Swearing in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties: The principles and cultural beliefs in Shuǐhǔ zhuàn (水浒传)

Abstract

Swearing is a verbal act in which the main language structure is composed of multiple swear words. The reasons for studying swearing include the need to know what lexical items might be used for swearing. For this reason, it is critical to determine the pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs which underlie curse words. This paper constructs a thesaurus of the swearing vocabulary used in the late-Yuan and early-Ming dynasty novel, Shuǐhǔ zhuàn (水浒传). It analyzes the pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs surrounding swearing during those dynasties by means of exhaustive measurement, offering a better understanding of those pragmatics and beliefs and showing how Chinese people swore or used abusive language at that time. This paper indicates that those Yuan and Ming pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs also underlie the ways in which modern Chinese people swear.