Classical Chinese 4 Beginners - San Zi Jing - Lesson 1

[@ching-huanwang6019]

雖然看得懂三字經，但這是第一次看到三字經的文字、文法、字義解析，還解釋得那麼透徹，覺得很有趣，好像自己重新學了一次中文。題外話，我注意到一個神奇的現象：一般的台灣學生在國中、高中會學大概五六年的文言文，雖然大家沒學過多少文言文的文法，卻還是看得懂古文。

[@dude-hs8hw8me2p]

THIS IS SUCH A HIGH QUALITY PIECE OF MEDIA KEEP GOINGGGGG

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

You're too kind, I'm really just one guy making these things in my spare time on a shoestring budget, nothing fancy or professional about it, but I'm happy you like the video!

[@scurly0792]

This guy always talks about everything I want to know when finding a new character (origins, historical forms, sino xenic readings) it's amazing

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

You're too kind! Please keep in mind that, since the focus of this series is learning Classical Chinese, not character etymology, some character explanations are not 100% accurate because going in too deep would deviate too much from the topic. The ones that deviate significantly from the actual etymology will on the other hand get their own videos made about them! Off the top of my head 性、善、習、不、教、乃、遷、道 would all benefit from this treatment lol.

[@fengtraditionalmusic]

oh, good content, just subscribe. thank you for your affordable

[@andzzz2]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd It seems incredibly cheeky to ask as you have clearly put a lot of effort into producing such astonishingly high-quality work, but would it be possible to add Middle Chinese pronunciation to the vocabulary format? While it would certainly allow for a degree of flexing on the peasantry, it would help show relationship patterns to sino-xenic readings other Chinese languages. It would also lay a foundation on which to build a better understanding of classical poetry.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@andzzz2 Very cheeky! But I'm a cheeky bollocks myself so no harm whatsoever! My original idea WAS to provide OC, MC, various modern Chinese readings and sino-xenic readings and have everyone basically "pick their poison". This would also help defuse the inevitable discussions about how one is "supposed" to read the texts, since the true answer to that has always been either 1) you read it anyway you bloody well like, or 2) you read it the way the central government tells you to read it. However this very quickly became an editing nightmare, not least because it proved impossible to provide THAT many readings for one character without scaring off potential beginners (gate keeping is good, but we actually WANT people to wanna learn CC after all! xD). In the end I settled for a compromise that makes a lot of people unhappy (the best kind!) because my target audience is essentially "myself ten years ago" (though myself ten years ago woulda been a snarky little shit telling older me that my etymologies are WRONG and I should burn my teaching license. Jokes on that guy, I DON'T HAVE A LICENSE! xD), so the concept becomes "introduce new learners to CC through classical methods, but explain the text enough along the way to make them feel like they're actually learning stuff" or a blend of traditional chinese and modern pedagogical approaches. Now, I'm my worst critic so I already hate episodes 1 and 2 (again, no teaching license xD), however instead of re-uploading the same video 10 times whenever I get a new idea I'll be tweaking the format as we go along and do my best to patch up the more egregious blunders in already published vids. For example, I plan on adding readings for other Chinese languages in the closed captions, supplementary exercises and character sheets that will be available for free on my patreon page, and other such "easy-fixes". Now that I've already talked your ear off about all of THAT, lemme get to the question of OC and MC readings. Currently, the idea is to keep THOSE for the etymology episodes, as the pronunciation is non-essential to learning CC (it's good to know, but not essential, and CC is difficult enough as it is). That said, because the goal with this whole series is "Classical Chinese Education, minus the beatings", I WILL be adressing the issue of rhymes and such further down the line (Thousand Master Poems will likely be a prime target - or Strawhat-weaering Old man's Rhyming Couplets), at which point, yes, MC readings will be provided. Same with the actual classics (particularily, The Odes and Songs from Chu), where we will be seeing OC readings. But as far as the TCC series is concerned, I do not intend to add reconstructed readings, for fear of causing information overload. I might provide a full TCC with MC readings as a pdf some time in the future, but no promises. Thank you for your comment and Happy New Year! =)

[@andzzz2]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd It sounds like you have some great ideas and have thought more deeply about how to convey them than all but a tiny minority of teachers. You probably made the right call and I agree it is much better to tweak as you go along than be paralysed in a puddle of perfectionism. Your work really is impressive and is something I will look forward to in the new year. All the best!

[@Ecotechnologist]

This is awesome man, great job. Thank you for this excellent resource.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@Ecotechnologist thank you for watching! Episode three up now! =)

[@Ecotechnologist]

"Man originates with a good nature. Nature brings them closer. Nurture makes them distant. If one isn't taught properly, their nature changes. The path of education is worth focusing on" How bad is that

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Not bad at all! You got the gist of it at least. I would say that their nature "starts out" close to each other, but their nurture or habits set them apart. The rest is pretty good! Keep at it =)

[@geekyboringfilms233]

A glorious return

[@Paavali-li7sz]

This is what I've been looking for on KZbin for so long, tusen tack from Italy! 🤩

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@Paavali-li7sz I once read that you should try to be the kind of person you needed when you were younger, and I figured I’d have loved an online Classical Chinese teacher lol. Prego prego mio amico!

[@Paavali-li7sz]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd What you said is very inspirational and I totally agree, 感恩 🙏🏻

[@philarete]

Wow, what a fortuitous find! I'm in the middle of reading Bryan Van Norden's "Classical Chinese for Everyone", and this looks like it will be a great series of videos to go along with it. I'm looking forward to future videos in the series!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Van Norden is pretty great, I read his book twice in preparation for this series lol. It's whence I got the "nerdnotes" concept xD

[@AMinhVietsubz]

It's great to have Sino-Vietnamese words. Thanks bro.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@AMinhVietsubz I’m cornering the “Vietnamese who are interested in CC” market it seems xD

[@cggm7575]

Great video. I'm Vietnamese and, although Classical Chinese isn't popular among the newer generations today, it is still important to cultural preservation. I started learning CC by memorizing some lines of this very poem. It's very considerate of you to have added Vietnamese readings of the characters. Keep up the great work!

