distant ruminations

 Update: I kind of regret posting that link now, having read the article. It wasn’t just the bizarre insistence on using Wade-Giles romanisation (and weird, way out of date names like ‘Amoy’, which I believe refers to Xiamen), but quite a few things in it set the old bullshit detecters zinging. I’ll explain later when I’m breakfasted and caffeinated.

Well, I don’t actually want to pose the question. I tell my students Beijing is Beijing; Peking is only used in an historic context. But I always wondered how Beijing got to be called Peking. I always put it down to some ridiculous old system of romanisation, like Wade-Giles or Yale, but now, via this post at Pinyin Info, I have an article which explains it all. Haven’t read it yet, I just downloaded it (bloody pdf files never cooperate with Firefox), but according to the summary at Pinyin Info, we got Peking through a combination of three factors:

1. A plethora of romanisations
2. A welter of local pronunciations, and
3. Phonological change over time

Apparently that’s quoted from the original article. Anyway, follow the link to Pinyin Info to download the article, if you’re interested.

Note: This was posted a couple of days ago at Bezdomny etudie chinois, my dedicated Chinese study blog (which is now blocked in China, dammit!).

I studied two texts from my textbook last night. The texts were fairly short and the questions not overly detailed, so it didn’t take too much time. The textbook is Core Chinese Reading- Intermediate/核心阅读-中级本 edited by 刘颂浩 and 林欢, published by å?Žè¯­æ•™å­¦å‡ºç‰ˆç¤¾ in 北京.

Last night I started with Unit 7, Text 2/第七�元课文二：

身高与�度

æ™?婴是é½?国的丞相，个å­?很矮。有一次他å??ç?€é©¬è½¦å¤–出，赶车人的妻å­?从门ç¼?里å?·å?·çš„看自己的丈夫。å?ªè§?ä»–å??在车上，鞭打ç?€å››åŒ¹é©¬ï¼Œæ´‹æ´‹è‡ªå¾—，é?žå¸¸éª„傲。晚上，丈夫回到家中时，他的妻å­?è¦?求离婚。丈夫万万没想到妻å­?忽然会æ??出离婚，就问她原因。妻å­?说：â€?æ™?婴身高ä¸?过六尺，å?´èƒ½æ‹…ä»»é½?国的丞相，å?„个国家的人都知é?“他。今天我看他å??在车上，æ€?度特别谦虚。现在å†?看看你，身高八尺，å?ªä¸?过是一个赶马车的，替别人æœ?务罢了，å?¯æ˜¯ä½ çš„æ€?度呢？洋洋自得，满足得ä¸?得了。我因此请求离婚。“

丈夫设法留ä½?了妻å­?。ä¸?过，从此以å?Žï¼Œä»–çš„æ€?度有了很大的改å?˜ã€‚æ™?婴很奇怪，就问她。赶车人把实际情况告诉了æ™?婴。æ™?婴于是推è??ä»–å?šäº†æ”¿åºœå®˜å‘˜ã€‚

（译自�马�《�记．管�列传》。）

Alright, so it’s surprisingly easy considering it’s from the å?²è®° (by the way, I think I messed up the punctuation in there- can anybody help?), but then I just noticed the 译自- of course it’s easy, it’s translated from the classical. And it’s a pretty simple story, no complicated plot twists or anything to throw the unsuspecting student off the trail. Very straightforward. Actually, the only question I have about this text is the measurement of people’s height: My dictionary says 1 å°ºis a third of a metre. So that would make Yan Ying a little shorter than 2 metres, and the driver roughly 2.7 metres, right? Or is my maths mixed up? Or has the definition of å°º changed over time?

Well, this text and its accompanying questions gave me a page full of new vocab, as per usual. Some of those words I’m supposed to know already, of course, but I’d forgotten. Nothing unusual there, especially considering how long it’s been since I last opened the book. I answered the questions and got most of them right. Again, nothing unusual there. Then I moved on to 课文三：

天天必写

学习写作，最好的çª?门就是“æ¯?天必写â€?，“天天拿笔â€?，哪怕是写几å??个字也好。有人说工作多，事情多，我å?¯ä¹Ÿä¸?比别人的少。就是那今天这个星期天æ?¥è¯´å?§ï¼Œä»Žæ—©ä¸Šå‡ºæ?¥ï¼Œåœ¨å¤–é?¢è½¬åˆ°çŽ°åœ¨è¿˜æ²¡æœ‰å›žå®¶ï¼Œå?¯æ˜¯ï¼Œæˆ‘今天就已ç»?写了几å??个字了。ä¸?è¦?以为学了语文，一写就写出一篇å?šå£«è®ºæ–‡ï¼Œæˆ–者写出一部比《红楼梦》还好的å°?说，ä¸?è¦?这样想。一般æ?¥è¯´ï¼Œå†™è¯—，写剧本，写å°?说，多少都有一些记录的性质，è¦?打好基础，第一步就è¦?学会“记â€?，æ¯?天记一件事。比如，昨天下了场å°?雪，你就把它记下æ?¥ã€‚诗当然ä¸?好写，把下雪记下æ?¥ä¹Ÿä¸?那么容易，ä¸?信，你试试看。现在布鞋，将æ?¥å†™å°?说时在想：“那天是怎么下雪æ?¥çš„？â€?那就麻烦了。写人就更难。《红楼梦》写了那么多姑娘，个个都那么好看，你æ?¥è¯•è¯•ã€‚你看到一个姑娘，把她写下æ?¥ï¼Œå¯„给那个姑娘自己看看，他è¦?ä¸?æ??ä½ æ‰?怪呢。“记â€?还挤ä¸?下æ?¥ï¼Œå°± “创作â€?，那å?ªèƒ½â€œé—¯ç¥¸â€?。

（选自��“从记事练起，天天练认真练“。《阅读与写作》，��，谢冰心等著，语文出版社，1992年。）

This was probably the easiest text of the book so far. I don’t know if it’s a sign of progress or what, but I only wrote down four new words. I discovered a fifth as I was typing it up, I thought I knew 怕, but I thought wrong, but as it turns out, I do know it, but in its basic meaning of ‘fear’, not in the context of 哪怕: ‘even, even if, even though, no matter how’, and now the text makes even more sense. I hate it when I get confused over a character, but at the same time I love it, because clearing up the confusion opens up a new aspect of the language that I hadn’t known about before. Also, I really enjoyed reading the text. I guess it helps that I’m already a big fan of è€?èˆ?, but at the same time I found this passage to be a cool, down-to-earth introduction to a basic writing course. No bullshit, no pretence, just the basics of starting to write presented in good humour, one bloke to another. Cool.

So there you go, this is where my Chinese reading is at. I hope to improve this, both through this textbook and through real-world Chinese texts. I also hope that canalblog finds itself back on the right side of the firewall so I don’t have to use a proxy to get here.