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China is to Asia what the Roman Empire and Greece were to Europe. I think a lot of Westerners don't know just how much influence "China", in it's various forms, has had on her neighbors for at least 2000 years.
China is to Asia what the Roman Empire and Greece were to Europe. I think a lot of Westerners don't know just how much influence "China", in it's various forms, has had on her neighbors for at least 2000 years.
China was as powerful and influential as Roman Empire. However, most westerners tend to know little about the former and exaggerate the importance of the latter, as of the Roman Empire is global. It is regional covering a relatively small area around the Mediterranean. That's all. It is also much shorter lived.
China was as powerful and influential as Roman Empire. However, most westerners tend to know little about the former and exaggerate the importance of the latter, as of the Roman Empire is global. It is regional covering a relatively small area around the Mediterranean. That's all. It is also much shorter lived.
The West knows probably as much about the Chinese empire as the Chinese know about the Ancient Roman empire. Also I think you have misconceptions about the Latin empire, it was neither as small nor short-lived as you are impliying. An area ranging from Portugal and Morroco West, to Syria and Ukraine East, and all the way up to Scotland can not be considered small by any means. Also the Oriental Roman Empire didn't collapse until the 15th century.
China was as powerful and influential as Roman Empire. However, most westerners tend to know little about the former and exaggerate the importance of the latter, as of the Roman Empire is global. It is regional covering a relatively small area around the Mediterranean. That's all. It is also much shorter lived.
Which dynasty was as powerful and influential as the Roman Empire.
^Tang dynasty was pretty powerful, and long. Han dynasty as well.
Qing dynasty was also powerful for like a century, then Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution happened so basically the **** hit the fan. The end of Qing dynasty is my personal favourite period of Chinese history since it was so pathetic and hilarious at the same time.
They are called hanzi in Chinese. And hiragana and katakana? They are not Japanese creations either. They are actually parts of Chinese characters.
Well, give the Japanese credit. Hiragana and katakana are not just parts of Chinese characters, they are simplified and stylized parts of characters to which the Japanese attached an invariable phonetic sound. Being able to write phonetically was a big step forward which made it possible to write colloquial Japanese rather than forcing Japanese into an artificial Chinese syntactic mold. It also brought a form of literacy within reach of people (e.g. women) who did not have the opportunity to study thousands of kanji.
Sometimes it's relatively easy to see what character a kana derives from:
Well, give the Japanese credit. Hiragana and katakana are not just parts of Chinese characters, they are simplified and stylized parts of characters to which the Japanese attached an invariable phonetic sound. Being able to write phonetically was a big step forward which made it possible to write colloquial Japanese rather than forcing Japanese into an artificial Chinese syntactic mold. It also brought a form of literacy within reach of people (e.g. women) who did not have the opportunity to study thousands of kanji.
Sometimes it's relatively easy to see what character a kana derives from:
か (ka) from 加
Sometimes there is no longer much similarity:
み(mi) from 美 .
So is bopomofo.
It's just a vehicle to learn the Chinese characters, which are vital in Japanese. It's much easier reading and understanding kanji than a whole sentence written in hiragana. Even I get confused seeing only hiragana. I don't know how to read many characters, but I know the meaning of about 100 based on the shapes so far.
Bopomofo dates from about 1912. Early forms of hiragana and katakana were in use in the 9th century. The Japanese were clearly ahead, FAR ahead, in this development. I'm not disputing that kana were derived from Chinese characters, just the statement that kana is "not a Japanese creation."
It's just a vehicle to learn the Chinese characters, which are vital in Japanese. It's much easier reading and understanding kanji than a whole sentence written in hiragana. Even I get confused seeing only hiragana.
The only reason reading hiragana is more difficult than reading English is the Japanese practice of writing without spaces, sothatyouhavetofigureoutwordboundariesasyougo. (Chinese and Korean do the same thing). It's true, it tends to be easier to differentiate words in sentences written in a combination of kanji and kana, especially as a nonnative. Otherwise, hiragana is exceedingly simple to read.
And kana are not just a vehicle to learn Chinese characters. Have you studied Japanese? It is virtually impossible to write Japanese sentences without kana. They are vital for expressing verb and adjective cases and tenses and writing grammatical particles, among other things.
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