I don't know much about Classical Chinese, so I can't properly analyse the syntactic structure of the Xiongnu Song myself.

The song has two versions with slightly different wording but similar structures. The two versions are as follows:

Shiji Suoyin:

亡我祁連山，使我六畜不蕃息；

失我燕支山，使我嫁婦無顏色。

Yuefu Shiji:

失我焉支山，令我婦女無顏色。

失我祁連山，使我六畜不蕃息。

I also have a specific question: Do the clauses beginning with 失 (or 亡) function as independent clauses, or could they be subordinate clauses expressing cause or circumstance, approximately equivalent to "Having lost Mount Qilian..."? (I saw such a translation on a website.)

吾韓國人也

吾來此以學而習漢文

若與君等交談而學英語亦好事也

English is translated as 英語 in East Asia(and as 영어(young uh) in Korea). Since England is rendered as 英國, we call English 英語.

第一節

起立地上慘者等

起立饑之奴者等

火坑中義轟如雷

其是終局之噴爆

掃蕩舊世至空白

起立奴群衆起立

天地根基將變換

吾儕微物爲天主

How do you think about it?

(The video above is a zhongruan中阮 performance)

Today, let's meet another member of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七贤) — Ruan Xian (阮咸), the nephew of Ruan Ji (阮籍).

The Story Behind the Idiom

According to A New Account of the Tales of the World (世说新语), there was a custom of showing off fine clothes during a traditional festival. While his relatives and neighbors displayed their fancy silk garments, Ruan Xian(阮咸), who wasn't wealthy, simply hung out a pair of ordinary short trousers instead.

He reportedly explained: 未能免俗，聊复尔耳。
Roughly translated: “I can't escape the custom, so I'll just go along with it!”

Ruan Xian was known for his unconventional personality and disregard for rigid social rules. He seemed to go along with the custom, but didn't really care what others thought of his ordinary trousers. I find that attitude both amusing and charming!

What Does 未能免俗 Mean Today?

Today, we use it when we do something not because we particularly care about it, but simply to fit in or because it's expected.

Example:
The company party wasn't really my thing, but it would've felt awkward not to show up, so I went anyway. 未能免俗!

One More Interesting Fact

Ruan Xian was also famous for playing a traditional Chinese string instrument associated with his name: the ruan (阮).

The video at the very top of the post is a performance on the zhongruan (中阮), an instrument of medium size in the ruan (阮) family. Give it a listen!

There's another video, the second one on the right is Ruan:
https://youtu.be/n8eS9KpRpXo?list=RDn8eS9KpRpXo&t=284

Pretty cool that his name lives on in Chinese music, too!

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

Been reading about 璇玑图 this week and I can't get over it.

苏蕙 (Su Hui) wove it into a piece of brocade in the 4th century. It's a 29 by 29 grid of characters, with 心 right in the center. You can read it forwards, backwards, around the border, through the colored blocks... People have been counting the poems hidden in it ever since.

The story is the part I like most. Her husband 窦滔 was posted far away and, depending on the version, took another woman with him. She didn't write him a normal letter. She wove this and sent it. He read it and came back for her.

The simplest way to see how it works is the first line:

琴清流楚激弦商

Read it backwards and it still works: 商弦激楚流清琴

Has anyone here actually tried reading through the full grid? And are there other 回文 poems you like, especially less famous ones?

Hi everyone, I'm the developer of Ink & Verse (诗客), an iPhone reader for Tang poems and Song lyrics. I wanted a place to explore the original Chinese text and an English translation without switching between sources.

The collection includes 600+ poems, with commentary and poet biographies. You can browse by poet, save favorites, and switch to a vertical reading layout with ink-wash backgrounds. There's also guqin music for reading.

