traditional chinese characters written from right to left

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji,

I happened to show him my business card (which has

some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

the influence of English and the romance languages

started to really be felt, characters were written and

read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

anyone else heard of this?

 

Sincerely,

 

Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

yes: actually from right to left and from top to bottom. So you would open

a book at (our) last page and start reading at the upper right corner,

moving down the row and then read the row left to the one you just read and

so on

 

Tom.

 

----

 

yehuda frischman

06/30/06 21:27:56

Chinese Medicine

traditional chinese characters written from right to left

 

 

Dear friends,

 

During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji,

I happened to show him my business card (which has

some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

the influence of English and the romance languages

started to really be felt, characters were written and

read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

anyone else heard of this?

 

Sincerely,

 

Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Actually,

 

It's not "

 

Tom Verhaeghe <tom.verhaeghe wrote:

yes: actually from right to left and from top to bottom. So you would

open

a book at (our) last page and start reading at the upper right corner,

moving down the row and then read the row left to the one you just read and

so on

 

Tom.

 

----

 

yehuda frischman

06/30/06 21:27:56

Chinese Medicine

traditional chinese characters written from right to left

 

 

Dear friends,

 

During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji, happened to show him my

business card (which has

some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

the influence of English and the romance languages

started to really be felt, characters were written and

read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

anyone else heard of this?

 

Sincerely,

 

Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Actually, it's not " until a few hundred years ago " ; your mentor must be younger

than 65 yrs old, as before the communist government, essentially very very few

people wrote the western way.

 

Mike L.

 

Tom Verhaeghe <tom.verhaeghe wrote:

yes: actually from right to left and from top to bottom. So you would

open

a book at (our) last page and start reading at the upper right corner,

moving down the row and then read the row left to the one you just read and

so on

 

Tom.

 

----

 

yehuda frischman

06/30/06 21:27:56

Chinese Medicine

traditional chinese characters written from right to left

 

 

Dear friends,

 

During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji, happened to show him my

business card (which has

some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

the influence of English and the romance languages

started to really be felt, characters were written and

read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

anyone else heard of this?

 

Sincerely,

 

Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

What if:

The first printed Chinese text in horizontal alignment was Robert

Morrison's " Dictionary of the Chinese language " , published in

1815-1823 in Macau. The earliest widely known Chinese publication

using horizontal alignment was the magazine Science in January 1915.

Both much before People's Republic of China instituted the Simplified

Chinese and decided that horizontal text should be used.

 

Kelvin

 

Chinese Medicine , Mike Liaw

<mikeliaw wrote:

>

> Actually, it's not " until a few hundred years ago " ; your mentor must

be younger than 65 yrs old, as before the communist government,

essentially very very few people wrote the western way.

>

> Mike L.

>

> Tom Verhaeghe <tom.verhaeghe wrote:

> yes: actually from right to left and from top to bottom.

So you would open

> a book at (our) last page and start reading at the upper right corner,

> moving down the row and then read the row left to the one you just

read and

> so on

>

> Tom.

>

> ----

>

> yehuda frischman

> 06/30/06 21:27:56

> Chinese Medicine

> traditional chinese characters written from right to left

>

>

> Dear friends,

>

> During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji, happened to

show him my business card (which has

> some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

> classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

> the influence of English and the romance languages

> started to really be felt, characters were written and

> read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

> anyone else heard of this?

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

At 06:40 PM 6/30/2006, you wrote:

>What if:

>The first printed Chinese text in horizontal alignment was Robert

>Morrison's " Dictionary of the Chinese language " , published in

>1815-1823 in Macau. The earliest widely known Chinese publication

>using horizontal alignment was the magazine Science in January 1915.

>Both much before People's Republic of China instituted the Simplified

>Chinese and decided that horizontal text should be used.

 

I have seen relatively recent Chinese books (on medicine) where one

starts at the back. And in calligraphy, as on scrolls with a few

characters, which one hangs on the wall, are still written traditionally.

 

 

[Guest guest]

I said that in the context of Chinese population. Having one dictionary printed

in certain form doesn't mean a lot of people were using it. These " first "

publications simply serves to proof there was none before. And, that's not even

several hundred years ago.

 

Robert Morrison was the first protestant missionary to China and he was a

linguist too. It's understandable that, while taking a role to bridge the

cultures, he had to " choose side " in terms of the writing direction. Since his

dictionary was to be used for westerners learning Chinese a natural choice is

to write from left to right. The Chinese people's writing in the western form

(left to right horizontally) took place when they started learning western

culture and having to write these different languages in the same line.

