'Things Are as Numerous as Strings of Pearls, as Numerous as the Brilliant Flowers'-Arts of Figure of Speech in Qian Zhongshu's Novel Fortress Besieged

摘要

Fortress Besieged is a famous novel written by Zhongshu Qian. The most prominent feature in this work is its witty expressions with figure of speech used for the characterization, which is bound to do research. The paper uses comparison and induction in the research. It is concluded that the language art of the figure of speech has some characteristics: the figure of speech is used in everywhere in the novel; the figurative imagery is far from the original meaning, but suitable in the description. From the perspective of linguistics, this paper focuses on the language arts, accompanied by some figures, which is unique in the research. Qian's Fortress Besieged is an excellent novel in the history of modern Chinese literature, which a profound analysis of irony for life, and a classic art with colorful words and expressions [1]. Its success is with multi factors, and the most important aspect is the use of language art. The expressions are wit, sharp, profound, humorous, in particular, figure of speech is amazing. Figure of speech is regarded as the oldest, the most common used rhetorical way, and it uses the similar nature of things to describe things or explain the reasons [2]. Because of its features of fresh and natural, vivid and strange, the novel has always been loved by the people. Some people even think that a creative simile or metaphor not only has a strong visual impact, but also gives the impression that lingering aftertaste. Qian Zhongshu is fond of the figure of speech. He believes that, "figure of speech is characteristic of literary language [3]," Thus, there are many expressions in figure of speech in his novels, poetry, essays and other works. He also believes that, "many of the ideas are based on system of figure of speech [4]." Thus, the wonderful words and expressions in his works are also based on his deep understanding of figure of speech. His novel Fortress Besieged is in the case, and the expressions in figure of speech are brilliant. The rhetorical art of Fortress Besieged is like a blend of Chinese and Western cultures. According to rough statistics, the use number of figure of speech in Fortress Besieged is up to more than 700, almost in every page, every paragraph, which is called the garden of figure of speech. The forms of the figure of speech are diversified, just as Liu Xie in Wenxin Diaolong from Southern Liang Dynasty put it, "The figure of speech appear in the sound, in appearance, in the heart, or in the material [5]." Then, what kind of areas is the art of Fortress Besieged embodied in? The examples are shown as follows.