User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: 赤壁之战
June 4, 2009 at 11:37 AM上圈套还是美人计最好！
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting
June 4, 2009 at 10:50 AMHi rjberki
"本人" has another meaning, "当事人" (the person concerned). Here are some examples shown in my dictionaries.
结婚要本人同意，别人不能包办代替。
这是他本人(or 他自己)写的信。
这不是他本人(or 他自己)的意见。
Posted on: 纹身文化
June 3, 2009 at 1:20 PM在日本大多数洗澡堂和温泉不让身上有纹身的人进。
Posted on: 赤壁之战
June 3, 2009 at 1:04 PMHi bodawei
Thanks, both "赭" (zhe3) and "ochre" are new to me. Here are more 赤-radical characters I've just found that have "reddish" meanings. They are rarely used in modern Chinese.
赧 (nan3) blush
赪 （cheng1） red
赯 (tang2) reddish (face)
Posted on: 赤壁之战
June 3, 2009 at 5:53 AMThere are several Chinese characters that mean "red", such as 赤 (chi4), 红 (hong2), 朱 (zhu1), 丹 (dan1) and 绯 (fei1). Their hues are slightly different from each other. In modern Mandarin, 红 is most commonly used for indicating red color.
The earliest forms of the character 赤 were made of "man" part (upper) and "fire" part (lower), which possibly represents a ritual ceremony of burning a man (sacrifice) in ancient times. In this sense, 赤壁 was the right place for this historical battle.
http://chinese-characters.org/meaning/8/8D64.html
http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E8%B5%A4&submitButton1=Etymology
Posted on: Introducing Shen Yajin (Helen)
May 31, 2009 at 8:34 AMHi shenyajin
You have a beautiful name! According to my dictionaries, the character 娅 (ya) has a derivative meaning "妖娆/明媚" (enchanting, beautiful). There are two 娅-words that mean "beautiful", 娅姹 (ya4cha4) and 姹娅。This definition might be more appropriate for explaining your given name.
http://www.zdic.net/cd/ci/9/ZdicE5ZdicA8Zdic85119610.htm
Posted on: Buying a House
May 31, 2009 at 5:18 AMHi shenyajin
Oh, I remember now. I learned the word "光棍节" before here in Chinesepod. Judging from your comment, it looks like that the original meaning of 光棍儿 has already been slightly altered due to prevailing "gender equality" in modern China. I'd like to know what image henning would think of when he sees the word "女光棍儿", hehe.
Posted on: Buying a House
May 31, 2009 at 1:43 AMHi zhenlijiang
That's due to traditional male-chauvinism based on Confucianism in China. Men were extremely predominant in the past, and at the same time, men bore heavy responsibilities, e.g. leaving offspring and worshipping ancestors, in Chinese society, which is the reason why people poke fun at a (undutiful) single man with the word "光棍儿".
Posted on: 纹身文化
June 5, 2009 at 12:31 PM“纹”字的初文是“文”，可见“文”字本来有“纹身(tatoo)”的意思。这就是“纹身”可以写作“文身”的理由。