User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: What will it be?
July 8, 2008 at 1:10 AMHi wjefferys,
I should have given "surplus" instead of "leeway", but I just couldn't resist using "leeway" simply because I have never used the English word before in my comments! Anyway, pinkjeans explained 人人有余 very beautifully, so please enjoy reading her posting! By the way, I've also found some "auspicious" characters other than 玉 (yu4, jade), e.g. 裕 (yu4, abundant), 誉 (yu4, reputation), 娱 (yu2, pleasure), and 愉 (yu2, happy).
Hi wufeifei,
Thanks a lot for your covering fire!!!
Posted on: What will it be?
July 7, 2008 at 1:55 PMHi pinkjeans,
Good point. Actually, 鱼 (yu2, fish) is regarded auspicious in China because its pronunciation “yu2” is the same as that of 余 (yu2, leeway). So you can often see a poster like this in China, which is called “年年有余” (nian2 nian2 you3 yu2, every year you have leeway).
Posted on: Sneezing
July 7, 2008 at 7:49 AMHi auntie68,
Let me butt in, if you please. The traditional authentic reading of “似” is “si4”, and “shi4” seems to have appeared very recently, perhaps within the past few hundred years. According to dictionaries, the expression “像～似的 (shi4 de)” also could be written as “像～是的(shi4 de)”.
I don’t know which one began to be used first, 似的 or 是的, in China. If the former were older, it would perhaps mean that the sound “si4” of 似 changed into “shi4” first for some reason, and later 是 began to be used (mistakingly) because it had the same reading “shi4”. Just a wild guess.
Is the big toy a transformable super robot, or something like that?
Posted on: Taking the HSK
July 7, 2008 at 2:58 AMHi xiaoanolga,
You shouldn’t take “learn 2,000 Chinese characters” at face value. Korean students actually “learn” 900 Hanzi in primary school and another 900 in junior high school, but the problem is that students are not required to write or read 汉字 in university entrance exams at all. Consequently, I hear that Korean students only study 汉字 half-heartedly, and not only students but also both teachers and parents never put importance on learning 汉字.
To make matters worse, you have virtually no opportunity to see 汉字 in books, newspapers, advertisements, signs, and web pages in Korea. I also hear that some young Koreans can’t even write their names in Chinese characters, much less their parents’ names. I guess this joke might be a little exaggerated, but I think that almost most young Korean can’t read books published before 70s, unless they are “interpreted” into Hanguel-only Korean.
On the other hand, the number of Korean people who learn Chinese has been increasing recently, simply because of the deep economic relationship between China and Korea. And therefore, when you meet Korean guys who can speak, or write, good Mandarin, I would like you to praise them very highly. They mastered Chinese language with no significant advantage (just like you Western guys), as opposed to Japanese learners of Chinese.
Posted on: Taking the HSK
July 7, 2008 at 1:33 AMHi xiaoanolga,
It’s really interesting! I didn’t know the FACT of HSK at all. I’m very glad that I didn’t miss your posting last night. I’ve just found a number of web pages regarding “HSK, 少数民族, 高考 (college entrance exam)”. I changed my image of HSK after I read these articles. Let me show you some of them.
HSK 考生过半数是中国少数民族
http://www.xibaipo.gov.cn/node2/shenghuo/whxw/userobject1ai488217.html
According to this article, over half of the applicants for HSK have been ethnic minorities in China, and almost most of them are from 新疆维吾尔自治区 (Xinjiang Uighr), the western part of China. They take the test for job- hunting, e.g. jobs such as teachers, bank clerks, and governmental officials.
2009年吉林省少数民族高考生必须参加HSK
http://www.hanyuwang.cn/?o=article-show&artsid=2400
This article says that, from next year, minority students in Jilin province need to take HSK, instead of conventional Chinese test, in university entrance exam. I guess that the same goes for other provinces. I’m really surprised at the news. HSK is going to become a mandatory test for CHINESE STUDENTS.
国家教委在少数民族学校推行HSK
http://www.chinaorg.cn/zcfg/zcfg/2007-12/27/content_5160387.htm
Looks like China has just started to promote “HSK for minorities” not only in Xinjiang, but all over the country. I think that Chinese authorities perhaps feel alarmed by the fact that minority people usually have a poor command of Mandarin. It seems that promoting both 普通话 and minority languages doesn’t go together.
