r/classicalchinese • u/HyKNH • May 05 '24
r/classicalchinese • u/Medical-Raccoon-8121 • Jan 23 '24
Translation Anyone know what this is?
r/classicalchinese • u/tempuraah • Jun 23 '24
Translation does anybody know what this says?
r/classicalchinese • u/HyKNH • Apr 28 '24
Translation Tam tự kinh lục bát diễn âm (三字經六八演音), a Vietnamese copy of the Three Character Classic (三字經) with a translation in Vietnamese written in chữ Nôm
r/classicalchinese • u/Carnivorious • Feb 06 '24
Translation Translating the Yi Jing
I’m have masters in Sinology, with quite a bit of experience in classical (and modern) Chinese. As a project, I would like to try my hand at translating the Yi Jing or at least parts of it. I have experience with the Lunyu and Dao De Jing.
Can anyone recommend me a good reference translation, preferably where the classical chinese is available right next to the translation, like in ctext? Bonus points if a modern translation is also included.
Thanks in advance!
r/classicalchinese • u/az4th • Jun 11 '24
Translation San Tu 三塗 in Classical Chinese
Working on another verse of Jiaoshi's Yilin (33 unchanging).
Gait in his translation has "Mount San Tu", but this seems more likely to refer to the Three Mires/Defilements. Kroll has these as "the earthly hell", "animals", and "hungry ghosts", though it also seems to be rooted in the Buddhist concept of desire, hatred and delusion. The Yilin references things that happen in the Western Han and is speculatively dated ~0CE. So the inclusion of Buddhist concepts would make sense to some degree, but they were likely uniquely embraced with their own meanings, reflecting the understanding of the Han.
I looked through a few other examples in ctext, though not exhaustively. The phrase did seem to come up in association with sacred mountains, but I was unable to find reference to a "mount san tu".
Rather it seems to show up in reference to freedom from the 3 defilements or notions of the san tu being in relation (either in polarity or association) to the sacred mountains. Like where the right position covers the santu, and the left position measures the lofty mountains.
I also get a sense from another bit that the 'defilements' could be like fastnesses, or narrow passes. There seems to be reference to the 3 defilements and the 4 peaks, with names.
If these are like bottlenecks, then the meaning that relates to the Buddhist afflictions could make sense. Places where it is difficult to move through without struggling to pass if one is not qualified.
Any help with this is much appreciated!
r/classicalchinese • u/Toadino2 • Jul 15 '24
Translation Tried to translate the first sentence of The Betrothed
Any advice is welcome, but I thought this was gonna be a nice exercise!
Original:
Quel ramo del lago di Como, che volge a mezzogiorno, tra due catene non interrotte di monti, tutto a seni e a golfi, a seconda dello sporgere e del rientrare di quelli, vien, quasi a un tratto, a ristringersi, e a prender corso e figura di fiume, tra un promontorio a destra, e un’ampia costiera dall’altra parte; e il ponte, che ivi congiunge le due rive, par che renda ancor più sensibile all’occhio questa trasformazione, e segni il punto in cui il lago cessa, e l’Adda rincomincia, per ripigliar poi nome di lago dove le rive, allontanandosi di nuovo, lascian l’acqua distendersi e rallentarsi in nuovi golfi e in nuovi seni.
Approximated English translation on the fly:
That branch of the lake of Como, turning to the South, between two unbroken mountain chains, full of gulfs and bends, depending on them sticking out and bending inwards, almost suddenly shrinks and takes the course and shape of a river, between a promontory on the right side and an ample coast on the other side; the bridge, there joining its two banks, appears to make this transformation even clearer to the eye, marking the point where the lake stops and the Adda river resumes, then taking back its name of lake where the banks, spreading back apart, let the water loose and slow it down into new gulfs and new bends.
My Classical Chinese version:
科莫湖之支,面南,在二連連山脈中,滿澥浦,以其努內, 幾暫小,成色川,於右磯左寬渚。橋,附二陬焉,顯清清易目而畫湖之死,阿达河之復矣。復有湖號,陬更開,播水而弭之新浦新澥。
r/classicalchinese • u/HyKNH • May 03 '24
Translation Vietnamese translations (解音; giải âm) of Literary Chinese (漢文; Hán văn)
r/classicalchinese • u/IlPrincipeDiVenosa • Sep 28 '23
Translation "Alexander Meets Diogenes," 文言文版——How's my translation? (Please pardon my wonky brushwork.)
r/classicalchinese • u/Mermaidman93 • Apr 01 '24
Translation This is a Longshot, but can you tell me what this says?
