Tag: Compass

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wǔyè

wǔyè (wǔ·yè {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [south (placed at the midnight position of Chinese directions charts)]} · night → [midnight] 午夜) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · 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.]

At the time of this writing, jw.org was featuring the article “Scientists Move the Doomsday Clock Forward—What Does the Bible Say?”. The Mandarin version of this article uses “Mòrì (Mò·rì End · {Sun → [Day]} → [Doomsday] 末日) Shízhōng (Shí·zhōng {(Particular) Times} · Clock → [Clock] 时钟 時鐘)” to translate “Doomsday Clock” (see the MEotW post on “shìjiè (shì·jiè {generation → [world]} · extent’s → [world’s] 世界) mòrì (mò·rì end · {sun → [day]} 末日)” for some info on “mòrì (mò·rì end · {sun → [day]} [→ [doomsday]] 末日)”), and it uses this week’s MEotW, “wǔyè (wǔ·yè {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [south (placed at the midnight position of Chinese directions charts)]} · night → [midnight] 午夜)” to translate “midnight”. Many Mandarin field language learners will be familiar with “yè (night; evening 夜 夜/亱)”, which means “night” or “evening”, but what does “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} [→ [noon | midnight | south]] 午)” mean?

Earthly Branches

As shown in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus information for “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} [→ [noon | midnight | south]] 午)”, its literal meaning is “7th of the 12 Earthly Branches”. What in the world are the “Earthly Branches”? Wikipedia summarizes for us that:

The twelve Earthly Branches or Terrestrial Branches[source] are a Chinese ordering system used throughout East Asia in various contexts

One of those contexts in which the Earthly Branches are traditionally used by the Chinese is to name the twelve two-hour periods that they divided each day into. In this system, the seventh Earthly Branch “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} [→ [noon | midnight | south]] 午)” is the name of the two-hour period from 11 am to 1 pm, which has noon at its centre. Thus, “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} [→ [noon | midnight | south]] 午)” is associated with “noon”, and we get expressions such as “wǔcān (wǔ·cān {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [noon]} · meal → [lunch] 午餐)”, meaning “noon meal”, or “lunch”.

Wait a minute…how did an expression that’s associated with “noon” end up getting used in an expression that means “midnight”? This apparently happened because of a different context in which the Earthly Branches are also used, that of directions. In this context, “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} [→ [noon | midnight | south]] 午)” is used to mean “south”. Wait a minute…again…isn’t south at the bottom of a compass, while midnight is at the top of a clock? Well, check out this chart of the Chinese directions:

Directions used by Chinese mariners, astronomers, etc.

Directions used by Chinese mariners, astronomers, etc. By ancient Chinese convention, south, named “wǔ ({7th of the 12 Earthly Branches} → [south] 午)”, is placed at the top, in the midnight position.
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License logo Locoluis

Indeed, the Mandarin word for “compass”, “zhǐnán zhēn ((zhǐ·nán {(points with) finger → [points]} · south 指南) (zhēn needle 针 針) → [compass])” (a past MEotW), which actually means “points south needle”, embodies that the ancient Chinese viewed north and south from the opposite viewpoint compared to modern Westerners, whose convention is that a compass needle points north. (Of course, as one end of a compass needle is pointing north, the other end is simultaneously pointing south, so both viewpoints are correct—they’re just coming from different directions.) Thus, on a compass marked with the Chinese directions, south is placed at the top, where a clock puts midnight. This, apparently, is how we get “wǔyè (wǔ·yè {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [south (placed at the midnight position of Chinese directions charts)]} · night → [midnight] 午夜)”, which means “south night” and is used to mean “midnight”.

Heavenly Stems

By the way, often used with the Earthly Branches are the Heavenly Stems. Anyone who’s been in the Mandarin field for a while will have already seen some of them, albeit probably without knowing it—if, say, a paragraph in an English Watchtower study article has more than one study question, the questions would be labelled with the ordinals “a”, “b”, “c”, etc., and the corresponding study questions in the Mandarin version would be labelled with the ordinals “Jiǎ ({1st of the 10 Heavenly Stems} → [a] 甲)”, “Yǐ ({2nd of the 10 Heavenly Stems} → [b] 乙) ”, “Bǐng ({3rd of the 10 Heavenly Stems} → [c] 丙)”, etc., which are part of the Heavenly Stems Chinese system of ordinals.

