Why Is Moon An Expressive Imagery in Chinese Poetry

Moon, as the celestial body nearest to the Earth, has been symbolising humans' emotions, inspirations and worships towards the nature since the start of civilisation. During the time when civilisations were only in primitive forms, the Moon was worshipped as a symbol of wisdom, mystery, prowess, harvest, eternity, procreation and beauty. As time elapsed, the idea about the Moon had gradually differentiated. In the West, the Moon was seen as an ominous sign of crime, evil, apathy and loneliness. However, in Chinese culture, the Moon is always linked with emotions such as sadness, nostalgia and affection. This is especially prominent in Chinese poetry where poets express love, nostalgia with the Moon as an imagery.

But why has the Moon become such a core imagery in Chinese poetry? Well, although there's no actual study that has shown the origin of the Moon used in poetry, it is probably related to one of the most famous and classical Chinese mythologies, 嫦娥奔月 (Chang E Flying to the Moon).

The story goes like this: once upon a time, there was a king named Hou Yi (后羿) who was a marvellously gifted archer. One year, there were ten suns rising in the sky, burning the creatures, buildings and everything all to the ground. Hou Yi took out his bow and shot down nine of the suns and saved the world. The gods were impressed by his bravery and heroic achievement, so they sent him an Immortality Pill as an award. When Hou Yi's wife, Chang E (嫦娥), found out the Immortality Pill, she stole the Pill and ingested it in hopes she would attain eternity of life. However, Chang E only realised the Pill was turning her body extremely light before she floated in the air and rose up to the sky. She flew until she reached the Moon, where she lived forever deathlessly with immense loneliness and nostalgia.

This turned out to be one of the most appreciated mythologies in Chinese history. In Tang Dynasty, a famous poet, Li Shangyin (李商隐), wrote a poem to narrate the story: (the translation is not official)

云母屏风烛影深，长河渐落晓星沉。

嫦娥应悔偷灵药，碧海青天夜夜心。

On the mica screen is reflected the dark candle shadow,

The Milky Way inclines and the morning stars hang low.

Chang'e must regret stealing the pill of longevity,

Now she mopes alone night after night in the sky blue.

The mythologies about the Moon allows it to create an atmosphere of mystery, serenity and vastness. In the poem 春江花月夜 (A Moonlit Night On The Spring River) by Zhang Ruoxu (张若虚), a poet in Tang Dynasty, the first sentence was:

春江潮水连海平，海上明月共潮生。

In spring the river rises as high as the sea,

And with the river's rise the moon uprises bright.

This sentence developed a serenaded and vast atmosphere for the whole poem, which was rather effective in bringing out the nostalgic thoughts expressed by the poet.

Since the Moon projected a serenaded scene that was emotionally resonant to the reader, it was frequently used to express a reminiscent nostalgia along with the sadness. A poem which even a pre-primary child can fluently recite, 静夜思 (A Tranquil Night) by Li Bai (李白), who is famous as "the poet of celestial being", has been the most classical Chinese poem ever.

床前明月光，疑是地上霜。

举头望明月，低头思故乡。

Abed, I see a silver light;

I wonder if it's frost aground.

Looking up, I find the moon bright;

Bowing, in homesickness I'm drowned.

Another typical and classical poem with the Moon as a symbol of a longing of families would be 望月怀远 (Looking at the Moon and Longing for One Far Away):

海上生明月，天涯共此时。

情人怨遥夜，竟夕起相思。

灭烛怜光满，披衣觉露滋。

不堪盈手赠，还寝梦佳期。

Over the sea glows the moon bright;

We gaze on it far, far apart.

Lovers complain for long, long night;

They rise and long for the dear heart.

Candle blown out, fuller is light;

My coat put on, I'm moist with dew.

As I can't hand you moonbeams white,

I go to bed to dream of you.

