Baxter Review

Harvard-Yenching Institute
Review
Reviewed Work(s): Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology by E. G. Pulleyblank
Review by: William H. Baxter III
Source: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Dec., 1987), pp. 635-656
Published by: Harvard-Yenching Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2719193
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REVIEWS
Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology by E. G.

Pulleyblank. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press,
1984, Pp. xix+268. $32.50.
William H. Baxter III, University of Michigan
This book is a wide-ranging study of the historical development

of Chinese pronunciation; although it deals mainly with the lan-
guage of the Sui and Tang dynasties, it has much to say about later
periods as well, and about phonological theory in general. Its pro-
posals are far-reaching and interrelated in complex ways; as it will
be impossible for me to review all of them, I will examine those
which seem most central to the logical structure of Pulleyblank's
reconstructions.
The book consists of five main chapters, with a preface and two
appendices. After Chapter 1, "Introduction," which focuses on
phonological theory, the remaining chapters examine the phono-
logical history of Chinese (especially its standard dialects) in reverse
chronological order: Chapter 2, "The Phonology of Pekingese,"
presents a phonological analysis of putonghua or standard Manda-
rin; Chapter 3, "Late Middle Chinese," reconstructs the standard
language of late Tang. The examination of Early Middle Chinese
(the language codified in the Qieyun 1UiJPi rhyme dictionary,
635
636 REVIEWS
Bernhard Karlgren called "Ancient Chinese") is divided into Chap-

ter 4, "The Sources of Early Middle Chinese," and Chapter 5,
"Reconstruction of Early Middle Chinese." Appendix I contains a
comparative table of Pulleyblank's Early and Late Middle Chinese
reconstructions and Karlgren's "Ancient Chinese." Although the
Early Mandarin stage is not discussed in detail (and I will say little
about it here), a reconstruction of it based on the Zhongyuan Yinyun
@g E ffis included as Appendix II. It would have been most help-
ful to provide an index.
Although the core of the book is the presentation of the
phonological systems of Mandarin, Late Middle Chinese, and Ear-
ly Middle Chinese, those parts which discuss the historical context
of the development of the Chinese language are useful reading even
for those who do not wish to delve into the details of reconstruction.
(I have in mind especially section 1 of Chapter 1, "The History of
'Standard Chinese' "; section 3.1 of Chapter 3, on the sources for
Late Middle Chinese; and Chapter 4, "The Sources of Early Mid-
dle Chinese. ") Pulleyblank brings a historian's perspective to these
discussions, which are especially clear and insightful; as he shows,
the history of the Chinese language has been deeply affected by the
cultural and political history of China itself.' But in this review the
focus will be on his phonological analyses and the issues they raise.
THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
Pulleyblank's investigations have not been limited to the facts of

Chinese phonological history, but have also included a number of
proposals on phonological theory. His approach to reconstruction is
difficult to follow without some understanding of his theoretical
framework. Though some of his earlier theoretical proposals are
abandoned in the current book, their influence on his reconstruc-
' However, his suggestion that the literary layer of modern Mandarin reflects southe
fluence during the Ming dynasty, when the capital was moved to Nanjing (p. 4), cannot be
the whole story. Many of the literary/colloquial doublets he refers to were already present in
the Zhongyuan yinyun of the Yuan dynasty, as his Appendix II shows: e.g. X "thin," collo-
quial bdo< Early Mandarin (EM) paw'(homophone group 960), literary bo< EM pua'(group
1095); _X "fall, " lao< EM law' (group 1062) and luo< EM lua' (group 1153). Of course, m
variety may have been added in Ming times.
REVIEWS 637
tions is still apparent, and it will simplify later discussion to sum-

marize them briefly.
Beginning with his 1963 article, "An Interpretation of the Vowel
Systems of Old Chinese and Written Burmese, '2 Pulleyblank devel-
oped a theory which allowed only /a/ or /a/ as the nucleus of a
syllable. To compensate for the poverty of this vowel system, he
assumed a rich variety of glides which could appear before and after
the syllable nucleus, including both "tense" glides /i/, /u/, etc.
and "lax" glides /j/ and /w/, creating combinations as complex as
/jiuaj/ or /iu3u/. The phonetic realizations of such forms were de-
termined by phonological rules which might be partly language-
specific; e.g. /ia/ was realized phonetically as [i], while /ia/ mi
be realized as [ia] or [ic]. Tense glides after the vowel generally pro-
duced monophthongs: /ai/ = [e], /ai/ = [e], /au/ = [o], etc.3
This two-vowel theory may be seen as an alternative to more con-
ventional distinctive features, the features being arrayed in linear
order instead of being bundled together in a single segment. It is
similar to the phonemic analysis of some structuralists; in Hart-
man's analysis of Mandarin, for example, the three nuclear vowels
/i e a/ represent only degrees of tongue height, the other feature
ing supplied by the surrounding glides (e.g. Hartman analyzes the
Mandarin final -i as /ji/, -u as /wi/, and -ui as /jwi/).4 Unlike Hart-
man's analysis of Mandarin, however, Pulleyblank's two-vowel
theory was intended to have universal validity; he related it to the
neizhuan M4 /waizhuan A.$ distinction of the Chinese rhyme table
tradition of Tang and Song (syllables with /a/ being neizhuan, those
with /a/ being waizhuan); to the rhyme categories of Old Chi-
nese;5 to the vowel-poor but consonant-rich languages of the North-
west Caucasus; and to Indo-European ablaut.6 The theory has not
gained wide acceptance, however.
In Middle Chinese Pulleyblank abandons his earlier two-vowel
2 AM, n.s. 10 (1963): 200-21.

