynasty or somewhat earlier, which had four basic color terms (a stage IIIb system: Bai, Huang, Xuan [玄, “reddish black”], Chi)”(Baxter 1983: 21). The study conducted by Wang Tao complements Baxter’s. By his particular review of the use of “Chi, Xing ( , “red-yellow”), Bai, Wu, Zhi, Huang, Hei, You, Xuan”in the Late Shang OBI, he asserts that Baxter’s conclusion is overall correct, but subject to some minor modifications (Wang 1996). Cheung’s study on Chi and Hong (红, “red”) provides us both synchronic and diachronic analysis on their usages in the corpora, focusing on semantic extensions of color terms towards non-physical color senses. As a result, the replacement of Chi by Hong is discussed against the framework of lexical diffusion theory and prototype theory and an Object-Process-Quality process in semantic change of color terms is highlighted (Cheung 2004). In summary, the above studies, except Yao’s review and Cheung’s corpus-based study, could be classified as some synchronic then-descriptions about Chinese color terms (not necessarily basic color terms). Even though some have touched on its evolution, it is either not so comprehensive or confined to a short time span. Among them, Yao’s work is really pioneering and more related to our research here (Cheung’s study is also closely connected to our analysis on semantic extensions of basic color terms here). However, the sequential appearance of CBCT in his THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 83 framework is questioned by many scholars (see Xie 2004), and such doubt should be clarified; moreover, his division of Chinese history into five stages could be further delineated in hopes of locating the specific dynasty in which each CBCT turns up as the basic color term; and furthermore, in Yao’s review, all the relevant evidence are omitted due to the limits of space length. Admittedly, it is of great regret to see those necessary supporting details missing. 3. METHODS In view of both the status quo of basic color term studies lacking in a diachronic study and these discreet literature found in Chinese studies, we attempt to reveal the evolution process of Chinese basic color terms by statistic counting on a continuum of 25 history books1 from Western Han Dynasty (206B.C. 25A.D.) to Qing Dynasty(1644A.D.-1911A.D.). In dosing, we also wish to establish a comparison between our findings and Berlin & Kay (1969), Kay & McDaniel (1978), Kay et al. (1991), Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield (1997), Kay & Maffi (1999). It is specified as follows: 1 The corpus is based on The Twenty-Five Histories ( 十五史, “Dynastic histories from remote antiquity till the Qing Dynasty”) and its special editing tradition makes this diachronic study possible. And for the dynasties which have not been covered by these books, i.e., before Western Han and after Qing Dynasty, we complement these 25 volumes of history books with Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Late Shang dynasty (殷商时期) (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.), Bronze Inscriptions in the Western Zhou dynasty (西周时期) (ca. 1121-771 B.C.), and Zhu zi bai jia (诸子家, “The classics from all schools in ancient China”) in the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods (春秋战时期) (ca. 770-221 B.C.) for the former (there is no any other book available today for these periods), and with Modern Novel Collections in modern times for the latter. 2 To ensure the corpus is not biased by the official documenting system, we further add those books written in vernacular Chinese into our corpus for comparison purpose (see each section below for details). And such relevant etymological dictionaries as Shuowen jiezi, Yu pian (玉篇), Lei pian (类篇) are also included for reference purpose. 3 All those books, with a few exceptions (e.g., OBI, the color words are handpicked by the author), are in electronic version, within which these color words JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS 84 Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) have been searched with the help of Acrobat software (Version 7.0). 4 To exclude the same words which are not used as color words here, the author further identifies each color words based on the searching results produced by Acrobat software. 5 The number of color words for each item is added up and the percentage is calculated within each table. 6 Whether a color word belongs to basic color terms or not is judged with the guidelines provided by Berlin & Kay (1969), i.e.,     These color terms are known by all speakers; These color terms are highly salient; These color terms do not denote a subset of colors denoted by another word; The meaning of these color terms is not predictable from the meaning of their parts. And their four complementing features are also considered. 4. FINDINGS CONCERNING THE EVOLUTION OF CBCT Referring to Wang (1958), Lü (1985) and Xiang (1993), we group the Chinese history into eight periods, for the purpose of our analysis. They are: the Late Shang dynasty (殷商时期) (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.), the Western Zhou dynasty (西周时期) (ca. 1121-771 B.C.), the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods (春秋战时期) (ca. 770-221 B.C.), the Qin and Han dynasties (秦汉时期) (ca. 221 B.C.-220 A.D.), the Three Kingdoms, through Jin to Southern & Northern dynasties ( 两晋南朝时期) (ca. 220 – 589 A.D.), the Sui through Tang, Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms to Song dynasties (隋唐五代十两宋时期) (ca. 581-1279 A.D.), the Yuan through Ming to Qing dynasties (元明清时期) (ca. 1271-1911 A.D.), Modern China ( 中当代 ) (ca. 1911-present). We will introduce each stage as follows: 4.1 The Late Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500-1122 B.C.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Huang (yellow), You (black), Chi (red) We have searched The Dictionary of OBI (Xu 1988), The Concise Dictionary of THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 85 OBI (Cui 2001) and The Collected Papers on OBI (Li 1965), and it is found that in the Late Shang dynasty, the basic color terms could be: Bai, Emerging at Period I, II, III, IV and V Cui 786: 叀 2 羊又大雨 (hui / bai-white / sheep / have / big / rain: We should sacrifice a white sheep, and there will then be heavy rain.) Huang, Emerging at Period I and V Cui 545: 叀黄牛 (hui / huang-yellow / ox: We should sacrifice a yellow ox.) Zhi Emerging at Period I, II, III, IV and V Heji 35995: 其戠牛用 (qi / zhi- red or clayey / ox / this / use: We shall perhaps sacrifice a red ox. This was used.) Jin,(堇 3) Emerging at Period I and II Cui 551: 其用堇牛 (qi / use / jin-? / ox: We shall perhaps use jin-colored ox.) Chi, Emerging at Period I and III Tie 10.2: 癸丑卜 X4贞左赤马其 X 烈 (guichou / crack / X / divine / left / chi-red / horse / qi / X / not / wild: Cracking made on guichou [indicating time], X divining: the red horse on the left side will be tame, not wild.) Hei, Emerging at Period I, III and V Ninghu 113: 勿用黑羊雨叀羊用于又大雨 (not / use / hei-black / sheep / no / rain / hui / bai-white / sheep / use / for / it / have / big / rain: We should not use black sheep, there will otherwise no rain. We should sacrifice a white sheep for it, there will then be heavy rain.) You, Emerging at Period I and III Yi 7121: 叀幽牛黄牛 (hui / you-bright black / ox / plus / huang-yellow / ox: We should sacrifice a black ox together with a yellow one.) Xuan, Emerging at Huayuanzhuang Dongde (花园庄 Heji 33276: 玄牛 (xuan-reddish black / ox: A black ox.) 地) 86 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) Li, Emerging at Period I and V Heji 25020: 黎羊 (li-multi-colored or black / sheep: A multi-colored or black sheep.) Wu, Emerging at Period I, II and III Yi 203: 叀物马 (hui / no / wu-multi-colored / horse: We do not sacrifice multi-colored horses.) The other words like Xing (then it means “a red-horse”), Bo (驳, “multi-colored horse”), Lü (绿, emerging at Period II, with an unidentified meaning), Zhu (then it is used as a place name), Dan (also a place name), Qing (it could be a name for imperial clan) should not be employed as a color term at that time. Among the above-mentioned color terms, “Jin, Li, Xuan” is seldom used, while the frequency of “Bai, Huang, You, Hei, Chi” used as an adjective is 97/22/11/10/3 respectively (Yang, as cited in Zhang 2003). Here, “You” and “Hei” are both referring to Black, whereas “You” could be more possibly used to represent Black (see Guan and Xiang, as cited in Zhang 2003). In accordance with the four main and additional features of basic color terms as proposed by Berlin & Kay (1969), “Zhi, Wu, Hei” could also be excluded. As for “Chi”, in the light of the conclusions held by most of the scholars (see Part 2: Basic color terms research in China), it should be a basic color term at that time. But with its low frequency of occurrence, it still calls for a plausible explanation. 