TLS - 漢學文典

Taxonomy of meanings for 近:　　

jìn (OC: ɡɯnʔ MC: ɡɨn) 其謹切上廣韻：【迫也幾也其謹切又其靳切二】
其謹切上 jìn
NEAR
- nabconceptcloseness
- nabstativecloseness of relationship
- v[adN]nonreferentialone who is close at hand; what is close at hand; what is near(er)
- vadNclose at hand, near one; concretely
- vadNgradedcloser at hand
- vadSclose at hand
- vadVclose at hand; concretely
- vi(spatial) be close, near; be a small distance
- vifigurativebe (emotionally) close 最近
- vt(oN)(temporal) be close (in time) to the contextually determinate object
- vt(oN)figurativecome close to the relevant point
- vt(oN)figurativekeep close to a contextually determinate person
- vt+prep+Nspacebe situated close to
- vt+prep+Nfigurativecome close to, be close to, keep close to (something abstract, e.g. Goodness)
- vtoNfigurativeapproximate
- vtoNfigurativecome close to (something abstract like humaneness)
- vtoNmathematical termCHEMLA 2003:
- vtoNstativebe situated close to; keep close to
- vtoNabstracttry to keep close to (psychologically), try to keep close toCH
- vt( prep N)be close to the contextually determinate NCH
- vadVgetting close to in spaceCH
- v[adN]N=humanone who is close at hand, people who are close at handCH
- v[adN]N=nonhumanwhat is close at handCH
- time>
  RECENT
  - vadNrecent (times)
  - vibe recent; relate to a recent timeLZ
  - vadVfrom recent times, relating to recent timesLZ
  - specific>
    NOW
    - nabtimethe present time
    - vadNrecent; present
    - vadVin recent times, recently
  - general expectations>
    ORDINARY
- subject: who dwells near>
  NEIGHBOUR
  - vadNof the neighbourhood, living nearby
jìn (OC: ɡɯns MC: ɡɨn) 巨靳切去廣韻：【附也巨靳切又巨隱切一】
- derivation by tone change: transitivisation>
  APPROACH
  - vt(oN)get anywhere near a contextually determinate object
  - vt+prep+Nget close to
  - vtoNcome close to
  - vtoNfigurativeverge towards, be inclined towards; cultivate the company of, cultivate close personal relations with
  - vtoNgradedcome closer and closer toCH
  - object:aim>
    ACHIEVE
    - vtoNapproximatecome close to achieving, come close to realisingCH
  - metaphorical: relation to>
    INTIMATE
    - nabactthe cultivation of intimate relations with others
    - vtoNcultivate intimate or close relations with; manage to establish close relations with
    - vtoNfigurativetake a close interest in
    - v[adN]N=humthose who are close
    - vt+prep+Nbe on close terms with, be "close" to
    - vadNpsychologicalclosely allied, closely relatedCH
    - intensitive>
      FAVOURITE
      
      vtoNchangecultivate the company or friendship of; become a close adviser to, be a member of the immediate entourage of; get politically close to
    - abstractly>
      RESEMBLE
      
      vtoNfigurativebe figuratively close to> be closely similar to, be similar to
      - grammaticalised> PROBABLY

Additional information about 近

說文解字: 【近】，附也。从辵、斤聲。【渠遴切】【𣥍】，古文近。

Criteria

FAVOURITE

1. The current general word for enjoying favourite status is xìng 幸 (ant.* qì 棄 "be rejected as favourite; rejected"); and the standard general word for showing favour to a favourite is chǒng 寵.

2. Bì 嬖 refers to a male or female favourite of the political or sexual kind - or of both kinds.

3. Jìn 近 (ant. shū 疏 "without close relations of favouritism") refers rather abstractly to the closeness of association between protector and favourite.

4. E! 阿 and qū 曲 refer to closeness because of sycophancy. See FLATTER
AVOID

[[BASIC/DERIVED]]

[ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]

[DELIBERATE/INVOLUNTARY]

[GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

[GRAMMATICALISED/LEXICAL]

[HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

1. The general word is miǎn 免 (ant. zāo 遭 "encounter"), and this refers to any voluntary or involuntary process leading to one's escape from what otherwise might occur, especially one's being spared a negative experience.

[CONCRETE], [GENERAL]

2. Bì 避 (ant. mào 冒 "expose oneself to"), unlike miǎn 免, is always deliberate and describes a strategy of action which successfully avoids an undesirable impending danger.

[DELIBERATE]

3. Yuàn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "move close to") is a specific strategy of avoidance which is well within one's control and consists in keeping what is undesirable at a long distance from one.

[DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

4. Lí 離 differs from yuàn 遠 in the fact that no great distance, concrete or abstract, is implied in the word.

[DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

5. Chú 除 refers to the avoidance or removal of something that is perceived as posing a powerful threat. See REMOVE

[CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

6. Qù 去 (ant. lí 罹 "get exposed to") is avoidance through getting rid of what is threatening.

[CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE]; [[DERIVED]]

7. Jué 絕 refers to avoidance through getting rid completely and definitively of what is threatening.

[ABSTRACT], [CAUSATIVE], [DELIBERATE], [HIGH-DEGREE]

8. Tuì 退 refers to avoidance by withdrawing from what exposes one to what is threatening.

[DELIBERATE], [SPECIFIC]

9. Wù 勿 is a negation referring to an instruction to avoid doing something, and the word often has an object pronoun understood. See NOT.

[GRAMMATICALISED]
NEAR

1. The dominant general word is jìn 近 (ant. yuǎn 遠 "far") which refers to any concrete or abstract proximity in space, time or quality.

2. Jī 幾 typically refers to an abstract closeness or relatedness with relates neither to space nor to time.

3. Pò 迫 and "precariously close" refer to spatial proximity of a potentially dangerous kind.

4. Bó 薄 "very close" refers to spatial proximity primarily but is occasionally used in transferred metaphorical senses to refer to abstract proximity.

5. Lín 鄰 is permanent geographical proxity.

6. Eψ 邇 is an archaic and elevated general term for closeness.

7. Proximity to a city can be expressed by the "postposiiton" xià 下.
DISTANT

1. The clearly dominant term for distance in general is yuǎn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "close").

2. Shū 疏 (ant. qīn 親 "close") often refers to distance of relation in a more than purely physical sense.

3. Yōu 悠 and jiǒng 迥 is a poetic word describing as distant something which one wishes was near.

4. Liáo 遼 is a poetic referring to what is distant and remote in space and therefore an obscure place. Note liáo yuǎn 遼遠.

5. Miǎo 邈 is a rare poetic word, and from the few usages we have it seems more frequently to refer to distance in time.

6. Yáo 遙 is an elusive poetic word referring to a mystical distance, typically the distance into which one roams freely xiāo yáo 逍遙.

7. Qù 去 can refer to concrete or abstract distance, and in the abstract case the distance is close in meaning to difference.

8. Lí 離 in this sense is a purely geometrical terms that can sometimes refer to the distance of some object from another.

9. Jué 絕 "cut-off, distant" is a fairly elevated way of referring to the remoteness of a region.

10. Xiá 遐 (ant. ěr 邇 "close"), a distinctly rare and archaic word, describes something as not only distant, but also ethereal, remote and difficult of access.
APPROACH

[DRAMATIC]/[UNDRAMATIC]

[ELEVATED/VULGAR]

[GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

[HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

[LITERAL/TRANSFERRED]

1. The most current general word for approaching or getting close to anything is jìn 近 (ant. yuàn 遠 "remove oneself far from").

[GENERAL], [LITERAL!]

2. Jí 即 and jiù 就 (all ant. lí 離 "leave, move away from") refer neutrally to moving close to a certain place.

[GENERAL]

3. Bó 薄 and pò 迫 refers somewhat dramatically to moving (often precariously) close to something.

[DRAMATIC], [LITERAL]

4. Fù 附 is to move very close up indeed to something, often getting attached to it.

[HIGH-DEGREE], [LITERAL]

5. Qīn 親 (NB: shū 疏 is not used as an antonym for this meaning.) refers primarily to moving intimately close to something.

[ELEVATED], [TRANSFERRED!]

6. Lín 臨 is often used in ways characteristic of the dignified court style, but the word also commonly refers to getting close to a place or time in a natural course of events.

[ELEVATED!], [GENERAL]
BEAUTIFUL

[ABSOLUTE/GRADED]

[ACOUSTIC/VISUAL]

[ARTIFICIAL/NATURAL]

[[COMMON/RARE]]

[ELEVATED/VULGAR]

[GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

[HUMAN/NON-HUMAN]

[POETIC/PROSAIC]

1. The general word is měi 美 "handsome and admirable" (ant. è 惡 "ugly") which refers to anything concrete or abstract which is attractive or handsome in a dignified way, and the word often retains its primary culinary sense of "tasty".

[GENERAL], [GRADED]; [[COMMON]]

2. Lì 麗 (ant. sù 素 "unaodorned") is often restricted to physical objects, prototypically to clothes, and emphasises their balanced symmetric beauty, occasionally also - by analogy - the well-aligned symmetric beauty of mountains.

[ELEVATED], [NON-HUMAN], [VISUAL!]

3. Wén 文 (ant. zhì 質 "merely material") emphasises cultivated external as well as internal elegance as well as traditionalism.

[ARTIFICIAL], [ELEVATED], [NON-HUMAN], [VISUAL!]

