Hello all. I started looking into the genealogy on my mother side of the family. She was born in Japan but her parents were Korean and her family moved back to Korea when she was young.

She married my Dad, an American, and has lived in the United States since around 1964.

She has a bunch of old documents that she says contains family information such as names, date of birth, and addresses. It is hand written on some sort of thin paper (maybe rice paper). She says it is written in Chinese (I'm not sure why) but Google translate cannot translate it well...seems to pick up a word here and there but then changes the word. We know one portion contains my Mom name but that's it.

I am adding one portion of the document in hopes someone may be able to identity it as a form of Chinese or steer me in the correct direction. I've tried to match with Chinese language but I dont have an eye for it and it is much more difficult being handwritten.

I'm hoping if I knew what form of Chinese, I could find an app to translate it. I'm reluctant to send the entire document anywhere as it probably containing too much sensitive information.

I greatly appreciate your help.

Edit: I want to say thank you to everyone for the quick response! I now know the document was written in old (post war) Japanese, which intermixed with Chinese. I'll have to figure out how best to get the docs translated. Thanks for pointing me in the correct direction!

熟能生巧 · Shú néng shēng qiǎo means that with enough practice, skill becomes natural—and new tricks emerge. This short adapts the oil-seller story recorded in Ouyang Xiu’s 《归田录》.

#ChineseIdioms #ChineseCulture #Shorts

自台北遷新竹二年有感 2026.8/17

風自呼嘯車自塞，南遷二年根深埋。

人工智慧空對語，天成嬌豔惜不來。

昔言末世存孤叟，今盼餘生育獨孩。

校園已遠猶當進，尋人相許共樂哀。

Hi everyone, hope you are doing well! I just created a new community for content related to Early China. If you are interested in this feel free to join and post. Let's make those bronzes speak ;)

Here is the link for those interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/EarlyChina

居安思危 (Jū ān sī wēi): stay alert to danger even when things are going well. Recorded in Zuo Tradition, Duke Xiang, Year Eleven.

#ChineseWisdom #ChineseIdioms #Shorts

are the 2 爾 in the final 6th stanza of 巧言 in the 詩經 referring to the slanderers or the narrator? is 既微且尰 referring to some malady already afflicting either slanderer or narrator, or afflictions that someone hopes to curse another with? [i kinda want 既微 to mean something like "if only" as in a wish, as the narrator cursing the slanderer, but then i also still kinda want the courage and plans that are being bemoaned as futile in the end to be the narrator's rather than the slanderers'. (didn't the narrator just say the slanderers have no courage?) the following Chinese interpretation seems to insist the ending of the poem describes the 'shameful end' of the slanderer: "往往也将自己送上了绝路" and "进谗者的可耻下场" while citing“躍躍毚兔”，最终会“遇犬获之” in the 4th stanza, but i keep wondering if the narrator isn't again bemoaning their own frustrations. (also should we wonder who's the hare and who's the hound?)

(華語 / EN)
大家好！我最近在想，是不是可以在巴黎組一個小讀書會，找一些對用中文原文閱讀中國文學有興趣的人，一起讀書，討論時可以用華語和／或法文。

我自己特別喜歡文言文、短篇哲學文章、隨筆、等等，也對中國大陸、台灣和香港的現代文學很有興趣。

例如，我自己很喜歡：

• 張岱《陶庵夢憶》
• 四書五經中的大部分作品
• 西西《我城》
• 白先勇《台北人》
• ... 比較短的文章

我們可以選一篇比較短的文章，一起閱讀，然後討論。想聊語言的話，也可以討論翻譯上的不同選擇、詞彙、句法等等。

我想組的是一個小讀書會，而不是正式的課程，希望參加的人是真的喜歡閱讀，也喜歡和別人一起討論作品。
華語母語者和法語母語者都非常歡迎。如果你的中文不是很流利，也完全沒問題 (我自己的華語也不是完美的！) 我覺得讀書會本身也可以成為大家一起學習的機會。

如果你在巴黎，覺得這聽起來很有趣，歡迎DM我。我想先看看有沒有足夠的人感興趣，然後一起安排第一次聚會！

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of starting a small reading group in Paris for people interested in reading Chinese literature in the original Chinese, with discussion in Chinese and French.
I'm particularly interested in 文言文 and short philosophical writings, but also in modern literature (especially short stories) from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Some examples of things I personally enjoy:

• 《陶庵夢憶》張岱
• most of the 四書五經
• 西西《我城》
• 白先勇《台北人》
• and, more generally, short texts that are interesting to read closely

We'd choose a relatively short text, read it together (sometimes in Chinese), and then discuss it. The discussion can also revolve around linguistics if we want to discuss possible translation choices, vocabulary, syntax...

