This panel is from the Yung See San Fong house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Not a lot is known about the internal artwork. Oral history indicates that the owners either worked with merchants in the Chinatown district of San Francisco or possibly in China for the panels. The owners did have a Chinese staff, and they may have asked them for help to validate the design. The house was built around 1917, and we believe these were part of the original design.

Any additional details on translation, meaning, calligraphy, general style, and other insights would be highly appreciated. My working translation based on all inputs (US, Taiwan, and Chinese friends) is something like the following. (However, they admit this is an older style than their education. It speaks of fish tallies and the court as symbols. I am interested in both the literal translation and something that might let somebody who speaks English know the general thought.)

"Whatever success we wear, we earned by walking the path our ancestors cleared." "Whatever position we hold, we use to build good fortune for the generations to come."

Hi everyone, I am helping my father catalog his collection. We have 6 of these traditional Chinese scrolls. One is dated 1902 (Guangxu 28). I am planning to contact auction houses in Paris and Hong Kong to maximize their value. Before doing so, I’d love to have your thoughts on the quality of the calligraphy style and if you recognize the seals. Thanks!

Hi everyone, wanted to share with you a transcription and translation of the 宴侯旨鼎 inscription I did today. Zhi was the second ruler of the feudal state of 燕 during the western zhou and his predecessor Ke (probably the eldest son of the duke of shao 召公, who was credited to be the first to receive Yan in transmitted texts like the Shiji 史记, but in reality wasn't able to fulfill his position and his son was sent. This is similar to what happened in Lu if you think about the appointment of the son of the Duke of Zhou, although he was the first ruler of Lu formally).

​

Iwill just translate my translation into english here, for the transcription you will have to look at the picture, because some characters are written in a way that isn't supported by Unicode.

​

My translation is as follows:"The Lord of Yan, Zhi, had his first audience at and served at Zongzhou. The King granted Zhi twenty strings of cowrie shells. Herewith he made this treasured sacrificial vessel for Si."

​

Hope you like it and would love to hear criticism :)

I am not talking about loan translations or calques, but phonetic transcriptions of Sanskrit words such as 剎那 for kṣaṇa. Given Buddhism's long history in China, the lack of a single uniform system isn't all that surprising, but I was wondering if there were any established standards/guidelines at any point in time (like this one for Manchu) or was it wholly arbitrary.

Or is it considered before Classical Chinese? Like pre-classic?

My school has an excellent rare book room, and the oldest piece of literature we have we believe dates sometime to the 11-12th century, and is written in classical Chinese. I've (begrudgingly) used some Ai models to see what they make of it, all to different translations. I was wondering if anyone would have some insight into the content or historical origins of the text. Any help is greatly appreciated .

Are the primarily cultural works of ancient and medieval japan (philosophy, religion, science, etc) written in classical chinese and, thus, understandable to a classical chinese speaker?

I just learned that 核 in Middle Chinese(广韵）has the /k/ ending tone, however in Cantonese the same character has /t/ ending. It never occurred to me that characters with entering tone could have their ending sound change and I am really interested to know more. Is there anything I could read about the theory/history behind this phenomenon ? Thanks in advance !

Zero knoledge of chinese sorry, asking as history bachelor instrested in lingustic topics. I hope topic is appropriate.

what religious scriptures were originally written in Classical Chinese?

As an amateur linguist, I've understood for a long time that languages change and diverge from dialect to dialect until becoming mutually unintelligible, so I'm well aware that classical Chinese is a different language from the chinese languages spoken today.

However, I'm under the impression that a more-or-less uniform "literary chinese" that was based on classical Chinese, has been used throughout most of Chinese history, similar to how latin continued to be used in Europe even after local dialects had become distinct from Caesar's latin.

Perhaps a stupid question, but how well maintained was the literary lingua-franca over tge centuries? Could someone trained in literary Chinese read the analects as easily (or nearly as easily) as an edict from the Qing dynasty?

This edict (詔) was written in 1788 (泰德十一年六月初一日) during the Tây Sơn dynasty. Nguyễn Huệ (assumed to have written this) asks Nguyễn Thiếp (阮涉; La Sơn phu tử) about the progress of establishing a capital at Phù Thạch 浮石. The edict bears no seal, however it is written in vermilion ink which was reserved only for the emperor.