Also, the Mid-autumn Festival has been inspiring poets over thousands of years to express their nostalgia and longing of families. There're countless poems in China's history written for Mid-autumn Festival. However, the most splendid and exquisite and epic Mid-autumn poem did not appear until one of the greatest litterateurs in Ancient China, Su Shi (苏轼), wrote the almost heavenly poem ever, 水调歌头·明月几时有 (Prelude to Water Melody) under extreme wish to see his families. This poem has been crazily praised even till today. It was once remarked as "ever since Su Shi's work, all other Mid-autumn poems have become illiterate writings."

明月几时有，把酒问青天。不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年？我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。起舞弄清影，何似在人间。        转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。不应有缺，何事长向别时圆？人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。

How rare the moon, so round and clear!

With cup in hand, I ask of the blue sky,

"I do not know in the celestial sphere

What name this festive night goes by?"

I want to fly home, riding the air,

But fear the ethereal cold up there,

The jade and crystal mansions are so high!

Dancing to my shadow,

I feel no longer the mortal tie.

She rounds the vermilion tower,

Stoops to silk-pad doors,

Shines on those who sleepless lie.

Why does she, bearing us no grudge,

Shine upon our parting, reunion deny?

But rare is perfect happiness--

The moon does wax, the moon does wane,

And so men meet and say goodbye.

I only pray our life be long,

And our souls together heavenward fly!

The Loanword Which Is Seemingly a Chengyu — 歇斯底里

Here's an amazing fact about a loanword in Chinese which is casually thought by many people to be a Chengyu. The word is 歇斯底里(xiē sī dǐ lǐ). Even by appearance, we would recognise it as a Chengyu, not to mention that it looks seemingly like a concise idiom just like all other Chengyu.

However, the word actually came from "hysteria", which is a specialised medical term for a mental disease that makes the patients experience extreme and uncontrollable emotions. It's hard to tell whether the word is first translated as a technical term or not, but the corresponding Chinese transcription, 歇斯底里, did have been used for the same disease before.

What is the most amazing about this word is, despite it IS a medical term used in specialised context, it seems to appear in casual usage much more frequently. People use it just like some casual or informal Chengyu and idioms, which has somehow turned 歇斯底里 into a daily idiom as well. Usually, 歇斯底里 is used to describe a mental condition of a person which makes the person have an extreme feeling that stirs him unnaturally, often with extremely uncontrollable emotions or behaviours.

Unexpected Chinese Words Which Actually Came from English!

Just like the enormously large portion of English vocabulary that was from other languages, in Chinese there're also quite a number of vocabulary with foreign origins. Over centuries, people adopted vocabulary from other languages to express concepts that were not common in local context. And when this vocabulary became a habit in conversations, those words adapted themselves into the Chinese language, just like how English has borrowed vocabulary from French, Latin, Greek, etc.. However, within the loanwords in Chinese, some may sound particularly Chinese despite they originated outside of China. Here I've collected those unexpected Chinese loanwords:

1. 酷(kù): 酷 is a transcription of the English word "cool", which serves as an exclamatory particle to describe someone is awesome in their appearances or actions. Originally, 酷 means a serious or severe situation, as in the words "酷热"(kù rè, scorching) "酷刑"(kù xíng, savage tortures). However, with the concept borrowed along with the loanword, new words and phrases also have been invented using 酷 such as "酷炫"(kù xuàn, awesome and dazzling) "酷毙了"(kù bì le, dead awesome).
2. 引擎(yǐn qíng): in Chinese, 引 can mean "to trigger off" and 擎 means "to lift and hold". Combined together, the word can actually be interpreted literally as "to trigger of a power that sustain a movement", which somehow fits well with the meaning of the original word from the English "engine". 
3. 卡通(kǎ tōng): this word comes from "cartoon". Similarly, the Chinese transliteration is also close to the original meaning by literal interpretation. 卡 means a card, and 通 can mean "easily understood". Hence 卡通 can be interpreted as "things drawn on a piece of paper that can be easily understood", which is one characteristic of cartoon.
4. 幽默(yōu mò): if you want to praise someone by saying he's witty, 幽默 might probably be the most frequently used word. If somebody is 幽默, they are adept in inventing quality jokes and playing with words to create a comical and relaxing atmosphere for a conversation. But actually this word comes from "humour", and was added the meaning as an adjective in Chinese.
5. 逻辑(luó jí): another splendid transliteration from English to Chinese. 逻 in Chinese means "to observe the surroundings vigilantly" and 辑 means "to compile information together after rearrangement and analysis". Thus, the word "logic" was introduced into Chinese with the meaning of "the process of gathering, contemplating, analysing, rearranging and interpreting information to draw a conclusion."
6. 苦力(kǔ lì): differently, the word 苦力 looks exactly like a word with Chinese origin. Even the formation of this word follows the patterns of Chinese strictly. 苦 means "bitter", often representing sufferings and tough times in life. 力 means "force" or "labour". So 苦力 is a perfect combination of characters with the meaning of "hard labour(er)". However, shockingly, it actually came from the taboo "coolie".
7. 台风(tái fēng): the story of this word would be the most intriguing one. In Mandarin Chinese, 台风 is a transliteration of "typhoon". Interestingly, however, the word "typhoon" came from the word 大风 in Cantonese. Therefore, in fact, 台风 is a loanword of a loanword in English that came from Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese.

