Questions tagged [old-chinese]
The old-chinese tag has no usage guidance.
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How are Chinese two - part allegorical sayings created?
How are Chinese two-part allegorical sayings created? What are the processes and methods behind their creation? Are there specific cultural backgrounds or historical origins that contribute to their ...
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I'm currently reading a romanized, english map of China from 1912. I'd like to modernize the locations. How should I go about it?
I'm reading a map from 1916 that has outdated romanization and location names. While I am easily finding the bigger towns, cities, and districts I struggle when it comes to the more minor towns. I'm ...
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Need help for translating old signs
Dear all, I recently bought this painting and I would be keen to understand the meaning of the painted signs. Can anyone please help? Thanks a lot.
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Does anyone know how to read that kind of music sheet ? It’s supposed to be for an instrument called Guqin
A friend of mine would like to know how to read this music sheet for an instrument called Guqin. Does anyone have ever heard about that kind of sheet ?
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Two etymologies of "天上有地下无"?
The Chinese saying "天上有，地下无" means extremely extraordinary people, which can only be found in heaven (天上有) and not on earth (地下无).
Very interesting is the first one of these two etymologies ...
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Is the final particle 夫 a fusion of 不乎?
I read this in Pulleyblank's Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar, where he said it is a maybe.
In Old Chinese (OC), they have the following initial and rhyme groups with Baxter-Sagart reconstructions:...
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seal character identification request is anybody on here qualified to do so thanks
seal identification request [![enter image description here]seal identification request 2]2part of the seal on a painting various experts cannot translate the writing symbols is anybody on here ...
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Can anyone help me identify this Chinese signs please?
My grandfather was in China in the early 20th century.
In family heirlooms, there was a box with such a sign in the upper corner. Probably the signature of whoever made this box.
Can anyone help me ...
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Chinese to Chữ Nôm converter online
Why it is very hard to find the Chữ Nôm for the very common Hanzi 有 ?
Maybe this Hanzi was not so used in the past ?
This looks very strange, and any light on it is welcome !
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Timeframe for Learning Ancient Chinese
As a complete newbie to the Chinese language, I would like to ask the following questions.
What is an approximate time for learning enough of the Chinese language to be able to read something like ...
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Does this building on chinese painting exist for real ? May the text which come along be of any help?
I am wondering if this building on a chinese painting is for real ? Or just if something close exists... it may be on an island and is rather cubic... I have nearly zero knowledge of chinese ...
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Reconstruction of Old Chinese "少"
There are many characters that have the initial "m-" and contain "少" as a phonetic element at the same time, such as 妙, 秒, 眇, 竗, etc. I thought this was a good reason to judge that ...
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Is there an explicit/crude saying for bravery in Chinese?
I am looking for something similar to the english 'having big balls' as an indication of bravery.
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Is syaku an ancient Chinese unit of measurement (Suanfa tong zong)?
According to multiple sources the following problem would be found in Suanfa tong zong (like on cut-the-knot)
Two reeds of equal height project 3 syaku above the surface of a pond.
If we draw the top ...
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Help me translate stamps on bowls and paintings? (Ancient Chinese, Japanese & Cantonese) [closed]
Im looking for help identifying 7 pieces of art (5 paintings and two bowls). I was advised sby a friends grandmother that some is ancient Chinese, Japanese and Cantonese but have had no luck ...
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Can someone identify the characters in this Seal Script? (Characters identified: 江上清風 山間明月)
I would love some help identifying the characters written on this stamp. I see that the 5th and 6th characters are 山 and 間, but I cannot identify the others!
This stamp is the underside of a netsuke ...
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What did Eastern Han Chinese sound like?
As I was improving an answer to this question in the History SE, I discovered that the prestige Luoyang dialect of the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period didn't actually fall under Old Chinese but ...
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What does this approx. 300-year-old Korean text by Choi Seok-Jeong say?
This image comes from the paper https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.02202.pdf:
It's an old Korean orthogonal Latin square attributed to Choi Seok-Jeong, in the book Koo-Soo-Ryak. It's of historical interest, ...
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Word count in Classical Chinese vs English
Apologies if the title isn't clear, I'm not sure how to express this.
I'm trying to establish roughly how many words a Classical Chinese text results in, once translated into English. Classical ...
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What were the tools that Chinese teachers could use in China before the introduction of Zhuyin and Pinyn
I am interested in any answer to that question. I already found a few elements in the older question How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?
