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A Chinese-English Dictionary Hakka-Dialect (CEDH) and Dictionnaire Chinois-Francais Dialecte Hac-ka (DCFH), written by missionaries in late Ching Dynasty for convenience of evangelization in Hakka areas of Canton province, contain an abundant number of Hakka ancient proverbs which are worth our studying. Based on Diachronic Comparative Method, the essay contrasts Hakka animal proverbs in CEDH and DCFH and those in contemporary proverb collections to explore their meanings and how they have transformed.
The essay is composed of five chapters, with the first Chapter Introduction and the Fifth Chapter Conclusion. The key points of the other chapters are described briefly as follows.
The Second Chapter deals with the classification of the animal proverbs in CEDH and DCFH. All the entries in these two dictionaries related to the animals are classified into beasts, birds, and fish and insects, which are further subdivided into certain minor categories with the total 196 entries.
Chapter Three mainly focuses on the meaning of the Hakka animal proverbs. All the 196 entries at hand are analyzed to get their core meaning. Through the discussion, it is found that images of animals are employed figuratively in most of the Hakka animal proverbs to explicate the philosophy of life. In other words, they are mostly the “social proverbs” which convey social experiences, with few “natural proverbs” offering knowledge about nature.
The Fourth Chapter elaborates the transformational rules of Hakka animal proverbs. In form, they tend to evolve from “short to longer,” while from “limited to richer” in meaning. As for the factors that triggered the transformation, on the one hand, the change is believed to have a bearing with the passage of time, distinctive areas, and interpersonal spread. On the other hand, it has something to do with the flexibility of the proverb itself.
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