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In "顶真", one uses a word near the end of the clause and then repeats that word to begin the next clause. For example, 忽聞海上有仙在虛無縹緲間.

What if the same character repeats but means differently in different clauses? Is it still considered as "顶真"?

For example:

旅行社刚刚开三就去了印过了一段美好的时是恒河就去了好几年又去了日来是很好的经时一年有与他一路同了我编不下去了。

Edit:

According to Wikipedia, (顶真) "是指上句的結尾與下句的開頭使用相同的字或詞,用以修飾兩句子的聲韻方法。需要注意的是,使用這個方式時,毋須限制上下句的字數或平仄,但上下句交接點一定要使用相同的字或詞"。

It seems to me that only the same character (or word) is required but not necessarily the same meaning.

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  • 1
    I found this where refers 《修辭學》written by a professor: web.archive.org/web/20090123034921/http://… The definition is simple, only to care about the words or characters but not the meaning. The example you provide is a bit weird but seems not violate the anadiplosis definition... (Maybe I need to modify my answer? :P)
    – Conifers
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 6:39
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    And anadiplosis seems be defined in recent centuries or decades. In ancient China, like 賦(直述)、比(譬喻)、興(聯想)is discussed in Han dynasty, or 文心雕龍 written in The Wei, Chin Southern and Northern Dynasties, has no definition about anadiplosis.
    – Conifers
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 6:45
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    @Zuriel 1. Some traditional Chinese characters are merged to one single character, the single character may either a newly created one that does not exists in traditional Chinese or one of the original characters. The merged traditional characters does not necessarily map to simplified characters one by one unless that they are the same one in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
    – xenophōn
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 7:21
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    @Zuriel for example: The characters 干, 幹 and a part meaning of 乾 are merged to 干 which already exists in traditional Chinese. Howerver, the characters 複 and 復, and a part meaning of 覆 are merged to 复 which is a new simplified character.
    – xenophōn
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 7:21
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    @Zuriel 2. Some traditional Chinese characters are merged to one of the original characters which covers the meaning of all merged characters while other characters are also simplified and still can be used individually.
    – xenophōn
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 7:22

1 Answer 1

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頂真 is a rhetoric method to make sentences reading more smoothly or meaning more tightly.
The connected words should be the same meaning. Check the following examples:

  • 將軍百戰死,壯士十年來見天子天子坐明堂: 歸->come back, 天子->emperor
  • 江南可採葉何田田: 蓮->lotus
  • 我出了村就過了河過了河就進了城: 過了河->across the river

But for your example like:

  • 度 is part of India (印度) on the left and means "passing" on the right.
  • 光 is part of "time" (時光) on the left and part of the adverb "just" (光是) on the right.

These above should not be counted as proper anadiplosis rhetoric method, maybe only (past meaning in general).

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  • Thanks for your answer! Do you have any reference supporting your conclusion?
    – Zuriel
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 2:13
  • Well, I just checked with my friend who is major in Chinese in University. She gave the 2 reasons: (1) 頂真 has an implicit function that the object in first sentence will be the subject in second sentence, making the whole paragraph context more connected and tightly. (2) If something like "北韓" -> "韓先生" could be 頂真, how about I replace "北韓" with "朝鮮" while "北韓" = "朝鮮"?
    – Conifers
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 2:53
  • But if you only consider phonology, the example you provide is 頂真 for sure. However the Chinese rhetoric usually consider the meanings, like 譬喻(Simile or Metaphor), 借代(Metonymy), 擬人/轉化(Personification)
    – Conifers
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 3:00
  • Thank you! I failed to find the requirement on meaning at wikipedia, and am wondering if the requirement can be found in some authoritative grammar book.
    – Zuriel
    Commented Sep 19, 2019 at 4:01

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