3For examples, see Pulleyblank's "Late Middle Chinese," AM, n.s. 15 (1970): 197-239
and 16 (1971): 121-68, passim.
4See "The Segmental Phonemes of the Peiping Dialect," by Lawton M. Hartman III,
Language 20 (1944): 28-42.
5See his "The Final Consonants of Old Chinese," MS 33 (1977-78): 180-206.
6 See "The Indo-European Vowel System and the Qualitative Ablaut," Word 21 (1965):
86-101.
638 REVIEWS
theory and accepts the broad framework of generative phonology as

presented by Chomsky and Halle,7 though not without proposing
some modifications. The major changes concern:
1. The notion of syllable. Chomsky and Halle operated without
any formal notion of the syllable, but it is now widely agreed that
this was a deficiency in their theory. They themselves proposed late
in their book to take formal notice of the syllable by introducing a
feature [? syllabic], and Pulleyblank accepts this. This feature is
used rather than [ ? vocalic] to distinguish vowels from glides. One
open question is whether there are any a priori restrictions on how
many segments in a syllable may be [+ syllabic]. Pulleyblank
allows combinations like /iaj/, contrasting with /jaj/, in a single
syllable, where both /i/ and /a/ must be [ + syllabic]. It is a ques-
tion worth exploring whether such an analysis is ever necessary for a
natural language.8 A more restrictive interpretation of Chomsky
and Halle's proposal would allow only a single [ + syllabic] segment
per syllable; this version would rule out contrasts between /iaj/ and
/jaj/, which seem implausible.
2. Vowel features. Pulleyblank redefines some of Chomsky and
Halle's primary features for vowels, so that schwa /a/ is negatively
specified for all features except [ + syllabic]. He feels that this ac-
cords schwa special status as a "neutral feature of syllabicity," so
that when the syllabic segment of a syllable is deleted, schwa is
automatically inserted by universal convention to preserve syllabici-
ty. (This universal convention is not, however, stated explicitly,
and does not apply without exception, as Pulleyblank also allows
other ways of preserving syllabicity.) This device makes it possible
to formulate certain sound changes in much the same form as in
Pulleyblank's earlier two-vowel theory.9
7 See The Sound Pattern of English, by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle (New York: Harper
& Row, 1968).
8 Pulleyblank justifies such combinations by pointing to a final in the Zhongshan d
Cantonese which is phonetically realized as [CA:U] (p. 19). If I understand him correctly, his
argument is based on the assumption that only the high vowels and [a] can have corre-
sponding glides; therefore [e] in this final cannot be a glide; therefore it must be [ + syllabic]
like the following [A:]. But even if there is a limited set of possible glides in underlying forms,
I see no reason why underlying /j/ cannot be realized phonetically as [c].
9 In the earlier version, if /i/ was deleted from a combination /ia/ (phonetically [i]), the
schwa remained behind; thus a change from phonetic [i] to [a] could be treated as a simple
REVIEWS 639
3. Glides. Pulleyblank argues for the existence of a [+ low],

[- front] glide written /a/ or /H/, and bearing the same relation
to /a/ as /j/ and /w/ bear to /i/ and /u/. This glide accounts for
the offglides in diphthongs usually written [ia], as in English dear.
This /a/ figures prominently in his reconstructions. It makes sense
to recognize such a glide, especially if glides are viewed as essential-
ly [- syllabic] vowels, as Chomsky and Halle's proposal implies.
(Pulleyblank, however, assumes that only certain vowels have corre-
sponding glides; see note 8.) Pulleyblank uses it especially to
distinguish between [a] (Pulleyblank's /a/) and [a] (Pulleyblank's
/aa/), which are otherwise not easily distinguished with Chomsky
and Halle's features.
One area of concern which Pulleyblank fails to discuss from a
theoretical point of view is the relationship between phonological
structure and rhyme. Rhymes are a major source of evidence about
earlier stages of Chinese, and in order to use this evidence we must
assume some kind of link between rhyming practice and phono-
logical form. Various assumptions are possible: we could assume
that (1) rhyming is phonetic, i.e., based on partial identity of forms
at the phonetic level; or that (2) rhyming is phonological, i.e., based
on partial identity at the underlying phonological level; or that
(3) rhyming is conventional, i.e., based on considerations other than
phonetics or phonology. For example, taking the first approach,
we could assume that rhyme normally requires phonetic identity
of the main vowel and any following consonant; this would exclude
(except as irregular exceptions) rhymes such as those reported
for modern Mandarin between the finals -an (phonetically [-an])
and -ian (phonetically [-ien]). Or, taking the second approach,
we could assume that rhyme requires phonological identity of the main
vowel and any following consonant; on this assumption, phonetic
[an] and [icn] could be considered a regular rhyme as long as [a]
and [e] were allophones of the same phoneme. Or, finally, we could
assume that rhyming is merely conventional-that [an] and [ien]
(and perhaps any pair of finals) can regularly rhyme by convention
or tradition, regardless of their phonetic or phonological status.
deletion of /i/. In the new version, phonetic [i] is just underlying /i/, but if it is deleted, a
schwa may pop up to preserve syllabicity; thus in either system the change can be stated as a
deletion rather than a change of features.
640 REVIEWS
Unfortunately, probably only the last assumption is justifiable in

general, especially for Chinese, since even today poetry is often writ-
ten to fit traditional rhyming categories rather than contemporary
pronunciation. But for certain periods of Chinese literary history,
and for certain types of poetry, we can safely assume that rhymes
are linked to pronunciation, and can therefore be used as evidence
in historical phonology. One sensible approach is to assume a sim-
ple, natural link, for example that rhyme requires phonological
(but not phonetic) identity of the main vowel and all following seg-
ments-assuming a more complex link only as a last resort.
Pulleyblank follows this assumption in his earlier work on Late Mid-
dle Chinese,"0 but he does not follow it in this book. As a result, the
link between his reconstructions and the rhyme evidence is weak-
ened. This is my major criticism of his reconstructions; I will return
to it below when discussing the reconstructions individually.
THE PHONOLOGY OF PEKINGESE
Chapter 2 describes the phonology of the Beijing dialect (stan-

dard Mandarin) within Pulleyblank's framework and notation, so
as to provide an end-point for describing earlier phonological
history. It adds little to our understanding of modern Mandarin
phonology; in fact, the goal of fitting easily with Pulleyblank's
reconstructions sometimes seems to interfere with the goal of creat-
ing an adequate synchronic analysis of Mandarin. I will mention
only a few salient points.
The so-called "zero" initial." Phonological analysis normally in-
cludes a phonemic or "underlying" level in which much of the
phonological pattern of a language can conveniently be stated. The
actual phonetic form of speech is derived from this underlying form
by a set of phonological rules (including assimilations and other
more or less automatic changes).12 At this underlying level, it is
customary to treat "zero" as a possible initial consonant in Man-
'1 See note 3.

