What's Your Favourite Character?

[Twice-cooked]

忍 especially when tattooed on the forearm of migrant workers, the grunts, those who take garbage from everyone but press on despite it all.

[skylee]

From #100

‘丨’，'gun3'，just a line and yes its a character but seldom do Chinese people use it.

I have come across more information on this character, which I find quite interesting.

[custom_art365]

I quite like 慈世平， its Ron Artest's name.

[jbradfor]

Next time someone asks for a Chinese name, we should recommend 丨!

[Iriscat]

I love 飛 the traditional charcter. It looks like two birds are flying together.

[imron]

Next time someone asks for a Chinese name, we should recommend 丨!

Telling them to gǔn might be a little rude

[skylee]

I wonder if what's in the jpg at #102 is true. Would be nice to know the source of that information.

[jbradfor]

Telling them to gǔn might be a little rude

Funny. Technically inaccurate, as yi1 is the pronunciation when using as a 姓 (according to that jpeg), but funny none-the-less.

[imron]

In my defence I will say that you never specifically mentioned *surname*

[custom_art365]

I find most peop like only one character.What is your favorite phrase?

I like Chinese colligraphy very much, and I have much free time.

If anyone want their favorite character or phrase present as a colligraphy, just give me a message.

There is a saying in China that goes "書畫同源“， but most people enjoy oil painting more than colligraphy, I wish I can find the reason.

[外国赤佬]

You're looking for phrases to 練字? How about 婦? It's an interesting character.

婦德，不必才明絕異也

婦言，不必辯口利辭也

婦容，不必顏色美麗也

婦功，不必工巧過人也

[custom_art365]

婦德，不必才明絕異也

婦言，不必辯口利辭也

婦容，不必顏色美麗也

婦功，不必工巧過人也

You like it ? It is old viewpoint and unfair to women. I will write a colligraphy about it and post it tomorrow.

[custom_art365]

http://i.imgur.com/KfpiZ.jpg

a picture about 婦

[外国赤佬]

Amazing! How long have you been practicing calligraphy?

You mixed up 辯 and 辨, though, sadly.

[custom_art365]

Oh , yes , it is a usual mistake!

I have been practicing calligraphy for four years.

[外国赤佬]

Does anybody know what's the story with jiāng 江? In Cantonese, 工 and 江 are pronounced exactly the same (gōng). Why did 江 get corrupted to jiāng in Mandarin? Was it the Manchurian influence?

[skylee]

In Cantonese, 工 and 江 are pronounced exactly the same (gōng).

No, they are not. Their Cantonese pronunciations are different. In Jyutping 工 is gung1 and 江 is gong1.

[HusbandOfWuhan]

What?!?!? I'm surprised that no one has mentioned 鼎。It's simply awesome. However, there are just so many characters that look so good! and intriguing like this one: 惢 . Ever wanted to know what that means? What about the one below? Ha? It'll blow your mind away...

[外国赤佬]

Well...mostly the same then, very close. The question still remains. jiāng doesn't resemble the original phonetic at all.

[Hofmann]

OMG! You actually used the right stroke order for 必! Hell yeah.

工 and 江 are pronounced gung1 and gong1 (Jyutping) respectively. They were not the same in Middle Chinese either. As to the Mandarin pronunciation of 江, it is because of palatalization, which occurs in many other languages, such as Italian. In Mandarin, 江 used to be pronounced something like /kjaŋ55/.

There is a rule here. That is anything alveolar or velar, when followed by a close front vowel or semivowel, will become alveolo-palatal. For example,

(using fake Pinyin here)

siang (like 相), hiang (香) → xiang

ziang (將), giang (江) → jiang

ciang (槍), kiang (羌) → qiang