As the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences announced the projects granted later stage sponsorship and publication program of excellent doctoral dissertations of 2022 lately, Studies of Xiehouyu (Two-part Allegorical Saying) submitted by Prof. Li Shuxin from the College of Liberal Arts & Journalism of IMU is granted sponsorship of RMB 350,000 for key projects, the only key project of its kind in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) is a linguistic form in Chinese characterized with wide popularity, flexible application and rich expressiveness, which is favored by the mass of people because of its unique structure, vivid way of expression and comic and humorous effects of expression. The contents of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) are enormously inclusive, covering numerous aspects of the social life including means of labor, people’s daily necessities, human organs, various daily appliances, famous figures, animals, plants, geography, landscapes, meteorological conditions and solar terms, etc. Proceeding from the origins of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying), the project aims to explore the structural characteristics and rules of combination and to analyze the mutation, rhetoric and standardization in the course of spreading and the compilation of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying).

Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) is not merely a purely formal system of codes, but also cultural codes and the representation of national spirit. Generations of the Chinese nation have incorporated the accumulations of historical events, beliefs and faiths, sentiments and cognition, especially people’s sorrows and joys, into Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) to reflect the complexity of the society and people’s mentality, express the subtlety of philosophy of life and reveal the colorfulness of the human world. The project attempts to make breakthrough in the semantic inference, semantic cognition and semantic interpretation of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying), explore the unique attitudes towards life, social consciousness, natural forms, daily affairs, ways of life, aesthetic mentality, values, thinking habits and other factors contained in Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying), and reveal the cultural connotation implied by Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying).

Integrating in-depth survey of the origins of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) and ontological studies of the synchronic features of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) including structure, semantics, pragmatics and standardization, the project attempts to enrich and improve the academic discourse system of the Chinese idioms and enhance the cognitive value of the studies of the Chinese idioms on the basis of a relatively full and systematic framework of the studies of Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying). In addition, the project is of great practical significance in that the project is committed to the collection, sorting, preservation and utilization of the Chinese Xiehouyu (two-part allegorical saying) and attempts to put linguistic studies into actual life to give full play to its values of application.

The later stage sponsorship of the National Social Science Fund of China is designed to offer sponsorship to excellent academic achievements, classified into key projects and general projects ,in philosophy and social sciences which have been basically completed but not yet published. Projects with high academic value, strong innovativeness and significant boosting effects to the development of the discipline are classified as key projects.

Prof. Li Shuxin

Li Shuxin, director of the Department of the Humanities, professor and PhD supervisor of IMU, recipient of Government Special Allowance of the State Council, scholar for the Grassland Talents Program of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, leader of the innovation team of the Grassland Talents Program of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, director of the Chinese Language Society, chairman of the Language Society of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, vice-director of the Academic Board of IMU and member of the Chinese Language Commission of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Prof. Li specializes in studies of theoretical linguistics and cultural linguistics. He has published a series of monographs including Studies of Idioms, Studies of the Proverb Culture of the Daur, the Ewenki and the Oroqen People, Studies of Appellation in the Chinese Language, The Seven Affairs upon Getting-up--Cultural Memories of the Firewood, the Grain, the Cooking Oil, the Salt, the Soy Sauce, the Vinegar and the Tea, Drama-like Life and Life-like Drama--Theatrical Proverbs and Theatrical Culture, The Busy Candidates for Imperial Examinations while the Yellow Chinese Scholar Trees are in Full Blossom--Cultural Images of Proverbs of the Imperial Examination System, Morphemes and Idioms and more than forty academic theses. Prof. Li has presided over and completed two general projects sponsored by the National Social Science Fund of China, one project sponsored by the West Program and one key project of the national level as the chief expert of the project. His monograph Studies of Idioms was awarded the first prize of the third Governmental Awards for Excellent Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 2010. His monograph Studies of the Culture of Geographic Names of Inner Mongolia was awarded the first prize of the fifth Governmental Awards for Excellent Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences in 2016.