Ancient Chinese Vocabulary of Eight Thousand Words

Author: Wu Sanxian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: The history of the Chinese language is long, and the documentary materials are very rich. Chronologically, from the beginning of written records to the May Fourth New Culture Movement at the beginning of the 20th century, the language in ancient books accumulated over these three thousand years all falls within the scope of Ancient Chinese. Most scholars believe that Ancient Chinese can be divided into two systems with different characteristics: one is the written language of the ancient period of Chinese history, which was formed based on the spoken language of the pre-Qin period, as well as the works written by later writers in this written language, which is usually referred to as Classical Chinese; the other is the ancient vernacular that was formed based on Northern dialects since the Tang and Song dynasties. The main subject of this book is Classical Chinese, including classical Chinese prose and poetry, with very little involvement of ancient vernacular. In addition to clarifying doubts about common words, the book also appropriately introduces some historical and cultural knowledge. Taking names and places as examples. Ancients had given names, courtesy names, and aliases, and some people had several aliases; in the writing and recording of ancient books, in addition to referring to people's aliases, there were also ways of referring to them by official ranks and titles, as well as by their regional status, which was quite complex. Names of places are the same, many places have ancient names and aliases in addition to their current names, and if the background is not clear, it is often easy to cause misunderstandings. To help readers overcome the obstacles they encounter while reading, this book collects some frequently used names and places, arranging names in chronological order and places according to administrative divisions. Although it is a small effort, it can sometimes solve big problems. The history of the Chinese language is long, and the documentary materials are very rich. Chronologically, from the beginning of written records to the May Fourth New Culture Movement at the beginning of the 20th century, the language in ancient books accumulated over these three thousand years all falls within the scope of Ancient Chinese. Most scholars believe that Ancient Chinese can be divided into two systems with different characteristics: one is the written language of the ancient period of Chinese history, which was formed based on the spoken language of the pre-Qin period, as well as the works written by later writers in this written language, which is usually referred to as Classical Chinese; the other is the ancient vernacular that was formed based on Northern dialects since the Tang and Song dynasties. The main subject of this book is Classical Chinese, including classical Chinese prose and poetry, with very little involvement of ancient vernacular. In addition to clarifying doubts about common words, the book also appropriately introduces some historical and cultural knowledge. Taking names and places as examples. Ancients had given names, courtesy names, and aliases, and some people had several aliases; in the writing and recording of ancient books, in addition to referring to people's aliases, there were also ways of referring to them by official ranks and titles, as well as by their regional status, which was quite complex. Names of places are the same, many places have ancient names and aliases in addition to their current names, and if the background is not clear, it is often easy to cause misunderstandings. To help readers overcome the obstacles they encounter while reading, this book collects some frequently used names and places, arranging names in chronological order and places according to administrative divisions. Although it is a small effort, it can sometimes solve big problems.