Personally, I find it impossible to hone my writing skills in both English and Chinese.

Not only because the two aren't complementary grammatically, but because if you get used to the shortcuts and tropes in one, they don't translate well, if at all. https://twitter.com/KatjeXia/status/1313132448528568320

Pronouns. I know they're technically a word that takes the place of whatever, but for the purposes of this thread it's going to be "a concept that takes the place of I, she, he".

Before going further, a lot of this isn't relevant to the modern world.

A lot, but not all.

In modern parlance, asides from jokes where you use 朕 (pronoun for I exclusively used by the emperor), with your friends, it's mostly the usual with I, she, he, etc.

If the speaker is uncertain about gender or wishes to be inclusive, they will use tā or nǐ instead of the words.

Chinese genders not only he/she/they, but various flavors of you.

There is also a vous-equivalent, 您 nín.

(Note all pīnyīn in this thread is for Mandarin)

Aside from the usual, sometimes people, particularly women or those who prefer the feminine, will refer to themselves in the third person.

There are two ways of doing this: either you refer to yourself by name, or you use 人家 (someone else)

This is not usually done unless you're extremely familiar with the other person and in a position where 撒嬌 is fine or even welcome.

By “not usually", I mean "please don't use 人家 when you're talking to your boss or colleagues or even classmates". https://twitter.com/KatjeXia/status/1019171247387697152?s=20

Something to keep in mind re: pronouns and Chinese is that, traditionally they're not often used unless for emphasis.

Many sentences don't need pronouns at all.

So when you use "I" or "you", then by the virtue of rarity, much emphasis is given, which can appear rude.

Inserting here that all Chinese culture and various diaspora cultures are not a monolith, etc etc.

Various regions also have their various ways of saying "I".

俺，frex, apparently came from the north and is seen as a coarser way of referring to the self.

Back to 人家 and referring to yourself by name.

Frex, if someone asks if you have arrived at the party yet, then you might either say 來了 or 到了, which is "arrived", without a pronoun.

Or, you might say 人家到了，for emphasis without too much emphasis, if you know what I mean

It's honestly not as much of a big deal in modern parlance, but there's a difference between "I have arrived", "arrived" and "someone else has arrived" and it's useful as a shortcut for laying down background and emotional tone.

People who are fond of the "your mother" thing might be happy to note that "your mother" is commonly used as a pronoun when upset.

Similarly, "I, your father", is used.

Context: pissing contexts, dicking around with friends, joking, actual fights.

This leads into another use for the complicated pronouns - oftentimes it can serve as a reminder or scold or endearment or something else.

Like frex, if you say to your mother "daughter (I) knows she's erred", then that's a higher level of submission than "I" know I've erred.

Note, depending on the relationship with your parents, this might very well super not be a thing.

Between friends and a significant other, however, I've heard things like

臣妾 （your wife/concubine who is also your servant) has erred, please forgive me.

罪臣 (your servant, who has sinned)

小女子 / 小人 (this humble woman/ this humble person)

If you're really joking, you might say

奴才 （servant, most often used by indentured servants/eunuchs. The direct link here is to eunuchs because it's funny (???))

(we will possibly discuss the very strange situation where everyone doesn't want to be an eunuch, but also finds referring to them extremely funny and how it's a popular trope and how very fucked up that is some other day but not today)

Moving onto historical pronouns. Note this isn't going to be a comprehensive list.

As before the most famous one is 朕, the emperor's exclusive pronoun.

From what I've heard, before the Qin dynasty, 朕 used to be used by everyone, and then ...things changed.

But anyway, 朕 is actually not "I, the super amazing, the super great".

朕's original meaning is actually "the tiny crevices between the planks of a boat" and it was meant to be self-effacing.

Another two emperor-exclusive pronouns are 孤 and 寡人 or literally "alone" and "person who is without sufficient virtue".

(also two pronouns that are often used as jokes in modern days, but probably would get you beheaded in earlier times)

The complicated thing about writing Chinese adjacent historical is that ...you're technically never supposed to use "I" or "you" when talking to someone who is of higher rank than you.

A way to get around it is by referring to yourself by name, but that only works for some.

When speaking to the emperor, you're likely to call yourself 草民 （citizen who is as grass) if you are a commoner, 微臣 (minister who is as dust) if you work for him, 臣妾 (wife/concubine who is also a servant) if you're one of his women, etc.

If you're a servant, then likely you'd be 小人 （humble person) or 奴才 (your servant).

If you want to wish the emperor good health, you'd probably say something like "your imperial majesty, please take care of the dragon's body" instead of saying "your".

A correlation to this is:

You say "phoenix's body" when you refer to the dowager empress and the empress.

If it's a lesser concubine, you'll say "jade body".

The dowager empress refers to herself as 哀家 or "the grieving person". Because obviously your husband's death must determine the entirety of your world.

Anyways, what's interesting is that I've heard it's apparently a literary device and wasn't really used back in the day.

Everyone else who's anyone goes 本宮 "this seat".

Kings: 本王 ：this king

And this is actually the opposite of self-effacing. This is emphasizing "hi, I could crush you, so behave".

Any one with any sort of position within the government: 本官 or "this government official"...

In short, the choice of self-reference can give a lot of background within one short sentence and it's not really applicable or translatable to English at all.

Say there's been a fight in the marketplace. The local magistrate shows up and shouts: EVERYONE SHUT UP. 本官 this magistrate is here, how dare you be rowdy.

One of the people involved draws himself up and drawls, "who dares be insolent in front of this prince".

Boom.