Fifty ways to prove (III) (Chop suey)

Unlike English, which separates words with a space, there is no any space between Chinese characters. Before the use of the modern punctuation, students had to learn to punctuate the Chinese classics, which were not punctuated, using a circle to mark the end of a sentence 句(ju4)and a comma or a dot, to mark the pause 讀(here the word is pronounced dou4, but not the usual du2).

The study of how to punctuate the classics is called句讀學(ju4 dou4 xue2). Different punctuations can lead to totally different interpretations of the same sentence. A well-known case goes as follow.

It’s been said that a prestigious scholar once visited a friend and stayed there for over a month. The host was impatient with the scholar but didn’t know what to say to ask him to leave. On a raining day, the host wrote on the wall, 下雨天留客天留我不留 (xia4 yu3 tian lie2 ke4 tian lie2 wo3 bu4 lie2)

What the host meant was下雨¹，天留客²。天留³，我不留⁴。It’s raining¹. It’s god’s intention to keep the guest². God wants to keep you³, but I don’t⁴.

The naughty scholar grabbed a brush pen and punctuated the sentence as「下雨天，留客天¹，留我不? ²留! ³」A raining day is a day to keep the guest¹. Will you keep me? ² Yes! ³

 

This punctuation game goes on and on. Here I list some other interpretations aside from the above two.

 

3. 下雨天留客，天留我？不留。 The host tries to keep the guest on a raining day. The guest asks himself, “Is it God’s intention to ask me to stay?” But he decides not to stay.

4. 下雨天留客，天留我不？留。 The host tries to keep the guest on a raining day. The guest asks himself, “Is it God’s intention to ask me to stay?” He decides to stay.

5. 下雨，天留客；天留我不留？ The fact that it’s raining seems to show  God’s intention to keep the guest. But the guest is wondering what God’s real intention is.

 

6. 下雨天，留客天，留我不留？ A raining day is a day to keep the guest.  The guest’s asking himself, “Will the guest ask me to stay?”

The list doesn’t stop here. But I think it’s enough to make my point. Some people say that the Chinese language is not a precise language. Well, seeing from this point, you might get this conclusion. With the use of modern punctuation, such ambiguity as shown could be avoided. There’s no denying that it is never an easy language to learn. But there’s a lot of fun and beauty if you get the hang of it.

句讀學=句读学