" In the usual terminology for Chinese, the initial (shengmu MU) of a syllable is its initial
consonant; the final (yunmu ffl) is the remainder of the syllable-sometimes including the
tone, sometimes not.
12 I write underlying forms between slanted lines, phonetic forms between square brackets.
REVIEWS 641
darin, that is, to assume that the initial consonant position can be
unfilled; thus the syllables an,yan, wan, andyuan are analyzed as con-
sisting of a zero initial followed by the finals /-an/, /-ian/, /-uan/,
and /-uian/. This analysis makes it convenient to describe the
distribution of initials and finals. Pulleyblank rejects this analysis,
offering an alternative which I believe is flawed.
It was Yuen Ren Chao kUE fl who pointed out that for most
speakers, words like dn "peaceful" or e "hungry" actually begin
with "a voiced velar continuant, ranging from a frictional [y] to a
semivocalic constriction."13 He argued that this fact explained why
a preceding [n] or [ij] did not link with the following syllable in ex-
pressions like zhen e "really hungry." A true zero initial, on the
other hand, could be recognized in final particles like a in kan (n)a!
"Look!," where linking did occur.
Pulleyblank basically accepts this idea, using the symbol []] (a
voiced uvular fricative) for the "zero" initial in such cases. But he
analyzes the syllable er as a simple syllabic / r/, with "a true zero in-
itial" (contrasting with ri /rr/); he states flatly that this syllable has
no consonantal onset phonetically. This was not Chao's view; in
fact, Chao specifically argued that since even the unstressed er in pet
names (like the girl's name Chuan'er "bring along a boy") does have
the initial consonant in question, its presence or absence cannot be
predicted from stress, and it must be assigned phonemic status.14
Pulleyblank also recognizes [j] and [w] as underlying initials,
arguing for example that the pronunciation of [w] by some speakers
as a labiodental approximant [v] "emphasizes its consonantal
character. " I do not see the relevance of these arguments. Since the
consonantal features which occur initially in such syllables are
predictable, they can still be accounted for by phonological rules
from underlying forms which have no initial consonant.15
Comments on finals. Pulleyblank's analysis of modern Mandarin
13 "The Voiced Velar Fricative as an Initial in Mandarin," Le Maftre phonetique 89 (1948):

2-3. I have transcribed the original IPA phonetic text into normal orthography.
14 See Chao, p. 3.
15 The contrast which Chao found between the voiced velar fricative in unstressed er
and a true zero initial in final particles and the like is also predictable, since the particles
which have true zero initials are inherently atonic and unstressed, while the unstressed er has
an underlying tone which gets lost in the course of the derivation. The two situations can be
distinguished in various ways in a generative framework.
642 REVIEWS
finals is fairly uncontroversial except for the role played by the glide
/a/. Although I see no objection to /a/ on universal grounds, it is
unnecessary to assume it in underlying forms in Mandarin, and it
complicates Pulleyblank's analysis.
The history of Pulleyblank's /a/ begins with his 1969 paper
"The semriivowel i in Vietnamese and Mandarin,"16 in which /i/
(replaced by /a/ in the current theory) was used to solve two prob-
lems: (1) certain marginal surface contrasts, such as (for some
speakers) that between the vowels of ger Nkq "song" [kyr] and genr
f "root" [kar], and (2) the apparent three-way height contrast
shown in open-vowel finals like -i, -ie, and -ia, which seemed to pre-
sent difficulties for Pulleyblank's two-vowel theory.
Words like ger [kyr] and genr [kar] were a problem because,
although it seems logical to regard [X] and [3] as variants of the same
phoneme, structuralist assumptions allowed this only if the element
conditioning the variation (in this case, [n]) was present in the sur-
face form. Pulleyblank solved the problem by analyzing -e as /ai/;
thus ge-r is phonemically /kair/ while genr is /kar/. Similarly, ie was
/jai/, -uo was /wai/, and -ue was /jwai/. This simultaneously solved
the apparent problem of three contrasting vowel heights: the finals
-i, -ie, and -ia, for example, could now be analyzed as /ia/, /jai/,
and /ja/, consistent with the two-vowel theory.
Pulleyblank's new analysis of these finals is similar, though /a/ is
substituted for i/:
1969 1984
-e /al/ /aa/
-ie /ja /ia/
-uo / wa-;/ /ua/
-uie/ /jwai/ /ya/
In addition, because of the phonetic similarity of their vowels, -ian is

now analyzed as /ian/, parallel to -ie /ia/ (though no longer parallel
to -an, -uan, and -uan, which are analyzed as /an/, /jan/, and
/jwan/ respectively, with underlying /a/). The glide /a/ has also
been added after the vowel /a/ to account for its back variants in -a,
-za, -ua, -ao, -zao, -ang, -iang, and -uang.
From the point of view of generative phonology, neither of the
16 See CYYY 39 (1969): 203-18.
REVIEWS 643
problems which /i/ was originally intended to solve is a real prob-

lem. The contrast between ger and genr can simply be attributed to
the presence of -n in the latter, producing a variant of underlying
/a/ which remains after the [n] is deleted. And three contrastive
vowel heights can be handled without difficulty. Nevertheless, the
solution to these problems still remains in Pulleyblank's analysis,
even after he has abandoned the theoretical assumptions that
created them. As a result, much predictable information is included
in his underlying forms which would better be accounted for by
phonological rules."7 At the same time, the underlying syllable struc-
ture is made more complex, since glides are allowed between the
main vowel and final consonant. The new system is also not related
in any clear way to modern rhyme practice: for example, -ie and -ue,
which rhyme even by fairly strict standards, are analyzed with
different main vowels (namely /i/ and /y/, in /ia/ and /ya/ res
tively); and likewise -an and -ian, usually said to rhyme, have
different main vowels (namely /a/ and /i/, in /an/ and /ian/ re-
spectively).
LATE MIDDLE CHINESE
Karlgren believed that the "Ancient Chinese" he reconstructed

on the basis of the Qieyun tradition was "essentially the dialect of
Ch'ang-an in Shensi; during the lapse of the T'ang era it became a
kind of Koine, the language spoken by the educated circles in the
leading cities and centres all over the country, except the coastal pro-
vince of Fukien."18 It is now widely agreed that Karlgren was
mistaken about this; although Chang'an was the capital in the Sui
dynasty when the Qieyun was completed (A.D. 601), the Qieyun was
almost certainly a codification of one or more varieties of educated
pronunciation in cultural centers farther east. After a time lag of
about a century, the Chang'an dialect did replace the older stan-
dard, however. While the Qieyun is based on the earlier standard,
which Pulleyblank calls "Early Middle Chinese," the rhyme-table
tradition of late Tang and early Song is based on the newer Tang
17 As in the case of Pulleyblank's analysis of the zero initial; see above.