4.2 The Western Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1121-771 B.C.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Chi (red), Huang (yellow), Xuan (black) According to Collection of Bronze Inscriptions (Volume I: The Late Shang and Western Zhou dynasties)5(CRC of ECNU 2002), in Western Zhou Period, “Bai”, “Huang”, “Chi”, “You”, “Zhi”, “Hei” could still be found in Bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou dynasty with the exception of “Li” and “Wu”. Moreover, “Xuan” starts to emerge as a color word in large quantities. Among other things, we could observe such color terms as: THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 87 Emerging in the Early Western Zhou: Zhe (赭, “reddish brown”) Jicheng 11.6015: 侯赐者(赭)踝臣家 (Nobleman / be-granted / Zhe / slaves / two / hundred / family: A nobleman has been granted reddish brown cloth and two hundred servants.) Emerging in the Mid Western Zhou: Su (素, “white”) Jicheng 15.9702: 素束 (White / silk / bundle: A bundle of white silk.) Zhu (朱, “vermilion”) Jicheng 16.9898: 赐市朱黄 (Be-granted / apron-like clothes / Zhu / jade worn as a pendant: An apron-like clothes and vermilion jade pendant have been granted.) Tong (彤, “red”) Jicheng 5.2780: 赐…彤 (Be-granted /… / Tong / arrow: Red arrows are granted.) Xun (熏 or 纁, “light crimson”) Jicheng 8.4343: 熏 Xing ( (Xun / liner: Light crimson liner.) , “red”) Jicheng 8.4165: 赐… 刚 (Be-granted / Xing / bull: A red bull has been granted.) Emerging in the Late Western Zhou: Cong (悤 or 葱, “turquoise”) Jicheng 5.2841: 朱市悤黄 (Vermilion / apron-like clothes / Cong / jade worn as a pendant: Vermilion apron-like clothes and turquoise jade pendant.) Furthermore, we could have recourse to the report on the frequency of those characters being used in Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou dynasty (Zhang 2004). In this report, he notes the frequency as follows (here he makes no distinction between the use as color terms and the use as others): Bai 849, Chi 111, Huang 107, Zhu 70, Xuan 55, You 27, Tong 18, Zhi 10, Xun 10, Cong 8, Qing 3, Dan 3, Su 3, Hei 2, Xing 1. In summary, the then basic color terms in Western Zhou Period are still dominated by Bai, Chi, Huang, Xuan. Here, “Zhu, You” should not be voted as one of them in accordance with both the stipulations by B&K and its frequency; by Collection of Bronze Inscriptions, “Xuan” at this time is used more to represent Black while “Hei” fails to be ranked as a basic color term in view of its frequency. 88 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) During this period, “Qing” and “Dan” could be found thrice in Bronze inscriptions but serves not as basic color terms; whereas Cang (仓 or 苍, “black or grue”) appears in the late Western Zhou only in the name of “granary”. It is noted that “Cong” emerges as a new color word, which significantly reveals the obvious perception of color Cyan at that time. 4.3 The Spring & Autumn And Warring States Periods (ca. 770-221 B.C.) Basic Color Terms: Chi (red), Huang (yellow), Hei (black), Bai (white), Qing/Cang (black or grue) According to Collection of Bronze Inscriptions (Volume II: the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods) in the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods, “Bai Hei Huang Chi You, Xuan, Zhu” are used in common as major color terms while the usage of Cang, Hong (红, referring to “pink” at that time), Lü (绿, “green”), Zi (紫, “purple”), Xun, Cong, Su, Tong, Zhi, Xing, Li, Wu is not found in Bronze Inscriptions of the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods. During this period, “Qing” emerges four times and only serves as a color word one time (in the Spring & Autumn Period, Jicheng 16.10136: 青金 [Qing-colored bronze]). During this period Bronze inscriptions are found increasingly decreasing. In this view, we refer to other possible books existing at that time like Shang shu (尚书) 6 , Shijing 7 , Yi li (仪礼) 8 , Zhou yi (周易) 9 , the Analects (论语) 10 , Chunqiu zuozhuan (春秋左传)11, the Works of Mencius (孟子)12 and Zhou li (周礼)13. Here are their respective frequencies of use in each book: Table 1 Ba Hu Xu Shang shu 2 1 3 Shijing 25 35 7 Yi li 12 4 Zhou yi 8 Analects zuozhuan Su Qi Ch Zh He Xun 1 1 2 1 1 13 9 6 5 3 32 11 3 2 7 3 13 4 2 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 6 6 8 3 17 1 2 2 4 Ca Lü 14 10 Zi 1 Co 1 1 2 5 Ho 1 1 THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 1 89 Mencius 20 2 2 1 1 Zhou li 17 10 9 12 14 14 6 11 2 1 Sum 92 72 67 44 29 27 27 24 21 15 11 4 1 1 % 21 17 15 10 7 6 6 6 5 3 3 1 0 0 * Ba- Bai; Hu- Huang; Xu- Xuan; Su– Su; Qi-Qing; Ch - Chi; Zh- Zhu; He- Hei; Xun- Xun; Ca- Cang; Lü- Lü; Zi - Zi ; Ho- Hong; Co- Cong. * Percentages here and below are all in rounding-off numbers. It could be generalized that “Bai, Huang, Xuan, Su, Qing, Chi, Zhu, Hei”, at that time, serve as major color terms while “Cang, Lü, Zi, Hong,” could not be determined. As for “Cong”, it is rarely used. In order to ascertain which one of “Xuan, Hei” could be the basic color term representing Black and the possible usage of “Qing”, “Cang”, “Lü”, “Zi”, “Hong” at that time, we further search all the works available14, written at that time, collected in Si bu cong kan (四部刊)15. Table 216 The Warring States Period Ba He Hu Qi Lie zi ( 9 6 4 3 3 Mo zi (墨子) (Early) 33 34 10 5 1 Wu zi (吴子) (Early) 1 2 1 Liu tao ( 韬) (Early) 6 3 2 Shang zi (商子) (Mid) 1 Zhuang zi (庄子)(Mid) 16 4 8 10 1 4 Xun zi (荀子) (Late) 10 10 2 2 3 3 Han zi (韩子) (Late) 31 14 4 2 22 3 Guan zi (管子) (believed to be) 34 35 51 20 Sum 141 107 80 47 26 % 33 25 19 11 6 子) (Early) 4 Zi Xu Ca Ho Lü 3 1 4 2 2 18 9 2 0 4 2 1 0 1 * Ba- Bai; He- Hei; Hu- Huang; Qi-Qing; Zi - Zi ; Xu- Xuan; Ca- Cang; Ho- Hong; Lü- Lü. As is noted in Table 2, “Hei” is more often used than “Xuan” in the late Warring States Period. It is more convincing to claim that during this period, “Hei” has been 90 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) elevated to be a basic color term to represent Black. As for “Qing”, its abusive use in the Warring States Period could be observed easily by the following facts. It has been listed as one of “Five Colors (五色 or 五采)” in Shang shu – Yu Gong Zhang ( (尚书.禹贡) and Zhou li and ranked as one of “Six 章, “Six Colors”)” in Yi li, and one of “Six Colors ( 采) (Qing, Bai, Chi, Hei, Xuan, Huang)” in Chunqiu zuozhuan. With reference to the frequency as shown in Table 1 and 2, “Qing” should be listed as a basic color term at that time. “Cang”, first emerging as a color term in Shijing, Zhou li, i.e., in the Spring and Autumn Period, grows gradually in quantities. In Yi zhou shu – Xiao kai wu (逸周书·小开武), it has been mentioned that “Wu Xing (五行, “Five Agents”)17 includes: Water in Hei, Fire in Chi, Wood in Cang, Metal in Bai and Earth in Huang ( 水；赤位火蒼位木；四位金；五黑位黄位土)”. It seems that “Cang” at that time is popular as an alternative of “Qing” and could appear in Qing’s place. As for the emergence of “Zi”, according to Table 1, its appearances in The Works of Mencius, Chunqiu zuozhuan and the Analects suggest the period of the Mid Warring States Period, while in the light of Table 2, it fails to present itself in the Early Warring States Period and its showing up could only be observed in several works of the Mid or Late Warring States Period. So it is safe to say “Zi” starts to be employed as a color term not until the Mid Warring States Period (it could be tightly bound up with the wearing of purple clothes by Heng Gong (齐恒 ) of the Qi State in the Warring States Period) but it still does not prevail. As regards “Lü”, it could only be found in Shijing (among them, 9 times in Guo Feng [ 风] and one time in Lu Song [鲁颂]) and Yi li (“朱绿缲”[vermilion and green silks]). Besides, we could notice its occurrence once respectively in Xun zi and Lie zi of the Warring States Period, both in the form of “Lü er (绿耳)”, one of “Eight Fine Horses ( 骏)”. It is self-evident that “Lü” has its debut in the Late Spring and Autumn Period but has not been granted the position of basic color terms. “Hong” (it refers to “pink” at that time) wins its initial performance in The Analects and Han zi of the Late Warring States Period. However, obviously, it fails to obtain the status of being a basic color term. At the same time, “Zi”, “Lü” and “Hong” could not be located in Bronze inscriptions of the same period, which, on the other hand, justifies their peripheral status in the then society. Another important work which we could refer to is Lüshi chunqiu (吕氏春秋), since it has been completed just eight years after the founding of the Qin dynasty, i.e., THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 91 immediately after the Warring States Period. Here the frequencies of color terms are shown as follows: Bai 55, Chi 23, Hei 20, Huang 18, Xuan 15, Qing 13, Cang 10, Zhu 8, Su 4, Lü 1. It should be noted that “Zhe, He (褐, “brown”), Hong, Zi, Lan (蓝, “blue”), Cheng (橙, “orange”), Hui (灰, “grey”), Dian (靛, “indigo”), Cong, Xun, Dan, You” fail to present themselves here. To a large extent, the above data concerning color terms could serve as an essential proof of the above analysis. In summary, during this period, the basic color terms are confined to “Chi, Huang, Hei, Bai, Qing/Cang. In this period, “You” fades out and “Five Colors” (including Qing, Chi, Bai, Hei, Huang) or “Six Colors” (plus “Xuan”) (see Shang shu – Yu Gong and Zhou li respectively) steps on stage. 