Lion-eating poet in the stone cave

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The story of the Shi who eats lions ( Chinese  施 氏 食 獅 史 , Pinyin Shī Shì shí shī shǐ ) is a famous example by Zhào Yuánrèn for homophones . It is written in Classical Chinese and consists of 96 characters, all of which have the reading shi in different tones in Standard Chinese. Due to changes in pronunciation in Chinese, a high number of homophones has developed, so that the text becomes completely incomprehensible if it is pronounced or romanized.

Chinese Pinyin German

《施 氏 食 獅 史》

石室 詩 士 施 氏 ， 嗜 獅 ， 誓 食 十 獅。
氏 時時 適 市 視 視 獅。
十 時 ， 適 適 十 獅 適 市。
是 時 ， 適 施 氏 適 市
是 氏 視 視 視 視 視 視十 獅 ， 恃 矢 勢 ， 使 是 十 獅 逝世。
氏 拾 是 十 獅 屍 ， 適 石室。
石室 濕 ， 氏 氏 使 侍 拭 石室。
石室 石室 拭 ， 氏 始 試 食 是 十 獅。
食 時 是 十 始 識， 實 十 石獅 屍。
試 釋 是 事。

"Shī Shì shí shī shǐ"

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shi shi, shi Shi Shi shi shi.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shi shi shi shi.

The story of Shi, the lion eats

stone cave poet Shi, addicted to lions, swears to eat ten lions.
He often goes to the market to see lions.
At ten o'clock ten lions are just passing the market.
At this time, Shi is also just passing the market.
He sees the ten lions, with his arrows he sends the ten lions to death.
He brings the ten lion corpses to the stone cave.
The stone cave is damp. He orders his servant to dry them off.
After the stone cave has been dried off, he tries to eat the ten lions.
While eating, he notices that these ten lions are actually ten stone lion corpses .
Try to explain this.

Reading in other dialects and languages

In other, syllable-rich dialects and languages, the poem is then acoustically understandable again. Of the Chinese dialects, Cantonese deserves special mention, which has preserved old readings particularly well and is therefore better suited than Mandarin to illustrate the word differences . The Sinovietnamese readings can also be used for this.

Pronunciation in Cantonese and Vietnamese

施 氏 食 獅 史

si1si6 sik6 si1 si2

thi-thị thực sư sử

石室 詩 士 施 氏 ， 嗜 獅 ， 誓 食 十 獅。

sek6sat1 si1si6 si1si6, si3 si1, sai3 sik6 sap6 si1.

thạch-thất thi-sĩ thi-thị, thị sư, thệ thực thập sư.

氏 時時 適 市 視 獅。

si6 si4si4 sik1 si5 si6 si1.

thị thì-thì thích thị thị sư.

十 時 ， 適 十 獅 適 市。

sap6si4, sik1 sap6 si1 sik1 si5.

thập-thì, thích thập sư thích thị.

是 時 ， 適 施 氏 適 市。

si6si4, sik1 si1si6 sik1 si5.

thị-thì, thích thi-thị thích thị.

氏 視 是 十 獅 ， 恃 矢 勢 ， 使 是 十 獅 逝世。

si6 si6 si6 sap6 si1, ci5 ci2 sai3, sai2 si6 sap6 si1 sai6sai3.

thị thị thị thập sư, thị thỉ thế, sử thị thập sư thệ-thế.

氏 拾 是 十 獅 屍 ， 適 石室。

si6 sap6 si6 sab6 si1si1, sik1 sek6sat1.

thị thập thị thập sư thi thích thạch-thất.

石室 濕 ， 氏 使 侍 拭 石室。

sek6sat1 sap1, si6 sai2 si6 sik1 sek6sat1.

thạch-thất thấp, thị sử thị thức thạch-thất.

石室 拭 ， 氏 始 試 食 是 十 獅。

sek6sat1 sik1, si6 ci5 si3 sik6 si6 sap6 si1.

thạch thất thức, thị thuỷ thí thực thị thập sư.

食 時 ， 始 識 是 十 獅 ， 實 十 石獅 屍。

sik6si4, ci5 sik1 si6 sap6 si1, sat6 sap6 sek6 si1si1.

thực-thì, thuỷ-thức thị thập sư, thật thập thạch-sư-thi.

