10
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Why is Sherlock Holmes translated as "福尔摩斯" (Fuermosi)?
Min dialects pronounce 福 as "hok", hence the spelling Hokkien (also spelled Fujian as per Mandarin pronunciation). The translation of Holmes as 福尔摩斯 is neither inaccurate nor ignorant. It has to do ...
- 6,131
10
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Accepted
Why is Sherlock Holmes translated as "福尔摩斯" (Fuermosi)?
The term "福爾摩斯" was used in newspapers as a detective example (中國亦有福爾摩斯), as early as 1905.
香港華字日報, 1905-10-25
Title: 香港華字日報, 1905-10-25 = The Chinese Mail
Bib ID: NPTCM19051025
Publisher: 香港 :...
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5
votes
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In the novel 猫城记, why does 老舍 use 的 (instead of 地) for adverbs?
Actually, you're right, this is a history question rather a grammar one.
Chinese people do NOT differentiate "的得地" intentionally before the 1960s (or even 1980s).
Here is a blog I found “的地得”...
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5
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What does Lao Tzu mean by "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"?
Maybe the original quote is this one:
道常無為而無不為。
——老子 《道德經》
道 (The way/ nature) 常無為 (doesn't do anything) 而(but) 無不為 (everything is done )
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5
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How do Chinese writers portray different accents in literature?
Do authors use different Hanzi characters to portray nonstandard pronunciations?
Yes, sometimes. For example,
这是我爸和我妈 - (Beijing)
这是俺爹和俺娘 - (Hebei countryside)
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4
votes
Accepted
A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
One of the quotes you give is from David Hawkes, published, translation. It goes as follows:
Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true;
Real becomes not-real where the unreal’s real.
You can ...
Mou某♦
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4
votes
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Ten obligations in 三字经
the trimetrical classic (三字經) is extracted from ancient confucianism literatures, in three characters verses.
the eight verses in question are derived from 禮記 禮運
父慈．子孝．兄良．弟弟．夫義．婦聽．長惠．幼順．君仁．臣忠十者．...
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4
votes
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Chinese literature database 中文文学作品资料库
The database of the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU
It supports modern and ancient Chinese, context-view.
Pattern search examples:
爱(V,=2)不(V) will get 爱执行不执行, 2 characters following 爱, then 不 ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Does Jia Zheng (賈政) get angry over Xiren's (袭人) name in *Dream of the Red Chamber*?
You are not mistaken. It is in Chapter 23, approximately the middle of the chapter.
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4
votes
The legend of the Chinese dragon
The accepted answer is simply wrong.
It is probably from a Chinese folk tale since it claims to be Chinese. I daresay I have read similar folktales, especially the swallow-the-bead-and-turn-into-a-...
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4
votes
Accepted
How do Chinese writers portray different accents in literature?
In formal text its all standard written chinese, and the author simply says they are speaking in XYZ accent, and the reader can imagine it. Just like in english I can tell you two characters are ...
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3
votes
In the novel 猫城记, why does 老舍 use 的 (instead of 地) for adverbs?
Maybe because they sound very similar, causing many people 的、得、地不分. treat '的' as a variant of 地 the adverb, and 得 the degree particle
Since so many people doing it, even some dictionary accepted '的' ...
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3
votes
What did Liu Cixin mean by: In this book, a man named “humanity” confronts a disaster?
In fact, basically no character will ever be called a human, because it's a catch-all. Liu Cixin refers to billions of people collectively as human beings, and writing it that way emphasizes a common ...
- 31
3
votes
Accepted
砲響: were there cannons in ancient China?
Brewitt-Taylor's English translation of San-guo yanyi calls it a "bomb." This was a kind of "signal bomb" 號砲 or 信砲. The earliest real historical record of these seems to have been the Yuan dyansty, as ...
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3
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Why is Sherlock Holmes translated as "福尔摩斯" (Fuermosi)?
"福尔摩斯" is not accurate for the pronunciation. That's right. But this is decided by the first two translators for the book in 1902, Ding Huang and Zaixin Zhang. They translated Sherlock Holmes to "...
