小康

Chinese

 
small; tiny; few; young
peaceful; spongy (of radishes)
simp. and trad.
(小康)
Literally: “small tranquility”.

Etymology

From a passage in The Book of Rites:

……小康 [Classical Chinese, trad.][▼ expand/hide]
……小康 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Book of Rites, circa 4th – 2nd century BCE
...... Rú yǒu bù yóu cǐ zhě, zài shì zhě qù, zhòng yǐ wéi yāng, shì wèi xiǎokāng. [Pinyin]
[] Any rulers who did not follow this course were driven away by those who possessed power and position, and all regarded them as pests. This is the period of what we call Small Tranquillity.

Pronunciation



Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1 1/1
Initial () (16) (29)
Final () (91) (101)
Tone (調) Rising (X) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division () III I
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/siᴇuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Pan
Wuyun
/siɛuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Shao
Rongfen
/sjæuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/siawX/ /kʰaŋ/
Li
Rong
/siɛuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Wang
Li
/sĭɛuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Bernard
Karlgren
/si̯ɛuX/ /kʰɑŋ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
xiǎo kāng
BaxterSagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1 2/3
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
xiǎo kāng
Middle
Chinese
‹ sjewX › ‹ khang ›
Old
Chinese
/*[s]ewʔ/ /*k-r̥ˁaŋ/
English small tranquil; at ease

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character
Reading # 1/1 1/1
No. 13705 3981
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
2 0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*smewʔ/ /*kʰlaːŋ/
Notes

Noun

小康

  1. (Chinese philosophy) Confucian near-ideal state of society; period of peace and prosperity
  2. (modern uses) comparatively good living standards; moderate affluence

Derived terms

  • 小康計畫小康计画

Japanese

Kanji in this term
しょう
Grade: 1
こう
Grade: 4
on’yomi

Etymology

/seukau//ɕeukau//ɕeukɔː//ɕoːkoː/

From Middle Chinese compound 小康 (sjewX khang, literally small + tranquil). Compare modern Cantonese siu2 hong1 or Mandarin xiǎokāng.

Pronunciation

Noun

小康 (hiragana しょうこう, rōmaji shōkō, historical hiragana せうかう)

  1. a lull, a respite, a breathing spell, a short time of peace

Derived terms

  • 小康状態 (しょうこうじょうたい) (shōkō jōtai): a state of reduced activity

References

  1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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