The Metaphorical and Metonymical Conceptualizations of the Term Sea (Hai) in the Four-Character Chinese Idioms

Abstract

This paper investigates the term “sea” (hai) in the four-character Chinese idioms according to conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory, attempting to illustrate their conceptualization, determine their possible underlying motivations, and explore Chinese maritime thought and culture. Based on idiomatic expressions, three types of conceptual metaphors are identified: abstract qualities of concrete entities are the sea, abstract entity is sea, and a certain aspect of a human being is sea. Moreover, the four types of conceptual metonymies are the part for the whole, the whole for the part, the place for the product, and the place for the responsible deities or goddesses. They are motivated by a culture of worship of and accordance with nature, the pursuit of achievements in traditional Chinese literature, “man paid, nature made” as the attitude towards the ups and downs of life, and a self-centered conceptualization of the world. The maritime culture represented in these conceptualizations comprises fear of and respect for the sea, harmony between humans and the sea, and static–dynamic integrations of river, land, and sea. The findings show that the motivations of these conceptualizations do not only originate from the embodiment and Chinese philosophy of the unity of heaven and humanity but are also constrained by the most influential talent selection mechanism, the Imperial Examination System, as well as by agriculture, the foundation of the economy in ancient China.

1. Introduction

Idioms play an important role in human languages, and are defined by Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2023) as “a group of words in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own” (accessed on 30 May 2023), and “set phrases” or “fixed phrases” (Spears 2000). They contain an abundance of cultural implications, and the understanding of their connotations requires essential linguistic knowledge, as well as cultural information about the society from which they originated and in which they are used. Hence, mastering them constitutes a barrier for learners, and interpretation can be challenging for linguists. Generally, the major approaches to idiom studies fall into the three categories of the traditional, compositional, and cognitive perspectives. The first views idioms as syntactically fixed structures and semantically arbitrary chunks that function as conventional multi-word units (Hornby 2002; Richards and Schmidt 2013). The second contends that the literal meanings of the components of an idiom contribute to its idiomatic or figurative meanings, and their contributions vary in degree (Fernando 1996; Cristina et al. 2006). Both of these approaches maintain that idioms function at the linguistic level rather than the cognitive level. However, these views are challenged by cognitive semantics. Accordingly, the third cognitive approach treats idioms as the embodiment of human conceptualizations, which are grounded in human experiences of the world from within the bodies they inhabit. Therefore, idioms are motivated and predictable at a certain level, reflecting human cognition as well as providing a pathway to understanding cultural specificity (Kövecses 2005; Gibbs 1994). For this reason, idioms about the sea, which are largely figurative, offer one of the best ways to access and understand Chinese maritime culture, and conceptual metaphor and metonymy theories are applicable to their study (Kövecses and Szabco 1996; Gibbs et al. 1997; Gibbs 1990; Gibbs and O’Brien 1990; Gibbs and Nayak 1989).

In addition to their shared features with the idioms discussed from the three perspectives above, Chinese idioms are characterized by the dominance of four characters in lexical configurations. There are up to 45,000 Chinese idioms, and 96% of them are lexically composed of four Chinese characters (Zheng and Zhou 2019). The four syllables as two groups of twos in successions is another prominent feature of Chinese idioms (Wen 2005, p. 70). They are also characterized by enriched cultural meanings sourcing from parables and allegories, myths and legends, historical stories and events, ancient classical literary works, and folk colloquial sayings (Xu 2003). Some studies have even shown that Chinese tend to use more idioms than Westerners in daily communication (Zhang 2003; Jiang and Liao 2006; Liu 2018). Familiarity with idioms can also be helpful for the nonnatives in gaining credibility in Chinese society (Jiao et al. 2011, p. vi).

The Chinese character “海” (sea) first appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC) (Rong et al. 1985). It has several synonyms in the ancient Chinese language, such as 天池 (sky-pool; heaven pool), 巨壑 (huge-gully; huge gully), 水王 (water-king; the king of water). However, only the character “海” (sea) withstands the force of evolution and manifests its great powers of productivity, while its synonyms have almost faded away and are rarely used in mandarin Chinese. The idioms containing such synonyms of the terms “海” (sea) cannot be founded in the database CNKI. Thus, we investigated the four-character Chinese idioms containing the term “sea” (hai) to reveal various aspects of Chinese maritime culture, as well as the underlying motivations of the conceptual metaphors and metonymies of the sea (hai). This study addresses the following four research questions: (1) what are the conceptual metaphors and metonymies underlying idioms of the “sea” (hai)? (2) How many idioms of the “sea” (hai) are distributed in conceptual metaphors and metonymies? (3) What are the underlying motivations of these conceptual metaphors and metonymies? (4) What is the nature of the Chinese maritime culture manifested by the idioms of the “sea” (hai)?

In what follows, first, conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory is briefly described as the framework for the analysis of idioms of the “sea” (hai) (Section 2). Second, the methodology and the data collection process are presented (Section 3). Third, the data are analyzed in the light of conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory (Section 4). Fourth, the motivations for these idioms and their relation to maritime culture are discussed (Section 5). Finally, the conclusions of this study are summarized (Section 6).