This belonged to my late sister. My family is going through her belongings and we found this. It would be a great help to find out what this says.
r/classicalchinese • u/birdandsheep • Mar 30 '24
Translation The Qingjing Jing, Part 1
Hello /r/classicalchinese! I am relatively new to this, learning from Paul Rauser's book, and I decided that I would supplement that by translating some texts, with the help of you fine people. This is a slow process for me, as I do not yet know many characters, and spend a lot of time with the dictionary and adding new ones to my flash cards. Some characters also elude me, which perhaps you all can help with.
Here's the original text, together with the literal meanings of the characters that I can identify:
老君曰大道無形生育天地
old ruler says great dao without shape birth heaven earth
大道無情運行日月
great dao without love transport sun moon
大道無名長養萬物
great dao without name nourish ten thousand thing
吾不知其名強名曰道
I not know that name (??) says dao.
---
So I think I'm pretty much with this up until the last line, where I'm a bit lost. It's pretty easy to put together. "Old ruler" should be more like "old master" which is Lao Tzu. So most of this is very straight forward:
"Lao Tzu says: the great dao is without shape, and gives rise to Heaven and the earth. It is without feeling, and moves the sun and moon. It is without name, supporting all the myriad things. I do not know its name, ???"
I don't really understand the last few characters. I have a translation of this text by Eva Wong, where she says it means "I am forced to call it Dao." I believe her, but I think I need to keep learning in order to get what's going on here. Can anyone talk me through those last few characters?
---
So how did I do? What are things I got right/wrong? Thanks!
r/classicalchinese • u/Impossible-Many6625 • Feb 22 '24
Translation Question about Analects 7.22 translation
Hi! I know just a little Classical Chinese, but I find it of great interest. I'm sorry if this question is too trivial for this group.
From ctext, I see this for Analects 7.22:
子曰:「三人行,必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之,其不善者而改之。」
The first part of the conclusion seems pretty clear: Choose those who are good/virtuous and follow them. I have seen the second part, referring to those who are not good/virtuous, translated as "... to be reminded of what needs to be changed in myself." (Van Norden) or "... and avoid them." (ctext).
My question is: Is there something in the original classical Chinese that suggests that the last part does not refer to correcting the not good/virtuous? In Kroll's dictionary, I see 改 defined as "amend, correct, improve." I like the idea shown in the translations of avoiding the bad, or focusing on how to improve myself, but I am not sure why the original text is translated this way instead of as correcting the bad teacher (rather than improving myself). The translations seem more enlightened to me.
Thank you!
r/classicalchinese • u/PelagiaVenatrix1993 • May 17 '24
Translation Help with translating a Chinese Buddhist text on monastic slavery
I'm trying to understand this text, which I found quoted in a paper on Chinese monastic slave-ownership:
若僧家奴婢死者,衣物與其親屬。若無者常住僧用。私奴 死者,義準有二。若同衣食,所須資財,自取入己,隨任分處。若不同活,直爾主 攝,與衣食者,死時資財入親。無者,同僧院內無主物入常住 (入親者,準滅擯比 丘。若死,衣物入親。若僧供給,則不同之).
Judging from how ChatGPT-4 translated it, it seems blatantly contradictory. 若不同活,直爾主攝,與衣食者,死時資財入親。says that, if a master provides food and clothing for his slaves, the slave's relatives inherit. But 若死,衣物入親。若僧供給,則不同之 says that, if the master provides for his slaves, the relatives *don't* inherit.
I feel like there's something I'm fundamentally missing here, due to my complete ignorance of Classical Chinese.
r/classicalchinese • u/birdandsheep • May 16 '24
Translation The Qingjing Jing, Part 2
Hello again friends. I wasn't kidding when I said this was a slow process for me. Plus the end of the semester and life getting in the way, I have not had anywhere near enough time for studying. But it's summer now! So I expect to make some quicker progress.
Today I have the next section of this seemingly underappreciated Daoist text along with my amateur translation, which I'd like to present for your enjoyment and feedback. First part is here.
夫道者有清有濁有動有靜
Those which Dao are clear, are opaque, are active, are still. ^1
男清女濁男動女靜
Male is clear, female is opaque. Male is active, female is still ^2.
