三千寵愛於一身

[in_lab]

I need some help with the phrase 三千寵愛於一身. It is in a book describing a younger brother. What is 三千 talking about? Is this phrase negative? Is it used only to describe children? Anyone want to try to translate it? Thanks.

[Quest]

古时一般用后宫三千佳丽来形容皇帝的女人多不胜数。然而，如果哪个女人能让皇帝抛弃另外的两千九百九十九个而只宠她一个，那么她也就集合了三千的宠爱于她一个人的身上。

[in_lab]

Thanks Quest! I think I understand it now. I'm still trying to think of a way to translate it, but I don't think I will come up with anything very good sounding.

[skylee]

It is used to describe 楊貴妃 (Yang Guifei) in the poem 長恨歌 (Chinese version and English translation here) , written by poet Bai Juyi (白居易) of Tang Dynasty ->

後宮佳麗三千人

三千寵愛在一身

There were other ladies in his court, three thousand of rare beauty,

But his favours to three thousand were concentered in one body.

PS - IMHO 長恨歌 is one of the poems that everyone should learn ...

[in_lab]

I'm pretty sure I have read that poem before, in English translation, but that line still wasn't familiar enough to ring any bells. Thanks Skylee.

[randall_flagg]

OK, Skylee Laoshi, I'll memorize it. Which reminds me: I've been wanting to ask for a long time: Which poems would any Chinese with a solid education know by hard? I want to learn them! Perhaps I should start a new thread for that question.

[randall_flagg]

Oh my! I should have looked at the poem before I said I'd learn that one by hard.... it's a loooooong one. Guess I'll give it a shot, though. Just one problem: I can't seem to find a pinyin version of it. Not that I can't read characters, but there are a few where I am not quite sure about the pronunciation – there are just too many versions to some characters. Like my beloved 为 I don’t think I’ll ever know when it’s read in the second or fouth tone. Oh well, such is life.

[skylee]

You can find the pinyin here (select 標示漢語拼音) ->http://cls.admin.yzu.edu.tw/300/BIN/ti_brow.asp?auid=000011&id=00000053

[randall_flagg]

Thanks, Skylee, this works nicely. Although...I'm not sure the pinyin is correct. E.g. it gives me 百 as bo2 and 六 as lu4. I know that 百 can be read as bo4, but not as bo2, right？　Ａｎｄ　not ｅｖｅｎ　ｍｙ　古代汉语词典 gives me lu4 for 六。　I just want to be totally sure I'm learning the right stuff before I spent many, many hours (from what it looks like) memorizing this stuff.

[randall_flagg]

Another example: instead of giving me tiānshēnglìzhì for 天生丽质, it gives me tiānshēnglìzhí.

[skylee]

Can't help you with your questions, sorry. I recite / memorise all my poems in Cantonese.

That is a .tw website so variations in pronunciations should not be surprising. And errors may also be possible. I think it is more sensible to consult your dictionaries than relying on the internet.

[randall_flagg]

Taiwanese, eh? Well, guess I should have seen that one coming. Yeah, I'll do what you said: dictionary and grammar rules should get me through most of it. I'd love to hear someone recite this one in Cantonese...

[skylee]

I've recorded in Cantonese the first 20 verses of the poem.

長恨歌1-20.WAV

[HashiriKata]

Nice reading, skylee! Could you please try a version in Mandarin as well ??

[semantic nuance]

I found a website that is about 唐詩三百首: http://cls.admin.yzu.edu.tw/300/Home.htm This is for children learning 唐詩. There're poems with pinyin, zhuyin, at your choice. Some have audio clips. It also offer something you should know for a beginner to 唐詩 in <唐詩入門小百科> , <詩情畫意> has some media stuff, and <唐詩裡的神話與傳說故事> introduces the stories of the poems.This website is in Chinese.

Hope it helps!

[HashiriKata]

Thank you for the recording, semantic nuance. Very nice and clear reading!

[in_lab]

Randall, I don't know anything about those pronunciations of 百 and 六, but Taiwan's standard for the Mandarin pronunciation of 质 is zhi2.

[HashiriKata]

Yes, as Randall commented, I noticed the differences (from Mainland's standard) in SN's reading as well.

Semantic Nuance, did you read the poem the way you normally speak, or did you have to change your pronunciation to conform to some other, older standard?

[randall_flagg]

semantic nuance and skylee: thank you so much for recording this! this is a great help. i don't understand any of the Cantonese, but that was to be expected. Sounds nice anyway, somehow enchanting…

semantic nuance, i always thought you were a guy! maybe that's because of your avatar? sorry about that. and i thought you were "just" a learner, but obviously you are a native speaker?

[semantic nuance]

To HK,

I read it from the textbook with zhuyin. I just read what's on the book. To me, 六 liu4 is normally used in daily life, and so is 百 bai3. Their being read differently might be due to that they were used in literary Chinese texts (文言文). Maybe we need an expert to explain that. Here's the link for both.六 the audio clip is Cantonese.百

bo2 : 百博伯勃薄泊柏驳魄脖搏膊舶礴帛铂箔渤钹孛亳鹁踣

To randall_flagg: I just loved that picture I came across the other day, so I used it as my avatar. It's ok. Gender is never an issue for me. Yes, you're right. I'm a native Chinese/Taiwanese speaker.

Hope it helps!