2. Background and Review of Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory

One of the basic tenets of cognitive semantics is that the structure of the human conceptual system is formed by human experience, derived from the interactions between their bodies and the world, mainly via moving and perceiving, which also can be referred to as embodiment (Gibbs et al. 2004; Gibbs 2021; Kövecses 2020; Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003). Cognitive linguists contend that “the very structure of reason itself comes from the details of our embodiment. The same neural and cognitive mechanisms that allow us to perceive and move around also create our conceptual systems and modes of reason” (Lakoff et al. 1999). Conceptual metaphor and metonymy are some of the results of this embodiment.

2.1. Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor is not simply a rhetorical feature of language but rather a cognitive device for human thinking and acting, which can be used to structure, reconstruct, and even create reality. It is organized according to a target domain (a), which is usually less accessible through sensory perception, a source domain (b), which is, perceptually, more concrete and accessible, and cross-domain mappings or correspondences between the two conceptual domains, which can be represented by the formula a is b (Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003). Conceptual metaphor motivates linguistic expressions, and reflects the underlying conceptual system of the users of a certain language (Lakoff 1993; Kövecses 2010, 2020). Consider the four-character Chinese idioms沧海横流 and 四海波静, which literally mean “dark blue sea overflowing across” and “sea with waves calming down”, respectively; metaphorically, they correspond to states of war and peace in a country. The underlying concept of the two linguistic expressions is “a country is the sea”, in which the two typical states of motion and calmness in the sea are metaphorically mapped onto the states of a country at war and at peace. Such cross-domain mappings from the source domain “sea” to the target domain “country” are motivated by the experiences of Chinese people regarding the sea.

2.2. Conceptual Metonymy

Metonymy is a cognitive mechanism in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the single domain or matrix of domains (Kövecses 2010). It can be formulated as b for a, where B is the vehicle and A is the target, as contrasted with b for a in conceptual metaphor. Therefore, a metonymic relationship is built on reference and contiguity or conceptual proximity, which is motivated by the salience or emphasis of certain aspects of a domain (Evans 2006; Kövecses 2020). This is demonstrated by the four-character Chinese idiom 飘洋过海, which literally means “crossing ocean and sea” and metonymically refers to going to a foreign country, whereby “ocean” and “sea” stand for the whole process of travelling to another country. Here, “ocean” and “sea” are the vehicle, and “the whole process of travelling” is the target. A considerable amount of research has suggested that metonymy may be a more fundamental cognitive mechanism than metaphor (Kövecses and Radden 1998).

2.3. Previous Studies of Idioms Using the Approach of Conceptual Metaphors and Metonymies

This section reviews the relevant studies on the conceptualization of idioms from approaches to metaphors and metonymies in different languages. The idioms most commonly studied are mainly related to the following themes: (1) the human body (and body parts), (2) emotions, and (3) animals.

The conceptualization of idioms was explored in American English by Kövecses in 1996. His study piqued researchers’ interest in conducting similar studies in a variety of languages. For instance, the conceptualization of bodily idioms in different languages includes studies of the hand and face in Turkish by Hastürkoğlu (2018), the head, face, and eyes in English and Vietnamese by Vu et al. (2020), and the mouth, teeth, and tongue in Chinese by J. Chen (2010).

In addition, studies of the conceptualization of idioms of emotion have proven highly productive. Love is conceptualized as unity, closeness, choice, etc. (Giang 2023). Anger and happiness are structured by the obviously visible movements of the whole body in idioms in English and the less visible inwardness of movements of smaller body parts such as eyebrows, and even the invisible soul and vital energy in Chinese idioms (P. L. Chen 2010a, 2010b). In idioms of Greek and Bulgarian, surprise is represented as a loss of bodily control (Papadopulou 2018). The conceptualization of sadness in idioms of body parts in Turkish shows that the heart and liver or lung are more prevalent than idioms referring to other body parts (Baş and Büyükkantarcıoğlu 2019).

Humans and animals have a very close relationship. Some animals have been tamed by humans as labor forces, companions, or food sources. Dog idioms in both English and Chinese are used to describe human personalities and convey positive and negative meanings, and the distribution of negative senses (36%) in Chinese idioms is much higher than that seen in English (only 8%) (Wu and Zhao 2018). Idioms related to “tiger” in Chinese and “lion” in English tend to be identical in terms of their pure meaning. Chinese senses of “tiger” contain both goodness and badness, while “lion”, in Western cognition, is mostly good and admirable (Zhou 2005). Dragon idioms show that Chinese often hold this creature in positive regard, considering it in relation to divinity and worship (Wen and Chen 2021).

The research on idioms from the perspective of cognitive semantics largely focuses on the themes discussed above; most of these works are comparative, mainly comparing English with other languages to examine their similarities and differences. The findings of these studies support the ideas that conceptualization is not merely embodied but also culturally motivated, and that both body and culture play a role in the emergence of conceptual metaphors and metonymies (Kövecses 2015). Moreover, the evidence from this paper implies that social and economic systems also contribute to the conceptualization of language.