4.4 The Qin And Han Dynasties (ca. 221 B.C.-220 A.D.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Huang (yellow), Hei (black), Chi (red), Qing (black or grue) During the Qin and Han dynasties, the earliest classics we could refer to is Erya, Li ji (礼记)18, Shi ji (史记) and Han shu (汉书)19. Accordingly, the frequencies of their usage are listed as follows: Table 3 Ba Hu Ch Qi He Xu Zi Ca Lü Erya 49 21 6 6 12 7 Li ji 38 19 14 17 22 52 1 1 5 12 Shi ji 180 133 38 49 40 24 10 16 2 1 2 1 2 Han 252 275 114 91 82 35 30 16 15 1 14 7 7 Sum 519 448 172 163 156 118 41 35 22 16 16 12 9 % 30 26 10 9 9 7 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 Xu Zh Da Ho 2 4 * Ba- Bai; Hu- Huang; Ch - Chi; Qi-Qing; He- Hei; Xu- Xuan; Zi - Zi ; Ca- Cang; Lü- Lü; Xu- Xun; Zh- Zhe; Da- Dan; Ho- Hong. 92 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) It could be concluded that the then major color terms could cover Bai, Huang, Chi, Qing/Cang, Hei, Xuan,. Among them, the usage of “Xuan, Cang” is gradually reduced; “Zi” awaits further confirmation of whether it belongs to the basic color terms or not; and “Hong” and “Lü” are not prevalent at that time. As a frame of reference, Shuowen jiezi, completed in the Eastern Han ( 汉) Dynasty by Xu Shen, could serve as an essential source for verification. The major color terms used in this work are20: Bai 82, Hei 68, Chi 54, Huang 53, Qing 36, Dan 9, Zhu 7, Xuan 5, Jiang (绛, “crimson”) 5, Wu2 ( , “black”) 3, Zi 2, Liu-Huang (骝黄, “brown”)1, Huang-Hei (黄黑, “yellow-black”) 6 / Huang-Bai (黄 , “yellow-white”) 2, Qing-Hei (青黑, “grue-black”) 6 / Qing-Chi (青赤, “grue-red”) 2 / Qing-Huang (青黄, “grue-yellow”) 2 / Qing-Bai (青 , “grue-white”) 1, Chi-Huang (赤黄, “red-yellow”) 3 / Chi-Hei ( 赤黑 , “red-black”) 3 / Chi-Bai ( 赤 “white-yellow”) 1 / Bai-Qing ( , “red-white”) 1, Bai-Huang ( 青, “white-grue”) 1 / Bai-Hei ( 黄, 黑, “white-black”) 1, Zi-Qing ( 紫青 , “purple-grue”) 1 / Xuan-Huang ( 玄黄 , “black-yellow”) 1 / Dan-Huang ( 黄, “red-yellow”) 1 (Xu 1995) among other things, “Cang” 0. It should be noted that here Zi is not frequently used and more importantly, its definition in Shuowen jiezi reads: “of cloth, a grue-red color (帛青赤色)”. Another noteworthy fact lies in the use of “Xuan” and “Cang”. Obviously, they are not employed as basic color terms again. Furthermore, another important work, Shi ming – Shi Cai Bo (释 completed at the end of The Eastern Han dynasty by Liu Xi ( .释采帛), 熙), includes such color terms as Qing, Chi, Huang, Bai, Hei, Jiang, Zi, Hong, Xiang (缃, “pale yellow”), Lü, Piao (缥, “light grue”), Zi2 (缁, “black”), Zao ( or , “black”), Su, Gan (绀, “dark purple”). In his work, Xuan and Cang are not listed. And its definition of Zi goes like this: “Zi means a flaw. It holds its status as a secondary color term and is regarded as a flaw of five Pure Colors (紫, 疵 , 非色, 五色疵瑕)”. In summary, “Zi” still fails to obtain the status as a basic color term at that time, while “Xuan, Cang” are no longer used as basic color terms. Correspondingly, we could have the following basic color terms: Bai, Huang, Hei, Chi, Qing”. THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 93 4.5 The Three Kingdoms, Through Jin To Southern & Northern Dynasties (ca. 220 – 589 A.D.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Huang (yellow), Hei (black), Chi (red), Qing (black or grue), Zi (purple) During this period, we could locate such history books as San guo zhi ( Hou han shu ( 志), 汉书), Song shu (宋书), Nan qi shu (南齐书) and Wei shu (魏书)21. Here we take “Chi, Qing” as a reference, and the other color terms are listed in terms of their frequencies. Table 4 Ch Qi Zi Ji Lü Za Ga Ho Bi Zi2 San guo 19 31 6 5 1 Xu Xi Hou han 124 98 38 25 12 26 10 5 3 6 8 4 1 Song 170 164 71 47 24 26 8 9 6 5 7 4 5 Nan qi 91 58 48 33 22 7 10 13 2 2 1 Wei 118 93 31 10 6 10 3 5 6 12 1 Sum 522 444 194 120 65 62 30 29 28 25 20 % 34 29 12 8 4 4 2 2 2 2 1 2 Pi Fe 2 2 4 9 8 4 1 1 0 * Ch - Chi; Qi-Qing; Zi - Zi ; Ji- Jiang; Lü- Lü; Za- Zao; Ga- Gan; Ho- Hong; Bi- Bi; Zi2-- Zi2; Pi- Piao; Xu- Xun; Xi- Xiang; Fe- Fei. In Table 4, we could observe the slow rising of Zi in the late period and its frequency far overtakes those of others like “Jiang”, “Lü”, “Zao”, “Gan”, “Hong”, “Bi (碧, “bluish green”)”. It could be inferred that apart from those basic color terms, Zi has been ranked as important. To do justice to this assertion, we go further to another important etymological dictionary, Yu pian (玉篇), compiled at that time, for confirmation. Among them, these color terms are listed: Bai 163, Hei 137, Chi 89, Huang 76, Qing 45, Cang 19, Xuan 12, Zi 9, Zhu 5, Lü 5, Hong 3, Jiang 3, Dan 2, Gan 1, Piao 1, Fei (绯, “bright red”) 1 (Besides, there are still another 60 color terms listed, which are less used). What we should pay attention to is its definition of these words like “Lü”, which is interpreted as “of cloth, a grue-yellow color (帛青黄色)”, “Lan”, which is defined as “a kind of grass, from which color Qing (black or grue) could be extracted (草生青)”, “Bi”, which is explained as “blue or green precious stone (石 and “Fei”, which is conceived as “crimson boil silk (绛练青美者)”, )”. Among them, “Zi” JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS 94 Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) has been used only less frequently than those basic color terms as well as Cang, Xuan, the late basic color terms. Such fact could be more revealing if we review the so-called “Pure Color and Secondary Color” theory, which has been formulated during this period. As early as in Li ji – Yu Zao (礼记.玉藻), it has been stated that “clothes take pure color while skirts employ secondary color (衣色, 裳间色)”. Upon such statement, Zheng Xuan (郑玄), a famous scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, crown should be in black while its dress in yellow (谓冕服玄 interprets it as “the 薰 )”. Liu Xi, in his Shi ming – Shi Cai Bo, also explains “Zi means a flaw. It holds its status as a non-basic color term and is regarded as a flaw of five basic color terms 非色, 五色疵瑕 ”. Taiping yu lan ( 紫, 疵 , 御览), completed in the Song dynasty (ca. 960 – 1279 A.D.), quotes Huan ji yao lüe ( 济要略), completed in this period, as saying: “Pure Colors include Qing, Chi, Huang, Bai, Hei” while “Secondary Color consist of Gan, Hong, Piao, Zi, Liu-Huang”. This is the first time when Pure and Secondary Colors are systematically distinguished. Also in this period, Huang Kan (皇侃 ), from the Southern Liang (南梁 ) Dynasty, comments that Pure Colors comprise “Qing, Chi, Huang, Bai, Hei” while Secondary Colors contain Lü, Hong, Bi, Zi, Liu-Huang”. Although different assertions are made, “Zi, Hong, Liu-Huang” are all included as one part of Secondary colors. It could be deduced that those three colors, are ranked as the next most important at that time. In view of such complicated situation, we turn again to those works written in spoken language for further confirmation of the status of “Zi”. We include Shi shuo xin yu (世说新语) and Qi ming yao shu (齐民要术), written both in this period, in our corpus. The final search results are presented as follows: Table 5 Ba Hu Ch Qi He Zi Lü Bi Ho Ga Pi LH Shi shuo xin yu 21 9 1 7 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 Qi ming yao shu 222 127 96 84 83 43 16 5 4 1 2 0 Sum 243 136 97 91 86 46 16 6 4 1 2 0 % 33 19 13 13 12 6 2 1 1 0 0 0 * Ba- Bai; Hu- Huang; Ch - Chi; Qi- Qing; He- Hei; Zi - Zi ; Lü- Lü; Bi- Bi; HoHong; Ga- Gan; Pi- Piao; LH- Liu-Huang. It is found that the frequency of “Zi” in these two works are highly consistent THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 95 with the data we have collected in the history books as well as dictionaries. At that time, its use has far outrun those of other non-basic color terms and could be safely listed as an equivalent of the other basic color terms. In summary, “Zi” could be ranked among the basic color terms at that time. So the list should be “Bai, Huang, Hei, Chi, Qing, Zi”. 4.6 The Sui Through Tang, Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms To Song Dynasties (ca. 581-1279 A.D.