<p>This should be a clever question!</p>

<p>In classical Chinese<br>
“爱” should be love to culture, nature, mess people or emperor(the culture emblem)<br>
“恋” should be romantic love to another person, a butterfly loves a flower (蝶恋花)
“情” is a noun of “exist love/adore”, more clearly --“恋情”</p>

<p>For further,<br>
“慕” should like “adore”, always use as “爱慕”, “倾慕”</p>

<hr>

<p>In traditional/full Chinese writing these words are</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>愛、戀、蝶戀花、情、慕、愛慕、傾慕</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-08-13T23:25:35.807Z
2019-08-13T23:31:05.873Z
2019-08-13T23:31:05.873Z
a_a
<p>1, 愛, is traditional Chinese, be used it HongKong, Marcau, and Taiwan.
2, 愛，can be a noun, can be a verb. But 戀 is more focusing on verb. and they are not in same meaning. We say 我爱她。but never say 我戀她。
3, passions=激情， alluring=艷, 艷 more means on color.
4, In Chinese, every character is already very basic meaning, it must use in context, otherwise you hardly can use a basic character to present more meaning.
5, From a Chinese option, I never think / study Chinese in this style, hope you just read newspaper or book could improve your Chinese.</p>

<p>I am a developer, would like to find some technique thing, I don't know how / why I go into here, but whatever, hope I can explain well.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-27T14:16:42.143Z
The question is about classical Chinese (古文, 文言, 漢文), and not about vernacular modern Mandarin (普通話, 華語, 白話文).
Flux
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-27T16:11:33.980Z
OK, I get you now. The previous statement also stands. You can not use just one character to stand for love(爱情) because, in traditional Chinese, this verb should be decorated. I provide you a website for your reference(if your Chinese is good enough): http://www.ruiwen.com/wenxue/shiju/296128.html @Flux
vincent zhang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-27T14:03:45.253Z
2019-03-27T14:03:45.253Z
vincent zhang
<p>In Mandarin, 愛 means romantic love. However, <a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/067402270X" rel="nofollow noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese</a> by Paul Rouzer has this to say about its use in literary Chinese:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>This character [愛] usually does not imply "romantic love" in literary
  Chinese, as it does in the modern East Asian languages.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So which character(s) are used for romantic love in classical Chinese?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-26T23:34:45.833Z
I guess 戀 is quite close...and you can contrast this with erotic passions (艷). 愛 is a kind of benevolent love.
dROOOze
<word-requests><classical-chinese>
What is the character for romantic love in classical Chinese?
# What is the character for romantic love in classical Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-26)

In Mandarin, 愛 means romantic love. However, [New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/067402270X) by Paul Rouzer has this to say about its use in literary Chinese:

> This character [愛] usually does not imply "romantic love" in literary
> Chinese, as it does in the modern East Asian languages.

So which character(s) are used for romantic love in classical Chinese?

**Tags:** word-requests, classical-chinese

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I guess 戀 is quite close...and you can contrast this with erotic passions (艷). 愛 is a kind of benevolent love.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-08-13. Score: 1

This should be a clever question!

In classical Chinese  
“爱” should be love to culture, nature, mess people or emperor(the culture emblem)  
“恋” should be romantic love to another person, a butterfly loves a flower (蝶恋花)
“情” is a noun of “exist love/adore”, more clearly --“恋情”

For further,  
“慕” should like “adore”, always use as “爱慕”, “倾慕”

---

In traditional/full Chinese writing these words are

> 愛、戀、蝶戀花、情、慕、愛慕、傾慕


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-03-27. Score: 0

1, 愛, is traditional Chinese, be used it HongKong, Marcau, and Taiwan.
2, 愛，can be a noun, can be a verb. But 戀 is more focusing on verb. and they are not in same meaning. We say 我爱她。but never say 我戀她。
3, passions=激情， alluring=艷, 艷 more means on color.
4, In Chinese, every character is already very basic meaning, it must use in context, otherwise you hardly can use a basic character to present more meaning.
5, From a Chinese option, I never think / study Chinese in this style, hope you just read newspaper or book could improve your Chinese.

I am a developer, would like to find some technique thing, I don't know how / why I go into here, but whatever, hope I can explain well.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: The question is about classical Chinese (古文, 文言, 漢文), and not about vernacular modern Mandarin (普通話, 華語, 白話文).  
> **username_3**: OK, I get you now. The previous statement also stands. You can not use just one character to stand for love(爱情) because, in traditional Chinese, this verb should be decorated. I provide you a website for your reference(if your Chinese is good enough): http://www.ruiwen.com/wenxue/shiju/296128.html @username_0  

---

