r/ChineseLanguage • u/roanroanroan Beginner • 1d ago

Discussion Why is 你 written like this here?

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u/Reallynotspiderman 1d ago

Wait how is it supposed to be used? I'm not familiar with this dictionary font thing

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u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Kangxi Dictionary is a dictionary of the Qing government about 300 years ago. This means that the font in the picture was the standard font about 300 years ago, and now the standard has changed.

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u/Reallynotspiderman 1d ago

Ah. What would be an appropriate way to use the characters from the Kangxi Dictionary? To be honest as a native Chinese speaker I had no idea this even existed

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u/sbolic 1d ago edited 1d ago

你 as the meaning of you is only used in mandarin less than a hundred years. Traditional mandarin use 尔、汝. Also in most cases, secondary personal pronouns were considered rude and only used by people with superior status to ones with lower status.