Questions tagged [classical-chinese]

Classical Chinese (古文, Pinyin: gǔ wén, "ancient text") is the language of the classic literature from the Spring and Autumn period through to the end of the Han Dynasty, a written form of Old Chinese. The term is also used for Literary Chinese (文言文 wényán wén, "text of written language"), a traditional style of written Chinese modelled on the classical language, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
2 votes
1 answer
913 views

Poetic two-character words of the form: Verb + Natural Noun?

I was looking for examples in Mandarin of poetic two-character words. What words have the following form... Verb + Noun ...where the noun is something that occurs in nature? The first examples ...
user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
693 views

What written language is more commonly used for video games in China? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What are the relative literacy rates in for simplified and traditional characters? Just wondering what language to use in game menus, buttons, and settings.
rraallvv's user avatar
  • 141
6 votes
3 answers
481 views

How to explain the structure of "将在外,军令有所不受。"

In my own opinion, this sentence should be "将在外,军令不受". I can hardly imagine any use of "有" and "所" here. Could someone explain the structure of this sentence?
Mike Manilone's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Specifics of the idiom "四海一家"

There are several sayings and idioms similar to 四海一家 which reference "四海". Does the 四海 actually refer to 4 specific oceans such as the Indian, Pacific etc. or is it more of a metaphor for all of the ...
going's user avatar
  • 10.2k
5 votes
1 answer
426 views

What does the classical construction X 何由 Y mean?

I almost never see this construction in classical prose. (In fact, I'll venture I've never seen it.) However, it's in two of my favorite poems. In this one, it's from the poem "晨詣超師院讀禪經" by 柳宗元: ...
magnetar's user avatar
  • 1,207
7 votes
5 answers
4k views

Resources for learning classical Chinese

I have a very strong interest in classical Chinese (文言文), but I am unable to find any ressources for learning it that don't assume Chinese is your mother language. Can anybody give me some pointers?
FUZxxl's user avatar
  • 381
13 votes
4 answers
3k views

Classical Chinese Literature - What languages could be written with it? And why?

I understand that classical Chinese (see Wikipedia) was very different from spoken Chinese (at least in the last centuries of its usage). Nevertheless, despite or maybe even because of this, it was ...
Falko's user avatar
  • 395

1 2 3 4
5