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.
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Note that many of these terms became obsolete after the end of the Qing dynasty or were depreciated during the Cultural Revolution and are no longer used.
During the ancient and imperial periods, Chinese honorifics varied greatly based on one's social status, but with the end of Imperial China, many of these distinctions fell out of colloquial use.
Two passages of the Qingjing Jing are attributed to Laozi, with the honorific "Lord Lao" (老君, see Three Pure Ones).
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