online etymological dictionaries

Novelis said:
Shijing (Shi1 Jing1) 詩經

(I've seen that quite a few times in bookshops, but I thought that it was just a collection of poems and had no idea of its antiquity, I'll be looking into that!)

Yes, you should be able to find a copy pretty easily. If you are interested in this kind of thing, you might also look for the Chuci (楚辭), which is the second-oldest collection of Chinese odes after the Shijing itself.

Novelis said:
ShouYuan (Shou1 Yuan4) 說苑

Xinxu (Xin1 Xu4) 新序

(I don't have any idea about the above two titles, but I'll be on the lookout from now on!)

Huainanzi (Huai2 Nan2 zi5) 淮南子

(I've got the Huainanzi (淮南子) already, fascinating stuff, but it's quite a big book...)

The Chinese for these is all correct -- I've never used any of them myself, but I just looked up the contents of the Huainanzi, and it does look interesting!

Ailén said:
"the Chinese saw them as meteorological disasters. Unlike the auspicious long 龍 dragon symbolizing forthcoming rain, the two-headed hong 虹 was inauspicious because it appeared after a rain shower."

Hmmm... Hard to know, but it is definitely an interesting possibility. I wouldn't be surprised it a lot of ancient characters contained in their meanings some mention to cataclysms. After all, even characters who seem to be mere pictograms, descriptions of an object, say, can be tricky IMO, because they are interpreted according to the reality we see now. It is extremely hard to know what reality they were depicting in ancient times.

Right -- and it's hard to guess the antiquity of the characters, which could extend back quite a ways beyond what has been uncovered archaeologically. The mention of meteorological disasters is interesting, given the weather and climatic conditions that would prevail after a major cometary cataclysm.

Ailén said:
I know nothing about this, though. I was asking out of pure curiosity. :)

No better reason :)
 
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