论习语“鼓盆”的形成及其文化意蕴

On the Formation of the Chinese Idiom Gu Pen and Its Cultural Implication

习语"鼓盆"源于《庄子》中"鼓盆而歌"的故事。该词语最初并不专指丧妻,大约在唐代始有指代丧妻的用例,宋代以后遂成固定用语,在文人群体与民间百姓中均得到广泛应用。古代文人对庄子"鼓盆而歌"有情无情的质疑与辩解,隐含的是儒家礼乐文化与重情思想对该故事的改造。

The idiom gu pen( beating a pot) originated from the story 'Beat a Pot and Sing'in Chuang- tzu. Originally the phrase did not refers to the loss of one's wife; the phrase with this meaning began to appear in the Tang Dynasty and became a fixed phrase after the Song Dynasty and was widely used by literati and ordinary folk. The ancient Chinese literati's questioning and debating of the heartlessness implied in the phrase was the transformation of the story in Chuang- tzu from the perspective of the Confucian culture of rites and music and the valuing of feelings.