Abstract
Chiese bei passives are considered to be with inflictive or adversative readings and the positive reaings are under the influence of Western literature translation. Even though some scholars indicate that the bei passives with positive or neutral readings do exist in Old Chinese, yet no one explains where this phenemonen comes from. By reviewing the historical development of Chinese bei passives, this study suggests that when the bei passive replaced the jian passive, it also absorted the function of the jian passive, which can co-occur with the positive or neutral readings. As for the negative reading, this founding argues that the verb bei is not inborn with the inflictive reading. Such reading attaches to the passive morpheme bei is due to the co-occurrence of bei and negative context. As for the semantic constraint, both positive and negative readings are allowed to the direct passive, but only the negative reading can exist in the indirect passives. This study suggest that the former has something to do with the replacement, and the later is due to the co-occurrence of the negative context. This study also investigate the distribution of Chinese bei passives in Modern Mandarin Chinese by examing the patterns in novels, and compare the result with the bei passives in Early Mandarin Chinese