18 See "Compendium of Phonetics in Ancient and Archaic Chinese," BMFEA 26 (19
212.
644 REVIEWS
standard, which Pulleyblank calls "Late Middle Chinese." The ma-

jor layers of Chinese loan words in Korean and Vietnamese, and
the Kan'on layer of Sino-Japanese, are based on the new standard
(while the Go'on layer of Sino-Japanese was probably based on Ear-
ly Middle Chinese). Pulleyblank deserves much of the credit for
clarifying this change of standards and for emphasizing its impor-
tance in the history of Chinese. He proposed a reconstruction of
Late Middle Chinese in a 1970-71 paper, within his earlier two-
vowel theory;19 a revised version is presented in Middle Chin
The Initials of Late Middle Chinese. The rhyme-table tradition includes
a list of thirty-six initial consonants (zimu FtM) for Late Middle
Chinese, arranged by place and manner of articulation. The initials
of Pulleyblank's reconstruction largely agree with this list. Notable
features of the reconstruction include the following:
1. The traditional zhuo : "muddy" initials, reconstructed by
Karlgren as voiced aspirated stops g'-, di, etc., are reconstructed as
voiceless stops followed by /fi/, indicating murmur or voiced aspira-
tion: /kfi/, /tfi/, etc. (In Early Middle Chinese, Pulleyblank
reconstructs them as ordinary voiced stops /g/, /d/, etc.)
2. The sheshang ; L "tongue up" initials, which Karlgren
reconstructed as palatal stops, are reconstructed as retroflex initials,
written /tr/, /tr'/, /trfi/, /nr/.20
3. Pulleyblank reconstructs a single series of retroflex affricates
and fricatives, /tq-/, /tq'-/, etc., representing the merger of two E

ly Middle Chinese serie s: a palatal series /tc-/, etc. (Karlgren's ts-)
and a retroflex series /tq-/, etc. (Karlgren's tv-). This merger is im-
plied by the traditional list of thirty-six initials; the two Early Mid-
dle Chinese series fell into complementary distribution through the
loss of high front elements after the original retroflex series.
4. The qingchun W "light lip" or labiodental initials are an in-
novation in Late Middle Chinese, developing out of Early Middle
Chinese labials in certain environments. Pulleyblank reconstructs
them as follows:
19 See "Late Middle Chinese," cited in note 3.

20 Pulleyblank errs when he says that these have merged with the retroflex affricates "in al
dialects except colloquial Min" (p. 65); they appear as dental stops in both colloquial and
literary Min.
REVIEWS 645
Initial LMC EMC source

Fei 4V /f/ /p/
Fu t /f! /p'/
Feng * /ffi/ /b/
Wei m /v/ /m/
Note that the Fei and Fu initials are both reconstructed as /f/;
Pulleyblank argues convincingly that the Fei/Fu distinction was
based on the rhyme books rather than on Late Middle Chinese pro-
nunciation. Pulleyblank's Iv! is a labiodental approximant. This
(or just plain /v/) is more satisfactory than reconstructing a
labiodental nasal /nj/ as is sometimes done, for although [nj] oc
phonetically as a positional variant of [m], apparently no known
language contrasts [n] and [m].2"
Finals. Pulleyblank's reconstruction of Late Middle Chinese finals
can be summarized by discussing his interpretation of the rhyme
table tradition. In this tradition, each syllable belongs to one of six-
teen groups called she NW; the finals within a single she are phonetical-
ly similar.22 Certain of the she are labeled neizhuan PYW "inner turn-
ing," and others waizhuan XX "outer turning"; this apparently
refers to vowel height. The syllables in each she can be further
classified as kaikou r- n "open mouth" or hekou -,8 n "closed
mouth"; hekou is usually interpreted to mean that the final has a
rounded glide or vowel like [w]. The kaikou or hekou syllables of any
one she are then classified according to the four tones (ping a
"even," shang ? "rising," qu A; "going," and ru A "entering";
the entering-tone syllables are those ending in final voiceless stops
[p], [t], or [k]). Finally, each syllable is assigned to one of four deng
X ("grades" or "divisions")-a classification which depends on
the main vowel and the glides preceding it, but which has proved
difficult to interpret.
A rhyme table such as the Yunjing O (Mirror of Rhymes) is ac-
tually a set of tables in which columns represent initials, and rows
represent finals: a word is placed in the column corresponding to its
initial, and in the row corresponding to its final. In any single table,
the syllables all belong to the same she and are either all kaikou or all
21 See Peter Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics, 2nd ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1982), p. 144.
22 Some rhyme tables have only thirteen or fourteen she.
646 REVIEWS
hekou; there are sixteen rows representing the four grades in the four
tones.
Pulleyblank bases his reconstruction of finals on the fundamental
assumption that the classification just described is exhaustive; i.e.,
that each Late Middle Chinese syllable is uniquely determined by
specifying its initial, its she, its tone, its grade, and whether it is
kaikou or hekou. On the whole, this assumption seems valid. It is true
that the Yunjing often has several parallel tables within a single she;
but this was probably done so that all the syllables in the Qieyun
could be listed separately, even though some of them had merged
in Late Middle Chinese. For example, {W xidn "immortal" and l
xidn "first" are assigned to distinct syllables in the Qieyun, and are
placed in different tables of the Yunjing (tables 21 and 23 respective-
ly); but they are identical in initial (/s-/), she (Shan OA), tone (ping),
and grade (sideng RV or grade IV), and both are kaikou, so we can
assume that they had merged in Late Middle Chinese, as all evi-
dence seems to indicate.23 The treatment of such cases in the Yunjing
makes sense if we assume, as seems likely, that one of the major
functions of the rhyme tables was to help speakers of Late Middle
Chinese interpret the rhyme books of the Qieyun tradition.
Specifically, Pulleyblank interprets the rhyme-table categories as
follows:
The she, neizhuan and waizhuan. Those she which are labeled
waizhuan are reconstructed with the vowel /a/ in all grades (but
with long /aa/ in grade II). Neizhuan finals are reconstructed with
non-low vowels, usually /a/, /i/, /u/, or /y/, depending on their
grade and whether they are kaikou or hekou. Pulleyblank further
assumes that the words within a single she rhymed with each other.
This seems to be true for some poets, but the question deserves fur-
ther investigation; moreover, this assumption means that short /a/
and long /aa/ interrhyme, and that all the non-low vowels inter-
rhyme. This assumes a rather complex relationship between
phonological form and rhyme.24
Kaikou and hekou. Hekou finals are reconstructed with a rounded
23 Later rhyme tables collapse parallel tables like the Yunjing's 21 and 23, so th
syllable has only one possible position.
24 In his 1970-71 reconstruction, the relationship was much simpler, since all waizhuan
finals had the vowel /a/, and all neizhuan finals had /a/.
REVIEWS 647
medial or main vowel: /w/, /u/, or /y/. (In waizhuan finals, this
creates two-vowel syllable nuclei like /ua/ and /ya/.)
The four grades. The most straightforward interpretation of the four
deng or grades would be that all syllables in the same grade have
some phonological feature or features in common. However, it has
proved difficult to devise a consistent and convincing phonological
interpretation of this kind. Pulleyblank proposes a slightly more
complex interpretation in which kaikou syllables with back (e.g.,
velar) initials provide a kind of prototype for the four grades, and
other syllables are assigned to grades partly by analogy to back-in-
itial syllables in the same Qieyun rhyme.
We can illustrate this idea with the syllables of the Shan she Sg.
Pulleyblank's reconstructions for velar-initial, kaikou syllables in the
four grades (using K- to represent any velar initial) are
I Kan e. g. f gan < kan "shield"

