草書外籍學生很不容易看懂 Even if you have studied Chinese for several years, figuring out the cursive inscriptions on Chinese paintings can be intimidating.
本文教外籍學生如何根據國學常識和上下文辨認草書。This post explains how fluent readers of Chinese probably do it, even if they cannot immediately recognize all of the characters.
畢竟並不是所有的中國人都會寫草書，但文化背景（包括常用成語）絕對有幫助。
After all, not everybody has enough training to be able to write in cursive. This is where passive knowledge of culture and common idioms can come in handy.
On the top left of this painting by 徐悲鴻 Xú Bēihóng / Shyu Beihorng (1895-1953) there is an inscription in cursive script. Reading it requires a bit of background knowledge. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Beihong]
(1) Based on when the painting was done (obviously before 1954), the inscription is definitely in traditional Chinese characters: government-sanctioned simplified characters were first introduced in 1956. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_characters]。畫家徐悲鴻1953年過世，所以鐵定不是用簡體字。
(2) Traditional Chinese characters were often written from top to bottom and right to left, especially on paintings. 傳統書寫方向是由上而下，從右到左。
(3) Horses are a very popular topic in Chinese culture. There are dozens proverbs and four-character idioms that include the character 馬 mǎ / maa “horse”, ranging from 馬不停蹄 mǎ bù tíng tí / maa buh tyng tyi “[literally] horses whose hooves do not stop = without stopping to rest” to 指鹿為馬 zhǐ lù wéi mǎ / jyy luh wei maa [literally] calling a deer a horse = deliberately twisting the truth” 跟『馬』相關的成語特別多，所以這裡很可能用得上。
Context is very helpful. By scanning the top line, it is easy to recognize 馬 x x 功, so the other two cursive characters are easy to guess: 馬到成功 mǎ dào chéng gōng / maa daw cherng gong “[literally] “May your horses soon arrive and be greeted with immediate success!”. In other words, “May you have speedy success!
The preceding characters can be figured out using the same technique: 前x x里 must be an auspicious phrase that matches 馬到成功, so the first four-character expression must be 前程萬里 qián chéng wàn lǐ / chyan cherng wann lii “[literally] May your future path extend for ten-thousand lii {Chinese ‘miles’}”. In other words, “May you have a brilliant future!” (note that 前程萬里 sometimes appears as 前程似錦 qián chéng sì jǐn / chyan cherng syh jiin “May your future path be as lovely as brocade”
The inscription above is romanized in GR tonal spelling. The letters in red stand for tones, a compact mnemonic solution to the problem of representing tones using the alphabet. The GR system is still used in most dictionaries originally published in Taiwan, but teachers don’t bother to explain it to their students (“That won’t be on the test”), so they ignore it.
GR [AKA 注音字母第二式, National Phonetic Alphabet, version 2] was promulgated in 1928 by the ROC Ministry of Education to be a complement to Juhin Fwuhaw 注音符號, National Phonetic Symbols [AKA bopomofo, or 注音字母第一式 “National Phonetic Alphabet, version 1”. Unfortunately, in 1958, the PRC government replaced GR with Hanyu Pinyin, an “improved” romanization (based on a system invented in the USSR) where tones were marked with tiny optional symbols.
Who I am:
Why My Name Is Spelled Wentong-Syhhae: GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu) 為什麼選 Wentong Syhhae 這個筆名？
https://steemit.com/cn/@wentong-syhhae/why-my-name-is-spelled-wentong-syhhae-gr-tonal-spelling-gwoyeu-wentong-syhhae
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@wentong-syhhae/enthusiastic-intp-polyglot