FAQ

General

How is this site built?

Using GitHub Pages, which is simple, fast, and most importantly ad-free. I do not use Jekyll or any plugins; just straight HTML and CSS (with sparing JavaScript).

The pages are written in Conway-Markdown (conwaymd, CMD), and converted to HTML via my custom-written Python converter. For example, this page was generated from the CMD file faq.cmd.

Unfortunately conway.github.io was already taken though (sob); blame Jake Conway.

Why don't you get yourself a custom domain instead of the default yawnoc.github.io?

Firstly, I am poor, and secondly, even if I did buy a domain, I can't keep it with me when I die. On the other hand, the default subdomain is as permanent as GitHub Pages itself.

That's a bit macabre.

I do not fear death for my own sake. I might die some time later today, or I may have many decades yet. At the time of writing the latter is more probable. Fear changes nothing.

How did you set up the site favicon?

Using RealFaviconGenerator by Philippe Bernard.

How are equations rendered?

Using KaTeX.

Translation

Why are there [square-bracketed words] in your translations?

These are words that I have supplied as translator, which are absent in the original Chinese.

• "The" is considered present when referring to a general class as opposed to a particular instance, e.g. "the poor".
• "Of" is considered present unless part an entire phrase absent in the original Chinese, and is thought of as being provided by the word order in Chinese.
• Prepositions and infinitive-marking "to" are considered present when they follow a verb, and are thought of as part of the verb in Chinese, e.g. "laughed at", "wish to".

Wherefore usest thou archaic verb conjugation?

This is stylistic, and in my view accurately reflects the archaicness of Literary Chinese.

Also it sounds cooler. Compare

• This is what the LORD says (New International Version), plainly an alteration,
• Thus says the LORD (English Standard Version), too many S sounds, and
• Thus saith the LORD (King James Version), weighty and authoritative,

for the Hebrew כה אמר יהוה.

What weird romanisation system(s) are you using for untranslated words?

1. An established romanisation if one already exists, e.g. Confucius for 孔子 and Mencius for 孟子.
2. Otherwise, the romanisation which best suits the context, e.g. Hong Kong Government Romanisation for someone from Hong Kong, or Postal Romanisation for a twentieth-century text.
3. Otherwise, Conway's Mock-Olden Romanisation:
   1. Write down the Wade–Giles romanisation.
   2. Undo the dental-velar merger for initials:
      • [t͡ɕ] (pinyin j) becomes ts or k
      • [t͡ɕʰ] (pinyin q) becomes tsʻ or kʻ
      • [ɕ] (pinyin x) becomes s or h
   3. Undo the labial-alveolar merger for final nasals:
      • [n] (pinyin n) becomes m or n.
   4. Undo the loss of entering-tone stop consonants:
      • Append p, t, or k as appropriate
      Then cleanup:
      • ‑aik becomes ‑ak
      • ‑aok becomes ‑ok
      • ‑eik becomes ‑ek
      • ‑êk becomes ‑ek
      • ‑êt becomes ‑iet
      • ‑iaok becomes ‑iok
      • ‑iehp becomes ‑iep
      • ‑ieht becomes ‑iet
      • ‑ihk becomes ‑ek
      • ‑ihp becomes ‑ip
      • ‑iht becomes ‑et
      • ‑üehk becomes ‑iok
      • ‑üeht becomes ‑üet
   5. Apply stylistic cleanup:
      • ‑i (non-diphthong) becomes ‑ee
      • ‑ui becomes ‑uei
      • i becomes yee
      • i‑ becomes yi‑
      • j‑ becomes r‑
      • ku‑ becomes kw‑
      • yu becomes yiu
   If unsure when undoing mergers, consult a rime dictionary.

What romanisation system(s) are you using in the annotations (dot points) underneath the parallel text?

• For Cantonese: Conway romanisation.
• For Mandarin: pinyin.

Doesn't 是 mean "is", and 也 "also"?

Forget everything you learnt in Mandarin class; that is modern vernacular. Welcome to pre-twentieth-century Chinese Literature, in which 是 primarily means "this", and 也 is primarily an ending speech-assist (語助) which asserts whatever precedes it.