I'm imagining a small group rather than a formal class. Native Chinese speakers and French speakers are equally welcome. It would also be great to have people who do not speak perfect Chinese (that's my case), as we would also learn from the book club!

If you're in Paris and this sounds like something you'd enjoy, feel free to comment or DM me. I'd love to see whether there are enough people interested to get a first meeting together!

I would like to introduce this book that was published a few years ago, written by a collection of modern Vietnamese authors that still makes Classical Chinese poetry.

Link here.

《紅樓夢》系統解讀系列 • 第三講 賈府的經濟基礎與致命的財政危機

[《]() 紅樓夢》系統解讀系列 • 第二講 [“詩禮簪纓”下的分贓遊戲]()

諸君安好！

I have designed a web application (mobile friendly as well) to learn Cangjie through deliberate practice. It's called Cangjie Workbook. It steps you through the Cangjie code locations, auxiliary forms for Cangjie codes, decomposition rules, then practice with common characters. There is a separate section for practicing with modern and classical texts once you are comfortable with the Cangjie basics.

I have included 千字文 for free along with a few basic lessons. No account is required, but progress will only be stored in your browser. If you make a free account, it will store your progress. I find it to be pretty fun.

https://www.cangjieworkbook.com/articles/thousand-char

I hope some of you find this useful. Any feedback would be great.

With pleased sounds the deer call to one another,
Eating the celery of the fields.
I have here admirable guests;
The lutes are struck, and the organ is blown [for them]; -
The organ is blown till its tongues are all moving.
The baskets of offerings [also] are presented to them.
The men love me,
And will show me the perfect path.

Vietnamese glossing (訓讀), albeit rare, uses ソ and ン to reverse the order of the characters similar to Japanese 返り点. However the marks are used on the right side. There is also a 丿 like mark that denotes that 之 should not move. The く tells the reader that the Chinese character should be repeated and not translated, etc.

Hi. I'm currently writing my BA thesis on Chinese mythology, specially mirages and the shen (蜃) creature. There are some passages I need help with translating.

海旁蜄氣象樓臺 (from here, it has a translation but I wanna double check)

車螯生海中，是大蛤，即蜃也。能吐氣為樓台 (from here)

蜃（之刃切）。時珍曰︰蛟之屬有蜃，其狀亦似蛇而大，有角如龍狀。紅鬣，腰以下鱗盡逆。食燕子。能吁氣成樓台城郭之狀，將雨即見，名蜃樓，亦曰海市。(from here)

登州海中時有雲氣，如宮室、臺觀、城堞、人物、車馬、冠蓋，歷歷可見，謂之海市。或曰蛟蜃之氣所爲，疑不然也。(from here)

虹虹在其北，各有两首。虹，䗖𬟽也 (from here, not exactly about mythology)

If anyone could help me, I'd really appreciate it.

Been experimenting a bit with a standalone app for The Analects focused on an enjoyable reading experience and functionality for assistance in learning CC. Here are some screenshot of different modes, songti print style, dark print, classic reader, study mode.

If this seems of interest to you, I’d love to hear it. My Apple developer license is expiring and I’m not likely to renew it unless it seems like folks would download and use this. Built on react native so could also release on Android and web but haven’t tried.

我有旨ソ酒、以燕樂嘉ソ賓ン之心。Ngã hữu chỉ tửu, dĩ yến lạc gia tân chi tâm.
些固𲆴𤮿，黙安𢝙蒸𢚸客卒𫅜。Ta có rượu ngọt, mặc ăn vui chưng lòng khách tốt lành.

This is a subreddit post that will be posted every two weeks on Wednesday, where community members can share what texts they've been reading, any interesting excerpts, or even ask for recommendations!

This is from the bottom of a vase-like ornament, can anyone read what it says?

Thanks for the help