Chữ Hán

Chữ Hán
Chữ Hán;
	Chữ Hán (Chữ Nho, Hán tự) written in Chữ Hán, mixed Hán-Nôm, with Chữ Quốc ngữ in ruby
Script type	Logographic
Time period	3rd Century BC – 20th Century AD
Direction	Top-to-bottom, columns from right to left (traditional); Left-to-right (modern)
Languages	Old Vietnamese, Văn ngôn, Vietnamese
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Regular script Chữ Hán; ; ; ;
Child systems	Chữ Nôm
Sister systems	Kanji, Hanja, Zhuyin, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Khitan script, Jurchen script, Tangut script, Yi script
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains chữ Nôm text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm.

Chữ Hán^[1] (𡨸漢, literally "Chinese characters", Vietnamese pronunciation: [t͡ɕɨ˦ˀ˥ haːn˧˦]), Chữ Nho (𡨸儒, literally "Confucian characters", Vietnamese pronunciation: [t͡ɕɨ˦ˀ˥ ɲɔ˧˧]) or Hán tự (漢字, Vietnamese pronunciation: [haːn˧˦ tɨ˧˨ʔ]), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters, used to write Văn ngôn (which is a form of Classical Chinese used in Vietnam during the feudal period) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, was officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region was incorporated into the Han dynasty and continued to be used until the early 20th century (111 BC – 1919 AD).

Terminology

Stroke - nét
Stroke order - Bút thuận (筆順)
Radical - Bộ thủ (部首)
Regular script - Khải thư (楷書)
Simplified characters - chữ giản thể (𡨸簡體)
Traditional characters - chữ phồn thể (𡨸繁體)
Văn ngôn - Literary Chinese (文言)
Hán văn - synonym of Literary Chinese (漢文)
Kangxi radicals - Bộ thủ Khang Hi

History

Lĩnh Nam chích quái (嶺南摭怪) is a 14th-century Vietnamese semi-fictional work written in chữ Hán by Trần Thế Pháp.

History of the Loss of Vietnam (越南亡國史), is a Vietnamese book written in chữ Hán, written by Phan Bội Châu while he was in Japan. It was published by Liang Qichao, a leading Chinese nationalist revolutionary scholar then in Japan

In the late 3rd century BC, the newly established Qin dynasty made a number of military raids to the south, establishing control over the Baiyue peoples. Three military commanderies were established far to the south in 214. Xiang commandery covered parts of present-day North Vietnam. However, Qin control of the area was short-lived, as the Qin dynasty collapsed in the last decade of the century. Zhao Tuo (Triệu Đà), one of the generals commissioned by the Qin Dynasty, gained control of the area in 207 BC and founded a kingdom called Nanyue (Southern Yue) in 204 BC. A few decades later, during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), Nanyue became a vassal state, and it operated independently of the Han Dynasty. Administered by the Chinese aristocracy, the state introduced Chinese administrative and cultural practices to the area. The bureaucracy is complex and pervasive, dependent on written transfers and record keeping. It can be safely assumed that a substantial number of speakers of the Yue languages have become familiar, if not completely proficient, with the Chinese script.^{[citation needed]} For the government to function, it must rely on Yue speakers who can speak and write Chinese. The identities of the various Yue languages are not known, but almost certainly include members of the Tai-Kadai and Mon-Khmer language families. Among the languages spoken in the Lingnan region that are similar to present-day Northern Vietnam is the ancestral language of present-day Vietnamese, Proto-Viet-Muong.

In BCE, the Han Dynasty conquered Nanyue, incorporating its territory directly into the imperial administrative system. And after quelling a Vietnamese uprising in 42 AD, an exodus of Han soldiers into the Red River Delta region of northern Vietnam created a community of Chinese-speaking families. For the next millennium, northern Vietnam was under continuous direct control of successive Chinese dynasties, with only brief interruptions, until the early 10th century AD. This area of Vietnam, centered on the Red River Delta, is known to the Chinese as Jiaozhi. Chinese writing was widespread throughout northern Vietnam during this intermediate period, as well as throughout the Chinese Empire.^[2] After independence in 938 AD, chữ Hán continued to be the main script of Vietnam (along with the chữ Nôm later) until the late 19th and early 20th centuries after the successful French invasion of Vietnam, the chữ Hán (along with the chữ Nôm) after being under the rule of the French, the two scripts gradually lost its position as the main writing of the Vietnamese people.

