Zaoye (造業) has appeared in the documents of pre-Qin Dynasty, indicating the establishment of a career. The extensive spread of Chinese-translated Buddhist scriptures gives Ye (業) a specific Buddhist connotation, which refers to the corresponding results produced by various thoughts and behaviors. Ye (業) is associated with Nie (孽) after biased towards evil karma. The thesis examines the semantic and usage frequencies of Zaoye (造業), Zaonie (造孽), Zaonie (遭孽), Zaoye (遭業), Zuoye (作業) and Zuonie (作孽) in historial documents and dialect materials, arguing that the phonetic and semantic proximity of the morphemes readily results in semantic blending among these words. Zaoye (造業) in Southwestern Mandarin expresses pity. Zaonie (造孽) in Southwestern Mandarin, Xiang, Gan and Hakka dialect expresses pity. Zaonie (遭孽) in Jianghuai dialect and Southwestern Mandarin also expresses pity. Zaoye (遭業) in Beijing dialect expresses pity. Zuonie (作孽) in Jianghuai and Wu dialect expresses pity. Based on the literal semantics of the word Zaoye (造業), it is not possibe to deduce why the word can express pity. The thesis suggests that Zaoye (造業) expresses pity because it is confused with word Zaonie (遭孽). Zaonie (遭孽) means suffering from bad things, which leads to the meaning of pity. Due to the phonetic similarity and semantic overlap between Zaoye (造業) and Zaonie (遭孽), Southwest Mandarin dialect areas use the simple character form Zaoye (造業) to express pity.

1. 引言
2. “造”“業”本義考源
3. ”造業”的流傳與通用
4. 方言中的“造業”及相關詞語
5. “造業”表可憐的語義來源 
    5.1 造孽
    5.2 遭孽
    5.3 遭業
    5.4 作業 、作孽
6. 結語

 

• 汪子恆(四川大學文學與新聞學院博士研究生) | Ziheng WANG