#stems and branches | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

qihejiu · 11 months ago

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I'm hoping in the future to make posts like the OG tags regarding what Chinese vocabulary I do know, so look forward to it! Likewise for some of my thoughts on writing Chinese in English regarding things like punctuation, grammar, romanization systems, etc. as an American English speaker for fellow American English speakers instead of as a Chinese speaker for any of the varied Chinese speaking communities of the world.

@yummysuika @ospreywhite I really appreciate your translation work; can you explain more about shichen timekeeping to me? Because I know a tiny bit of modern Mandarin Chinese, but I can't recognize the shichens as the zodiac animals:

Zi (I don't know "rat", so I actually can't make any argument here.)

Chou (I don't know "ox", but I reasonably could have expected "niu" for "cow".)

Yin (I know "tiger" as "hu".)

Mao (I don't know "rabbit", but to me "mao" is "cat".)

Chen (I know "dragon" as "long".)

Si (I don't know "snake", but now I find it interesting that it sounds like death, like snakes could be seen as evil in Chinese culture similar to how they are seen in the Christian world.)

Wu (I know "horse" as "ma".)

Wei (I know "sheep/goat" as "yang".)

Shen (I don't know "monkey", but I would have expected "Sun" or "Wu" or "Kong" because of "Monkey King".)

You (I know "rooster/chicken" as " ji".)

Xu (I know "dog" as "gou".)

Hai (I don't know "pig/boar" unless "pork" and "pig" are the same "siu".)

I tried asking my parents, but they just starting talking about how the Chinese zodiac is actually a 60-year cycle with the 12 animals and the 5 elements. So are these shichen names the "Pre-Han dynasty semi-descriptive terms"? Is it kind of like the difference between "midday" and "noon" in English? The former is a "descriptor", the latter is a "name", but they "mean" the same thing?

(I tried checking the etymology for "noon" on dictionary.com, so to be fair "ninth hour" is a descriptor, but in Modern English it's not really recognizable as such and so for the sake of my shichen question, I'm calling "noon" a "name".)

Or is this another language/dialect or due to the evolution of language (changing words and pronunciations)?

I was also looking up the Dragon Boat Festival being on the unluckiest day of the year, and it says, "The Chinese name of the festival is pronounced differently in different Chinese languages. Duanwu (端午) literally means 'starting horse'—i.e., the first "horse day" of the month according to the Chinese zodiac." so I was able to get the exact character for "wu". I think it's interesting that Wikipedia says "literally ... horse" but putting 午 into Google Translate yields "midday, noonday, seventh earthly branch, 11 a.m.-1 p.m." It's unfortunate that Wikipedia only says "different Chinese languages" for "Duanwu" instead of specifying them or time periods, but I appreciate it listing different romanizations by country for Cantonese.

Would you say there's any pattern to Chinese writers or English translators using the above terms vs. using "hour/time/head/body/tail of the (insert zodiac animal here)"? Like if one sounds better for a historical fantasy setting, or choosing to use the pinyin in English instead of translating to not be translating literally? ETA: I should have gotten onto a computer sooner. I asked my parents and then you guys because searching "shichen" in Wikipedia just resulted in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement. But further digging took me to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_timekeeping. I'll probably get answers there (Maybe I'll even be able to explain to my dad why he was thinking of ten stems and not matching mathematically with "60 is from 12 times 5, not 10 times 6" when he was trying to lecture on the 60-year cycle for the Chinese zodiac, lol.), so my apologies for bothering you. I'd still appreciate your thoughts on what was formerly the last paragraph about writing and translation choices!

#timekeeping #shichen #Chinese zodiac #vocabulary #Chinese calendar #stems and branches #heavenly stems and earthly branches #Dragon Boat Festival #Duanwu #main

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superdupersketcher-booper · 7 months ago

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I made this instead of Studying for my final Tomorrow, Oop

Anyway, have some Serotonin:✨💖✨

#trolls #dreamworks trolls #trolls poppy #trolls branch #trolls broppy #broppy #lmao #trolls meme #yasss queen #I love her #slay 💅#popcorn #trolls queen poppy #she’s so silly #I need to go Study for my Chemistry final now #wish me luck🤙#why the heck is it called chemistry and not phenology or somthn???#scientists are weird-#-I say as a STEM major

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gatekeeper-of-witchcraft · 2 months ago

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tucking a jar in my cleavage so I can hold a branch down with one hand and pick spruce tips with the other

#women in stem #woman in branch

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prince-liest · 3 months ago

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NEW ORCHID! She's so pretty. Gonna try putting her in LECA for semi-hydroponic watering.