Why Is Jealousy Equated to 吃醋 but Not Other Things?

吃醋(chī cù), literally meaning "drinking vinegar", is commonly used as an idiomatic phrase to say a person being jealous because someone close (usually a lover or sometimes a family member) to him/her is having pleasant interactions with a third party. In today's society in China, 吃醋 within an appropriate range is often considered as a sign of affection and love. If a girl "drinks vinegar" when spotting her boyfriend interact pleasantly with another girl, the general opinion will point out that the girl is taking the relationship seriously with quite some care and values the accompany of the boy. However, have you ever wondered, why is jealousy related to vinegar but not other things? Well, there're several stories and each of them is quite interesting. Now let's take a look at those "vinegar stories"!

• Story of the Lion's Roar:

There was an emperor of the Ming Dynasty who kept two lions in his palace. And according to some historical recordings, he fed the lions with two bottles of vinegar per day. But how's a lion fed with vinegar related to jealousy? There's another story called "the lion's roar from the east of the river". Su Shi (苏轼), one of the greatest poets in China's history, who lived in the Song Dynasty, had a friend called Chen Jichang (陈季常) who had married a very jealous wife. When Chen Jichang treated his guests to a meal with geisha girls accompanying, the wife would tap the wall with a wooden stick and insult the guests to force them leave. Since Chen Jichang was a Buddhist, Su Shi used "lion's roar" which was a terminology in Buddhism for the solemn voice of the Buddha to teasingly  describe the wife's angry voice while insulting the guests. He wrote in one poem that 忽闻河东狮子吼，拄仗落手心茫然, which means "suddenly hearing the lion's roar from the east of the river, his stick fell off his hand with his heart in chaos." From then on, "lion's roar" was used to refer to a jealous wife, and hence "drinking vinegar", which is related to a lion, became a phrase for jealousy.

• Story of the Vinegar That Has Gone Bad:

This one needs a bit of background information to understand. In ancient China, it was legal for a man to have several wives. Back to the main topic, in some southern areas in China, people thought it was unsuitable for a family to make two jars of vinegar at the same time as one of them must go bad over time without being consumed. This was then used to connote the belief that a man shouldn't marry more than one wife or disharmony would be created among family members. Therefore, some people in Qing Dynasty thought that this could be the origin of 吃醋.

• Sour Taste Theory

In ancient China, vinegar was the main ingredient to add sour taste to the food. Hence the meaning of vinegar was extended to "sour", which could refer to a painful emotion sometimes. So people related 吃醋 to jealousy to express a feeling of bitterness.

