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"Zì" (字) is the first Chinese character created, and Cangjie related it to a mythical story of the day these characters were created [clarification needed]. Japanese kanji borrows some words from the Chinese language. These form the relationship between the Japanese kanji and the Chinese logograph. Chinese words and characters were ...
The gnomon is the triangular blade in this sundial. A gnomon (/ ˈ n oʊ ˌ m ɒ n,-m ə n /; from Ancient Greek γνώμων (gnṓmōn) 'one that knows or examines') [1] [2] is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields, typically to measure directions, position, or time.
There are numerous Chinese names for the fire-producing "sun-mirror" and water-producing "moon-mirror". These two bronze implements are literary metaphors for yin and yang, associating the "yang-mirror" yangsui with the Sun (a.k.a. tàiyáng 太陽 "great yang"), fire, dry, and round, and the "yin-mirror" fangshu with the Moon (tàiyīn 太陰 "great yin"), water, wet, and square.
Before the invention of the clock the sundial was the only way to measure time. After the invention of the clock, the sundial maintained its importance, as clocks needed to be reset regularly from a sundial, because the accuracy of early clocks was poor. A clock and a sundial were used together to measure longitude. Dials were laid out using ...
Chinese honorifics (Chinese: 敬語; pinyin: Jìngyǔ) and honorific language are words, word constructs, and expressions in the Chinese language that convey self-deprecation, social respect, politeness, or deference. [1] Once ubiquitously employed in ancient China, a large percent has fallen out of use in the contemporary Chinese lexicon.
individual things, people — generic measure word (usage of this classifier in conjunction with any noun is generally accepted if the person does not know the proper classifier) 根: gēn gan1: gan1 kun thin, slender, pole, stick objects (needles 針 / 针, pillars 支柱, telegraph poles, matchsticks, etc.); strands 絲 / 丝 (e.g. hair ...
The Mahāsāṃghika, translated into Chinese as the Móhēsēngzhī Lǜ (Taishō Tripiṭaka 1425) describes several units of time, including shùn or shùnqǐng (瞬頃; 'blink moment') and niàn. According to this text, niàn is the smallest unit of time at 18 milliseconds and a shùn is 360 milliseconds. [ 8 ]
Loanwords have entered written and spoken Chinese from many sources, including ancient peoples whose descendants now speak Chinese. In addition to phonetic differences, varieties of Chinese such as Cantonese and Shanghainese often have distinct words and phrases left from their original languages which they continue to use in daily life and sometimes even in Mandarin.