# Preface and post-face



## Bardho

Hello,

There's these kanji into a book, at the beginning and at the end :



 



That's an accurate point of translation :
What is these kanji and what is, according to you, the best translation : 
for the first, "Introduction" or "Preface" or "Foreword" ? 
And for the other, is this : "Conclusion" or "postword" ?


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## Flaminius

Hi,

These pairs of kanjis do not seem like Japanese words.  I am just wondering why you saw hand-written letters in a book.  Is it possible that you hand-copied the printed original?  If that is the case, I'd want the originals in images.


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## Bardho

Well,
For the first, it seems the japanese kanji : X_由 , _and for the second, X_尾  ("end"/"tail")._


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## SoLaTiDoberman

附尾 seems to be "postword," but I don't think it's Japanese, but probably Chinese.
附＝adding
尾＝tail, end

叙由 seems to be "preface" but I don't think it's Japanese, either.
叙＝序＝beginning
由=reason, or what it is

叙申 seems more reasonable, as "preface" or "a speech at the beginning."

申＝tell

Ｉ'd advise you to go to the Chinese forum.


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## Bardho

All right, SoLaTiDoberman !

But these kanji exists equally in japanese :

叙 : jo / tsuide / tsui.zu 
申 : shin / mô.su / mô.shi
由 : yu / yû / yui / yoshi
附 : fu / tsu.keru /tsu.ku
尾 : bi / o


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## SoLaTiDoberman

b, h, o, x are English alphabets as well, but "bhox” is not an English word.
b, o, y are French alphabets as well, but "boy" is not a French word.
叙, 申 are Japanese kanji as well, but 叙申 is not a Japanese word.
If someone tried to make a new word, it could be a new Japanese word, which other Japanese people didn't know. Maybe they could guess the meaning of it because each kanji has its meaning.

For example, "centi" is a prefix meaning 100 in English.
Therefore, maybe I can make a new word, "centi-yen coin" meaning "100 yen coin."
But it usually doesn't make sense to native English speakers, right?

"Preface" is an English word, but "Face in advance" is not an English phrase, although some people can guess the meaning. "Beforeface" sounds weird, right?

"Preface" is 序文, 前口上, 前書き or はしがき in Japanese.
So we usually do not think that 叙申 is a Japanese word. It sounds weird.
And we guess that it is a foreign language word, and that maybe it's Chinese because kanji was imported from China.


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## Flaminius

I came across 叙由 while on scent of something else.  It is from a 19th-century manuscript on traditional Japanese medicine, 難経鉄鑑.  The placement of 難経鉄鑑叙由 is immediately after 難経鉄鑑序, and together they comprise an interlude between 巻之首 and 巻之一.  The preface of this book is 序 and 叙由 is a five-paragraph questions and answers, explaining how the author is worthy of writing this book.

I am not an expert of Japanese palaeography, so this is my wit's end.  You could have been more effective by telling us in the beginning that you are reading a pre-modern Japanese manuscript (or a facsimile copy of it) written in a simulated Ancient Chinese. Again, I could be wrong about this guesswork.


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## Flaminius

Another Yedo-aera manuscript, 南亭余韻 (1827), comes in five volumes of the main text and two volumes of 附尾.  This inclines the meaning of 附尾 more to appendix than to postscript.


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## Bardho

OK.
Have you an idea about the most exact pronunciation of this term in japanese (romaji) ?


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## Flaminius

So, your book is indeed a manuscript written in a simulated Ancient Chinese as was used in Japan?  Good.
叙由 joyū; 附尾 fubi


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