Posted on: Taking the HSK
July 6, 2008 at 2:59 PMHI xiaoanolga,
> ethnic minorities in China
> have to take the test to get in
Really? I've never heard this before. If it's true, wow, very interesting!
Posted on: Sneezing
July 6, 2008 at 2:49 PMHi xiaoanolga,
I feel the interpretation by Karlgren is more plausible. I’ve just found the same etymology in one of my Chinese character dictionaries published in Japan. I heard before that the author of the dictionary, a very famous scholar in Japan, is a “fan” of Karlgren!
But the important thing is that 鲁 in 甲骨文 seems to be actually used in the sense “delicious” in fortune-telling sentences at that times, which is probably the reason why most modern Chinese scholars think the original meaning of 鲁 was “delicious”.
More interestingly, 鲁 (1055 – 249 B.C.) was the name of a kingdom in ancient China, and 鲁国 was famous for its traditional rites and ceremonies. Confucius (孔子) was also born in this kingdom. So I can’t easily believe its original meaning was “stupid”.
Let’s look at the transition of the meaning of 鲁 in ancient dictionaries and the Analects. Judging from this, 鲁 obtained the new meaning “stupid” about two thousand years ago, perhaps because its sound was similar to that of other word which meant “stupid”.
尔雅 (～ 200 B.C. ?) …… delicious
论语 (200 B.C.? ～ 200A.D.?) …..stupid
说文解字 (100 A.C.) ……stupid
释名 (around 200 A.D.) …….stupid
As for 噜 (lu1), its etymology is “mouth (口) + stupid (鲁)” or “dull (鲁) + voice (口)”, which I think is very plausible. I’ve never heard my own snoring sound, but I know the snoring of my chubby dog sounds very “dull” and “stupid”. Good night, guys. See you tomorrow.
Posted on: Sneezing
July 6, 2008 at 12:38 PMHi henning,
It’s a nice picture book, although it looks like my chubby dog is scared.
“鲁” is a little strange character. Its original meaning is “delicious” since more than three thousand years ago, the character was a combination of 鱼 (fish) and 口 (mouth), and 口 later changed into 日.
This interpretation seems to be broadly accepted now, however, the modern meaning of 鲁 is “stupid”, and 噜 means “grunt”. Why? Probably something "stupid" happened to this poor character in the past.
Posted on: Sneezing
July 6, 2008 at 11:46 AMHi henning,
Thanks for good homework. To my surprise, I found the character 嚏 (ti4) in 说文解字 (100 A.D.), and its right part 疐 (zhi4) is originated in 甲骨文 (oracle bone script)! To tell you the truth, at first I thought that 嚏 would be one of indigenous characters used in southern China, such as 广东!
As is often the case with etymologies, there are a few interpretations of 疐, but its basic meaning is the same, i.e. “stop” or “impede”. You can see the radical 止 at the lower part of this character. And therefore 嚏 literally indicates “impede mouth” or “stop mouth”, and then means “sneeze.”
P/S. Please don’t ask me about “噜”!
Posted on: What will it be?
July 8, 2008 at 4:52 AMHi wiefferys,
Actually, 白字 (or 别字) are often seen in Chinese, and they always confuse us foreign learners. For example, 的 (de) in 我拼命的学习 is an often-seen 白字. The right sentence is 拼命地(de)学习. “象” (xiang4) is also often used instead of “像”, like 好象, but the correct word is 好像. It seems both of them have already become widely accepted.
As for 余 and 裕, I don’t think that your guess is right. Let me explain the reason. Firstly, their tones are different. Secondly, and more importantly, the traditional form of 余 is 餘, and its original meaning was “abundant food”, as the radical “食” clearly indicates. The primary definition of 餘 is “abundant” in all of my ancient Chinese dictionaries.
说文解字 (100 A.D.) also says that 餘 is equal to 繞 (rao2, abundant) or 饱 (bao3, full). On the other hand, the left radical of 裕 means “clothes”, and therefore 裕 originally meant “abundant clothes” in ancient times. Its definition in 说文 is 衣物繞也, which means “a lot of clothes”.
Food problem was historically very important in China, therefore it is understandable why people say 年年有余(餘) wishing they can eat fully. But 吃饭的问题 (food problem) is almost solved now, so I expect someone might begin to say 年年有裕 or 年年有娱 in the near future!
P/S. I love astronomy very much!