Drawing on the above literature, it seems that there are no reported studies of the conceptualization of the sea in Chinese idioms from the perspective of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Hence, this study aims to contribute to the relevant literature by examining the four-character Chinese idioms containing the term “sea” (hai) to shed light on Chinese maritime culture and the elements motivating the conceptualization of the sea, aside from embodiment and culture, which have already been addressed in many studies.

3. Data Collection and Metaphor Identification Procedure

The data used in this study were collected from the most comprehensive database of Chinese academic studies, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (hereafter, “CNKI”), official portal http://gongjushu.cnki.net/rbook/ (accessed on 18 June 2023), which was constructed in 1999 for the purposes of academic research and knowledge transmission. It currently indexes about 4000 reference books including Chinese and bilingual dictionaries. For the sake of collection of data for this study, the following procedures were taken: firstly, the pattern “海 (sea)*”, “*海 (sea)”, and “*海 (sea)*”are to be taken as the keyword to retrieve the assigned database with the scope limited to the Chinese and bilingual dictionaries in which each asterisk stands for any Chinese characters in that position. The whole pattern means to retrieve all the expressions of containing the term “sea” (hai). Secondly, the idioms containing the term sea (hai) from the retrieved results are manually picked out based on the sources marked out by the database. Thirdly, the target data will be recorded in the document xls (version 97-2003), produced by Microsoft. All the four-character idioms containing the term sea (hai) in any position are extracted. As a result, a total of 309 four-character Chinese idioms containing the term sea (hai) were selected as the data for this study (seen Appendix A).

Based on the literal meaning, metaphorical meaning, and origins of the idioms, as well as their typical context of usage, three target domains of the “sea” (hai) in these idioms are identified: “abstract qualities of concrete entities”, “abstract entity”, and “a certain aspect of a human being”. Correspondingly, the three conceptual metaphors are abstract qualities of concrete entities are the sea, an abstract entity is the sea, and a certain aspect of a human being is the sea. The first one consists of three submetaphors: a literary article is the sea, calligraphy is the sea, and a large number of people and things are the sea. The second comprises five submetaphors: a country is the sea, life/one’s political career is the sea, a trend is the sea, difficulty is the sea, and a painful situation is the sea. The third also covers five submetaphors: appearance is the sea, longevity is the sea, fortune is the sea, an unreliable utterance is the sea, emotion is the sea, and cognition is the sea, which are used to describe one’s physical appearance, longevity, fortune, words or speeches, emotion, and cognition, respectively, as well the mind in general.

We also analyzed the metonymical meanings of the “sea” (hai) in these idioms, and four conceptual metonymies were identified: the part for the whole, the whole for the part, the place for the product, and the place for the responsible deities or goddesses. Below, we first illustrate each conceptual metaphor (Section 4.1, Section 4.2 and Section 4.3) and metonymy (Section 4.4) with examples and then analyze the distributions and frequencies of each type (Section 4.5).

4. Conceptual Analysis

4.1. abstract qualities of concrete entity are the sea

This metaphor consists of three submetaphors: a literary article is the sea, calligraphy is the sea, and a large number of people or things is the sea. The concrete entity (sea) is used to conceptualize the magnificent, flexible, and vigorous style of a literary article, calligraphy, or large number of people or things.

In the first submetaphor, a literary article is the sea, the attributes of rivers that imply motion, width, and depth, and the forces of the source domain “sea” are mapped onto the attributes of fluent wording, overwhelming style, enriched meaning, and the profound influence of a literary work. Such metaphorical mappings can be illustrated by 河奔海聚 (hereafter, the literal and metaphorical meanings will be separated by a semicolon) (rivers running and seas converging; the fluency of the wording of a literary work), 海立云垂 (the seas standing up and clouds hanging down; the literary work is imposing and overwhelming), 文江学海 (a work is like the Yangtse River and knowledge is like the sea; the profound meaning of a work and extensive knowledge), and 金翅擘海 (a kind of bird in Buddhism slapping the sea into two sections with its huge wings; the powerful and vigorous styles of literary works). The force of the sea is mapped onto the vigorous and elegant style of calligraphy in the second submetaphor calligraphy is the sea. The motivation of these two submetaphors originates from the most influential Chinese talent selection mechanism, the Imperial Examination System in ancient China, in which the quality of literary articles and calligraphy was taken as the standard for selecting candidates for national governance. Additionally, it promoted the thousand-year prosperity of ancient Chinese literature.

In the third submetaphor, a large number of people or things is the sea, bodily experiences of the substantial content, width, and depth in the horizontal and vertical space of the “sea” are mapped onto a large number of people, words, and speeches or actions and behaviors, food, wealth, books, meetings, and scales of things. These submetaphors can be demonstrated, respectively, by 人山人海 (a mountain and a sea of people; huge crowds of people), 河涸海干 (a dried river and sea; leaving no room for negotiation), 胡吃海喝 (eat and drink as much as a sea; eat and drink without restraint), 肉山酒海 (a mountain of meat and a sea of wine; an extreme abundance of food, especially in a feast), 堆山积海 (piles up like the mountain and the sea; a large amount of wealth), 浩如烟海 (as vast as a misty sea; a tremendous number of books), 文山会海 (mountains of documents and seas of meetings; too many documents and meetings), and 排山连海 (continuous mountains and seas; a large quantity of scales). The mappings of the three submetaphors are shown Figure 1.