4. Yǎ 雅 (ant. sú 俗 "vulgar") emphasises primarily external elevated elegance.

[ACOUSTIC!], [ARTIFICIAL], [ELEVATED+], [NON-HUMAN]

5. Hǎo 好 "comely, handsome" (ant. chǒu 醜 "ugly") refers indiscriminately to men and women, but the word is sometimes more general and even abstract in application and refers to attractive words or attractive moral qualities.

[HUMAN!], [NATURAL], [VISUAL]

6. Xiù 秀 "of vigorous and imposing beauty" focusses on flourishing and flamboyant beauty in analogy with that of flowers.

[ELEVATED], [NATURAL], [NON-HUMAN], [POETIC], [VISUAL]; [[RARE]]

7. Huá 華 "of striking and colourful beauty" (ant. sú 俗 "vulgar") focusses on flourishing and flamboyant superficial or only apparent beauty, on the analogy analogy with that of flowers.

[ARTIFICIAL], [ELEVATED], NON-HUMAN], [SUPERFICIAL], [VISUAL]

8. Zhuàng 壯 "stately" (ant. ruò 弱 "weak and unsightly") is virile beauty associated with strength and vigour. See STRONG

[NATURAL], [MARGINAL], [POETIC]; [[RARE]]

9. Jiā 佳 "of outstanding beauty" (NB: liè 劣 "unremarkable" is the ant. of jiā 佳 "outstanding", and not in the meaning of "outstandingly beautiful") emphasises comparative beauty compared to others in the same group.

[GRADED], [ELEVATED], [NATURAL], [POETIC]

10. Dū 都 "urbane and exquisitely beautiful" (ant. bì 鄙 "rustic and inelegant") is a highly poetic word that can only be used in elevated prose.

[ARCHAIC], [ELEVATED], [POETIC], [VISUAL]; [[RARE]]

11. Yán 妍 "attractive and exquisite (of humans as well as human products)" (ant. chì 蚩 "unattractive") refers to elaborate beauty. See SEXY.

[ARCHAIC], [ELEVATED], [HUMAN], [POETIC]; [[RARE]]

12. Xiū 脩 / 修 "refined moral beauty" refers to moral as well as physical beauty, thus coming close the Greek kalokagathia, but never approaching the latter in importance as a cultural keyword.

