ABSTRACT
Why did the word 'storyteller' [shuohualshuohuade/shuohuaren] in modem Chinese become 'bookteller' [shuoshude]? Isn't this puzzling? Logic suggests the following simplistic answer : oral literature came to rely increasingly on written words and drew on the higher prestige of scriptures so that 'booktellers' sounded better than 'storytellers'. The trouble with this sort of reply is the fact that the term 'bookteller' replaced 'storyteller' hardly more than two centuries ago, while books are several millennia old and printing started some twelve centuries ago in China. We may disclaim any connection with the oftquoted passage from Mozi: 'Let those able to discuss logic, do so; those able to explain scriptures, do so' (Hou Baolin et al. 1980: 245).1With the meaning given by Mozi, shuoshu was in Song times a minor official title .2 It could hardly apply to mere storytellers.
