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Post by chefying on Apr 6, 2016 5:30:14 GMT
此地无银三百两if I'm not mistaken, long time ago there's a wealthy man who had 300 taels of silver. And he heard that some robbers planned to rob his house. Therefore for prevention he dug out in his yard a pit and buried his 300 taels of silver in it. Still he's paranoid that someone would steal his silvers. Someone saw that his garden had some freshly dug areas, and asked him why he dug his backward. Being paranoid, he answered : nothing..there's absolutely nothing here. there's no 300 taels of silver in this land. (此地无银三百两) chefying : is the story correct? Indeed, this is correct. There is a second part of the story. The wealthy man's a sign on the spot where he buried his silver, saying 此地无银三百两 might as well be a confession. This lead to his neighbour suspecting the silver had been buried there, and the neighbour dug up the silver and stole it. Then fearing that he would be suspected of this crime, the neighbour put a sign on the now empty plot of land, which said 隔壁阿二不曾偷 "Not stolen by neighbour A Er". In the spirit of helping readers learn Chinese in a relaxing manner, this the translation of the words of this proverb. 此 ci - this, here 地 di - earth, place 无 wu - negative, do not have 银 yin - silver (the Chinese economy was based on silver, not gold) 三百 sanbai - three hundred 两 liang - tael, a unit of measure The meaning of this proverb is "a voluntary confession", to divulge information accidentally or unknowingly. Hope this helps the readers learn a few Chinese characters and a proverb to boot.
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Post by reinafu on Apr 7, 2016 13:51:37 GMT
Thaaaanks !!!!!
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Post by galvatron prime on Apr 11, 2016 8:28:07 GMT
Thank you very much ! What is this ATV series with Chen Kuan Tai and from which year is it, please ? I hardly recognize Adam's voice in this song, and sadly, I can't see what is on the youku link. Google translates the series as Righteous spirit, but I can't find any tvb series with this title. Do you know the English title, please ? reinafu The Chan Kuen Tai serial is 誓不低頭 ,the same Chinese title of the Adam Cheng 1988 誓不低頭. Is a Shanghai triad serial ,i don't know the English title . It have 2 part ,it also star by Kenny Ho and Anthony Wong Chau Sang. The themesong was not sing by Adam Cheng.
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Post by galvatron prime on Apr 11, 2016 8:37:54 GMT
Thank you very much ! What is this ATV series with Chen Kuan Tai and from which year is it, please ? I hardly recognize Adam's voice in this song, and sadly, I can't see what is on the youku link. Google translates the series as Righteous spirit, but I can't find any tvb series with this title. Do you know the English title, please ? The youku link was TVB serial 義薄雲天 Yi Pok Wan Tin . The themesong was sing by Adam Cheng and a female singer . The serial was start by Max Mok Siu Chong. I can watch the theme song on youku,maybe it blocked in your country?
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Post by reinafu on Apr 11, 2016 17:44:38 GMT
Thank you very much for the clip, very good song ! I searched on google and it seems that the series Yi Pok Wan Tin is also called The vendetta, from what I saw on Gotv...
If the Chen Kuan Tai's series has the same name as The final verdict with Adam Cheng, no wonder I found this series in the listings when I was looking for the Adam's one. I thought that it was Blowing in the wind, since it's also an ATV series with Chen Kuan Tai, but it seems that they are two different series...
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Post by siuyiu on Feb 24, 2017 5:19:59 GMT
Exercise 4:
so, to get the thread back on topic a bit, i thought i'd post a new exercise!
the origins of chinese characters are varied: some started as pictograms, some are indicators, and many of the more complex characters are either combinations of simpler words to form a more complex meaning or a radical combined with a rebus whose pronunciation is the key to the meaning. there are other ways that the characters came about, but i won't go into all the types here.
for this exercise, i found some more complex (and in most cases, unusual) characters whose meanings are derived from the combination of simpler words. so, without using a chinese dictionary to help, have a look at the character and: (a) determine the radical (b) take a stab at the meaning
1. 闖
2. 轡
3. 讎
4. 囂
5. 纍
i'll post the answers in the other thread in about a week's time! have fun!
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Post by caiyi on Feb 25, 2017 2:39:16 GMT
I can only answer the first one for now. The other 4 need some thinking. 2,4,5, I've seen the characters before, but, can't recall the pronunciation and meaning. For 3, this is the first time I see this character.
闖
radical: 門 meaning: forceful entry, charge, dash. pinyin: chuang
This character is easy to remember because of the 馬 and 門. Always imagine a horse (馬) ready to crash through the city gate (門).
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Post by siuyiu on Feb 25, 2017 3:58:53 GMT
@caiyi spot on! that's exactly it--a horse crashing through the gate, hence the meaning!
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Post by reinafu on Feb 25, 2017 20:53:31 GMT
Wow !! Caiyi was quicker than me for the first one. I was about to say that I recognized this 門 as the gates. Isn't it also the same that is used when we say " women " as "us " and the other ones " nimen , tamen " ?
The bottom character of number 2 : isn't it the character for " kou " (3rd tone) meaning the mouth ?
And number 4 makes me think of a house...