<div>[ELEVATED], [ARTIFICIAL]; [[RARE]]</div><div> </div><div>吳蓬，東方審美詞彙集萃，上海文藝出版社，2002 lists the following rough definitions of a variety of terms of aesthetic appreciation by the artist and scholar Wu Peng. Many of these terms express conventional appreciative flattery only. This list does provide one not particularly well-known artist's subjective readings of some basic terms of traditional Chinese aesthetic approbation.</div><div>勃：富有生机之突起。 苍：浓的，毛的，老练的。 沉：沉着不浮，有重量感。 冲：调成和淡之意向。 饬：整顿。 粗：大而不笨者。 淳：清，往往易薄，然而淳是清中滋润之厚。 醇：与淳略同，这醇是提炼后的滋润之厚。 绰：与"约"字合用，即舒而不纵之意。 澹：平静而有幽淡之趣。 淡：与浓艳相对。 宕：放荡不拘。 跌：往往与"宕"字合用，即是起伏明显之状。 端：方正而不出偏，有稳实感。 敦：很实在的，结实的厚。 繁：众而密，有生气。 方：与平正同义。 丰：饱满而充足。 风：审美中之"风"指的是一种气韵格调。 飞：大幅度的流动。 刚：属于阳性的，有正力的，与柔软相对。</div><div>高：俯视一切的、超然得不一般。 工：规矩，不潦草。 孤：自我独立。 古：旧气，更有历史的抗怀千载之迹象。 骨：内在的架子。 犷：是跟"雄悍"接近，在粗中发展开来。 瑰：不单调的美。 乖：不和顺。 憨：近于拙朴而敦实。 酣：厚润四溢。 豪：激动向上之貌，有气魄。 宏：大而有气度。 厚：有沉积的饱和。 华：明亮而艳丽。 环：长久圆融之境。 荒：与"枯简"接近，不修饰。 豁：与开朗接近，然比开朗明显。 恢：宽广有余。 浑：团然一气之象，有朦胧感。 简：经过一番整修的减少。 娇：美得可爱。 警：审美中用此警字，往往指敏锐、颖达。 </div><div>劲：能察觉的力。 精：很到位。 隽：精致而具内涵之美。 娟：秀而婉丽。 崛：高起而突出。 俊：人材杰曲之美。 峻：山高而陡。在书画中是浓而锋利之用笔。 空：有灵气之空白。 枯：干而毛，生的萎缩，然亦是力的显露。 宽：大度而畅朗。 旷：广阔而空灵。 辣：是枯毛爽直的老笔触。 朗：明亮而豁然。 琅：圆而光润。 伦：是同类之意，带有文明意念。 冷：跟"淡"与"静”接近，与浓烈相对。 炼：精到而有功力。 淋：与"漓”往往合用，是无拘束的洒落。 流：明显的动感。 迈：阔而放的超势。 莽：宽广而繁密的，朴直奔放的。 袤：与"古"字合用，即悠长久远之趣。 茂：有生气的繁密。 媚：柔美之趣。 宓：安而静。 明：清晰有亮度。 凝：浓重而不流动。 懦：毫无火气之柔软。 平：一般的，接近于稳。 朴：原始状态，形象较准。 嫖：与"姚"字合用，即动疾之状，而有气势。 奇：不一般。 气：生发的，迎面直扑而来的感觉。 清：是混的相对。其间透出一股朗气。 峭：山之直而险，在书画中是露锋的侧锋用笔，有明显露 尖状态。文章中之峭，是意气直逼。 遒：婉转有致，内力强劲。 虬：与遒类似，但动感较强，弯曲而有力度。 意：诚实谨慎。 儒：代表文人之书卷气。 洒：散落无拘束。 赡：富有与丰实。若与"疏”、"逸”组合即成"澹”或"安"之义。</div><div>骚：审美中之骚字，可引伸为风骚至风流感。 韶：美丽有光泽。 涩：在不爽快的进程中，流露出内力之美。 深：不是浮面的。 神：精与气合。高端的。 生：不成熟，但比成熟有味。 肆：任意放纵。 松：松是灵活自然，是一切技巧之本要。 瘦：与粗笨相对，在审美中的"瘦"，是指细长而精练。 疏：一种稀少秀朗之美。 肃：有立即静穆下来之势。 率：与潦草随便有别，爽快而直接。 邃：深远而悠久。 阅：通达之意。 给：与"宕"合用，是安详舒放之趣。 天:很自然，一片天箱之"天"。 恬：安静而坦然。 挺：直而有生气。 婉：柔和而曲折。 温：是一种暖调与缓和的综合。</div><div>巍：往往与"峨"合用，是高大厚实之趣。 洗：与"炼”合用，即是"精炼"之意，凡物之洁出于洗。 犀：与"利"字合用，即坚利。 熙：光明，和乐。 细：指细而不纤。 娴：文静而雅致。 闲：一种高雅的自由。 萧：疏少有致。 潇：散朗而润泽。 馨：很醇厚的香气。 篁："篁古”是悠远辽阔之意。 雄：强大，有力度，有霸气。 秀：灵巧的，有生气的，美好的显露。 虚：表象空，但并非真空。 雅：文气而不俗。 妍：鲜美而柔性。 严：认真，不马虎。 淹：一种浸沉与精深明达之境。 野：超脱、不规范。 冶：经过一番精致修饰。 逸：悠闲的起伏。</div><div>意：精神倾向。 莹：透明而幽亮。 雍：往往与“容"字合用，有和顺之貌。 幽：静而深。 腴：肥润而饱和。 郁：厚积而有生气。 纤：与"迥"字合用，即弯环回绕之趣。 遹：与"瑰"字合用，即纤迥美丽之趣。 渊：往往与"懿"合用，是深润而悠美之趣。 圆：接近于饱满润滑。 蕴：与"藉"合用，即内涵丰富。 韵：一种余味不尽之趣。 恣：放纵的，无拘束的。 滋：湿润感。 自：出于本性的流露。 质：本体的，实在的。 纵：放逸无拘之状。 拙：接近朴，形不准。 庄：端正之貌。 卓：与“荤"合用，是突出明显之状。 </div><div> </div>
DIFFERENT

1. The dominant general term for difference is yì 異 (ant. tóng 同 "be the same").

2. Fēn 分 and bié 別 is a difference established by humans through convention or by an intellectual effort. See DISTINGUISH

3. Chà 差 (ant. děng 等 "be without difference established by social conventions") refers to a difference established through social practice.

4. Shū 殊 (ant. jìn 近 "essentially close to", yī 一 "be one and the same") refers abstractly to a categorial distance.

Word relations

Ant: (NEAR)遠/DISTANT The clearly dominant term for distance in general is yuǎn 遠 (ant. jìn 近 "close").
Ant: (INTIMATE)疏/DISTANT Shū 疏 (ant. qīn 親 "close") often refers to distance of relation in a more than purely physical sense.
Assoc: (INTIMATE)親/INTIMATE The general word for close familiarity is qīn 親 (ant. shū 疏 "have only distant relations with"), but the word often retains connotations of kinship relations.
Assoc: (NEIGHBOUR)鄰/NEIGHBOUR The standard word for a neighbour is lín 鄰.
Assoc: (INTIMATE)習/FRIEND
Assoc: (NEAR)迫/NEAR Pò 迫 and "precariously close" refer to spatial proximity of a potentially dangerous kind.