Pronunciations for characters

A comparison between Sino-Vietnamese (left) vocabulary with Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations below and native Vietnamese vocabulary (right).

Due to historical contact with Chinese characters before the adoption of Chinese characters and how they were adapted into Vietnamese. Multiple pronunciations can exist for a single character. While most characters usually have one or two pronunciations, some characters can have up to as many as four pronunciations and more. An example of this would be the character 行 hàng could have readings, hàng, hành, hãng, hạng, and hạnh.^[3] The readings typically depend on the context and definition of the word. If talking about a store or goods, the reading hàng would be used, but if talking about virtue, the reading hạnh would be used. But typically, knowing what pronunciations was not a large problem due to context. Pronunciations for chữ Hán, often classified into Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations and Non-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations. Non-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations are derived from Old Chinese and recent Chinese contact during the 17th-20th centuries when Chinese people migrated to Vietnam.^[4] Most of these pronunciations were food related as Cantonese Chinese had introduced their food into Vietnam. Borrowings from Old Chinese are referred to as Old-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations.

Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations (Cách đọc kiểu Hán Việt)

Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations are usually referred to as phiên âm Hán Việt (翻音漢越), which are Vietnamese systematic pronunciations of Middle Chinese characters.^[5] These readings were largely borrowed into Vietnamese during the late Tang Dynasty (618-907). Vietnamese scholars used Chinese rime dictionaries to derive consistent pronunciations for Chinese characters.^[6] After Vietnam had regained independence, its rulers sought to build the country on the Chinese model, during this time, Literary Chinese, or văn ngôn (文言), or Hán văn (漢文) was used for formal government documents.^[7]Around this, the Japanese and Koreans also borrowed large amount of characters into their languages and derived consistent pronunciations, these pronunciations are collectively known as the Sino-Xenic pronunciations.^[5]

Examples of multiple-borrowed Chinese words
Chinese (Old > Middle)	Old Sino-Vietnamese	Sino-Vietnamese
味 mjəts > mjɨjH*	mùi 'smell, odor'	vị 'flavor, taste'
婦 bjəʔ > bjuwX*	vợ 'wife'	phụ 'woman'
法 pjap > pjop*	phép 'rule, law'	pháp 'rule, law'
劍 *kams > kɨɐm^H	gươm 'sword'	kiếm 'sword'
鏡 *kraŋs > kˠiæŋ^H	gương 'mirror'	kính 'glass for windows, etc; eyeglasses'
茶 *rlaː > ɖˠa	chè 'tea or a dessert soup'	trà 'tea'
車 *kʰlja > t͡ɕʰia	xe 'wheeled vehicle'	xa 'rare form of xe'
夏 *ɡraːʔ > ɦˠa^X	hè 'summer'	hạ '(literary) summer'

Examples of Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations
Chinese characters	Standard Chinese	Cantonese	Sino-Vietnamese	Sino-Japanese	Sino-Korean
準備 'to prepare'	zhǔnbèi	zeon²bei⁶	chuẩn bị	junbi	junbi
電話 'telephone'	diànhuà	din⁶waa^6-2	điện thoại	denwa	jeonhwa
四 'four'	sì	sei³, si³	tứ, tư	shi	sa
人民 ' people'	rénmín	jan⁴man⁴	nhân dân	jinmin	inmin
地名 'place name'	dìmíng	dei⁶meng^4-2	địa danh	chimei	jimyeong
言語 'language'	yányǔ	jin⁴jyu⁵	ngôn ngữ	gengo	eoneo
中國 'China'	Zhōngguó	Zung¹gwok³	Trung Quốc	Chūgoku	Jungguk
日本 'Japan'	Rìběn	Jat⁶bun²	Nhật Bản	Nihon	Ilbon

Non-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations (Cách đọc kiểu Phi Hán Việt)

Non-Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations are pronunciations that were not consistently derived from Middle Chinese. Typically these readings came from Old Chinese, Cantonese, and other Chinese dialects. A lot of these pronunciations came from recent Cantonese migration to Vietnam during the 17th-20th centuries.^[4] The Cantonese eventually mostly settled down in Chợ Lớn.^[8] Where they introduced their cuisine to Vietnam. This allowed for many Cantonese words in become borrowed, most of these terms were food-related.


