Tachibana "Orange"

Tachibana Orange

#tachibana #citrus #orange #kitsu #mandarin

Modern #Chinese uses this #hanzi to describe Tangerines and Oranges and Mandarins and probably just small oranges in earlier time? 

In #Japanese though the #kanji is Tachibana a subspecies of Citrus.

However in Vietnam if I can trust my dictionaries the archaic form *gwuit developed a semantic split with one word used to describe the citrus fruit we call kumquats and the other pronunciation for mandarin oranges.

Part of the reason are this is the quest for a small edible sweet orange. 

Citrus growers in China and Japan hybridised varieties to create the range of fruits we have today.

Apparently the native Tachibana "mandarin" / orange was grown for its peel and flowers with the peel and rind used for medicines and the flowers for their scent. 

I will be sharing some poems about the scent of orange blossom in the next posts. 

Summer Heat

Two characters for Summer and Summer Heat

Xia Summer

XIA SUMMER

#xia #summer #hanzi #kanji, #inkscape, #unihan, #technozi,

This is two objects overlapping one a lower layer and slightly larger and the top with filters added.

#cherry #hanzi #kanji #asianlanguages

Despite it being winter in my area a couple of local cherry trees are blooming in my area so

Copyright Julie Vaux 2017
You are welcome to share this for educational purposes
but please include a link back to my blog and a note that this diagram is copyright to me
 since sometime in the future I plan to compile these technozi into a book

LOVE LOVE LOVE

#ai #unihan #love #inkscape

Next week is Valentine's day so here's a medley of AI #technozi for inspiration

All these images are PNGS you can edit and  use

Copyright Julie Vaux 2017 

I also have a few AI LUV rewards up on #patreon 

I have so far uploaded one freebie and one low tier ONLY A DOLLAR reward

for every 50 dollars in pledges  I get towards my goal I will upload another reward!

https://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

CHICKENS!

As its #Lunar #ASIAN #new #year in Friday or Saturday depending on where you are BIRDS will be a major theme in posts this year.

And it is the year of the Fire Rooster so check my Patreon page for some low tier Technozi!

copyright julie vaux 2017 

Want to do the online equivalent of a red envelope ? Don't like using paypal?

Support me on https://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

Cicadas

#cicada #hanzi #technozi #card #unihan #kanji

This is a bump with a few small edits of an older post that has become seasonally relevant !

Continuing the #cicada theme since its summer in my hemisphere

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016  

A note on the Vietnamese. Some dictionaries list the Vietnamese NON sinitic word and not the SV SinoVietnamese "Literary"  equivalent so this is one case of Sinitic loanwords not dominating the Austroasiatic original ! Japanese haiku poets also prefer to use SEMI over SJ SinoJapnese SEN.

Two Purple adjectives

There are two other lesser known adjectives for purple in Chinese but I couldnt do a complete set so if any one knows the missing words?

AUTUMN HANZI

#OCTOBER #spring #autumn
Alternating between the two since its #spring in my Hemisphere but #autumn up north

Copyright J.Vaux 2016 

New Technozi Series Plums !

The next #technozi series will be on the topic of #plums #plum #plumblossom

the #plum in art and poetry particularly #haiku and of course #hanzi / #kanji too

Don't forget there are two separate characters one for the tree and another for the fruit and blossom. Please Follow this blog or follow me on Google Plus or Twitter  to get notifications of exactly when I add new posts to this series.

Thank You

RHINO XI

#rhino #unihan #hanzi #asian languages 

yes I have not forgotten I said I would post about Chinese sculpture 1

Regard this as a footnote to the previous post!

I'm also experimenting with a new card format!

Note how the ideogram refers to rhinos as a browser / grazer and the top part of the character while not being the character for nose reminds one of a rhino's most dominant feature the nose horn which is what rhinoceros literally is in Greek!

I'm not earning much from Google Adsense so 

I am now on Patreon !

