昔在

Chinese

		past; former	(located) at; in; exist (located) at; in; exist; (before verbs) immediately involved in; right in the middle of doing
simp. and trad. (昔在)		昔	在

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): xīzài

  (Zhuyin): ㄒㄧ ㄗㄞˋ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: xīzài
    • Zhuyin: ㄒㄧ ㄗㄞˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: sizài
    • Wade–Giles: hsi¹-tsai⁴
    • Yale: syī-dzài
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: shitzay
    • Palladius: сицзай (siczaj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɕi⁵⁵ t͡saɪ̯⁵¹/

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• Middle Chinese: sjek dzojX|dzojH

Rime
Character	昔	在	在
Reading #	1/1	1/2	2/2
Initial (聲)	心 (16)	從 (15)	從 (15)
Final (韻)	昔 (123)	咍 (41)	咍 (41)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)	Rising (X)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open	Open	Open
Division (等)	III	I	I
Fanqie	思積切	昨宰切	昨代切
Baxter	sjek	dzojX	dzojH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/siᴇk̚/	/d͡zʌiX/	/d͡zʌiH/
Pan Wuyun	/siɛk̚/	/d͡zəiX/	/d͡zəiH/
Shao Rongfen	/siæk̚/	/d͡zɒiX/	/d͡zɒiH/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/siajk̚/	/d͡zəjX/	/d͡zəjH/
Li Rong	/siɛk̚/	/d͡zᴀiX/	/d͡zᴀiH/
Wang Li	/sĭɛk̚/	/d͡zɒiX/	/d͡zɒiH/
Bernard Karlgren	/si̯ɛk̚/	/d͡zʱɑ̆iX/	/d͡zʱɑ̆iH/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	xi	zài	zài
Expected Cantonese Reflex	sik1	zoi6	zoi6

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[s]Ak  [dz]ˤəʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*sjaːɡ  zlɯːʔ|zlɯːs/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	昔	在
Reading #	1/1	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	xī	zài
Middle Chinese	‹ sjek ›	‹ dzojX ›
Old Chinese	/*[s]Ak/	/*[dz]ˁəʔ/
English	in the past	be at, be present
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	昔	在	在
Reading #	1/1	1/2	2/2
No.	13309	1064	1065
Phonetic component	昔	才	才
Rime group	鐸	之	之
Rime subdivision	0	0	0
Corresponding MC rime	昔	在	載
Old Chinese	/*sjaːɡ/	/*zlɯːʔ/	/*zlɯːs/

Preposition

昔在

1. (set phrase, archaic) in the time of

   • 昔才爾考公氏 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     昔才尔考公氏 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: circa 11th century, He zun inscriptions (𣄰尊銘文)

     xīzài ěr kǎo gōng shì [Pinyin]

     in the time of your late father the Duke

   • 昔在顓頊，命南正重以司天，北正黎以司地。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     昔在颛顼，命南正重以司天，北正黎以司地。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Xīzài Zhuānxū, mìng Nánzhèng Chóng yǐ sī tiān, Běizhèng Lí yǐ sī dì. [Pinyin]

     In the time of Zhuanxu, mandates were given to Chong and Li, the southern and northern princes, for them to govern the heavenly and terrestrial domains respectively.

Usage notes

Almost always followed by a noun or noun phrase designating a past or legendary person, in the sense of "during the lifetime of", to initiate a narration about former events.