Chữ Hán
Chữ Hán Chữ Nho | |
---|---|
Script type | |
Time period |
|
Direction | Top-to-bottom, columns from right to left |
Languages | Literary Chinese, Vietnamese |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | Chữ Nôm |
Sister systems | Kanji, Hanja, Bopomofo, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Khitan script, Jurchen script, Tangut script, Yi script |
Chữ Hán (𡨸
Terminology
[edit]The main Vietnamese term used for Chinese characters is chữ Hán (𡨸
Chữ Nho was first mentioned in Phạm Đình Hổ's essay, Vũ trung tùy bút (
Classical Chinese is referred to as Hán văn (
History
[edit]After the conquest of Nanyue (Vietnamese: Nam Việt; chữ Hán:
It was until in the 20th century that Chinese characters alongside chữ Nôm began to fall into disuse. The French Indo-Chinese administration sought to westernise and modernise Vietnam by abolishing the Confucian court examinations. During this time, the French language was used for the administration. The French officials favoured Vietnamese being written in the Vietnamese alphabet. Chinese characters were still being taught in classes (in South Vietnam) up to 1975, but failed to be a part of the new elementary curriculum complied by Ministry of Education and Training after the Vietnam War.[8]
Today, Chinese characters can still be seen adorned in temples and old buildings. Chữ Hán is now relegated to obscurity and cultural aspects of Vietnam. During Vietnamese festivals, calligraphists will write some couplets written in Chinese characters wishing prosperity and longevity. Calligraphists that are skilled in calligraphy are called ông đồ.[9] This is especially reflected in the poem, Ông đồ, by Vũ Đình Liên. The poem talks about the ông đồ during Tết and how the art of Vietnamese calligraphy is no longer appreciated.[9]
Education
[edit]
In the preface of Khải đồng thuyết ước (
余 童 年 ,先君 子 從 俗 命 之 ,先 讀《三 字 經 》及三 皇 諸 史 ,次則 讀經 傳 ,習時舉業文字 ,求 合場 規 ,取 青 紫 而已。Dư đồng niên, tiên quân tử tùng tục mệnh chi, tiên độc “Tam tự kinh” cập Tam Hoàng chư sử, thứ tắc độc kinh truyện, tập thì cử nghiệp văn tự, cầu hợp trường quy, thủ thanh tử nhi dĩ.
Tôi hồi tuổi nhỏ nghe các bậc quân tử đời trước theo lệ thường dạy mà dạy bảo, trước hết đọc Tam tự kinh và các sử đời Tam Hoàng, tiếp theo thì đọc kinh truyện, tập lối chữ nghĩa cử nghiệp thời thượng, sao cho hợp trường quy để được làm quan mà thôi.
In my childhood, under the guidance of my elders and conforming to the customs, I first studied the "Three Character Classic" and various histories of the Three Emperors. Afterward, I delved into the classics and their commentaries, honing my skills in calligraphy and writing, aiming to conform to the rules of society and attain a respectable status.
Children around the age of 6–8 begin learning chữ Hán at schools.[11] Students began by learning characters from books such as Nhất thiên tự (
During the period of reformed imperial examinations (khoa cử cải lương;
The education reform by North Vietnam in 1950 eliminated the use of chữ Hán and chữ Nôm.[16] Chinese characters were still taught in schools in South Vietnam until 1975. During those times, the textbooks that were used were mainly derived from colonial textbooks. There were two main textbooks, Hán-văn tân khóa bản (
Uses
[edit]Names
[edit]In Vietnam, many provinces and cities have names that come from Sino-Vietnamese words and were written using Chinese characters. This was done because historically the government administration needed to have a way to write down these names, as some native names did not have characters. Even well-known places like Hanoi (
Some Sino-Vietnamese names were translated from their original names, like Tam Điệp Quan (
Chinese characters | Sino-Vietnamese name (tên Chữ) | Chữ Nôm | Vietnamese name (tên Nôm) |
---|---|---|---|
Hà Nội | 仉𢄂 | Kẻ Chợ | |
Hồng Hà | Sông Cái | ||
Gia Định | Sài Gòn | ||
Tản Viên Sơn | 𡶀𠀧 |
Núi Ba Vì |
Practically all surnames in Vietnamese are Sino-Vietnamese words; they were once written in Chinese characters. Such as common surnames include Nguyễn (阮), Trần (