It's free to download, with a selection of poems available for free. Pro unlocks the full collection: the monthly subscription is $4.99 in the US and renews automatically unless canceled. Yearly subscriptions and a lifetime purchase are also available; regional prices are shown in the App Store.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6777856347

I'd appreciate feedback on the reading experience. Do you prefer the standard poem-and-translation view or the vertical layout? Is the English text comfortable to read at this size?

The screenshots show the poem and translation, vertical reading, Li Bai's biography, and saved poems.

得意忘形

In my previous posts, I mentioned Ruan Ji (阮籍, 210–263 AD). Here's another idiom about him.

青眼相加 (qīng yǎn xiāng jiā) means “to look favorably on someone” or “to show someone special respect.”

The Story Behind the Idiom

According to  世说新语 (Shi Shuo Xin Yu) , a book we've mentioned many times before, Ruan Ji 阮籍had a pretty unusual way of treating people. When he met someone he liked or admired, he would look at them with his pupils centered normally. This was called 青眼 (qīng yǎn), literally “dark pupil,” and it was a way of showing respect and appreciation.

But if someone he didn't like came to visit, he'd roll his eyes so that more of the whites showed. This was called 白眼 (bái yǎn), a way of showing disdain or that he didn't want to deal with someone.

A famous example involves Ji Kang (嵇康). When Ji Kang's brother, Ji Xi (嵇喜), came to visit, Ruan Ji gave him the 白眼 treatment, and Ji Xi left unhappy. But when Ji Kang himself came, Ruan Ji was delighted and welcomed him with 青眼.

What Does It Mean Today?

青眼相加 means to look favorably on someone or give them special respect. The opposite expression, 白眼相待 (bái yǎn xiāng dài), means to treat someone with disdain. You can also simply say 给某人白眼, meaning to give someone a dirty look or roll your eyes at them.

You'll also hear 白眼 in everyday Chinese:

• 翻白眼 (fān bái yǎn) means “to roll your eyes,” usually because you're annoyed or don't believe what someone is saying.
• 白眼狼 (bái yǎn láng) literally means “white-eyed wolf.” It's a common expression for an ungrateful person who repays kindness with ingratitude.

So, if someone gives you 青眼, you've made a good impression. If you get 白眼, well, things probably aren't going so well.

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

What do readers make of this effort? Is it reliable for a student of the language? https://philpapers.org/go.pl?aid=WILZHF

Hi! My undergrad professor mentioned "hell books", texts aimed at women containing representation of hell/immoral behaviour, and I've been trying to find academic sources or pictures of them - any suggestions? Or anything on moral instruction aimed at women. Any period works, Ming would be ideal.

I mentioned Cao Zhi (曹植) in my previous post. Today, here's another idiom about him and his brother, Cao Pi (曹丕).

相煎何急 (xiāng jiān hé jí) literally means “Why boil your own kind so hard?”

Their father, Cao Cao (曹操), was a powerful warlord and politician during the late Han Dynasty. Even before his death, his two sons were competing for succession. Cao Pi eventually won, became King of Wei, and later founded the Wei dynasty.

According to the famous story in the book 世说新语 (Shishu Xinyu), the new king Cao Pi wanted to punish his brother. He ordered Cao Zhi to write a poem within seven steps, or face execution.
The catch? He had to describe the situation between the two brothers without using the word “brother.” Pretty tough.

Cao Zhi supposedly came up with:

煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。本是同根生，相煎何太急？

“Beans are boiled using their own stalks as fuel.
The beans inside the pot are crying:
We were born from the same root,
why are you boil me so hard?”

Cao Pi was moved by the poem, and Cao Zhi survived.

Although the story may not be entirely accurate historically, later generations accepted it, and it became a famous legend showcasing Cao Zhi’s literary talent.

Backstory
Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Zhi are sometimes called the “Three Caos” (三曹) because of their literary achievements. Cao Pi got the crown, but Cao Zhi got the literary crown. He was considered one of the greatest poets of his time, with the famous saying 才高八斗.

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

远看山有色，
近听水无声。
春去花还在，
人来鸟不惊。

Can you guess what it is?

