When the world is graced by people with Horse Autism, then we also have Thousand Mile Horses. Such horses are actually quite common; it’s having enough Horse Autism to recognize them that’s rare. Hence, though a horse may be an S-Rank pull, it is humiliated at the hands of a filthy casual, dying in a stable without ever being recognized as a horse that can run a thousand miles.

I collected several of my "New Internet Translations" of Classical Chinese passages in the style of social media posts onto one page. https://xn--hmr.net/classicalchinese/livinginternet/

#classicalchinese #translation #philosophy #localization

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“Do not underestimate small problems: one crack can sink a ship. Do not underestimate small creatures: one fly can poison you. Do not underestimate the small-minded: one petty fool can plunder a nation.”

attributed to Guan Yinzi, the gate guard who allegedly stopped Laozi as he was abandoning […]

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today I have made for you a New Living Internet translation of Confucius:

The Master said: Do not make haste, do not chase small profits. Moving fast is how you break things, and optimizing for engagement is how you never ship a real product.

original […]

Original post on infosec.exchange

today on how to tell a king his plan is stupid in the Warring States:

(The King of Wei wanted to attack the capital of a rival nation. One of his citizens said to him: ) So, a funny thing happened on my way here. I was at the Great Crossing, and I saw a guy heading due north. He said to me […]

The first hardest problem in Classical Chinese is knowing what's a name and what's literal

The second hardest problem is knowing what's a pronoun and what's literal

The third hardest problem is knowing what's literal and what's literally spelled wrong

#classicalchinese

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rhyming translation of ye olde ancient ode 淇奥:

Green grow the reeds where the river bends,

A place for a princely heir to hone;

How noble and fine is the son of our lord,

Chiseled and polished by blade and stone!

(The final verse notes that a good prince should know how to be funny without […]

The cover of the book, to show that it is quite thick. It’s roughly titled “the complete collection of the essentials of the imperial library”

Opened arbitrarily to Mencius

Ali Express scores: I got this massive tome of major Classical Chinese texts for $6. No footnotes, no commentary, no hints in modern language, just 700 pages of public domain text #classicalchinese #aliexpressfinds

English edition of The Art of War with a very serious, sober cover in a formal serif font and a high-art illustration of a warrior, vs Chinese edition in their equivalent of Comic Sans, bright colors and a cartoon illustration of an ancient-Chinese child getting into daddy’s books

The difference between my English and Chinese copies of The Art of War never stops being funny.

#classicalchinese

Two full shelves of books written in Chinese, concerned especially with Classical texts and the writing system itself. One of them is about… Latin.

Three years of scrounging on Ali Express #classicalchinese #aliexpressfinds

a surviving fragment of the Xiping Stone Classics, with clear, easily legible Chinese characters engraved into a thick stone tablet

an example of a calligraphic rubbing (not an especially crisp one, but it's important to be realistic about the fact they often weren't super crisp). the handwriting is a more ornate, ceremonial style.

Cool History Fact of the night

Before woodblock printing (which was extensively used in China well before the west), there was a very clever, effective way to mass-reproduce the most important texts.

A few different times in imperial China, stone tablets […]

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It has been 0️⃣ days since I looked up a Classical Chinese character in the dictionary and the example sentence was the exact sentence that sent me

#classicalchinese

meme: "Han Unification" what you think happened: (a Han Dynasty mural depicting a bloody battle) what actually happened: (a photo of a Unicode Consortium meeting)

Han Unification: not violent, just really inconvenient

#unicode #chinese #history #classicalchinese #linguistics

A page from a book of sample exam questions for Chinese classical literature class, which has mimicked the traditional vertical half-width footnote format in a modern typeset horizontal book

In ancient Chinese scrolls, the main text would be the full width of a vertical column, and any commentary would be inline, half-width, two columns crammed in per master column. It turns out, if you are absolutely determined, you CAN do this in a modern typeset left-to-right book…

#classicalchinese

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"The Master said: 'The common man gets drowned by water, the noble man gets drowned by his mouth, and the man of importance gets drowned by the people – it all lies in what they take too lightly.'"