• Story of Fang Xuanling's Wife

So far, this is the story acknowledged and believed by most of people for the origin of 吃醋. Fang Xuanling (房玄龄) was one of the Prime Ministers in the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Li Shimin (李世民), who was probably the most highly esteemed and the greatest (well at least in my personal opinion) emperor in China's history. To award Fang's great contribution in helping him win the throne, the emperor wanted to send a beauty to him but declined for several times. The emperor then heard that Fang's wife was very jealous, so he told his queen to negotiate with the wife. However, all the attempts had failed. So the emperor went angry, and acclaimed that if she didn't give in, the only solution was to have herself executed. The wife insisted and claimed she would be willing to die. The emperor commanded his servant to get a goblet of poisonous wine and told the wife, "if you mean it, drink up this goblet of poisonous wine." The wife, without hesitation, took the goblet of wine and drained it with one gulp. In fact, however, the wine was not actually poisoned. After that, the emperor gave up awarding Fang with the beauty and remarked, "even I am afraid to see her, no wonder Fang Xuanling would be so!"

The Character Which Even Native Chinese Can't Thoroughly Understand — 仁

During my junior high school time, my history teacher taught me in the first lesson on the chapter of ancient Chinese philosophies that the core belief in Confucianism is "仁"(rén). But I was always confused by what 仁 truly expresses as a principle in philosophy. Besides, 仁 is also practically one of the most highly complicated and concise characters that is almost impossible to give an all-rounded definition. So instead of trying to explain the character which would most possibly end up more perplexing, I'll basically tell you the whole story and the origin of this character in hope that it can give all of us sort of an insight for it.

Let's firstly take a look at the origin of 仁. In the earliest time when the character was invented, it originally consisted of a vertical stroke (竖 shù) on the left-hand side and two horizontal strokes (横 héng) placed in parallel on the right-hand side. The one vertical symbolised yin (阴 yīn) and the two horizontals, yang (阳 yáng), which are essential elements in Chinese ideology considered as the most fundamental components of everything's interior. From the moment of the invention of this character, a sense of being the core was already imposed into it. Over time, the character had evolved to two horizontals with a 亻 radical which pictures a person on the left-hand side. The orientation of strokes in the character expresses an imagery of two persons assembling together, which essen, tially symbolised a intimate, harmonious and caring relationship between people. There's also another theory claiming that 亻 radical originally meant "up; above", extending the meaning of 仁 to cream or a state of sublimation of the mind.

Coming to the Spring-and-Autumn Period (春秋时期 Chūn qiū shí qī) during which a major flourishing of ideologies, philosophies and cultures in China's history took place, 仁 was highly regarded as the highest moral standard by Confucius and treated as the core idea in Confucianism. It then represented an immensely broad range of ideologies related to virtues and moral values with the core idea of being kind and friendly to others. In a variety of ancient philosophical works, 仁 was given various explanations with regard to the main topic of the books. 

• In 《说文》(Shuō wén), the oldest Chinese dictionary, the entry of 仁 stated 仁，亲也, which defined 仁 as closeness and affection in people's relationships.
• In the Chapter 《经解》(Jīng jīe) of the major work of education and etiquette in Ancient China, 《礼记》(Lǐ jì), it was stated that 上下相亲谓之仁, meaning "the act of being kind and friendly, showing affection to the people around is called 仁." In another Chapter 《儒行》(Rú xíng), it was mentioned that 温良者，仁之本也 (being gentle and mild is the root of 仁).  Also, in Chapter 《丧服四制》(Sāng fú sì zhì), the author wrote 仁者，可以观其爱焉 (仁 is the personality from which people can see one's love and care for others).
• Another great philosopher in the Spring-and-Autumn Period, 韩非(Hán fēi), wrote in his book that 仁者，谓其中心欣然爱人也, which is translated as "what we call 仁 is an attitude in people's mind which drives them to care and love others willingly."
• Also in 《礼记》, 仁 was alternatively defined as the kindness and favour of the nature that breed all lives in the world.
• Finally, in 《论语》(Lún yǔ), the greatest classic of Confucianism, 仁 was considered as the perfect virtue of a human being. It was described in 夫仁者，己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人, meaning that if a perfectly virtuous man wanted to be independent, he would help others be independent as well; if a perfectly virtuous man was eager for achievements and fame, he would help others achieve and gain fame as well.

