Yan wen yi guan xu zi shi yong fa 言文一貫虛字使用法 [Method of Using Empty Characters in Written and Spoken Language] -

Four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: 1925. Occidental scholars used to think that there had been no study of grammar in China before large-scale Western influence in the late 19th century. Today we know that a rich tradition of grammatical studies existed in the form of Manchu-Chinese bilingual textbooks, in which Chinese sentence structures were paired with the corresponding structures in Manchu. Zhou Shanpei (1875-1958), in Method, illustrates the use of classical Chinese function words - so-called "empty characters," devoid of lexical meaning - by contrasting them with the corresponding expressions in Mandarin Chinese. For ease of comparison, the parts of speech are underlined and affixed with numbers. Zhou likens lexical words to the skeleton and flesh of the human body, and function words to the nervous system that puts it all into motion. Zhou Shanpei, of Zhuji 諸暨, Zhejiang, studied in Japan and then worked as a private secretary to high officials (muyou 幕友) and as an academy director. He withdrew from office following the Xinhai revolution, and subsequently opposed Yuan Shikai's attempt to declare himself emperor (Yixue baike quanshu, 906). Zhou's Method was first published in 1914. Our copy belongs to the eighth printing, from 1925, for which see WorldCat 969355277. Fine set. References Göran Malmqvist. "Chinese Linguistics." In History of Linguistics: Volume 1: The Eastern Traditions of Linguistics. Edited by Giulio Lepschy. London: Longman, 1994. Yixue baike quanshu 易学百科全书. Shanghai: Shanghai cishu chubanshe, 2018.