Chinese Honorifics

Chinese honorifics were developed due to class consciousness and Confucian principles of order and respect in Ancient and Imperial China. The Chinese polite language also affects Japanese honorifics conceptually; both emphasized the idea of classes and in-group vs. out-group. So the language used among friends would be very different from that used among businesspeople. Although most Chinese honorifics have fallen out of use since the end of Imperial China, they can still be understood 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.

Since Chinese grammar does not employ the use of inflections, i.e., absent of grammatical conjugation or declension, the Chinese honorifics system differs from the conjugating Korean and Japanese systems. Politeness in Chinese is often achieved by using honorific alternatives, prefixing or suffixing a word with a polite complement, or simply by dropping casual-sounding words.