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3
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A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
My English skill is such a hindrance to my expressing my ideas ಥ_ಥ, so I put my answer in Chinese (I think OP can read it since he s able to read 红楼梦ԅ(¯ㅂ¯ԅ))
确实是开放的问题。
甄士隐梦游至太虚幻境，见此楹联左右悬于门闾，...
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3
votes
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Origin of the story of Suiren on Mount Buzhou?
most likely, it’s quoted from 太平御覽 火部二
that, it claimed the book “拾遺記” by 王子年, had such record:
又曰：申彌國去都萬里，有燧明國不識四時晝夜。其人不死，厭世而升天。國有火樹，名燧木，屈盤萬丈，雲霧出於中間，折枝相鉆，則火出矣。后世聖人，變腥臊之味，游日月之外 ( make a tour beyond ...
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2
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A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
It is the translation I think is most accurate:
假作真时 - when falsehood is treated as fact
真(亦)假 - fact would (also) be treated as falsehood
无为有处 - where thing doesn't exist is treated as ...
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2
votes
Accepted
Categories in Chinese literature - Original terms
since your book is an introduction, i would suggest that the "four main categories" is 經﹒史﹒子﹒集; in sequence:
classics - 經
history - 史
masters - 子
collections of belle lettres - 集
the long ...
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2
votes
砲響: were there cannons in ancient China?
i checked briefly, the earliest usage of "砲響" and "砲聲" was in the book 錢塘遺事, by 劉一清 of 元 dynasty.
卷九, on page 49, it recorded the event in 揚州, on 德祐丙子二月二十日, which was march 7th, in the year of 1276.
...
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2
votes
Who said "he who is in a rush shall walk slowly"?
"he who is in a rush shall walk slowly” was translation of a Japanese proberbs, and many of them came from Chinese literatures
The idiom 欲速則不達 (If you rush you are more likely not getting there) ...
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2
votes
A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
When lies are made the truth, the truth becomes lies.
2
votes
Accepted
What poem of 李太白 was 毛泽东's painting with the title "half sun, half rock" alluding to?
he once drew a painting "half sun, half rock" in the art class
omg, such translation 🙀
the original text in traditional chinese is
記得有一次我畫了一條直線，上面加上一個半圓
roughly,
[i] remembered, once i ...
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2
votes
Accepted
A question about the official Chinese translation of two passages from Nietzsche's books
there’re pdf, or epub file of nietzsche’s books in simplified chinese
人性的，太人性的
on page 21 of the linked pdf
Von den ersten und letzten Dingen
is translated as “關於最初的事物與最後的事物”
瞧，這箇人
on page 29(?) of ...
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2
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About the origin of the quote 所爱隔山海，山海亦可平
This question has been discussed on Chinese forums:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/27487905
It's a modern composition made in 2005, by an Internet user called littlesen.
According to the linked page, ...
- 2,487
2
votes
Accepted
关于一句鲁道夫·卡斯纳格言的中文翻译
"伟大的人" can be shortened to "伟人" and this is common usage.
Weg can be either 路 or 道. 道 has a more classic feeling as it is used in idioms like 孔孟之道.
So what is Innigkeit and Opfer?
...
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1
vote
What does Lao Tzu mean by "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"?
This quote might be one of the many translations from the Tao Te ching, as stated in chapter 37:
"The everlasting TAO acts according to the natural WAY.
Therefore, there is nothing that IT will ...
- 11
1
vote
Accepted
The legend of the Chinese dragon
A google book search of “hieun tse” revealed a book “International Folk Tales: A collection of Ancient Folk tales”
I would say that the story is “un-chinese”, created without knowledge of the culture,...
- 15.7k
1
vote
Accepted
Romance of the Three Kingdoms English translation with Pinyin names?
There's official English version of The Romance of Three Kingdoms
To find out the names of characters and places in Chinese characters, you can just input them in Google search, for example "Cao Cao"...
- 78.8k
1
vote
A better translation of 假作真时真亦假，无为有处有还无。
These two lines make me think of the following (in quotations below). This is not an attempt to a translation that can capture the whole meaning. It is merely some thoughts.
"Quite often, if we ...
- 11
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