Chapter 11. Image Adjacency: Zeugma
(zeugma)
Section 1. Definition and Function of Zeugma
I. Zeugma: Semantic Grafting
In poetry, there is a type of lexical usage in which two images belonging to different things in the preceding and following parts are semantically connected, like the “grafting” of plants. In rhetoric, such words are called “nǐn cí” (grafted words). “Grafted words” function as the “connecting agent” when linking different things.
“What is called zeugma refers to a rhetorical technique in language in which, when describing two things A and B, a word originally applicable only to thing A is ‘picked up’ and used for thing B, thereby naturally connecting A and B. The characteristic of zeugma is its sense of ‘by the way,’ ‘casually,’ and ‘taking advantage of the situation.’ ‘Nǐn’ means taking a word from its usual linguistic environment and transferring it into a generally non-applicable environment; ‘lián’ means making two different linguistic environments appear simultaneously and connecting the two things A and B.”¹
Zeugma, also called “shun-lian” (sequential linkage) or “guan-lian” (association), functions similarly to what the ancients called the “poetic eye.” It shows that zeugma occupies a key position like a “bond” in a chemical formula, or like a “joint” in the human body that connects the torso and limbs.
“Zeugma exists as a condition dependent on a specific linguistic environment. Two originally unrelated things are placed together in narration under a specific linguistic context, producing an internal connection, allowing words that apply to thing A to be naturally and skillfully extended to thing B, achieving good expressive results.”²
The characteristic of zeugma is that it connects the action words or state words of entity A (ordinary things) to entity B (extraordinary things), cleverly linking the two, and shifting the focus of expression from A to B. “In zeugma, of the two things, A comes first and is relatively concrete, while B comes later and is relatively abstract. The linking words running through both are mostly verbs or adjectives. For A, the original meaning is used; for B, the extended or metaphorical meaning is used. This temporary linguistic form makes abstract things concrete and vivid, and ordinary things carry special meanings, greatly enhancing the artistic appeal of language.”³
Zeugma primarily uses association to connect the internal relations between things, allowing people to move from one thing to another, from surface to essence, revealing inner meanings. On the surface, it appears to be spontaneous wording, but in fact it is thematic expansion, making the writing rich in variation and expressing implied meanings, deep emotions, and freshness in a distinctive way.
The rhetorical function of zeugma is threefold: 1. it can visualize thoughts and emotions; 2. it can concretize abstract reasoning; 3. it can characterize figures and personalities.⁴
II. Historical Development of Zeugma
Throughout poems of successive dynasties, zeugmatic devices are abundant and often serve as the “key phrases” (poetic eyes) between lines, directly affecting the success or failure of imagery flow. Consider the following examples:
“Only fear that the boat of twin streams like a grasshopper cannot carry so much sorrow” — Northern Song, Li Qingzhao, “Wuling Spring”
The “grasshopper boat” and “so much sorrow” form a contrast of quantity, a rhetorical contrast. Further analysis shows that “grasshopper boat” is a metaphor with omitted comparative markers and meaning (“like small” or “light”), while “so much sorrow” quantifies the abstract, uncountable emotion of sorrow, turning it into something measurable and tangible. These two originally independent and unrelated images are connected through the verb “carry,” producing a new artistic situation containing both pictorial scene (dynamic image) and poetic mood. The mood is indirectly projected through the textual relationship of imagery flow. The word “carry” here functions as the finishing touch—the “poetic eye,” which is the essence of zeugma. Below are further examples, with key “linking words” marked by the author:
“The south wind knows my intention, and blows my dream to West State.” — Yuefu, “West State Song”
“Who cut out these delicate leaves? The spring breeze of the second month is like scissors.” — Tang, He Zhizhang, “Ode to the Willow”
“The lonely phoenix tree in the deep courtyard locks in autumn melancholy.” — Southern Tang, Li Yu, “Meeting Joy”
“How can I endure the lonely inn shutting in the cold of spring, with the setting sun in the cry of the cuckoo.” — Northern Song, Qin Guan, “Walking on the Sand”
“Poetic sentiment is like scissors from Bingzhou, cutting autumn light into the scroll.” — Southern Song, Lu You, “Autumn Thoughts”
Section 2. Structural Expression of Zeugma
The basic structure of zeugma, according to scholars, includes: “subject matter,” “linking word,” and “connected matter.”
I. Subject Matter
This refers to item A, which appears in a normal linguistic environment and conforms to grammatical logic.
II. Linking Word
The word that connects items A and B, mostly verbs or adjectives.
III. Connected Matter
This refers to item B, which is formed through the linking word into a new expression; it is a variant form that goes beyond grammatical norms.
