Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:30:48.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Dog-Eared Dictionary: Human-Animal Alliance in Chinese Civilization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2015

Claire Huot
Get access

Abstract

What does the dog mean in Chinese culture? The answers can be found in China's first dictionary, the Shuowen jiezi, written by Xu Shen in 121 CE. The Shuowen holds cynological knowledge well beyond the dog's olfactory ability, because it includes notes on vocalization discrimination, situational gait, and even behavioral and personality traits. The dog is also upheld as the representative of all nonhuman animals, undoubtedly because of its morphological and functional versatility but certainly also because it was the human's main interface and companion at the beginning of Chinese civilization. The Chinese graphs for the word “dog” embody both views: generically animalistic or eerily resembling human depictions. As a rift slowly took place in the partnership between humans and dogs when urbanization began, the graphs themselves were manipulated to clearly demarcate one from the other. Eventually dogs became discursive scapegoats. This paper traces the destiny of the dog in semantic and graphic terms.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 589 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Autier-Dérian, Dominique, Deputte, Bertrand L., Chalvet-Monfray, Karine, Coulon, Marjorie, and Mounier, Luc. 2013. “Visual Discrimination of Species in Dogs (Canis familiaris).” Animal Cognition 16(4):637–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Axelsson, Erik, Ratnakumar, Abhirami, Arendt, Maja-Louise, Maqbool, Khurram, Webster, Matthew T., Perloski, Michele, Liberg, Olof, Arnemo, Jon M., Hedhammar, Åke, and Lindblad-Toh, Kerstin. 2013. “The Genomic Signature of Dog Domestication Reveals Adaptation to a Starch-Rich Diet.” Nature 495:360–64. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11837.html (accessed March 11, 2013).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benn, Charles. 2002. China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. 1991. The Location of Culture: Of Mimicry and Man. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bottéro, Françoise, and Harbsmeier, Christoph. 2008. “The Shuowen Jiezi Dictionary and the Human Sciences in China.” Asia Major, 3rd ser., 21(1):249–71.Google Scholar
Boyko, Adam R., Boyko, Ryan H., Boyko, Corin M., Parker, Heidi G., Castelhano, Marta, Corey, Liz, Degenhardt, Jeremiah D. et al. 2009. “Complex Population Structure in African Village Dogs and Its Implications for Inferring Dog Domestication History.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106(33):13903–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chinese Text Project. 2006–15. Shuowen jiezi [Explaining and analyzing characters]. http://ctext.org/shuo-wen-jie-zi (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Correa, Julio E. 2011. “The Dog's Sense of Smell.” Alabama A &M and Auburn Universities. http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/U/UNP-0066/UNP-0066.pdf (accessed April 3, 2015).Google Scholar
Derr, Mark. 2012. “Dogs.” New York Times. June 26. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/dogs/index.html (accessed August 18, 2012).Google Scholar
Ding, Z. L., Oskarsson, M., Ardalan, A., Angleby, H., Dahlgren, L. G., Tepeli, C., Kirkness, E., Savolainen, P., and Zhang, Y. P.. 2012. “Origins of Domestic Dog in Southern East Asia Is Supported by Analysis of Y-Chromosome DNA.” Heredity 108:507–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yucai, Duan 段玉裁. [1815] 1981. Shuowen jiezi zhu 說文解字注 [Annotated Shuowen jiezi]. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Press.Google Scholar
Yunheng, Duan 段蕴恒. 2012. “Shuowen jiezi ‘quan’ buzi ji qi wenhua neihan” 说文解字‘犬’部字及其文化内涵 [The header and word ‘quan’ (dog) and its cultural connotations in the Shuowen jiezi]. Wenxue jie 8:229–32.Google Scholar
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. 2014. Emperor Huizong. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuanping, Feng 冯宽平. 2007. “‘Quan’ wenhua ji qi ciyu zhitan” ‘犬’文化及其词语摭谈 [On ‘quan’ (dog) culture and related terms]. Hanzi yu lishi wenhua 6:81–83.Google Scholar
Fiskesjö, Magnus. 2001. “Rising from Blood-Stained Fields: Royal Hunting and State Formation in Shang Dynasty China.” Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 73:48–192.Google Scholar
Fiskesjö, Magnus. 2012. “The Animal Other: China's Barbarians and Their Renaming in the Twentieth Century.” Social Text 29(4):57–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1966. Les Mots et les choses [The order of things]. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. [1959] 1962. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276. Translated by Wright, H. M.. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gg-Art.Com Net Tech Co. 2000. Zhonghua bowu 中華博物 [Chinese character and calligraphy dictionary]. http://images.gg-art.com (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Lindsay, Steven R. 2000. Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training. 3 vols. Vol. 1. Ames: Iowa State University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, Xing. 2004. Rhetoric of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Impact on Chinese Thought, Culture, and Communication. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Lan, Ma 马兰. 2008. “Lun ‘quan’ de shuangzhong wenhua yiyun” 论‘犬’的双重文化意蕴 [On the dual cultural connotations of “quan”]. Shidai wenxue 1:n.p.Google Scholar
