Abstract:

The items like "five tones"(wuyin), "five sounds"(wusheng), gong-shang-jue-zhi-yu, and "five families"(wuxing) have been frequently mentioned in the literature of phonology from the Han-Wei to the Song-Yuan Dynasties. There has been various explanations since the Qing Dynasty. In most cases, "wuyin" or "gong-shang" refers to the types of initial consonants(of lips, teeth, throat, tongue, etc.). This thesis finds that "wuyin" in "The Chart of Five Tones" attached to Yupian of the Song version contains ten representative characters which are divided into 5 groups with 2 characters in one group. The standard of division is neither consonant or tone nor head vowel or main vowel, but articulatory gesture of the rhymes among the characters, that is, five different mouth shapes to pronounce the main vowels combining with the terminal sounds. In addition, it can also be explained from this angle the coherent connection of "wuxing" with "gong-shang" in the texts since the Han Dynasty.

Key words: Yupian, "The Chart of Five Tones", gong-shang-jue-zhi-yu, five families, history of Chinese phonology