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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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8
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A unified theory of 就 meaning
reference: 现代汉语词典，第6版 (Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 6th Edition).
This dictionary gives 8 basic meaning items for 就.
approach, get close to
get to, begin to do
passive, -ed by
finish, become
...
- 545
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How to type these old and rare Chinese characters?
If you're having trouble displaying the following characters install the Hanazono font.
zisea 𬚆
𬚆
unicode码：2C686
zisea 𩫁
𩫁
unicode码：29AC1
拼音mao4
石 毛 doesn't seem to have much of a record as ...
Mou某♦
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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
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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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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
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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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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 ...
- 511
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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
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
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A unified theory of 就 meaning
Perspective from Japanese
The primary meaning for 就 in Japanese (which as you may know often tends to keep the Classical Chinese meaning for characters) is to "stick to", "arrive at", "become (...
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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
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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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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
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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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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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A unified theory of 就 meaning
From a letter of John Renfroe,
CEO and Co-founder, Outlier Inc.
I haven't looked into this character very much, but on a quick search (meaning I read the entry in 說文新證), here's what I've got.
The ...
- 2,073
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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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2
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What's the meaning of 登假 in old daoist scriptures like Zhuang Zi?
《康熙字典》
又《集韻》《正韻》𠀤與格同，至也。《易·萃卦》王假有廟。
from Kangxi Dicitionary: the 13th meaning of 假
It pronounces as 格, means 'arrive'. Example sentence from Yi Cuigua: The King arrives at the ancestral temple.
^...
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A unified theory of 就 meaning
I think after 3 years I've cracked it. My original post is wrong. 就 is not "subject". It's more simple than this:
就 as a verb used to mean "to take"
就 as a conjunction now means "AND", thus extending ...
- 2,073
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votes
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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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
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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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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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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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vote
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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 ...
- 15.1k
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Is there an Old Chinese dictionary which shows clearly the usage of a word?
Classical / literary chinese is a fuzzy language, and there are subtle differences amongst dynasties, authors. Using dictionaries to learn how to write, is, well, side way (歧路).
Understanding ...
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