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的 in its function as a particle is attested in the 四大名著 Four Great Classical Novels, which are written in a vernacular Mandarin-type language, dating from the Ming dynasty. The particle use of 的 is also attested from the Yuan dynasty, when it seems it was adopted for the grammatical particle of the emerging new literary language. Its earliest attestation is ...
12
How to look up an entry in 《說文通訓定聲》?
前言 Introduction
一般中文字典的內容是按部首字形分類排列。
《說文通訓定聲》則是依音韻分類排列。
從內容順序來看，作者 朱駿聲 是假設讀者已熟悉字的音韻。
所以，他先列出自創的「古韻十八部」做為「總目」，然後才是各部的內容。
The contents of common Chinese dictionaries are classified and arranged according to the shapes of radicals.
《說文通訓定聲》 is arranged in accordance with phonology.
Judging from the order of contents, the ...
11
行 here means "to do" or "to perform".
行：實行；實踐 to do; to perform; to practice
有：還有 still have
餘：多餘的 superfluous; surplus; excess
力：能力 ability; capability
行有餘力，
After doing these and still having surplus capability,
行有餘力，則以學文。
After one can perform the above things, and has enough time and ability, one should study and learn some knowledge.
"The above ...
10
There are people studying this.
Classical Chinese Character Frequency List
Modern Chinese Character Frequency List
Now do your own comparisons because I'm lazy.
Update -- I feel less lazy today so I'll give it a shot.
For obvious purposes, let't take the first 1000 characters in the classical list and see where they go in the trend. I can't do scripts ...
10
Some disagreements with above.
Though '七曜' did exist in Chinese philosophy and literature from the very beginning, it is almost certain that the practice of using '七曜' to notate the seven days of a week came from the western world via India around the Tang Dynasty.
In spite of this, it was not until the dawn of the Chinese dynasties that Chinese people ...
10
𢂎 U+2208E
𦩳 U+26A73
𥸷 U+25E37
𤭹 U+24B79
𠰉 U+20C09
𢮿 U+22BBF
𦧴 U+269F4
𢜫 U+2272B
𤍐 U+24350
𢃛 U+220DB
𤟔 U+247D4
𣩒 U+23A52
𩵖 U+29D56
𪇇 U+2A1C7
𩬱 U+29B31
𤜅 U+24705
﨣 U+FA23
𥺝 U+25E9D
髟＋忿？(not found) (𩭤 U+29B64 𩭮U+29B6E 𩬉 U+29B09)
𥹸 U+25E78
Most of them are in the block of "CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B".
﨣 is in the block of "CJK ...
9
This is a 隸書 form of 景. According to the references cited in the 教育部異體字字典, it occurs on steles from the Tang dynasty.
Sometimes these variations are done for ease of cutting, or because certain forms tend to break or wear away very easily; I don't know if this is the case here. Another form that also seems to appear a lot is with two 日, a 日 on top and a ...
9
薺麥之茂，薺麥之有。
薺麥之茂生，薺麥之因有。
薺麥之茂生，因薺麥之有。
薺麥茂於雪霜之時，乃因薺麥之內有。
薺麥能茂生於雪霜之時，乃因薺麥之內在本有。
The buckwheat(?) can grow well in the snow because of its inherent ability.
君子之傷，君子之守。
君子之傷厄，君子之見守。
君子之傷厄，見君子之守。
君子居於艱難之境，方見君子之內守。
君子能安居於艱難之境，方見君子之內在操守。
A gentleman can live well in the predicaments, then people can see his inner integrity.
9
青 does not mean black in modern Chinese (likely due to semantic transition). It can mean black in classical Chinese, but that does not mean its meaning is ambiguous either, given the context is understood. Consider the following:
君不見高堂明鏡悲白髮，朝如青絲暮成雪。——李白《將進酒》
This verse by the Tang poet Li Bai laments how one's hair becomes white overnight. We see 青絲 as a ...
8
朱熹四書章句集注 「傳，謂受之於師。習，謂熟之於己。」
So 傳 means what you've received from your Master. James Legge's translation seems right.
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Here's a good English definition and explanation with an example sentence to get you started:
A Students Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese
2 negative particle of the perfective: had not, have not, will have not; similar to 末 mò and often accompanied by perfective-final 矣 yǐ; mostly found in Zuozhuan 左傳 and Guoyu 國語, later mainly for archaic ...
7
It's an honorific, meaning "illustrious" or "enlightened general", and as such is not specific to Liu Bei.
For example, in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Pei Song's annotations cite a passage where Huangfu Li (皇甫酈) addresses Li Jue (李傕) as 明將軍:
近董公之強，明將軍目所見...