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Huang (yellow), Hei (black), Chi/Hong (red), Qing (grue), Zi (purple), Lü (green) During this period, we could find such history books as Liang shu (梁书), Chen shu (陈书), Bei qi shu ( Nan shi (南史), Bei shi ( 齐书), Zhou shu (周书), Jin shu (晋书), Sui shu (隋书), 史), Jiu tang shu ( 唐书), Jiu we dai shi ( 五代史), 22 Xin tang shu (新唐书), Xin wu dai shi (新五代史) . Accordingly, we list “Chi, Zi” as a reference data here and the frequencies of the other major color terms are: Table 6 Ch Zi Lü Ji Za Ho Bi Cu Liang 23 39 8 3 6 8 5 7 Chen 10 17 1 1 4 2 Bei qi 23 11 Ga Zi2 Pi Zh Xi 1 1 1 6 2 1 1 Zhou 12 18 4 1 1 2 1 Jin 238 79 22 43 42 6 3 8 3 6 7 9 Sui 304 101 44 98 48 21 13 18 34 28 8 22 Nan 51 60 11 16 7 14 7 5 1 2 Bei 84 49 8 3 8 6 4 3 1 2 1 Jiu tang 126 365 42 19 31 18 10 11 2 8 Jiuwudai 19 75 10 3 6 3 4 1 2 Xin tang 220 168 46 7 31 22 14 5 18 Xinwudai 11 8 2 1 4 3 Sum 1121 990 198 167 146 132 79 69 64 55 43 34 32 19 % 36 31 6 5 5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 Xu 1 11 16 1 3 3 7 3 4 4 3 4 3 5 6 * Ch - Chi; Zi - Zi ; Lü- Lü; Ji- Jiang; Za- Zao; Ho- Hong; Bi- Bi; Cu- Cui; Xu- Xun; Ga- Gan; Zi2-- Zi2; Pi- Piao; Zh- Zhe; Xi- Xiang. 96 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) In Table 6, “Zi” is found to have firmly established its status as a basic color term. And eventually, “Lü” and “Hong” start to appear as color terms in common use. At the same time, “Lan” emerges the first time23 and “Hui” initiates its use in a metaphoric way24. It could be noticed that “He, Zong (棕, “brown”), Cheng” still kept using as the names of articles. Taking all these into account, the basic color terms in this period, should at least contain “Bai, Huang, Hei, Chi, Qing, Zi”, while “Lü, Hong, Lan, Hui” call for further justification. We first turn to Lei pian (类篇), another etymological dictionary compiled in this period, and have produced the following frequency list: Bai 295, Hei 248, Huang 165, Chi 162, Qing 122, Xuan 28, Zi 14, Su 13, Jiang 12, Zhu 10, Dan 8, Gan 6, Zhe 5, Bi 4, Zi2 3, Hong 3, Zao 3, Tong 3, Piao 3, Xun 2, Lü 1; in this book, “Lan, Hui, Zong, Cheng, Cui ( , “jade green”), He, Dian” are not listed as color terms and there are another 124 less-used color terms composed of “Chi, Hei, Bai, Huang, Xi”. Anyway, it is easily perceived that “Lü” and “Hong” have been listed as color terms but they are not used frequently. As for “Hui” and “Lan”, they are still excluded from color terms. Now, we cast a look at what Dunhuang bianwen (敦煌变文) 25, written in spoken language, has provided us. We get the following data: Qing 85, Hong 70, Zi 61, Chi 34, Lü 14, Hui 0, Lan 0. Conspicuously, “Hong” has achieved an equal status as “Zi” and “Chi”. At the same time, there is an increasing use of “Lü”, though its frequency of use still falls short of those of the other basic color terms. On the other hand, “Hui” and “Lan” could not be claimed to be basic color terms. To ascertain what position “Hong” and “Lü” hold at that time, we refer to Quan tang shi (全唐诗) and Quan song ci (全宋词) (in electronic version). The relevant frequencies are stated as follows (here we make no distinction between the use as the color terms and the other usages, since we lay emphasis more on Lü, Hong, which are mainly employed as color terms there): Bai 12829 / 2320, Qing 6467 /3620, Huang 4240 / 3242, Hong 4168 / 5748, Bi 2841 / 2160, Lü 2792 / 2773, Cui 2555 / 2993, Zi 2294 / 1105, Dan 2140 / 1245, Zhu 1867 / 1201, Cang 1733 / 703, Xuan 1431 / 220, Su1323 / 1043, Chi 807 / 302, Fen(粉 , “pink”) 785 / 1171, Hei 528 / 136, Hui 415 / 117, Lan 259 / 198, He 148 / 22, Tong 127 / 63, Zong 36 / 5, Cheng 28 / 91. Obviously, “Bi, Cui, Dan” achieve a high frequency in usage because of its reference to the objects, while “Chi”, “Hei” get a relatively low frequency due in large part to their tone and cultural images. Whereas “Hong”, “Lü” top even other basic color THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 97 terms in contrast to the low frequency of “Hui, Lan, Zong, Fen, Cheng, He”, which are mainly or totally used as the names of objects. As another way of evidence, the search results of Meng liang lu (梦粱录)26 and Wulin jiu shi (武林 )27, which have been completed shortly before or around the Yuan Dynasty, assure us of the above analysis. Table 7 Ho Zi Lü He Ch Hu La Wulin jiu shi 33 27 19 4 4 0 0 Meng liang lu 103 61 41 18 18 0 0 Sum 136 88 60 22 22 0 0 % 42 27 18 7 7 0 0 * Ho- Hong; Zi - Zi; Lü- Lü; He- Hei; Ch - Chi; Hu- Hui; La- Lan. As shown in Table 7, “Hong” has overpowered such basic color terms as “Zi”, “Hei” and “Chi” in its frequency and “Lü” could also be ranked as one member among those basic color terms. In summary, it could be perceived that at that time, “Chi” and “Hong” coexists as basic color terms and “Chi” is going to be replaced by “Hong” to represent Red. Concurrently, “Hong, Lü” are increasingly employed since the Tang and Song dynasties as a possible result of the prevalence of poems and Ci, classical Chinese poetry conforming to a definite pattern. Accordingly, Basic Color Terms should include “Bai, Huang, Hei, Chi/Hong, Qing, Zi, Lü”. 4.7 The Yuan Through Ming To Qing Dynasties (ca. 1271-1911 A.D.) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Huang (yellow), Hei (black), Hong (red), Qing (grue), Zi (purple), Lü (green) All history books in this period are Liao shi ( 史), Jin shi (金史), Song shi (宋 28 史), Yuan shi (元史), Ming shi (明史) . Here in contrast to the frequency of such basic color terms as Chi, Hong, Qing, Zi, Lü, we list those of other major color terms as follows: 98 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) Table 8 Qi Ch Ho Zi Fe Zh Lü Bi Cu La Liao 67 14 17 20 10 9 10 1 2 1 Jin 124 110 177 136 100 28 29 6 Song 1033 1244 242 498 314 87 48 60 Yuan 400 215 245 58 102 81 12 Ming 335 179 547 74 31 55 84 Sum 1959 1762 1228 786 557 365 % 27 24 17 11 8 5 301 He Fen Hu 6 13 2 1 15 12 10 13 9 21 7 11 2 290 103 92 40 30 13 9 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 6 * Qi- Qing; Ch - Chi; Ho- Hong; Zi - Zi; Fe- Fei; Zh- Zhu; Lü- Lü; Bi- Bi; Cu- Cui; La- Lan; He- He; Fen- Fen; Hu- Hui. Table 8 witnesses a full-scale replacement of “Chi” by “Hong”. (during this period, “Chi”is mainly employed in Tianwen zhi [ 文志, “Records of Astronomy”] and Yufu zhi [舆服志, “Records of Vehicle and Clothing”] of those books. ) and “Lü” is stabilized as a basic color term. “Lan, He” have now entered the list of color terms but fail to claim the status of being basic color terms; “Hui” is now on stage as a color word in “grey spoon (灰匙)”(in Song shi) and “grey and black mouse (灰黑色鼠)” / “silver grey plate (银灰盘)” (in Yuan shi); “Fen” shows up in terms of “Fen-Hong (粉红, “pink-red”)”(in Song shi) and “Fen-Bai (粉 , “pink-white”), Fen-Qing (粉青, “pink-grue”) , Fen-Mo (粉墨, “pink-black”)” (in Ming shi); on the contrary, “Zong” remains to be the name of object as shown in “a house of palm (棕屋), a carriage of palm (棕舆)” respectively in Song shi and Ming shi; and “Cheng” retains its status as a name of object. The only surprise lies in the mass production of “Fei”, which, after scrutiny, proves to be closely related to the color of the official’s gown of the Ming dynasty. With regard to the spoken-language corpus, we refer to A Dream of Red Mansions (红楼梦), a classic written in Vernacular Chinese ( 话) and completed at the end of the Qing dynasty (in electronic version). Its frequencies of relevant color terms are: Hong 391, Qing 134, Lü 86, Hei 74, Zi 38, Chi 18, Hui 15, Lan 2, Fen-Hong 1, He 0, Cheng 0, Zong 0, Fei 0. Not surprisingly, the frequency we got is similar to the data we have collected from those history books (the exception of Fei has been illustrated above.) Again, the THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 99 replacement of “Chi” by “Hong” is irrevocable, while it is more fitting not to regard “Hui” and “Lan”, though with a considerable increase in its frequency compared with the previous stage, as basic color terms. In view of the above analysis, we asserts the following basic color terms: “Bai, Huang, Hei, Hong, Qing, Zi, Lü.” 4.8 Modern China (ca. 1911-present) Basic Color Terms: Bai (white), Hong (red), Hei (black), Huang (yellow), Zi (purple), Lü (green), Lan (blue), Hui (grey) There exists a controversy over what are basic color terms in Modern China. Different claims are listed here: (as cited in Xie 2004:97): Table 9 Source Ho Hu Ch Qi Lü La Di Zi Zh He Hei Ba Hu TY JM XD LYQ ZRF LDQ YJ YXP WFX LHY * The shadow part indicates this color is regarded as belonging to basic color terms. * TY- Tongyici cilin ( 词 ( (叶义词词林 ); JM- Jiaming hanyu yilei cidian (简明汉语义类 ); XD- Xiandai hanyu fenlei cidian ( 代汉语分类词 ); LYQ- Liu Yunquan 云泉 ); ZRF- Zhan Renfeng (詹人凤 ); LDQ- Liu Danqing ( ); YXP-Yao