An additional predicative indicating the direction of movement is placed after the object. But in post-classical
language, it began to be attached directly to the main predicate, becoming its modifier and preceding the subsequent complement:
女人於口中吐出一男子 nǚ rén yú kǒu zhōng tù chū yī nán zǐ "The woman spat the young man out of her mouth" (出 chū
"to go out" modifies the predicate 吐 tù "to spit out," indicating an outward movement).
故遣來貴門 gù qiǎn lái guì mén "Therefore, they sent me to your house."
The presence of an object with a predicative modifier is optional:
遣去慎莫留 qiǎn qù shèn mò liú "send back and under no circumstances leave."
This grammatical phenomenon, first recorded in the late classical language (44.3; 50.2), became widespread in the post-classical period.
It is another characteristic feature of the final stage of the development of Old Chinese, representing a significant step towards the formation of Modern Chinese.
In constructions of this type, the main predicative is immediately followed by an object, followed by another
predicative meaning the direction of movement. The object can be of two types.
First, it is a direct object—the object of the action:
白象自拔牙出 bái xiàng zì bá yá chū "The white elephant pulled out its own tusk."
Second, it is an indirect object without a preposition, indicating the location of the action:
媒人下床去 méi rén xià chuáng qù "The matchmaker got out of bed."
In post-classical Chinese, adverbial modifiers of time with the word 時 shí are widely used:
初作女兒時 chū zuò nǚ ér shī "when I was a girl";
蘭芝初還時 lán zhī chū huán shí "when Lanzhi just returned home."
A similar structure is found with 後 hòu:
自君别我後 zì jūn bié wǒ hòu "after you broke up with "by me."
We've already discussed how a noun phrase denoting time and placed after a predicative indicates the duration of an action. A special case of using this phrase is to indicate the duration of a period of time that has passed since the completion of an action:
還家十餘日 huán jiā shí yú rì "more than ten days after returning home";
媒人去數日 méi rén qù shù rì "a few days after the matchmaker left."
Such phrases can be used without a preposition at the beginning of a sentence before the predicate:
還家十數日縣令遣媒來 huán jiā shí shù rì xiàn lìng qiǎn méi lái "More than ten days after returning home, the county governor sent a matchmaker."
Throughout the history of the ancient Chinese language up until the post-classical period, cardinal and ordinal numerals were not outwardly distinguished from each other.
In the post-classical period, the function word 第 dì began to be used to denote ordinal numerals.
Originally, this word was notional and meant "to line up" or "to arrange in order." For example:
Cao Can captured fortresses and seized lands, he has the most merit, and he should be considered first.
In the 3rd–5th centuries. The final formation of ordinal numerals occurs:
第二流中人 dì èr liú zhōng rén "second-class person";
第二内中 dì èr nèi zhōng "in the second inner chambers".
In the earlier stages of the development of the Old Chinese language, the connection between the predicate and the indirect object was formalized
primarily through the use of prepositions, i.e., function words that occupy their position before the corresponding object. In post-classical languages, along with prepositions, postpositions, which are used as spatial indicators, increasingly become a formal indicator of the relationship between the predicate and the object.
If there is a postposition, the preposition can be omitted from the object:
下馬入車中 xià mǎ rù jū zhōng "to get off a horse and get into a carriage."
At the same time, new spatial markers appear in the postclassical language, in particular 裏 lǐ "inside" (as a postposition "in"):
勞家裏 láo jiā lǐ "to work in the house."
Over the centuries since the poem "Peacocks Fly East and South" was written, it has become overgrown with numerous commentaries, a common thread among which is the assertion that the heroine of this poem was named Lanzhi, and her surname was Liu.
This opinion is also shared by the author of the well-known English translation of this work, B. B. Vakhtin, who mentions that "a matchmaker has appeared again in the Liu family," although the Liu family name is not mentioned in the text of the poem.
Moreover, it (see lesson 54) contains a phrase that directly contradicts the above version and is omitted from Vakhtin's translation:
説有蘭家女 shuō yǒu lán jiā nǚ "They say there is a girl from the Lan family."
From this phrase it follows that the heroine's family name was Lan, and if so, her name was not Lanzhi, but Zhi.
Until now, no convincing solution to this mystery has been proposed.
The 19th of each month was considered a women's holiday in ancient China. On this day, all women in the house were treated to a feast and were free from their daily chores. This holiday was called the "Lower Nines."