3 ms·
from one of the papers cited in the original article <https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/sc/d3sc06189b https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlel
by crescit_eundo 3y ago
from one of the papers cited in the original article <https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/sc/d3sc06189b https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/sc/d3sc0...>:
To demonstrate our synthetic approach and its ability to encode the complexity of a logographic writing system, we chose an eight-character proverb from the Analects of confucius: ,38,39 roughly “By nature [people] are near each other; by habitual action they become farther apart”.40 To further probe the versatility and adaptability of the approach, we encoded the proverb in both traditional and simplified Chinese characters (Table 1). The former appear in manuscripts through the centuries, but also find current use in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other diaspora communities; the latter stem in part from earlier informal writing practices but were formalized over the 20th century into a system streamlined for modern writing needs in the People's Republic of China.
endnotes 38,39 quoted above, link to these:
M.Csikszentmihalyi, Confucius, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/confucius/ https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/confuciu..., accessed January 20, 2023.
A. C.Muller, The Analects of Confucius, http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/analects.html http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/analects.html, accessed January 20, 2023.
- 082349872349872 3y agoThanks! It turns out I should've known that, because it's almost the beginning of the 3-character classic, as a 6-character rather than an 8- chengyu: 性相近，習相遠。 Looks like Confucius basically used 也 as padding for alignment? (精益求精?) https://ctext.org/three-character-classic https://ctext.org/three-character-classic (I've read a translation of this line that went something like "people are all born good, but just look what happens to them after they've lived in society a while"; it's certainly more beautiful but I don't know how faithful it may be...)
- crescit_eundo 3y agoI like the translation you posted - it is more beautiful and the sentiment is clearer to me. Though, as you say, I don’t know how faithful to the original it is.
- 082349872349872 3y agoMy bad: Confucius was the original, about 1'000 years earlier than the 3-character classic. So they took his formal 4-character chengyu and boiled it down to fit their format.