[@Dwarfplayer]

Out of sheer curiosity, are you interested in chunon as well?

[@cggm7575]

@@Dwarfplayer It used to take up a good chunk of my personal learning, but lately I've moved on to other subjects.

[@vincentd.7473]

I borrowed a book from the library to start learning Classical Chinese but never really got around to it. I’m so grateful and thrilled that you decided to make these videos. Thank you so much for your dedication and hard work!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@vincentd.7473 I couldn’t do it without the support from everyone watching, and I’m happy that I can motivate others to want to learn CC! Btw, Van Norden’s Classical Chinese for Everyone is pretty good if you want an easy entry-level textbook!

[@justDerekk]

This got me fascinated

[@aaronmikeborda3777]

I'm a linguistics nerd through and through so this is like *chef's kiss* A lot of classical Chinese videos here just read a few things with a reconstructed pronunciation, and while I'd absolutely love if a little community formed around writing (and possibly even speaking, essentially reviving) classical Chinese, I'm content enough just finding out how the language works. I realize if I wanted to speak Chinese there's literally a billion people I could do that with but I also think it would be kinda cool to have a kinda secret language, as with the little Mandarin grammar I've learned the language is very different then from now. Even writing, despite it being logographic, would take some training to read. Please keep the videos coming and keep us updated on if you start a Discord 🙏😂

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@aaronmikeborda3777 Sadly, Classical Chinese have always been a written language, and reviving Old Chinese (the spoken language CC is based on) will likely never come to pass bar the invention of time travel. While there are a lot of work going into reconstructing the sounds of old Chinese, due to the nature of Chinese writing representing ideas and concepts over sound and even grammar, we will likely never reach a level of reconstruction comparable to say, Latin (which would likely be weird but at least intelligible to an Ancient Roman). On the plus side, CC is the perfect texting language, and was used as such way before mobile phones were invented. International meetings were often conducted largely in silence, with the representatives handing over scrolls in CC to each other. CC has also had a massive influence on modern Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese, so knowing CC will help you a lot if you ever try to learn any of these languages.

[@aaronmikeborda3777]

@SwedishSinologyNerd Even more of a reason to start a Discord, as I've joined language learning servers before and only ever lurk because I'm too shy to speak, but texting is relatively fine lol But heck, if the grammar works just fine I don't see why a community couldn't form around saying the characters with their modern Mandarin pronunciation while preserving that grammar like you've done in the video. I'd especially love if within that community we could teach each other the pronunciation of Middle Chinese. Not quite authentic but closer still. We must have a better idea of how that's pronounced because of the rime dictionaries and modern reconstruction methods, right?

[@Von_D]

I wish your channel existed when I first tried to tackle Classical Chinese. My Modern Mandarin is pretty bad now, and with this video (plus my understanding of the written word through Japanese), I feel like I understand basic Classical Chinese better than I ever understood Modern Mandarin.

[@iusearchbtw69]

Can't wait for my mind to be exploded and blown away at the same time Looking forward as your path, Sensei!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Once you've re-assembled your brain, make sure to check out episode 2! ^^

[@iusearchbtw69]

​@@SwedishSinologyNerd Frankly i'm a Japanese learner. Thank's to 60% of imported Chinese vocab plus more time and effort that i put into writing 漢字 on paper, it was so much fun like i can't think of any other worldly language that came close as Chinese that will bash your head while admiring the majesty of it, But anyway i prefer starting with Japanese because i like the way of the language sound also known as a "Pronounciation" We may be differ in term of communication, but the Character is what Unite us together! I'm looking forward your path, Sensei!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Japanese is a very interesting language and at the top of my bucket list (I try to divvy my time 'tween Japanese, Manchu and Vietnamese atm, it's no easy feat, like having three high-maintainance and very clingy mistresses at the same time!). It's my firm belief that anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of Japanese, Korean and/or Vietnamese must learn some Classical Chinese, just for how heavy its influence was on those languages. There was also a very beautiful time when introverted nerds from all over the sinosphere would "text" each other in CC, even in real time! There was once a Japanese monk who backpacked through Tang China and got by entirely by writing characters in the sand. Many early modern intellectuals also conversed with each other across borders through CC, sometimes they even sat in the same room and held lively discussions by passing each other notes. Like an analog chat forum! Crazy to think about.

[@yuytbe]

Was wondering how I didn’t find this sooner and noticed it is brand new. Excellent video. Hope to see more like it.

[@yuytbe]

It’s a great time for sinology on KZbin with your channel and GatesOfKilikien… which you’d like if you haven’t seen already !

[@g.dalazenm.38]

Yo this is awesome! Such a good resource that I didn't know I needed. Can't wait to become a classical Chinese master and flex on the peasants.

[@theyazzledazzle]

I can not wait for the rest of this series!!!! :D

[@elliotquine1165]

Thank you for taking your time to put this together. It is the best introductory resource to classical Chinese I have found on KZbin. I hope you'll be able to have time to make more videos on this topic.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@elliotquine1165 Thank you! Lesson three goes on premiere tonight! =)

[@jakublukas4994]

hello, wonderful and informative video for beginners such like myself（I've been studying Chinese for years, but not the classical one)! Even tho it's 30 minutes long it doesn't feel overwhelming. I can't imagine how much time and effort must've been used to make it. Anyway, there goes my part: 人之初 性本善 A man by his nature was good since the very beginning. 性相近 習相遠 Everyone's nature is similar, but the things each individual learns differ. 苟不教 性乃遷 Without teaching, own's character will remain unchanged. 教之道 貴以專 The key to proper teaching lies in concentration.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Thank you! And great job with the homework! This episode took me about a year lol, but I was working on the script for more than half of that time, and then my big boy job was very busy for a while so I couldn't work on the video that much. Next one will (hopefully) be much faster!