(from "Black Robes" section of The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation by […]

Two lines of classical Chinese text at the top of the page followed by tiny-print footnotes for the entire rest of the textbook-sized page

an entire second page of nothing but footnotes. The last one goes onto the start of a third page not included here.

at some point you gotta admit you don't have footnotes, you have headnotes.

(The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation by Scott Bradley Cook)

#classicalchinese

a children's illustration of Mother Meng lecturing Little Mengzi with the threads she has cut from her own loom.

The ancient educational poem "Three Character Classic" contains many lines that are not self-explanatory, but are meant to remind you of a story:

昔孟母，择邻处；子不学，断机杼。

Hyperliterally: Once Meng('s) mother chose a neighborhood (in which to) dwell; (this) child […]

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A page of my Classical Chinese translation notebook upon which someone has run their extremely large tongue over the water-soluble ink and left behind some incriminating black dog hair

ODIN SON OF SHADOW, YOUNG MAN COME HERE

#fountainpens #classicalchinese

Original post on infosec.exchange

Today's translation exercise, from 吕氏春秋 The Annals of Sir Lü:

The crown prince performed a sacrifice and sent the leftover food home to his lord father. Lady Li (the lord's favorite wife, and the mother of a different prince) tampered with it. When the lord was about to eat, she said "This food […]

Front cover of an oracle bone dictionary (a practical one!) in Chinese

Interior charts mapping modern characters to oracular precedents

I got a proper dictionary of oracle bones!, but I’m amused that it’s labeled “PRACTICAL Dictionary of Oracle Bones” as if I might find ancient prophecies lying on the ground as I go about my business and need a quick no-nonsense decode

#chinese #classicalchinese

(a line of Chinese follows): 子曰：「關雎，樂而不淫，哀而不傷。」 關 is not literal here, but phonetic *kwaen for “quack” or “honk”, two of the least poetic words in the English language The Master said: “Within the Odes you’ll find ‘The Call of Waterbirds,’ which is joyful but not gleeful, grieving but not aggrieved.”

please enjoy Confucius's favorite assemblage of poems on delicate, subtle emotions, The Honking Chonker

(respectful translation and unhinged translation both mine)

#classicalchinese #translation #localization #poetry

The Master said: “I can speak on ancient Xia culture, but I lack hard evidence from their homeland; I can speak on ancient Shang culture, but I lack hard evidence from their homeland. They did not leave enough written records; if only I had more to work with!” Note: The oldest Chinese writing of any kind that still exists today is from the Shang dynasty – specifically, oracular carvings on bones, which last much longer than the more usual bamboo or silk. As such, it is very hard to say when Chinese writing actually began, as the evidence has all rotted away. Confucius seems to take it for granted that the Xia before the Shang did have writing, but he already had the same problem!

2500 years ago, Confucius had the same lament as historians today. (Translation mine.)

#classicalchinese #translation #history

The Three Families of Lu were singing the Song of Harmony. Confucius quoted it back at them: “‘The nobility are mere servants, to the Son of Heaven belongs the glory.’ You lot really have some nerve singing that in your own temples!” Note: “The Three Families” apparently includes the Ji of eight-dance-squads fame, so this is beginning to paint a picture of Confucius just following these people around parroting their own words back to them in mOcKiNg CaSe… (TTS note: this is written in alternating uppercase and lowercase, like the Spongebob meme)

spongebob mocking meme of Confucius quoting the lyrics back at the Ji

this is, after all, "the internet translation for internet people"

#classicalchinese #philosophy #translation #localization

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@0xabad1dea/115150949186707392

I came across a reference to the "Love for Lotuses" poem in the wild so let's celebrate with my thread about slut-shaming flowers

#classicalchinese #translation #localization

TIL that 弑 means “regicide, patricide or matricide” and it is maximum Classical Chinese to combine those precise crimes into one word #classicalchinese

The Analects of Confucius an internet translation for internet people by a very online girl who’s pretty much the logical inverse of the original intended audience (illustration of a Chinese-style celestial maiden gracefully using a tablet computer)

okay, you can see what I have so far of the Analects translation here. https://xn--hmr.net/classicalchinese/analects/

I am aware that the site theme is currently rather jank on mobile.