Chinese characters	Cantonese	Teochew	Vietnamese borrowing	Sino-Vietnamese
豉油 'soy sauce'	si⁶ jau⁴		xì dầu	thị du
點心 'dim sum, Cantonese food'	dim² sam¹		điểm sấm	điểm tâm
雲吞, 餛飩 'wonton'	wan⁴ tan¹, wan⁴ tan^4-1		vằn thắn, hoành thánh	vân thôn, hồn đồn
燒賣 'shumai'	siu¹ maai^6-2		xíu mại	thiêu mại
臘腸 'Chinese sausage; lap cheong'	laap⁶ coeng^4-2		lạp xưởng	lạp tràng
蝦餃 'har gow'	haa¹ gaau²		há cảo	hà giảo
水圓 'tangyuan'	seoi² jyun⁴		sủi dìn	thuỷ viên
叉燒 'char siu'	caa¹ siu¹		xá xíu	xoa thiêu
酸梅 'smoked plum'	syun¹ mui⁴		xí muội	toan mai
香港 'Hong Kong'	hoeng¹ gong²		Hồng Kông	Hương Cảng 'dated name'
我愛你 'I love you'	ngo⁵ oi³ nei⁵		ngộ ái nị 'humorous, is rarely used'	ngã ái nhĩ
薄餅 'popiah'		boh⁸ bian²	bò bía	bạc bánh
粿條 'kuyteav'		guê² diou⁵	hủ tiếu	quả điều
爐 'hotpot'		lou⁵	lẩu	lô
仙草 'grass jelly'		siêng¹ cao²	sương sáo	tiên thảo

Nôm pronunciations (Cách đọc kiểu Nôm)

Sometimes, characters that were phonetically close to a native Vietnamese word would be used as a chữ Nôm character.^[9] Most chữ Hán characters that were used for Vietnamese words were often used for their Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations rather than their meaning which could be completely different from the actual word being used. These characters were called chữ giả tá, due to them being borrowed phonetically. This was one reason why it was preferred to create a chữ Nôm character rather than using a chữ Hán character causing confusion between pronunciations.


Chinese character and Standard Chinese pronunciations	Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations	Sino-Vietnamese meaning	Nôm pronunciations	Nôm meaning
些 'xiē'	ta, tá	some; a few; a little; a bit	ta^[10]	I, me, we
朱 'zhū'	chu, châu	cinnabar; vermilion	cho^[11]	to give, to let, to put; for
別 'bié'	biệt	to divide; to separate	biết^[12]	to know
碎 'suì'	toái	shattered; fragmented; shredded	tôi^[13]	I, me
羅 'luó'	la	net for catching birds	là^[14]	to be, is
嘲 'cháo'	trào	to ridicule; to deride; to scorn; to jeer at	chào^[15]	hello, bye

Types of characters

Chữ Hán can be classified into the traditional classification for Chinese characters, this is called lục thư (六書, Chinese: liùshū), meaning six types of Chinese characters.

Chữ chỉ sự (𡨸指事) - Ideogram, an example would be 上 (thượng, “above”) and 下 (hạ, “below”).
Chữ tượng hình (𡨸象形) - Pictogram, an example would be 日 (nhật, "sun") and 木 (mộc, "tree").
Chữ hình thanh (𡨸形聲) - Phono-semantic compound, an example would be 地 (địa, "earth") which is made up of phonetic 也 (dã) and semantic 土 (thổ, "land").
Chữ hội ý (𡨸會意) - Compound ideographs, an example would be 明 (minh, "bright") which is made up of 日 (nhật, "sun") and 月 (nguyệt, “moon”).
Chữ chuyển chú (𡨸轉注) - Derivative cognates, least understood classification (vague classification), an example would that 老 (lão, "old") is a cognate of 考 (khảo, "to examine").
Chữ giả tá (𡨸假借) - Phonetic loan, an example would be 法 (Pháp, "France") is used for the name of France. Other European countries are also referred by a chữ giả tá like 德 (Đức, "Germany") and 意 (Ý, "Italy").

Simplification

This flag used by the Indochinese Communist Party, uses the simplified character, 党 (top right), instead of the traditional character đảng (黨) . The photo says Đảng Cộng sản Đông Dương 党共産東洋 (Indochinese Communist Party).

Some chữ Hán characters were simplified into variants of characters that were easier to write, but they are not the same simplified characters used by current-day Chinese. This means that Vietnamese simplified characters may differ from Chinese simplified characters, for example, the word 羅 is simplified into 罗 in Chinese, but it is different in Vietnamese, 𱺵 (⿱罒𪜀).^[16]

Another example would be the character 沒 which is simplified into 没 in Chinese and 𠬠 (⿱丷又) in Vietnamese^[17].