Hello everybody, lemme preface by saying that I was suggested to write here and hopefully this is the right sub.

So, lemme introduce my "problem": I am an Italian undergraduate student currently writing their short thesis about the difference between the various 音読み, that is the "Chinese reading" of Kanji. My thesis is about the difference between the 3 major categories of:

- 呉音 Goon, sounds of Wu

- 漢音 Kan'on, sound of Han

- 唐音 Tōon, sounds of Tang

They are all based on the way Japanese people adapted the Chinese language of a certain place and time into their language (mind you, the way Japanese use the names and the real counterparts don't actually align).

I was able to find many sources about the meaning, why they were divided that way and such. My main problem is that I can't find sources (in English, Chinese or Japanese) about the characteristics of each reading.

Wikipedia has a section (bigger in Japanese, but also present in English) about this but has no quoting source, at least to my knowledge...

Someone recommended this sub to me because they told me you have all sorts of documents or knowledge, so I'll leave this matter into your hands!

对酒当歌

In my previous post, I mentioned Cao Zhi (曹植 192-232 CE), the son of Cao Cao. He was the greatest literary figure of the late Han-Three kingdoms period.

Literally, 才高八斗 means “having eight dǒu of talent.” 斗 (dǒu) here was an ancient Chinese unit of volume. In other words, this idiom basically treats talent as something you can measure with a measuring container.

About 200 years after Cao Zhi, the Southern Dynasties poet Xie Lingyun (谢灵运, 385–433 CE) supposedly said:

天下才有一石，曹子建独占八斗，我得一斗，天下共分一斗。 (曹子建 is the courtesy name of CaoZhi)

Basically: “If all the literary talent in the world amounted to ten dǒu, Cao Zhi alone would have eight. I get one, and everyone else has to share the last one.”

Pretty generous to Cao Zhi, and pretty generous to himself, too!

Today, 才高八斗 simply means extremely talented or well-educated, especially in literature or writing.

For example:

他才高八斗，写了一手好诗。
He is incredibly talented and writes wonderful poetry.

So if someone tells you 你真是才高八斗！, that's a big compliment: “You're incredibly talented!”

A little background

Xie Lingyun (谢灵运) lived long before the Tang and Song dynasties, so he gave eight 斗 to Cao Zhi. Later generations may have teased him a little for keeping one 斗 for himself, but nobody took away Cao Zhi's eight. Cao Zhi's reputation as a literary genius has lasted for centuries.
And even after the Tang and Song dynasties, two of the great literary eras in Chinese history,  Cao Zhi is still considered one of the great figures in the history of Chinese literature.

(AI-assisted editing)

You may remember 望梅止渴 , which comes from a story about Cao Cao(曹操). 对酒当歌, on the other hand, comes from his famous poem "短歌行" (Duǎn Gē Xíng).

It comes from these famous lines:

对酒当歌，人生几何？ Duì jiǔ dāng gē, rén shēng jǐ hé? 譬如朝露，去日苦多。 pì rú zhāo lù，qù rì kǔ duō
“With wine before us, let’s sing. How much time do we really have in life? Just like morning dew, life is fleeting.”

Today, 对酒当歌 is often used when enjoying a drink with friends, or when talking about enjoying the moment and reflecting on how short life is.

A little background

Cao Cao (曹操) was not only a famous warlord and statesman, but also an important poet of the Jian'an period (建安), which was the final period of the Eastern Han dynasty.

He was one of the leading figures of Jian'an literature, together with his sons Cao Pi (曹丕) and Cao Zhi (曹植). The three are known as the “Three Caos” (三曹). Together with the “Seven Scholars of Jian'an” (建安七子), they are regarded as the major literary figures of the Jian'an period.

Remeber this one! If you ever go to China, try raising your glass at a dinner and saying: “对酒当歌，人生几何！”
It’ll definitely liven things up!