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Geyi ("categorizing concepts") originated as a 3rd-century Chinese Buddhist method for explaining lists of Sanskrit terms from the Buddhist canon with comparable lists from Chinese classics; but many 20th-century scholars of Buddhism misconstrued ''geyi'' "matching concepts" as a supposed method of translating Sanskrit technical terminology with Chinese Daoist vocabulary (such as rendering ''Śūnyatā'' "emptiness" with ''Wu'' 無 "without"). This reputed ''geyi'' "matching concepts" or "matching meanings" definition is ubiquitous in modern reference works, including academic articles, textbooks on Buddhism, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and Web-based resources. Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, investigated ''geyi'' and found no historical evidence to support the translation hypothesis. Mair (2012:30) discovered that ''geyi'' was a "highly ephemeral and not-very-successful attempt on the part of a small number of Chinese teachers to cope with the flood of numbered lists of categories, ideas and so forth (of which Indian thinkers were so much enamoured) that came to China in the wake of Buddhism." Misunderstanding of ''geyi'', which Mair calls "pseudo-''geyi''," has distorted the History of Buddhism and History of Daoism; has misled countless students through "erroneous definitions and specious accounts" in otherwise generally reliable reference books; and perhaps worst of all, "has spawned an entire industry of fake philosophizing about the intellectual history of China," particularly that of the Six Dynasties period (220-598). This kind of scholarship seems to be perpetuated in the latest publications on the topic (Thompson: 2015) which is apparently completely ignorant of Mair's study. ==Word semantics== The Chinese word ''géyì'' is a compound of two terms. ''Gé'' 格—a phono-semantic character written with the "wood radical" indicating "lattice; pattern" and a ''gě'' 各 phonetic indicator—is defined (DeFrancis 2003:298) as: "''noun'' ① lattice; grid; squares ② () case; ''bound morpheme'' standard; pattern; style; ''verb'' resist; obstruct". ''Yì'' 義—written with ''yáng'' 𦍌 "sheep" over ''wǒ '' 我 "I; my" phonetic—is defined (DeFrancis 2003:1134) as: ''bound morpheme'' "① justice; righteousness ② chivalry; sense of honor ③ meaning; significance ④ human ties; relationship ⑤ adopted; adoptive ⑥ artificial; false ⑦ volunteer." The common but inaccurate English translation of ''géyì'' is "matching concepts" or sometimes "matching meanings" in the imaginative scenario of early Sanskrit-Chinese "traslationese" (Zürcher 1980:97). Besides the absence of historical proof (discussed below), there is a lack of linguistic evidence. While Chinese ''yì'' 義 commonly translates as "meaning; concept" (e.g., ''yìyì'' 意義 "meaning; sense; significance"), ''gé'' 格 never means "matching". This Chinese character 格 has multiple pronunciations and many meanings. The ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' word dictionary 格 entry (1993:989-991) lists four different Modern Standard Chinese pronunciations (''gé'', ''luò'', ''gē'', ''hè''), plus two special pronunciations (''lù'', ''hé''), with a total of 42 definitions. The ''Hanyu Da Zidian'' character dictionary 格 entry (2006:1203-1205) lists the same six pronunciations, with a total of 33 definitions. Mair (2012:31) says, "Despite the plethora of definitions for this single graph, neither of these authoritative works offers a justification for rendering it as ‘matching’ (the closest they come is ‘to oppose (enemy )’, but that is too remote to justify translating geyi as ‘matching meanings’)." Mair compiled definitions of ''ge'' 格 from leading Modern Chinese dictionaries and semantically regrouped them as: square/compartment/check/chequer (formed by crossed lines); lattice, grid; division; standard, pattern, rule; character, manner, style; impede, obstruct, resist, bar (designated by some dictionaries as a literary usage); hit, beat, fight; investigate, examine; case (grammatical). (Mair 2012:31) Taking the ''gé'' in ''géyì'' to signify "classification; categorization", Mair (2012:32) explains the most of these meanings are derivable from the basic idea of a compartmentalized wooden framework in which sections are blocked off. Since not one Chinese dictionary defines ''gé'' as "matching" or "pairing", there is "no lexicographical warrant for the currently ubiquitous translation of ''geyi'' as "matching meanings". Mair concludes that "'matching' is simply an ad hoc, unsubstantiated rendering of the graph devised by modern scholars perplexed by its occurrence in the shadowy expression ''geyi''." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Geyi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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