II Kjaan e.g. a jidn<kjaan "adultery"
III Kian e.g. J*jian<kian "establish"
IV Kjian e.g. 1 jidn<kjian "shoulder"
We can see that grades III and IV contain a front vowel (here /i/),
while divisions III and IV have a glide /j/; grade I has neither.
These defining features can be used to assign back-initial, kaikou
syllables to one of the four grades solely on a phonological basis.
Other types of syllables, however, are assigned to grades partly by
analogy to these prototypical cases. A word like VA guan<LMC
kwaan "barrier" does not have the /j/ glide found in a prototypic
grade-II word like a jidn< LMC kjaan, but it does have the long
/aa/, and moreover N guan and A jian are found in the same Qieyun
rhyme (Shan huh), so it makes sense to assign 1 to grade II also. To
take another example, Pulleyblank reconstructs - xian "first" as
LMC sian, without the /j/ glide which is found in a prototypical
grade-IV word like P jian < kjian " shoulder, " but t xian and A jian
are in the same Qieyun rhyme (Xian tt), so t xian is placed in grade
IV by analogy. By this kind of reasoning, the assignment of all types
of syllables to grades can be given a plausible explanation, even
though the four grades do not have a uniform phonological inter-
pretation for all syllables.
This idea of the four grades as the analogical extension of a pro-
648 REVIEWS
totypical four-way contrast has much to recommend it. It assumes

that the inventors of the rhyme tables were familiar with the Qieyun
(since its rhymes are partly the basis for the analogies invoked),
but this seems reasonable. Still, a solution that relied more on
phonology and less on analogy would be preferable, if a good one
could be found. Also, one can accept this general view of how the
grades arose without necessarily accepting Pulleyblank's reconstruc-
tion of the prototypical contrast itself. Let me raise some possible
objections to the latter.
1. The long /aa/ in grade II is reconstructed as a way of recon-
ciling two facts: (1) that grade-I and grade-II finals rhyme for some
poets, and (2) that grade-I and grade-II finals often have different
vowels in modern dialects. Pulleyblank assumes that long /aa/ and
short /a/ are similar enough to rhyme, and different enough to
develop into different vowels. But this solution is based on an
assumption that may be false: that the "Late Middle Chinese"
which allowed some poets to rhyme grade I with grade II was the
same "Late Middle Chinese" which is ancestral to the modern
dialects which have different vowels. Instead of Kan and Kjaan, it
might be better to reconstruct Kan and Kaxn, the latter becoming
Kjan in some Late Middle Chinese dialects.
2. Contrasts like that between grade-III -ian and grade-IV -jian,
while perhaps not impossible, seem unnatural; and as I pointed out
above, it is open to question whether more than one [ + syllabic] seg-
ment should be recognized in a single syllable. A more natural
reconstruction would be -en for grade III, -jen for grade IV,
substituting /e/ for Pulleyblank's /ia/. (As Pulleyblank points out,
his /ia/ is represented as [e] in Sino-Korean, in the Kan'on stratum
of Sino-Japanese, and in the Yuan dynasty transcriptions of
Chinese in the hP'ags-pa alphabet (p. 95).) However, this solution
presents difficulties if syllables in grades III and IV really rhyme
regularly with grades I and II.
3. As with Pulleyblank's analysis of modern Mandarin, a major
problem with the Late Middle Chinese reconstruction is the com-
plex relationship that must be assumed between rhyme and pho-
nological form. In neizhuan (non-low) syllables, we find that hi/
rhymes with /yj/, /oak/ with /uak/, and /owiJ/ with /iwyJ/, in
spite of quite different main vowels. Essentially, one must assume
REVIEWS 649
that all non-low vowels can rhyme with each other, provided the
following consonants are the same.
4. As in the Mandarin reconstruction, the low glide /a/ is
predictable and could be eliminated from underlying forms.
The precise reconstruction of Late Middle Chinese will continue
to be debated. Despite the reservations noted above, Pulleyblank's
reconstruction of the whole system is an important step forward in
investigating this period of the Chinese language. It should prove a
useful notation for the language of late Tang, and a valuable point
of departure for further research. For those studying Tang poetics,
it is a more reliable guide than Karlgren's Ancient Chinese, which
preserves many distinctions that had been lost (and some that prob-
ably never existed). For example, let us examine the rhyme words of
Li He's 4: poem "Gan Feng" g (No. 3), in Karlgren's Ancient
Chinese and in Pulleyblank's Late Middle Chinese:
Rhyme word Karlgren Pulleyblank

