Tag: chinese character

Buddhism and Chinese Language

Published on by Zhi-Juan Guo

It is an ambitious title, and with only the commonest knowledge in both, I could no more than attempt to just touch the very surface of it.

In China today, you could not see, as you would in Thailand, barefoot monks in orange or red robes walking in a line at dawn going around the neighborhood to accept almsgiving. Nor you could see, as in North India, holy temples dot the lower ranges of Himalayas, and in almost every household, there is a statue of Buddha, people there typically start their day by offering fresh flowers to Buddha and saying their morning prayers.

Once mother, when I touched upon this topic, said “I am a Buddhist myself”. I bluntly told her that by going to the temple once a year (often not even), burning some incense and asking Buddha to solve whatever problems she happens to have in life does not make her a Buddhist. ( We also call this “临时抱拂脚” in Chinese).

Yet, in one respect she is not wrong: merely by being a Chinese, she is a little bit of a Buddist. For it is on your tongue, in the language you speak, it is in the way you think, it is in your blood.

It’s said Buddhism came to China around 67A.D., so it has existed in China for nearly two thousand years, and with such a long history as that, it has time enough to weave and merge in every aspect of Chinese people’s daily life. And it has already, through these long years, ingrained in Chinese language and mind and has become a main part of China’s own culture.

Indeed, one of the Four Great Classical Novels(四大名著 sì dà míngzhù)–the four best-known Chinese classic works–Journey to the West(西游记 xīyóujì) is about a legendary pilgrimage made by five well-known characters: 唐僧, 孙悟空，猪八戒，沙和尚，白龙马 ( Monk Tang, Monkey King, Zhu bajie, Monk Sha, Dragon Prince), to the west region (西域 xīyù, modern day India) to obtain the Buddhist sacred text (佛经 fójīng).

It would be safe to say that no Chinese, children and adults alike, do not know these five persons, and for many a Chinese children, one of the pleasures in the long summer afternoon is to watch Journey to the West, and almost every Chinese little boy and little girl, has at one time or another, dreamed of being 孙悟空 the “Monkey King”.

It’s said there are about thirty-five thousand Chinese words come from Buddhism, and here are only a very few examples:

缘分 yuánfèn, lot or luck by which people are brought together, is a Buddhism concept deeply believed by Chinese, or Asian people.

慈悲 cíbēi, merciful, or to give others happiness, rescue others from suffering.

如意 rúyì, it’s originally a claw stick in ancient India–they still have it today–for scratching the back and relieving itching, coming to China, the word took up an auspicious meaning: satisfaction, good luck. 祝你万事如意, we still say it today “May all go well with you”.

善有善报，恶有恶报 Shàn yǒu shàn bào, è yǒu è bào, good deeds beget good deeds, bad deeds beget bad deeds, is a Buddhism concept, though in English, you also say “what goes around comes around”.

Also, some of the naming of the most common things are influenced by Buddhism. In China, especially in the north we also call our father 父亲 fùqīn, 爹 diē, this word is from some Buddism text when it was first introduced in China.

We call our fourth finger, the ringfinger 无名指 (Wúmíngzhǐ) no-name finger, is partially because in India they call this finger the same way.

世界 Shìjiè, the world, in ancient China before the Buddhism was there, they call it “天下tiānxià” sky-under: under the sky; the world. 世 means three times lines: past, present, future, and 界 means the ten boundaries, or directions: east, south, west, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest, up, down (东, 南, 西, 北, 东南，西南，东北，西北, 上, 下).

Even the word for wisdom in Chinese “智慧Zhìhuì” is from Buddhism.

Our mind is shaped by Buddhism: 境由心造 Jìng yóu xīn zào, or “circumstances/conditions are created by the heart”, or to translate is roughly, your attitude towards life determines how you live it, do you smell Buddhism in it?

It is in our poems: 出淤泥而不染 Chū yūní ér bù rǎn: out of the mud but not stained–it is a praise for the symbol of Buddhism: the lotus flower.

It is in our idioms: 盲人摸象 Mángrénmōxiàng, blind man touching the elephant, means only knowing part of a whole picture, 空中楼阁 Kōngzhōnglóugé castle in the air.

So when a Chinese, any Chinese, says that he is a Buddhist, he is not, actually, far wrong.

Magic it up

Published on by Zhi-Juan Guo

—-How Chinese Characters were created? Part Two

It all started with drawing. But there is only so much you could draw. Pretty soon, the Chinese man realized that he has to come up with other ways to make characters.

The first idea is easy enough: signs. Human knows how to use sign language long before they know how to speak, let alone to know the complicated system of written language. So when you point up it means up, and when you point down it means down.

So it’s not hard to tell it means “up”.
As it’s easy to tell this one means “down”.

But even with this brilliant idea, the Chinese man sees that there are still an awful amount of characters he needs to create.

He thinks. He muses. He sighs. At last he sees before him, a man is putting a hand above his eyes, and even unconsciously, he looks at what that man is looking at, as if the man himself has told him “look!”

“Ah!” He thinks aloud. “I already have the character for ‘hand’ the character for ‘eyes’. If I put the hand above the eyes…..”

Do you still remember the symbol for “hand”?

How about the drawing for “eyes”?

The arrows point out how it evolves.

So what about putting a hand above your eyes?

What are you looking for? Yes. That’s the character for “look”.

So with this method, he managed to make many more characters:

He sees one man at the heels of another man.

“That means ‘follow’.” he says to himself.

He sees the sun and he sees the full moon.

“One illuminates the day, the other the night. They are both bright.” He again muses to himself.

And a person waving his arms, with one foot on the ground, the other striding out means “walk”.

There is something joyful and vibrating in the character. For one could tell the walking man is cheerful.

The close relationship between the Chinese and agriculture also shows in the characters, as words like “ox”, “goat” “pig” were the first created characters. So the concept that “the man begs food from the earth” was illustrated even in characters. As an inland country with a vast continent, the Chinese were not, roughly speaking, an ultra adventurous race: there was always land enough to plough and it never was worth one’s while to go to the sea and very likely get drowned. Even the word “water” is unlike the English word which shares the same root from “wave” of the sea. In Chinese the word “water”, instead of sea water, is from the river, and it flows with amazing tranquility and elegance.