4.2. An Abstract Entity Is the Sea

The five submetaphors in this category are a country is the sea, life/one’s political career is the sea, a trend is the sea, difficulty is the sea, and a painful situation is the sea. The first submetaphor, a country is the sea, involves three metaphorical mappings. The varied intensity of the motion of the “sea” is mapped onto the intensity of the turbulence in a country affected by wars (海水群飞: seawater surging; disorder in a country). The temperature is also used to conceptualize the intensity of wars in a country (海沸山裂: sea boiling and mountain cracking; a country is torn apart by war). The stillness of the “sea” is projected onto the peace of a country (海不扬波: no waves rising in the sea; a country is peaceful). The motivation for these submetaphors lies in the bodily experiences of the intensity of the motion or temperature of the “sea”, which are out of human control and threaten human lives, indicating that the war or peace in a country is always out of the control of the common people, although they are the ones who suffer the most.

The second submetaphor is life/one’s political career is the sea, in which the ups and downs experienced in life or a political career are projected onto the changes of the “sea”. This type is exemplified by 海水清浅 (the seawater becomes clean and shallow; things in life or in a political career are changeable and unpredictable), 东海扬尘 (the East China Sea turning into dusty land; human life changes significantly), and 沧海桑田 (dark-blue seas changing into fields of mulberry or crops; a life or career changing completely). These idioms record the changing processes of the “sea” from dim and deep to clean and shallow, then to dusty land, and finally to fields. The motion of the “sea” corresponds to the struggles and ups and downs of a political career, represented, respectively, by 宦海风波 (the wind and waves of the sea in a political circle; the struggles in political life) and 宦海浮沉 (floating and sinking in the political sea; the vicissitudes of the ups and downs of political life).

The third submetaphor, a trend is the sea, suggests that the unstoppable forces produced by the motion of the “sea” are projected onto the intensity of an irresistible trend. The greater the intensity of the trend, the more intense the motion of “sea”, and the less intense the irresistible trend, the less intense the motion of the sea, as conveyed by 翻江倒海 (overturned by rivers and seas; a trend is too powerful to resist) and 东海逝波 (the waves of the East China Sea are vanishing; a trend has been irretrievably lost).

The metaphorical mappings of the three submetaphors discussed above are all related to the motion of the “sea”, as illustrated in Figure 2.

In the fourth submetaphor, difficulty is the sea, the incredible width and depth of the sea are mapped onto the difficulties of journeys, successes, and the gap between people created by their social positions, as represented by, respectively, 航海梯山 (crossing a sea and climbing a mountain; a long and difficult journey), 擎天架海 (raise up the sky and cross the sea; extraordinary talents and the capacity to conquer the huge difficulties of accomplishing great missions), and 侯门如海 (the mansions of nobility are like a deep sea; the mansions of nobility are difficult for the common man to access). These idiomatic expressions of the submetaphor imply the significant difficulties in accomplishing great missions, suggesting that the talents required to complete them are well respected. They also express the alienation between friends or lovers that arises due to large gaps in social status.

The fifth submetaphor is a painful situation is the sea. It refers to the difficulties encountered in realizing one’s ambitions, insisting on one’s values, and having the indomitable will to combat a dangerous situation, as exemplified by, respectively, 海鳞未化 (the scales of a fish in the sea have not grown yet; the difficulty of realizing one’s ambitions), 鲁连蹈海 (Lulian jumped into the sea to kill himself; one insists on his own virtue and value, even to the point of losing his life), and 精卫填海 (the mythical bird Jingwei filling up the sea by carrying pebbles with her beak; an unshakeable will to face tough situations, even in vain). These idioms express positive sentiments that praise the qualities of loyalty, endurance, and bravery required to face difficult situations.

4.3. A Certain Aspect of a Human Being Is the Sea

This metaphor comprises seven submetaphors: appearance is the sea, longevity is the sea, fortune is the sea, an unreliable utterance is the sea, emotion is the sea, and cognition is the sea. The first submetaphor, appearance is the sea, deals with the specific physical appearances of virtuous men and beautiful women, and it is used in a positive sense. Wide eyes and a big mouth are considered to be features of virtuous men. Gentle and shining eyes are regarded as aspects of the beauty of women. The examples of these metaphors are 河目海口 (river-like long eyes and a sea-like mouth; the distinguished appearance of a man) and 玉楼银海 (the shoulders are jade buildings, and the eyes are the silver sea; the appearance of a beautiful female).