Over 200 years later during the Warring-States Period, the first revolutionary era in China's history, the successor of Confucianism, Mencius, further developed and elaborated the ideology of 仁 up to a political belief. His doctrine was concluded as 仁政(rén zhèng), translated as "benevolent governance". According to 仁政, only those rulers who love his civilians and make policies based on the gain of civilians' benefit can sustain their reign with people's support. Mencius believed that a monarch should conquer other countries by winning the hearts of their citizens through virtuous and benevolent governance rather than by invasion. Extending from this fundamental belief, he claimed that 民为贵，社稷次之，君为轻, which means that to a country, the interests and well-being of its civilians are the most valuable, followed by the well development of the society, while the monarch is the least important. The basis of this doctrine is the Born-with-kindness Theory (性善论 xìng shàn lùn) where it is believed that all human beings are born with pure kindness. Two main sub-points of Mencius's political belief were 修养理论(xiū yǎng lǐ lùn, Accomplishment of One's Interior) and 恻隐之心(cè yǐn zhī xīn, Pity and Empathy), which educated people that everyone could prevent the internal kindness from being lost due to external temptations by spiritually accomplish oneself to develop a firm self-control, and we should be concerned with others' miseries and sufferings to emotionally subdue ourselves to make good decisions. Hence, from Mencius's contribution in Confucianism, 仁 was further defined as kindness from a superior being and people's empathy.

Seeing 仁 as the core ideology of Chinese culture, people had given it connoted meanings to express positive features of a matter. For example, in Classical Chinese, 仁 is used to describe the richly supplied natural resources. In 《淮南子》(Huái nán zǐ), a description of an agriculturally prosperous area was written as 江水肥仁而宜稻, translated as "the river is warm and rich, so that the fertile soils are formed to allow rice to thrive." Besides, 仁 is also used to say something is sensitive. There's a famous saying in 《道德经》, the classic of Taoism, that 天地不仁，以万物为刍狗, meaning that the nature is not sensitive, hence absolutely impartial and treats all living things equally.

Another important usage of 仁 is to say it as an honorific prefix particle. In Classical writing, the addition of 仁 before the address word for somebody shows a respect towards them. Some common words like 仁兄(rén xiōng, dear brother or dear friend) are still seen in very literary passage sometimes.

In conclusion, the ideology of 仁 instils a concept of staying virtuous and being willing to spread kindness and love into Chinese culture. And that has been the core philosophy that rules China spiritually for over 2000 years. Even till today, when the impact of western culture and modernisation crashed so fiercely into the traditional Chinese culture, the huge efforts made to conserve and protect this ideology have never been lesser. Although it's now gradually becoming invisible in the modernised Chinese society, the true respect and influence of 仁 ideology is never fading away.

Why Must There Be Two Sets of Characters for Numerals in Chinese?

If you have studied Chinese for a long time, one thing you might have noticed and felt strange about the language is that we have two sets of characters for numerals. In most of the languages, this is not gonna make any sense simply because — why on earth do you need other characters for numerals which can already be written with such simple strokes? Actually, I myself, like many other native Chinese, also got puzzled by the fact there's another set of way more complex characters for numerals in my childhood time. But after I found out the reason later, this fact suddenly became rather rational and necessary to me. For those who are also confused by it, I'm going to reveal the real reason of having two sets of numeral characters.

Firstly, I'll briefly list those two sets of characters with the corresponding Arabic Numerals here.

零——零（〇）——0

一——壹——1

二——贰——2

三——叁——3

四——肆——4

五——伍——5

六——陆——6

七——柒——7

八——捌——8

九——玖——9

十——拾——10

廿(niàn)——念——20

百——佰——100

千——仟——1000

万——万——10000

亿——亿——100000000

The more complex set of characters is called 大写数字(Capital Numerals) and the simpler one, 小写数字(Lower-case Numerals). The only difference between them is that Capital Numerals are used specifically in writing the amount of a cheque, a remittance note or any formal bank statement together with the Arabic Numerals. The reason in doing so is to make it much harder, in fact almost impossible, to change the number in those statement by altering strokes. Since both Lower-case Numerals and Arabic Numerals are structurally simple and easy to be changed by adding a few strokes, these complex characters are introduced to prevent cheating and fraud. You now may be thinking that people had invented those characters, but they've been existing for thousands of years already only with different meanings in ancient times. Here're the original meanings of these characters:

