General Literary Chinese from Scratch/Dinner with the Daimyo

thumb|200px|大友皇子 Literary Chinese was exported across East Asia through a mix of hard and soft power, particularly from the Han 漢 and Tang 唐 dynasties. They would establish relations with burgeoning nations and use the language as a "scripta franca": A language to bridge between each other. Therefore, the languages these nations spoke was often not written until much, much later. The poem by Kiyohara no Sakamoto 清原真友 from Unit 0 could not have been made without that substrate. Today, we will be learning some key concepts from Prince Ōtomo 大友皇子, a daimyo 大王 of the Yamato Kingship of Japan, during the Asuka period 飛鳥時代. At this time, Japan was still called Wa 倭, which you will see used in pre-Tang Chinese texts when discussing relations with the rapidly-developing country. Today, we will be learning several words you will be seeing a lot, and about character variants. Character variants The standardisation of the Han script is a very, very recent phenomenon, only really happening with digitisation. Any time before that, you will see consistencies, but some characters may be written a bit differently. In this textbook, all variations from the Kangxi Standard, that is, what is seen in Kangxi Dictionary, will be explicitly noted for you. I will render Japanese texts in Shinjitai 新字體, the modern standard for the language. Oftentimes, the characters chosen for Shinjitai were historically used in Japan, and can thus give a glimpse into what the transmitted poem may have looked like. For the purposes of this text, you will see: CharacterKangxi StandardMeaningNotes併並Side-by-side; moreover; at the same time—万萬Ten thousandAlso seen in Simplified Chinese国國Country, kingdom, nationAlso seen in Simplified Chinese Key literary concepts Prince Ōtomo talks about several concepts that are extremely common in Literary Chinese, through parallelism. Sun 日 and Moon 月 Sky 天 and Earth 地 Virtue 徳, defined here as an innate power manifested through moral brilliance. The Three Powers 三才: Heaven 天, Earth 地, and Man 人. Literary Chinese culture loved to enumerate concepts, and you will see this a lot. Justice 義, what is right; defined here as responsibilities owed to one's in-group. Virtue 徳 and justice 義 are two concepts central to Confucianism, and thus manifest extensively in Literary Chinese. He also uses one of the first synonyms you will learn: 皇 and 帝, which mean Emperor, or more accurately, thearch. East Asian kings believed that they were assigned their lordship by the grace of their deity, often referred to as Tian 天, the Zhou people's sky deity. You will notice it shares the same character for sky! Text thumb|200px 侍宴·大友皇子 皇明光日月，帝徳載天地。 三才併泰昌，万国表臣義。 Gloss 侍 - To attend (to) 宴 - Calm; serve wine; banquet 光 - Light 載 - To load a carriage; to set down; in this case, the latter. 泰 - Majestic, lordly, sublime, generous. Also another form of 太 "grand, great, maximum, super." 昌 - Splendid, shining, brilliance; glory, glorious; flourishing; prosperous. 表 - Exterior, to show outwardly; originally comes from clothing. The opposite would be 裏! 臣 - A minister, commonly used in place of a first-person pronoun. Discussion Who do you think Prince Ōtomo was addressing? Given who you think Prince Ōtomo was addressing, what do you think this poem was for? Why do you think of Prince Ōtomo's tone? Why did he use it? Cangjie codes 漢: 水廿中人 (ETLO) 唐: 戈中口 (ILR) 清: 水手一月 (EQMB) 原: 一竹日火 (MHAF) 真: 十月一金 (JBMC) 友: 大水 (KE) 皇: 竹日一土 (HAMG) 子: 弓木 (ND) 王: 一土 (MG) 飛: 弓人竹廿人 (NOHTO) 鳥: 竹日卜火 (HAYF) 時: 日土木戈 (AGDI) 代: 人戈心 (OIP) 倭: 人竹木女 (OHDV) 新: 卜木竹一中 (YDHML) 字: 十弓木 (JND) 體: 月月廿田廿 (BBTWT) 併: 人廿廿 (OTT) 並: 廿廿金 (TTC) 万: 一尸 (MS) 萬: 廿田中月 (TWLB) 国: 田一土戈 (WMGI) 國: 田戈口一 (WIRM) 天: 一大 (MK) 地: 土心木 (GPD) 徳: 難竹人十田 (XHOJW) 三: 一一一 (MMM) 才: 木竹 (DH) 義: 廿土竹手戈 (TGHQI) 帝: 卜月中月 (YBLB) 侍: 人土木戈 (OGDI) 宴: 十日女 (JAV) 明: 日月 (AB) 光: 火一山 (FMU) 載: 十戈十田十 (JIJWJ) 泰: 手大水 (QKE) 昌: 日日 (AA) 表: 手一女 (QMV) 臣: 尸中尸中 (SLSL) 太: 大戈 (KI) 裏: 卜田土女 (YWGV) 弘: 弓戈 (NI) 文: 卜大 (YK) 懐: 心卜田女 (PYWV) 風: 竹弓竹中戈 (HNHLI) 藻: 廿水口木 (TERD) 本: 木一 (DM) 汉: 水水 (EE) 诗: 戈女土木戈 (IVGDI) 选: 卜竹土山 (YHGU) 江: 水一 (EM) 西: 一金田 (MCW) 教: 十木人大 (JDOK) 育: 卜戈月 (YIB) 出: 山山 (UU) 版: 中中竹水 (LLHE) 社: 戈火土 (IFG) Notes Prince Ōtomo is also known as Emperor Kobun 弘文天皇! If you're aware of Kanbun 漢文, the "bun" in the name may be familiar... References 《懐風藻》 Piggott, Joan (1997). The Emergence of Japanese Kingship. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804728324. Shi, K. (Ed.). (2024). 日本汉诗选 [Anthology of Japanese Sinitic Poetry] (1st ed, Vols 1–2). 江西教育出版社 [Jiangxi Education Press].