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How was the tone classified in classical Chinese?
In the Chinese language, characters having the same sound may have different tones. There are four tones in classical Chinese phonetics: ping (平), shang (上), qu (去), ru (入).
ping (平) is the level tone (the first and second tone in modern standard Chinese pronunciation).
Examples: 東 (dōng)﹐ 家 (jiā)﹐ 身 (shēn)﹐ 春 (chūn) ﹐陽 (yáng) ﹐ 田 (tián)﹐ 青 (qīng)﹐ 川 (chuān).
shang (上) is the falling-rising tone (the third tone in modern standard Chinese pronunciation).
Examples: 水 (shuǐ )﹐古 (gǔ )﹐ 馬 (mǎ)﹐ 口 (kǒu)﹐我 (wǒ ).
qu (去) is the falling tone (the fourth tone in modern standard Chinese pronunciation). Examples: 地 (dì )﹐ 未 (wèi)﹐ 路 (lù )﹐ 外 (wài)﹐ 大 (dà)﹐下 (xià )﹐ 又 (yòu).
ru (入) is the "entering" tone, which is pronounced in a short and abrupt manner.
Examples: 目 (mù)﹐ 月(yuè)﹐物 (wù)﹐力 (lì)﹐ 八 (bā)﹐國 (guó)﹐十 (shí)﹐ 學 (xué)﹐ 雪 (xuě)﹐北 (běi)﹐給 (gěi)﹐七 (qī)﹐ 苦 (kǔ) .
In modern standard pronunciation, the ancient level tone is now divided into the "high and level (陽平) tone " and the "rising (陰平) tone ." In mandarin Chinese, there is no entering tone. Those characters classified as entering tone in classical Chinese now fall under one of the four tones in mandarin pronunciation.
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