Chinese language learning for dian3 mao3 in your HSK test

Hello, guys! This time, here is a practical and important story for those who had a long experience of leaning mandarin Chinese for children everywhere in the world. Whether you are online or offline, I believe that most of you will catch some puzzling questions when you are preparing for a Chinese exam or other level’s test. For example, a less frequently used Chinese word may cause a trouble for many Chinese learners, just as you have seen the phrase in the title. Honestly speaking, the native speaker of Chinese is not entirely familiar with its meaning, story and usage.

It is exactly what we are going to learn Mandarin online share some stories with you about this strange phrase in Chinese expressions. To begin with, the Chinese pinyin is given as dian3 mao3. It should be written as 点卯, which is not too difficult write. However, what exactly is the meaning?

The phrase of dian3 mao3 derived from a method applied as the supervision in ancient times in the Chinese court palace. In the past, people divide a whole day into twelve hours. What differs from the hours today is that the hours in the past is equal to two hours, in other words, an hour has one hundred and twenty minutes. Accordingly, the word mao3 represents two hours from 5 am to 7 am of the phase in the past. At this time, the officials started to work in their own office that was called ya2 men in ancient times, but they had to get together in a special place for arrival check-out. Later, an official in charge of count the arrivals of the officials on duty was began to write down who was absent or not. This action was meant as dian3 mao3. There was also a phenomenon that some officials were meant to be absent their works. They  had an idea to escape from the obligatory tasks after their names had been written on the note book of the charger. Therefore, the meaning of dian3 mao3 has also changed as way to learn Chinese online, which can described that someone is not responsible and elaborate.

As a matter of fact, some related special nouns about the activity of dian3 mao3 had disappeared, but they were really vivid and interesting. For instance, the phrase 应卯 (ying4 mao3) means that all officials react to the sound of charger’s checking when their names are called. The phrase 卯册 (mao3 ce4) refers to a pamphlet carried by the charger. The phrase 画卯（hua4 mao3）means that the attendant officials’ name had been put down on the pamphlet.

Learning Chinese difficult words and expressions via its original stories can be the best way to learn Chinese online around the world. Please keep your pace in reading more articles from the Chinese learning online platform.

       

 Source: 

http://chinesehanbridge.jigsy.com/entries/general/chinese-language-learning-for-dian3-mao3-in-your-hsk-test