The second and third submetaphors longevity is the sea and fortune is the sea are related to long lifespans and great fortune, respectively, in a positive sense. They can be evidenced by 海屋添筹 (counters recoding the changes of the sea into land or land into the sea increase; wish the respected elders long life) and 福如东海 (fortune as big as the China Eastern Sea; great fortune). In ancient China, most knowledge was acquired from the elders in a family and from hands-on experiences due to the limited channels of information transmission and the illiteracy that resulted from a lack of education opportunities. Usually, a farmer’s knowledge and experience of how to plant crops increased as he grew older. Thus, longevity is regarded as fortune. Moreover, the features of a long existence and the width and depth of the sea are mapped onto the long lifespan and great fortune of a person. Hence, both agricultural and bodily experiences motivate these metaphorical mappings.

The fourth submetaphor an unreliable utterance is the sea is concerned with the behaviors of boasting or boundless talking without a point. The unquantifiable distance between the sea and the sky is projected onto boundless and pointless talking and is further extended to the unreliability of utterances, as elaborated by 天南海北 (the sky is in the south and the sea is in the north; an unreliable utterance). The metaphorical mapping from the “sea” to the aspects of humans discussed above are presented in Figure 3.

The fifth submetaphor, emotion is the sea, incorporates love is the sea, gratitude is the sea, hatred is the sea, sorrow is the sea, jealousy is the sea, and anger is the sea. Love is particularly pronounced. The width, depth, brightness and cleanness, and long existence of the “sea” are projected onto the extent, intensity, loyalty, and eternality of love, respectively, as shown by 情天泪海 (the sea of tears in love; the extent and intensity of grief in love), 情深似海 (love as deep as the sea; the intensity of love), 碧海青天 (a bright clean sea and an azure sky; the loyalty to love), and 山盟海誓 (oaths as firm as the mountains and vows as deep as the seas; the eternality of love). Gratitude and hatred are constructed as the depth of the sea, as described by 恩深似海 (gratitude as deep as the sea; the intensity of gratitude) and 血海深仇 (hatred as deep as the sea; the intensity of hatred). Sorrow is conceptualized according to the width and depth of the sea, for instance, in 愁海无涯 (the sea of sorrow is boundless; the extent of sorrow) and 愁山闷海 (sorrow as high as a mountain, as deep as the sea; the intensity of sorrow). Jealousy and anger are understood according to the motion of the sea, exemplified by 醋海生波 (the waves of a vinegar sea rising; jealousy caused by the love between men and women) and 海沸波翻 (the sea boiling and its waves rolling; the intensity of anger). The embodied experiences of the sea are mapped onto the emotions of love, gratitude, hatred, sorrow, jealousy, and anger in human beings.

The sixth submetaphor cognition is the sea involves confusion is the sea, knowledge is the sea, talent is the sea, thought is the sea, and mind is the sea. Sailing on the sea without navigation equipment was extremely challenging in ancient times. It is easy to lose one’s way, even for experienced sailors. This embodied experience is the motivation for the metaphor confusion is the sea, which expresses one’s confusion metaphorically (如堕烟海: like being lost on a foggy sea; confusion and being unable to get to the core of a problem). In the conceptual metaphors knowledge is the sea and talent is the sea, the width of the “sea” is mapped onto an abundance of knowledge and great talent, and in the conceptual metaphor thought is the sea, the depth of the sea is mapped onto the target domain to conceptualize the depth of a person’s thoughts, as demonstrated by 曾经沧海 (one experienced the wind and waves of the dark blue sea; a person with rich experiences does not pay attention to ordinary people or things), 学海波澜 (the big waves in the sea of knowledge; the talents in the world of literature), 才大如海 (talent as big as the sea; a great talent), and 海岳高深 (the sea is deep and the mountain is high; profound thought). All of these characteristics of human beings are thought to be virtuous and are promoted by the whole society.

The metaphorical mapping of mind is the sea is based on the nature of the “sea” as a gathering place for rivers. Specifically, the sea taking in every river and gathering them together maps onto the inclusive mind of a person who is open to and tolerant of different ideas and people and who learns from and absorbs their specific advantages (海纳百川: the sea takes in hundreds of rivers; an inclusive mind). The metaphorical mappings discussed above are shown in Figure 4.

4.4. The Conceptual Metonymy of the Sea

The four conceptual metonymies are the part for the whole, the whole for the part, the place for the product, and the place for the responsible deities or goddesses. In the first metonymy, the part for the whole, “within (four) seas” and “outside (four) seas” stand for China and other countries, respectively. To the ancient Chinese, China constituted the Chinese mainland and the “four seas” located in the four different directions of the East, West, South, and North, which circled the mainland. Consequently, “within (four) seas” stands for China (囊括四海: including the four seas; the whole of China). The edges of the “four seas” are the boundaries of China and other countries. As a result, “outside (four) seas” stands for the sea stands for the whole process of travelling to a foreign country (漂洋过海: sail across the seas; go abroad). The idea of the “four seas” indicates that the ancient Chinese took China as the center when conceptualizing the world.

