About this title: This Chinese-English dictionary of proverbs (yanyu) consists of approximately 4,000 Chinese proverbs alphabetically arranged by the first word(s) (ci) of the proverb according to the Hanyu Pinyin transcription and Chinese characters (standard simplified), followed by a literal (and when necessary also a figurative) English translation. Additional ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
"This is a really great book for anyone learning Chinese or simply interested in Chinese culture. I have been studying Chinese for over 15 years now, and I can honestly say that no book has "tied it all together" for me the way this one has. The ABC Directory of Chinese Proverbs (Yan Yu) is an extremely well organized and easy to reference collection of the most important Proverbs from Chinese antiquity to present times. In the introduction the author discusses the differences between these proverbs, which are essentially whole-sentence spoken packets of meaning that originated mostly among the uneducated peasants and have relevance to people within specific regions of China, from Chinese Idioms, which are the famous 4 character packets of meaning usually found in written form among the ancient texts, and therefore well understood among the more educated population.
The Proverbs are presented in Pinyin, Traditional Characters, and English, and are alphabetized on a strict character by character basis using pinyin romanization, so the first Proverb is "Ai fan, you fan..." while the last proverb in the book is "Zuo zhe bu ju..." Each proverb is given both a literal and figurative explantion, where applicable, and the pinyin romanization includes tonal punctuation marks for precise pronunciation. The book is also divided into tabbed sections of the alphabet from A to Z, making it altogether extremely simple to find any proverb in the book.
The introduction is exceptionally well written, with clear concise explanations of the differences between all of the different kinds of "Chinese sayings" and how the Proverbs in this book stand out from the rest. As a westerner interested in the Chinese language I found this book to be indispensable. I typically spend about a half an hour at a time studying a half a dozen proverbs, and the pictures that they paint in the mind is so vivid that the proverbs, and the characters representing them are never forgotten. In itself this book will not teach you how to speak Chinese, but it will certainly help you to understand Chinese sayings, both in written and spoken form. I think this book would be a great purchase even at $30, and I only wish I had found it 15 years ago!"
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