[@jakublukas4994]

@ A YEAR?! a hero we don't deserve 😩 I hope it will get enough recognition or at least that you enjoyed the process. Nerds are truly humans on a completely different level :D I'll be waiting for future videos, my passion for Chinese is not going anywhere so no rush haha

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@jakublukas4994 Not a hero by any stretch of the word, just an simple sinology nerd left to his own devices without adult supervision. I am quite enjoying the process, it forces me to relearn a lot I thought I knew ("you can't claim you understand something untill you have succesfully explained it to someone else"), and is also helping me along with Vietnamese and Japanese.

[@jakublukas4994]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd I find the method of teaching (even a wall) a powerful learning tool as well, if we can't explain something in easy words it means we actually don't know shit! Trying to explain something we think we know a lot about can be very humbling (: oh i was actually wondering if you study the other languages you use in the video and here is the answer. I personally find Japanese the hardest out of those three, but I always suspect it's just the matter of level of interest.

[@space_oddyessy7065]

Lovely! I'm currently in university studying Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Chinese Language. I loved the video and I am looking forward to more! I offer my own translation of the text: "In man's beginning, his nature was good. They were close with their nature, and their (earthly?) habits far. Without teaching, their nature would change. The Way of Teaching relies on concentration."

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Oh that's awesome! There are many classical Chinese texts on engineering, and Master Mo, founder of the Mohist school (main rival to Confucianism) was himself an engineer. It was said if you had one of his students behind your walls an enemy would turn back rather than try to besiege you.

[@jasonsimily7673]

I love this and hope you make more!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

There's a second episode up! ^^

[@user-qb8wp4ip9j]

I love your videos so much, and had previously looked for classical chinese lessons on youtube, so you have no idea how happy this makes me I put the japanese reading order (書き下し文) for this section here for anyone who wants to know as well 人之初　　人の初め 性本善　　性本（もと）善 性相近　　性相（あい）近し 習相遠　　習い相遠し 苟不教　　苟くも教えずんば 性乃遷　　性乃ち遷る 教之道　　教えの道は 貴以専　　専（もっぱ）を以て貴ぶ

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Awesome, thank you! I'll add links to the Viet and Japanese versions in next episode. You wouldn't happen to have a Korean version on hand as well?

[@user-qb8wp4ip9j]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd sorry I'm not familiar with Korean so I'm not sure. I'm looking forward to the next episode!

[@nomnaday]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Vietnamese version (from Tam tự kinh lục bát diễn âm 三字經六八演音; 1905): 人之初性本善　　𠊚𠸗本産性𫅜 性相近習相遠　　性𧵆𢵋習𢧚𨉟貝賒 苟不教性乃遷　　朋空㖂𣈜朗𦋦 教之道貴以専　　㖂時吏沛擬麻針𠡏

[@williambranch4283]

A great service for all Chinese admirers

[@thinksie]

Oh I am enjoying this video! This video is SO GOOD

[@Littlefootization]

This is absolutely amazing

[@springandautumnannals]

looking forward to this series!

[@adrikivanov1060]

Thanks a lot for the Vietnamese pronunciation, Vietnam always get ignored when talking about Classical Chinese.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

空固之 không có gì! =) Some day in the far future I want to do a similar series on the 三千字 Tam Thiên Tự to make more people want to learn Viet Chu Nom. But my Viet pronunciation needs to improve first xD

[@elytaku5029]

Sounds like a great series!! On a more selfish note, in future installments, I would love if you were to add Cantonese readings (I prefer to read out Classical Chinese in Cantonese). Plus, it'd be great to include at least one Chinese variety that preserves checked tones (like the sino-xenic readings).

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@elytaku5029 Thank you! Unfortunately I don’t think I can add more Chinese languages, for the two simple reasons of clutter and sensory overload to non-Chinese speakers.I settled on Mandarin because it is currently the dictionary standard in ROC and PRC (this has historical precedence, as the Standard was always decided by where the capital was). This is already going to cause contention since I am purposefully going with the 文讀 readings found in KangXi which favours the more conservative Taiwanese readings. I am aware that this marginalises the other Chinese languages (akin to choosing French, the worst Romance language, as the standard for Latin pronunciation), I am currently looking into compromises, either putting a larger emphasis on the phonetic development in future Etymology vids, or a video (series?) exclusively devoted to them. As I’m not fluent in any other Sinitic language the latter may prove difficult at least for the time being. I hope this unfortunate compromise in favour of CC’s international use (as opposed to Pan-Chinese) does not hamper your enjoyment of the series too much.

[@elytaku5029]

@SwedishSinologyNerd Thanks for replying. Well, it never hurts to ask. I think it's great that you're looking for ways to include other Chinese languages. Regarding compromises, another possibility is creating captions for the readings (reading and vocabulary section) of other languages, like Cantonese. The positives with this method is that you could add readings from more languages, sinitic or sino-xenic, without cluttering and this could be done to already existing videos. Regardless, I'm looking forward to more in this series and any future content on Sinitic languages.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

That is a very cool idea! I'll give it some serious thought! Currently on Xmas holiday so I might not upload captions for other languages super soon (I also need to upload English captions lol).

[@halsem8077]

Thank you for this great video.looking forward to the rest of this series.

[@krystenme6841]

Having the Japanese pronunciation and meaning including the Korean helps so much! Thanks :)

[@narsilify]

视频善，人甚喜！ Thank you a lot for this video, I can't wait for the next one. As a speaker of modern Chinese, I can read most of the characters of the ancient classics, but, their meaning has changed so much through the centuries, it is always so hard to figure out their meaning each sentence. Thank you so much!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

多夢點贊，過譽過獎！I'm always happy when native Chinese like my vids, because that mean's I'm doing my job well ^_^

[@zina1684]

So so pedagogical!!! You are the best doctor !!!

[@Fabiano2265]

So glad I've discovered this channel. I've thoroughly enjoyed this lesson, thank you.

[@rawcopper604]

8:55 the verb 教 is read with the first tone in modern mandarin, so not teach would be bu4jiao1. It is only read with the fourth tone in compounds 教育，教練, 教師, etc.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Ack, you're right! My bad xD

[@fredrickcampbell8198]

Was going to say it.

[@fredrickcampbell8198]

While on the topic of pronunciations, 貝 is pronounced with the fourth tone, beì.