Mair, Victor. 1998. “Canine Conundrums: Eurasian Dog Ancestor Myths in Historical and Ethnic Perspective.” Sino-Platonic Papers 87:1–74.Google Scholar
Malm, K., and Jensen, P.. 1996. “Weaning in Dogs: Within and Between-Litter Variation in Milk and Solid Food Intake.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 49(3):223–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakajima, Sadahiko, Yamamoto, Mariko, and Yoshimoto, Natsumi. 2009. “Dogs Look Like Their Owners: Replications with Racially Homogenous Owner Portraits.” Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People & Animals 22(2):173–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pang, Jun-Feng, Kluetsch, Cornelya, Zou, Xiao-Ju, Zhang, Ai-bing, Luo, Li-Yang, Angleby, Helen, Ardalan, Arman et al. 2009. “mtDNA Data Indicate a Single Origin for Dogs South of Yangtze River, Less than 16,300 Years Ago, from Numerous Wolves.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 26(12):2849–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pei, Wen-Chung. 1934. “The Carnivora from Locality 1 of Choukoutien.” Paleontologia Sinica, ser. C, 8(1):n.p.Google Scholar
Pian, Yuqian 骈宇骞. 2009. Hanzi ziyuan 汉字字源 [Etymology of Chinese characters]. Shenyang: Wanjuan Press.Google Scholar
Pongrácz, Péter, Molnár, Csaba, Miklósi, Ádám, and Csányi, Vilmos. 2005. “Human Listeners Are Able to Classify Dog (Canis familiaris) Barks Recorded in Different Situations.” Journal of Comparative Psychology 119(2):136–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Proctor, Helen. 2012. “Animal Sentience: Where Are We and Where Are We Heading?” Animals (2):628–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ratcliffe, Victoria, and Reby, David. 2014. “Orienting Asymmetries in Dogs’ Responses to Different Communicatory Components of Human Speech.” Current Biology 24:2908–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritvo, Harriet. 1997. The Platypus and the Mermaid, and Other Figments of the Classifying Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sangji, Zhaxi 桑吉扎西. 1998. Xu quan tong ling 戌犬通灵 [All about dogs]. Beijing: Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar
Savolainen, Peter, Zhang, Ya-ping, Luo, Jing, Lundeberg, Joakim, and Leitner, Thomas. 2002. “Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs.” Science 298(5598):1610–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serpell, James, ed. 1995. The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior, and Interactions with People. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shufazidian.com. 2013. Shufa zidian 書法字典 [Calligraphy dictionary]. http://shufazidian.com/ (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Shuowen.org. 2006–15. Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 [Explaining and analyzing characters]. http://www.shuowen.org/ (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Sterckx, Roel. 2002. The Animal and the Daemon in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Sterckx, Roel. 2005. “Animal Classification in Ancient China.” EASTM 23:26–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strassberg, Richard E., ed. and trans. 2002. A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing). Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tacon, Paul, and Pardoe, Colin. 2002. “Dogs Make Us Human.” Nature Australia 27(4):52–61.Google Scholar
VonHoldt, Bridgett M., Pollinger, John P., Lohmueller, Kirk E., Han, Eunjung, Parker, Heidi G., Quignon, Pascale, Degenhardt, Jeremiah D. et al. 2010. “Genome-wide SNP and Haplotype Analyses Reveal a Rich History Underlying Dog Domestication.” Nature 464:898–902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Xiaoming, and Tedford, R. H.. 2008. Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenlin Institute. 2012. Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese. http://www.wenlin.com (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
White, David Gordon. 1991. Myths of the Dog-Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wikipedia. 2015. “Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge (accessed April 23, 2015).Google Scholar
Wu, Zhuang 武庄. 2014. “Xian Qin shiqi jiaquan yanjiu de xianzhuang yu zhanwang” 先秦时期家犬研究的现状与展望 [State of the research into the domestic dog of pre-Qin times and directions for the future]. Nanfang wenwu 1:65–73.Google Scholar
Zhongshu, Xu 徐中舒, ed. 1988. Jiaguwen zidian 甲骨文字典 [Dictionary of oracle bone inscriptions]. http://images.gg-art.com/dictionary/oracledict.php (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Yan, Wen-ming. 1992. “Origins of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in China.” In Pacific Northeast Asia in Prehistory: Hunter-Fisher-Gatherers, Farmers, and Sociopolitical Elites, eds. Aikens, C. Melvin and Rhee, Song Nai, 113–23. Pullman: Washington State University Press.Google Scholar
ZDIC. 2004–15. Handian 漢典 [Chinese dictionary]. www.zdic.net (accessed March 7, 2015).Google Scholar
Kai, Zhang 张凯. 2010. “Zai lun ‘hua hu bu cheng fan lei gou’ (hua hu lei gou).” 再论‘画虎不成反类狗’（(画虎类狗) [Renewed discussion on the expression “hua hu bu cheng fan lei gou” (hua hu lei gou)]. Shidai wenxue 4:183–84.Google Scholar
Ruijing, Zhao 赵瑞静. 2009. “Tantao Hanyu zhong gou wenhua de yiyun.” 探讨汉语中狗的文化意蕴 [Exploring the connotations of dog culture in Chinese]. Qiqihar shifan gaodeng zhuanke xuexiao xuebao 3:96–97.Google Scholar
Yuanlin, Zhou 周元琳. 2006. “Dongwu wenhua ciyu baobian secai de wenhua xinli chengyin: Yi hanyu ‘gou’ zu yuhui wei li.” 动物文化词语褒贬色彩的文化心里成因:以汉语‘狗‘族语汇为例 [The cultural and psychological factors behind pejorative and meliorative terms for animals: The case of the Chinese terms for “dog”]. Yuyan jiaoxue yu yanjiu 2:43–47.Google Scholar