retain their original meanings in Classical Chinese, such as 天 (ten, “heaven”), 天下 (tenka, “the world”) or 菩薩 (bosatsu, “bodhisattva”)
漢語
漢語
retain their original meanings in Classical Chinese, such as 天 (ten, “heaven”), 天下 (tenka, “the world”) or 菩薩 (bosatsu, “bodhisattva”)
were repurposed to translate Western concepts, such as 社会 (shakai, “society”), 文化 (bunka, “culture”), 過渡 (kato, “transition”) or 博士 (hakushi, “doctor”)
were newly coined from Classical Chinese syllables, morphemes or graphemes, such as 出超 (shutchō, “trade surplus”) or 腺 (sen, “gland”)
were not borrowed from spoken Chinese or non-Classical-Chinese texts, nothing such as 北京 (Pekin, “Beijing”), 銭 (zeni, “money”) or 博士 (hakase, “doctor”)
(less commonly) the Chinese language
the ancient Chinese language, the language of the Han (漢) ethnicity
（ canonical ）
（ romanization ）
（ hiragana ）
