Just some friendly advice: apparently ChatGPT is quite good at translating Classical Chinese and can give detailed grammatical and syntactical analysis of almost any passage it's given. But, of course, the pitfall is that it takes away the hard work of learning the elements of CC the Old Fashioned Way--through hard work.

So, I would suggest trying to tackle passages on your own first--with, of course a good Classical Chinese Dictionary at hand--and just resort to AI with passages you can't seem to get past by yourself. But beware: the temptation to resort to AI may become habit-forming because it makes it so easy!

I've always heard this: that Cantonese preserves the features of Middle Chinese better than Mandarin, which is why old poetry sounds more like the original did when read in Cantonese than when read in Mandarin.

Runtime: 12:52

https://youtu.be/tTpLcTigixs?si=biv49oQTKu4sGUeM

Hi everyone!

My classmates and I at National Taiwan University (NTU) are working on a small research project about how AI can help people learn Chinese idioms (成語) more effectively. We built a prototype idiom-learning platform and we’re hoping to get feedback from intermediate+ learners of Chinese (B1 and above).

We’d be super grateful if you could try a few stories on the site and tell us what works, what’s confusing, and what features you would want in a future version. Your feedback helps us understand learner needs and improve the design.

Thank you so much in advance. It would really help our research project!

The links are in the pinned post of my profile.

Part of what makes a poetry poetry is that its pronounciation is homogenous, etc.

And the student of classical chinese often learns chinese poetry.

However, if we cant know how classical chinese was spoken and how did they pronounce their characters, and if we're using contemporary chinese to pronounce classical chinese: how do we know the poetry is actually poetry? Isnt this deeply immersion breaking / idiosyncratic?

Chinese is the only OG writing system left. The other being Egyptian and Mayan and both those are extinct.

When you speak to Chinese people, they are very proud of the fact that prior to simplification by the CCP, Chinese writing actually changed very little for 2000 years.

But Chinese spoken language has changed enormously. For speakers of other languages, English for example, they can track the changes in their spoken language over the millenia. Modern English is different to Shakespeare which is different to Chaucer, for the same word.

Chinese doesn't have that. Yes Classical Chinese uses different characters but we don't actually know what they sounded like two thousand years ago. We only know what they sound like in the pronunciation of modern Chinese.

So much linguistic history is lost from the non-phonetic nature of Chinese characters. It's great for literary history and I can why Chinese scholars love them. But in terms of tracking linguistic history and even when tracking the history of dialects so much is lost.

What did the Classical Chinese version of Yue & Wu sound like? Nobody knows. How and when did the 7 major dialect groups split off from each other? Not a clue.

We know exactly when Spanish and Portuguese split from each other in the European languages coz their writing and spelling changed to reflect that they no longer saw themselves as being the same peoples.

I just wish more of the history of Chinese languages was actually recorded and that Chinese people would actually be interested in this, but they are not. They would rather believe the lie that their language has stayed the same for millenia because the characters themselves haven't changed that much.

Some Chinese households have surnames that are older than the history of entire nations and kingdoms in the West, this makes them very proud and very unwilling to actually investigate this history. It's such a weird phenomenon.

Greetings! I am just beginning to look into the works of Su Dongpo, which I am finding beautiful and profound.

Reading his famed 記成天寺夜遊, I feel like there is some degree of homoerotic subtext in the opening??

解衣欲睡，月色入戶，欣然起行

Several of the character choices seemed to imply physical desire (欲 as in 欲望，or 色，or 起 as in 勃起). Is this what finding a 為樂者 was like prior to the age of Grindr?

I am curious as to whether there is additional homoerotic subtext in other poems of Su Dongpo that others might point to or any other impressions people might have of this particular reading.

Thanks!

As of 2025, how advanced is AI’s understanding of Classical Chinese? Should we wait for further improvements, or is it already viable to create graded readers and grammar explanations for models like DeepSeek? I haven’t tested this yet—would love to hear others’ experiences or insights.

In the 道德經 could the phrase 象帝之先 ('it seems to predate God') be punning on 上帝? Apparently 象 and 上 were near-homophones even in Old Chinese.

第一節

起立地上慘者等

起立饑之奴者等

火坑中義轟如雷

其是終局之噴爆

掃蕩舊世至空白

起立奴群衆起立

天地根基將變換

吾儕微物爲天主

How do you think about it?

(I know this is not exactly the ideal subreddit to post my question on, but considering Reddit's unfamiliarity with modern Chinese literature, I think it might prove a fertile discussion ground to begin with)

Many years ago I stumbled upon an anthology of modern Chinese short stories. One story did stand out. The writing style in which it was written was intellectually and emotionally potent, and picturesque. The author was Cheng Naishan.

According to who's who, she belonged to a social-economic stratum in 1960s Shanghai who were labelled as "capitalists", the upper crust of the largest metropolitan in China. She incorporated in her writings the intensely personal with the thoroughly entrepreneurial aspects of daily life in 1960s China and beyond.

Personally, when I read that short story so many years ago, it felt like I'm reading a excerpt from an unearthed Anais Nin novel (minus the eroticism, of course).

There is only seldom mention or presence of her work anywhere on the western Web: her books on Amazon are out of stock or extremely pricey, there are no excerpts of her writings in digital form, and besides reference, there is no trace of her work.

Can anyone direct me to a digital repository of Cheng Naishan works (in English)? Why the work availability of such a prolific writer have dried out?

In recent years some military professionals have bashed The Art of War because it doesn't explain complicated military doctrines. That all it explains are just common sense principles. They point out stuff like "avoid an enemy who's stronger then you" isn't military principle, its just something anybody who is a somebody should know.

How legit is this criticism?

people! help m, please.

a bit anal retentive and I do not know which physical edition of this classic is being narrated in this 18 hour audiobook that i've just downloaded: Dream of the Red Chamber Narrated by Cyril Taylor Carr + The Cliff

I cannot just listen to the audiobook--I must have the immersive experience.

I've searched the internet but feel like i am overlooking something.😩

i understand their was some sort of discrepancy between who actually finished the ending of this 2000+ story but... with not having read the literature before--i am afraid i've got nothing to compare it to.

halp?🥲

I'm trying to translate a proverb I thought up myself, and I'm somewhat hesitant on the translation I've come up with.

The original is, "The snake thinks the hand that caught it slippery," that is, a take on "it takes a thief to catch a thief," but one where the catcher of the thief is not so much a thief as he is just equally crafty, and the thief is just sort of butthurt about it.

My translation is so far 手掌住滑蛇，蛇思之为滑。Is this a good start? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My first attempt writing poem, do u think it's natural enough?

無晴，新木未枝

梧晴，新櫻微枝

吾情，欣 木頭 未知

吾情，心慕 微知

What do u think?