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Monkeys, particularly macaques and gibbons, have played significant roles in Chinese culture for over two thousand years. Some examples familiar to English speakers include the zodiacal Year of the Monkey, the Monkey King Sun Wukong in the novel ''Journey to the West'', and Monkey Kung Fu. ==Terminology== The Chinese language has numerous words meaning "simian; monkey; ape". Some diachronically changed meanings in reference to different simians. For instance, Chinese ''xingxing'' 猩猩 originally named "a mythical creature with a human face and pig body", and became the modern name for the "orangutan". Within the classification of Chinese characters, almost all "monkey; ape" words – with the exceptions of ''nao'' 夒 and ''yu'' 禺 that were originally monkey pictographs – are written with radical-phonetic compound characters. These characters combine a radical or classifier that roughly indicates semantic field, usually the "dog/quadruped radical" 犭 for simians, and a phonetic element that suggests pronunciation. For instance, this animal classifier is a graphic component in ''hou'' 猴 (with a ''hou'' 侯 "marquis" phonetic) "macaque; monkey" and ''yuan'' 猿 (with ''yuan'' 袁 "long robe") "gibbon; monkey". Note that the following discussion of "monkey; ape" terminology will cite three fundamental sources. The oldest extant Chinese dictionary, the (c. 3rd century BCE) ''Erya'' (Chapter 18, 釋獸 "Explaining Wild Animals") glosses seven names for monkeys and monkey-like creatures in the 寓屬 "Monkey/Wild Animal" taxonomy. The first Chinese character dictionary, the (121 CE) ''Shuowen Jiezi'' defines many names of simians, primarily under the (犬部 "dog/quadruped" radical) in Chapter 11. The classic Chinese pharmacopoeia, Li Shizhen's (1597) ''Bencao Gangmu'' (獸之四 "Animals No. 4" chapter) lists medical uses for five ''Yu'' 寓 "monkeys" and three ''Kuai'' 怪 "supernatural beings". The latter are ''wangliang'' 魍魎 "a demon that eats the livers of corpses", ''penghou'' 彭侯 "a tree spirit that resembles a black tailless dog", and ''feng'' 封 "an edible monster that resembles a two-eyed lump of flesh". Li Shizhen distinguishes 11 varieties of monkeys: A small one with a short tail is called Hou (() monkey). If it looks like a monkey but has a prominent moustache, then it is called Ju (). If it looks like a monkey but is bigger, then it is Jue (). A monkey that is big, with red eyes and a long tail, is called Yu (). A monkey that is small but has a long tail and an upright nose is called You (). A monkey that is similar to You but is bigger is called Guoran (). A monkey that is similar to You but smaller is called Mengsong (). A monkey that is similar to You but jumps a lot is called Canhu (). A monkey that has long arms is called Yuan (() ape). A monkey that is similar to Yuan but has a golden tail is called Rong (). A monkey that is similar to Yuan but bigger, and can eat apes and monkeys, is called Du (). (s.v. ''Jue'', tr. Luo 2003: 4124, cf. Read 1931: no. 400B) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Monkeys in Chinese culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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