崔玉華

漢語中有兩個廣為人知的成語：“夜郎自大”和“黔驢技窮”。這里的“夜郎”和“黔”指的都是中國西南的一個省份——貴州。

夜郎自大

漢朝初期，西南的夜郎國（今貴州西部）占地此較大，國王以為他的國家全天下最大。他見到漢武帝派來的使臣便問：“漢朝和夜郎哪個大？”這個典故被著名史學家司馬遷記入《史記》，“夜郎”從此家喻戶曉，成了“不自量力，妄自尊大”的代名詞。人們嘲笑夜郎作為偏居一隅的小國，是井底之蛙。

但根據(jù)考證，夜郎國作為中國西南地區(qū)第一個由少數(shù)民族建立的國家，史籍記載的歷史就有300多年，領(lǐng)土涉及今天的云南、貴州等地。夜郎人善于進行對外貿(mào)易，國家和百姓算得上富庶，其實力不容小覷。

現(xiàn)在的貴州早已不似夜郎國時那樣閉塞，四通八達的水陸交通網(wǎng)已經(jīng)使貴州成為中國西南地區(qū)的交通樞紐，成為長江經(jīng)濟帶的重要組成部分。十多個國內(nèi)和國際機場把貴州和全國乃至世界相連。貴州在電訊領(lǐng)域已經(jīng)成為全國的“領(lǐng)頭羊”，貴州的科研工作者跨越葬莽群山，利用“中國天眼”展望世界，甚至探索宇宙的奧秘。

黔驢技窮

“黔驢技窮”的典故出自唐朝文學家柳宗元的《三戒·黔之驢》。故事講的是，一頭毛驢被帶到黔地（今貴州），放到山腳吃草。山上的老虎發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個從沒有見過的怪物，開始只是遠遠觀望，然后慢慢靠近試探，最后發(fā)現(xiàn)毛驢除了大叫或尥蹶子沒有其他本事，于是就把驢子吃掉了。人們用這個成語指“僅有的一點本領(lǐng)都用完，已無計可施”之意?，F(xiàn)在，我們遷是聊聊貴州省的簡稱為什么是“黔”吧！

在漢語中，“黔”是一個形聲字，形旁“黑”指“黑色頭巾”，聲旁“今”意為“當面的”，“黔”表示“帶黑頭巾出門見人”。東漢著名文字學家許慎在《說文解字》中解釋：“黔，黎也。秦謂民為黔首，同謂之黎民。”就是說，秦朝把老百姓稱為“黔首”或“黎民”。秦王朝一統(tǒng)天下，在貴州設立黔中部，不僅要從行政上控制此地，更要從思想上讓南方的山民意識到自己是秦國的百姓。后世延續(xù)了這個稱呼，“黔”字就成了貴州的代稱。

雖然貴州省群山環(huán)抱，有些地方經(jīng)濟相對落后，但貴州人并不保守。以人口占比最大的苗族為例，他們佩戴的頭飾多是純銀打造，高調(diào)張揚。他們的服飾色彩艷麗，織、繡、挑、染工藝繁復，服飾圖案更具有豐富的文化內(nèi)涵，有表意和識別族類、支系及語言的重要作用。

貴州地處中國西南，境內(nèi)多高原、山地和丘陵，索有“八山一水一分田”之說，是中國平原極少的省份。但貴州并不貧瘠，除了神奇的自然景觀、濃郁的民族風情等旅游資源吸引著國內(nèi)外游人，其獨特的地形地貌和氣候更孕育了豐富的野生動植物資源。貴州是全國四大中藥材產(chǎn)區(qū)之一，有藥用植物資源4 000多種，占全國中草藥品種的80%，故有“夜郎無閑草，黔地多良藥”的說法。

朋友們，來貴州吧！感受黔地的無限風情，領(lǐng)略“夜郎”的巨大變化！

A Story of Guizhou Past and Present Reflected in Idioms

There are two widely used idioms in Chinese：yelang-zida （as conceited as Yelang）and qianlv-jiqiong （at one’s wit’s endlike a newly-arrived donkey in Qian）.Here both yelang and qian refer to asouthwestern province in China，the Guizhou Province.

yelang-zida

In the early Han Dynasty， the Kingdom ofYelang in the southwestern region of China （thewest part of today’s Guizhou Province） controlleda large territory， so that the king believed his kingdomthe largest in the world. He asked the ambassadorsent by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty：“Han and Yelang， which is the larger kingdom？”This story was recorded in the Records of History bythe renowned historian Sima Qian， and since then“Yelang” has become a household epithet for thosewho “do not know their own capacities and are ridiculouslyconceited”. As a relatively small kingdomlying in the remote corner of the continent， Yelangis mocked for its distorted sense of self-importance.