Printing books in the way of Science did en mass happened some years after the

Communist government took the power.

 

A side note: it took him 16 years to compile the dictionary, and it's not

done in Macau. The Chinese emperor didn't want to have non-Chinese people

learning Chinese, nor printing of books on Christianity in Chinese; they had to

leave China for Malaya (now Malaysia) where they established a printing press

to publish the dictionary and the translated Bible. (They might have published

it again in Macau where he spent the last few years of his life, but I think

that happened later.)

 

Here's a pointer to one of the Morrison Academy sites:

http://k8.mca.org.tw/2005-2006/ms/index.htm

You will see that the Chinese is written the traditional way, vertically,

downwards, not in their respected Robert Morrison's style.

 

Mike L.

acupuncturebeverlyhills <acupuncturebeverlyhills wrote:

What if:

The first printed Chinese text in horizontal alignment was Robert

Morrison's " Dictionary of the Chinese language " , published in

1815-1823 in Macau. The earliest widely known Chinese publication

using horizontal alignment was the magazine Science in January 1915.

Both much before People's Republic of China instituted the Simplified

Chinese and decided that horizontal text should be used.

 

Kelvin

 

Chinese Medicine , Mike Liaw

<mikeliaw wrote:

>

> Actually, it's not " until a few hundred years ago " ; your mentor must

be younger than 65 yrs old, as before the communist government,

essentially very very few people wrote the western way.

>

> Mike L.

>

> Tom Verhaeghe <tom.verhaeghe wrote:

> yes: actually from right to left and from top to bottom.

So you would open

> a book at (our) last page and start reading at the upper right corner,

> moving down the row and then read the row left to the one you just

read and

> so on

>

> Tom.

>

> ----

>

> yehuda frischman

> 06/30/06 21:27:56

> Chinese Medicine

> traditional chinese characters written from right to left

>

>

> Dear friends,

>

> During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji, happened to

show him my business card (which has

> some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

> classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

> the influence of English and the romance languages

> started to really be felt, characters were written and

> read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

> anyone else heard of this?

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Just to remind people that traditional form of writing is still pretty

prevalent in Taiwan. In fact, most of popular reading CM books are still

written the traditional way, vertically, up-down, right to left, even when they

need to put English in parenthese at times.

 

Mike L.

 

< wrote:

At 06:40 PM 6/30/2006, you wrote:

>What if:

>The first printed Chinese text in horizontal alignment was Robert

>Morrison's " Dictionary of the Chinese language " , published in

>1815-1823 in Macau. The earliest widely known Chinese publication

>using horizontal alignment was the magazine Science in January 1915.

>Both much before People's Republic of China instituted the Simplified

>Chinese and decided that horizontal text should be used.

 

I have seen relatively recent Chinese books (on medicine) where one

starts at the back. And in calligraphy, as on scrolls with a few

characters, which one hangs on the wall, are still written traditionally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs.Try it free.

 

 

[Guest guest]

--Yehuda,

 

yes I have heard it. Tradition Chinese Korean & Japanese languages

were all writen like this.

Today japanese books are still written from right to left and

ordered vertically up & down....

under the influence of European languages the order of Chinese

writing changed

enjoy

Sincerely,

 

keren L.Ac, M.Ac Zhe jiang University

 

- In Chinese Medicine , yehuda frischman

< wrote:

>

>

> Dear friends,

>

> During my weekly consult with my mentor, Dr. Zhang Ji,

> I happened to show him my business card (which has

> some hebrew on it) and he mentioned in passing that in

> classical Chinese, until a few hundred years ago when

> the influence of English and the romance languages

> started to really be felt, characters were written and

> read from right to left. Interesting parallel. Has

> anyone else heard of this?

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Yehuda Frischman, L.Ac, CST, SER, TJM

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

and in Hong Kong. My wife often reads those traditional written books.

 

Tom

 

 

----

 

Mike Liaw

07/04/06 21:56:02

Chinese Medicine

Re: Re: traditional chinese characters written from right to

left

 

Just to remind people that traditional form of writing is still pretty

prevalent in Taiwan. In fact, most of popular reading CM books are still

written the traditional way, vertically, up-down, right to left, even when

they need to put English in parenthese at times.

 

Mike L.

 

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