Which one is the best/most widely accepted?
The most popular ones in literature Iโve read seem to be Karlgrenโs and Baxterโs, while at the same time, Iโve read multiple papers where people complain about somebody using Karlgrenโs, saying itโs outdated. Wiktionary uses Zhengzhang Fangshangโs reconstruction, which seems quirky and which Iโve never seen referenced in any papers. (Related questionโwhatโs the time frame for these reconstructions?)
Admittedly, most of my interaction with Middle Chinese comes from Sino-Xenic Korean and Japanese borrowings, but Iโd like to know which ones I can trust best when looking at the sources of borrowing.
I'm interested in learning Middle Chinese to better understand poetic structures and puns, and just as a preferred way to read aloud classical texts. However, there are several different reconstructions that all differ greatly from each other. I was curious as to whether some are more plausible/well accepted than the others, or whether it's best to simply understand the phonological patterns and not worry about the real sounds.
Came across a feed on my Twitter including some very interesting illustrations that explains a Chinese legend called "ๆๅฏๆฉ่" (Serpent Slayer Li Ji).
Source: https://twitter.com/CarlZha/status/1479696926169710593
Excerpt:
> Story of little girl Li Ji ๆๅฏ killing giant snake was 1st recorded in East Jin Dynasty book Soushen Ji (In Search of the Supernatural ๆ็ฅ่ฎฐ) written around 350 AD. Itโs said there lived a giant snake in the mountains of Min (Fujian). It kills and maims people. Villagers offered cows and sheeps as sacrifice to appease it but to no avail.
> The giant snake visited dreams of local shaman demanding to eat 12-13 yr old girl every harvest time. Local officials would collect criminalsโ daughters and raise them til harvest to feed the snake. Aft 9 yrs, 9 girls have lost their lives. Many family w daughters fled. Li family has 6 daughters no son. Youngest Li Ji ๆๅฏ wants to volunteer herself. Her parents wouldnโt allow it. Li Ji snuck out and went to volunteer herself as human sacrifice to the giant snake at local gov office. She demanded a sharp sword and snake hunting dog.
> She took wtih her a sword, a hunting dog and rice balls, Rice ball that she mixed w honey to lure the giant snake out. She waited inside the temple dedicated to the giant snake. The giant snake lured out by honey rice balls. She set the dog on the snake and slashed the snakeโs body w her sword. The giant snake crawls to the back of the temple and die frm its injuries. Li Ji followed and retrieved skulls of 9 girls who had been eaten in previous yrs. She sighed โBecause youโre weak and timid, youโre eaten by snake. Such a pityโ She then went home to her family.
In 2001, a historian found a Chinese map of the Americas that supposedly dates back in the early XV century during some expeditions led by Zheng He; though this is still a seemingly debatable source.
More accurately, Vikings had a brief and ephemeral presence in the Atlantic Canada and Southern Greenland back in the Middle Ages.
Just like Tenochtitlan would work as a commercial intersection among north and central american peoples, Lima and its nearby seaports had a great maritime knowledge over the Andean Pacific coast.
Did any external-american people happen to establish any source of commercial network with local-native societies prior to Columbus?
Plus, Iโm aware thereโs a huge amount of questionable-to-fake historiographical approaches over the presence of non-american peoples in the Americas, Iโm so not willing to cross that line at all.
