Chinese this and that In English, we use this to indicate something close to us, or the first one and that to indicate something further off, or the next one. Apparently, early English did not have this distinction.

This quote is from here:


  that: From c. 1200 opposed to this as indicating something farther
  off.


Chinese has 这， 那 which seem to correspond with this, that.

Has Chinese always made a distinction between this and that? In old Chinese was this distinction present?
The distinction was present early on. In Classical Chinese, this is「此」, still used in Modern Chinese, while that is「彼」, which is not really used anymore except fossilised in some words.

《詩・唐風・綢繆》：「今夕何夕，見此良人！」
《易・小過》：「公弋取彼在穴。」