Construction and Analysis of a Diachronic Knowledge Base of Traditional Values in Chinese Idioms

Chinese idioms are the distillation of ancient Chinese culture, spanning various dynasties and rich in traditional values. Studying the diachronic evolution of these traditional values in idioms is of great significance for understanding Chinese culture. Due to the limited resources on diachronic values, there has been relatively little research on the diachronic evolution of Chinese traditional values, especially a lack of studies involving quantitative and qualitative analysis. In this paper, we design a framework and construct the first diachronic knowledge base of Chinese traditional values in idioms, which includes 2,472 idioms that embody traditional values. Each idiom is annotated with rich related information by GPT-4 Turbo and verified by humans. This method of using a language model for annotation, with human-assisted verification, improves the efficiency and accuracy of the knowledge base annotation. Subsequently, we provide a detailed analysis and discussion of the specific content changes and thematic content (taking "仁义" as an example) of traditional values in idioms, and conduct standardized processing of the overall quantity of traditional values idioms, analyzing their change trends over time. The analysis reveals that traditional values embodied in Chinese idioms demonstrate strong continuity and are reflective of the era in which they were used. Additionally, Chinese society has consistently upheld the principle of "altruism." Furthermore, the cyclical and wave-like patterns of Chinese traditional values closely align with the characteristics of various historical periods in China.