Lion Eating Poet in the Stone Den
The Lion Eating Poet in the Stone Den (施氏食獅史 Shī Shì shí shī shǐ) is a famous example of constrained writing by Zhao Yuanren which consists of 92 characters, all with the sound shi in different tones when read in Mandarin. The text, which is written in Classical Chinese, is easily comprehensible when read, but becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken or when romanized, since homophony is a very common phenomenon in Classical Chinese. In writing the essay, Zhao was attempting to argue the absurdity of romanizing Chinese.
The text
The following is the text in Hanyu Pinyin, written according to the recommended orthography. One of the recommendations is that numbers should be written in Arabic numerals, so the number shí is written as 10.
- << Shī Shì shí shī shǐ >>
- Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí 10 shī.
- Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
- 10 shí, shì 10 shī shì shì.
- Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
- Shì shì shì 10 shī, shì shì shì, shī shì 10 shī shìshì.
- Shì shí shì 10 shī shī, shì shíshì.
- Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
- Shíshì shì, Shì shí shì shí shì 10 shī.
- Shí shí, shǐ shì shì 10 shī, shí 10 shī shī.
- Shì shì shì shì.
Text in Chinese Characters:
- 《施氏食獅史》
- 石室詩士施氏, 嗜獅, 誓食十獅。
- 氏時時適市視獅。
- 十時, 適十獅適市。
- 是時, 適施氏適市。
- 氏視是十獅, 恃矢勢, 使是十獅逝世。
- 氏拾是十獅屍, 適石室。
- 石室濕, 氏使侍拭石室。
- 石室拭, 氏始試食是十獅。
- 食時, 始識是十獅, 實十石獅屍。
- 試釋是事。
Comment
So, how do the Chinese people deal with so much homophones in actual speech? In fact, many characters in the passage had distinct sounds in Middle Chinese. Some distinctions are still preserved in other Chinese dialects. While the sound changes merged the different sounds, new way of speaking those concepts emerged. Typically disyllabic words replaced monosyllabic ones. If the same passage is translated into modern Mandarin, it will not be that confusing. The following is an example written in Pinyin.
- << Shī Shì chī shīzi jì >>
- Yǒu yi wèi zhù zài shíshì lǐ de shīrén jiào Shī Shì, ài chī shīzi, juéxīn yào chī 10 zhi shīzi.
- Tā chángcháng qù shìchǎng kàn shīzi.
- 10 diǎnzhōng, gānghǎo yǒu 10 zhi shīzi dào le shìchǎng.
- Nà shíhòu, gānghǎo Shī Shì yě dào le shìchǎng.
- Tā kànjiàn nà 10 zhi shīzi, biàn fàng jiàn, bǎ nà 10 zhi shīzi shā sǐ le.
- Tā shí qǐ nà 10 zhi shīzi de shītǐ, dài dào shíshì.
- Shíshì shí le shuǐ, Shī Shì jiào shìchóng bǎ shíshì chā gān.
- Shíshì chā gān le, tā cái shìshi chī nà 10 zhi shīzi.
- Chī de shíhòu, cái fāxiàn nà 10 zhi shīzi, yuánlái shì 10 zhi shítou de shīzi shītǐ.
- Shìshi jiěshì zhè jiàn shì ba.
