Stories of Chinese word and term (44-3)

 毛遂 said, “That is true, but I am looking the bag now. If you put me in the bag earlier, I would have stick out from the crowd already.”

Then 赵胜 allowed him as his accompany. All the rest 19 people laughed at him on the road. Finally they arrived the court of 楚. The king of irresolute and hesitant, in that case, 毛遂 held his sword talking to the king adopted every possible means, tough and soft, finally the king accepted the treaty and sending troop to save the kingdom of赵胜. In history, this treaty was a famous treaty named 合纵. It means all the weak state came together to fight against a superpower.

Stories of Chinese word and term (44-2)

The mission of seeking help from kingdom楚 need good talent of diplomacy. 赵胜 want 20 people accompany him to go, but he chose all his dependents only satisfied 19 of them, no more. At that case, a dependent毛遂 recommended himself. 赵胜 asked him, “My friend, how many years have you been here?”

 “Three years” was the answer.

赵胜said, “They said that a talent like an awl in the bag. It will cut through the bag at once to show the talent. You have been here for three years, yet you still keep unknown, so you are not suit the job.”

Stories of Chinese word and term (44-1)

毛遂自荐, 毛遂 Recommending himself. At the time of War-States, there was a tradition that a noble provided for some people for believing that they had some special talent. Historian used to call these people Dependent 食客 (Eating-Fellow). 秦始皇was the first master 君, who unified the China by power. At his time there were seven strong states in China, they were 齐、楚、韩、赵、燕、魏 and秦. 秦始皇was the master of 秦only. As his grandfather that was the old master had started a cruel reform of their state. This state turned to be a militarism super power. Then he started to invade his neighbour states. When his troop arrived the state of 赵. The master of 赵 asked his brother seeking help from state of楚. The brother named 赵胜, who had provided for few thousand Dependent. 

Stories of Chinese word and term (43)

一鸣惊人, a loud warble amazed the world. The story from Kingdom 楚 at the time of war state. After the old king of 楚 died, the prince ascended the throne. During first three years, he did nothing. No one dared to ask him why he kept in silent? Yet one of his chancellor came to his presence bravely and asked him a question. “Your majesty, let me tell you a story that recently a big bird perched on a tree of our kingdom, but after three years, it neither warble, nor fly, can your majesty tell me the reason?”

The new king was holding two girls in both arms, hearing this, he understood and said, “My friend, don’t worry about it, this bird once warble, it will amaze the world. Once fly it will soar up into the sky.”  

It was true later this king turned to be a great king of this kingdom. And this term metaphor some quiet talent.

Stories of Chinese word and term (42)

沧海桑田Seas change into mulberry fields and mulberry fields into seas  In ancient time, there lived two fairies a male and a female. One day they met in a friend’s house. They greeted each other, the male one said, “Ah long time no see.”  The female one said, “Yes, since last time we met, 500 years has past. Seas change into mulberry fields and mulberry fields into seas three times already. ”

Later this term means -- time brings great changes to the world.

Note: The leaves of mulberry is the food of silk worm.

 Pic from: http://mmbiz.qpic.cn/mmbiz/3HamFouOtt8j7DaQqbBpAMJJZicLyDxElkiaUATaG6nibX0icTWOYyDmGzdXmufJbkbKRMjp6lsKr8qSJtSZqdEGibw/0

Stories of Chinese word and term (41-3)

China had a tradition that emphasize civil administration above national defence. A pet phrase is 好铁不打钉，好汉不当兵，good iron is not for nail, good person is not for soldier. For they thought that military officers didn’t know art, philosophy and literature etc. although many of them did. At the time of 晋武帝, he still held this point of view. One day he chose a girl for his concubine named 胡芳. They girl cried for she didn’t want to be his concubine. Many friends told her not to cry or it may enrage the emperor. But 胡芳 said, “I don’t even care about death, why will I care about his majesty?” When the emperor heard this, he afraid 胡芳 commit suicide, so he supply her all the best things only next to the emperors. One day, when he play dice with胡芳, she broke his finger in a dispute. The emperor was angry he said, “You are really a shrew, only a general can have such daughter” (胡芳’s father was a general it means general at that time only knew how to fight.) but 胡芳 said in return, “Your grandfather have fight with a lot of warlords, what they are?” the emperor could say nothing but keep in silent. This term is 晋武伤指.

Stories of Chinese word and term (41-2)

司马炎was a good emperor. He cared about people very much at least during his first years in court. He distributed land among people and provided foods for the old and disable. And many times he did farm work personally. He freed plenty slaves to be peasant. And he summoned many minority to surrender. Under his rule, the population developed very fast. Later he unified all the three kingdoms.

Yet this emperor was also a sex mania he got around ten thousand wives. Although five thousand of them were captured from a former falling kingdom of 吴. Just think about if one night for one wife 10,000/365=27 it would take him 27 years to do it. Yet he was on the throne only 25 years. How to choose a wife for a certain night could be a big question. He invented a method that was allow the sheep of his sheep-cart walking randomly. When the sheep stopped in front the house of a wife that would be the night he slept with.  Soon the wives knew this trick, some smart wives dripped the salt water on top of front grass. The sheep love salt grass and they would stop there to eat. The term is 羊车望幸, waiting sheep-cart for happy.

