In the process of learning ancient prose, we often come across some words expressing age appellation, such as "weak crown" and "hard work". Students are often confused about this. In fact, there are many words like this, which we must know in the process of learning ancient Chinese. The ancient age appellation came from different sources, most of them were named according to the physiological characteristics of different ages, but some of them followed the words of their predecessors and became fixed names.
Of all age appellation, the title "ninety" is the most interesting. Or "mackerel back", mackerel is a kind of fish, and the stripes on its back are like the wrinkled skin of an old man. . In old age, senile spots appear on the skin, such as the skin of frozen pears, so it is also called "frozen pears".
There are also names based on physiological characteristics, for example, people are called "babies" at birth because they need to be held on their chests to feed them. Babies can pass fake, fake breasts. A baby is a child held on his chest. Seven-year-old is not only called "mourning", but also called "losing teeth", so it is called because it is the period of changing teeth. Fifteen years old is called "child" and "when there is no vegetation on the mountain, it is called" child ". Ancient 16 years old adult, 15 years old men were not crowned, women were not crowned. Metaphor is used here.
In addition, what we often say now is "the year of establishment", "the year of no doubt" and "the year of know life" come from the records in The Analects of Confucius: "Confucius said: Five out of ten are determined to learn, thirty are standing, forty are not confused, fifty know the destiny, sixty are obedient, and seventy are not willing to leave."
The Book of Rites, compiled by Dai Sheng, a Han Chinese, said: "Life is ten years old, twenty weak, thirty strong, forty strong, fifty ai, sixty, eighty and ninety years old." Among them, there is also the saying that you are guilty for years. However, later generations often regard "infant learning" and "weak crown" as age appellation, which is probably the reason why the vocabulary of later generations has developed from monosyllabic to disyllabic.
In China, there is also a tradition of keeping track of cadres and party branches. 60 years is a round, so there is a saying that 60 years old is the "year of the flower". Du Fu said in a poem: "Wine debts are common, and people are seventy or twenty years old." As a result, seventy has another nickname of "seventy years old".
Of course, there were more than these appellations in ancient times, and many of them were scattered in various ancient books, but they were not handed down because they were used less. These mentioned above have been used by later generations because of their high frequency of use and strong vitality. Some of them have also entered our daily communication, such as Standing at Thirty. For example, from the words "baby" and "child", we can't see the difference between history and today.
And:
Baby: less than one year old. Child: Two to three years old. First year, teenager: the boy is eight years old.
General angle: the general term for childhood. The year of hanging steamed buns: refers to children. Yellow button: under ten years old.
Kindergarten: ten years old. The year of dancing spoon: thirteen to fifteen years old. Chronicle: fifteen years old.
The year of dancing elephants: fifteen to twenty years old. Weak crown: twenty years old. Thirty years old: thirty years old.
Age beyond doubt: forty. The year of knowing destiny and knowing right and wrong: fifty years old. Listening to flowers: 60 years old.
Seventy years old: seventy years old. Age of the staff: eighty years old. People in their eighties and nineties.
Yi: centenarians. At first, the girl was seven years old. Chai Jin Year: The girl is twelve years old.
Cardamom: The woman is thirteen and the woman is fifteen. Jasper's youth broke the melon: the woman was sixteen.
Tao: Female, twenty years old. Flowers in love: female 24 years old. Standard plum year: getting married