https://jiaoshoo.com/ Notes on Chinese language and civilisation — characters, vocabulary, grammar, history, philosophy, and the world they shaped. en Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:34:13 GMT https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_chuci.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_chuci.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The shamanistic southern voice that gave Chinese literature its second pole — visionary, romantic, and inconsolably exiled. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_kunqu.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_kunqu.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The oldest surviving form of Chinese opera — refined to such perfection over four centuries that it nearly disappeared from its own beauty. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_luxun.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_luxun.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The writer who looked at traditional Chinese society and saw cannibalism — and the complicated, unresolvable legacy he left behind. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shijing.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shijing.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT China oldest poetry anthology — three hundred poems that Confucius said no educated person could afford to ignore. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shuimohua.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_shuimohua.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Where the brush meets philosophy — five tones of ink, the art of leaving space, and landscapes that are not about landscape at all. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_songci.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_songci.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The poem that sings — fixed tune patterns, named meters, and three masters who defined what the Chinese lyric could feel. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_wenfangsibao.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_wenfangsibao.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Brush, ink, inkstone, and paper — the four instruments through which a scholar thought, wrote, painted, and demonstrated who he was. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_zhuanke.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/arts/topic_zhuanke.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The art of the name — bronze to stone, dynasty to dynasty, two schools of carvers, and the small red square that authenticates everything. arts https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ai4_爱.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ai4_爱.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Love in all its forms — romantic, familial, and the Confucian ethic of universal benevolence. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/bu4_不.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/bu4_不.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The great negator — the most used character in Mandarin and the foundation of all denial. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/cha2_茶.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/cha2_茶.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The character that gave the world its word for tea — a grass over wood over man, a plant that shaped civilization, and the locus of China's richest material culture. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chang2_长.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chang2_长.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A person with flowing long hair — one character, two readings: cháng (long) and zhǎng (to grow, elder), the richest dual-reading in Mandarin. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chi1_吃.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/chi1_吃.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT To eat — and the extraordinary range of Chinese life encoded in a single food verb. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/da3_打.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/da3_打.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT To hit — and a hundred extensions: make a call, play a sport, pack a bag, get an injection. The most productive light verb in Chinese. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/da4_大.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/da4_大.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Big, great, large — a person with arms wide open, the original measure of magnitude. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/dian4_电.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/dian4_电.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Lightning descending from a rain cloud — a character that jumped from describing the weather to naming the force that defines modern civilization. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/fo2_佛.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/fo2_佛.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The character that carried an entire worldview across the Silk Road — etymology, Buddhism, the 佛-family of compounds. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/fu2_福.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/fu2_福.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The most recognized Chinese character in the world — fortune, blessing, and the art of the upside-down 福. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/gong1_工.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/gong1_工.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Three strokes encoding heaven, earth, and the human craft connecting them — the root character for all labor, skill, and making in Chinese. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/guo2_国.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/guo2_国.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A walled enclosure protecting its people — the Chinese concept of nationhood written in a single character. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/hao3_好.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/hao3_好.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Good, well, to like — and the tone split that doubles its expressive range. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/huo3_火.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/huo3_火.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Three flames rising — the character for fire and one of the most productive radicals in Chinese. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/jiao3_角.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/jiao3_角.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Corner, horn, angle — the character that opens this site's name: 角落書屋. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/jin1_金.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/jin1_金.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Nuggets of gold beneath the earth — and one of the Five Phases that governs autumn, the west, and sharpness. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/kou3_口.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/kou3_口.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A simple rectangle for an open mouth — one of the most productive radicals in the script, present in hundreds of characters for speaking, eating, and openings. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/lao3_老.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/lao3_老.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A stooped elder with long hair — age as wisdom, seniority as moral authority, and the Daoist sage who wrote the Tao Te Ching. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/long2_龙.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/long2_龙.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The serpentine lord of rain and rivers — not a monster, but the supreme symbol of cosmic power and imperial authority. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/luo4_落.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/luo4_落.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Falling, settling, and the beauty of things arriving at their place. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/mei3_美.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/mei3_美.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A large sheep carrying horns — beauty as abundance, sacrifice, and the pleasure of the highest good. characters https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ming2_明.html https://jiaoshoo.com/pages/characters/ming2_明.html Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Sun and moon combined — brightness, clarity, dawn, and understanding. characters