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Post by siuyiu on Feb 26, 2017 3:15:40 GMT
Wow !! Caiyi was quicker than me for the first one. I was about to say that I recognized this 門 as the gates. Isn't it also the same that is used when we say " women " as "us " and the other ones " nimen , tamen " ? The bottom character of number 2 : isn't it the character for " kou " (3rd tone) meaning the mouth ? And number 4 makes me think of a house... re: #1 alas, no, not the same character, though similar. the character used to indicate plural pronouns is 們, which has the extra 人 radical on the side. for #2: yes, the bottom character is the one for mouth. LOL re: #4! the meaning isn't related to houses, though.
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Post by siuyiu on Mar 5, 2017 19:28:38 GMT
thanks to chefying's suggestion in this post, i have a new topic to share! the technical term for these types of characters is 疊字 (diezi), literally "a stack of characters", where a single character, mostly a radical, is doubled, tripled, or quadrupled to create a new character whose meaning is generally a multiplicity of the original character's meaning. here are some commonly used examples. you can find a pretty comprehensive list on wikipedia here. note that the ways the individual characters are stacked can be side-by-side, or one atop the other. 1. 二字疊 double-stacked characters 朋 "peng" - friend - two moon 月 radicals - i suppose, if you've been acquainted with someone for two months, you've become friends 林 "lin" - forest (also a surname) - two tree 木 radicals - a forest contains more than one tree, so fairly obvious construct 囍 "xi" - double happiness - two joy 喜 characters - only used for weddings, symbolizing the union of two families, thus doubling the joy of each 多 "duo" - many, much - two evening 夕 radicals - unsure of etymology 炎 "yan" - flame; hot - two fire 火 radicals - another obvious construct 2. 三字疊 triple-stacked characters品 "pin" - conduct; good; product - three mouth 口 radicals - this is an interesting one; i guess, if you're gonna have that much to say, you'd better comport yourself well and say things with care and good taste 晶 "jing" - crystal; bright, brilliant - three sun 日 radicals - a fairly obvious construct 森 "sen" - forest - three tree 木 radicals - usually paired with the double-stacked character to mean "deep forest" 森林 3. 四字疊 quadruple-stacked characters
all of these are rarely-used words, so i'm just pointing out some interesting ones (and the ones that still have their meanings passed down to present day; many exist only as linguistic artifacts). 叕 "zhou" - connect - four and 又 radicals - note if pronounced differently, has other meanings; the one noted is the most common pronunciation and usage 㗊 "ji" - voice of the populace - four mouth 口 radicals 㵘 "man" - great currents - four water 水 radicals 𡚌 "hao" - broad, wide, expansive - four sky 天 characters 𪚥 "zhe" - long-winded and wordy - four dragon 龍 radicals - isn't it hilarious that four dragons coming together becomes a nattering of nags and gossips, essentially
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Post by siuyiu on Mar 5, 2017 20:21:10 GMT
here's a topic similar to the one above, but instead of duplication of characters to form new characters, it's the duplication of characters within a sentence or poem or lyric. i've made brief mention of the subject in this post. the technical term is 疊詞 (dieci), known as "reduplication" in english. ironically, the technique doesn't exist in english nor the other germanic languages. i've discovered that it's not unique to chinese, as you can see in this brief intro on wiki. note that nowadays, most people call reduplication "diezi" (the same term as my previous post) instead of "dieci". they're wrong. i'm still looking into the purpose of this technique, and from the meagre sources online (whose validity is questionable), i've managed to figure out that it's mostly a stylistic construct, to add emphasis or subtle complexities to meaning and tone. there are two major types: verb and adjective, and their uses determine the pattern/format of the dieci within the sentence. here are some examples: 1. ABB a. for verb reduplication, usually brief actions and often with a touch of the imperative (command) 你看看。 - have a look 去走走吧! - (let's) go out for a bit b. for adjective reduplication 甜絲絲 - sweetly 笑哈哈 - laughingly 血淋淋 - bloodily 冷冰冰 - coldly 2. AAB - for adjective reduplication, used in conjunction with the term de 的 (of) 果汁甜甜的。 - the juice is sweet 我女朋友的眼睛大大的。 - my girlfriend has big eyes 3. ABA - for verb reduplication, used in conjunction with the term yi 一 (one) 笑一笑! - smile! 你去問一問他。 - go ask him 4. AABB - for compound adjective reduplication 高高興興 - happily, excitely 舒舒服服 - comfortably 辛辛苦苦 - with much suffering and effort 清清楚楚 - (comprehensively) clear 客客氣氣 - politely 迷迷糊糊 - with confusion 5. ABAB - for compound verb reduplication 考慮考慮 - to deliberate carefully 商量商量 - to discuss rationally this is a more comprehensive list of mostly adjective reduplication. note that it includes idioms with reduplication and some of the formats therein are more complex and not included in the above examples.
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Post by reinafu on Mar 6, 2017 20:31:15 GMT
1.你看看 : Ni Kan Kan, right ?
去走走吧 : qü zuo zuo ba, right ?
2.我女朋友的眼睛大大的 : wo nü pengyou de ??ta ta de, right ? What is the meaning of "de " at the end of the sentence ? I thought that this word was the expression of the possession.
3. 笑一笑 : xiao yi xiao, right ? Ni qü wei yi wei ta, right ?
Is it possible to get the pinyin for the other examples you mentioned, please ?
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Post by siuyiu on Mar 6, 2017 23:47:47 GMT
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Post by reinafu on Mar 7, 2017 15:17:02 GMT
Very good find !!
Thanks a lot for the link !
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