General Literary Chinese from Scratch/Getting Familiar with Body Parts

In this vocabulary lesson, I will be introducing some kinship terms, which are used in the Cangjie Input Method. Each of these terms are body parts or something related to them, and are used as components in many characters, or just as important vocabulary! These characters are the following: 人心手口尸女 And they are glossed like this; some of these are characters you have already seen. zh 人 - Person, as we have established. zh 女 - Woman (more on this in a bit!) zh 心 - Heart， literally and figuratively! In Literary and modern Chinese, zh 心 "heart" can mean both one's heart and their soul (or essence). zh 手 - Hand and arm. Literary Chinese is one of many languages that do not usually distinguish between hand and arm, thus the appearance. 臂 bi is used when needing to be specific. zh 口 - Mouth; can be used to refer to a population, as in "mouths to feed," and often used in characters that are associated with onomatoepia. zh 尸 - Corpse; often used in characters related to architecture. In ancient times, zh 尸 "corpse" was used to refer to a dead person in receipt of post-mortem rituals. Let's look at zh 女 "woman" some more. This character can be used to mean "you" in a familiar sense (think the biblical "thou" or "tu" in Spanish!) after a verb. When used before the verb, it is typically formatted as zh 汝, with the same meaning. Therefore, this character can mean "woman" or "thou" depending on context. For example: 汝曰女 You say you/woman "You say you/woman" Let's use them in sentences, largely using what you already know: 汝心大，小人心小 "Your heart is large, but the petty person's heart is small." 一口曰：「我母。」二口曰：「我母。」 One mouth says: "My mother." Two mouths say: "I and my mother." Technically, you can use 我及母 to clarify, but see how the ambiguity can appear whilst it is fully grammatical? 人死為尸。 When a person dies, they are a corpse. Try using these characters in the sentences and handwriting you are already doing. Pace yourself, relax, and use what you're learning. Cangjie codes 臂: 尸十月 (SJB) 汝: 水女 (EV) 小: 弓金 (NC) 我: 竹手戈 (HQI) 母: 田卜戈 (WYI) 二: 一一 (MM) 及: 弓竹水 (NHE) 死: 一弓心 (MNP) 為: 戈大弓火 (IKNF) 现: 一土月竹山 (MGBHU) 代: 人戈心 (OIP) 汉: 水水 (EE) 语: 戈女一一口 (IVMMR) 规: 手人月竹山 (QOBHU) 范: 廿水尸山 (TESU) 词: 戈女尸一口 (IVSMR) 典: 廿月金 (TBC) 外: 弓戈卜 (NIY) 敎: 大木人大 (KDOK) 学: 火月弓木 (FBND) 与: 卜尸一 (YSM) 硏: 一口一十十 (MRMJJ) 究: 十金大弓 (JCKN) 出: 山山 (UU) 版: 中中竹水 (LLHE) 社: 戈火土 (IFG) 文: 卜大 (YK) References Li, X. (Ed.). (2022). 现代汉语规范词典 [Xiandai Hanyu guifan cidian] (4th ed.). 外语敎学与硏究出版社 : 语文出版社 [Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press: Chinese Language Press]. Category:Book:General Literary Chinese from Scratch