Xiaoping (姚小青 ); YJ- Ye Jun ); WFX- Wang Fengxin (王逢鑫 ); LHY Li Hongyin (李红印 ). * Ho- Hong; Hu- Huang; Ch- Cheng; Qi- Qing; Lü- Lü; La- Lan; Di- Dian; Zi - Zi; Zh- Zhe; He- He; Hei- Hei; Ba- Bai; Hu- Hui. 100 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) From Table 9, it could be found that “Hong, Lü, Lan, Hei, Bai” as basic color terms are not disputed. As for “Zi, Huang, Hui”, they await further confirmation. In contrast, He is alternating between acceptance and denial while “Qing, Zhe, Cheng, Dian” receive doubts in many respects. In order to verify the actual usage of each major color terms, we look to Qing shigao (清史稿)29 for a possible solution. The frequency of relevant color terms are specified as follows (here the routine name and official title such as “Zheng hong qi [ 红旗 , “Primary Red Battalion”], Lanling shiwei [ 蓝翎侍卫 , “Blue-Plume Housecarl”]” are not counted): Table 10 Hu Ba Ho La Hei Ch Zi Lü Hu Zo Zh He Qi Qing shi 941 756 561 279 246 201 137 93 6 3 3 0 522 ％ 25 20 15 7 7 5 4 3 0 0 0 0 14 * Hu- Huang; Ba- Bai; Ho- Hong; La- Lan; Hei- Hei; Ch - Chi; Zi - Zi; Lü- Lü; HuHui; Zo- Zong; Zh- Zhe; He- He; Qi- Qing. We could easily figure out “Huang, Bai, Hong, Lan, Hei, Zi, Lü” as the major color terms. The only exception could be “Qing”, which is frequently used, but denotes, like “Cang”, three different colors, i.e., “Hei, Lü, Lan”. After the emergence of “Lan”, it is not fitting to classify it as a basic color term according to B & K’s definition. As for “Chi”, it could only be found in Tianwen zhi and Yufu zhi, confining to a larger extent to some special fields. As a result, “Hui, Zong, Zhe” are still very rare while “He, Dian, Cheng” could not be traced. But since the May 4th Movement, Vernacular Chinese develops by leaps and bounds. To further verify the positioning of “Hui, Zong, Zhe, He, Dian, Cheng” in modern Chinese, we take most of celebrated works30 by modern writers into account and the relevant data is listed as follows: Bai-se ( 色 )210, Hong-se (红色 ) 192, Hui-se (灰色 ) 190, Hei-se (黑色 ) 178, Huang-se (黄色 ) 125, Lü-se (绿色 ) 101, Lan-se (蓝色 ) 83, Qing-se (青色 ) 54, Zi-se (紫色 ) 48, Chi-se (赤色 ) 39 He-se (褐色 ) 33, Zong-se (棕色 ) 22, Zhe-se (赭色 ) 10, Cheng-se (橙色 ) 0, Dian-se (靛色 ) 0. And the respective occurrences of Hong and Chi as color terms are 1763 and 121. In summary, in modern Chinese, “Qing” should be excluded according to B & K’s standard; and “Bai, Hong, Hei, Huang, Lü, Lan, Zi” could be regarded as the THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 101 basic color terms. The only uncertainty lies in “Hui”, which, though not in accordance with B&K’s requirement that it shall not specify one class of objects, is different from “He, Zong, Cheng”. It enjoys a higher freedom while used together with a noun (“se [色)” in the combination could be omitted) and could be modified by such adjuncts as “hen” (很, “very”) or “feichang” (非常, “very”). It seems that “Hui” is undergoing the last lexicalization stage of being a basic color term. On the contrary, “He, Zong, Cheng” have to combine “se” in representing color and cannot be modified by “hen” or “feichang”. Moreover, they, more often than not, specify one class of objects as “Jin” (金, “gold / of gold color”), “Yin” (银, “silver / of silver color”), “Yu” (玉, “jade / of jade color”) do. In view of all these, “Hui” could barely be accepted as a basic color term and thus form a constellation of “Bai, Hong, Hei, Huang, Lü, Lan, Zi, Hui”. 4.9 Conclusion To sum up, we could come up with the following table, which illustrates the long-history evolution of CBCT. Table 11 Period Bai Hei Huang Hong 1 You Chi 2 Xuan Chi 3 Chi 4 Chi 5 Chi 6 Chi/Hong Qing Zi Lü Lan Hui Qing/Cang 7 8 * 1- The Late Shang dynasty; 2- The Western Zhou dynasty; 3- The Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods; 4- The Qin dynasty and Han dynasties; 5- The Three Kingdoms Dynasties through Jin to Southern & Northern dynasties; 6- The Tang and Song dynasty; 7- The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties; 8- Modern China. 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Based on the diachronic analysis of CBCT, its evolution could be divided, JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS 102 Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) as it is, into five phases. They are: Table 12 Phase 1. The Shang and Western Zhou dynasties 2. The Eastern Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties 3. The Southern & Northern Period Basic Color Terms 1 Bai You Huang Chi 2 Bai Xuan Huang Chi 3 Bai Hei Huang Chi Qing/Cang 4 Bai Hei Huang Chi Qing 5 Bai Hei Huang Chi Qing Zi 6 Bai Hei Huang Qing Zi Lü Chi/Hong 7 Bai Hei Huang Qing Zi Lü Hong 8 Bai Hei Huang Hong Lan Zi Lü Hui dynasties 4. The Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties 5. Modern China * 1- The Late Shang dynasty; 2- The Western Zhou dynasty; 3- The Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods; 4- The Qin dynasty and Han dynasties; 5- The Three Kingdoms Dynasties through Jin to Southern & Northern dynasties; 6- The Tang and Song dynasty; 7- The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties; 8- Modern China. 5.1 Chinese Basic Color Terms against The Recent Developments of Berlin & Kay’s Theory Based on the above analysis, we could figure out the evolutionary development of CBCT. Without knowing what stages have preceded its development, CBCT starts from Stage III with “white, red, yellow and black” (Phase 1), moves to Stage IV containing “white, red, yellow, black and grue” (Phase 2), develops further to include “purple” (Phase 3), then reaches a Special Stage including “white, red, yellow, black, grue, green and purple” (Phase 4), and ends with Stage V having “white, red, yellow, black, green, blue, purple and grey” (Phase 5). The Main-line Hypothesis Against the latest revision of Berlin & Kay’s theory of basic color terms suggested by Kay & Maffi (1999), the evolution of CBCT does not fall into the assumed main line (Trajectory A, see Figure 5). Instead, it fits better into Trajectory B by following an order of Stage I, Stage II, Stage IIIBk/G/Bu, Stage IVG/Bu and Stage V. However, before we make such a claim, some further considerations should be given to the status of “You” and later “Xuan” as “Black or Green or Blue” in Stage THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 103 IIIBk/G/Bu. It should be noted that in Period 1: the Late Shang Dynasty, apart from four basic color terms, we could observe such color terms as Wu (multi-colored), Li (multi-colored or black) but not Cong (cyan); whereas in Period 2: The Western Zhou Dynasty, Cong emerges to represent Cyan and Wu and Li disappear in our searching results. Though due to the limits of historical literature available now, it is not safe to assert that Composite Category “Black or Green or Blue” in Stage IIIBk/G/Bu could be represented in CBCT by both a basic color term meaning “black” (“You” in Period 1 and “Xuan” in Period 2) and another color term referring to either “multi-colored” (“Wu” or “Li” in Period 1) or “cyan” (“Cong” in Period 2), we should not simply claim the former doctrine while discard the latter possibilities. Another noteworthy point lies in the Special Stage of CBCT with both Qing (black or grue) and Lü (green) entering the list of basic color terms. It is really surprising why Qing could persist even up to Period 7 without losing its glamour (in Contemporary China, Qing as a color term is less frequently used31). It seems that we could classify this Special Stage in CBCT into a transition stage between Stage IV and Stage V, but a transition period spanning between 600 years (counting from the Song Dynasties to 1911) and 1300 years (counting from the Tang Dynasty to 1911) is really challenging us to wonder how transition takes shape. In view of this, it would be more proper to defend that there is another stage existing between Stage IV and Stage V. Most important of all, the evolution of CBCT falsifies the significance of the Main line proposed by Kay & Maffi (1999). By virtue of this fact, we are cautioned that a number of synchronic studies do not amount to a diachronic study. Though 83% of languages in the world could be grouped under this Main-line framework (Chinese included), it does not necessarily mean that this is exactly an evolutionary development of most basic color lexicons. Obviously, the evolution of Chinese basic color terms adopts another “less traveled” route and reaches the same point in the Main line. Derived categories: Zi (purple), Hui (gray) and He / Zong (brown) According to Kay & McDaniel (1978) as well as Kay, Berlin & Merrifield (1991), “gray”, “brown” and “purple” could appear before Stage V, when the green or blue composite category