試 釋 是 事。

si3 sik1 si6 si6.

thí thị thị sự.


List of occurring syllables in the Cantonese reading (in brackets the respective Vietnamese readings):

ci2 ： 矢 、 始 (thỉ)

ci5 ： 恃 (thị)

sai2 ： 使 (sử)

sai3 ： 勢 、 世 (thế)

sai6 ： 誓 、 逝 (thệ)

sap1 ： 濕 (thấp)

sap6 ： 十 、 拾 (thập)

sat1 ： 室 (thất)

sat6 ： 實 (thật)

sec6 ： 石 (thạch)

si1 ： 施 、 詩 、 屍 (thi) ； 獅 (sư)

si2 ： 史 (sử)

si3 ： 試 (thí) ； 嗜 (thị)

si4 ： 時 (thì)

si5 ： 市 (thị)

si6 ： 氏 、 視 、 是 、 侍 (thị) ； 士 (sĩ) ； 事 (sự)

sik1 ： 適 、 釋 (thích) ； 拭 、 識 (thức)

sik6 ： 食 (thực)

Homophone groups:

5 groups of two (ci2, sai3, sai6, sap6, si3)

2 groups of four (si1, sik1)

1 group of six (si6)


List of occurring syllables in the Vietnamese reading (the respective Cantonese readings in brackets):

sĩ ： 士 (si6)

sư ： 獅 (si1)

sử ： 使 (sai2) ； 史 (si2) (the latter only occurs in "施 氏 食 獅 史")

sự ： 事 (si6)

thạch ： 石 (sec6)

thấp ： 濕 (sap1)

thập ： 十 、 拾 (sap6) (the latter only occurs in "氏 拾 是 十 獅 屍")

thất ： 室 (sat1)

thật ： 實 (sat6)

thế ： 勢 、 世 (sai3) (in each case in the words "恃 勢" and "逝世")

thệ ： 誓 、 逝 sai6 (in each case in "誓 食" and the word "逝世")

thi ： 施 、 詩 、 屍 si1 (in each case in the name "施 氏" and the words "詩 士" and "獅 屍")

thí ： 試 si3

thỉ ： 矢 ci2

thì ： 時 si4

thị ： 氏 (in “施 氏” or alone) 、 視 (in “視 獅”) 、 是 (in “是 時”, “是 事” and “是 十 獅”) 、 侍 si6 (only in the sentence “氏 使 侍 拭 石室 ") ； 恃 ci5 (only in" 恃 勢 ") ； 嗜 si3 (in" 嗜 獅 ") ； 市 si5 (in" 適 市 ")

thích ： 適 、 釋 sik1 (the latter only in "試 釋")

thuỷ ： 始 ci2

thức ： 拭 、 識 sik1 (last only in "始 識")

thực ： 食 sik6

Homophone groups:

6 groups of two (sử, thập, thế, thệ, thích, thức)

1 group of three (thi)

1 group of sevens (thị)


Above all, the distinction between 適 thích and 拭 thức in Vietnamese is advantageous for the acoustic understanding, because only then the two text sections 拭 石室 “wipe the stone cave” and 適 石室 “go to the stone cave” can be distinguished.

In Japanese

The reading in Japanese, on the other hand, is less clear-cut due to the lack of tones and the relative simplicity of the syllables:


SHISHI SHOKU SHI SHI

SEKISHITSU SHISHI SESHI, SHI SHI, SEI SHOKU JUU SHI. SHI JIJI TEKI SHI SHI SHI. JUUJI, TEKI JUU SHI TEKI SHI. ZEJI, TEKI SESHI TEKI SHI. SHI SHI ZE JUU SHI, JI SHI SEI, SHI ZE JUU SHI SEI SE. SHI SHUU ZE JUU SHI SHI, TEKI SEKISHITSU. SEKISHITSU SHITSU, SHI SHI JI SHOKU SEKISHITSU. SEKISHITSU SHOKU, SHI SHI SHI SHOKU ZE JUU SHI. SHOKUJI, SHI SHIKI ZE JUU SHI, JITSU JUU SEKI SHI SHI. SHI SHAKU ZE JI.

See also

List of repeated words

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nathan Dummitt: Chinese Through Tone & Color , Hippocrene Books, 2008, ISBN 0-7818-1204-6 , page 2 et seq [1]