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The kanbun writing system essentially required every literate Japanese to be competent in written Chinese, although it is unlikely that many Japanese people were then fluent in spoken Chinese. Chinese pronunciation was approximated in words borrowed from Chinese into Japanese; this Sino-Japanese vocabulary is still an important component of the ...
These entry words typify the Japanized version of classical Chinese known as hentai Kanbun (変体漢文 "anomalous Chinese writing", see Azuma Kagami) or Wakan konkōbun (和漢混交文 "mixed Japanese and Chinese writing"). This is a bilingual dictionary for looking up Chinese characters in terms of their Japanese pronunciation, and not a ...
With those pronunciations, Chinese words entered Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese in huge numbers. [1] [2] The plains of northern Vietnam were under Chinese control for most of the period from 111 BC to AD 938. After independence, the country adopted Literary Chinese as the language of administration and scholarship.
The Rakuyōshū text comprises 108 folios (chō 丁 "leaf of paper, folio; block") in three parts, succinctly described by Joseph Koshimi Yamagiwa. (1) A 62-folio section consisting of (a) the Rakuyōshū proper, which is a listing of Chinese-Japanese characters (kanji) and compounds arranged in terms of their on pronunciations, that is, the pronunciations borrowed into Japanese from Chinese ...
Kun'yomi (訓読み) is a way of pronunciation of Chinese characters in Japanese. It is the pronunciation of the Japanese synonymous word that uses a Chinese character. Therefore, kun'yomi readings only borrow the form and meaning of Chinese characters, and do not use the Chinese pronunciations.
The Japanese word kanbun originally meant 'Literary Chinese writings'—or, the Chinese classics. [8] Kanbun compositions used two common types of Japanese kanji readings: Sino-Japanese on'yomi ('pronunciation readings') borrowed from Chinese pronunciations and native Japanese kun'yomi 'explanation readings' from Japanese equivalents.
For instance, the character for east, 東, has tō as its on'yomi, from Middle Chinese tung. However, Japanese already had two words for "east": higashi and azuma. Thus the kanji 東 had the latter readings added as kun'yomi. In contrast, the kanji 寸, denoting a Chinese unit of measurement (about 30 mm or 1.2 inch), has no native Japanese ...
In Japanese, Kokuji (国字, "national characters") refers to Chinese characters made outside of China. Specifically, kanji made in Japan are referred to as Wasei kanji (和製漢字). They are primarily formed in the usual way of Chinese characters, namely by combining existing components, though using a combination that is not used in China.