ts'au: ts'aw'
lau: law'
d'au: tfiaw'
Xieu: xiaw'
M nAziau: riaw'
A glance will show that Pulleyblank's reconstruction clarifies the

rhymes, while Karlgren's obscures them. Karlgren's finals -ieu and
-jdu rhyme regularly even in earlier poetry, the distinction between
-e- and -a- being artificial; and for Li He, these two finals apparently
rhymed with Karlgren's -au. These facts are reflected in the com-
mon ending /aw/ in Pulleyblank's reconstruction.25 With non-low
vowels, the situation is more complex, but Pulleyblank's notation is
still more suitable for this purpose than Karlgren's notation.26
From a purely practical point of view, Pulleyblank's Late Middle
Chinese is somewhat inconvenient because it employs phonetic sym-
bols not readily available on typewriters and computers, and not
readily accepted by word processing or database management soft-
25 For this example, at least, one could also treat the last two words as a separate rhyme se
quence.
26 It is not so suitable for regulated verse, which artificially preserves some distinction
had been lost by late Tang.
650 REVIEWS
ware. (This is, of course, more a criticism of the equipment than of

the reconstruction.) To remedy this inconvenience I offer the follow-
ing purely typographical changes which make Pulleyblank's system
completely typeable, without losing any of its distinctions: (1) in in-
itials, substitute h for 11, ng for ij, v for v, sr for S, q for ?, apostroph
for the aspiration mark; (2) in finals, substitute a for a, o for a, r for r,
z for z (this will give forms like srr for Pulleyblank's sr); and (3)
tones can be indicated on most computers by slash /(for shang) and
backslash \ (for qu), or by numbers or letters. Notice that the
resulting notation makes no use of the upper/lower case distinction,
which can be used for other purposes (e.g. to mark rhyme words in
a text, or just for emphasis).
To restore the original reconstruction, on equipment which can
produce the necessary symbols, perform all substitutions in reverse,
except (1) rewrite a as a only when it occurs at the end of a syllable
or before ng or k; and (2) rewrite final r as r; rewrite sr as S
EARLY MIDDLE CHINESE
Pulleyblank originally proposed a reconstruction of Middle

Chinese (now called Early Middle Chinese) in a 1962 paper on Old
Chinese.27 A new reconstruction reflecting his more recent views has
been mentioned and used in a number of articles,28 but the present
book is the first complete presentation of it. Early Middle Chinese is
intended to represent the phonological system of the Qieyun, which
Pulleyblank, like Zhou Zumo lWlAa, views as the conflation of no
more than two slightly different varieties of educated pronunciation
of the sixth century, probably the dialects of Luoyang and Nan-
jing.2' As such, it may be slightly artificial, but perhaps no more so
than modern dictionaries of English, which usually incorporate
more distinctions than any single speaker makes.
Pulleyblank's reconstruction of Early Middle Chinese is a com-
27 See "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese," AM, n.s. 9 (1962): 65-85.
28 See, for example, "Some New Hypotheses Concerning Word Families in Ch
Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 1 (1972): 111-25.
29 See Middle Chinese, pp. 130-34, and Zhou Zumo's "Qieyun de xingzhi he tade yinxi
jichu" % in Wen xueji rW% (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1966),
pp. 434-73.
REVIEWS 651
plex structure containing a great many innovative ideas and

arguments; here I can only discuss some of the central ones.
Initials. On the initials of the Qieyun language there is now some
degree of consensus; I will simply list a few notable features of
Pulleyblank's reconstruction:
1. The "muddy" initials, which Karlgren had reconstructed as
voiced aspirates, are reconstructed at this stage as plain voiced
obstruents /g/, /d/, /b/, etc.
2. The sheshangyin are reconstructed as retroflex, as in Late Mid-
dle Chinese: /tr/, /tr'/, /dr/, /nr/ (intended as unit phonemes
rather than clusters). Pulleyblank argues that in the south these
were not distinct from the dental stops /t/, /tc'/, etc.
3. As he did already in 1962,30 Pulleyblank gives several ar-
guments that the voiced palatal affricate and fricative were reversed
by Karlgren: that is, Karlgren's di'- (the grade-III part of Chuang
I) was actually /1i/, and his z- (the grade-III part of Shan 4) wa
tually /d/*.31 The error originates in the rhyme tables, which re-
versed the two initials, probably because by Late Middle Chinese
they had merged. I find Pulleyblank's arguments on this point quite
convincing.
4. Like most other recent investigators, Pulleyblank recon-
structs a palatal nasal /ji/ in place of Karlgren's peculiar
Finals. Pulleyblank draws a fundamental distinction between what
he calls "type-A" and "type-B" syllables in Early Middle Chinese.
Type-B syllables are those which Karlgren generally reconstructed
with medial -i-; their finals are sometimes loosely called grade-III
finals, since they can usually be found in grade III of the rhyme
tables. Type-A syllables occur only in grades I, II, and IV, and
have a restricted set of initials (not including palatals or retroflexes,
for example). Even initials which occur in both types of syllables
tend to have differentfanqie 4-19; spellings in the two types of syl-
lables, which seems to indicate that they had different allophones.
The type-A/type-B distinction, whatever its nature, was the condi-
30 See "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese," pp. 67-69.

