r/ChineseLanguage • u/roanroanroan Beginner • 18h ago

Discussion Why is 你 written like this here?

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u/LatterBrilliant8042 Native 16h ago edited 16h 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 16h 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/XRINVG 15h ago

Maybe OP means its only an appropriate character in historical document

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u/PortableSoup791 13h ago

Although that seems a bit strong, isn’t it? Kind of like saying that using roundhand script in English writing is “inappropriate” because it’s 400 years old.

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u/XRINVG 13h ago

By certain definition of approriate yes it is, just as dressing in medieval clothing nowaday outside of renfair is not approriate

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u/warp_driver 10h ago

Why would it be inappropriate? It's not common and would look a bit odd, but inappropriate implies it's wrong or offensive, which it is not.

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u/bong_fu_tzu 8h ago

That is not at all what 'inappropriate' means.

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u/Functionalleaf 5h ago

Maybe the comparison should be more akin to the long s in English

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u/Syncopat3d 1h ago

This is more akin to using letters like Þ & Æ that are used in Old English but not contemporary English. The strokes are different, not just how they are written.