is dissolved. Judging from the evolution of CBCT, those revisions are essential to the original Berlin & Kay’s (1969) model. It is conspicuous that in Chinese, Zi has been holding the status of a basic color term long since Period 5. Amazingly, this is also corresponding to Boster’s (1986) and Davies & Corbett’s 104 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) (1998) recapitulation hypothesis studies in which it is reported that there are cases of derived categories appearing before all the composite categories had split and the most common case of a derived category appearing too early is for purple to be put in a group on its own before blue and green had split. At the same time, Kay, Maffi & Merrifield (1997) reports 16 in 110 WCS languages have found a basic color term for purple together with at least one undivided composite category. Though Boster’s findings concerning English Speakers, Davies & Corbett’s conclusions concerning English, Russian and Setswana speakers and our schemes in CBCT are all consistent with Kay, Berlin & Merrifield’s (1991) version of theory, it should be noted that no other derived categories have been reported so often with such premature cases. No doubt, a special attention should be given to the emergence of purple instead of just taking it for granted. In our study, Hui ascends to the membership of basic color terms before He or Zong (brown) (against Berlin & Kay’s theory but consistent with Kay & McDaniel’s revision) but after the blue or green composite has been dissolved. Thus it changes the list of CBCT to include 6 basic categories and 2 derived categories in total. And it is anticipated that the next possible candidate of basic color term should be “Zong (or He)”. Admittedly, in Modern Chinese, “Zong / He” are more plausible to turn into a basic color term among the possible candidates “Zong / He”, “Cheng” and “Fen-Hong” (see Discussions and statistics in 3.8 and Footnote 30). Is the order of emergence of the above-mentioned derived categories in Chinese just a coincidence or an evidence of certain underlying principles, which have not been discussed in both Kay, Berlin, Maffi & Merrifield (1997) and Kay & Maffi (1999)? More thinking in this respected is called for. It should be noted that the evolution of CBCT, to a larger extent, justifies the rationality of the theory of Basic Color Terms. Allowing for the tremendous geographical, social and historical discrepancy lying between Sino-Tibetan language family and Indo-European language family, such similarity is really surprising and it throws some light on the study of universality of language and thought. However, the evolution trajectory of CBCT as well as the emergence of a Special Stage in CBCT has broken the harmonious marriage between the evolution of CBCT and the recent developments of Berlin & Kay’s theory and consequently it drives scholars to think more about the assumption as predicted by the theory of Basic Color Terms, or doubt its rationality. How to account for the “unorthodoxical” evolution of CBCT could be both challenging and revealing. THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 105 5.2 Shifts In Color Naming And Usage According to the Lexical Diffusion theory proposed by William S-Y Wang, language changes in an S-curve fashion (gradual beginnings, rapid spread and gradual tapering off) that is lexically gradual, diffusing across the lexicon (Wang 1969, 1979, 1983). Though his theory is more phonologically and morphologically oriented, many investigations into syntactical and semantic change have also been conducted (Romaine, 1983; Kroch, 1989; Stein 1990; Ogura & Wang, 1993; Hundt 2001; Company 2002; Cheung 2004). Based on the Lexical Diffusion theory, Wang points out that “this hypothesis of lexical diffusion suggests that, at any given time in any living language, we should expect to find several sets of morphemes with dual pronunciations” (Wang, 1969: 15). In the same vein, we could focus on shifts in color naming and usage to locate “several sets of senses with dual lexemes”. It is interesting to note that in the long history of evolution of CBCT, 1) Black is sequentially represented by “You, Xuan, Hei”; 2) Blue and Green are universally represented by “Cong, Cang, Qing” before they became basic color terms; 3) Red has been represented by “Chi”, but when it comes to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (Period 7), “Hong” takes its place; 4) “Zhu” has faded out gradually after the Ming dynasty as a possible result of taboo on using the personal names of emperors; 5) since the Movement of Vernacular Chinese, the CBCT tends to develop from monosyllabic words to be disyllabic words, for instance, “Huang” is more frequently adopted as “Huang-se”. Could such interesting transformations in color naming and usage be accompanied by a slight shift in category perception, especially for 1), 2) ,3) and 5)? For example, in “Bai Yun Cang Gou” ( 云苍狗), “Cang” means “black or gray” which shifts from its original meaning in early historical period. That is not an easy question to be answered and invites further investigations. However, as suggested above, we could further analyze such transformations in the light of the Lexical Diffusion theory for a more revealing picture. For the purpose of convenience, we now turn to the replacement of Chi by Hong for a close look at how such change proceeds. 106 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) 0.08% 0.06% 0.04% 0.02% 0.00% Chi 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.018% 0.032% 0.035% 0.022% 0.059% 0.009% Hong 0.001% 0.006% 0.002% 0.002% 0.016% 0.048% Graph 1: Contrast between Chi and Hong: Usage in General * Percentages are based on each word’s total occurrences / total tokens for each period. Each number indicates a corresponding Period, e.g., “3” refers to “Period 3”. Furthermore, we present a contrast between Chi and Hong when they are used as color terms32 as follows (Graph 2): 0.04% 0.03% 0.02% 0.01% 0.00% Chi 3 4 5 6 7 8 0.006% 0.012% 0.015% 0.012% 0.018% 0.002% Hong 0.000% 0.001% 0.001% 0.001% 0.013% 0.029% Graph 2: Contrast between Chi and Hong: Usage as Color Terms * Percentages are based on each word’s total occurrences as color terms / total tokens for each period. Each number indicates a corresponding Period. To illustrate how much percentages Chi and Hong as color terms account for in their total occurrences, we generate another graph here (Graph 3). THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 107 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Chi 3 4 5 6 7 8 34.62% 38.65% 43.98% 55.50% 31.00% 21.68% Hong 33.33% 11.84% 52.73% 92.31% 79.90% 60.42% Graph 3: Contrast between Chi and Hong: Color Sense * Percentages are based on each word’s total occurrences as color terms / total token for each word. Each number indicates a corresponding Period. In Graph 1 & 2, it could be observed how Chi is replaced by Hong gradually. In terms of Hong, it complies well with the Lexical Diffusion theory in both its total tokens and its occurrences as a color term: It begins gradually from Period 3 to Period 6 and rises rapidly at Period 7 and 8. We are not sure whether it still gains momentum or is going to taper off. As for Chi, it looks more stable than Hong in every respect and falls obviously into a tapering-off period33. In Graph 3, amazingly, Hong of color sense also conforms excellently to the predications suggested by the Lexical Diffusion theory, which reaches its peak at Period 6 and then tapers off34, whereas Chi is used most frequently as color terms at the same time as Hong (Period 6). It runs counter to our expectation of how each word’s prototypical center changes: Chi could proceed Hong in its change of prototypical center since it has appeared as a basic color term representing “Red” long before Hong serves this function. Taking this into account, we could assume that the change of prototypical center for one word does not necessarily follow a Bell-shape curve. Instead, a Wave-curve change could be more acceptable and plausible with reference to our corpora here. Of course, such tentative suggestion should be subject to more rigorous verifications in the future. 5.3 Different Time Span Between Different Nations From Stage III to Stage V, CBCT spends some 3500 years (from the Late Shang dynasty [ca. 1500 B.C] to the present). Whereas the evolution of English Basic Color 108 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) Terms, originating from the Old English Anglo-Saxon (about 449 A.D.), at most amounts to 1500 years for its development into “Stage VII” (referring to the present English basic color terms system). If we have taken the possible time for Chinese to develop into “Stage VII” into account, such gap could be astonishing35. Could “level of technological development” and “degree of cultural complexity”, as suggested by most scholars, account for such huge gap conceived in the same biological features? It seems a more plausible answer is expected. 