《夜航船》十二生肖四字格成语探析

《夜航船》是由明末清初文学家张岱所编纂的一部综合性类书。书中的词汇语料覆盖面广、蕴含量丰富，汇集了先秦至明代的各类文献材料，且每个条目文辞简短，少则十几个字，多则几十个字，语料中囊括了不少产生在不同时代的成语。经笔者统计，该书四字格成语多达548个，其中十二生肖四字格成语有58个。通过对这些成语按来源的历史层次和语源构成方式进行分类，以明确书中生肖成语的具体产生时代和形成定型方式。并择取部分有代表性的生肖成语进行演变分析，用历时的研究方法对其发展演变及沿用情况进行梳理，并以此为切入点，来探求成语的“前世今生”。通过多层次多角度的分析，最终勾勒出《夜航船》十二生肖四字格成语的概貌，为后续《夜航船》四字格成语的其他研究奠定基础。

A Study on Four-character Chengyu of Chinese Zodiac in The Night Ferry

The Night Ferry, an encyclopedia with materials taken from various sources and arranged according to subjects, was compiled by Zhang Dai, the late Ming and early Qing dynasty writer. This book covers extensive entries in different fields including all kinds of literatures from the pre-Qin period to the Ming Dynasty and idiomatic expressions (Chengyu) of different times. There are 548 four-character Chengyu in this book,among which 58 four-character Chengyu are about Chinese zodiac (a classification scheme that assigns an animal to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle). This paper summarizes and analyzes the four-character Chengyu of Chinese zodiac according to etymology so as to pinpoint the time and typification of the Chengyu of Chinese zodiac. Moreover, we selected certain Chengyu of Chinese zodiac for detailed study to trace their development and application in history. As a result, the summarization of Chengyu of Chinese zodiac in The Night Ferry is formed after multilevel analyses, laying a foundatin for future study on four-character Chengyu in The Night Ferry.