Cobie

Someone once said that learning Chinese is "a five-year lesson in humility". I used to think this meant that at the end of five years you will have mastered Chinese and learned humility along the way. However, now having studied Chinese for over six years, [make that 8 in my case] I have concluded that actually the phrase means that after five years your Chinese will still be abysmal, but at least you will have thoroughly learned humility.” [so true, 10 cry emojis here]. (https://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html) I posted this before, lots of times actually.

While creation reveals God, it is not the same as direct participation in Him. Palamas said that through the “uncreated energies” (the ‘rays’ of the Holy Spirit) human beings can truly unite with God, not just infer Him from nature. I like to think this is a bit like cultivating 氣 (qi4) qi , to become one with the Dao”.

Changing government here. The new ones say we must prepare for war and they will increase spending for arms massively. I don’t think fire horse energy will help at all. I propose we skip the tradition this year and post something peaceful on the banner like this: 鸿鹄之志 (hong2hu2 zhi1 zhi4) the will of the swan; lofty aspirations

For me that is reminiscent of Saint Gregory Palamas. He said God is invisible, unknowable in his fundamental essence. But becomes visible, makes himself knowable through the visible things created.

That’d be the ‘wiener dog’! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdVxbD41lV4

“… the nothingness of Dao is the emptiness of the female womb … from nothing all beings come. (Sinologist Ellen M. Chen, ‘In Praise of Nothing’ page 93)

I think it’s a spoof. (As far as I know) Nungali knows no Classical Chines at all, so cannot translate. I think it’s supposed to be funny.

Well that’s highly disappointing, that’s just the same old same old version. And doesn’t even use the Mawangdui characters.

The fox changes his fur, not his habits.

hair

I don’t want to create an account. Could you post his DDJ chapter 1 here please?

I use direct translation.

I don’t know what IG is, but the rest is so true. I use Duolingo.

古文 (gu3 wen2) Classical Chinese. This is the language the DDJ was written in, one character represents one idea. 文言文 (wen2 yan2 wen2) Literary Chinese. This uses phrases to represent complex ideas [成語 (cheng2 yu3) set phrases]. It cannot be used to read the DDJ.

Only some. The taboo turned 恆 into a synonym; it did not affect 常 . You can check on DIO. E.g. for ch. 1 it shows both MWD A and B with 恆 (http://www.daoisopen.com/downloads/CC1.pdf). For ch. 16, both MWD A and B have 常 four times (http://www.daoisopen.com/downloads/CC16.pdf).

Nice thread. My favorite is the Chinese version, I like that music.

@ChiDragon the typo is that the title starts with a letter ‘D’ (should be a letter ‘B’).

I never click on links unless given at the end of some writing (to provide the source or for further info).

There’s a typo in your thread title.

P.S. there was an admod warning not to post in characters without an English translation.

This quote (from ch. 40) is different in the oldest script (Guodian): 天下之勿（物）生於又（有）， 生於亡。 The things of the world arise from being, And being comes from non-being. https://terebess.hu/english/tao/henricks2.html#Kap40

A note by the bit quoted. The ‘Classical’ as used by the Chinese after the Han dynasty, is different from the Classical Laozi used. The Chinese kept using Classical next to the Chinese current in their own times. But over time elements of the current Chinese crept into their ‘Classical’. Post Han dynasty, the ‘Classical’ has become so different that it has been given a separate name, ‘Literal’.

Reminiscent of my Chinese teacher - her motto is, ‘Chinese is very easy’. I’d ask, what tone is that? And she’d say, the one you hear. Lol, so annoying. Problem is, some actually don't hear it. There is a mechanism in the brain that can reduce language-input to the nearest sounds in your own language (needed to understand accents) and my language has no tones. I hear the tones now, but it took me years. This too, who's got the time!

These three are not the same: 古文 (gu3 wen2) Classical Chinese ; 文言文 (wen2 yan2 wen2) Literary Chinese ; 普通话 (pu3 tong1 hua4) Mandarin. Most sinologists use the words Classical and Literary for different periods (pre/post Han).

@Nungali "Don't spend too much time thinking about stupid shit." (DDJ ch. 20 à la Ron Hogan https://terebess.hu/english/tao/ron.html#Kap20 ) "Chinese … I can't read or speak it myself”. (Ron Hogan, Terebess DDJ intro)