In the second metonymy, the whole for the part, the “sea” stands for uncertain, remote, and dangerous (hidden) locations, and the vast or free spirit realm, as demonstrated, respectively, by 石沉大海 (stones sinking into the sea; somebody or something disappearing to some place without news), 投山窜海 (cast into the mountain and the sea; exiled to some remote place), 放龙入海 (let the dragon return to the sea; leave the potential danger be), 春光如海 (the spring as wide and deep as sea; everywhere filled by spring), and 渔海樵山 (fishing in the sea and cutting wood on the mountain; live a reclusive life in some remote place). The idea of the sea as an uncertain and dangerous (hidden) location may originate from its extensive, intensive, and irresistible motion. Moreover, conceptualizing the “sea” as a space inhabited by free spirits may be inspired by its wide and empty surface without any obstacles while motionless.

In the third metonymy, the place for the product, the sea stands for its products, mainly salt and fish, as represented by 摘山煮海 (open mountains to extract copper and boil the sea for the salt) and 山珍海错 (delicious food from the mountain and the sea; an abundance of delicacies). In the fourth metonymy, the place for the responsible deities or goddesses, the sea stands for the deities and goddesses responsible for the affairs of the sea, as in 先河后海 (make sacrifice for the deities or goddesses of the river and then to those of the sea; distinguish between the primary and the secondary), which implies that the deities or goddesses of rivers are more important than those of the sea.

4.5. The Distribution of Idioms over Specific Conceptual Metaphors and Metonymies

In the previous sections, we discussed the relevant conceptual metaphors and metonymies and their mappings. However, it should be noted that there are significant variations in terms of distribution. For the sake of accuracy, we identified the types of metaphors and metonymies that every idiom belongs to according to their original and metaphorical meanings. The results are listed in

Table 1. The distributions of idioms across conceptual metaphors and metonymies.

Conceptual Metaphors and Submetaphors
No.		Items	Total	Freq (%)
abstract qualities of concrete entities are the sea
1	a literary article is the sea	1–11	11	3.56%
2	calligraphy is the sea	12–13	2	0.65%
3	a large number of people or things is the sea	14–30	17	5.50%
an abstract entity is the sea
4	a country is the sea	31–47	17	5.50%
5	life/one’s political career is the sea	48–58	11	3.56%
6	a trend is the sea	59–94, 160–162	39	12.62%
7	difficulty is the sea	95–108	14	4.53%
8	a painful situation is the sea	109–115	7	2.27%
a certain aspect of a human being is the sea
9	appearance is the sea	116–118	3	0.97%
10	longevity is the sea	119–120	2	0.65%
11	fortune is the sea	121–123	3	0.97%
12	an unreliable utterance is the sea	124–132	9	2.91%
13	love is the sea	133–146	14	4.53%
14	gratitude is the sea	147–150	4	1.29%
15	sorrow is the sea	151–155	5	1.62%
16	jealousy is the sea	156–158	3	0.97%
17	anger is the sea	159–161	3	0.97%
18	hatred is the sea	162–166	5	1.62%
19	knowledge is the sea	9, 167–176	11	3.56%
20	confusion is the sea	177	1	0.32%
21	talent is the sea	178–180	3	0.97%
22	thought is the sea	181	1	0.32%
23	mind is the sea	130–131, 182–197	18	5.83%
	Total 1		203	65.70%
Conceptual metonymies
24	the part for the whole
	- the sea stands for all of China - the sea stands for the whole process of travelling to a foreign country	198–233 234–237	36 4	11.65% 1.29%
25	the whole for the part
	- the sea stands for locations or space	238–293	56	18.12%
26	the place for the product
	- the sea stands for the products from the seas	294–301	8	2.59%
27	the place for the responsible deities or goddesses
	- the sea stands for the deities responsible the affairs of the seas	302–303	2	0.65%
Total 2			106	34.30%
Total = Total 1 + Total 2			309	100.00%

Some idioms are polysemous and can be classified into two different categories simultaneously; six non-metaphorical idioms are excluded in this table.

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Our analysis of the 309 idiomatic expressions has yielded the following findings, which can be observed from the metaphorical mappings (seen Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4) and the distributions and frequencies of the idioms across each type of metaphor and metonymy (see Table 1).

The highlighted aspects of the source domain “sea” are its vast surface, depth, motion, and stillness, its changeability, its long almost eternal existence, its nature as a gathering place for rivers, and its remoteness, uncertainty, and danger (hidden). The unlimited width (depth) of the sea and the fact that it is too large to be quantified due to being a gathering place for all waters are utilized to conceptualize large numbers of people or things, physical traits (appearance and longevity), fortune, cognition (unreliable utterances, confusion, knowledge, talent, thought, and mind), and the intensity and extensiveness of emotions (love, gratitude, sorrow, jealousy, anger, and hatred). The uncontrollable motion and stillness of the sea are employed to conceptualize the imposing styles of literary works and calligraphy, the ups and downs of life and political careers, and the war or peace of a country. The unstoppable forces brought about by the motion of the sea are projected onto the irresistible trends of social movements. The sea changing into fields of mulberries and crops and vice versa are used to conceptualize the significant changes undergone by earthly things and political careers. The hardships of sailing on the sea are used to convey a difficult situation.

