{"id":16903,"date":"2021-11-15T06:39:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T10:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=16903"},"modified":"2021-11-09T06:48:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T10:48:09","slug":"chinese-winter-vocabulary-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/chinese-winter-vocabulary-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Winter Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Ethan_Zhan from Pixabay, CCO<\/p><\/div>\n

Autumn has come, the temperatures are gradually dropping, and winter is just around the corner. Chinese has two names for winter:<\/p>\n

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Both names consist of two characters: the first one \u51ac<\/strong> (d\u014dng) means winter<\/em>, and the second \u2013 \u5b63<\/strong> or \u5929<\/strong>\u2013 mean season<\/em>. \u5b63<\/strong> (j\u00ec) comes from the Chinese noun for season \u5b63\u8282<\/strong> (j\u00ec ji\u00e9). \u5929<\/strong> (ti\u0101n) bears many heavenly meanings: day<\/em>, sky<\/em>, heaven<\/em>, God<\/em>, weather<\/em>, season<\/em>. The second name for winter in the chart above, the one with the character \u5929<\/strong> as season is more common in spoken language.<\/p>\n

\u4e00\u5e74\u56db\u5b63\u5373\u6625\u590f\u79cb\u51ac\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

Y\u012b ni\u00e1n s\u00ec j\u00ec j\u00ed ch\u016bn xi\u00e0 qi\u016b d\u014dng.<\/p>\n

The four seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u5728\u5317\u534a\u7403\uff0c\u51ac\u5929\u662f\u6700\u5bd2\u51b7\u7684\u5b63\u8282\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

Z\u00e0i b\u011bi b\u00e0n qi\u00fa, d\u014dng ti\u0101n sh\u00ec zu\u00ec h\u00e1n l\u011bng de j\u00ec ji\u00e9.<\/p>\n

In the northern hemisphere, winter is the coldest season.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Several years ago, I celebrated the Chinese New Year in China. I was at home, watching TV, waiting to \u5305\u997a\u5b50<\/a> (b\u0101o ji\u01ceo zi). The TV station broadcast that evening from two different locations: \u4e09\u4e9a\u5e02<\/strong> (S\u0101ny\u00e0 sh\u00ec) located in the south shore of the southern island province Hainan; and \u6f20\u6cb3\u5e02<\/strong> (M\u00f2h\u00e9 sh\u00ec) located in the Northern Province Heilongjiang near the Russian border. Celebrations in these two places were totally different. While people in Sanya were still enjoying the sunlight, dancing in the beach, the people in Mohe were wearing heavy clothes, sitting around the kitchen stove for warmth and light. Mohe is the northernmost city in China, and it suffers long severe winters (\u4e25\u5bd2<\/strong>y\u00e1n h\u00e1n). \u4e25\u5bd2<\/strong> (y\u00e1n h\u00e1n) means bitter cold<\/em>, severe winter<\/em>. As the Chinese dictionary defines it: \u6781\u5ea6\u5bd2\u51b7<\/strong> (j\u00ed d\u00f9 h\u00e1n l\u011bng, extremely cold<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u6f20\u6cb3\u5929\u6c14\u4e25\u5bd2\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

M\u00f2 h\u00e9 ti\u0101n q\u00ec y\u00e1n h\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

Mohe weather is severely cold.<\/p>\n

\u5728\u4f4e\u4e8e\u96f6\u5ea6\u7684\u4e25\u5bd2\u5929\u6c14\u4e2d\uff0c\u6f20\u6cb3\u4eba\u8fc7\u5e74\u4e86\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

Z\u00e0i d\u012b y\u00fa l\u00edng d\u00f9 de y\u00e1n h\u00e1n ti\u0101n q\u00ec zh\u00f2ng, m\u00f2 h\u00e9 r\u00e9n gu\u00f2 ni\u00e1n le.<\/p>\n

In sub-zero freezing weather, Mohe citizens celebrated the New Year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The second character in the phrase – \u5bd2<\/strong> (h\u00e1n) – is an adjective meaning cold<\/em>, chilly<\/em>. It appears in many phrases describing wintery weather or relating to the winter season:<\/p>\n

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One of my favorite phrase of \u5bd2<\/strong> is: \u5bd2\u6684<\/strong> (h\u00e1n xu\u0101n). The two characters in the phrase are actually antonyms. \u5bd2<\/strong> means cold, and \u6684<\/strong> means warm. \u5bd2<\/strong> has the ice radical that looks like two drops of water (as in the winter character \u51ac<\/strong> it appears on the bottom). \u6684<\/strong> has the sun radical that looks like a square with a line in the middle (as in another character for warm \u6696<\/strong> it appears on its left). Together the short phrase \u5bd2\u6684<\/strong> that literally translated as cold warm, means to talk about the weather<\/em>, to engage in small talk<\/em>. It is used when exchanging conventional greetings. As the Chinese dictionary explains: \u4eca\u591a\u6cdb\u6307\u5bbe\u4e3b\u89c1\u9762\u65f6\u8c08\u5929\u6c14\u51b7\u6696\u4e4b\u7c7b\u7684\u5e94\u916c\u8bdd<\/strong> (j\u012bn du\u014d f\u00e0n zh\u01d0 b\u012bnzh\u01d4 ji\u00e0nmi\u00e0n sh\u00ed t\u00e1n ti\u0101nq\u00ec l\u011bngnu\u01cen zh\u012b l\u00e8i de y\u00ecngch\u00f3u hu\u00e0, nowadays, the phrase generally refers to social talks such as the cold and warm weather when the host and guest meet<\/em>). For example:<\/p>\n

\u9886\u5bfc\u4eba\u4e92\u76f8\u5bd2\u6684\u4e00\u756a\uff0c \u7136\u540e\u5f00\u59cb\u8c08\u5224\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

L\u01d0ng d\u01ceo r\u00e9n h\u00f9 xi\u0101ng h\u00e1n xu\u0101n y\u012b f\u0101n, r\u00e1n h\u00f2u k\u0101i sh\u01d0 t\u00e1n p\u00e0n.<\/p>\n

The leaders exchanged greetings with each other, and then began negotiations.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u5979\u5f88\u5bb3\u7f9e\uff0c\u53ea\u7b80\u77ed\u5730\u5bd2\u6684\u4e86\u51e0\u53e5\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u0101 h\u011bn h\u00e0i xi\u016b, zh\u01d0 ji\u01cen du\u01cen de h\u00e1n xu\u0101n le j\u01d0 j\u00f9.<\/p>\n

She was very shy and only exchanged a few brief greetings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u4ed6\u5f80\u5f80\u5fd9\u788c\u5f97\u8fde\u5bd2\u6684\u90fd\u987e\u4e0d\u4e0a\u3002<\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u0101 w\u01ceng w\u01ceng m\u00e1ng l\u00f9 d\u00e9 li\u00e1n h\u00e1n xu\u0101n d\u014du g\u00f9 b\u00f9 sh\u00e0ng.<\/p>\n

He is often too busy, even for a small talk. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u597d\u597d\u5b66\u4e60\uff0c\u5929\u5929\u5411\u4e0a\uff01<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Autumn has come, the temperatures are gradually dropping, and winter is just around the corner. Chinese has two names for winter: Both names consist of two characters: the first one \u51ac (d\u014dng) means winter, and the second \u2013 \u5b63 or \u5929\u2013 mean season. \u5b63 (j\u00ec) comes from the Chinese noun for season \u5b63\u8282 (j\u00ec ji\u00e9)…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":16906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16903","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16903"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16909,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16903\/revisions\/16909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}