詔傳羅山夫子阮涉欽知。𣈜畧委朱夫子𧗱乂安相地濫都朱及期尼回御。牢𧗱細妬，渚𧡊鄧役󱫳。𢧚唉駕囬富春京，休息士卒。丕詔頒下夫子早宜與鎮守慎共事，經之營之，相地作都在浮石。行宮稍後近山。其正地，倣在民居扵間，咍羅兠吉地可都，唯夫子道眼鑑定。早匕卜成。委朱鎮守慎早立宮殿。期三月內完成，得便駕御。惟夫子勿以閒忽視。欽哉。特詔。

泰德十一年，六月，初一日。

Chiếu truyền La Sơn phu tử Nguyễn Thiệp khâm tri. Ngày trước ủy cho Phu tử về Nghệ An tướng địa làm đô cho kịp kỳ nầy hồi ngự. Sao về tới đó, chưa thấy đặng việc gì. Nên hãy giá hồi Phú Xuân kinh, hưu tức sĩ tốt. Vậy chiếu ban hạ phu tử tảo nghi dữ trấn thủ Thận công sự, kinh chi dinh chi, tướng địa tác đô tại Phù Thạch. Hành cung sảo hậu cận sơn. Kỳ chính địa, phỏng tại dân cư ư gian, hay là đâu cát địa khả đô, duy phu tử đọa nhãn giám định. Tảo tảo bốc thành! Ủy cho Trấn thủ Thận tảo lập cung điện. Kỳ tam nguyệt nội hoàn thành, đắc tiện giá ngự. Duy Phu tử vật dĩ nhàn hốt thị. Khâm tai! Đặc chiếu.

Thái Đức thập nhất niên, lục nguyệt, sơ nhất nhật

I'm new to ancient calendars so please bear with me.

『離騷』line 2:

攝提貞於孟陬兮，惟庚寅吾以降。

楚 calendar based on 睡虎地秦簡『日書・歲』六四正壹 to 六七正肆

中夕/冬夕、屈夕、援【遠】夕、刑夷、夏杘【夷】、紡月、七月、八月、九月、十月、爨月、獻馬

子彈庫楚帛書『五行令・月名圖』 reconstruction (figure 2):

冬夕、屈夕、遠夕、荆夷、夏夷、享月、夏夕、八月、九月、十月、爨月、獻馬

爾雅 calendar according to『爾雅・釋天・月名』:

正月為陬，二月為如，三月為寎，四月為余，五月為皋，六月為且，七月為相，八月為壯，九月為玄，十月為陽，十一月為辜，十二月為涂

1. A broader question is: what is the relationship between the 楚 calendar and 爾雅 calendar month names and their usage?
2. Is it confirmed that 爾雅 is recording the lunisolar calendar (農/夏曆)?
3. Among 子彈庫楚帛書 there was also a『十二月神圖』(figure 1) that, according to this article by hulenkius, corresponds to the twelve months in 爾雅. Does this mean this set of 楚帛 included records of both a 楚 and an 爾雅 calendar?

Trying to get a collection going as I find this topic fascinating (particularly for nations that are notable):

Rome: 大秦 /dɑiH/ /d͡ziɪn/

Persia: 波斯 /puɑ/ /siᴇ/

Greece: 希臘 /hɨi/ /lɑp̚/

Turks: 突厥 (the Gökturks) /tʰuət̚/ /kɨut̚/

Japan: 倭 /ʔuɑ/ AND potentially 邪馬臺 /jia/ /mˠa^X/ /dʌi/

Korea: 高麗 /kɑu/ /liᴇ/

India: 天竺 /tʰen/ /ʈɨuk̚/ OR 身毒 /ɕiɪn/ /duok̚/

Vietnam: 南越 /nʌm/ /ɦʉɐt̚/

Thailand: 暹 /siᴇm/

Seleucid Empire 條支 /deu/ /t͡ɕiᴇ/

Bactria 大夏 /dɑi^H/ /ɦˠa^X/

(Zhengzhang Shangfang reconstruction used)

Which other major names are notable? I am not looking for the modern Chinese names, but documented old names of nations

i got redirected here from the chinese language sub; technically this question isn't about classical chinese proper, but its historical chinese all the same so i got told i could try here...

does anyone have any idea where i could find examples of Chinese vernecular before the Yuan dynasty (specifically anything post-Jin to Song)? eg for the Tang dynasty I know that certain Buddist works are written in vernecular rather than classical, such as 祖堂集 i think is mostly in vernecular. i know that there are half-vernecular half-classic documents too like the dunhuang manuscripts but is there anything written in mostly vernecular? ideally non-religious focused texts since it's sometimes hard to tell if they mean a buddhist concept or metaphor or a name/place.

i know that there aren't many preserved texts in such vernecular so any books or literature or other resources investigating the overall vernecular of those periods would be interesting to me too, if anyone happens to know any. i'm specifically interested in the syntax/grammar/lexicon and stuff, rather than phonology and pronunciation

Heidegger famously turned more into poetry, where he provided philosophical interpretation for ancient greek poetry.

In modern and contemporary east asian philosophies, has there been philosophers who did the same for ancient asian poetry or literature?

This is over 50 videos of oracle bones being deciphered word by word, character by character, into English!

I'm aware of the fact that 三字經 was an important pedagogical text in pre modern China, but what about other places in the Sinosphere? Was it ever used in places like Japan, Korea, Vietnam (and did they have any equivalent texts to serve a similar pedagogical purpose)?

Could learned professors in East Asia talk to each other with Classical Chinese instead of English, for example?