zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [having caught fire; burning; being on fire])
👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”
[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 📘 icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and 📘 Reveal None re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]
A few years back, I wrote up a brief web page listing reasons for producing Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音), etc. material for the Imitate (ia) book. Some, especially some who grew up in the West, may have felt that this book is made up of “just stories”, and ones that they were already quite familiar with, at that. However, we must remember that Chinese Bible students may often have a different perspective regarding the Bible accounts that are made to come to life in the Imitate book. As that web page said:
- Many Chinese people in the world have not been exposed to Bible accounts the way many Westerners have.
- Also, I have heard that some, perhaps many, Chinese Bible students tend to approach their Bible studies like intellectual exercises for accumulating chōuxiàng (abstract) head knowledge as if for a school exam, rather than as training for their hearts for their own real lives.
Later, the web page touches on how some of the real-world benefits of good storytelling like that found in the Imitate book involve empathy:
- …
- The actress Natalie Portman once said, “I love acting. I think it’s the most amazing thing to be able to do. Your job is practicing empathy. You walk down the street imagining every person’s life.”
- The Imitate book helps build Bible students’ empathy towards Bible characters, which in turn helps Bible students realize that others would feel empathy towards them as well if they imitated these Bible characters—not everyone will just think they’re crazy, like many worldly friends or family members might think.
While even fictional stories can have the benefits described in the links and the quote above, true stories from the Bible can have even greater benefits, including spiritual ones.
Besides the Imitate book, another book from Jehovah’s organization that relates Bible accounts is the Learn From the Bible (lfb) book. The letter from the Governing Body in this book says that, similarly to the Imitate book, the Learn From the Bible book also “brings the Bible accounts to life and captures the feelings of those depicted”, while, unlike the Imitate book, it “tells the story of the human family from creation onward”. While the Learn From the Bible book is especially suitable for children, the letter from the Governing Body in this book says that “it can also be used to help adults who desire to learn more about the Bible”. So, it would be good to consider on this blog some of the expressions used in the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book.
On Fire 🔥
This week’s MEotW, “zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [having caught fire; burning; being on fire])”, appears in the first paragraph of Lesson 18 of the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book, which is entitled “Ránshāo
(Rán·shāo
Ignited · {to Be Burning}
燃烧
燃燒)
de
(’s
的)
Jīngjí‐Cóng
((Jīng·jí
Brambles · Thorns
荆棘
荊棘)‐(Cóng
Clump
丛
叢)
→ [Bush])” (“The Burning Bush”):
English:
A thornbush was on fire, but it was not burning up!
Mandarin:
📖 📄 📘
Móxī
(Moses
摩西)
kànjian
(kàn·jian
{looked at} · {to be seeing} → [saw]
看见
看見)
jīngjí‐cóng
((jīng·jí
brambles · thorns
荆棘
荊棘)‐(cóng
clump
丛
叢)
→ [bush])
zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [being on fire]),
dàn
(but
但)
yìzhí
(yì·zhí
one · {being straight} → [all the while]
一直)
méiyǒu
(méi·yǒu
(it) not · {was having → [was]} → [(it) was not]
没有
沒有)
shāodiào
(shāo·diào
{being burned} · {to be falling → [up]}
烧掉
燒掉).
The Mandarin Learn From the Bible book here uses “zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [having caught fire; burning; being on fire])” to correspond with the English expression “on fire”. “Zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [having caught fire; burning; being on fire])” is the past participle of “zháohuǒ
(zháo·huǒ
catch; ignite; light · fire
着火
著火)”, which corresponds to “catch fire” in English.
Morphemic Breakdown
Going in reverse order, the “huǒ
(fire [→ [fiery anger/temper | get fiery with anger]] | fiery; flaming
火)” in “zháole huǒ
((zháo·le
{having caught} · {to completion}
着了
著了)
(huǒ
fire
火)
→ [having caught fire; burning; being on fire])” is a well-known expression that means “fire”. As for “le
(-ed | {to completion} | [(at the end of a phrase/sentence) indicates a change]
了)”, when it’s used as it is in this week’s MEotW, it’s considered an aspect marker, as was discussed extensively in the MEotW post for “jiéle hūn
((jié·le
{tied (a knot of)} · {to completion}
结了
結了)
(hūn
marrying → [marriage]
婚)
→ [[got] married])”. That brings us to “zháo
({touch; come in contact with} [→ [feel; be affected by]] | {catch; ignite; light (fire)}; burn | {hitting the mark}; accomplishing; succeeding
着
著)”, the pronunciation and meaning of which are obvious in Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音), but not so much when one just sees “着” (Simplified) or “著” (Traditional), the characters used to write it.
The Many Faces of “着/著”
According to the dictionaries loaded in my Pleco app, the characters “着/著” can represent 5 different expressions, each with its own pronunciation and set of meanings:
- zhāo – add; put in | measure word for tricks, devices, moves in chess or martial arts, etc.
- zháo – touch; come in contact with [→ [feel; be affected by]] | catch; ignite; light (fire); burn | hitting the mark; accomplishing; succeeding (This is the one used in this week’s MEotW.)
- zhe – being (indicating continuing progress/state)
- zhù – prominent; outstanding | book; work
- zhuó – apply | put on/wear (clothes)
While advocates of characters complain about the homophones (different words with the same pronunciation) in Mandarin that Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) would write the same way, the above illustrates the corresponding problem of homographs (different words that are written the same way) that plagues the characters.
Don’t Fall For the FUD!
How can we deal with homophones and homographs? For both of these contrasting linguistic challenges, the best solution is that which is used in speech, the original, primary aspect of human language, as created by Jehovah God: Use sufficient clarifying context. Contrary to the unjustified FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) spread by many advocates of characters, many millions of people have been speaking modern Mandarin to each other for decades, homophones and all, and because people have learned to use sufficient clarifying context when speaking it, it’s been fine! Similarly, so long as one gives oneself a chance to get used to it, using Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) to write Mandarin is also fine, since Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) is just a simple way to represent Mandarin speech.
Of course, if one has a poor understanding of Mandarin speech, then one will thus also have a poor understanding of Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音). Unfortunately, experience has shown that Mandarin learners who just go along with traditional imperfect human culture and focus on the visible, visually elaborate characters often end up neglecting invisible Mandarin speech. The thing is, though, according to both the science of linguistics and the Bible itself, speech is actually the primary aspect of human language, and no matter how exceptional worldly Chinese people may think they are, that applies to Mandarin and all the other Chinese languages as well.—1 Corinthians 14:8–11.
For convenience:
The direct link for the Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) Plus resource for the Learn From the Bible book is:
The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Learn From the Bible book is:
More Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) and Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) Plus web material based on the Mandarin Learn From the Bible book will be made available in the Pīnyīn
(Pīn·yīn
{Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin]
拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.
