Taxonomy of meanings for 難:　　

Additional information about 難

說文解字:

Criteria
• EASY
  

  1. The current general word for easiness of actions is yì 易 (ant. nán 難 "difficult").

  2. Qīng 輕 "light" is sometimes used to effortlessness of every kind.

  3. Líng 泠 is a poetic word referring to graceful effortless ease of movement.

• INTERROGATE
  

  1. The current general word for interrogation is xùn 訊.

  2. Wèn 問 is sometimes used euphemistically or neutrally to refer to what in effect is formal interrogation.

  3. Jú 鞫 is a technical legal term for interrogation that has never entered the common literary language.

  4. Jié 詰 refers to a detailed inistent interrogation of someone by a superior.

  5. Nàn 難 refers to interrogating an equal in a hostile way on the points he is making. See DISAGREE

• ASK
  

  [ASCENDING/DESCENDING]

  [[COMMON/RARE]]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [INFORMAL/OFFICIAL]

  1. The general word is wèn 問 "open a dialogue by consulting someone with a question" (ant. duì 對 "reply to a superior") which typically refers to the consultation of a person who is supposed to know something. When the adressee is explicit, the questioner is typically of higher status than the addressee, and the reply is correspondingly often phrased politely as duì yuē 對曰. When there is no explicit addressee (X asked about Y), the addressee often is of higher status (e.g. a teacher).

  [SPECIFIC]; [[COMMOM+]]

  2. Qǐng 請 is occasionally used to refer to polite requests for information.

  [[RARE]]

  3. Nàn 難 is to ask intellectually hostile questions regarding something which the person questioned has said or maintains as true, to make objections. See DISAGREE and REFUTE which are difficult to distinguish from each other and from this.

  [SPECIFIC], [HORIZONTAL]

  4. Fǎng 訪 typically refers to questioning addressed to superiors.

  [ASCENDING]

  5. Xún 詢 typically refers to rather formal questions addressed to inferiors.

  [DESCENDING], [OFFICIAL]

  6. Zī 諮／咨 refers to questions addressed to a specialist.

  [SPECIFIC]

  7. Zōu 諏 all refer to some kind of official soliciting of formal opinions.

  [OFFICIAL]; [[RARE]]

  8. Yuē 曰 is regularly used to introduce related questions as reactions within an ongoing dialogue.

  <div>9. Wèi 謂 may introduce what are in fact questions rather than statements.</div><div><br></div><div>10. Wèn yuē 問曰 introduces a a question that opens a new dialogue or a discrete new phase in a dialogue.</div><div><br></div><div>NB: ASKing in Chinese us always dialogic: one cannot ask oneself any question 問己, and one cannot abstractly just raise an abstract question as an intellectual issue worthy of discussion. There seems to be no word in classical Chinese for "asking a question" without addressing this question to an audience.<br></div><br>

• REVOLT
  

  1. The current general word for staging a revolt against authorities is pàn 叛 (ant. shùn 順 "remain loyal").

  2. Luàn 亂 (ant. zhì 治 "regularly political government") refers to a major political upheaval designed to topple the reigning government.

  3. Biàn 變 (ant. cóng 從 "remain politically obedient") refers rather abstractly and neutrally to large scale or comprehensive political unrest of an unspecified character without the negative evaluation of such action which is inherent in luàn 亂.

  4. Fǎn 反 (ant. zhōng 忠 "show proper loyalty") refers to a political revolt on a lesser scale than luàn 亂, and this word always has negative overtones.

  5. Bèi 背 and bèi 倍 (ant. shùn 順 "remain loyal") refer to a defiant act of disobedience and turning against one's superiors without a necessary intention to topple these authorities.

  6. Nàn 難 (ant. xiào 效 "loyal positive effort") refers rather abstractly to political unrest of an unspecified character and focusses on this as being a threat to the ruler's authority and position.

  7. Nì 逆 (ant. shùn 順 "remain loyal") refers to political disobedience and revolt in a disapproving way.

• REFUTE
  

  1. There is no current and common word for refutation. The closest one can come is nàn 難 "make objections" and fēi 非 "declare to be wrong".