Là (𱺵) is the simplified character of là (羅)

Là (𱺵) used here in the Tale of Kieu, 6th character of the last row.

But some simplified characters from Chinese do exist, but these characters are rare in Vietnamese literature.

Symbols

In top of the page, the iteration mark 匕 is used, the sentence reads Ai ai lẳng lặng mà nghe (埃匕𠳺匕麻𦖑).

The character 匕 chuỷ is often used as a iteration mark to indicate the current chữ Hán character is to be repeated. This is used in words that use reduplication. Such as in the poem Lục Vân Tiên,^[18] the character 埃 (ai) is repeated twice in third line of the poem. It is written as 埃匕 to represent 埃埃 (ai ai).

Chữ Quốc ngữ
"Who who quietly listens?"

Ai	ai	lẳng	lặng	mà	nghe
埃	匕	𠳺	匕	麻	𦖑

The way the marker is used, is very similar to how Chinese and Japanese use the iteration marker 々. Japanese uses 々 as a iteration marker, like for example, 人人 (hitobito) would be written as 人々 (hitobito).

References

^ The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics. Routledge. April 26, 2018. p. 511. ISBN 978-1138657564. Discussing the history of translation in Vietnam without mentioning the history of the Vietnamese written languages would be a mistake because the systems of written language in Vietnam passed through three stages: Chữ Hán (Chinese characters), Nôm (ideograms specific to Vietnam) and Chữ quốc ngữ (modern Vietnamese, written using adapted Latinate scrpit.
^ Handel, Zev (2019). Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script. BRILL. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-9004386327.
^ "Tra từ: 行 - Từ điển Hán Nôm". Từ điển Hán Nôm.
^ ^a ^b Trần, Khánh (1993). The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789813016675.
^ ^a ^b Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
^ Alves, Mark (2009). Loanwords in Vietnamese. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5.
^ DeFrancis, John (1977). Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam. Mouton. ISBN 978-90-279-7643-7.
^ Shodhganga. Socio-Economic Background of the Hoa People. p. 34.
^ Li, Yu. The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00-069906-7.
^ "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.
^ "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.
^ "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.
^ "集案翁潘佩珠 • Tập án ông Phan Bội Châu". 1920.
^ "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.
^ "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1870". 1870.
^ Nguyễn, Du. "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1872". Nôm Foundation.
^ Nguyễn, Du. "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1902". Nôm Foundation.
^ Nguyễn, Đình Chiểu. "Vân Tiên Cổ Tích Tân Truyện - 雲僊古跡新傳". Nôm Foundation.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

[1] The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics. Routledge. April 26, 2018. p. 511. ISBN 978-1138657564. Discussing the history of translation in Vietnam without mentioning the history of the Vietnamese written languages would be a mistake because the systems of written language in Vietnam passed through three stages: Chữ Hán (Chinese characters), Nôm (ideograms specific to Vietnam) and Chữ quốc ngữ (modern Vietnamese, written using adapted Latinate scrpit.

[2] Handel, Zev (2019). Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script. BRILL. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-9004386327.

[3] "Tra từ: 行 - Từ điển Hán Nôm". Từ điển Hán Nôm.

[:0-4] Trần, Khánh (1993). The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789813016675.

[:1-5] Norman, Jerry (1988). Chinese. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.

[6] Alves, Mark (2009). Loanwords in Vietnamese. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5.

[7] DeFrancis, John (1977). Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam. Mouton. ISBN 978-90-279-7643-7.

[8] Shodhganga. Socio-Economic Background of the Hoa People. p. 34.

[9] Li, Yu. The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00-069906-7.

[10] "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.

[11] "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.

[12] "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.

[13] "集案翁潘佩珠 • Tập án ông Phan Bội Châu". 1920.

[14] "彌勒真經演音 • Di Lặc chân kinh diễn âm". 1944.

[15] "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1870". 1870.

[16] Nguyễn, Du. "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1872". Nôm Foundation.

[17] Nguyễn, Du. "TRUYỆN KIỀU BẢN 1902". Nôm Foundation.

[18] Nguyễn, Đình Chiểu. "Vân Tiên Cổ Tích Tân Truyện - 雲僊古跡新傳". Nôm Foundation.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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