Chinese field icon Jehovah’s Will Brochure
(Pīnyīn-English, Scriptures EPUB)

Updated 2024-02-07

Short link: tiandi.info/jl

(A list of links related to the Jehovah’s Will brochure)

Contents

Introduction

The material in the EPUB file linked to below contains text from an old printing of the Chinese Jehovah’s Will brochure, written in Pīnyīn. It also includes English ruby text that has been bundled with the Pīnyīn text that it shows the meaning of. Thus, while making better use of limited display real estate on mobile devices and requiring less paper to print out compared to corresponding 3-line material, this material provides us Mandarin-learners with assistance in the two language aspects we require in order to be able to discuss or study the Jehovah’s Will brochure with someone in Mandarin:

  1. The pronunciations of the Mandarin words used
    • These show us how to communicate the brochure’s message in Mandarin.
  2. The meanings of the Mandarin words used
    • These show us what is being communicated in Mandarin.

Advantages of the EPUB Format

iBooks Annotations 1

iBooks Annotations 2

EPUB annotation in iBooks

Being in EPUB format allows this material to benefit from the advantages of this format, including:

Pīnyīn is a Good, Workable Writing System On Its Own

Reading just Pīnyīn may take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to reading (or trying to read) Hànzì (Chinese characters), but going by first principles of linguistics (the scientific study of language) rather than mere human traditions, it should be more than worth the effort. You should at least give yourself a chance to get used to it.

“One of the basic assumptions of modern linguistics [the scientific study of language]…is that speech is primary and writing is secondary”. Yes, speech is the foundation on which writing must be built, not vice-versa. (That is just a natural result of the way Jehovah made us—he gave our bodies the built-in ability to produce speech, but writing requires external aids such as pens and paper, keyboards and screens, etc.) Thus, it is very good that Pīnyīn represents Mandarin speech so straightforwardly and easily, and that it enables us to focus on speech. Yes, while Chinese characters, as beautiful and traditional as they are, demand distractingly large commitments of precious time and energy just for themselves, Pīnyīn frees and empowers us to focus on communicating the good news.

Indeed, in our ministry specifically, we definitely need understanding what we hear and speaking much more than we need reading and writing. (1 Cor. 14:8–11) So, while many who have received traditional Mandarin language instruction have been influenced to believe that being able to read and write characters is the ultimate goal for a Mandarin language student to aspire to, actually, for us Kingdom publishers, our ultimate goal regarding Mandarin should be being able to understand and speak spoken Mandarin, so that we can preach and teach the good news effectively, from our hearts, using Mandarin speech. So, really, for us Kingdom publishers, being able to read, understand, and write Pīnyīn, which directly represents Mandarin speech, is a more relevant and important (and easy-to-achieve) goal to aspire to than being able to read, understand, and write characters, which unfortunately have become this thing on their own that has warped and obfuscated Mandarin speech rather than supporting it.

But, is Pīnyīn even really a writing system? Interestingly, the Chinese national standard Zhōngguó Mángwén (中国盲文/中國盲文, Chinese Braille) is basically a transliteration or conversion of Pīnyīn into braille letters. Braille is obviously a writing system, so Pīnyīn must also be a writing system, not just a pronunciation aid.

Also, as a Sumerian proverb stated, “a scribe whose hand matches the mouth, he is indeed a scribe”. Pīnyīn can indeed be used to write anything that can be spoken in Modern Standard Mandarin, so it qualifies as a full writing system in that fundamental sense as well.

(That Pīnyīn is a full writing system for any and all Modern Standard Mandarin speech also means that, in addition to it being correct to say that “Pīnyīn is Chinese” because it was developed in China by Chinese people, it is also quite correct to say that “Pīnyīn is Chinese” in the sense that, even if it isn’t Hànzì, it is indeed written Mandarin Chinese—it’s not as if Pīnyīn were written English or French or something!)

Really, after a bit of research into what the definition of a “writing system” is, it becomes evident that a system like Pīnyīn should naturally be considered a writing system, in spite of the efforts of worldly Chinese intellectuals to artificially and unjustly keep Pīnyīn down in order to protect and enshrine the traditional Hànzì writing system that they have so much invested in.