In terms of distributions and frequencies, the idioms ranked highest are themed around locations or spaces in which the sea is construed as vast and a space of spiritual freedom, as well as locations of uncertainty, remoteness, dangers (hidden), suffering, and obstacles. The number of such idioms totals 77, accounting for 24.92% of the total, as seen by the total numbers and frequencies of difficulty is the sea (14, 4.53%), a painful situation is the sea (7, 2.27%), and the whole for the part (56, 18.12%).

The following category contains idioms related to a country (China); there are up to 53 such idioms, comprising 17.15% of the total, as shown by the total and frequency of a country is the sea (36, 11.65%) and the part for the whole (17, 5.5%). The third most common idioms relate to the irresistible trends of social or other movements, with a quantity of 39, accounting for 12.62% of all the relevant idioms. The idioms ranked fourth focus on the individual pursuits of literature, knowledge, inclusive minds, and love; there are 54 such idioms, with a proportion of 17.48%, as evidenced by the totals and frequencies of a literary article is the sea (11, 3.56%), knowledge is the sea (11, 3.56%), mind is the sea (18, 5.83%), and love is the sea (14, 4.53%).

The last set of idioms that appear in significant quantities relate to unreliable utterances, changes in one’s political career and in life, and the eternity of love. There are 34 such idioms, making up 11% of the total, as evidenced by an unreliable utterance is the sea (9, 2.91%) and life/one’s political career is the sea (11, 3.56%).

5. Discussion

In this section, we first discuss the potential motivations underlying the conceptual metaphors and metonymies of the idioms containing the term “sea”. Then, we explore the aspects of maritime culture represented in these idioms.

5.1. The Motivations of Conceptual Metaphors and Metonymies

5.1.1. The Culture of the Family Country

The culture of family country is an important component of traditional Chinese culture, in which it plays an important role in moral education, order maintenance, morality shaping, social governance, and civilization inheritance (Tian and Yang 2023). The culture of family is the cornerstone and even core of Chinese national culture (Chen and Chen 2022). In the spiritual world of Chinese people, individuals, and society, family and country are all integrated together and cannot be separated (Liu and Nie 2021). These ideas are manifested by the fact that the Chinese word “国” (guo, country) is often used with “家” (jia, family), and they are seldom separated. It literally means “country family” in English, signaling the significance of the country to the common people. The importance of family-country culture is also displayed by the quantities of idioms expressing the conceptual metaphor a country is the sea, which is distributed across 53 idioms and constitutes 17% of the total number, ranking second. It conveys that the people are eager for peace and care about the fate of the country just like being concerned with their own safety and fate, which is grounded in the ideology of family–country integration and interdependence. In summary, the idea of the country, families, and individuals being interdependent and integrated together are manifested well in the idioms. The motivation of the family country that underpins many idioms may be rooted in the fact that the political stability and peace of a country are prerequisites for planting and harvesting crops.

5.1.2. The Culture of Accordance with Nature

“Ziran” (自然) is one of the core concepts of Taoist philosophy, which is translated as being natural, its own course, or spontaneous in English by Roger T. Ames (2004). It roughly refers to the objective rules and laws of the world itself (Gu and Huang 2022). The core of accordance with nature (顺其自然) is to pursue the unity and harmony of heaven and man (Tao 2019), which is illustrated well by the idioms distributed across the conceptual metaphor a trend is the sea (the total quantity up to 39, accounting for 12.62% and ranking third). Such idioms convey that natural trends are hard to disobey. Humans should worship nature and behave in accordance with it. This does not mean that humans should give up without making any effort. Rather, what humans should do is act or behave according to the rules of nature and let nature decide. The fundamental aspect of accordance with nature can be summarized as “man paid; nature made”, which is likely motivated by the fact that agriculture is particularly dependent on nature, e.g., favorable weather and climates, rainfall when required, and sowing at the appropriate times. The metaphor then moves beyond the field of agriculture and becomes a highly important mechanism of psychological adjustment, which enables people to be enterprising as well as accepting their failures. Furthermore, the realities of farming also contribute to the key ideologies of the “unity of heaven and man” and “all in the universe connected together” in traditional Chinese philosophy, which is based on the long-term observations of the relationship between heaven and humanity.

5.1.3. Values and Pursuits

Among the things that are valued in Chinese life, the most valuable are abundant knowledge of and achievements in traditional Chinese literature and calligraphy, as shown by the conceptual metaphors a literary work is the sea and calligraphy is the sea, which can be attributed to the Imperial Examination System. This system lasted for about 1300 years and was initially used to select highly talented people to administer the country in ancient China. Moreover, the quality of a literary work, manifested by literary achievements, was used as one of the most important standards for selecting the candidates, which offered a reliable opportunity and effective path for the powerless ordinary people to change their fate (Wu 1999). This explains the fact that the government officials were also the greatest literary writers at the time. The Imperial Examination System was so influential that it largely promoted the continuous prosperity and shaped the values and pursuits of the Chinese people, such as persisting in one’s reading and studies of literature despite the impoverished material life for a better potential future (Fu 1984; Zhuge 2010; Wang 2016). Evidently, the pursuit of achievements in literature and calligraphy can be traced back to this social system.

