12
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Does this building on chinese painting exist for real ? May the text which come along be of any help?
the building exists, it’s called “turtle tower”, in hanoi, vietnam:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoàn_Kiếm_Lake
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7
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Is Cantonese a better choice in studying classic of poetry (詩經)?
Cantonese might preserve more sound distinctions than Mandarin, but they're both derived (as are most, though not all, modern dialects) from Middle Chinese.
The current consensus, arrived at slowly ...
- 381
7
votes
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Reconstruction of Old Chinese "少"
Baxter–Sagart's (2014:135) view on *s.t-:
Preinitial *s- had a range of effects on unaspirated stops and affricates . . . Old Chinese *s.t-, but not *s.tʕ-, evolves to MC sy- (plausibly [ɕ]), ...
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7
votes
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Is there an explicit/crude saying for bravery in Chinese?
The size of one's 胆 (gallbladder) is metaphorically an indicator of courage, 胆大 = brave; 胆小 = cowardly
有种 (have pedigree) --> having great pride --> brave
Example sentence:
有种你别跑! - if you ...
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5
votes
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Is syaku an ancient Chinese unit of measurement (Suanfa tong zong)?
I believe this is the original text:
今有葭二莖生池中，並根杪齊，出水三尺，即葭一莖斜去至岸九尺，與水適平，問水深若干？
It also comes with the following, hard to read, illustration:
This is the measure word you're asking about:
尺
MDBG:
...
Mou某♦
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5
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Can anyone tell me what this means please? I think it is a proverb
From Tao Te Ching ("Canon of morality") attributed to Laozi. These words are excerpted from various parts. Various translation exists, and here I am just being literal.
上善若水。水善利萬物而不爭。(part 8)
The ...
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5
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Where can I find recordings of old Chinese pronunciation?
I doubt it. Baxter and Sagart themselves mention, in their recent book on Old Chinese, that the reconstruction is at least partly schematic: The symbols are meant to be phonemic, not phonetic. ...
- 381
5
votes
Does anyone know how to read that kind of music sheet ? It’s supposed to be for an instrument called Guqin
Yes, in fact I play guqin myself, although only as a casual hobby level.
Almost none of these are actually chinese characters and aren't read as vocab, but basically chinese acronyms of actions to ...
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4
votes
Need help for translating old signs
the text in seal script is “
公公上荊衛大
墓阿柱州大唐
誌史國大將故
之那薛都軍右
銘貞國督贈驍
“
read it as “大唐故右驍衛大將軍贈荊州大都督上柱國薛國公阿史那貞公墓誌之銘”
the owner surname is 阿史那 “asena”, given name “忠”, posthumous name “貞”
https://zh.wikipedia....
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4
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How come 将 is a "future marker" and a "passive marker"?
将 before a verb is functioning as a [modal verb]: 'will / will soon'
Example:
(将)回家 = (will) go home
(将)死 = (will) die/ will die (soon)
将/把 before a noun is functioning as a [depositive marker] that ...
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4
votes
A unified theory of 就 meaning
You ask: "Why the hell 'tall building + very' became 'to become a subject'?! "
First of all, 尤 did not mean "very," it meant "stand out."
就 the character is a pictorial rebus of a tall building that ...
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4
votes
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Can someone identify the characters in this Seal Script? (Characters identified: 江上清風 山間明月)
山 江
间 上
明 清
月 风
“江上清风， 山间明月” from 《赤壁赋》 by 苏轼.
it means：
Breeze over the river and moon between the mountains.
江: river, especially Changjiang river.
上: above, over
清: refreshing
风: wind, breeze
山: ...
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3
votes
What did Eastern Han Chinese sound like?
The main go-to source is Schuessler's 2009 work Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese.
As this "Later Han Chinese" is of the 1st century CE, it falls directly in between the Zhou Dynasty's ...
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3
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What were the tools that Chinese teachers could use in China before the introduction of Zhuyin and Pinyn
If you can read traditional Chinese characters, I recommend the book "釧影樓回憶錄" by 包天笑 (PDF file).
It is in written vernacular Chinese, an easy read, with numerous "gems". The author ...
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3
votes
Where can I find recordings of old Chinese pronunciation?
In IPA, reconstructions are prefixed with an asterisk *, which is the linguists' reminder to the reader that the presented reconstruction isn't proposing that this is how people actually spoke, but an ...
