Use of '一'

[calibre2001]

Appreciate some clarifitcation on the usage of '一' based on the following:-

1) 一路向北 - means 'all the way north' but is '一' a measure word?

2)一無所知 - means know absolutely nothing at all. i don't get the use of '一' here

3) Misc question: What does 要由mean? I don't understand the results I got from dict cn,

[Lu]

一 can mean 'one', but also 'whole, the entire'. It is never a measure word, to the best of my knowledge.

So 一路順風 is 'good wind the entire way'

In 一無所有, 一 is just one [thing], 'not [even] have one thing'. Due to the nature of 所 this is kind of hard to translate character for character, but look into the meaning and usage of 所 and it should become more clear.

I hope this helps!

[renzhe]

所有 means "to possess", or am I wrong?

Which would make it "a single (thing) not possess".

Xiaoma cidian says that 要有 means "need; require". Don't know if that helps.

[Lu]

所有 is not a verb in itself, and I don't think it can mean 'to possess'. If so you'd be able to translate 'I possess ten books' as 我所有十本書 and that doesn't work.

所有 is 'the things that have'

我所學的語言 The language that I study

妳所買的報紙 The newspaper that she buys

一無所有 means something like 'the things that have are not even one'.

I hope this helps.

[hhjk9901]

This phrase comes from《敦煌变文集·庐山远公话》:

"如水中之月，空里之风，万法皆无，一无所有。"

which means:

"same as the moon in water, the wind in air, everything of IT is nothing, actually IT is nothing."

What is "IT" in this artical? It is "A Man Of No Form", which is this sentence described.

So, "一" in this phrase means "entire IT", entire object we talk about.

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Here is the total 《敦煌变文集·庐山远公话》(All the characters I cannot spell by my input program is instead by ●) :

large chunk of text place in attachment. Admin.

hugebitofchinese.txt