Thread:Tigertally/@comment-1463998-20140215114345

Hi TT,

A question about Chinese writing in old sources...

usually in the first line of one's biography it gives the home of the person, like Liu Bei: "涿郡涿縣人" ("A man from Zhuo county in Zhuo commandery"?), but when I look at Cao Cao's bio it looks a little different: "沛國譙人也" ("a man from Qiao in Pei state, too"?). Why the 也?

And if you look at Yuan Shao's biography in HHS it says "袁紹 字本初，汝南汝陽人" ("Yuan Shao, style name Benchu, a man from Ruyang in Runan commandery").

In comparison, Liu Bei has the 縣 behind the county name, Cao Cao has the 人 behind the county name and Yuan Shao has neither. Why is this? is Qiao not a county? Is Ruyang not a county?

Can you please explain? 