South 중학교 2학년 Classical Chinese

Chapters: 2

1. Characters and vocabulary

Shape, sound and meaning of characters · How characters were formed · Structure of words · Reading words and idioms · Using idioms in context · Culture of the character-using world

East Asian Culture: What China, Korea and Japan Share – China, Korea and Japan speak different languages, but for about two thousand years they shared a writing system based on Chinese characters (hanzi in China, hanja in Korea, kanji in Japan), and many ideas: Confucian values of family and study, Buddhism that came from India, paper and printing, and the lunar calendar. Each place changed what it borrowed: Korea created its own alphabet (hangul, 1443) and Japan made kana from characters. Scholars wrote in classical Chinese, so books travelled far, and records such as the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and the Tripitaka Koreana keep this heritage alive today. Many words are built from the same characters, so they sound alike in all three languages (for example telephone: diànhuà, jeonhwa, denwa). But some words are false friends: same characters, different meaning. Learning both the shared part and the local part is the key to understanding the region.

2. Sentences

Sentence structures · Reading aloud with meaning · Translating correctly · Main idea of a passage · Wisdom of earlier thinkers · Value of traditional culture

Classical Wisdom: Old Words, New Lives – Classics are old texts that people keep reading because their ideas still help. Thinkers in China, India, Greece and elsewhere left short sayings about learning, effort, kindness and living with nature. Many idioms are whole old stories squeezed into a few words. To read a classic, find who said it, when and why, put it into today's words, test whether it is still true, and use it in your own life. Respecting tradition does not mean accepting every old idea: we keep what is wise and question what is unfair.