I have ...
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How come 将 is a "future marker" and a "passive marker"?
Any good logical theories on the subject? What twisted life must have 将 took to merge such functions into one glyph?
For my background 将 as 把(to take) and 将 as 且(further) are queit different in ...
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Is there an Old Chinese dictionary which shows clearly the usage of a word?
类似于OALD等英语学习者词典，我希望这本词典能在含义之外详细说明词的用法，以使得读者看完后能够用所查的词写出正确的古汉语句子。
以“语”字为例，我希望这本词典至少能够说明这个字（作“告诉”讲时）如何接续表示“告诉”的对象，如何接续表示“告诉”的内容，并给出相应例句。
词典本身是用任何语言编纂的都可以。
user19559
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请教一下『还』字（huan2、hai2 两者）的语源
『还』字的这两个读音，韵母不一样，实际意思差别也挺大的。
当它读作huan2是指『回归』之意，可以译作『return』，是个动词；
但是若以hai2音来翻译，应当是代表了一种『当下并没有，但以后可能会这样』的状态，译作『still/yet』等副词。
我私下里就想，这俩意思之间有着千差万别，从上古汉语追溯下来，应该不是同源的吧？
然后我就去网上搜了一圈，在《说文》和《康熙字典》...
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Is Cantonese a better choice in studying classic of poetry (詩經)?
Again, I ask this question, and provide my opinion as an answer, to reply to the comment of another thread in Stack Exchange:
Pronunciation of Tang Dynasty Poetry
Now, I ask again: in studying ...
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Can anyone tell me what this means please? I think it is a proverb
A friend left me this at work, I think it is a proverb but Google gave me different translations each time which confused me as none of it made sense.
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Where can I find recordings of old Chinese pronunciation?
Old Chinese phonology and Reconstructions of Old Chinese seem to be two things that keep cropping up every now and again.
Baxter–Sagart seems to be the big one these days.
Are there any recordings ...
Mou某♦
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A unified theory of 就 meaning
就 always bothered me. I couldn't (and maybe still can't) get a hold of its meaning.
By looking at many examples of the usage I came to realization that 就 marks a process of becoming a subject to or ...
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What's the meaning of 登假 in old daoist scriptures like Zhuang Zi?
In the old daoist text Zhuang Zi, we see 登假 at least twice in the Inner Chapters (5.1 and 6.2).
In the first part, it gives the meaning of departure and "going up" (to isolation in the mountains? To ...
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How to type these old and rare Chinese characters?
I've tried to google these old Chinese characters using their closest approximations but still haven't found out any. I want to find these characters so that I can copy and paste them instead of ...
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How is 古代汉语 defined?
According to Hanyu Wailaici Cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Loanwords), bóshì (博士) with the modern sense "doctor" is derived from the Japanese hakushi, which in turn is of "Ancient Chinese" (古代汉语) ...
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What's the difference between 圣人 and 神人 in ancient daoism?
In ancient daoism, we see both 圣人 and 神人.
The first appears frequently in Dao De Jing, being translated as sage, saint, wise or sensible person.
The second appears in Zhuangzi (4.6), being ...
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What is the oldest retracable meaning for the character/word 臾?
臾 (yu2) in classical Chinese means "for a while".
I assume "for a while" was not the original meaning this character was associated with in the time when it came, by what mysterious brain activity ...
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Old Mandarin vs. Mandarin Chinese?
How intelligible is Old Mandarin to the speakers of Mandarin Chinese?
If an Old Mandarin Chinese speaker heard a Mandarin Chinese speaker or vice versa, how fluent would the communication be?
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What is the ancient Chinese one-character name for woman like '子’ means man?
青青子衿，悠悠我心。但为君故，沉吟至今
Here:
子，对对方的尊称
子 implicitly implies the poem is addressing a man. The poem talks about how a lady misses a man. I just wonder if there is a corresponding word for Chinese. (i.e. ...
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What happened to the Old Chinese coda -p of 拉 in Cantonese?
Baxter's Middle Chinese reconstruction has 拉 as *lop, which surprised me given that the Cantonese reflex is laai1.
Other characters with the rime -op such as 合, 答 and 雜 end up with the rime -ap or -...
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Did ancient Chinese have tones (声调)?
This question has puzzled me since I have no training in ancient Chinese and ancient phonetics. What is puzzling me are the following facts:
The tones in different regions are quite different. If ...
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