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This reminds me of a funny passage in Jin Yong’s wuxia novel “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber”, where Zhang Wuji, the protagonist, learns taichi sword from hi
by k_sze 5y ago
This reminds me of a funny passage in Jin Yong’s wuxia novel “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber”, where Zhang Wuji, the protagonist, learns taichi sword from his grand master Zhang Sanfeng.
Zhang Sanfeng demonstrated the whole taichi sword form to Zhang Wuji repeatedly, and after each demonstration, asked Zhang Wuji “how much have you forgotten?”
Zhang Wuji instantly got it and each time replied that he has forgotten more and more, while Zhang Wuji’s subordinates watched on the side and became more and more worried that their hierarch was forgetting his martial arts.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago> Jin [...] wuxia [...] Zhang Wuji [...] taichi [...] Zhang [...]. One of these things is not like the others. Why spell "taichi" that way?
- k_sze 5y agoI was typing from a phone and didn't pay attention.
- AussieWog93 5y agoWhy do you feel the need to point out a tiny error when a Chinese person is going to the effort of romanising their own language so that we can all read it?
- thaumasiotes 5y agoIt's unlikely to be an error; no one is going to confuse ji with chi. I wanted to know the thought process. I was expecting something along the lines of "I was using 'taichi' as an English word, not a Chinese word".
- k_sze 5y agoWell, when you put it that way, it's pretty much like you said: "taichi" as an English word. I've always known "taichi" instead of "taiji" in English, even though I know the correct pinyin.