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East and West in Classical Chinese


WKC

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I see online Chinese - English dictionay translations of east and west as follows:

 

左 - left; east

 

右 - right; west

 

I'd be grateful if anyone could point to any classical Chinese dictionary or text that provides the definition of east and west for the characters 左 and 右. 

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If you want classical Chinese dictionary, neither kangxizidian 康熙字典 or shouwenjiezi 说文解字 has 左丶右 meaning east, west respectively. However, in older times, Chinese geography put the direction "south" at the top. So east is to the left and west is to the right, and 左丶右 are understood to represent east and west respectively, but the actual meaning of the characters do not include the directions.

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