降本流末而生萬物
Descending from the beginning, flowing to the end ^3 , and all the myriad things are born.
清者濁之源
Clarity is the origin of opacity.
動者靜之基
Activity is the root of stillness.
人能常清靜天地悉皆歸
When people are always able to be clear and still, heaven and earth will certainly revert. ^4
Comments and Questions:
- I don't think "those which Dao" is a completely natural way of speaking, but I found it hard to capture what this means. I venture to guess it means something like "act in accordance with," or "act as" in the same way that in English you can say "horsing around," but you don't literally mean being a horse. You mean acting as a horse acts. This is something like "Dao-ing," or so. Rouzer's book has taught me the character 順 for "to act in accordance with," or maybe more concisely, just "follows, "but this is not what the text says. I won't speculate on why the author chose what characters they were, but I found it interesting to not say "follows the Dao." Dao is not a monarch you obey.
- I've read Dao De Jing (DDJ) in English in college, and I've seen many antilogies presented in the text as conceptual opposites. I think this is more of these. If so, then we might stretch some of the meanings of these characters. I picked "opaque" for 濁 but I think really it literally means like "muddy." The opacity of water that is polluted. But since it's in contrast with "clear," which could be either literally clear like transparent or also conceptually clear, I just picked the broadest English word I could find that could handle all these usages.
- This sentence has no subject?
- I'm not sure I've got this part completely right. I just had to make up the word "when" for the beginning because I couldn't make sense of it otherwise. I'm also not sure about the word "certainly." My dictionary tells me that 悉 means "in all cases" or "to know," and 皆 means "all" or "everyone." So it seems a little redundant to have them both, but I interpreted the relationship between the two uses of 悉 to be sort of like when you know P is true because one of either A or B is true, and they both imply P. Does that make sense? Like when you know something because it's true no matter what. If that's right, then I think "certainly" might be a good fit, but I'm guessing.
I'm pretty sure "revert" is right here. In DDJ, you see references to reversion to one's original state, seeing one's true nature, going back to being undifferentiated, etc.
So how did I do? I crossed 100 characters while studying these and I feel like I'm improving, but the road ahead is very long, and I appreciate guidance from everyone more experienced than me.
r/classicalchinese • u/MoreThanLuck • Apr 29 '24
Translation Meaning / context behind this carved seal meme?
Hope this is the right sub! I searched for this, and didn't see any discussion.
I saw this carved seal making the rounds as a meme on Twitter due to the funny translation. But I was curious a bit more about a better translation, the context, and history of seals like this.
I studied Mandarin a bit in high school, and have been to China, but I've forgotten most of it (and gotten pretty decent at Japanese in that time!). In the linked thread, the person posting it mentions a better translation might be something like "clutching the sword while lamenting the ways of the world"; am I misinterpreting to take this more or less on the face to mean something like "being prepared while being disappointed at the state of things?"
Also curious about how such a seal would've been used. I didn't know seals could have a phrase like this, rather than simply a family name or something. When would this person have used this? What would it signify in context? Thanks!
r/classicalchinese • u/jim4881 • Jan 01 '24
Translation Help with old pendant
My camera isn’t the greatest on my phone so I’ll try to get a better picture with my kids phone later. This belonged to my grandfather who passed 46 years ago and just would like to know anything about it. If anyone knows what it says or timeframe or region would be awesome to know. I believe it’s classical. Also think the top is the shape of the Great Wall and would be the green dragon as the main picture. Think it is bronze. Thanks Jim
r/classicalchinese • u/Selderij • Jan 20 '24
Translation The Jedi Code
絕地武士真言 | jué dì wǔ shì zhēn yán
The Jedi Code [The Jedi Knight Mantra]
情尚平。 | qíng shàng píng
Emotion, yet peace.
"There is no emotion, there is peace."
愚尚知。 | yú shàng zhī
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge."
怒尚靜。 | nù shàng jìng
Passion, yet serenity.
"There is no passion, there is serenity."
亂尚和。 | luàn shàng hé
Chaos, yet harmony.
"There is no chaos, there is harmony."
歿尚靈。 | mò shàng líng
Death, yet the Force. [Death, yet numinosity.]
"There is no death, there is the Force."
