《礼记》中“四神”的文化意蕴及其变化

On the Fore Gods cultural Implication and Its Changes of The Book of Rites

语言是文化的载体,文化寓于语言的各个要素之中,其中最主要的是词汇。文章通过大量实例论述了《礼记》中所提到的词语朱雀、玄武、青龙和白虎这“四神”的文化意蕴及其发展变化,并从理论上概括了词语的民俗文化意义及其特点。

Language is the carrier of culture and culture exists in every element of language, especially in vocabulary. Vocabulary meaning is very abundant. Geoffery Leech, a world famous British linguist, categorizes seven types of it, including conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collective meaning and thematic meaning. This paper discusses and analyses the Fore Gods (bird, tortoise, dragon, tiger) mentioned in The Book of Rites, their cultural implication and their changes in meaning by using lots of examples. Finally, it summarizes the folk-customary cultural meaning of the words, together with their characteristics through the theory.