Pic from: http://huangpuweimin.bokerb.com/keditor/2013_02/image/20140310/20140310005035_99829.jpg 

Stories of Chinese word and term (41-1)

The film of Red Cliff was talking about the history of Three Kingdoms. It lasted about 60 years 220年－280, finally the descendent of 曹操became stronger and stronger and usurped the throne of 汉Dynasty which was linger on with its last breath of life. Yet as this new power was a totalitarianism, (that means all power was held by the central government. The result is that once the leader was hijacked by someone, all the power would be hijacked too. So other emperor was more likely to distribute his power among his sons. But in that case, it could cause battle among them) soon this power was usurped by another family the surname was 司马. After they got the power, they turned to be emperor and named their dynasty as 晋 Dynasty the first emperor of it was 司马炎.

Pic from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Jin_Wu_Di.jpg

Stories of Chinese word and term (40)

乘興而來 come here with happy, this story was about王徽之 he had a good friend named 戴逵. The two friends lived several hundred miles apart. One day, after a heavy snow, 王徽之 was preparing to visit his friend. He drove a boat for all day and night. Next day, he approached his friend’s house, but when he disembark, he didn’t knock his friend’s door instead he turned back with the same boat.

His the boatman asked him, “Why you do this?”

He said, “I come here with happiness. Now I have enjoyed all of the happiness already and it has ended. Let’s go. ”  

Another Short History of Linguistics (92)

Sometimes Chinese uses changing condition to represent time instead using the time itself such as 斗转星移, luminous point in the night turning and star move. 物是人非，things still there but the person is gone.

Sometimes, Chinese colour could replace some flowers such as: 怡红快绿 joyful red happy green，绿肥红瘦, green is fat and red is thin.  万紫千红，thousands purple and hundreds red, (see picture)

Pic from: http://file21.mafengwo.net/M00/9C/8B/wKgB3FFIA_iAAmEHAA62vbnyNvU44.jpeg

Stories of Chinese word and term (39)

 挥泪斩马谡behead 马谡 with tear, this story was from the ‘The Three Kingdoms’  馬謖（190－228）was a famous strategist at his time. He was the favourite general of 诸葛亮. One day 馬謖 was ordered to defend a town called 街亭.  诸葛亮 told him to be stationed under the mountain. But he was a person of self-assertion, he believed to be stationed on the mountain would be better. Later his enemy cut off his water supply and his soldier could not fight in thirsty. He lost the town of街亭.

According the rule he had to be beheaded. But诸葛亮 didn’t want to do it. He killed him with tear.

 Pic from: http://www.e3ol.com/topics/upfiles/2011/201132315354565318.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (91)

In the film of Red Cliff, a famous general 关羽，was using a special broadsword, its name was

青龙偃月刀, in this term, 青龙 means black dragon, 偃月 means a sleeping moon, 刀 means knife or sword. Put them together means ‘crescent like broadsword, with black dragon pattern’.  With Chinese pronunciation, these words or terms called be read easily but by any alphabetic language they are tediously long.

Pic from: http://www.jingwuhui.com/eshop/images/200906/goods_img/4652_P_1244826530415.jpg

Stories of Chinese word and term (38)

黄庭换鹅Yellow Court Classic exchange geese.

王羲之 303年--- 361 was a famous calligrapher in Chinese history. One day he passed by a creek and found there were a crowd of geese. He loved them very much and asked people who was the owner of these geese. They told him these geese belong to a Toast temple. Then 王羲之 found the Temple and asked the Toast priest 陆静修, “Can I buy some of the geese from you?”

陆静修 said, “No, anything of the temple is no for sale. But if you can copy 黄庭经Yellow Court Classic for me, I can exchange them for you one character for one goose.”

Hearing this王羲之 was so happy, he spend whole day for the copy. As he got the geese finally, he wrote two characters of Geese Pool on a stone tablet. Later people built a pavilion for it.

Pic from: http://www.qjtrip.com/UpImage/scene/2005111516592676803.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (90)

Some terms in recent fictions are even harder to translate into English. People think it maybe an impossible mission. I tried to translate them here.

九阴白骨爪,  in this term九 means nine, it is the largest number of one digit, so it could also means ‘most’  阴 means sinister, 白骨means white bone, 爪 means claw. Put them together the term means ‘the most sinister white bone claw’ it is a sort of Chinese Gong Fu, normally used by bad women.

 Pic from: http://mediainfo.tvscn.com:8088/media/ViewMedia-Normal-264647-jpg.jpg

Stories of Chinese word and term (37)

The other time, 刘伶 had a quarrel with a fellow drunk in a pub. He was a short man, the drunk was a tall and strong man. As their argument going to be fierce, the drunk held his collar and wanted to beat him. Quietly刘伶 opened his cloth and showed his chest to the drunk. He said, “Do you see my chest? It looked like a chicken’s. If you put your fist on it, you are degrade yourself, don’t you know?” 

The drunk laughed, “I admired you so much for telling me this.” And he turned back left the pub.