Since Pīnyīn is not just a pronunciation aid, but a full writing system, it is not “training wheels”—it’s regular wheels. Chinese characters are like non-round wheels—more difficult than necessary. While some may find non-round wheels “interesting”, or maybe even “beautiful”, much of the time we just need to get from point A to point B as quickly and easily as possible. We may even need to do so to save someone’s life. For example, what kind of wheels should be on an ambulance? That’s the kind of “wheels” we should be using in our life-saving work.

Practically speaking, we should keep in mind that, as many in the Mandarin field have found, by investing the minimal amount of time and effort needed to learn and get used to the Pīnyīn system, we will be equipped to always be able to quickly and easily read anything in Mandarin that’s written in Pīnyīn, and we will always be able to quickly and easily write anything in Mandarin using Pīnyīn. In contrast, even those who are fairly familiar with Chinese characters will at times come across unfamiliar or forgotten characters whose meanings and pronunciations they can only guess at. Also, even those who are fairly familiar with Chinese characters will at times be completely unable to remember or figure out how to write a certain character.

(By the way, since, as mentioned above, the Pīnyīn system was developed in China by Chinese people, it is a product of Chinese culture, and it is a part of Chinese culture. So, using Pīnyīn is not an imposition of Western culture—it is an application of Chinese culture! In fact, the Chinese developers of Pīnyīn of their own free will purposely chose to base it on the international Latin alphabet (it’s not just the English alphabet) so that users of Pīnyīn would benefit from its familiarity. Experience has shown that they were right to do so, and that’s what should be most important to us—not mere human cultures or traditions, but what works best for Jehovah’s work.)

For a more in-depth discussion about how we in the Chinese field should view Pīnyīn, see the article “Pīnyīn Was Plan A”. Here is a quote from it:

“That there are so many different words in modern Mandarin that sound the same is not a good reason not to use Pīnyīn, any more than it is a good reason not to speak Mandarin.”

Disclaimer

This is not a publication of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, and if a Jehovah’s Will brochure is available, this material should be used along with it, not instead of it. This material is only meant to help publishers working in the Mandarin field, so that they can more quickly become more effective at preaching and teaching the good news to Mandarin-speaking people without being unnecessarily obstructed and delayed by the complex and difficult-to-learn-and-remember Chinese characters.

IMPORTANT: Please do not use this material as an excuse or as a crutch to just “get by” or “muddle through” at Chinese meetings or Bible discussions. By all means, make good use of this material in such settings, but most importantly, use this material to help you really improve your knowledge and understanding of the Chinese language, so that you can 1) listen with more understanding and 2) speak more effectively from your heart while praising Jehovah and preaching and teaching the good news in the Chinese field.

Proofreading

While some material has been released by others without it being proofread (which does have the benefit of allowing the material to be released more quickly), this Jehovah’s Will brochure material has been carefully rendered and proofread. However, it may of course still contain errors. If you find any, please email me to let me know.

Downloading and Opening the File

To download and open the file on a PC or a Mac:

To download and open the file on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch:

Using the File in iBooks

iBooks Scroll theme

Selecting the Scroll theme in iBooks

Apple Book Themes & Settings main interface

Selecting Light mode, Original theme, Scrolling View, etc. in Apple Books

Updates and Other Information

Check the Links News blog (news feed, Twitter/X) for news regarding updates to this web page, and also for news regarding other resources prepared by our fellow workers in the Chinese field. You may also find it interesting to check out the tiandi.info blog (news feed, Twitter/X), which is about various things related to the Chinese field. (Email me if you need login information, and include information on who referred you and/or what group/cong. you are in.)

To follow the Twitter account for the Links News and tiandi.info blogs, click or tap this button:

If you have any questions or comments, email me.

I hope you enjoy using the material. May it help you to serve more effectively and joyfully in the Mandarin field.

Your fellow worker,
Wayne Wong

Jehovah’s Will Brochure (Pīnyīn-English, Scriptures) EPUB
(Front Cover to Lesson 28,
proofread, mobile-friendly,
supports offline use & annotation)