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Let the "foot" meaning of 足 be A, the "plenty, enough" meaning be B. Will discuss about this topic in the following two sections.
Different Root
First, 現代漢語規範詞典 第二版 ("Modern Chinese Standard Dictionary" 2nd Edition) suggests that meaning A and meaning B come from different origin, though they share the same character currently.
Figure 1. Meanings of 足 in ...
16
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 ...
13
The Phonology of Standard Chinese by San Duanmu (端木三) has an entire chapter devoted to this topic (The Word Length Problem):
In this section I review six previous approaches to the disyllabic phenomenon in Chinese. For convenience, I call them (a) the homophone-avoidance approach, (b) the speech-tempo approach, (c) the grammatical approach, (d) the rhythm ...
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
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
As far as I know, classic Chinese is not used to "write" these languages as you think. Classic Chinese was just used as an "international" language among surrounding countries, like English nowadays. Take the Japanese Language for example.
In ancient times, the Japanese had their own language, but they didn't have a writing system. Of course, China was ...
9
As Fivesheep pointed out, “四海” means "the whole world". The word "四海一家" means "the whole world is one family". It is used to expressed that "we are family. we shall respect each other. we shall unite", something like this, to convey the politeness from the overseas Chinese people to the local people(in your case, the Australian people).
I believe this word ...
9
It means "someone" in this case.
From zdic:
某人，有的人
From Iciba:
[书] （某人； 有的人） someone ； some people
9
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 ...
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
㫬 ( xǔ ㄒㄩˇ or xù ㄒㄩˋ ) is the first name of 王㫬.
㫬 is the same as 昫.
昫 means "warm".
8
Maybe 以子之矛，攻子之盾 is the answer, I couldn't find another alternative.
Description on Baidu Baike
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.
8
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 ...
8
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 ...
8
From《漢語大詞典》,
所(19)，助詞。表示結構。與動詞結合成名詞性詞組。
structural particle; combine with a verb to form a noun phrase
援(2)，動詞。攀緣的意思。
verb; to climb the social ladder through pull; to seek connections in high places
所援, 名詞性詞組, is the object (對象, the beauty here) that people like to get close.
東漢 許慎《說文解字》
媛，美女也，人所援也。
美女是人們想要攀緣、親近、討好的對象。
A beautiful female is whom people ...
8
They were carved in 篆體。
The first photo is 絲竹神韻.
* 絲 here means stringed instruments (絃樂器).
* 竹 means wind instruments made from bamboo (竹製管樂器).
* 絲竹 widely means traditional Chinese musical instruments.
* 神韻 wonderful rhyme, beautiful sound
The second one is 王益(?)高(maker)製.
7
If not, why not?
There is no exact one-word equivalent of the concept of "freedom" in ancient Chinese, just as there are no exact one-word equivalent of 仁， 理， 道, etc. in Latin, Greek or any Western languages. That's not surprising: it is what makes our world an interesting world of differences.
It doesn't mean ancient Chinese did not have or need or seek ...
7
Question: 古文中哪个字有自由不受约束的意思啊？ (Gǔwén zhōng nǎge zì yǒu zìyóu bu shòu yuēshù de yìsi a) - Which word in Ancient Chinese means Free and/or Unfettered?
Source: Bai Du
It appears there aren't single words, in modern and ancient Chinese, that have a denotative meaning of "Freedom". There are however, connotative words that can mean "free" or "to set free" in ...
6
It should be read in the original lau4 (陽平) tone, but not only because it's "classical", but primarily because the poem follows the tone pattern of a five-syllable regulated verse (五絕).
Tones in Middle Chinese were classified into 平 (level), 上 (rising), 去 (departing), and 入 (entering), the latter three of which were classified as 仄 (oblique) for the ...
6
This is classical Chinese, not modern Chinese.
Normally in Classical Chinese 所 stands for an omitted object of a verb. 所 + Verb means ‘Verb 的东西 (the thing that is verb-ed), which is equivalent to a kind of relative clause marker (RM) in English ‘what/that is Verb-ed’. It makes the sentence passive.
The 有 just means 有.
In modern Chinese I would write it ...
6
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!...
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
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 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 ...
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