31 Middle Chinese, pp. 169-71. This was earlier proposed by Lu Zhiwei |,=tAl; see for ex-
ample Guyin shuo lue t 14 YCHP Monograph 20 (Beijing: Harvard-Yenching Institute,
1947; rpt. Taibei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1971), pp. 11-13.
652 REVIEWS
tion for a sweeping series of changes which transformed the Chi-

nese vowel system by the end of the Han dynasty.
The conventional interpretation of these facts is that type-B
syllables contained at some time a high front medial /j/ (equivalent
to Karlgren's -i-), and that this /j/ was responsible for various
phenomena affecting the type-B syllables; for example, (1) the
change of dental initials (and sometimes velars also) into palatals
(e.g. *tj- >tp-), and (2) the maintenance of high vowels, in contrast
to type-A syllables, in which original high vowels were lowered (e.g.
A *njin>EMC pin but * *nin>EMC nEn.32). The conventional
view has much to recommend it, since it seems very natural for such
palatalizations and height assimilations to be conditioned by /j/.
But the assumed /j/ is hard to find in cognates and loans in other
languages, and transcriptions largely ignore it. One of the central
ideas of Pulleyblank's Early Middle Chinese is a different theory of
type-B syllables, in which their defining characteristic is the
presence of a high vowel: /i/, /i/, or /u/ (sometimes followed
second vowel, for some reason always /a/). This often makes
transcriptions look nicer; thus the loan word f1 fd "Buddha" is
b'juat in Karlgren's system, but simply but in Pulleyblank's. This
theory also makes a whole series of early Chinese loan words in Viet-
namese look very close to Early Middle Chinese, e.g. Vietnamese
lira "donkey," from . EMC liae (Vietnamese u is phonetically [i]);
Vietnamese mua "dance," from * EMC muaP; and Vietnamese
buom "sail," from VL EMC buam.33 Late Middle Chinese forms are
derived by a general fronting rule which changes i/ to /i/ and /u/
to /y/.
The velar initials are assumed to have uvular allophones [q], [q'],
[G], [N] before the non-high vowels of type-A syllables, at least in cer-
tain dialects (perhaps northern ones, judging from transcriptional
evidence). In the feature system which Pulleyblank assumes, this is
a natural assimilation, since velars are [+ high, - low] while
uvulars are [- high, + low]. This hypothesis has transcriptional
32 The starred forms are Old Chinese reconstructions in the "Bodman/Baxter"

which I am currently doing research; in this case, our reconstructions are identical with those
of Fang-kuei Li t in Shanggu yin yanjiu R (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan,
1982).
3 See pp. 209, 211.
REVIEWS 653
evidence to support it (Sanskrit velars are normally transcribed us-

ing type-B syllables, perhaps to avoid the uvular allophones). It also
provides a natural explanation for the change of Old Chinese */g/
to lyl in type-A syllables, the change [G] > [y] having parallels
elsewhere.34 This change did not affect the Min dialects, however,
which might in this respect represent the southern dialects that did
not have uvular allophones for velars. This seems a promising idea
which ties various types of evidence together.
A major disadvantage of the high-vowel theory of type-B syllables
is that since it involves vowels rather than medials, type-A and type-
B syllables must be reconstructed with different vowels, even if they
rhyme with each other. Thus the reconstruction has only a very
weak and indirect relationship with the rhyming patterns of the Ear-
ly Middle Chinese period. For example, the Dong a rhyme of the
Qieyun contains both type-A and type-B words, which Pulleyblank
reconstructs with the finals /-owij/ and /uwiJ/ respectively (in
Karlgren's system: -ung and -_ung). Again, the Qieyun's Xian t
rhyme is reconstructed as /en/, the Xian {W rhyme as /ian/, wit
different main vowels, even though these two groups interrhyme
regularly from the Wei-Jin period down through Tang. On the
other hand, rhymes between Xian {W (EMC /ian/) and Han t
(EMC /an/), or between Xian {jj (EMC /ian/) and Yuan 7 (EMC
/ian/ and /uan/), are rare, even though they share the main vowel
/a/. It might be objected that rhyme was phonetic rather than
phonological, and that /ian/ was perhaps phonetically [ien], thus
rhyming with /en/ rather than /an/. But in that case, why would a
child learning Early Middle Chinese set up /ian/ as the underlying
form for [ien], instead of /ien! or /jen/? Pulleyblank's theory of
type-B syllables, an idea which is certainly worth exploring, seems
in this case to be bought at the cost of sacrificing a straightforward
account of Early Middle Chinese rhyming, one of the most impor-
tant kinds of evidence we have about the phonology of the period.
Perhaps Pulleyblank's high-vowel proposal could be modified
somehow to avoid this difficulty.
I will touch only briefly on other aspects of Pulleyblank's Early
Middle Chinese finals. The grade-II finals, which are now widely
assumed to have had medial */r/ in Old Chinese, are reconstructed
34 See pp. 167-68.
654 REVIEWS
with retroflex vow

ly call this unnatural, and there is some transciptional evidence to
support it; but unfortunately, grade-II words are sometimes found
in the same Qieyun rhymes with type-B words in which there is no
reason to assume a retroflex vowel. (For example, Pulleyblank
reconstructs the finals of the Qieyun's Ma a1# rhyme as /ar
and /iaa/, even though /iaa/ looks as if it should be in the Ge t
rhyme, where Pulleyblank reconstructs the finals /aa, /waa/, /aa/,
and /uaa/.)
The so-called chongniu *? or "repeated initial" syllables are
pairs of type-B syllables with the same initial, found in the same
Qieyun rhyme, one assigned by the rhyme tables to grade III, the
other to grade IV. Karlgren failed to distinguish these pairs, and
they have proved exceedingly difficult to reconstruct satisfactorily.
Pulleyblank is responsible for the insight that the grade-III chongniu
usually reflect type-B syllables with Old Chinese medial */r/, and
there is transcriptional evidence that seems to show /r/ as late as
the end of the sixth century;36 but in other cases, there is no
etymological reason to assume medial */r/. For Early Middle
Chinese, Pulleyblank reconstructs /(w)i/ in the chongniu finals in
grade III, and /j(w)i/ in grade IV, with the proviso that grade-III
chongniu words "had a retroflex or velarized feature which is not ex-
plicitly included in the reconstruction. Thus one could write *
EMC prit instead of pit. "37 This may well be close to the truth, but it
seems an unsatisfying solution. Perhaps we must assume that some
dialects still had a medial /r/, while in others the contrast took
another form.
As in Late Middle Chinese, Pulleyblank reconstructs syllable
codas like /wyJ/, /jyj/, and /aij/; these are understood to re
elaborate set of final consonant distinctions in Old Chinese.
Pulleyblank does not discuss his ideas on tone in detail in this
book, as they are covered elsewhere.38 Here I will only mention that
35 See pp. 181-97.