“In terms of sequence, item A (the subject matter) generally comes first, is concrete, and uses the original meaning. Item B (the connected matter) comes later, is more abstract, and is a temporary extension of the original meaning.”⁵ However, this order is not fixed; in “inverted zeugma,” the order of subject and connected matter can be reversed. For example, in “Shattering sorrow of longing, outside the gauze window the wind shakes green bamboo” (Xin Qiji, “Man Jiang Hong”), the normal order would be “The wind shakes green bamboo, shattering sorrow of longing.” Here, the order is reversed, beginning with “shattering sorrow of longing,” making the expression more novel and striking, and more aesthetically engaging for readers.
The expressive types of zeugma vary according to different classification criteria:
I. Classification by Formal Variation
Based on positional changes of “subject matter,” “linking word,” and “connected matter,” scholars propose: (1) sequential zeugma, (2) positional zeugma.
II. Based on presence or absence and quantity of the three components
(1) standard zeugma, (2) variant zeugma, (3) hybrid zeugma.
III. Structural Classification
(1) subject-object zeugma, (2) double-subject zeugma, (3) double-object zeugma, (4) inverted zeugma.
IV. Based on part of speech
(1) noun zeugma, (2) verb zeugma, (3) adjective zeugma, (4) numeral zeugma.⁶
V. Based on combined usage
(1) metaphorical zeugma, (2) transformational zeugma, (3) quotation-based zeugma.⁷
Section 3. Manifest Forms of Zeugma
Due to space limitations, only several common forms are introduced here: (1) standard zeugma, (2) variant zeugma, (3) hybrid zeugma, and (4) inverted zeugma, with notes on parts of speech and whether other rhetorical devices are also present.
I. Standard Zeugma
Refers to cases where subject matter, linking word, and connected matter are all explicit and arranged in order. It often occurs when the A component is not omitted in narration, and one element is repeated when describing B.
For example: “The heavy doors are not locked against dreams of longing, which drift freely across the world.” (Tang, Zhao Lingshi, “Jin Tang Chun”) and “How can I endure the lonely inn shutting in the cold of spring, with the setting sun in the cry of the cuckoo.” (Northern Song, Qin Guan, “Walking on the Sand”), in both examples only one linking word is used.
Yu Guangzhong, “Telephone Booth”⁸
A small booth that is neither classical nor pastoral
Often, it confines me inside
A piercing high tone
Ravaging my nerves like an electronic piano
Holding the receiver in a daze, cut off
Holding a broken fragment like a severed umbilical cord
Which number should I dial?
And whom should I look for after it connects?
I only want to dial myself out
Dial out of this box, this telephone booth
Dial out of this box, this city
Dial out of these drawers, these apartments, dial out
Dial through the sound of wind
Dial through the sound of water, dial through the sound of birds
And the snoring of the entire primitive forest
The poet enters the telephone booth intending to “dial a call,” without a specific conversational target. He asks himself in confusion: “I only want to dial myself out,” allowing his voice to briefly leave the city where he lives, as if opening a window of sound to experience nature. The act of “dialing” is connected through zeugma to a larger living space. Although imaginative, it expands the reader’s vision, as if opening a window for “forest breathing” into nature.
Du Ye, “Commemorating Painter Chen Cheng-po, Victim of the February 28 Incident”⁹
March 1947
A bullet suddenly pierces the shirt
Pierces your body
Pierces Chiayi
Pierces Taiwan art history
Ah, beauty bursts forth in blood
The painter Chen Cheng-po was killed during the “cleansing operations” following the “February 28 Incident.” In that era of bloody turmoil, many Taiwanese intellectual elites were arrested and executed. Chen Cheng-po’s death was a great loss to Taiwanese art history. The poet therefore uses the image of a bullet and the verb “pierce” to connect Chen Cheng-po’s personal history with Taiwan’s art history. Although shocking, it is thought-provoking. The linking word “pierce” is used vividly and appropriately, evoking memories of the “White Terror era,” still vivid among older generations of Taiwanese people.
II. Variant Zeugma
That is, zeugma in an incomplete form, in which either the subject matter is omitted or the linking word is omitted. For example: “One kind of mutual longing, two places of idle sorrow; there is no way to eliminate this feeling; just as it leaves the brow, it rises in the heart.” (Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao, “A Cut of the Plum”) The word “heart” connects the act of furrowing the brow with the “heart” that manages emotions, thereby making sorrow even more difficult to eliminate. Another example: “A night of east wind, beside the pillow it blows away how much sorrow.” (Song Dynasty, Zeng Yun-yuan, “Dian Jiang Chun”) After “east wind,” there is no predicate; the predicate “blow” appears in the second line, making the expression more compact and seamlessly linked.