[@fredrickcampbell8198]

寸, cùn.

[@fredrickcampbell8198]

12:26 Ooh. Long s's. If I recall correctly, back when the long s was in use, the long s was not used at the end of words and as the second s in double s's.

[@paiwanhan]

In Taiwan, the 不 in 苟不教 is usually read with a second tone, like how you would say 不要. In fact the Zhuyin provided next to the line has it in second tone, but Pinyin has it in both tone.

[@paiwanhan]

It seems when 不 is followed by another 4th tone, a tonal sandhi happens and turns it into second tone. This sandhi only applies to 不 for whatever reason.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@paiwanhan I have a font for zhuyin annotations but my editing program has issue displaying the font for alternate readings. 不知道什麼原因，你知道就行。

[@BBarNavi]

一 as a counter has the same behavior. ​@@paiwanhan

[@paiwanhan]

@@BBarNavi Most characters with shifting Mandarin tones or pronunciations used to have a stop at the end, aka checked tones or entering tones. When the -t, -h, -p, -k. and other stop finals were lost, Mandarin also went all over the place.

[@chenfung789]

This is a very helpful for even a Chinese native like myself. Thx a lot!!!

[@BoozewithNick]

This is wonderful- thank you. And for an added bonus, you’ve added the Japanese and Korean, which is really nice review for me. Superb.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Glad you liked it, make sure to watch episode 2 as well! ^^

[@lordgrim8888]

A great video! I like the way you teach. Hope you make more videos like this. I also feel like you will make it big in the future 😊

[@NWong]

感謝先生: Amazing just what I was looking for as someone with Chinese as my second language (Mandarin/Cantonese) and wanting to study Classical Chinese without necessarily going the traditional round about way. I like how you provided multiple sinoxenic readings which was helpful and the background and commentary of characters.

[@Logan7441]

Excellent, thank you for tackling this topic!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@Logan7441 thank you for your support!

[@xydez]

Det här är så galet intressant asså, grym video!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@xydez Tackar ödmjukast! =)

[@martinessemann3413]

A quick note from a graphic designer if you are going to make more videos (I hope you will!): right now the red Vietnamese phonetics box is the focal point of the character slides, because it's red and on the top. I would suggest moving the mandarin phonetics and meaning box to the top/bottom, and changing the colour palette so the box with the classical character you are presenting has the most attention grabbing colour. You can either make that one red, or alternatively just mute the colour for the Vietnamese box to a pale/grey blue or something like that :)

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@martinessemann3413 hi there! Thanks for the tip! The arrangements are according to the five phases color scheme (yellow center, red south, blue-green east, white west and black north) laid out according to traditional east asian cartography (north at the bottom, south at the top. This is to give a sort of abstracted linguistic view of the Classical Chinese area. I’d rather not go with another arrangement, but I can bring down the vietnames box’s color to be a less eye-catching red and the Chinese box to be more vibrant. Again, thank you so much for your input and support!

[@martinessemann3413]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd I see :) I had no idea there was a deeper reason for this layout (I'm learning modern Mandarin and using your videos to deepen my understanding of the deeper connotation structures). I think changing the red should go a long way. You could also try tinting the background colour a bit towards the red side of the colour wheel, to further minimise the contrast between the red box and the background without having to change the yellow centre. It's the contrast between the yellow and red that really makes the red pop.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

lol, I know it doesn't look it, but I put a surprisng (non-zero) amount of thought into my vids! xD If you learn some Feng-Shui (or really just Five Phases theory) and the different Chinese writing styles you're gonna be a very unique graphics designer! I have an etymology/Chinese color theory video that's been in the works for a while that I think you might like once I get to finishing it lol.

[@martinessemann3413]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Don't worry, the work shows! V impressed with your animated mascot. And that sounds like a great concept for a video :) (also, I apologise for using "deeper" thrice in one comment, this was a bad head day)

[@hanzi696]

Love this. Highly 順𦧄！

[@1997zqy]

This is a great video, also for native Chinese speakers. Many just recognize it but do not know the meaning word by word.

[@aurelfarkasovsky]

Looking forward to the next episode! Fingers crossed you get to the four books and five classics one day. Amazing content! Also, would be interesting to see the reconstructed ancient pronunciation included as well, but I understand your point about the mess it would create to include too many of them. Wish you all the best, 志同道合的朋友!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@aurelfarkasovsky Thank you! The main issue with including reconstructed pronunciation is you have to also take into account when the text was written. A rhyme that existed in Middle Chinese may not have done so in either Old Chinese or many if not all modern Chinese languages. The TCC was specifically written by a speaker of Middle Chinese, so using OC readings would be anachronistic while the MC readings would only cause confusion when we eventually get to the Four and Five (hopefully sooner rather than later!). Many reconstructions of in particular Old Chinese are tenuous at best and most exist as a way to trace assumed sound changes, not as actual representations of the way the words would have sounded at the time. As such, any inclusion of reconstructed pronunciations would necessitate a discussion of the reconstruction, derailing the entire video. In the end, because Literary/Classical Chinese is a text only language, I simply went with including the modern (-ish) readings as a pedagogical tool to help learners remember the characters better, in line with traditional CC education within the Sinosphere. The use of multi-lingual readings is meant to make the lessons feel more inclusive to non-Chinese speakers for whose languages and cultures CC still may have had a profound impact (I actually wanted to include Zhuang readings (”Thai with Chinese Characteristics” lol) too, but I had trouble finding adequate resources and in the end its inclusion felt too niche, even for a niche series like this). The idea is that just like Latin is the shared heritage of Europe, not just Italy, so Classical Chinese is now the shared heritage of southeast Asia, not just (Mainland) China. Hope this clears things up, and thanks again for your support! =)

[@mcmaho17]