壹——专一的 single-minded; totally concentrated and focused

贰——变节，叛变 to betray; to start a rebellion

叁——“参”的另一种写法，加入，接见 an alternative way to write 参(cān) meaning "to join; to receive somebody"

肆——任意妄为 to be rebellious and do whatever one is desiring irresponsibly without discernment

伍——军队中的单位，五人为一伍 a unit in military that consists of five soldiers is called a 伍(wǔ)

陆——高出水面而平坦的陆地 a flat land above the water

柒——漆树，漆料 lacquer; trees from which lacquer is made

捌——一种用于聚拢谷物的工具 a tool used for gathering and piling grains

玖——黑色的美石 a black and exquisite stone

拾——捡 to pick up

念——惦记 to think of something continuously

佰——统率一百人的军官 a military officer who is the leader of a troop of a hundred soldiers

仟——统率一千人的军官 a military officer who is the leader of a troop of a thousand soldiers

Then here comes another interesting question for us to think about: it seems that most of these characters are completely irrelevant to numbers, so how was the idea of using them to record money invented? Here's the story:

The idea of using these characters for numbers was first raised up approximately 1300 years ago during the Tang Dynasty (唐朝) when Emperor Wu Zetian (武则天) reigned the country. 武则天(wǔ zé tiān) was one of the most famous, powerful and wisest emperors in China's history and also the only female emperor ever (notice I deliberately avoid using "empress"). She was one of the most creative and innovative people in ancient times who dared to create new characters for her own. Among those characters created by her, two of those preserved became the most well-known. One is 曌(zhào), referring to the moon shining brightly on the sky, and it was used as Wu Zetian's official name to show off her majesty and wisdom. The other one is exactly the alternative way to write the capital zero, 〇(líng). Something amazing and fascinating about this character is that it's the only one that ever existed in China's history written with a non-standard circular stroke. And for some reasons that still remain unknown, she first came up with the idea of replacing numerals with Capital Numerals.

Although Wu Zetian was regarded a rather controversial historical figure even during the time in Tang Dynasty, her idea about Capital Numerals was well preserved somehow. By the time Song Dynasty (宋朝) took the place to rule the country, all arithmetical numbers in official document of the government had to be written with Capital Numerals. And the government adopted this measure intentionally for the purpose of preventing embezzlement. A scholar of Song Dynasty, Cheng Dachang (程大昌), wrote in his book 《演繁露·十数改用画字》that 今官府文书凡计其数，皆取声同而画多者改用之。于是壹、贰、叁、肆之类，本皆非数，直是取同声之字，借以为用，贵点画多不可改换为奸耳。(Currently, all official document and statements have adopted homonyms with complex strokes to replace simple numeral characters as long as they are to record numbers for arithmetical or accounting purposes. Here the characters used, such as 壹, 贰, 叁, 肆, were all not referring to numerals originally. The government just selected homonyms for numeral characters and adopted them into use, valuing the fact that they cannot be tampered with for evildoing due to the complexity of the strokes.) This shows that the Song government had already realised and valued the advantages of using Capital Numerals as in prevention of cheating in economic activities.

However, the use of Capital Numerals wasn't written into the law by strict legislation and widespread until the Ming Dynasty about 700 years ago. During the first emperor of the dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋)'s reign, a huge and extremely serious corruption case was reported, which had astonished the whole country afterwards. Guo Huan (郭桓), the contemporary 户部侍郎 (Vice Minister of Finance), conspired with a number of officials from 刑部 (Ministry of Police Force), 工部 (Ministry of Land and Construction), 兵部 (Ministry of National Defence), 礼部 (Ministry of Education and Diplomacy) and governors and lairds from many provinces to embezzle grains, salts and other agricultural products which were supposed to be collected as taxation during that time. The amount of the embezzlement, converted to rice grains (which were the standard way to calculate tax), was about 120 million kilograms, which was almost equal to the amount of grains actually received by the government as taxation for a whole autumn. The emperor was extremely infuriated by the corruption case and executed thousands of officials involved, with a countless number of officials imprisoned, exiled and convicted. Ever since then, it was strictly legislated that all characters used for arithmetical recordings in accounting documents must be changed to Capital Numerals, which has been preserved till today.