Readings for characters
[edit]Owing to historical contact with Chinese characters before the adoption of Chinese characters and how they were adapted into Vietnamese, multiple readings can exist for a single character. While most characters usually have one or two pronunciations, some characters can have up to as many as four pronunciations and more. An example of this would be the character
Sino-Vietnamese readings
[edit]Sino-Vietnamese readings are usually referred to as âm Hán Việt (
Chinese characters | Sino-Vietnamese | Standard Chinese | Cantonese | Sino-Japanese | Sino-Korean |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
chuẩn bị | zhǔnbèi | zeon2bei6 | junbi | junbi | |
điện thoại | diànhuà | din6waa6-2 | denwa | jeonhwa | |
tứ, tư | sì | sei3, si3 | shi | sa | |
nhân dân | rénmín | jan4man4 | jinmin | inmin | |
địa danh | dìmíng | dei6meng4-2 | chimei | jimyeong | |
ngôn ngữ | yányǔ | jin4jyu5 | gengo | eoneo | |
Trung Quốc | Zhōngguó | Zung1gwok3 | Chūgoku | Jungguk | |
Nhật Bản | Rìběn | Jat6bun2 | Nihon | Ilbon |
Non-Sino-Vietnamese readings
[edit]Non-Sino-Vietnamese readings (âm phi Hán Việt;
Chinese | Early Sino-Vietnamese | Sino-Vietnamese |
---|---|---|
mùi 'smell, odor' | vị 'flavor, taste' | |
vợ 'wife' | phụ 'woman' | |
phép 'rule, law' | pháp 'rule, law' | |
gươm 'sword' | kiếm 'sword' | |
gương 'mirror' | kính 'glass for windows, etc.; eyeglasses' | |
chè 'tea or a dessert soup' | trà 'tea' | |
xe 'wheeled vehicle' | xa 'rare form of xe' | |
hè 'summer' | hạ '(literary) summer' |
Nôm readings
[edit]Nôm readings (âm Nôm;
Chinese character and Standard Chinese pronunciations | Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations | Sino-Vietnamese meaning | Nôm pronunciations | Nôm meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
些 'xiē' | ta, tá | some; a few; a little; a bit | ta[36] | I, me, we |
chu, châu | cinnabar; vermilion | cho[37] | to give, to let, to put; for | |
biệt | to divide; to separate | biết[38] | to know | |
碎 'suì' | toái | shattered; fragmented; shredded | tôi[39] | I, me |
la | net for catching birds | là[40] | to be, is | |
trào | to ridicule; to deride; to scorn; to jeer at | chào[41] | hello, bye |
Types of characters
[edit]Chữ Hán can be classified into the traditional classification for Chinese characters, this is called lục thư[42] (
- Chữ chỉ sự (𡨸
指事 ) – Ideogram, an example would be上 (thượng, “above”) and下 (hạ, “below”).[44] - Chữ tượng hình (𡨸
象形 ) – Pictogram, an example would be日 (nhật, "sun") and木 (mộc, "tree").[45] - Chữ hình thanh (𡨸
形聲 ) – Phono-semantic compound, an example would be銅 (đồng, "copper"; "currency") which is made up of semantic金 [釒] (kim, "metal) and phonetic同 (đồng).[46][f] - Chữ hội ý (𡨸
會意 ) – Compound ideographs, an example would be武 (vũ [võ], "military"; "martial") which is made up of戈 (qua, "dagger-axe") and止 (chỉ, “foot”; "to walk").[47] - Chữ chuyển chú (𡨸
轉注 ) – Derivative cognates, characters that were derived from other characters with similar meaning, an example would that老 (lão, "old") is a cognate of考 (khảo, "elderly").[48] - Chữ giả tá (𡨸
假借 ) – Phonetic loan, an example would be法 (Pháp, "France") is used for the name of France. Other European countries are also referred by a chữ giả tá like德 (Đức, "Germany") and意 (Ý, "Italy").[49]
Variants
[edit]Some chữ Hán characters were simplified into variants of characters that were easier to write, but they are not the same simplified characters used by current-day Chinese. According to Trịnh Khắc Mạnh, when he analysed the early 13th century book,
- The word
羅 la[g] is simplified into 罗 in Chinese, but it is different in Vietnamese, 𱺵 (⿱罒𪜀). Other variants include 𦉼 (⿱罒大) and 𪜀 (⿻十 ㄣ). - Another example would be the character
沒 một which is simplified into没 in Chinese and was simplified from沒 to 𱥺 (⿰氵𠬠), then finally, 𠬠 (⿱丷又). - The word 濫 lạm was simplified into 滥 in Chinese, but was simplified from 濫 to 滥 to 𪵯 (⿰氵𫜵) to 𫜵 (⿴𰀪⺀) in Vietnamese.[51]
Some characters matching Simplified Chinese do exist, but these characters are rare in Vietnamese literature.
