General Literary Chinese from Scratch/How Much Time, Exactly?

In the last lesson, you learned how to express a time in which you did something. But now, we have to consider: For how long was something done? In English, we pay considerable attention to this, but in Literary Chinese, it is decently straightforward. This lesson will be particularly dry, but contain numerous basic items that I want you to practice individually for a time. Right now, you probably feel at least a little bit restricted. This is where you will go from basic constructions to equally basic prose. Core patterns There are two broad patterns here. Doing X for Y amount of time Verb + Time frame This will express "someone did X for Y amount of time." Let's put this into practice: 居三年 [someone] lived [there] for three years. Can you figure out which character is for living somewhere? Here are some useful words for this pattern: 日 - Day 旬 - 10-day week 月 - Month 年 or 歲 - Year. 紀 can be used for the ritualistic sense. 夜 - Night, often used over 日. Opposite is 晝, daytime. You can substitute 年 for any of these words and be fine; you can probably even find more! Now, what if we wanted to express doing something "after" a period of time? This is where 而 comes in. Using 而 而 is a very flexible word that generally means "then." It can have a contrastive tone, sort of like "but," though here, it is just a general term. Time frame + 而 + Verb Putting this into a phrase: 居三年而往 [someone] lived [there] for 3 years, then left. If you want to add an "only" after factor for emphasis, you can use 乃 as well, which carries a similar meaning to 而, but has a more temporal relation: 居三年乃往 Only after living [there] for 3 years did they leave. Their meaning is not super different, so you can consider them interchangable. You can think of 往 as the opposite of 來: 來 is to come, 往 is to go. You can use these characters for virtually any scenario beyond this; these are very high-usage words and can get you extending your sentences very quickly. Using 先 But what about times before an event? This is where 先 comes in. Technically, it means "first," but can be extended into myriad phrases. 先 + Event + Time frame Technically, this can be any event. Therefore, something like 行周 "walk to Zhou" can be perfectly fine here: 先行周一日，備十杏。 One day before going to Zhou, [someone] prepared ten fruits. If one is uncertain about the amount of time, 餘 can add the sense of "X odd Y". We also do not need to add time after a phrase with 先. 先備十杏，備五餘果 You can likely figure out what this is from context: You know these words now! If you want to refer back to an event you have already mentioned, you can use 是, which means "this" in a very broad sense. Taking our previous example: 先是備五餘果 Use this to optimise your writing. Practice Get out your dictionary and find some words relevant to you. As you are a beginner, I recommend this one, especially if you have Pleco: Kroll, P. W., Baxter, W. H., Boltz, W. G., Knechtges, D. R., Lien, Y. E., Richter, A., Richter, M. L., & Warner, D. X. (2017). A student’s dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese (S. F. Teiser, M. Kern, & T. Brook, Eds; Revised edition). Brill. 978-90-04-32513-5 Next, write using the new items you have learned here, to discuss something you are interested in. References Barnes, A. C., Starr, D., & Ormerod, G. (2009). Du’s handbook of classical Chinese grammar: An introduction to classical Chinese grammar. Alcuin Academics. Kroll, P. W., Baxter, W. H., Boltz, W. G., Knechtges, D. R., Lien, Y. E., Richter, A., Richter, M. L., & Warner, D. X. (2017). A student’s dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese (S. F. Teiser, M. Kern, & T. Brook, Eds; Revised edition). Brill. Pulleyblank, E. G. (2000). Outline of classical Chinese grammar (Repr). UBC Press.