Thanks for putting this together; its great to have an approachable resource for learning some wenyan. A little quibble for the commentary at the end: Han Feizi, who was a major influence on the establishment of Legalism, was a student of Xunzi. Rather than Legalism influencing the debate on human nature in Confucianism, you might argue that Xunzi's Confucian take on human nature influenced Legalism through Han Fei.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@mcmaho17 oh man, I didn’t know that! I knew that Han Fei was a big fan of Taoism though, so I guess he was just your average edgy young political theory post-grad (I jest). Was Xunzi influenced by Shang Yang perhaps? One thing that is super cool about the late-Zhou is how all these schools emerged and how they interacted with each other. Might make a video about that in the future, hint hint xD

[@mcmaho17]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Ha, the edgy post-grad might not be a bad characterization actually. He was known to have a speech impediment at a time when eloquence was highly valued, perhaps influencing the intensity of his writing toward edginess. Yeah, Shang Yang was the main force behind Legalism, I think he directly had the ear of the King of Qin and was known to be brutal, but I've studied him far less (I am actually dissertating about Confucianism of Spring/Autumn and Warring States right now ). Mostly the scholarship I've read points to Xunzi influencing Legalism, but you could argue that the topics Xunzi addressed were in response to the more militaristic and governmental concerns that strains of thought like legalism brought to the forefront . In Kongzi's and Mengzi's associated works there is little mention of the nuts and bolts of state craft or warfare, but Xunzi has several chapters written on the topics. But I am rambling! Quite a fascinating time period. And I look forward to what you put together on it.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@mcmaho17 Honestly I love Han Fei, though more as a person than as a philosopher, he's just so endearingly dorky. Come to think of it I have come to appreciate all the Hundred Schools philosophers as human beings rather than as philosophers. From humble Mozi screaming out for the workers to rise and Build Better Walls, to Zhuang Zhou and Huizi's friendly, almost Cross-talkesque banter, to Confucius hypocritically breaking down in tears because his favorite student died. They're all quite endearing characters! I'd love to read your paper when it gets published, because I haven't really devoted myself to charting the intelectual geneologies of Chinese philosophy (I'm still working through my Huang-Lao pseudo-legalist homies Huananzi and Guanzi). Always fun to learn of new connections though, since the Hundred schools are often presented as rival "sects" who vied to make their "ism" the main one. Sorry I'm nerding out a bit as well, lol, I maintain that the spring-and-autumn is only rivaled by the turbulent late Qing and Republican era in just how much intelectual stuff was going on in China. I'm planning a sorta biography/introduction/thing to the main guys and their philosophies (something like the Overly Sarcastic Productions channel's History Makers series, but China focused), but I don't want to start a billion series and then get no-where with any of them, so I'm trying to stick with CC and Etymologies for now at least. Would be happy to pick your brain about the various philosophers some day when I get to that series, I'll be sure to add you in the Special Thanks credits =)

[@mcmaho17]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd It is great to see others so interested. The Huainanzi and Guanzi are both worthwhile texts, especially as you've got the Classical abilities to dig into them. I rely on translations a bit too much (being in philosophy I've just not focused enough on sinology). I totally agree with the allure of the narratives of these individuals, Zhuang Zhou has a special place for me. The section of the Zhuangzi were he discusses the death of Huizi and his alienation in lacking a friend to bring his intellect to life is moving. The whole of the Zhuangzi is a treasure of world literature. I'll keep coming back for your videos and in the future if you get to a series about some of the philosophical schools, I am happy to talk anything over!

[@khaisa4391]

please continue this series! i'm hoping to learn more classical chinese since i am heavily interested in buddhism. i'm also an overseas chinese hoping to learn more about my own culture

[@ginabanadab]

Very nicely done! Many thanks for your efforts 🙏

[@histoguy6025]

This is awesome!!! I wanted to study classical chinese since a while ago, and this video is super helpful!! You made it very entertaining and educational!. I can't wait for the next video to release. Would you also show us the right translation of the text?; Mine was: "When a man is born? ( I'm not quite sure is the right translation) his nature is originally good, our nature is similar (I translated the word "close" as similar) but our habits are different. If we're not taught then our nature changes. The way of teaching requires the utmost concentration"

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Thank you! If you wanna study by yourself, I highly recommend Van Norden's book. Unfortunately I won't be giving out any answer sheets. This is because it is almost impossible to get a 100% "accurate" translation of Classical Chinese into, well, any language because so much of it is up for interpretation andcontext-dependant. There are however a few English translations that you can peek at right at the start, but the sooner you start to learn CC on its own terms as it were the easier it will get (though you'll find yourself frustrated that you can accurately explain a thing in CC but not in any other language xD). Your translation is pretty good! Only thing I would ask you to consider if, perhaps, our habits "make us different"? Good luck!

[@histoguy6025]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Thank you so much for answering my comment (and for your recommendation) I downloaded Van Norden's book and I'll use it as a complement to your future CC videos!. And also thanks for correcting my translation "our habits make us different" sounds much better! ^^.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@histoguy6025 You're welcome! Van Norden is much better at sticking to his "no translations" policy I think, he also explains it much better why focusing on translation sells CC short on many levels. I will gradually phase out translations all together and attempt to encourage the viwer to come to their own conclusions with the tools given to them. Of course I will also discuss possible interpretations to "tricky" passages, but my goal is to stay away from direct translations as far as possible. Apart from Van Norden, you may want to DL Kroll's Dictionary of Classical Chinese and Pulleyblank's grammar as well. Pulleyblank is not always the most pedagogical in his approach but it is probably still the best CC grammar in English out there.

[@nn-kk4du]

Thanks for this hopefully you make more such videos given the scarcity of resources for Classical Chinese we really appreciate your work

[@ianteo-productionoutlet2969]

Glad for the recommendation. I just came back from Kazakh interpretations of retorts in pseudo Russian, so I should change my focus from phonetic flouting to the avoidance of hyphening through logogram based priorities, which is supposed to be neat and simple.

[@tomasbulko9418]

Thanks for the excellent video, I love the concept, so full of interesting information! As a nitpick I would point out that the japanese onyomi for the character 教 is　きょう, not こう, but might just be a typo.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@tomasbulko9418 oh I love picking nits! What I think happened is this: since Japanese has a billion (that is the scientific definition) ways a Chinese character can be read, I have a Japanese TCC on hand for reference, problem is it uses old kana orthography, and occasionally I might forget to double check and just copy-paste the kana into the video lol

[@saarl99]

The 漢音 of 教 is indeed こう. If I'm not mistaken, he's using 漢音 for all characters, I suppose for consistency (note how he gives ふう as the reading for 不 as well).