5.4 Motivation For Language Evolution In many of previous literatures concerning the evolution of basic color terms, explanations about the possible driving forces for the above-mentioned changes have been less discussed. Some simulation work suggests that cultural factors could be a force, and even Kay’s work suggests that cultural evolution may serve a role to adjust color terms around some universal focal colors. With reference to the uniqueness of Chinese history, the philosophy of “Wu Xing” or “Five Agents”, Taboo in calling names of emperors or parents (避 ), Rhyming in poetry as well as Language policy could be possible candidates for such driving forces, but such explanations are not firmly grounded. Furthermore, it is still pending whether language evolution is biologically-based or culturally-based. Biologists, neurologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, computer scientists, philosophers and linguists have presented to us many contrasting and confusing arguments in both directions. In view of this fact, the biologist George C. Williams’, or Chomsky’s proposal is worth considering as a possible way out. According to Williams, language is not an organism, but it is a biologically based characteristic of a certain species of organism36. It is therefore reasonable to look in it for crystalline features (due to laws of form), i.e., Organism-as-crystal; artifactural features (due to natural selection), i.e., Organism-as-artifact, and documentary features (due to historical accident), i.e., Organism-as-document (Williams, 1992: 6). These seem closely parallel to Chomsky’s three-way conditions (though Chomsky is concerned with the initial state of the language faulty in an individual prior to linguistic experience and admittedly there exist some differences between these two classification systems): Unexplained elements of the initial conditions, Interface conditions (including the sensorimotor and conceptual-intentional systems, the principled part of the initial conditions), and General properties of computational efficiency (Chomsky 2001: 2-3). Since it is THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 109 difficult or impossible at present for us to verify or falsify these initial conditions of an individual prior to linguistic experience or any language, it is feasible to cast a look at its resultant conditions. Still, we take the semantic field of color for example. Below, we present a list of those basic color terms with the relevant number of their hyponyms, with a contrast between Modern English (E) and Modern Chinese (C) (Table 13). Table 13 Source: Xie, 2004: 100-167 Hong Huang Lü Lan Zi Hei Bai Hui E C E C E C E C E C E C E C E C P 85 127 57 129 41 140 28 75 19 37 62 99 55 95 33 53 M 27 26 24 32 18 33 20 16 10 21 5 16 15 11 17 25 *P Pure hue; M- Mixed hue. As we know, in modern English and Chinese, their basic color terms are fundamentally corresponding with each other, e.g., Hei-se vs Black, Bai-se vs White, Hong-se vs Red, Huang-se vs Yellow, Lan-se vs Blue, Lü-se vs Green, Zi-se vs Purple and Hui-se vs. Grey. They even share the same contrast in hue between Cool vs Warm or Dark vs Light. As for their hyperonymy, “Yan-se”(颜色) or “Color”, they are exactly the same in their meaning. However, when we turn to its hyponymy, two major differences could be detected immediately: 1) the number of hyponyms in Chinese for each basic color terms is larger than that in English, with a few exceptions in term of mixed hue (混色调); and 2) most of Chinese hyponyms follow a Object-Basic color terms configuration in their naming, e.g., Xue-Hong-se (血红色, sanguine). In contrast, such compounds are less adopted for hyponyms in English and usually another new word is coined or borrowed to serve this function, e.g., Azure (Tian-Lang-se, 蓝色). Obviously, these hyponyms are, to a larger extent, influenced by their respective cultures in terms of both its defining of color sub-categories and its naming or perception. On the contrary, these basic color terms are less affected, differing only in the number of basic color terms: 11 for English and 8 for Chinese. As for their umbrella terms (the hyperonym of basic color terms), we may claim they are universal in almost every respect. Thus, if we combine Williams’ three-way distinction of language evolution with Chomsky’s three-fold initial conditions of an individual, we could tentatively describe the status-quo of basic color terms as 110 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) bio-culturally-based, that of their hyperonym as more biologically-based and that of their hyponyms as more culturally-based. It follows that other semantic fields will reveal the same picture to us. In view of this fact, Williams and Chomsky’s proposals are worth further pursuing, e.g., with reference to high- or low-frequency words, so that a more analytic framework about language evolution could be established and testified or falsified. 6 CONCLUSION In this paper, we first sketch out how Chinese basic color terms evolve. And then with reference to the relevant findings, we have compared the actuality in Chinese with the assumption held by the theory of Basic Color Terms. We have noted that the evolution in Chinese conforms to a great degree to the hypothesis suggested in the recent revisions, with exception to the “unorthodoxical” route chosen by CBCT and the possible explanation of a Special Stage in CBCT. In a sense, the universality of color perception could be justified semantically. And it is also very interesting for us to note how words and naming are progressing with the development of society. However, there are also several limitations to this study. It is not an experimental study due to its diachronic perspective and unique corpus. What is more important, our study is closely connected to Chinese literature and its own naming system in color words, which will certainly make the reading a little bit difficult. We should also notice that our corpus could not be exhaustive, it is possible that many “incidents” or “highlights” in CBCT fail to be noted. More relevant research is expected to discover those latent imprints in color category and its relation with society. Nonetheless, by virtue of frequency counts, we have initiated a diachronic study concerning basic color terms and come up with an evolutionary scheme of CBCT in a more acceptable way. Resorting to different dynasties of Chinese history books and other documentations still available now, we intend to have a try in verifying or falsifying some findings in cross-sectional studies. We think such path is less traveled and is worthwhile to be further pursued. At the same time, we believe our research could also be revealing to the following further studies: First, the similarity and difference between the evolution of CBCT and that of THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 111 other languages could be compared so as to highlight their “abnormalities” in relation to their respective languages and cultures. For example, Hebrew in The Bible37, is estimated to be classified as Stage IV, with its basic color terms being: adom “red”, laban “white”, sahor”black”, yaroq “green”, sahob “yellow” (Brenner, 1982). This is highly complying with the evolution of CBCT both in terms of time (the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods) and stage (both are on Stage IV). If we contrast these basic color terms in the present Hebrew (after its revival) with CBCT now, it could be enlightening to the questions above; Second, the lexicalization of color category could be reviewed with reference to our findings concerning the specific historical development of color terms. Just as Wang has suggested, “the lexicon is mostly enriched via a process which biologists call ‘pre-adaptation’, i.e., making use of pre-existing structures for novel functions” (Wang 1999: 253). Such semantic extension could be better observed if it is confined to such a domain like Color; Third, the temporal order of CBCT’s emergence could be used in archaeology so as to locate the exact date of ancient books, paintings, relics etc. In general, through the survey of the evolution of CBCT, we are anticipating to explore a new way in studying color category. And we wish such an attempt should not be wrongly made. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Professor William Shi-Yuan Wang, the Editor, not only for his generous help in the writing process, but also for his constructive comments on an earlier draft that have greatly improved this article. I am also indebted to anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. The research described here has been supported by Special Items Fund of Beijing International Studies University, BMEC grant SM201010031001 and PHR201108165. NOTES 1. Usually, such history book of one dynasty will be recorded and compiled by 112 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) scholars of the next dynasty. Starting from Shiji (史记), the first book of this kind, which had recorded the important historic moment ever since ancient times till Western Han Dynasty when the author was in, this tradition lasts until the time when the last book of Qing Dynasty has been published. 2. Previous scholars have tried to attribute the inscriptions to the different royal reigns which are usually divided into five periods: Period I = King Wu Ding [武 ]; Period II = King Zu Geng [祖庚], King Zu Jia [祖甲]; Period III = King Lin Xin [廪辛], King Kang Ding [康 ]; Period IV = King Wu Yi [武乙], King Wen King [文 ]; and Period V = King Di Yi [帝乙], King Di Xin [帝辛]. See Dong [1935]. 3. Is it yellow? There is no verdict among scholars. 4. X means a word having not recognized yet. 5. It is edited by Chinese Research Center of East China Normal University, a work which is based on 9916 pieces of bronze wares with inscriptions made in the Late Shang and Western Zhou dynasties and 2253 pieces of bronze wares with inscriptions made in the Spring & Autumn and Warring States Periods. 6. It is believed by Sima Qian (司马迁) and Ban Gu (班固) that this book is edited by Confucius (551 B.C.- 479 B.C.). Here we only refer to Five Mandates of the Early Zhou Dynasty (周初五诰) and Yao Dian (尧 ), Shun Dian (舜 ) and Yu Gong (禹贡).We don’t include the last 25 pieces since they are possibly not written at that time. 7. It is selected and edited by Confucius. 8. It is trimmed and edited by Confucius. 9. It is believed to be written by Confucius, who once comments that “if there would be several years added to me, I would have mastered the quintessence of Zhou yi well. I could easily become without major faults” (加我数过五十以学易以无大 ). In this view, this book is written at least in the late Spring and Autumn Period before Confucius died. 10. It is written in the Early Warring States Period. 11. Chunqiu (春秋) is edited by Confucius in his late years while the author of Chunqiu zuozhuang is claimed by Sima Qian and Ban Gu to be Zuo Qiuming (左丘明), an official historiographer (史官) of the same age as Confucius. The recent studies seem to suggest this book is edited around the Early Warring States Period. 12. The Works of Mencius is regarded by Sima Qian as a narration by Mencius, together with his disciples Wanzhang (万章) and Gongsun Chou ( 孙丑) and Mencius plays a dominant role in completing it. There is still controversy over THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 113 Mencius’ birthdate. But it is generally believed that Mencius was born in 372 B. C. i.e, the Mid Warring States Period. 13. It is believed, by different scholars, to be written by Zhou Gong Dan (周 ) in the Western Zhou, or to be completed in the Warring States Period, or to be authored by Liu Xin ( 歆 ) in the Western Han Dynasty. The recent study, based on inscriptions in the bronze wares made in the Zhou and Qin dynasties, suggests that it should be a work in the Warring States Period. 14. Among them, Guan yin zi ( Dao (慎到), Kang cang zi ( 尹子) by Yin Xi (尹喜), Shen zi (慎子) by Shen 仓子) by Geng Sangchu (庚桑楚), Yan zi (晏子) by Yan Ying (晏婴), Yin wen zi (尹文子) by Yin Wen (尹文) are not included in our analysis since it is possibly not written at that time. 15. This collection is more trustworthy than Si ku quan shu (四库全书). 16. The search results show that there is almost no use of color words in Deng xi zi (邓析子) and Lao zi (老子). Consequently, theirs results are not listed in the table. 17. “Wu Xing” assumes complex and cosmic interrelationships among the five agents (metal, wood, fire, water and earth), the five directions (north, south, east, west and the “middle” ), the five colors, the five tastes, the five notes of the musical scale, etc. 18. It is verified that these two works were written in the Western Han (西汉) Dynasty. 19. Shi ji and Han shu are two of The Twenty-five Histories. 20. The other color words composed of “Bai, Hei, Chi, Huang, Qing, Dan, Zhu, Xi (系, “the silk radical”)” account for another 155 words (Hu 1941). Due to their low frequencies, they are not included here. 21. They are all from The Twenty-five Histories. 22. They are all from The Twenty-five Histories. 23. Two instances could be found: “to go beyond ‘Lan’, we get ‘Qing’ (踰蓝 (Bei qi shu: 292)” / “to go beyond ‘Lan’, we get ‘Qing’ (逾蓝青) 青) (Bei shi: 1233)”. 24. Three instances could be found: “as grey as ash (如死灰色) (Jin shu: 185) / “of ash color and with short legs (灰色卑脚) (Jin shu: 1276) / “as grey as ash (如死灰色) (Sui shu: 405)”. 25. Here we choose A New Collection of Dunhuang Bianwen verified and edited by Pan Chonggui (潘规). 26. As for its completion, it is generally believed to be after the fall of Lin’an (临安), the then Capital of The Southern Song Dynasty. However the date in the book is stipulated as “on the Mid-Autumn Festival of the year Jiaxu (甲戌岁中秋 )”, i.e., 114 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) 1274, just before the Fall. But in terms of its content, the book is still assumed by most scholars to be completed after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. 27. It should be completed before 1290. 28. All books are from The Twenty-five Histories. 29. This is the last book of The Twenty-five Histories. 30. Here 30 collections of works are included: The Works of Lu Xun (鲁迅作品 ), The Works of Hu Yepin (胡 ), 频作品 The Works of Qu Qiubai ( 秋作品 Works of Liang Qichao (梁启超文 The Works of Lu Yin (庐隐作品 Works of Shi Pingmei (石评梅文 Works of Rou Shi ( ), The Works of Jiang Guangci (蒋 ), Ideal and Energy (理想 Dai Wangshu ( 戴望舒文气力), The ), The Works of Liang Yuchun (梁遇春文 ), The Works of Peng Jiahuang ( ), 家煌文 ), The ), The Works of Wang Shiwei (王实味文 ), The ), The Works of Zou Taofen (邹韬奋文石文慈文 ), The Works of Kang Youwei ( 康 Collection of Prose of Xiao Hong (萧红散文 ), The Works of 文 ), The ), Novels of Xiao Hong (萧红小说), Aimei Qiaoyu (爱眉悄语), Poems of Xu Zhimo (徐志摩诗), Prose of Xu Zhimo (徐志摩散文), The Works of Xu Dishan (许地山作品 Prose of Yu Dafu (郁 Zhu Xiang (朱湘作品散文), Novels of Yu Dafu (郁 (邹容文小说 ), The Works of Liu Bannong ( 多诗半文 ), ), The Works of ), The Collection of Prose of Zhu Ziqing (朱自清散文 The Collection of Poems of Wen Yiduo (闻次演 ), The Works of Ye Zi (叶紫作品 ), ), The Last Public Speech ( ), and The Works of Zou Rong ). 31. By searching on www.google.cn (Time: 11: 50 a.m., July 9th, 2007), we have been feedback the following data (Unit: million): Lü-se 65.2, Hei-se 52.5, Hong-se 42.1, Bai-se 40.8, Huang-se 25, Hui-se 20.6, Zi-se16.2, Lan-se13.8, He-se 7.25, Cheng-se 6.9, Zong-se 5.83, Qing-se 4.25, Fen-Hong-se 1.17, Zhe-se 0.074, Dian-se 0.037. 32. Cheng has provided detailed quantitative data for each History Book, other classical records and dictionaries, on the basis of which we have counted the total tokens for each period as 438,444 (Period 3); 1,378,494 (Period 4); 3,381,302 (Period 5); 9,356,725 (Period 6) and 9,621,840 (Period 7). For Period 8, we use the Traction Software Rapid PDF Count (V2.03) to obtain the total tokens (6,096,357) for those 30 collections. 33. A search in our corpora shows that for Chi, its total occurrences are 78 (Period 3), 445 (Period 4), 1187 (Period 5), 2020 (Period 6), 5683 (Period 7) and 558 (Period 8); for Hong, 3 (Period 3), 76(Period 4), 55 (Period 5), 143 (Period 6), 1537 (Period 7) THE EVOLUTION OF BASIC COLOR TERMS IN CHINESE 115 and 2918 (Period 8). 34. See each table and list in Section 4 for detailed figures. It should also be noted that here we do not distinguish “Hong” of “Pink” sense from “Hong” of “Red” sense due to its complexity. 35. Period 7 is an exception for Chi. A further analysis indicates that “Chi” (赤) exists in numerous names for officials and military ranks in Yuan shi, like Hu-chi (忽赤), Hua-chi (花赤) [2789 occurrences in total (49.08% of Period 7) in Yuan shi], and at the same time, “Chi” is used frequently in describing the royal rites and astronomical phenomenon in Song shi, like Chi-ma (赤马), Chi-qi (赤气) [1800 occurrences in total (31.67% of Period 7) in Song shi]. 36. 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Wulin jiu shi (武林汉语 ). 本颜色词的演变吴建设京第外语学院题要本文于词频统计角度颜色词在过去4000多演变 Berlin & Kay的通过对汉语历代文献的分析研究中的演框架。在础本颜色词演变理论及其试我们将汉语新进展相证构建汉语本本颜色词的以讨论了汉 122 语 JOURNAL OF CHINESE LINGUISTICS 本颜色词的演变 Vol. 39 No. 1 (2011) Berlin & Kay理论假设的异汇扩散理论探讨了以红代赤键词: 本颜色词历时研究个词汇更词汇扩散。过程。颜色范畴外我们结合词

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