Another Short History of Linguistics (89)

春秋，means  ‘spring autumn’ . A Chinese term for luxury life is 春花秋月, means ‘spring flower autumn moon.

兄弟，we have talked about this word, as 兄is elder brother and 弟is younger brother. Put them together 兄弟=brother. Since we can separate the word of ‘brother’ in Chinese, we can put two other characters in front of them as难兄难弟. Here the character 难 means adversity or catastrophe. The this term means ‘two brothers that have experienced the same ordeal’ or ‘a well-matched pair of brothers’

熙means daylight or time for busy,攘 means push, especially push your way forward and fro among crowd people. Put them together 熙攘means everyday busy on road. If use each of these character in double as 熙熙攘攘. It means emphatic the pronunciation of same meaning. You may split them as 天下熙熙皆为利来，天下攘攘皆为利往. The characters 天下 means under sky, 皆为 means all people are, 利 means benefit, 来means come, and 往means go. Put them together天下熙熙皆为利来，天下攘攘皆为利往 means “under the sky, all people come for benefit, and under the sky all people go for benefit.” 

Stories of Chinese word and term (36)

刘伶（234-305）was one of the 竹林七贤Seven Sages among Bamboo Grove. The history book said he was about 1.4 meters tall. At his time, it was hard to be an officer unless you were from a noble family. Especially for those that always had some new idea against the tradition. Unfortunately刘伶 was one of such person. During his 70 years of life, the best thing that he loved was alcohol. One day, in drunk, he felt hot and he stripped off his cloth in his bed. A friend came to see him. As he found him in naked body, the friend said, it was an offence to see friend like that. 刘伶said, “I didn’t offend you. Do you know the sky and earth are my hall, the room in my house is but my trousers and you squeeze into my trousers, so what you want to do? ” (metaphor sex abuse)

Pic from: http://blogcache1.artron.net/201309/10/75096_1378802627PUj0.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (88)

Language is a means that help us to understand each other. Under this idea, any symbol do this job we may call them language. For instance the mathematics, and geometry. Any tools do this job may called as tools of language such as pen, paper, telescope and TV. For they help us to understand each other and nature. In fact, we may say any branch of study is to developing a new expressing system， either by language, by picture or by geometry etc. for this reason some linguist had said that the linguistics is the original wisdom of human kind, it started before any other knowledge and wisdom was known. 

When ancient people invented such symbols, their target was looking for something can be transmitted and remembered easily and simply. If every symbol of meaning are simple then their combination will be simple too. On the other hand if the size of a symbol is smaller they combined symbol wound be smaller too. Just like the mosaic, the smaller pieces make the clearer image, for our visual range is settled, each time we can only pick up a certain amount of information. How much information of a word, a character is contained, sometimes decided by the physical or writing size of them.  Here are some example for the smaller mosaic theory:

In Chinese language 离 means left, 别 means part with. Put them together 离别 means farewell. But if one want to express the idea that after the farewell they may never see each other again, they put two character behind these two characters 生死 means life-died. As 生离死别, here the 生 means life and 死means dead. Put them together as ‘life left dead part with’.

Stories of Chinese word and term (35)

除三害eliminate three calamities； 周处was a famous general of 晋dynasty. When he was a youth, in his home town, one day he heard people rumoured there were three calamities among that county. As a young blood, 周处 asked an old man, who are they? The old man said the first calamity was a big tiger in the south mountain. Hearing this, 周处 went there and found the tiger, with a fight, he killed the tiger successfully. Then he turned back, asked the old man, what about the second calamity? The old man said, it was a big crocodile that had bitten many passengers recently. Then 周处went there killed the crocodile too. When he came back, he asked the old man, where was the third calamity? The old man said, “I had better not to tell you. If you want know it, please ask someone else.” it made the周处 unhappy, he shouted, “Why you do this to me, didn’t I kill the two calamities already? If you don’t tell me the truth, I shall kill you.”

The old man said with a sigh, “To tell you the truth, the third calamity is you. Have you ever thought that your bad temper always hurt people?”

周处didn’t say anything and left the old man, later he tried hard to cultivate his temper and became a famous general in Chinese history.

Pic from: http://hk.chiculture.net/0308/picture/d03.jpg

Another Short History of Linguistics (87)

From internet under the term ‘List of unsolved problems in linguistics’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_linguistics

We find such questions:

·         Is there a universal definition of word?

·         Is there a universal definition of sentence?

·         Are there any universal grammatical categories?

·         Can the elements contained in words (morphemes) and the elements contained in sentences (syntactic constituents) be shown to follow the same principles?

·         Is it possible to formally delineate languages from each other? That is to say, is it possible to use linguistic (rather than social) criteria to draw a clear boundary between two closely related languages with a dialect continuum between their respective standard forms (e.g. Occitan and Catalan)?

·         How does grammaticalization function?

·         How do creole languages emerge?

These questions looked like an identical equation of math, its definition is:  an equation that is satisfied for all values of the literal symbols. In other words it is a sentence that you don’t worry about putting what symbols in it, it always a good, balanced equation and no one can find fault for it. So once a linguist study these problems, he will never do anything wrong for they are meaningless questions.