There are other variants such as 𭓇 học (variant of
Another prominent example is the character, 𫢋 phật (⿰亻天) which is a common variant of the character
Symbols
[edit]The character 匕 (chuỷ) or 〻 is often used as an iteration mark to indicate that the current chữ Hán character is to be repeated. This is used in words that use reduplication. For example, in the poem Chinh phụ ngâm khúc (
Vietnamese alphabet "Endlessly distant is that azure sky; who created its cause" | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The way the marker is used is very similar to how Chinese and Japanese use their iteration marker 々. Japanese uses 々 as an iteration marker, so, for example,
See also
[edit]- Chữ Nôm
- Literary Chinese in Vietnam
- History of writing in Vietnam
- Chinese characters
- East Asian cultural sphere
- Kanji – Japanese equivalent of Chinese characters
- Hanja – Korean equivalent of Chinese characters
- Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary
- Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca - Literary Chinese - Vietnamese dictionary
Notes
[edit]- ^ Hán tự is an uncommon term for Chinese characters. In late 19th-early 20th century and modern-day Vietnamese, chữ Hán, along with chữ Nho and chữ Tàu, have been the dominant terms for "Chinese characters". Hán tự started being used due to its perceived archaism and its formality.
- ^ The Hồ dynasty (茹胡) and the Tây Sơn dynasty (茹西
山 ) are the only two dynasties that used chữ Nôm officially unlike other dynasties that used Literary Chinese instead. - ^ Based on the book, Hán-văn tân giáo-khoa thư (1929).
- ^ Native names do exist, but are rare. Some examples include Giỏi, Sen, Gái, Nễ, etc.
- ^ This is not including Nôm readings such as hàng, hành, hăng, and ngành.
- ^ Also known as chữ hài thanh (𡨸
諧聲 ); tượng thanh (象 聲 ). - ^ The Nôm reading of the character is là 'to be'.
羅 is a very common character in Nôm texts.
References
[edit]- ^ Evans, Jonathan; Fernandez, Fruela, eds. (April 26, 2018). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics. Routledge. p. 511. ISBN 978-1-138-65756-4.
Discussing the history of translation in Vietnam without mentioning the history of the Vietnamese written languages would be a mistake because the systems of written language in Vietnam passed through three stages: Chữ Hán (Chinese characters), Nôm (ideograms specific to Vietnam) and Chữ quốc ngữ (modern Vietnamese, written using adapted Latinate script.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường; Bùi, Anh Chưởng (October 11, 2020). "The Chinese script, Confucian script, and Nôm script: Some reflections on writing and politics in monarchical Vietnam". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 4 (3): 149.
- ^ Trịnh, Ngọc Linh (30 September 2023). "Confucianism in Vietnam: A Hauntology-based Analysis of Political Discourse". Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia. 3 (1).
- ^ Hoàng, Phê (2003). Từ điển tiếng Việt (in Vietnamese). Đà Nẵng Publishing House. p. 1101.
văn ngôn d. Ngôn ngữ sách vở, dựa trên tiếng Hán cổ, thông dụng ở Trung Quốc trước cuộc vận động Ngũ Tứ (1919); đối lập với bạch thoại.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Handel, Zev (2019). Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script. BRILL. p. 125. ISBN 9789004386327.
- ^ Handel, Zev (2019). Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script. BRILL. p. 126. ISBN 9789004386327.
- ^ Li, Hanke (2022). "The Construction of National Identity from the Perspective of the Change of Chinese Status in Vietnamese Language Policy". pp. 175–176.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (7 October 2019). "Research of square scripts in Vietnam: An overview and prospects". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 3 (3): 5. doi:10.1177/2513850219861167. S2CID 211673682.