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@saarl99 Indeed! I'm not good enough at Japanese to know which readings count as the "common" sound-readings, but hopefully my good intentions outweigh my lack of understanding ^^

[@tomasbulko9418]

@@saarl99 Yeah that makes sense. I had no idea that reading existed as I never saw it in a dictionary or know a word that uses it. My bad, thanks for the correction.

[@Cironnup151]

As a japanese student (12 years of experience), it's crazy how I find classical chinese easier to understand than modern chinese, probably because of grammar structure, 繁体字, and especially monosyllabic words

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Modern Chinese is like a shallow marsh a thousand mile wide, Classical Chinese is like a well ten thousand leagues deep.

[@frustis]

We are so back! 文言文 let's go!

[@frustis]

Here's my homework: 人之初 (Beginning of human) 性本善 (Nature is good at the beginning) Originally (by default) human nature is good/kind 性相近 (Nature mutually close?) 习相远 (Studying mutually far?) Human nature(s) are close (similar?), and practices are far (dissimilar?). (Complete freestyle of an interpretation, I give up with this) 苟不教 (If no education) 性乃迁 (Nature then changes) If there is no education, human nature will change 教之道 (The way of education/teaching) 贵以专 (Puts value in focus/concentration) The way of teaching values (puts emphasis) in concentration In a way, I feel like if you hadn't given out most of the translation throughout the video, the translation would've been much more like the second part, which I still can't find any understandable meaning in. Thank you for making the video! I will definitely get back to studying some 文言文 after this.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Great job! I purposefully try to avoid translating the text as much as possible because it's very easy to get "stuck" on one interpretation/translation (got that idea from Van Norden), but since it's the first episode I had to be pretty on the nose because being too vague isn't good either lol. The second half is honestly quite complex, and I struggled a lot to make it intelligible w/o bringing in a bunch of extra particles and stuff. If you're familiar with the 以……為…… construction it's much easier 以專為貴 "take - concentration - as - (most) valuable". But 為 won't appear till episode 3 so I had to make due without it. I'm glad you liked the video all the same and good luck studying!

[@dan339dan]

Talking of Classical Chinese typically reminds me of my secondary Chinese education and exams. Classical Chinese is easy to get the gist of until it easily isn't. Although having a typical SVO sentence structure, once the passage begins to omit bits and pieces (anyone of the S, V, and O, or even entire contexts) of the sentences and move the word order around, and mixing in place/people names as well as figures pf speech (借代 synecdoche seems to be quite popular)... It's easy to mix up the parts of speech of words, (at least it was for me): Is this part of a place name or is this a verb? Was anything omitted or am I reading it the wrong way? It's talking about some students? I thought it was a passage about peaches and pears! Put them all together and the exam author decides to pick a passage with some sprinkles of words I've never seen in my life and asks you to explain what the words mean. Safe to say, Classical Chinese was one of the hardest subjects to ace for the typical student, (so is the Chinese paper in general for me, XD).

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Yes this is my main gripe with modern CC teaching (I had an entire rant about it in the original cut but left it out due to time concerns lol). Essentially, CC relies on the "common experience" of everyone who has ever learned it, thus it is important to have the students read most if not all of the core writings that a learned Chinese would have been familiar with, in order to "get" the full context. Imho adding characters that have not been gone over during classes is highly unpedagogical at least in the early stages because at that point the student simply is not secure enough with the language to make educated guesses (even more so if dictionaries are prohibited during the exam). You have probably noticed that I go out of my way to ONLY use characters (or elements of characters) introduced in the text, because not doing so would cause undue confucion later (while also showing how insanely versatile CC is even if one only knows a few characters). Necessity will force me to bend this rule in upcoming episodes, because making 50 episodes on CC w/o once mentioning such crucial elements as 也 or 無 is frankly absurd. All in all, I hope this series will be more enjoyable than learning CC in a classroom lol.

[@dan339dan]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd I honestly don't think there are similar videos in this scope and perspective out there, so I'm certain they'll definitely help!

[@pbworld7858]

This reminds me of those Chinese evening classes I used to attend all those years ago. Also took a class in Classical Chinese. Those were the days. I think for Japanese, the on-yomi would be enough. I assume that's how the Japanese would have used. Fun fact (or should I say 'nerd note'?): 之 is sometimes used in male names and is pronounced yuki, which sounds the same as 行き which means to go. 次のレッスンをお待ちしております。

[@dan339dan]

3:50 Finally another video for so long. Seems like you are still struggling with the tone sandhi here with the 一不變調 rule. The Bopomofo seems correct here, but you voiced the 不 in the 4th tone. In 不教, since these 2 characters form a group, jiao is in the 4th tone, the bu prior to it should be in the 2nd tone instead of the regular 4th.

[@dan339dan]

@SwedishSinologyNerd I do see you explaining the tone change later in the video, I should have watched the entire video before commenting, but still, I wonder why you made the decision to voice the bu in the passage reading in the 4th tone 🤔.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

If you listen closely, I read 不 in the 4th tone when doing the slow read (each character individually) but switch to 2nd tone in the fast read (reading them together), this was a subtle hint to the later explanation about the tonal change.

[@rawcopper604]

No way he's back

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Like a seasonal allergy! xD

[@kevinschreiner4179]

Thanks for the Korean readings!!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

You're welcome! Like with the Japanese and Viet readings, since I'm not very proficient in Korean Viet or Japanese, please feel free to correct any mistakes, or if possible direct me toward a good Korean version of the San Zi Jing. 감사합니다! ^_^

[@Ecotechnologist]

Where is your favorite place to reference this text and its translation(s) online?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

That is a tricky question, but I think the answer is: there isn't one. I have a couple of sources for Chinese, a couple for English (Wade Giles' is very pretty, tho definately in the poetic translation camp, it's available on ctext and wikipedia), and yet another for Vietnamese, all the other readings/translations I've had to piece together myself. I also have a couple of Chinese commentaries but those are all dead-tree edition. Part of the reason I'm doing this series is because I'm very unsatisfied with how all the resources online are so lackluster. Finally, I'm firmly convinced that any CC text is impossible to translate into English because you will lose a lot in translation: a version like Giles' that does a freer interpretation will confuse a language learner, a heavily annotated one that gives you all the context a classically educated Chinese reader would would bore and probably terrify the casual gwailou with how much subtext you get in three lines, and yet again a literal translation would be so butchered as to be nigh unintelligeble in English.