5.1.4. The Attitude to Life

The ancient Chinese view is that all things on earth are changeable, without a fixed mode; hence, it is impossible to predict what will happen. This is also true for people’s lives and political careers, which are full of ups and downs, as can be observed in the sub-metaphor life/one’s political career is the sea. As for the things that are out of one’s control, it is necessary to “act or behave according to nature”, which is motivated by the culture of harmony and peacefulness with natural rules or laws as discussed in Section 5.1.2. Unlike the other submetaphors, an unreliable utterance is the sea is used in a strongly negative sense, which suggests that the ancient Chinese placed more value on putting words into practice than on words alone. This attitude to life is motivated by the features of agriculture, such as “no pains, no gains”, which requires step-by-step labor in accordance with the timing and natural seasons rather than waiting for chances, because any steps missed may be harmful to grain harvest (Wen and Chen 2021; Wang 2023).

To sum up, the direct motivations underlying these conceptual metaphors and metonymies are the culture of the family country, accordance with nature, values and pursuits, and attitudes toward life. They are all based on agriculture as the economic foundation of ancient China and the social system of the Imperial Examination System as the mechanism for talent selection. The motivations of such cognitive conceptualizations are not only constrained by embodiment, based on the bodily interactions between humans and the world, but are also constrained by the country’s economic foundations and social systems, which are more fundamental than its culture. The elements that determine the motivations of the conceptual metaphors and metonymies of the sea (hai) are shown in Figure 5.

5.2. The Maritime Culture Represented by Conceptual Metaphors and Metonymies

The sea is conceptualized as a vast space associated with spiritual freedom, as well as locations of uncertainty, remoteness, dangers (hidden), suffering, and obstacles. There are 77 idioms distributed across the related conceptual metaphors and metonymies, accounting for 24.92% of the total number and ranking first. In this sense, the sea is endowed with both positive and negative meanings. On the one hand, Chinese people are attracted to the charm of the sea. On the other hand, they are scared of the danger and uncertainty associated with it. They harbor feelings of fear of and respect for the sea (An 2010; An and Liu 2012).

The sea changing into fields of mulberries and crops and vice versa is predicated on the significant changes undergone by things on earth and on the ups and downs of political life (life/one’s political career is the sea). The sea is also the gathering place for the rivers that run into it, which is the motivation behind the conceptual metaphor the mind is the sea. These idioms indicate perceptions of the static–dynamic integration of rivers, land and sea, and the inclusiveness and tolerance of Chinese maritime culture (Lin and Tang 2014; Xu 2021).

The sea is a vast space that facilitates spiritual freedom; as noted above, this refers to the harmony between humans and the sea. This exemplifies the ideology of a culture of accordance with nature and the doctrines of the “unity of heaven and man” and “all in the universe connected together” seen in traditional Chinese philosophy (An 2013; Ouyang 2017).

6. Conclusions and Prospects

In this study, we investigated the conceptualizations of the term “sea” in Chinese idioms. The three categories of conceptual metaphors identified are: abstract qualities of concrete entities are the sea, an abstract entity is the sea, and certain aspects of a human being are the sea. The four conceptual metonymies are: the part for the whole, the whole for the part, the place for the product, and the place for the responsible deities or goddesses.

From the perspective of cognitive conceptualization, we investigated the metaphorical and metonymical meanings of sea. The analysis suggests that the conceptualization of the term “sea” (hai) in four-character Chinese idioms is motivated by the views of the unity of heaven and humanity in traditional philosophy, the culture of country–family and accordance with nature, the valuing and pursuit of literary achievements, and the attitudes to the ups and downs in political careers and in life, which may originate from the reality of agriculture being the foundation of the economy and from the Imperial Examination System, which was used as the talent selection mechanism in ancient China.

We also explored the maritime culture represented in these idioms. The findings show that the ancient Chinese had complicated feelings towards the sea. On the one hand, they were attracted to the sea; on the other, they had a strong sense of its (potential) dangers. Thus, they harbored feelings of fear of and respect for the sea. They also perceived the static and dynamic integration of the rivers, land, and sea. Moreover, these idioms suggest that humanity can have a harmonious relationship with the sea. Maritime culture is a specific manifestation of the general ideologies of the “unity of heaven and man”, “all in the universe connected together”, “the harmony of man and nature”, and “nature worship” seen in Chinese traditional philosophy, which are largely shaped by the realities of agriculture being the economic foundation of ancient China. The results suggest that the motivations of cognitive conceptualization are not only constrained by the bodily interactions between humans and the world but are also constrained by the economic foundations and social systems of the country, which are the foundations by which culture is motivated.

The embodied basis of human beings’ interactions with the world in which they live is emphasized as the basic mechanism of cognitive conceptualization. However, other elements, such as social systems, have not yet been foregrounded in the relevant studies. Future research can be extended to include cross-linguistic and empirical studies related to the term “sea” in different cultures across different historical periods, so as to further develop the conceptual metaphor theory to include social and cultural factors, making it a more powerful interpretative framework.