However， according to historical research， as the first kingdom established by ethnic minorities?in southwestern China， Yelang had a recordedhistory of over three hundred years and possesseda territory covering today’s Yunnan and Guizhouprovinces. Yelang people were good at tradingwith other regions and the kingdom and its peopleenjoyed considerable affluence. Therefore， Yelangas a kingdom was not at all a small power.

Today’s Guizhou Province is no longer geographicallyisolated as Yelang. Now， the wellconnectedwater and land transportation networkhas made Guizhou the transportation hub of southwestChina and an important part of the YangtzeRiver Economic Belt. Over a dozen domestic andinternational airports connect Guizhou to the otherparts of China and the world. Guizhou also ranksamong the top players in the eld of telecommunicationsin China. Scientistc researchers in Guizhouare using “China’s Tianyan”， the Five-hundred-meterAperture Spherical radio Telescope （FAST） to lookacross the mountains in Guizhou into the worldand to explore the mysteries of the cosmos.

qianlv-jiqiong

The idiom qianlv-jiqiong originates from thestory “A Donkey Comes to Qian” collected inthe Tang-dynasty writer Liu Zongyuan’s ThreeParables. In this story， a donkey was brought tothe area of Qian （today’s Guizhou）. While it wasgrazing at the foot of a hill， a tiger from the hilldiscovered it. Never having seen such a strangelookinganimal， the tiger initially only dared to observeit from afar. When the tiger had come closerto the donkey step by step， it realized that the donkey’stricks were no more than braying and kicking.then the tiger ate the donkey. Today， people use theidiom to describe a situation where one has exhaustedone’s abilities and can do nothing more. Now let’slook at how “Qian” has become a synonym for theGuizhou Province！

In Chinese， 黔 is a “shape-and-sound” character，or a pictophonetic character. The semanticelement means “black headscarf ”， while the phoneticelement means “face to face”. So together黔 means “going out to meet people with a blackheadscarf on”. The famous philologist Xu Shenfrom the Eastern Han Dynasty explains thus in hisdictionary Shuowen Jiezi： “Qian means the mass.The Qin Dynasty rulers called people qianshou，or ‘the black-headscarfed’， which is another way tosay limin， ‘the common people’.” In other words， theQin Dynasty rulers called their subjects qianshouor limin. A er the rst emperor of Qin had uni edChina， he set up the Qianzhong county in today’sGuizhou， not only to control this regionadministratively， but also to inculcate in themind of these southern mountainous people asense of being the subjects of the Qin empire. The?epithet was passed down to later generations and“Qian” since then has become the synonym forGuizhou.

Enclosed by mountains， some places inGuizhou are relatively economically less developed，yet Guizhou people are by no meansconservative. For example， the Miao people， thelargest population group in Guizhou， love to wearflamboyant ornamental headgears made of puresilver. Their ethnic clothing features daring colorsand elaborate weaving， embroidery， lining anddyeing techniques. The patterns on these clothesalso contain rich cultural meanings and functionas elaborate signs to convey meaning or to identifyone’s ethnic groups， subgroups and languages.

Guizhou is located in the southwest of Chinaand a great proportion of it consists of plateaus，mountains and hills， therefore there is the saying“for each arable land there are one river and eightmountains” to describe the scarcity of flatlandsin Guizhou. Yet Guizhou is far from a land ofscarcity. Its breathtaking natural landscape andcolorful ethnic culture attract tourists from homeand abroad. Moreover， its unique topographicalfeatures and climate cultivate a wealth of wildliferesources Guizhou is one of the four majorChinese herbal medicine production areas and ishome to over four thousand types of plants usedfor medicine， accounting for 80% of the medicinalherbs produced in China. Therefore， it is said that“there is no idle grass in Yelang， and many goodmedicines can be found in Qian”.

Welcome to Guizhou to have a taste of thepoignant local culture and witness the great changesof “Yelang”！