Glossary / Self-Reference
Self-Reference in Chinese: 51 Terms and Their English Renderings
How characters refer to themselves, which is where arrogance and humility are actually encoded.
51 terms
| Chinese | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 本座 | This Venerable One | A sect master or elder referring to himself. Cold and elevated; never said to an equal. The rank is carried by the word, not the sentence. |
| 本尊 | This Venerable Self | Grander and more arrogant than this venerable one. Typical of demonic lords and masters who answer to nobody. |
| 老夫 | This Old Man | An older cultivator using his age as authority. 'Do not make this old man repeat himself.' |
| 贫道 | This Poor Daoist | A Daoist cultivator's humble self-reference. Humble in form only; often said by someone about to kill you. |
| 在下 | This One | A modest, jianghu-flavoured 'I'. Used with strangers when you want to seem harmless. |
| 晚辈 | This Junior | Calling yourself the younger party. Buys you room to speak to a senior without giving offence. |
| 不才 | This Untalented One | Formal self-deprecation, usually right before offering an opinion or a service. |
| 鄙人 | This Humble Person | Old-fashioned polite 'I'. Bookish; used by merchants and scholars. |
| 小女子 | This Little Woman | A young woman referring to herself modestly, usually when asking for help. |
| 奴家 | This Slave Girl | An old-fashioned, softer female self-reference. Reads as period drama to a modern ear. |
| 妾身 | This Concubine | How a married woman refers to herself before her husband or a superior. Marks status, not humility. |
| 我辈 | We of This Kind | 'People like us.' Includes the speaker and everyone in the same trade or realm. |
| 尔等 | You All | Addressing a group from above. Contemptuous or commanding; never neutral. |
| 汝 | Thou | An archaic 'you', the exact match for old-fashioned English 'thou'. Used by characters who want to sound ancient. |
| 本少爷 | This Young Master | A rich young man referring to himself. Entitled, and usually about to be humbled. |
| 本王 | This Prince | A royal or demonic lord's self-reference. Carries real authority behind it. |
| 本皇 | This Emperor | Imperial self-reference. Whoever says it is claiming a throne. |
| 本帝 | This Sovereign | The same imperial claim in a higher register. Usually a final-boss title. |
| 老子 | Your Daddy | Crude, aggressive 'I'. Used by thugs, and by protagonists who have stopped being polite. |
| 老娘 | This Old Lady | The female equivalent of Laozi. Crude, and funnier when it comes from a young woman. |
| 为师 | Your Master | How a teacher refers to himself when speaking to a disciple. |
| 师兄我 | Your Senior Brother Here | Referring to yourself as the senior. Pulls rank while sounding warm. |
| 朕 | We | The emperor's 'I'. In cultivation settings, used by anyone who has taken a throne. |
| 在下不才 | This One Is Untalented | A stacked humble opening. The longer the self-deprecation, the more dangerous the speaker usually is. |
| 属下 | Subordinate | How a sect member names himself to a superior. Deferential, and noticeably colder than calling yourself a disciple. |
| 末学 | This Late Learner | An extremely humble self-reference. Used to lower yourself before asking a hard question. |
| 愚兄 | This Foolish Brother | Friendly self-deprecation between equals. Softer than it sounds. |
| 贤弟 | Worthy Brother | The matching term of address. Warm, and slightly formal. |
| 贤侄 | Worthy Nephew | How an elder addresses a friend's son. Polite, with distance built in. |
| 老奴 | This Old Servant | A servant speaking about himself to his master. The humility is the point. |
| 卑职 | This Lowly Official | Bureaucratic self-reference. Used in courts, and sarcastically everywhere else. |
| 末将 | This General | A military self-reference. Short, clipped, and always to a superior. |
| 贫僧 | This Poor Monk | Buddhist self-reference. Calm on the surface, lethal underneath. |
| 老衲 | This Old Monk | The same, older and blunter. Expects to be obeyed. |
| 贫尼 | This Poor Nun | The female equivalent, and rarer than it should be. |
| 小道 | This Little Daoist | A very modest self-reference from a young Daoist. Bait, usually. |
| 家师 | My Master | How you refer to your own teacher to an outsider. Humble by default. |
| 敝宗 | Our Humble Sect | Self-deprecating reference to one's own sect. Manners, not modesty. |
| 劣徒 | My Worthless Disciple | How a master complains about his own student. Affectionate code for pride. |
| 小可 | This Small One | Self-deprecating, slightly comic. Used by ordinary merchants and by people pretending to be. |
| 区区 | This Trifling One | Same idea with more irony. Very close to a brag wearing a bow. |
| 女子 | This Woman | Plain female self-reference. Used in formal settings when the speaker will not humble herself. |
| 吾辈 | We of This Generation | Collective with ambition attached. The rally-a-group pronoun. |
| 吾 | I | The classical first person. Sounds archaic and final in a modern scene. |
| 高人 | Esteemed One | Not self-reference but how others describe someone with power. Its absence is also telling. |
| 老身 | This Old Woman | Female equivalent of the old man's self-reference. Carries the same authority. |
| 本宫 | This Palace | Self-reference by a consort or a palace authority. Rare outside court settings. |
| 寡人 | This Lone One | The ruler's self-reference. Signals a court scene, and the presence of someone who can order executions. |
| 拙荆 | My Clumsy Wife | A man's humble reference to his own spouse. Old-fashioned, and a reminder that she is not present. |
| 犬子 | My Dog Son | A man's humble reference to his own child. Still used by proud fathers. |
| 先师 | My Late Master | Same, for a dead teacher. Often followed by a promise. |
This is the category where literal rendering fails hardest, and where a good translator earns their fee. Terms follow the free cultivation novels at cultivationnovel.com.
Where these words turn up
Stories on this site that use them the way the notes describe.
My Brother Wants My Dao Companion. Off to Martial Uncle He Goes.A family dispute over a dao companion, settled by the most senior relative available.本座Source: cultivationnovel.com · Cultivation Glossary