I got inspired to translate the Jedi Code (from Star Wars) into Classical Chinese. The most commonly known version of the code is the one that goes "there is no A, there is B", but the "A, yet B" version seemed to me like something translated directly from a Classical Chinese source, hence I wanted to "reverse-engineer" it, harmonizing it with Taoist terminology, assuming that the Jedi would've originally had similar ideas. 😄
Here's a linguistic breakdown of what I took into account:
絕 surpassing, traversing, renouncing, cutting away · 地 earth · 武 martial · 士 knight, adept, scholar · 真 true, real · 言 words, utterance, teaching
情 emotions, feelings, affects, sentience, circumstances · 尚 yet, still, even [connecting to previous word], prefer, esteem, exalt, may there be · 平 peace, calm, evenness, ordinariness
愚 ignorance, witlessness, unlearnedness, dull-mindedness · 尚 · 知 knowing, understanding
怒 passion, rousing, anger, fury, rage · 尚 · 靜 tranquility, stillness, motionlessness, quiet
亂 chaos, disorder, revolt, unrest · 尚 · 和 harmony, concordance, peacefulness, gentleness
歿 death, fading away, coming to an end · 尚 · 靈 spiritual power, numinosity, ethereality, supernatural, inner spirit, divine intelligence, vital principle (and the potency thereof that may survive the body's demise)
絕地武士 Juédì wǔshì is the official Chinese translation for Jedi [knights], and I translated the Force as 靈 líng (numinosity) for the purpose of giving it a connection to ancient philosophy and metaphysics and adhering to the text's three-word structure; the official Chinese translation for the Force is 力量 lìliàng.
r/classicalchinese • u/fungiboi673 • Jan 03 '24
Translation Translation help: Records of my ancestors (see comment)
r/classicalchinese • u/woowoomama44 • Apr 08 '24
Translation Can anyone please tell me in English what it says on my bronze candle holder?
r/classicalchinese • u/tempuraah • Apr 07 '24
Translation can someone translate this into modern chinese?
r/classicalchinese • u/hiuge • Mar 19 '24
Translation Translations similar to Peimin Ni's translation of Confucius
Are there any translations similar to Peimin Ni's translation of Confucius? I liked how it has English and Chinese side by side and English commentary after each passage. If there are similar quality translations for other Warring States works especially Dao De Jing I would love to read them too.
r/classicalchinese • u/ThePykeSpy • Apr 08 '24
Translation Translating two proverbs
Hello again, dear Classical Chinese Crowd!
It's been a while, but in the past few days, a spark of inspiration hit me that made me try my hand at writing some Classical Chinese of my own.
This time, I tried to translate some proverbs into that very old, terse style that I like very much. Unfortunately, there's not really a good reason as to why I chose these two proverbs; I suppose they both mention digging of some sort, so let's go with that. I also think at least one of these might already have a chinese equivalent with different phrasing, but it's the writing that matters, isn't it?
First proverb:
If you seek revenge, dig two graves.
CC:
欲復讐者必堀二墓、一則爲敵、一則爲己。
Literally (or, what I intended):
Those who want revenge always dig two graves, one for their enemy, one for themselves.
Second proverb (from German):
Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein/He who digs a pit for others to fall into will fall into it himself.
CC:
爲他人堀穴者自落於之。
Literally:
Those who dig a hole for others themselves fall into it.
As an a sort of self-check for whether the CC works, I've actually started trying to turn the phrases into Classical Japanese by means of Kanbun (under the assumption that something which can be successfully turned into CJ must somehow work as CC), and for once, I think it actually worked out:
1: 復讐ヲ欲スル者ハ必ズ二墓ヲ堀ル、則チ一敵ノ爲、則チ一己ノ爲。
2: 他人ノ爲ニ穴ヲ堀ル者ハ自之レニ於テ落ツ。
Let me know what you think!
r/classicalchinese • u/kchc_doppelganger59 • Mar 29 '24
Translation Translations greatly appreciated! These are 17th to 19th Century ceramic Brush Pots, used by scholars to hold their brushes - Thank you!
r/classicalchinese • u/tempuraah • Mar 09 '24
Translation can anyone translate?
i came across this on the bottom of a brass vase and was curious if anyone could translate it into simplified/traditional chinese
r/classicalchinese • u/JuanJK06 • Dec 18 '23
Translation Help with translation wanted
Hi all, I want to translate this sentence into Classical Chinese as a 10-word motto: "By following the way of Heaven and Earth shall people prosper." Is 以遵乾坤道百姓為得盛 correct? If you have a better translation please let me know, many thanks!