Day2DayChinese
日常中文

Chinese 24 Solar Terms are determined by positions of earth on the Ecliptic — the earth’s orbit around the sun. Each Solar Term is 15° apart on the Ecliptic. The 24 Solar Terms integrate information on the plant cultivation time and climate for farmers in the Northern Hemishere. The dates of these Solar Terms is closely followed by the Gregorian calendar.

  A picture by 天奇生活   愚公移山 [ yú gōng yí shān ] has two versions of curriculum designed and developed for the Chinese students.  One version is created as the modern Chinese for second-grade primary school, and t he other as ancient Chinese for the eighth-grade student.  Almost most Chinese must learn this story twice at least.  The original author of 愚公移山 [ yú gōng yí shān ], 列子 [ liè zǐ ] around 2450 years ago, created and presented a carefully designed fable story to inspire Chinese people. The strong belief of 愚公 [ yú gōng ]  approached the success does have a deep influence on the Chinese.  In this essay, I intend to make a description of the story  愚公移山 [ yú gōng yí shān ]  in English and then present its ancient Chinese  version  in Pinyin.

  Why this calendar? What is the difference between this calendar and yours? Why this calendar dominates the life of the Chinese almost 100%? Why this calendar represents the fundamental scale of Chinese culture? It is a calendar created and is composed of 农历[nón lì] and 公历[gōng lì] , the Gregorian calendar.

      Picture from 桂冠粉专[guì guàn fěn zhuān] Today is the winter solstice festival of 2020.  In Chinese, it is called “ 冬至 [ dōng zhì ] . ” It i s a day to celebrate the harvest of the year.  It is a day prepared to welcome the coming new year.  It is also a day to unify family together.  It is a midwinter day that comes with the shortest day and longest night during the whole year in the northern hemisphere.  Based on the Gregorian calendar, it is around Dec 21st to 23 rd each year.  After the extreme day, the daytime is getting longer.  Today ,  i n the northern region of China, many Chinese eat “ 水饺 [ shuǐ jiǎo ] , ” dumpling; while, the southern Chinese eat “ 汤圆 [ tāng  yuán ] , ” sweet glutinous rice balls.  The pronunciation of “ 汤圆 [ tang yuán ] , ” is similar to “ 团圆 [ tuán yuán ] ,  the meaning of “the family getting together.”  What is a day full of happiness! 冬至快乐 [ dōng zhì kuài lè ] !  

Here is a table of Chinese numbers from low to high, both small-scripts and big-scripts. The main purpose of using big-script Chinese numbers is to avoid figure alternation, especially those figures that involve large sum of money and properties. The big-script Chinese numbers are regarded as financial numbers for obvious reasons. In fact, we use the big-script numbers in official documents such as contracts, land registrations, birth certificates, and bank checks, etc. The big-script Chinese numbers are used to record of the amount of money, important time and date, and the registration of land area.

The word 十[shí] means "ten." It's the last number when counting the fingers of both hands. The word 十[shí] is always related to the meaning of "well-done, perfect, abundant and comprehensive." Why? Let's take a closer look at the original pictographs of 十[shí]. Around 2,500 &emdash; 3,000 years ago, there were two groups of pictograms to indicate the meaning of "ten." "Ten" was a vertical stroke as the following pictures, like a tree branch: "Ten" was like the images of the knot as follows: Around 2,000 years ago, the modern form of 十[shí] was created and getting popular. Here is a story that probably will help you make a sense of why the word 十[shí] is always related to the meanings of "abundant." When I was a kid, I used to make a little money by knitting some designed patterns on sweaters. ...

The Chinese numbers 七[qī], 八[bā], and 九[jiǔ] in sequence means “7, 8, and 9.” Among the numbers from 1 to 9, the number 九[jiǔ] indicates the most, the best, the limitless in the universe. Furthermore, 999 is regarded as a magic number with strong power and energy to conquer the whole world. Why someone buys his girlfriend for 99 or 999 roses? Because 九[jiǔ] has the same pronunciation to this word 久[jiǔ], and 久[jiǔ] means “long time”too. The number 99 or 999 indicates the love would be forever. Now I create a sentence based on the exciting setting in which good friends meet, drink, and chat for a long time. It is helpful to learn vocabulary and Chinese writing skills. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...

These three Chinese numbers “四[sì], 五[wǔ], and 六[liù]” in sequence mean “4, 5, and 6.” They are located around the middle way while counting from 1 to 10. So I create a sentence based on the position feature of the three numbers.