A study of Common Four-Character Chinese Idioms in the Book of the History of Three Kingdoms

• Main Authors: FAN, MEI-YU, 范美玉
• Other Authors: 陳光憲教授、吳俊德教授
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/weath4

碩士 === 臺北市立大學 === 中國語文學系碩士在職專班 === 104 === The fifth and sixth graders are passionate about the history stories of Three Kingdoms. By reading the History of Three Kingdoms, students learn not only the historical facts of Three Kingdoms but the content, grammar and rhetoric of the related idioms, which involves culture and value. This thesis explores 125 common four-character idioms and begins by discussing the definition and features of the idioms. Subsequently, the similarities and dissimilarities among idioms, proverbs, Xie-hou-yu and phrases are discussed to define the range of idioms. This study divides the idioms into four parts, which are morality, political economy, the ways of conducting oneself in society and others. Among the common four-character idioms in the History of Three Kingdoms, the content about wars, sociability, ability and insight, merits and demerits, thought, and loyalty is mentioned frequently. Exploring the idioms in the History of Three Kingdoms with the grammar of modern Mandarin Chinese, I find 8 structures: subject-predicate, modifying phrase, verb-object, verb-complement, combination, verbs in series, pivotal construction, and Chinese contracted structure. The structures of combination, modifying phrase and subject-predicate are used more frequently. The common four-character idioms in the History of Three Kingdoms show three features of the ancient Chinese grammar. First, the phenomenon of flexible use of nouns, verbs, adjectives and numerals exists. In addition, flexible use of adjectives is the most frequent. Second, function words such as ér, qí, suǒ, xiāng, yǐ and zhī are used. Third, the phenomenon of adjusting word order exists. However, only one idiom appears this way. The majority of the common four-character idioms in the History of Three Kingdoms are high quality. That is to say, more than one rhetorical classifications are used and this makes the idioms expressive. It helps to enhance the ability of reading modern and ancient literary works, improve the ability of oral and written expression, and reinforce thoughts and cultural accomplishments by learning the common four-character idioms in the History of Three Kingdoms. Teachers can design a series of teaching activities to improve students’ ability of using the idioms by asking them memorize and apply the idioms persistently.