#personal #plantblogging #orchids #phalaenopsis #she has little secondary branch starting up off the main stem too #floriferous!!

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teddy-bear-naps-and-random-snaps · 9 months ago

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potatoesandsunshine · 12 hours ago

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deep in the weeds with it i fear

#when i do these it's very helpful to have notes to return to. but making them means making Decisions.#the ongoing tale of my hobbies #in the pattern both the moon outline and branch are backstitch #which don't get me wrong. that's easier. but as long as there's a continuity of stitches it should be fine?????#i think it's gonna look nicer stem...

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landwriter · 1 year ago

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a ponderosa pine through binoculars

#outside the cabin #nature #woods #love it when clouds come through and highlight individual trees on the mountain #does take not seeing the forest for the trees to a new level #can't see the trees for trees honestly #they're simply too tall up close to be recognized by their canopies from afar #maybe i've been to this tree! maybe i haven't!#great example of spiral grain as well - the twisting of the branches #it's visible on the barkless stems as well & considered an adaptation in harsh environments - stronger against snow load #based on the crown and growth plates in this pic i would hazard it's >100 years old #pretty neat! that's a lot of storms and fires to survive #ponderosa pine i love you <3

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t-u-i-t-c · 3 months ago

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thought about ryoga shindai too much

#no one gets him like i do #do you understand that he grew up being taught to repress his feelings and to distrust people outside the guild and devote himself entirely #to his duty? do you get that he isn't capable of making connections due to his isolation and devotion?#do you get that he's awkward due to it being drilled into him that he must remain stoic and cold?#do you get that him wanting reika not to be a swordsman stems from her being the only solid connection he has in the world and he doesn't #want anything bad to happen to her? do you get that they have codependency issues that were built up as a method of control?#do you understand that ryoga craves kindness? but he cannot say it so openly that he cannot stray completely from his teachings and from th #way he has been brought up? no it is far too complicated and the poison runs deep but he's trying and he's healing and god does he want #reika to be able to heal and live peacefully #she's his sister so he wants her to be safe but she wants him to be safe too bc they're family and they're all each other has had for a lon #time but they are going to branch out and become less dependent and learn what it means to be their own people it's just going to take time #i have a lot of thoughts about this like ik they get watered down to just have complexes but i really feel it's far deeper than that #i also feel ryoga has some biases to reflect upon but that's another story #kr saber lb #kr lb #umbrella.thoughts #umbrella.posts

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pomegraniter · 12 days ago

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accrescent

#not my character #ROOTquest #rootcomic #root rootcomic #root #branch rootcomic #branch #stem rootcomic #stem #circe rootcomic #circe

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sarasparrowx · 23 days ago

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Cornflower

View On WordPress

#black #blue #bokeh #branch #brown #bud #bush #close up #cornflower #flower #garden #green #macro #photography #plant #purple #stem #tree

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blackwaxidol · 2 months ago

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Wakes up from a nap. Walks downstairs to grab pruning shears. Prunes a branch from my jade plant. Goes back to sleep.

#My tolerance for its ugliness has reached the limit.#I don't like long branches.#I can't take off more than one branch at a time because it doesn't have enough going on to have that be acceptable.#So I have to play the long con.#Prune a branch close to the main stem and then pinch off all attempts at new leaf growth.#Which is understood to the plant as me giving it a new objective: 'grow where I fucking tell you to'.

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telemachea · 2 months ago

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i hate the people who think that only the sciences can advance society. like wow thank you for being so soulless you can't imagine progress in anything other than statistics and facts

#about my father #“classics is such a useless subject”#yeah then tell me why it has influenced the mechanisms of western society and beyond for thousands of years #to study the humanities is to study the society we live in and learn its flaws #im not saying the push in stem is why people no longer have critical thinking skills but yeah #actually ai demonstrates this problem very obviously and succinctly #like babes. this is why you believe that vaccines cause autism #bc you somehow believe that the sciences are a foundation of truth and not a branch of the humanities #rambles

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chika-nyan · 8 months ago

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It’s almost borth time, you know what that means! Yet another goofy BR31 ice cream cake picking time 8U)b