道德经一
Daodejing One: 24/59
有
名
天
地
之
母
母mǔ
this means something like “of”
but it works in the opposite direction
hello, my name is darren
i’m interested in chinese philosophy
i don’t want to learn any grammar
that’s fine, darren
i can’t decide for you
how you are going to live your life
but if you’re with me
let’s just try and get to grips with this first chapter
this grammar point is very simple
in english you would say
the start of the sky and earth
(notice how “start” comes before “sky and earth”)
之zhī works like “of”
but you need to swap the sentence around
“start” (始shǐ) goes at the end
“sky and earth” (天地 tiāndì) go at the beginning