All You Want to Know about Chinese Vocab: Numbers in Chinese Part 3

Related posts:
Part 1: Basis in Chinese numbers at https://chineselearnersandmore.blogspot.com/2018/09/all-you-want-to-know-about-chinese.html
Part 2: More about Chinese numbers at https://chineselearnersandmore.blogspot.com/2018/09/all-you-want-to-know-about-chinese_10.html

In this post, we're going to look at several ways to express approximate numbers in Chinese. Approximate numbers are important as you're not gonna always know the exact numbers related to your conversation while talking. Let's see how we can use approximate quantities in Chinese!

• The use of 几(jǐ)

This is one of the simplest characters you can find in Chinese so there seems to be no reason to not remember it if you want to study Chinese... Now going back to the main topic, 几 basically means "several" or "a few". It's used to replace any integer between 1 and 10. When it comes to speaking, just add this character in at the digit that needs to be approximated. You can also use 几 alone (with a measure word if required) to express a single-digit number. Let's use some examples to make it clearer.
-十几(shí jǐ): literally means "ten and a few". By saying so, you assume the number is an integer between 10 and 20.
-几十(jǐ shí): when you swap the two characters in the last example, you amazingly get "several tens", which implies the number might be 10, 20, 30, 40, etc. till 90. The same usage is applicable before 百, 千, 万, 亿.
-零点几(líng diǎn jǐ): when used for decimals, since everything after the decimal point is read as single-digit numbers individually, you can use 几 repeatedly to express "zero point something". An approximate number with two decimal places would be, for instance, 零点几几, and with three decimal places, 零点几几几 and so on. See the pattern?
-有几个(yǒu jǐ gè): this literally means "have how many" and you can use it to construct a question to ask for quantities of something which are between 1 and 10.

Quiz: try to express these approximate numbers!
A number between 20 to 30
A number between 100 to 110
A number with 2 decimal places between 2 and 3

• The use of 多(duō)

After learning 几, you may have a question: now I know how to say an approximate figure between 1 and 10, but how about things like "dozens"? No worries, compared to 几, there's another word which can more generally replace any numbers. And that word is 多, which means "many". It functions like the English word "some", by which you'll never know what exactly is the number being referred to. The way to use it is to place it after a confirmed digit. And unlike 几, it cannot be used alone to represent a single-digit number, neither can it go in front the confirmed part of the number. It is used in decimals but much less commonly. Here're some examples:
-一百多(yī bǎi duō): "a hundred and many". By this phrase you're referring to an uncertain quantity within the range 100-200. One thing to take note is that we never say 一百几 in this case, neither do we say 一万几, 一千几 in normal conversations.
-二十多(èr shí duō): it is the same as saying 二十几. The only difference is the latter could be used for a question to ask for further confirmation of the number.
-十多(shí duō): please take note that usually nobody will use this to represent a number itself alone. For a number from 10 to 20 itself, 十几 is the correct way to say it. But when combined with a measure word, such as 个(gè), both 十多个 and 十几个 are correct, only witn the former more frequently seen in formal and literary writing.
-多少(duō shǎo): when you tie the antonym of 多, 少, with it, they form a pronoun used in a question to ask for any quantities. For instance, 多少人(duō shǎo rén) means "how many people" and 多少钱(duō shǎo qián) means "how much (is it)".

Quiz: say these by using the character 多!
A number from 300 to 400
A number from 1000 to 2000
A number from 120 to 130

• 左右(zuǒ yòu)

If there's a top 100 words list in Chinese, this will probably be included. 左 is left and 右 is right. So this word is literally telling you " left or right", which equals to "around/about" in English. Thus "around 500" in English would appear as "500左右" in Chinese. It's used to say a guessed number with slight difference expected from the actual one. To insert it in your sentence is easy: simply guess a random number, and add 左右 after it!