[@w.z.6062]

Great job! New subscriber here.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Glad to have you onboard!

[@khoaa2451]

My homework: At the start, men's nature is originally good The nature of men to men was near; practice brings them far away If not taught, nature then changes The way to teach, is with focus

[@perguto]

Nice video, but your Japanese readings as you mix 音読み (onyomi, learned Chinese pronounciations) with kunyomi (native Japanese words with the corresponding meaning). Actually there are two strata of onyomi, 呉音 (go'on, earlier stratum (~6th century) derived either from Wu or the Korea) and 漢音 (kan'on, ~8th century, from the Tang dynasty). Showing them (e.g. from wiktionary) would make more sense.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Thank you for your input! Since you seem quite knowledgable about these things, please direct me to an authoritative Japanese edition of the TCC and I will use that as the basis of future videos.

[@perguto]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Did you see my reply? (Probably, it got hidden because of the link)

[@perguto]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd The first line of the 大辞泉 entry is ［音］ジョ（ヂョ）（漢）　ニョ（呉）　ニョウ（慣）　［訓］おんな　め, which means that ジョ (ヂョ in old orthography) is its kan'on, ニョ its go'on, (ニョウ is a 慣用音 kan'you'on, a conventionalized unetymological reading, irrelevant for your purposes), and that おんな and め are kun'yomi. While the Kan'on appears more often in contemporary Japanese compound words and therefore usually perceived as the more "normal" reading, the only Chinese texts that are read with on'yomi are Buddhist sutras, where go'on is almost exclusively used (Confucius & co. are read in 漢文訓読 kanbunkundoku, basically a stilted ad-hoc Japanese translation).

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@perguto I didn't see the link I'm afraid

[@perguto]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd If you still can't see it: I just sent it to your email lol

[@BangkokPoet]

Great, thank you.

[@yuytbe]

木之本、人之斧、 砍一下、本留乎？

[@xopowo1979]

你太棒了！好就想动笔开始学文言文，你帮我大忙！❤

[@philarete]

Here is my attempt at a translation: Concerning human beginnings: Our nature is fundamentally good. We are similar in nature, But our customs are different. If we are not taught, Our nature will change. The proper way of teaching Is to emphasize concentration.

[@chochylindt]

It actually rhymes when read in Cantonese!

[@taurantnguyen1664]

and Sino-Vietnamese.

[@amberwingthefairycat]

My attempt (i realise it sounds bad) . . . In the beginning, man’s nature was good. Their nature is the same, their habits differ. If one isn’t taught, then one’s nature will change. The way to teach, is, importantly, to focus.

[@gyakushinnmiko8444]

12:06 meatspin

[@Aliphwhy]

How do you get the origin of the characters in a chart ? Do you make it yourself or find it on the internet?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@Aliphwhy I make them myself though with inspiration from a few Chinese illustrated character etymology books.

[@narsilify]

Beautiful!!! Simply beautiful!

[@sacktheargonian]

Will I need to know modern Chinese to understand this lesson?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Not really. I use the Mandarin readings because they come most naturally to me, but you can read a CC text in pretty much any language.

[@ta0304]

Excellent course ❤❤

[@MedX16]

Are you using simplified or traditional characters?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Traditional characters

[@martinfalkjohansson5204]

Blir nyfiken på vart du pluggat kinesiska! Jag pluggade på UU för tio år sedan! Vad har du för alma mater?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@martinfalkjohansson5204 UU? Unseen University? XD Skojar, skojar. Jag ä en liten gåsapåg från Skåne, så jag läste i Lund för många Herrans år sen. Har även läst på 北外 och på 北語, men hoppjerka som en e har jag inte examen från något av dem, bara bachelor och masters i akupunktur från Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine ^^

[@cuddlecreeper8]

Unfortunately the Japanese readings aren't quite accurate, as a mix of kun'yomi and different categories of on'yomi are being used at once. Traditionally a single on'yomi category is used for pronouncing Chinese texts with which one varying by time period and/or group. Mixing on'yomi pronunciations isn't the worst, but Kun'yomi should not be used for exclusively Chinese text.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Hi! Sad to hear you didn't enjoy the video. Since Japanese has a fairly unique approach to Classical Chinese, I followed the example of Paul Rouzer's A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese in providing both 訓讀 and 音讀 readings, and I'm relying heavily on this Japanese version of the 三字經 on Kanjibunka, link: kanjibunka.com/download/sanjikyo.html Since you appear to be quite an expert on these things, just like the Vietnamese fellow who kindly pointed out my inconsistencies with the Viet readings, I ask that you please provide me with an authorative version of the TCC in Japanese and I will change the readings accordingly.

[@neileung]

oughhh,,,,,, rhank you ,,,,,

[@giuseppeagresta1425]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@H0SH1K0-TSUSH1MA]

Is Classical Chinese the same as Traditional Chinese?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

There is no such thing as a Traditional Chinese language, what you probably meant was Traditional Chinese Characters, or the standard characters used in HK, Macao and the ROC. Traditional characters are however not the same as CC (though Taiwan uses more CC in their official writings than the PRC). CC can be written in both simplified and traditional characters (it just looks butt-ugly in simplified lol), but just because you learned traditional characters doesn't mean you can understand a CC text, if that makes sense?

