君?

[Strawberries513]

I was wondering if 君 is ever used as "you" (fml) in mandarin. I know it is used quite often in Japanese (kimi), but I have never heard of it being used as such in Mandarin (though my dictionary says it can be)

does anyone know about this? like when and if it is used that way?

[Quest]

君不见....yaddyaddyadda

It's an ancient usage, not used in modern Mandarin.

[skylee]

yaddyaddyadda = 黃河之水天上來，奔流到海不復回

Also

yaddyaddyadda = 高堂明鏡悲白髮，朝如青絲暮成雪

:mrgreen:

[Jose]

Incidentally, there is now a version of Wikipedia in Classical Chinese. I have noticed that the messages in the interface sometimes address the user as 君 and sometimes as 汝 (as in the 汝知之乎, did you know...? section). Is there any difference between 君 and 汝?

[Ian_Lee]

何日君再來 ??

聽君一席話，勝讀十年書!

有仇不報非君子!

“癮”君子

君子好逑

君子之交

--phrases always used/quoted in vernacular Chinese

[Ian_Lee]

執汝之手，與汝偕老

-- 汝 is more intimate than 君

[skylee]

執汝之手，與汝偕老

shouldn't it be 子 instead of 汝?

[djwebb2004]

I have a book by Yi Zhongtian where he addresses the readers as "读者诸君"

[againstwind]

I was wondering if 君 is ever used as "you" (fml) in mandarin.

Yes, it is, nay, more meaning than 'you'.

In modern Manderine, 君 should contain two meanings at least:

1) The sovrans of monarchies.

e.g. 君主 | 君权 | 君临天下

2）a couth honorific call to sb. , both are acceptable for 2nd person and 3rd person. Very literarily.

e.g. 听君一席话，胜读十年书。

送君千里，终须一别。 (Must have a farewell even have accompanied thee for thousands of miles.)

张君 (Sir. Zhang) | 李君 (Sir. Li) | 诸君 (you,thou,thee)

In fact, the two usages are the same to those in classical Chinese. In classical Chinese,besides the two above, 君 also means 君子(Noble men or the moral).

Is there any difference between 君 and 汝?

In classical Chinese, if 君 refers to you, they should be similar, I think.

Like old English thou or thee.

e.g.

“今君有一窟， 未得高枕而卧也。” ——《战国策.齐策七》

“君当作盘石，妾当作蒲苇。” ——《为焦仲卿妻作》

汝为何人？

汝等小人安知张君之志？

As for 君 in Japanese, it comes in for classical Chinese.

[vivian11]

Againstwind know Chinese culture very well. 君 is only used in acient Chinese.If you call someone 君 nowadays in China，she or he will feel odd.

In classical Chinese,there is a tiny different between 君 and 汝.On my mind,君 is formaler than 汝.汝 is a synonym of 你.And 君 is pretty much like 您.

[Gulao]

thou,thee

I wouldn't attribute these to 君, as my impression is that 君 is at once more archaic and more formal sounding, and 汝, while sounding archaic, has a sense of familiarity. "Thou" sounds archaic, but it is actually a familiar word in practice, like 汝. The problem is that "you" is more modern, and can sound familiar in some circumstances, but as far as archaic English, you is the more formal, and therefore closer to 君.

[djwebb2004]

君不见 is used in modern Chinese to mean rhetorically, "can't you see that....?"

[Koneko]

You can say 博君一笑 but if you say 博你一笑，I think most Chinese native speakers will also understand you. But I don't know why native speakers are more used to say 博君一笑 instead of 博你一笑

K.

[Lugubert]

I think it deserves to be mentioned that 君子 often is translated as 'gentleman', 'superior gentleman', 'refined man' and the like when found in Daoist texts, e.g. in 道德经 31. Not surprisingly, Confucianism also has this usage; see for example the paragraph on The perfect gentleman in Wikipedia.

[HashiriKata]

Confucianism also has this usage

My feeling is 君子 is distinctively a Confucianist term.

[Mark Yong]

I read in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary, where Mathews' quotes Hu Shih that a formal version of 汝 is 爾. Would 爾 be more or less distant compared to 君?

Actually, on a broader context, what are all the characters used in Classical Chinese to denote the 2nd person? I can only think of 汝, 爾 and 而 (this last one seems rare). And now, 君.

For the 1st person, I know they are 我, 吾, 予, 余 (it seems 予 and 余 are interchangeable, but I cannot confirm this). And apparently, there was a syntactic difference between each of them, e.g. one of them meant 'I', another meant 'my', etc.

[trien27]

To Koneko:

博君一笑, trying to make someone [the person or persons directly spoken to, most of the time would mean "you"(singular or plural depending on subject spoken to)] smile [at least] once, came from Classical Chinese and has a moral story behind it so you cannot change 君 into "ni". Same as like changing I love you into I love thee or I love thou. Modern people will not converse this way. It is written down as a part of history. You cannot change history.