In recent times, you yourself, illustrious general, saw with your own eyes ...
7
The first thing to point out is that「吾」(Baxter-Sagart: /*ŋˤa/) and「我」(Baxter-Sagart: /*ŋˤajʔ/) are cognate. They mean exactly the same thing, and were interchangeable to a very large degree; as the comment pointed out, the use of one over the other is due to either personal preference, emulation of ancient texts, or to avoid repetition.
Specifically in the ...
6
The following is an excerpt from wikipedia, Classical Chinese Grammar:
Grammar
Further information: Classical Chinese lexicon
Classical Chinese is distinguished from written vernacular Chinese in
its style, which appears extremely concise and compact to modern
Chinese speakers, and to some extent in the use of different lexical
items (...
6
This article suggests that the original text was 道可道，非恒道. That is, 恒 not 常 (meaning 永恒 = eternal, unchanging).
This dictionary definition for 常 also includes the meaning "长久，经久不变" (and gives the example 常量, with an alternate form 恒量).
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The equivalent of 子 for women is also 子.
【清·張自烈·正字通】子部：女子亦稱子
Examples from Old Chinese texts:
【孟子·告子下】逾東家牆而摟其處子，則得妻，不摟，則不得妻，則將摟之乎？
The Works of Mencius: "Breaking into your landlord's house and harass the virgin girl gets you a wife; refrain from harassing and you don't get a wife. Does that mean you would do it?"
【詩經·國風·周南·桃夭】桃之夭夭，灼灼其華；之子于歸，宜其室家!...
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If you are looking for an exact English translation, the answer is that there isn't one.
It is a tradition in Chinese culture. When you are talking about/to other people, you should butter him/her up by exaggerating his/her achievements, wealth, position and etc. And do the opposite thing when talking about yourself. It's all about being polite (when ...
6
足矣 means (lucky) enough.
So the whole sentence means:
knowing a person who understand you (soul mate? I think) in one's life is enough.
Implicit meaning: many people won't have even one soul mate all his/her life. When you have one, you are lucky enough. So please appreciate it and don't ask for more.
6
I'm afraid different people may use these terms in slightly different ways. But the way I understand it,
standard form 標準體 is one of several ways of writing a character, chosen as standard in a particular place and time (there are different standards: standard mainland forms, standard Taiwanese forms, standard Hong Kong forms, standard Kangxi forms, etc.),
...
6
the post card is a replication of a painting, which is in the palace museum (故宫博物院). imo, the quality is, unacceptable. here's a better image of the painting:
about the text, traditionally, one read from top to bottom, right to left. so, the rightest text are:
南刻京喬
宋畫口柯
諸之山急
公跡樓澗
皆為待唐
拜之風解
牀一觀元
下變六有
洗如此
惲其卷景
壽勾筆因
平砍墨倣
煥靈其
然逸意
神李
明唐
當
使
it was ...
6
1.[非] XXX,[不能] YYY = [not having] XXX, [cannot] YYY
"非 XXX 不能" is a relative clause; "YYY" is a verb clause
Example:
[非]孟子造道之深,[不能]形容至此也= [Not having] 孟子造道之深,[cannot]形容至此也
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EDIT: I didn't realize that there were typos in the quotation:
The original one should be 臣 以臣弑君、可謂仁乎 呼
I suppose 臣以弑君 might be an uncommon variant, but it is still grammatical.
臣以弑君 = 以臣弑君 killing his lord as a vassal.
以 is used as a preposition “as” but the word order is reversed, making it looks like a post-position. The sentence structure is ...
5
There are two kinds of morphology: inflectional and derivational. The first is like English –ed or –s, or case endings in languages like German or Latin. Adding an inflectional morpheme doesn’t make a new word, but it changes the grammatical function.
Derivational morphology, on the other hand, does make a new word. It might be a different part of speech,...
5
No.
The biggest obstacle is the script; although simple characters are still understandable, the evolution of scripts from seal script (the closest script to modern ones during Confucius's time) involved drastic changes in the appearance of characters. Those unfamiliar with the changes would have a lot of trouble recognising the characters. The shift to ...
5
Middle Chinese starting from the Sui dynasty (with the Qièyùn, 切韻, published in 601 CE) actually documented its phonology. These are called rime tables, and break down each character pronunciation into groups by tone and by final. These were employed by scholars in both reciting and composing verse. Using the fanqie 反切 spelling would also have aided scholars ...
5
I think doubts about Classical Chinese having ever been a medium of oral communication are quite appropriate. There are several things to consider:
One, the fact that the characters are relatively few is not so troublesome as they designate morphemes rather than words. Language has but a few sounds, a number of ways to combine those sounds phonotactically ...
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