1) so 天 it means sky, and heaven. but does this form of heaven mean like "the heavens opened and it rained" or like god angels and that kind of stuff?
2) 牆 which means wall. now does that mean like the four walls of a house? or like a city wall, or the great wall?
3) What is the difference between 云 and 曰. they both mean "to say", but what's the difference?
4) in this text i was reading they put the character for person just after the the character for neighbor and just before father. why would they doe this confusing thing. couldn't they just say "neighborer's father"?
Questions
First, I'd like to recommend an excellent online Chinese dictionary to you:
《中華民國教育部國語辭典》
http://140.111.34.46/dict/
1. 天 can refer to both, although "heaven" in the Christian/Jewish/Islamic sense is usually referred to as 天堂. For the many other meanings of 天 please search the dictionary listed above.
2. 牆 can refer to any wall-like structure.
牆壁 wall of a house, etc.
城牆 a city wall
牆面 the face of the wall
The Great Wall is called 萬里長城 or just 長城. If you're on the wall, then you wouldn't call the wall a 牆, but if you're outside facing a section of the wall, then you could call that a 牆.
3.
曰 - to say; to be called; etc.
generally functions as a transitive verb
e.g. 子曰 Confucius says, 名曰 to be called
云 - to say; to have; etc.
functions both as a transitive verb and as an intransitive verb
e.g. 不知所云 to not understand what someone is saying, 人云亦云 to repeat one someone else says
4. The 人 is optional. You might have been reading the following excerpt from 《列子．說符》:
《中華民國教育部國語辭典》
http://140.111.34.46/dict/
1. 天 can refer to both, although "heaven" in the Christian/Jewish/Islamic sense is usually referred to as 天堂. For the many other meanings of 天 please search the dictionary listed above.
2. 牆 can refer to any wall-like structure.
牆壁 wall of a house, etc.
城牆 a city wall
牆面 the face of the wall
The Great Wall is called 萬里長城 or just 長城. If you're on the wall, then you wouldn't call the wall a 牆, but if you're outside facing a section of the wall, then you could call that a 牆.
3.
曰 - to say; to be called; etc.
generally functions as a transitive verb
e.g. 子曰 Confucius says, 名曰 to be called
云 - to say; to have; etc.
functions both as a transitive verb and as an intransitive verb
e.g. 不知所云 to not understand what someone is saying, 人云亦云 to repeat one someone else says
4. The 人 is optional. You might have been reading the following excerpt from 《列子．說符》:
The same story also appears in 《呂氏春秋．去宥》, but without the 人:人有枯梧樹者，其鄰父言枯梧之樹不祥，其鄰人遽而伐之。鄰人父因請以為薪。其人乃不悅，曰：「鄰人之父徒欲為薪而教吾伐之也。與我鄰，若此其險，豈可哉？」
(note: 說 here is a variant of 悅)鄰父有與人鄰者，有枯梧樹。其鄰之父言梧樹之不善也，鄰人遽伐之。鄰父因請而以為薪。其人不說，曰：「鄰者若此其險也，豈可為之鄰哉？」此有所宥也。
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SandyS_CHINA
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