  NB: Bó 駁 is post-Buddhist.

• DREAM
  

  1. The current standard word for a dream is mèng 夢.

  2. Xiōng mèng 凶夢 refers to a nightmare.

  ZHOULI 3 占夢：掌其歲時，觀天地之會，辨陰陽之氣。以日月星辰占六夢之吉凶，一曰正夢，二曰噩夢，三曰思夢，四曰寤夢，五曰喜夢，六曰懼夢。季冬，聘王夢，獻吉夢于王，王拜而受之。乃舍萌于四方，以贈惡夢，遂令始難驅疫。

• PROBLEM
  

  1. It is very difficult to identify a standard classical Chinese keyword that corresponds to the notion of an intellectual problem or issue. The closest one can come is probably duān 端 "topic".

  2. Wèn nàn 問難 refers to a problem raised.

  3. Wèn 問 may refer not only to the raising of a topic for discussion.

• DIFFICULT
  

  1. The clearly dominant word for anything that is hard to achieve or hard to sustain is nán 難 (ant. yì 易 "easy").

  2. Jiān 艱 refers to hardship and diffuculties, typically with respect to certain tasks.

  3. Jù 劇 "critical, virulent" sometimes has usages that come close to "troublesome, difficult".

• DISASTER
  

  1. The most common general word for disasters is huò 禍 (ant. fú 福 "good fortune") which has no connotations of any metaphysical kind. (In OBI the character currently transcribed as huò 禍 - and closely related to 占 - refers not only to disasters as such, but particularly to disastrous omens.)

  2. Zāi 災 refers to a natural disaster, typically sent down by Heaven.

  3. Huàn 患 refers to any major or minor disaster, even down to minor irritations.

  4. Yāng 殃 always refers to major natural disasters, often construed as causes by human misdemeanour, or by a failure to take preventive action.

  5. Niè 孽 often has heavy metaphysical connotations and refers to disasters as caused by higher powers acting with an intention to harm, but there are some clear cases where the word refers to man-made trouble in MENG.

  6. Nàn 難 refer to man-made disasters of every kind.

  7. Jí 急 is a disastrous or highly precarious situation that has occurred suddenly and requires urgent attention.

  8. Bù yú 不虞 is normally a minor disaster that was utterly unexpected.

  9. Xiōng 凶, shěng 眚 and jiù 咎 are archaic metaphysical terms for misfortunes.

  10. Hài 害 refers generally to harm, but in OBI the word standardly refers to harm done by supernatural powers or ancestors.

Word relations
• Ant: (DIFFICULT)易/EASY The current general word for easiness of actions is yì 易 (ant. nán 難 "difficult"). 8 Attributions
• Ant: (DIFFICULT)便/CONVENIENT1 Attribution
• Contrast: (ASK)詰/ASK
• Contrast: (DISASTER)亂/REVOLT Luàn 亂 (ant. zhì 治 "regularly political government") refers to a major political upheaval designed to topple the reigning government. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (DISASTER)禍/DISASTER The most common general word for disasters is huò 禍 (ant. fú 福 "good fortune") which has no connotations of any metaphysical kind. (In OBI the character currently transcribed as huò 禍 - and closely related to 占 - refers not only to disasters as such, but particularly to disastrous omens.) 3 Attributions
• Assoc: (DIFFICULT)艱/DISTRESS Jiān 艱 refers to hardship and diffuculties, typically with respect to certain tasks. 2 Attributions
• Assoc: (OPPOSE)諫/REMONSTRATE The current general word for making representations to higher authorities is jiàn 諫.
• Synon: (PROBLEM)患/PROBLEM1 Attribution
• Synon: (DISASTER)禍/DISASTER The most common general word for disasters is huò 禍 (ant. fú 福 "good fortune") which has no connotations of any metaphysical kind. (In OBI the character currently transcribed as huò 禍 - and closely related to 占 - refers not only to disasters as such, but particularly to disastrous omens.)
• Oppos: (DIFFICULT)可/ABLE Kě 可 is occasionally used for kěyǐ 可以 and typically comes before passivised verbs: "be V-able".