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3
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Is there an Old Chinese dictionary which shows clearly the usage of a word?
古漢語既常以單字爲詞，容個人推薦 《王力古漢語字典》。
我也很贊成@水巷孑蠻的建議，應該用繁體讀古文。不但有簡繁轉換一對多的一個問題，古文裏假借與通假字甚多，分析古文的時侯字與詞的聲、調、韻等十分重要。簡體新造字用的聲部多數都不符合古漢語的聲韻。
例：《王力古漢語字典》「語」字詞條：
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2
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Is Cantonese a better choice in studying classic of poetry (詩經)?
In the Odes of the Classic of Poetry (詩經) dated from 11th to 6th BC, occasionally, entering tone (入聲) characters were used, for the purpose of rhyming (押韻).
Considering that there were much fewer ...
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2
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请教一下『还』字（huan2、hai2 两者）的语源
「還」（huan2），从「辵」（辶），「睘」（瞏）聲。「回歸」、「復也」是「還」字的本意，古文也偶爾用「睘」字假借爲「復也」之意。現代普通話 hai2、 huan2 二者有分工作用，前者是表示副詞的讀法，但古文竝不出現這種用法，huan2、hai2 的上古、中古等先音混用在「復也」、副詞之意。Hai2 先音不現於反切記錄，可能是白讀。
「睘」部在「還」裏衹是聲符，「睘」从「目」，「袁」省聲，...
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2
votes
Can anyone help me identify this Chinese signs please?
the picture needs to be turned upside-down 😸
the text is “周宜”
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2
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Two etymologies of "天上有地下无"?
Actually, "天上有，地下无" can not be called as a Chinese saying because there is no origin. It is just an expression that shares the same meaning with "天上少有，地下无双".
"天上少有，地下无双" ...
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How are Chinese two - part allegorical sayings created?
There are similar types of expressions in English; some of which you may not even be aware of their second part.
“Speak of the devil...” (full phrase: “Speak of the devil and he shall appear.”)
“If ...
Mou某♦
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1
vote
Seal on a painting
looks like "半岛山人", aka "wildman on a peninsula", to me.
The different ancient form of 岛：
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Is the final particle 夫 a fusion of 不乎?
Is the final particle 夫 a fusion of 不乎?
very doubtful, imo
“夫” used as a particle for indicating the end of a verse, has the functions of exclamation or query; 文言文中用於句末，表示感嘆或疑問。
about the “fusion”, ...
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1
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seal character identification request is anybody on here qualified to do so thanks
Both the upper signature and the seal are "若珣"， which could possibly be a woman's first name.
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Chinese to Chữ Nôm converter online
有 hữu isn't used in Vietnamese, which is why you don't see it on Chữ Nôm websites. It is only used in Literary Chinese texts (漢文; Hán văn; 文言文). "打有" can be transliterated into Vietnamese as ...
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Timeframe for Learning Ancient Chinese
Perhaps one might get a better perspective to consider how long it would take a complete newbie to the English language to read Shakespeare's plays competently, or Chaucer?
Here are the opening lines ...
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Timeframe for Learning Ancient Chinese
What language is the Sandokai written in?
broadly, it was written in literary chinese, with buddhism context; in 5 characters per verse.
Is this ancient Chinese? Is there such a thing in the first ...
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1
vote
Reconstruction of Old Chinese "少"
Some dialect（Wenzhou Hua 温州话/one of the Wu yu 吴语）（and i’m one of thoes who speaks 温州话）was able to retain ancient pronunciations, in such dialect 少 is pronounced between xié and xué，or mixed。
温州话 is ...
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vote
Accepted
What does this approx. 300-year-old Korean text by Choi Seok-Jeong say?
Here is my transcription into an ROC/HK standard character set.
《九九母數變宮陽圖》
從？皆得九十數總積八百一十母數
本宮圖即甲編母數名圖此圖自本
宮而一變
橫看從看
九數無一
重複者〇
以下四圖
係新定
I have a feeling the second character ？ is「衡」.
Please be wary ...
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1
vote
Accepted
Word count in Classical Chinese vs English
have a look of this topic: Word count in Classical Chinese vs English
now, be calm; please. the quoted wikipedia entry is, imo, unacceptable, in classical / literary chinese. so, your translation and ...
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