It’s a mess again! Is the road “long” or “slow”? Here’s what the experts say →

Is it "Therefore, Heaven will give great responsibility to this person" or "Therefore, Heaven will give great responsibility to this person"? This matter just "argued" to the top of Weibo's hot search last week.

According to Qianjiang Evening News, someone discovered that there was a similar controversy in another well-known ancient Chinese text: Is it "The road is long and arduous" or "The road is long and arduous"?

Recently, when a junior high school Chinese teacher in Hangzhou was preparing for class, a line of poetry in the Chinese textbook, "The road is long and far, I will search up and down," made her heart skip a beat.

People's Education Press Chinese Textbook Grade 9 Volume 1 2018 Edition

Out of curiosity, she decided to "search" for it. She found the previous version of the Chinese textbook and found that the word "Man" was also used. She also searched for previous journals and magazines and found that there have been discussions about "Manman" and "Manman".

The reporter checked some of the "Chuci" books currently in bookstores and found that both "Man" and "Man" appeared. In recent newspapers and magazines, "Man" is used more often.

Chuci, translated and annotated by Lin Jiali, Zhonghua Book Company, 2016 edition

Selections from Chuci, Selected and translated by Lu Kanru and Gong Kechang, People's Literature Publishing House, 2014 edition

"Chuci Interpretation" by Chen Lun, published by Zhonghua Book Company in 2018

"Chu Ci: New Notes, New Translations and Illustrations" Annotated by Guan Pengfei, Wanjuan Publishing Company, 2019 edition

For this purpose, the reporter consulted Lin Jiali, an expert in Chuci studies, professor of Zhejiang University College of Literature, and doctoral supervisor. Professor Lin is the deputy director of the Chuci Studies Research Center of Zhejiang University, vice president of the Chinese Qu Yuan Society, and translated and annotated the Zhonghua Book Company edition of Chuci.

Professor Lin said that it is OK to use either "曼" or "漫". "In ancient Chinese, the phenomenon of characters being interchangeable is very common. There is no need to worry about it. Both '曼' and '漫' can be used."

A careful analysis shows that "曼" is the original character and "漫" is a colloquial loan character. The two characters "曼" and "漫" can be used interchangeably. The earliest copy of "Chu Ci" uses "曼", the Tang Dynasty's "Wenxuan Jizhu" and "Wenxuan" You Mao's engraved version uses "曼", the "Wenxuan" Chen Balang version and "Wenxuan" Liu Chen's annotations use "漫", and Song Hong Xingzu's "Chu Ci Buzhu" and Zhu Xi's "Chu Ci Jizhu" all note: "曼, also written as 漫". Later, Qian Gaozhi's version, Huang Shengzeng's version, Zhu Duoying's version, Mao Jin's version, Zhuang Yunyi's version are all "the same as Hong's version", and so on.

Source: China Youth Daily