The Essence of "N-Yi" Structure in Zuo Zhuan

Yi, one of the most important functional words in old Chinese, has two syntagmatic forms with a noun(N), i.e. Yi-N and N-Yi. As far as the structure of the former is concerned, all researchers agree on it. But on the structure of the latter, researchers disagree. Based on Zuo Zhuan, this paper comes to the conclusion that N-Yi structure is by nature an N-postposition structure and in origin a mutation of Yi-N structure.