[@H0SH1K0-TSUSH1MA]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd ohh okay ! thank you for explaining! What is PRC ?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@ Peoples Republic of China, aka Mainland China or as the PRC prefer to be called, China xD

[@FAIZAFEI]

Ah yes San Zi Jing, the one that most chinese speaker (probably only in Taiwan) remember it more as a byword for swear words

[@Levi_Highway]

4:17 it was not "詞匯", it was "詞彙" or "辭彙"

[@rawcopper604]

@@Levi_Highway A very easy mistake to make, as both 匯 and 彙 were simplified to 汇.

[@nomnaday]

I noticed you used the reading bổn instead of the standard reading bản. Bổn reading is dervived from the southern Vietnamese dialect. The readings should be standard since you use nhân and tính instead of nhơn and tánh.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

I see! I used the 1917 edition TAM-TỰ-KINH to decide whether to use bổn or bản link: vi.wikisource.org/wiki/Tam_T%E1%BB%B1_Kinh_di%E1%BB%85n_ngh%C4%A9a This edition uses the reading bổn and so I followed its example. You are correct I did not apply this consistently so I will henceforth follow the 1917 TAM-TỰ-KINH when providing Viet readings. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@nomnaday]

@SwedishSinologyNerd Note, Vietnamese 三字經 has a few slight differences than the Chinese edition, the differences can be found in the English Wikipedia page of Three Character Classic

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@nomnaday Thanks I'll make sure to consult it!

[@ta0304]

Bổn is used by Vietnamese people overseas. Bản is used by Vietnamese people in nowadays Vietnam -> Vietnamese language changed.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@ Either way, I will be using the 1917 tam-tự-kinh as the basis for the Viet readings going forward =)

[@commenter4898]

Minor mistake: 荀子 should be pronounced in the second tone.

[@BBarNavi]

三字經 means something else entirely in Taiwan😅

[@yuytbe]

啥

[@franklim9672]

Awesome. Thank you. Taiwan is considering giving up on Classical Chinese. Of course, Classical Chinese culture was burnt by the Communists.

[@georgeklales188]

苟我見你乃我笑

[@brucetepke8150]

Just a few comments. For at least one word, your cartoon character was obscuring the Han character. Also, it'd be really helpful if you showed the strokes to write the character.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Here you go: zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%AD%97%E7%B6%93 chinese2pinyin.com/en/calligraphy/

[@hoangdj]

Who are you? Alien? How u know about Tam Tự Kinh :))

[@johnsmithjohnsmithjohn]

can you make a playlist for this series so it's easy to link to and change the 4 to for bc it's confusing with the lesson 1

[@user-gy4up6cd5o]

三字经的第一句是从哪个典故来的呢？看看有多少人被错误的启蒙毒害。又有多少人持续受到父母从小培养的无自主思维能力影响。

[@埊]

中国人创经，名三字经，而无只三字。

[@nicholasmikulski8998]

Based?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

"All warfare is based" ~ Sun Tzu

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@nicholasmikulski8998 Do you mean what Xunzi tells Mengzi? Nah, he’s not calling him based, quite the opposite xD

[@polyky]

14:32 you really didn't have to translate 人 as man when it literally means person

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@polyky “Man” is the English word for human being, “person” comes from Etruscan through Latin. They mean the same, but to paraphrase Mr Orwell, Saxon words should be chosen over outlandish ones when one can. The homegrown English word for a grown spear human is “wer/were”(as in “were and wife) “fellow” “gome” “health” "rink" "seg/segge" "meg/megge", "bern" and "man". The fact that man means both "human" and "were" is actually very alike to how Chinese uses 人, since 人 is always assumed to be male unless otherwise specified. All things considered, I think "man" is the closest English equivalent to 人.

[@cyancat8633]

Now teach Mongolian

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@cyancat8633 hah! I’ll likely do Machu first, since I actually know some of that

[@cyancat8633]

@SwedishSinologyNerd yay and Manchu is under rated. But what can you do some regional Chinese language

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@ I mean I’d love to, but currently I’m only working on adding Canto and maybe Min. I also wanna learn Viet and Japanese so unless it’s a colab I’m afraid I won’t be able to do the other chinese languages justice

[@yuytbe]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd那会太棒、你教我一点满洲文吧

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

哈哈，等我開始發滿語入門的視頻吧

[@dragonapop]

Cantonese & Hakka Readings below: ALRIGHT YOU CANTONESE SPEAKERS (me not included (however I am a fan)). I see a lot of people asking for Cantonese jyutping, however this would make the displayed text very cumbersome (and would be most work for Wormwood). So I will be posting the readings below. If I ever forget anything or get it wrong leave a comment and I will correct is. I am using eguidedog for the readings, so if there are any problems with it tell me. Cantonese (from eguidedog) 人之初，jan4 zi1 co1 性本善。sing3 bun2 sin6 性相近，sing3 soeng1 gan6 習相遠。zaap6 soeng1 jyun5 苟不教，gau2 bat1 gaau3 性乃遷。sing3 naai5 cin1 教之道，gaau3 zi1 dou6 貴以專。gwai3 ji5 zyun1 Hakka (from oikasu) 人之初 nginˋ zhiˇ cuˇ 性本善 sinˆ bunˆ shen 性相近 sinˆ siongˇ kunˇ 習相遠 sibˋ siongˇ bbienˆ 茍不教 geuˆ budˊ gauˆ 性乃遷 sinˆ naiˆ cienˇ 教之道 gauˆ zhiˇ too 貴以專 guiˆ rhiˆ zhenˇ

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

君子！ Certified Princely behaviour! =)

[@ryanpangilinan5803]

Now imma need someone to do this for Hokkien 😅

[@dragonapop]

@@ryanpangilinan5803 Your wish is my command (I think I got it correct, but I can't be sure)

[@ryanpangilinan5803]

@@dragonapop oop forgot to reply to this, but looks you out Hakka^. But all good! In any case, is the website you’re using a dictionary of the Literary readings?

[@dragonapop]

@@ryanpangilinan5803 I believe they are Zhao An Hakka readings. I checked Wiktionary to see if the readings where correct, and these do seem to be some type of Hakka. The website places the Romanization next to the character, (which makes it convenient for me). If this is some less spoken type of Hakka, could you point me something better?