ding3, third tone only
Just a typo. 
Ding1Qing1Que4[/quote]
Shouldn’t it be “ding3qing1que4”? [/quote]
Yes.[quote]
Or is there an alternate pronounciation for 頂 ?[/quote]
No, at least not as far as I know. My mistake, sorry. Thanks for pointing it out.
No, not even any archaic or obsolete ones, acc. to my Hanyu Da Zidian.
Next challenge!
鐵甲元帥
擺瞑迎神
literally, “iron-armored general”, probably a nickname of a historic figure; also name for a Taiwan frog species
some kind of traditional festival in Mazu. 擺瞑 – close eyes? 迎神 – greeting the gods?
[quote=“hannes”][quote=“Chris”]
鐵甲元帥
[/quote]
literally, “iron-armored general”, probably a nickname of a historic figure; also name for a Taiwan frog species[/quote]
鐵甲 is a corruption of the Eastern Min (dialect spoken around the island of Matsu) pronunciation of 青蛙 (frog). The"iron-armored general" is the Frog General, a local god worshipped in certain temples on the Matsu Islands.
New challenge! 詛楚文 (and the story behind it) 
A curse on the Chu state. (It’s too late at night for me to search for the story, but I’ll try tomorrow…)
Yup, a curse on the Chu state.
Zu Chu Wen
詛楚文
This is also the name of a fourth-century B.C. stone? inscription, which according to one website was from the time of Qín Hùi Wén Wáng (秦惠文王), who acc. to Wiki ruled the state of Qin from 338 BC until 311 BC, and who was the first among the rulers of the late Zhōu dynasty states to take the title of 王 wáng ‘king’ rather than 公 gōng ‘duke’. The inscription is in seal script, and a bit similar to that on the Stone Drums of Qín 石鼓文. Its content beseeches the gods to place a curse on the enemy state of Chu3 (楚國).
This is where my story starts to break down. I believe the curse was in return for breaking a promise, presumably a peace pact or alliance. I don’t have a good background in history, but based on Googling, it looks like the Qin prime minister (from 317 BC) “Zhang Yi returned to Qin in 317 BC to become their prime minister once more. Three years later Wei abandoned Qin for new alliances but was attacked by Qin and served Qin again. Qin wanted to attack Qi, but Qi had allied itself with Chu. So Zhang Yi went to Chu to become their prime minister, offering King Huai of Chu territory and a daughter of Qin for an alliance, but meanwhile Qi submitted to Qin. When the suspicious king of Chu attacked Qin, Qi helped Qin defeat Chu and cut off 80,000 heads. Qin demanded territory from Chu, and the Chu king requested Zhang Yi, whom he imprisoned. The queen of Chu pleaded for Zhang Yi, and King Huai released him and was persuaded by Zhang Yi to ally himself with Qin.” (history from san.beck.org/EC13-Chou.html)
I initially assumed that this is the alliance or pact that Chu later broke.
“Then Zhang Yi went to Han and convinced their king that with only 300,000 troops compared to more than a million in Qin, Han should ally itself with Qin and attack Chu. Zhang Yi returned to Qin, where he was made a lord of five towns before being sent off to the king of Qi, whom he persuaded to join Qin. He then succeeded in getting the kings of Zhao and Yen to serve Qin also. However, while Zhang Yi was returning to Qin, King Hui died and was replaced by King Wu, who disliked Zhang Yi. News of this caused all these states to renounce their alliance with Qin and return to their alliance with each other.”
I would assume this renunciation by Chu of its alliance with Qin was what angered the Qin king, but the Zu Chu Wen is said to have been from the time of King Hui, not after his death. So my story doesn’t quite fit.
My 2nd guess is that when “Zhang Yi went to Chu to become their prime minister, offering King Huai of Chu territory and a daughter of Qin for an alliance”, perhaps King Huai accepted initially. Regardless, he did then attack Qin, so perhaps it was then.
Has anyone got a better answer?
hi there.
no new challenge?
here is one:
How do you say “One Fire Extinguisher”?
一 (?) 滅火器
what is the numerical character? No, it’s not 個…
My own first guess was a measure word (classifier) like 桶 tong3, based on a traditional bucket of water, but ABCC gives 個 ge, 支 zhi1 and 架 jia4.
I took the MRT a couple of days ago and read something like:
A fire extinguisher is at…
在。。。有一具滅火器
so, is it 具, the same measure word as for casket (棺材)?
what does a fire-extinguisher and a casket have in common, I wonder…
[quote=“hannes”]How do you say “One Fire Extinguisher”?
一 (?) 滅火器
what is the numerical character? No, it’s not 個…[/quote]
隻?
具?
瓶?
I found them all on Google.
[quote=“hannes”]I took the MRT a couple of days ago and read something like:
A fire extinguisher is at…
在。。。有一具滅火器
so, is it 具, the same measure word as for casket (棺材)?
what does a fire-extinguisher and a casket have in common, I wonder…[/quote]
具 is also the measure word for “dead body”.
沒大沒小
mei2 da4 mei2 xiao3
I can’t think of a compact translation. Can you?
Neither large nor small?
Just kidding.
‘to fail to treat elders appropriately’
‘to fail to treat elders with respect’
‘fail to respect elders’
(?)
[quote=“Dragonbones”]
‘to fail to treat elders appropriately’
‘to fail to treat elders with respect’
‘fail to respect elders’
(?)[/quote]
I think failing to treat elders with respect or appropriately is broader than 沒大沒小.
I had brought my kids to my friend’s house and my older one called my friend by his first name only. With us being a Chinese family, I quickly said to my boy in Cantonese “唔可以冇大冇小, 要叫Uncle XYZ or XYZ叔叔” (冇大冇小 is the Cantonese version of 沒大沒小). My friend is CBC, so he knows a little Cantonese but didn’t understand that phrase, so he asked me what 冇大冇小 meant. I then went into a long winded explanation about how it means to ignore the difference in generation when speaking to or addressing one’s elders. Or perhaps to speak or act to that person as if you are the same or older generation when it’s not the case. I then added a couple of examples.
Anyway, I thought that was a bit long winded and that it’d be nice to come up with a shorter, more to the point explanation next time I encounter this.
I have no idea how to say this in a more compact way, but I just wanted to say that I really like this thread.
I have heard the phrase 沒大沒小 a lot of times, but never thought about what it means. Now, I know it, great.
Sounds like the German term “duzen”, which means “to address someone as ‘du’ rather than ‘sie’”; to address in the familiar a person you would ordinarily address in the formal.
Kind of like “Ahhh, don’t call me Mr. Smith. Call me Frank!”
To be on a first name basis?