#classicalchinese #translation #localization #philosophy

The Master said: “Starting from a strange premise leads to harmful conclusions!” Note: Confucius said to cool it with the ethical thought experiments that make you conclude funding AI is literally infinitely more important than anything that’s literally killing real people right this second.

The Master said: “Praying to someone else’s ancestor is cringe. Not doing what you know is right is cowardly.” footnote: YES, “CRINGE.” I AM DOING WHAT I KNOW IS RIGHT BECAUSE I’M NOT A COWARD

finished translating the second chapter of the Analects. I should probably go ahead and get the website up soon and not insist that it's completely finished first. #classicalchinese #translation #localization #philosophy

an Analect of Confucius translated by James Legge: Zi Zhang was learning with a view to official emolument. The Master said, "Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the same time of the others - then you will afford few occasions for blame. See much and put aside the things which seem perilous, while you are cautious at the same time in carrying the others into practice - then you will have few occasions for repentance. When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in the way to get emolument."

my translation of the same passage: Zizhang was studying to become an official. The Master told him: “Be skeptical of what you hear, be cautious in what you report, and you will make few mistakes; consider carefully what you see and think carefully over what to do, and there will be little to regret. If you make few mistakes and foster few regrets, you will reach your goal and become an official.”

The Master said: “The noble soul is not a tool of one use.” Footnote: If you think you saw me chucking dictionaries at the head of everyone who ever translated this as “the gentleman is not a utensil,” no you didn’t.

The Master said: “The noble soul is inclusive and not competitive. Petty people are competitive and not inclusive.” footnote: James Legge did you seriously translate “the superior man is CATHOLIC” here okay yes I know it ‘technically’ has a secular definition but what the hell you can’t just say superior men are catholic

the shaming of the James Legge translation of the Analects will continue until morale improves (good translations my own 😌 )

#classicalchinese #translation #localization #philosophy

Zigong asked: “What do you think of poor people who are not too desperate and rich people who are not too entitled?” The Master said: “Those are good traits; even better is someone who is poor and happy, or rich and respectful.” Zigong said: “Everyone knows the poem: ‘Chiseled and polished by blade and stone.’ Is that the sort of thing you mean?” The Master said: “My dear, you are ready to speak in terms of poetic metaphor! I spoke literally and you anticipated the line.”

Note The literal text here is “The Odes say: …” which is alluding to a set of over three hundred poems (also translated as the Classic of Poetry) which were assembled into a book by interviewing the common people for their favorite songs, and were already centuries old in Confucius’s time. The specific poem is about the qualities of a good prince, and this anecdote informs us of the ancient scholarly analysis of the line: that difficulties can shape you into your perfect form. Tradition claims that the specific edition of the Odes we have today was personally edited by Confucius, who removed some (few thousand!) morally unsuitable folk songs. This is probably just made up on the basis that he is history’s most famous Odes-enjoyer. There are also definitely still some spicy folk songs in the collection, which has led to centuries of tortured explanations for why it’s actually a metaphor for something perfectly virtuous and it’s you, the reader, who has a dirty mind.

one chapter of the Analects of Confucius fully translated, only nineteen to go... #classicalchinese #translation #localization

Analects excerpt translated in the 1800s by James Legge: The philosopher You said, "They are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none, who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion. The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and fraternal submission! - are they not the root of all benevolent actions?"

my modern translation of the same passage: Master You said: It's hard to find someone who respects their parents and siblings, yet doesn't respect their leaders; you'll never find someone who never disrespects their leaders and yet gladly disturbs the public peace. The noble soul focuses on the fundamentals; the Way grows from healthy roots. Respecting your parents and siblings is the root of human dignity!

the girl who disrespects incredibly obtuse old translations is not hard to find. (James Legge vs me on one of the first sentences in the Analects of Confucius)

#classicalchinese #translation #localization

Income inequality thousands of years ago in ancient China:

庶人之富者，或累百万；而贫者，或不厌糟糠。 《史记》

The wealthiest among the commoners had savings by the million, and the poorest could not turn up their noses at foul chaff.

#classicalchinese #translation