Yu Guangzhong, “Or What Is Called Spring”¹⁰
A scarf covers more than half of the soul
Popularizes cherry blossom influenza
It is always like this; when April arrives, it first informs the nose
Go home, walk through the alleys of Tong’an Street
“Popularizes cherry blossom influenza” seems at first glance to be internal reduplication within the sentence, but it is in fact a variant zeugma with an omitted subject, and furthermore a “double-substantial zeugma” lacking a subject. The linking word is usually a single character, but it may also appear as a phrase; here, the word “popularizes” is a verb.
III. Hybrid Zeugma
That is, zeugma that combines other rhetorical devices, producing zeugmatic effects, most commonly metaphor and transformation (personification). For example: “Who cut out these delicate leaves? The spring breeze of the second month is like scissors.” (Tang Dynasty, He Zhizhang, “Ode to the Willow”) The spring breeze is first metaphorically transformed into “scissors,” and only then can it be connected with the delicate leaves. Another example: “I send my sorrowful heart to the bright moon; following the wind, it reaches Langxi at night.” (Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, “Writing to Wang Changling after His Demotion to Longbiao from afar”) The “sorrowful heart” can be sent, thereby transforming abstract emotion into a concrete entity, which is then sent to the “bright moon,” and the moon is personified, able to travel with the wind to distant places to find an old friend.
Zhan Che, “Sunrise and Moonset”¹¹
The eastern rising sun, toward the newly sprouted melon seedlings,
displays its flame-like authority
and, grain by grain, collects the dew upon the melon seedlings.
As if tyrants were levying taxes
on the pure
sweat of the poor
Ya Xian, “Red Corn”¹²
The wind of the year of Xuantong is blowing
blowing upon that string of red corn
It hangs there
under the eaves
as if the entire north
the entire melancholy of the north
were hanging there
“The acts of ‘levying’ and ‘hanging’—these two verb-like linking words—both belong to hybrid zeugma. They respectively connect, through metaphor, different segments, namely linking the ‘subject matter’ and the ‘connected matter.’ ‘Levying’ connects the rising sun with the dew on melon seedlings, and the tyrants with the sweat of the poor; ‘hanging’ connects the red corn under the eaves with the entire melancholy of the north. The use of zeugma allows the imagery of the subject matter to gain semantic extension, enriching the semantic layers of the poem. Because the linking word itself is repeated here, it also produces rhythmic continuity and a more gentle, flowing cadence.”
IV. The Difference Between Zeugma and Synaesthesia
Regarding the distinction between zeugma and “synaesthesia,” beginners often confuse the two. The scholar Cai Zongyang summarizes the differences as follows:
I. In terms of form
Zeugma is used when two things are described in a linked manner; synaesthesia, however, reflects an impression obtained by one sense through the perspective of another sense.
II. In terms of content
In zeugma, the first of the two things is always concrete, while the second is relatively abstract or generalized; both things are explicitly present in the expression. In synaesthesia, however, one is used to reveal the other.
III. In terms of expressive function
Zeugma focuses on revealing the implied meanings of things; synaesthesia aims to intensify atmosphere, shape imagery, and deepen artistic conception, making expression more vivid and lively. “‘Synaesthesia’ mainly allows the object of description to be imbued with human will; ‘zeugma’ mainly extends the original meaning of the linking element to reveal a new tendency in the development of things.”¹³
NOTES
(1) Cheng Weijun et al., eds., Comprehensive Guide to Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth Press, 1991, p. 602.
(2) Yang Chunlin and Liu Fan, eds., Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Art, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 251.
(3) Yang Chunlin and Liu Fan, eds., Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Art, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 252.
(4) Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, eds., Dictionary of Rhetorical Devices Explained by Examples, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press, 1990, p. 161.
(5) Cheng Weijun et al., eds., Comprehensive Guide to Rhetoric, Taipei: Jianhong Press, 1998, p. 602.
(6) Cheng Weijun et al., eds., Comprehensive Guide to Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth Press, 1991, pp. 603–605.
(7) Cheng Weijun et al., eds., Comprehensive Guide to Rhetoric, Beijing: China Youth Press, 1991, pp. 605–608.
(8) From Yu Guangzhong, White Jade Bitter Gourd, Taipei: Dadi Publishing, 1981, pp. 58–59.
(9) From Lin Ruiming (ed.), National Anthology: Modern Poetry Volume III, Taipei: Yushan She, 2005, pp. 93–95.
(10) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Volume I: 1949–1981), Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 236–240.
(11) From Lin Ruiming (ed.), National Anthology: Modern Poetry Volume III, Taipei: Yushan She, 2005, pp. 119–121.
(12) From Ya Xian, Collected Poems of Ya Xian, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 59–62.
(13) Cai Zongyang, Applied Rhetoric Studies, Taipei: Hongfan Bookstore, 1986, p. 143.
