Chinese honorifics

Chinese honorifics are words and phrases that indicate social respect or deference in the spoken or written language. Especially before the twentieth century, the language used among friends would be very different from that used among strangers such as merchants. Although most Chinese honorifics have fallen out of street use since the end of Imperial China, they can still be understood, and indeed occasionally used, by most contemporary Chinese speakers. This is partly attributable to the popularity of Chinese historical novels and television dramas, which often employ language from the classical periods. In general, language referring to oneself exhibits self-deprecating humbleness, while language referring to others shows approval and respect. Honorific language in Chinese was often achieved by using honorific alternatives, prefixing or suffixing a word with a polite complement, or simply by dropping casual-sounding words.

The sentence above is a perfectly acceptable question when addressing others of equal or lower status. In normal conversation, the extent of making it more polite might be to preface it with a 请 (qǐng, "please"), accommodated by a 问 (wèn, "ask") as it is a question. However, if the addressee is of higher status or the person asking the question wants to show more respect, several changes may occur:

The resulting sentence

is much more polite and more commonly used among people in formal or careful situations.

Below is a collection of some of the better known honorifics and polite prefixes and suffixes that have been used at one time or another in the Chinese lexicon. Pronunciations given are those of today's Mandarin Chinese. Note that many of these terms became obsolete after the end of the Qing dynasty or were deprecated during the Cultural Revolution and are no longer used.

When referring to oneself, the first-person pronoun was to be avoided in most situations. Persons of lower status—including slaves, children, and youths—were not to use it when speaking to those of higher status, while those of higher status—including lords, parents, and elders—frequently avoided it as a display of humility and virtue. Instead, a third-person descriptor was used, which varied according to the situation.

Referring to oneself in the third-person could be used arrogantly as well, to assert one's superiority or even dominance over one's audience. This was most common in the imperial middle management – the imperial consorts, the army, and the imperial bureaucracy – with the emperor instead often describing himself in sorrowful terms out of respect for his deceased father.

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