https://jiaoshoo.com/ A reading nook for Chinese language and civilisation. Characters, vocabulary, grammar, history, philosophy, and the world they shaped. en Mon, 13 Jul 2026 05:49:24 GMT https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/dou_mei_suoyou_都每所有.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/dou_mei_suoyou_都每所有.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT All, every, some, many, none: 都 carries the whole system, and the other quantifiers lean on it. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/shitai_时态.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/shitai_时态.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Mandarin verbs never change form: time words, 了, 过, 着, 在, and 会 do the work English does with conjugation. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_guqin.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_guqin.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The seven-string zither Confucius played throughout his life, and the origin of 知音, the word for a person who truly understands you. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_jingju_roles.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_jingju_roles.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The five 行当 of Peking Opera: sheng, dan, jing, mo, and chou, each a lifelong specialization in voice, movement, and makeup. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shijing.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shijing.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The 305 poems of China's oldest anthology (c. 1046-600 BCE), which Confucius said no educated person could afford to ignore. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shufa_styles.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shufa_styles.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The five scripts of Chinese calligraphy, 篆隶楷行草, run from Zhou bronze inscriptions to Tang wild cursive; choosing a script is choosing a register. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_songci.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_songci.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Song lyrics (词 cí) fit fixed tune patterns called 词牌; Li Qingzhao, Su Shi, and Xin Qiji are the form's three masters. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/dao4_道.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/dao4_道.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The character that opens the Dàodéjīng and names Daoism: way, path, principle, and the measure word for rivers and light. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/he2_和.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/he2_和.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 禾 (grain) beside 口 (mouth): 和 is both Mandarin's everyday "and" and the Confucian ideal of harmony without uniformity. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/kuai4_快.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/kuai4_快.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 快 joins 忄 (heart) to 夬 (a decisive cut): speed and joy are the same image, a heart running without drag. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ren2_人.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ren2_人.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Two strokes, barely changed since the oracle bones, write 人 rén; add 二 and you get 仁, Confucian benevolence. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/wei2_为.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/wei2_为.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT In oracle bone script 为 is a hand leading an elephant, and it sits at the center of Daoist 无为 non-action. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/yu4_玉.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/yu4_玉.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Three jade discs on a cord, one dot away from 王 (wáng, king): the stone Confucius said was virtue made visible. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/le_了.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/le_了.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Post-verb 了 marks a completed action; sentence-final 了 announces a new situation, and the two can stack in one sentence. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/liangci_量词.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/liangci_量词.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 个, 只, 条, 本, 张: the classifier taxonomy and the logic behind it. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/nai_乃.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/nai_乃.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Classical 乃 marks a consequence as earned, where modern 就 stays neutral; as emphatic copula it gives 失败乃成功之母 its weight. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/zhi_之.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/zhi_之.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 之 zhī did the work of 'of', 'him/her/it', and 'the one who' in classical Chinese; it survives in 之间, 之后, and 总之. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/zhi_者.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/grammar/zhi_者.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 者 zhě turns any verb into "the one who": 学者 scholar, 读者 reader, 作者 author, unchanged since the Analects. grammar https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_keju.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_keju.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The exam that selected China's officials for 1,300 years, from the Sui in 605 CE to abolition in 1905. history https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_qingchao.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_qingchao.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Invited through Shanhai Pass in 1644, the Manchus ruled China for 268 years, until the 1911 revolution ended imperial rule. history https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_songchao.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_songchao.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Economic revolution, printing, compass: the dynasty modernity missed. history https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_zhanguo.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/history/topic_zhanguo.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Seven states fought from 475 to 221 BCE, and that same fragmentation produced Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, and Mohism. history https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/religion/topic_rujia.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/religion/topic_rujia.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The school of the ru: ritual, hierarchy, and moral cultivation as state religion. religion https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/religion/topic_zuxian.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/religion/topic_zuxian.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Shang oracle bones record divinations to royal ancestors; 祖先崇拜, the ritual care of the dead, continues today in tablets, offerings, and Qingming graves. religion https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/vocab/lunhui_轮回.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/vocab/lunhui_轮回.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT 轮回 renders Sanskrit saṃsāra as 'wheel' plus 'return': the karmic cycle carrying beings through six realms until liberation. vocab https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/vocab/yuanfen_缘分.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/vocab/yuanfen_缘分.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Buddhist karmic fate: 500 years of cultivation to share a boat with a stranger, a thousand to share a pillow. vocab https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chan2_禅.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chan2_禅.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT One altar character, two civilizations: read shàn it yields thrones and sacrifices to earth; read chán it transliterates Sanskrit dhyāna and founds Zen. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/xing1_星.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/xing1_星.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Born of the sun radical and a sprout, 星 names the stars, the planets, the week, movie fame, and the spark that starts prairie fires. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/daily/topic_diannao_wangluo.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/daily/topic_diannao_wangluo.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The computer is an electric brain, downloading is "carrying down," and the number 666 is a compliment. daily https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/daily/topic_duliangheng.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/daily/topic_duliangheng.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Fruit is priced by the half-kilo 斤, distance walks in 里, and an idiom about six of one and half a dozen still counts in base sixteen. daily