- ^ a b Nguyễn, Thị Ngà (28 January 2022). "Đến với bài thơ hay "Ông đồ" của Vũ Đình Liên". Báo Hưng Yên (in Vietnamese).
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (2015). "Giáo dục Hán văn bậc tiểu học tại Việt Nam thời xưa qua trường hợp sách Tam tự kinh". p. 15.
- ^ a b Phạm, Văn Thịnh (February 2024). "The Vietnamese education system during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) - The decline and importance of feudal education for class and national interests" (PDF). International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation. 5 (1): 626–634.
- ^ Nguyễn, Đình Hòa. "Vietnamese phonology and Graphemic Borrowings from Chinese: The book of 3,000 characters Revisited" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies.
- ^ a b Woodside, Alexander Barton (1971). Vietnam and the Chinese Model: A Comparative Study of Vietnamese and Chinese Government in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (1st ed.). Harvard University Asia Center. pp. 192–193.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (2015). "Giáo dục Hán văn bậc tiểu học tại Việt Nam thời xưa qua trường hợp sách Tam tự kinh". p. 31.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (2015). "Giáo dục Hán văn bậc tiểu học tại Việt Nam thời xưa qua trường hợp sách Tam tự kinh". p. 30.
- ^ "Ai "bức tử" chữ Hán-Nôm?". VUSTA. 11 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016.
Đặc biệt đến năm 1950, khi có cải cách giáo dục thì chữ Hán ra rìa hoàn toàn (chúng tôi nhấn-VTK).
- ^ a b Trần, Văn Chánh (24 July 2019). "Chương trình giáo dục và sách giáo khoa thời Việt Nam Cộng Hòa". Hội Ái Hữu Petrus Trương Vĩnh Ký Úc Châu.
- ^ "Tra từ: c=
行 – Từ điển Hán Nôm". Từ điển Hán Nôm. - ^ Trần, Khánh (1993). The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789813016675.
- ^ Alves, Mark (2017). "Identifying Early Sino-Vietnamese Vocabulary via Linguistic, Historical, Archaeological, and Ethnological Data". Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics.
- ^ Trần, Uyên Thi (2005). "Thử tìm hiểu luật biến âm qua hai bản Nôm" (PDF) (in Vietnamese). p. 3.
Về các âm Hán Việt, tức cách đọc bắt nguồn từ chữ Hán vào cuối đời Đường.
- ^ Shimizu, Masaaki (2015). "A Reconstruction of Ancient Vietnamese Initials Using Chữ Nôm Materials". NINJAL Research Papers. 9: 135. doi:10.15084/00000465.
It is also known that Sino-Vietnamese readings were derived from the phonological system of Middle Chinese (MC) (Mineya 1972).
- ^ Nguyễn, Hữu Vinh (2009). Tự điển chữ Nôm trích dẫn. Viện Việt học. pp. XV.
Mượn âm HV
- ^ Shimizu, Masaaki (4 August 2020). "Sino-Vietnamese initials reflected in the phonetic components of 15th-century Nôm characters". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 4 (3): 183–195. doi:10.1177/2513850220936774 – via SageJournals.
For most CNs, the choice of the phonetic component is based completely on the Sino-Vietnamese (SV) readings (Cách đọc Hán Việt
漢 越 音 ) of the Chinese characters, so the creation of CNs must have occurred later than the formation of SV readings (Nguyễn, 1985). - ^ a b Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
- ^ Alves, Mark (2009). Loanwords in Vietnamese. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5.
- ^ DeFrancis, John (1977). Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam. Mouton. ISBN 978-90-279-7643-7.
- ^ Xun, Gong (4 March 2020). "Chinese loans in Old Vietnamese with a sesquisyllabic phonology". Journal of Language Relationship. 17 (1–2): 66. doi:10.31826/jlr-2019-171-209. S2CID 212689052.
If ⿱亇針 is a case of dấu cá, all the non-Sino-Vietnamese readings, namely găm, kim (and probably ghim) are possible, with no implications on Old Chinese preinitials.
- ^ Nguyễn, Quang Hồng (2008). Khái luận văn tự học chữ Nôm (in Vietnamese). NXB Giáo Dục. p. 197.
Ví như chữ
畫 âm Hán Việt là "hoạ", âm Việt hoá phi Hán Việt là vẽ, - ^ "Chữ Nôm Structure". Nôm Foundation (in Vietnamese).