36 See pp. 172-76.
37 Middle Chinese, p. 237.

38 See "The Nature of the Middle Chinese Tones and their Development to Early Man-
darin, "Journal of Chinese Linguistics 6 (1978): 173-203. He does discuss generative approaches
to tone in Middle Chinese, pp. 35-40.
REVIEWS 655
he derives the departing tone (qusheng) from an earlier final /-s/

which may have survived in some dialects as late as the early sixth
century. The Qieyun rhymes which appear only in qusheng are as-
sumed to be a trace of this /-s/.3
Of the three phonological analyses presented in this book, that of
modern Mandarin seems to me least successful; although it is
presented within the framework of generative phonology, it still
shows the influence of Pulleyblank's earlier two-vowel approach to
phonology, and it is encumbered with structuralist-style solutions to
problems which generative phonology can easily handle in other
ways.
The reconstruction of Late Middle Chinese seems to me the most
successful; it can be recommended with only minor reservations
to those who want a way of representing the pronunciation of
Tang times, and for this purpose is much superior to Karlgren's
Ancient Chinese.40 That is not to say that it is a final answer to
the phonological history of this period, in which, of course, many
controversial questions remain; it will, however, be a useful tool
in investigating those questions.
The Early Middle Chinese reconstruction incorporates many pro-
mising proposals, but it is less satisfactory as a whole than the Late
Middle Chinese reconstruction. It is quite possible that the complex
problems of the Early Middle Chinese stage can be solved only by
further attention to individual dialects of the time, perhaps through
careful study of the rhyming of individual poets. As I have shown
above, a major problem with Pulleyblank's reconstruction as it
stands is that it does not easily account for common rhyming pat-
terns.
Progress in historical linguistics depends greatly on imagination.
The weight of tradition in the field is very heavy, and the unsatisfac-
tory solutions of the past seem more and more natural or even
self-evident as time passes. This has happened with the work of
Karlgren, whose way of looking at the history of Chinese influences
even those who set out to criticize him. To reexamine this tradition
39 Middle Chinese, p. 223-24.

40 One should, however, remember the general rule of thumb that any non-low vowel o
Pulleyblank's reconstruction can rhyme with any other, if the following consonant is the
same.
656 REVIEWS
thoroughly, to produce new hypotheses and pursue their conse-

quences in detail, requires imagination and considerable intellec-
tual work. Pulleyblank has greatly benefited Chinese historical
linguistics by carrying out such research, of which the present book,
a rich source of innovative ideas and fresh approaches, is an ex-
ample. It would be surprising if, among so many ideas, all of them
turned out to be right.
Brocade by Night: Kokin Wakashuz and the Court Style in

Japanese Classical Poetry by Helen Craig McCullough. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1985. Pp. xii+591. $55.00.
Kokin Wakashui: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese

Poetry, With Tosa Nikki and Shinsen Waka translated and annotated
by Helen Craig McCullough. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1985. Pp. x+388. $49.50.
Robert H. Brower, University of Michigan
Every Western student of Japanese classical literature or pre-

modern history is indebted to Helen McCullough for her many
major contributions to our knowledge and understanding of the
literature and culture of the Heian and medieval periods. Indeed,
every undertaking to which this distinguished scholar has set her
hand over her long and productive career has resulted in a standard
work, a work whose rigorous scholarship and accuracy have in-
variably commanded the highest admiration and respect. Now with
this exhaustive and definitive study and set of translations, Pro-
fessor McCullough has added yet another major achievement to her
long list. In the volume devoted to translations, Kokin Wakashu t7
WEt, she offers complete and authoritative annotated translations
ofJapan's premier imperial anthology, together with Tosa Nikki ?1r
Fi , (A Tosa Journal) and Shinsen Waka VTV34k (New Selection of
Japanese Poetry), two other important works closely identified with
the principal compiler and architect of the imperial collection, Ki no
Tsurayuki CX;L (ca. 872-945). Shinsen Waka is here translated for
the first time in any Western language; Tosa Nikki and Kokin

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Harvard-Yenching Institute

Middle Chinese: A Study in Historical Phonology by E. G.

William H. Baxter III, University of Michigan

This book is a wide-ranging study of the historical development

Bernhard Karlgren called "Ancient Chinese") is divided into Chap-

THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

Pulleyblank's investigations have not been limited to the facts of

tions is still apparent, and it will simplify later discussion to sum-

2 AM, n.s. 10 (1963): 200-21.

theory and accepts the broad framework of generative phonology as

3. Glides. Pulleyblank argues for the existence of a [+ low],

Unfortunately, probably only the last assumption is justifiable in

THE PHONOLOGY OF PEKINGESE

Chapter 2 describes the phonology of the Beijing dialect (stan-

'1 See note 3.

13 "The Voiced Velar Fricative as an Initial in Mandarin," Le Maftre phonetique 89 (1948):

In addition, because of the phonetic similarity of their vowels, -ian is

16 See CYYY 39 (1969): 203-18.

problems which /i/ was originally intended to solve is a real prob-

LATE MIDDLE CHINESE

Karlgren believed that the "Ancient Chinese" he reconstructed

17 As in the case of Pulleyblank's analysis of the zero initial; see above.

standard, which Pulleyblank calls "Late Middle Chinese." The ma-

and fricatives, /tq-/, /tq'-/, etc., representing the merger of two E

19 See "Late Middle Chinese," cited in note 3.

Initial LMC EMC source

I Kan e. g. f gan < kan "shield"

totypical four-way contrast has much to recommend it. It assumes

Rhyme word Karlgren Pulleyblank

A glance will show that Pulleyblank's reconstruction clarifies the

ware. (This is, of course, more a criticism of the equipment than of

EARLY MIDDLE CHINESE

Pulleyblank originally proposed a reconstruction of Middle

plex structure containing a great many innovative ideas and

30 See "The Consonantal System of Old Chinese," pp. 67-69.

tion for a sweeping series of changes which transformed the Chi-

32 The starred forms are Old Chinese reconstructions in the "Bodman/Baxter"

evidence to support it (Sanskrit velars are normally transcribed us-

with retroflex vow

35 See pp. 181-97.

37 Middle Chinese, p. 237.

he derives the departing tone (qusheng) from an earlier final /-s/

39 Middle Chinese, p. 223-24.

thoroughly, to produce new hypotheses and pursue their conse-

Brocade by Night: Kokin Wakashuz and the Court Style in

Kokin Wakashui: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese

Robert H. Brower, University of Michigan

Every Western student of Japanese classical literature or pre-

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