Why pledge on Patreon? I nearly have enough posts to do either a book of Technozi or a book on Chinese or Japanese art ... however paying for PR helps with payment on the web and sales so Patreon Pledges while I'm editing! 

You can also support this blog via 

paypal.me/JulieVaux

Thank You 

CHERRIES YING

#cherry #cherries #sakura #hanzi #kanji #flower #tree

Its Cherry Blossom Season in #japan so todays #kanji #hanzi

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016

Support me via PayPal.me/JulieVaux 

Or PATREON PLEDGE ME

 http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

QUAKE

There are two things many people are thinking about when thinking of #Japan lately ... no the debate about the Ghost in the Shell casting is not one of them for me ... I'm thinking the top two are the #SAKURA SEASON and the recent #EARTHQUAKES in #Kyushu.

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016 

An observation about the CHEN character used for the Phonetic.

Remember one of its names was Small Dragon and took a look at the seal script form if you have a reference book.

Earth Dragons who might cause tremors were regarded as lesser than celestial dragons.

This character is also an ideograph?

Lacquer as a Verb

LACQUER AS A VERB

#hanzi #kanji #nurimono #lacquer #japanese #chinese

Copyright Julie Vaux 2016

 

TWO CATS

#twocats #chinese #cats #hanzi #japanese #asianlanguage

Copyright Julie Vaux 2015 

Note the elements of this character: the cat is a ferocious small predator that comes near rice fields or the dog/ animal + rice field 

I wonder if cats once hunted snakes and eels and other food in rice paddies?

Support me via PayPal.me/JulieVaux 

Or PATREON PLEDGE ME

 http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

FOX Character

#Fox #hanzi #kanji #kitsune

Copyright Julie Vaux 2015 

REIKO Spirit Fox or Clever Girl?

#smstirling #Changeverse #kanji

In The Golden Princess an #alternatehistory #Sf novel by S. M. Stirling there's a character whose name is an excellent example of how one character can have different meanings!

I promised my fellow Changeverse fans a post explaining How Reiko could perceive her name as meaning Ghost Fox but Orlaith heard it as Clever/ beautiful lady/girl.

Now there are several combinations of kana and kanji that could write the sounds REI + KO.

Normally in modern Japanese in a girls name KO is the tzu character meaning child though there seems to be a shift away from this practice with some adult women shortening their names to one character.

Lets see the characters I think REIKO would use to write her name on a Personal seal used for private correspondence or poetry.

Copyright Julie Vaux 2015 

In chinese this would be Ling Hu or Leng wu in Cantonese ?

The REi character has several meanings quick clever beautiful intelligent supernatural spirit ghost and its KUN readings is TAMA which means jewel and spirit so Reiko's childhood name could have been Tamako and then changed to Reiko as an adult? Her actual REIGN name will probably be something different.

Here's the traditional form next to the modern form on the right.

Copyright Julie Vaux 2015  

I'll show you the character for Fox with more info in a subsequent post soon!

Fellow Stirling fans please help me out but not just sharing this post but also referring people to my Red Bubble site? Thanks?

4 Phoenixes

Copyright Julie Vaux 2015

More Phoenixes! I've included the Unicode so if you don't like this font you can use the code to generate svgs in a different font.

Support me via PayPal.me/JulieVaux 

Or PATREON PLEDGE ME

 http://www.patreon.com/JVartndesign

Copyright Julie Vaux 2014

I have a question for my few and faithful readers?

I'm thinking horse plus horse implies that atame horse is not one fresh from Central Asia or the Steppes but a horse of the Riverlands and valleys of Northern China.

I'ld be interested in learning if there was ever a variant of this character in which instead of river the sign of a prefecture or province showing dots between the strokes was used?

BROCADE NISHIKI

BROCADE is the theme for  my next sequence of  Technozi posts.

Starting with this card and then some Japanese Heian waka using the word.

Copyright Julie Vaux 2014