The First Chinese Grammar between the Domestic Tradition and Western Modernity: Neglected Aspects of Mǎ Jianzhōng's Prefaces to Mǎshì wéntōng (1898)
Abstract
The article consists of a study dedicated to the three prefaces to the Mashi wentong, the first Chinese grammar (1898), which represent a key document of the history of Chinese linguistics, and of an English translation thereof. The study is based on an analysis of references to traditional Chinese philology.
Scholars have always emphasised the indebtness of the author to the Western grammatical tradition and occasionally criticised him for too much reliance on foreign models. The elements of the domestic pre-modern philology have been largely overlooked so far.
For this reason, the present article sets out to demonstrate that these elements are an integral part of the conception of the grammar and that they played an important role in the author's approach to language and to its description.