âm phi Hán Việt
- ^ Lê, Văn Quán (1989). Tự học chữ Nôm (in Vietnamese). NXB Khoa học Xã Hội. p. 64.
Ở phần phân tích chữ Nôm, còn có trường hợp âm đọc bắt nguồn từ âm Hán Việt cổ hoặc âm Hán Việt Việt hóa, nhưng hiện nay chưa có đẩy đủ cứ liệu, cho nên, chúng tôi tạm xếp các trường hợp đó vào kiểu chữ Nôm đọc chệch âm.
- ^ a b Trần, Uyên Thi (2005). "Thử tìm hiểu luật biến âm qua hai bản Nôm" (PDF) (in Vietnamese). p. 4.
Giả tá : mượn âm của một chữ Hán đọc trại đi thành âm Nôm. Thí dụ:
牢 lao > sao,停 đình > dừng,朗 lãng > rạng. - ^ Shimizu, Masaaki (2015). "A Reconstruction of Ancient Vietnamese Initials Using Chữ Nôm Materials". NINJAL Research Papers. 9: 137. doi:10.15084/00000465.
We then search for the stage where the Chữ Nôm reading and the SV reading of its phonetic component are the closest.
- ^ Nguyễn, Hữu Vinh (2009). Tự điển chữ Nôm trích dẫn. Viện Việt học. pp. XV.
Mượn âm Nôm
- ^ Li, Yu (4 November 2019). The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00-069906-7.
- ^ "
彌勒 真經 演 音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944. p. 8. - ^ "
彌勒 真經 演 音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944. p. 6. - ^ "
彌勒 真經 演 音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944. p. 5. - ^ "
集 案 翁 潘 佩珠 • Tập án ông Phan Bội Châu". 1920. p. 4. - ^ "
彌勒 真經 演 音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944. p. 7. - ^ "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1870". 1870. p. 11.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. pp. 18–24. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. pp. 32–58. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. p. 19. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. pp. 18–19. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. p. 22. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. p. 20. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. p. 21. ISBN 9786048450243.
Hứa Thận định nghĩa "Lập nên một đầu loại, đồng ý cùng nhận, như chữ
考 khảo,老 lão". - ^ Nguyễn, Khuê (2020). Tự học Hán văn (in Vietnamese) (10th ed.). NXB Đà Nẵng. pp. 21–22. ISBN 9786048450243.
- ^ Trịnh, Khắc Mạnh (11 October 2020). "Chinese character variants in Vietnam: A case study of characters in The Complete Secrets for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 4 (3): 224. doi:10.1177/2513850220937817. S2CID 222315572.
In the past, like Japanese and Korean people, Vietnamese people adopted and used official and variant characters imported from China, but they also created their own variant characters. By analysing the Chinese character variants in the book titled The Complete Secrets for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites, we have realised that the number of variants created in Vietnam is double the number of variants adopted from China.
- ^ Chan, Eiso; Lee, Collins; Ngô, Thanh Nhàn (2020). "Request to dis-unify U+722B", in UTC Document Register" (PDF). Unicode.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (7 October 2019). "Research of square scripts in Vietnam: An overview and prospects". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 3 (3): 6. doi:10.1177/2513850219861167. S2CID 211673682.
- ^ Nguyễn, Tuấn Cường (7 October 2019). "Research of square scripts in Vietnam: An overview and prospects". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 3 (3): 195. doi:10.1177/2513850219861167. S2CID 211673682.
For example, the character Phật/Fó
佛 'Buddha' is written 𠏹 (亻+西 +國 = person from western country) or 𫢋 (亻+天 = heavenly person), not 𠑵 (西域 哲人 = wise person from western region) and 仸 (亻+ 夭 = ogreish person) as it is in Chinese variants. - ^ Trịnh, Khắc Mạnh (11 October 2020). "Chinese character variants in Vietnam: A case study of characters in The Complete Secrets for Buddhist Monks in Practice of Precious Rites". Journal of Chinese Writing Systems. 4 (3): 222. doi:10.1177/2513850220937817. S2CID 222315572.
The second variant, "𫢋", occurs 15 times; for example, in the following sentence: "
化 為 𫢋(佛 )𬽪(佛 )給付 " ("Become Buddha, Buddha will entrust immediately" [82b]).