Starting in the pre-classical period, ancient Chinese maintained a rule according to which the positions of objects expressed by a noun and a pronoun differed: first, the direct object, expressed by a pronoun, always came before the predicate; second, the indirect object, expressed by an interrogative pronoun, did not follow the preposition, but preceded it.
The first signs of change in this rule appeared at the end of the classical period.
At this time, a direct object, expressed by an interrogative pronoun, was sometimes placed in the same place where the object usually stands, i.e., after the predicate: 諸將云何 zhū jiàng yún hé "What did the generals say?" This deviation from the rule becomes increasingly regular in post-classical texts. In particular, an indirect object with a preposition expressed by an interrogative pronoun is now no different in word order from a nominal object: 見漁人乃大驚問從何來 jiàn yú rén nǎi dà jīng wèn cóng hé lái "Seeing the fisherman, they were terribly astonished and began to ask where he came from."
In classical Chinese, this word was associated semantically only with an object in postposition to the predicate (49.1). In the 3rd–5th centuries. The meaning of 悉 xī changes, and it begins to be used as a synonym for 皆 jiē, i.e., it also refers to the subject:
男女衣著悉如外人 nán nǚ yī zhuó xī rú wài rén "All the clothing of both men and women was like that of foreigners."
Along with 甚 shèn, 極 jí has also been used as an intensive quality marker since the classical period:
吾所為者極難耳 wú suǒ wéi zhě jí nán ěr "What I have to do will be extremely difficult."
初極狹 chū jí xiá "At first [the passage] was very narrow."
The adverb 才 cái (can also be written with the characters 纔, 裁, 財) precedes the predicate and imparts a restrictive connotation:
路才容軌 lù cái róng guǐ "Only one cart could pass along the road."
初極狹才通人 chū jí xiá cái tōng rén "At first [the passage] was very narrow, and [a person] could barely pass [through it]."
From the 3rd to 5th centuries, the word 要 yào appears in texts as a modal predicative "to urge": 便要還家 biàn yào huán jiā "And then he was invited to go home."
Among the new prepositions that appeared in the post-classical period is 緣 yuán "along." It, like other prepositions in this group, originated from a predicative. The most common position of the object with this preposition is before the predicate: 緣溪行 yuán xī xíng "He walked along the stream."
The Han Emperor Wen Di first introduced the custom of naming specific periods of time within the reign of one emperor with special names, the so-called "reign mottos" (年號 nián hào).
These periods had no fixed duration: in the early Han period, they averaged 5–6 years, but sometimes changed every other year.
The reign motto "Tài Yuán" refers to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and corresponds to the years 376–396.
Wuling was the name of a county during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The county seat was located near modern-day Changde in Hunan.
Refugees who resettled in a secluded location during the Qin Dynasty (221–209 BC) were unaware that the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) had ruled China since then, much less the Wei (220–263) and Jin (265–420) Dynasties.
In ancient China, people with gray hair were usually called "yellow-haired" (黄髪 huáng fà).
Adult men and women wore their hair in a bun on top of their heads and secured it with a hairpin. Young children, up to a certain age, wore their hair loose.
Therefore, the expression 垂髫 chuí tiáo "hanging locks of hair" served as a figurative expression for the concept of "minors."