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Linguistic synaesthesia in Chinese has not received as much attention as in Indo-European languages （Zhao et al.2018b）. Most earlier studies on Chinese synaesthesia tend to focus either on specific Chinese counterparts of English synaesthetic uses （e.g.，Li 1996；Wang 2002；Wang and Xu 2002；Yang and Zhang 2007；Peng and Bai 2008；Wang 2008），or on synaesthetic usages in poetic Chinese （e.g.，Qian 1985；Yu 2003）. One exception is Lien’s （1994）study on linguistic synaesthesia in one Chinese dialect，i.e.，Southern Min. The study proposed a unidirectional transfer hierarchy for synaesthetic words in Southern Min，where dimension is generally the lowest sense acting as the source domain for synaesthetic transfers，while smell is normally the highest modality as the target domain of linguistic synaesthesia. Therefore，Lien’s （1994）model is different from the transfer models generalized for linguistic synaesthesia based on Indo-European languages，where touch is the lowest sensory modality as the productive source domain （cf. Section 1.1.1）.
More recent research on Chinese synaesthesia has begun to examine language-specific characteristics of linguistic synaesthesia in Chinese，such as Xiong and Huang （2015），Zhao and Huang （2015），Zhao et al.（2015），Zhao and Huang （2018），Zhao et al.（2018b），and Zhao et al.（2019）. These studies have shown that Chinese synaesthesia does exhibit different tendencies when compared with English synaesthesia. For instance，Xiong and Huang （2015）found that the gustatory adjective 苦
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‘bitter’in Mandarin Chinese could be used for the olfactory domain，while the gustatory adjective bitter in English did not show the transfer. Similarly，Zhao and Huang （2015）attested that the synaesthetic tendencies of Mandarin tactile，gustatory，and olfactory adjectives were not consistent with the hierarchy generalized by Williams （1976）for English sensory adjectives. Zhao et al.（2018b）employed a corpus-based approach to examine linguistic synaesthesia in Mandarin and English gustatory adjectives. The study confirmed that Mandarin and English did not share the same synaesthetic tendencies on gustatory adjectives，where vision precedes hearing on the synaesthetic hierarchy for Mandarin gustatory adjectives，while vision follows hearing on the synaesthetic hierarchy for English gustatory adjectives. Based on Mandarin sensory adjectives with more than one sensory meaning in 现代汉语词典
Xian4-dai4 Han4-yu3 Ci2-dian3
‘Contemporary Chinese Dictionary’，Zhao and Huang （2018）generalized a synaesthetic hierarchy for Mandarin sensory adjectives.
The research has shown that the general transfer hierarchy of Mandarin synaesthesia is different from that of English synaesthesia in accordance with Williams （1976）. For example，touch and taste could be source domains for each other for transfers of linguistic synaesthesia in Mandarin （Zhao and Huang 2018），while there is a unidirectional transfer from touch to taste in linguistic synaesthesia in English （Williams 1976）. In addition，Zhao and Huang （2018）have proposed that the salience of sensory modalities in the human sensory system，in addition to physical contact，is also a factor that motivates the transfer directions of linguistic synaesthesia. Following this proposal，vision and hearing are more salient and thus more embodied than smell，which could explain why smell is the least productive source domain on the highest position in the transfer hierarchy of Mandarin synaesthesia （Zhao and Huang 2018）. Although these studies have established that Mandarin shows language-specific characteristics in linguistic synaesthesia，one limitation is the relatively small sample of synaesthetic examples employed. They tend to be based either on linguistic synaesthesia for specific lexical items and sensory domains （e.g.，Xiong and Huang 2015；Zhao and Huang 2015；Zhao et al.2018b）or on synaesthetic adjectives from the dictionary （e.g.，Zhao and Huang 2018）. Thus，a large-scale empirical data set derived from corpora is still needed for a comprehensive description of the general tendencies of Mandarin synaesthesia.
Another perspective of the research on Chinese synaesthesia is examination of the distributions and grammatical functions of linguistic synaesthesia in Chinese. Studies such as Xiong and Huang （2016）and Huang and Xiong （2019）have shown that linguistic synaesthesia can occur not only in diverse genres of Chinese texts （e.g.，poems，novels，Chinese translation texts of Buddhism，and ordinary Mandarin），but it can also function in multiple levels of Chinese including semantic compositions of Chinese characters，words，and phrases.
Zhao et al.（2019）have demonstrated that linguistic synaesthesia shows systematic distributions in both poetic and non-poetic Chinese. In addition，the study suggested that linguistic synaesthesia in general，and linguistic synaesthesia of Chinese in particular，could yield significant research results from both the linguistic and the inter-disciplinary perspectives. For instance，linguistic synaesthesia in Chinese showing language-specific characteristics would pose a challenge to the hypothesis of the cross-linguistic universality of transfer tendencies for linguistic synaesthesia in human languages （Zhao et al.2019）. Besides，linguistic synaesthesia showing directionality tendencies grounded in both embodied and neural mechanisms could provide implications for the embodiment theory in cognitive science and for neurological synaesthesia in brain science （Zhao et al.2019）.
It is noteworthy that Mandarin Chinese，as a Sino-Tibetan language （Chen 1999），is typologically distinct from Indo-European languages such as English and Italian，Hebrew，and Indonesian. A systematic and comprehensive study on linguistic synaesthesia in Mandarin Chinese would establish more meaningful correlations between linguistic behaviors in general and theoretical accounts for linguistic synaesthesia in human languages. Strik Lievers （2015）and Winter （2019a）have found that linguistic synaesthesia is productive in sensory adjectives.
Thus，this study will also focus on synaesthetic expressions of sensory adjectives in Mandarin Chinese. Based on the distributions of Mandarin synaesthetic adjectives （i.e.，adjectives used for more than one sensory domain in Mandarin）in the corpus，this book aims to explore general tendencies and theoretical explanations for Mandarin synaesthesia. In addition，it also seeks to clarify the nature of linguistic synaesthesia and to provide theoretical implications for CMT，based on the patterns of linguistic synaesthesia in Mandarin Chinese.