Hello everyone
These days there are less and less people who write "CLASSIC LITERARY" chinese, while more and more speak Mandarin.
Moreover, lamentably, we can even find those who confuse Classic Chinese with Mandarin.
So in this thread let's communicate in the same way as those who led their intellectual lives in pre-modern China.
Conversation through 漢文(文言文)
Jordan Reed
Thomas Bailey
is classical chinese just like their version of shakespearan english?
Nicholas Sanders
yes.
Nathan Barnes
not really
this is not particularly correct, spoken chinese was used in writing as far as the tang
Hudson Flores
>spoken chinese was used in writing as far as the tang
>白話
en.wikipedia.org
I know but it was thought by the intellectual(so-called bookman class) to be vulgarer and grosser.
Colton Ramirez
let me give another look about chinese
those "intellectuals" never produced any fiction. they only way they could physically write fictitious material was through poetry, without 白话, you wouldn't get stuff like suikoden and sangokushi, i think your hatred is unfounded
Nicholas Young
>Hatred
No I have none.
However it is also the fact that the intellectual class as a rule never used it, except for some exceptions.
I just want you to reproduce that intelligentsias' communicative method.
I don't intend to make fun of 白話, but it is also the case that it was made little of.
Isaiah Cooper
OP, do you write in Japanese 文語?
Gavin Cox
no...now that writing system is in general never written by people including scholars.
Brandon Perry
they did use it though, just not officially
道不同不相为谋
"intelligencia" that communicated personally to each other use vernacular
it is only for official business they used classical
Dylan Flores
flower, fall, know, evening, few, night, come, wind, rain, voice, ? , ?, hear. ?, bird, spring, sleep , not, ? , ?
this is a japanese eye-test right?
Jack Jones
How are they different? Which is closer to Classical, Mandarin or Cantonese?
I still find it iffy that commies picked a language named after Manchu Imperial aristocratic class.
Jayden Hill
many* not evening
whoops
Adam Russell
Neither is Classical Chinese
Nathan Cox
我未得未来之展望
我欲登東京之高楼而君臨若天帝
>as a rule
I said so. if 白話 had been really never used, then how could such "classics" as 水滸伝 and 三国志演義 still remain in this 21 century?
The case is similar to the practical use of hangul in pre-modern Korea; the intellectual didn't think of it as sophisticated, but they also used unofficially and on a small scale.
The prose reads;
Sleeping in spring evades awakening.
Somewhere I can hear birds whispering
In the last night the voice of rain and wind comes.
I wonder how many of flowers dropped.
yep
Jaxon Murphy
my favorite poem by Wen Tianxiang
FYR here's the translation for ya pfft
James Green
>prose
sorry it's verse
Jayden Diaz
我問何如爾等解文言
我肯文言欲消失於二十一世紀而誰可是使
而我唯嘆此文明乃衰退
Zachary Kelly
文言文中勿用此“我”字
这字乃亦为百话启用
Jaxon Garcia
不然。有我字使用例
Bentley Jones
是是非非非是是
是非非是非非是
是非非是是非非
是是非非是是非
Ryder Phillips
庶人否以天皇之
Cameron Garcia
But mandarins/scholar-bureaucrats existed since the han dynasty
Also different chinese languages are closer to certain periods of chinese than others. Depends on how well a poem from that period rhymes in that language. As for which period rhymes with which I am not too familiar
Brayden Jackson
「臣」「寡人」如一人称是為王侯貴族所使於王、帝其他一人称使用者不如貴人。
Elijah Anderson
youtu.be
youtu.be
you might find this interesting. Some old poems read in Hakka language.
Jose Thompson
庶幾爾等参加此企画
Jaxson Hernandez
高麗棒子 女子嫌唐辛子
Jack James
>唐辛子
何? 你欲說苦椒?
Jackson Cooper
支那中共五大大虐殺
西蔵大虐殺
維吾爾大虐殺
大躍進大虐殺
文化大革命大虐殺
天安門大虐殺
James Williams
>tfw gf is hakka but can't speak hakka, only mandarin and taiwanese
Parker Jenkins
i am also hakka but can only speak mandarin
my parents didnt bother teaching me for some reason, and they both suck at mandarin
also good taste, hakkas are the best variety ;)
tell your gf to stop speaking taiwanese though, hokkien is barbaric speak
Adrian Gonzalez
I'm not particularly fond of taiwanese/hokkien either, but it's what she grew up with... I can't understand any of it though so we only speak mandarin
Nathan Morris
汝之言語,倭和之風尤甚。
Luke Smith
是「和習」又「倭臭」也
Jaxson Baker
中之止暴力
Joseph Ramirez
我謂此串為狂串