Social:Chữ Hán

Short description: Chinese characters used in the Vietnamese traditional writing system

Chữ Hán
Chữ Hán (chữ Nho, Hán tự) written in chữ Hán, mixed Hán-Nôm, with Chữ Quốc ngữ in ruby
Type	Logographic
Languages	Old Vietnamese, Literary Chinese, Vietnamese
Time period	3rd Century BC – 20th Century AD
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

Chữ Hán (𡨸漢, literally "Han 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]), are the Vietnamese terms for Chinese characters, used to write Literary Chinese (Known as Hán văn 漢文 or văn ngôn 文言 in Vietnamese) 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) where usage of Literary Chinese was abolished alongside the Confucian court examinations.

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

After the conquest of Nányuè (Chinese: 南越; Vietnamese: Nam Việt), parts of modern day Northern Vietnam were incorporated into the Jiāozhǐ province (Chinese: 交趾; Vietnamese: Giao Chỉ) of the Hàn dynasty. It was during this era, that the Red River Delta was under direct Chinese rule for about a millennium. Around this time, Chinese characters became widespread in Northern Vietnam. Government documents, literature, and religious texts such as Buddhist sutras were all written in Literary Chinese (Vietnamese: Hán văn). From independence from China and onward, Literary Chinese still remained as the official language for writing whether if it was government documents or literature. While literature in Vietnamese (written with chữ Nôm) was the minority. Literature such as Nam quốc sơn hà (Literary Chinese: 南國山河) and Long thành cầm giả ca (Literary Chinese: 龍城琴者歌) being written with Chinese characters. With every new dynasty with the exception of two dynasties, Literary Chinese and thus Chinese characters remained in common usage.

It was until in the 20th century that Chinese characters alongside chữ Nôm began to fall into disuse. The French Indochinese administration sought to civilise and modernise Vietnam by abolishing the Confucian court examinations. During this time, the French language was used for the administration. The French officials favoured Vietnamese being written in the Vietnamese alphabet.

Today, Chinese characters can still be seen adorned in temples and old buildings. During Tết, some couplets will be written in Chinese characters wishing prosperity and longevity.

Names

In Vietnam, many provinces and cities have names that come from Sino-Vietnamese words and were written using Chinese characters. This was done because the government administration needed to have a way to write down these names, as native names didn't have characters. Even well-known places like Hanoi (河內) and Huế (化) were written in Chinese characters. Often, villages only had one word names in Vietnamese.

Some Sino-Vietnamese names were translated from their original names, like Tam Điệp Quan (三疊關) being the Sino-Vietnamese name for Đèo Ba Dội.

Place names

Chinese characters	tên Chữ (Sino-Vietnamese name)	tên Nôm (Vietnamese name)
河內	Hà Nội	Kẻ Chợ
紅河	Hồng Hà	Sông Cái
嘉定	Gia Định	Sài Gòn
傘園山	Tản Viên Sơn	Núi Ba Vì

Practically all surnames in Vietnamese are Sino-Vietnamese words, they were once written in Chinese characters. Such names include Nguyễn 阮, Trần 陳, Lê 黎, Lý 李, etc.

The village gate of Ước Lễ, can still be seen adorned with Chinese characters. The characters read 約禮門 (Vietnamese: Ước Lễ Môn)

Readings for characters

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

Owing to historical contact with Chinese characters before the adoption of Chinese characters and how they were adapted into Vietnamese, multiple readings 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 – which could have the readings hàng, hành, hãng, hạng, and hạnh. 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 readings was not a large problem due to context and compound words. Readings for chữ Hán, often classified into Sino-Vietnamese readings and Non-Sino-Vietnamese readings. Non-Sino-Vietnamese readings are derived from Old Chinese and recent Chinese borrowings during the 17th–20th centuries when Chinese people migrated to Vietnam. Most of these readings were food related as Cantonese Chinese had introduced their food into Vietnam. Borrowings from Old Chinese are also referred to as Early Sino-Vietnamese pronunciations according to Mark Alves.

Sino-Vietnamese readings

Sino-Vietnamese readings are usually referred to as âm Hán Việt (音漢越; literally "sound Sino-Vietnamese"), which are Vietnamese systematic pronunciations of Middle Chinese characters. 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. After Vietnam had regained independence, its rulers sought to build the country on the Chinese model, during this time, Literary Chinese was used for formal government documents. 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.

Examples of multiple-borrowed Chinese words

Chinese (Old > Middle)	Early 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 > kɨɐmH	gươm 'sword'	kiếm 'sword'
鏡 *kraŋs > kˠiæŋH	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 > ɦˠaX	hè 'summer'	hạ '(literary) summer'

Examples of Sino-Vietnamese readings

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	din6waa6-2	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	dei6meng4-2	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 readings

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. Most of the Cantonese eventually settled down in Chợ Lớn, and they introduced their cuisine to Vietnam. Thus, many Cantonese borrowings in Vietnamese are 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 tan4-1		vằn thắn, hoành thánh	vân thôn, hồn đồn
燒賣 'shumai'	siu1 maai6-2		xíu mại	thiêu mại
臘腸 'Chinese sausage; lap cheong'	laap6 coeng4-2		lạp xưởng	lạp tràng/trường
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 readings

Sometimes, characters that were phonetically close to a native Vietnamese word would be used as a chữ Nôm character. 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	I, me, we
朱 'zhū'	chu, châu	cinnabar; vermilion	cho	to give, to let, to put; for
別 'bié'	biệt	to divide; to separate	biết	to know
碎 'suì'	toái	shattered; fragmented; shredded	tôi	I, me
羅 'luó'	la	net for catching birds	là	to be, is
嘲 'cháo'	trào	to ridicule; to deride; to scorn; to jeer at	chào	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, characters that were derived from other characters with similar meaning, 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).

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

Là (𱺵) used here in the Tale of Kieu, 6th character from the top in the line to the right.

Some characters matching Simplified 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, 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 (which was also historically used). Japanese uses 々 as an iteration marker, like for example, 人人 (hitobito) would be written as 人々 (hitobito).

See also

• Chữ Nôm
• Literary Chinese in Vietnam
• History of writing in Vietnam
• Chinese characters
• East Asian cultural sphere
• Kanji – Japanese equivalent of Chinese characters
• Hanja – Korean equivalent of Chinese characters
• Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary