General Literary Chinese from Scratch/Using Numbers and Using Weapons

In this vocabulary lesson, we will be discussing more characters from the Cangjie Input Method. You will recognise some of these! 竹戈弓大中卜一十廿 And their glosses: zh 竹 - Bamboo zh 戈 - Glaive; pole-ax; pike zh 弓 - Bow zh 大 - Big, large, etc. zh 中 - Centre; middle; central zh 卜 - Divination; to predict; to crack turtle shells. zh 一 - One (1) zh 十 - Ten (10) zh 廿 - Twenty (20) And in case you are interested, here are numbers 0-9: 零一二三四五六七八九 We will go into more detail on their grammar later. For now, you can use them to number things! thumb|200px|An oracle bone, featuring some of the earliest writing! zh 卜 "to divinate" is a very particular character often associated with oracle bone script. It is rooted in the cracking of the bones of a turtle (zh 龜 - very pictographic!) by burning them over a fire. Once they crack, the king would prognosticate: Do the cracks have an omen, or do they signal good fortune? Here is example: 甲寅卜，彭貞：多子其饗。 On the jiayin day, turtle shells were cracked. Peng charges: May we perform a banquet for the many princes? By the end of Unit 1, you will be able to understand this quite well! With respect to bows, they happen to be fairly straightforward. So here are some characters related to archery: zh 射 and zh 弋 - To shoot; the latter often in a hunting context. zh 矢 and zh 箭 - An arrow; the former is more archaic and a pictogram, the latter more common. Now, to apply those: 人弋十矢，汝射廿箭 A man shoots ten arrows; you shoot twenty arrows. For now, review the characters from the Cangjie Input Method. Try writing with those characters, and wondering why the Chinese people used them. Cangjie codes 零: 一月人戈戈 (MBOII) 二: 一一 (MM) 三: 一一一 (MMM) 四: 田金 (WC) 五: 一木一 (MDM) 六: 卜金 (YC) 七: 十山 (JU) 八: 竹人 (HO) 九: 大弓 (KN) 龜: 弓難山 (NXU) 甲: 田中 (WL) 寅: 十一中金 (JMLC) 彭: 土廿竹竹竹 (GTHHH) 貞: 卜月山金 (YBUC) 多: 弓戈弓戈 (NINI) 子: 弓木 (ND) 其: 廿一一金 (TMMC) 饗: 女中人戈女 (VLOIV) 射: 竹竹木戈 (HHDI) 弋: 戈心 (IP) 矢: 人大 (OK) 箭: 竹廿月弓 (HTBN) 人: 人 (O) 汝: 水女 (EV)