Usage Example

Here is an example of “wǔyè (wǔ·yè {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [south (placed at the midnight position of Chinese directions charts)]} · night → [midnight] 午夜)” in use, taken from the above-mentioned jw.org article:

English:

“Scientists revealed on Tuesday that the ‘Doomsday Clock’ has been moved up to 90 seconds before midnight—the closest humanity has ever been to armageddon.”—ABC News.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 “Kēxuéjiā (Kē·xué·jiā {branches of study · learning → [science]} · -ists → [scientists] 科学家 科學家) zài (on 在) Zhōu’èr (Zhōu’·èr {Circle → [Week(day)]} · Two → [Tuesday] 周二 周/週二) de (’s 的) shíhou ({(particular) time} 时候 時候), jiāng (took 将 將) Mòrì (Mò·rì End · {Sun → [Day]} → [Doomsday] 末日) Shízhōng (Shí·zhōng {(Particular) Times} · Clock → [Clock] 时钟 時鐘) tiáokuài (tiáo·kuài {to be adjusted} · {to be fast(er) → [to be farther ahead]} 调快 調快) le ([indicates a change] 了), jùlí (jù·lí {to be apart from} · {to be leaving from → [to be at a distance from]} 距离 距離) wǔyè (wǔ·yè {7th of the 12 Earthly Branches → [south (placed at the midnight position of Chinese directions charts)]} · night → [midnight] 午夜) zhǐ (just 只 只/秖/衹/祇) shèng ({having remaining} 剩 剩/賸) 90 miǎo (seconds 秒), shì ((this) is 是) rénlèi (rén·lèi human·kind’s 人类 人類) shǐ (history 史) shang (upon 上) zuì (most 最 最/㝡) jiējìn (jiē·jìn {coming close to} · {to be near} 接近) shìjiè (shì·jiè {generation → [world]} · extent’s → [world’s] 世界) mòrì (mò·rì end · {sun → [day]} 末日) de (’s 的) shíkè (shí·kè {(particular) time} · {carving → [moment]} 时刻 時刻).”—ABC Xīnwén (Xīn·wén New · {(That Which) Is Heard} → [News] 新闻 新聞) (Yīngyǔ (Yīng·yǔ English · language 英语 英語))

Categories
Culture Current Events

hūxī

hūxī (hū·xī {breathing out}; exhaling · {breathing in}; inhaling → [breathing] 呼吸) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Hūxī (Hū·xī {breathing out}; exhaling · {breathing in}; inhaling → [breathing] 呼吸), the Mandarin word for “breathe”, literally translates as “breathe out breath in”. This is an interesting contrast to the English expression “breathe in, breathe out”, which refers to the same thing, just in a different culturally selected order.

Another example of East and West coming at the same thing from different directions is that in the English-speaking world, a “compass” is generally thought of as pointing north, whereas “zhǐnán zhēn ((zhǐ·nán {(points with) finger → [points]} · south 指南) (zhēn needle 针 針) → [compass])” (a previous MEotW)”, the Mandarin word for the same thing, in contrast means a needle that points south.

In both the above examples, neither the Eastern view nor the Western view is wrong—they’re just different.

“The Ballad of East and West”

Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Ballad of East and West” begins with these lines:

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

The first line quoted above is often referred to in order to emphasize how the gap between East and West can seem insurmountable. (By the way, “twain” is an archaic term for “two”. So, “never the twain shall meet” means “never the two shall meet”.) However, there is more to the poem.

The other lines quoted above express that individuals who are spiritually strong enough to do so can overcome any differences in culture, nationality, race, class, place of birth, etc. that may happen to exist between them. And, as we know, this is especially true when those individuals let themselves be taught by the God of peace, who “will judge to the ends of the earth”.–Isaiah 54:13; 1 Samuel 2:10.

So, in this unusually hot summer when the world is figuratively and literally on fire, let us take a moment, hūxī (hū·xī {breathe out} · {breathe in} → [breathe] 呼吸), and take in Jehovah God’s instruction, like that which is included in the sessions of the 2022 “Pursue Peace”! convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Categories
Culture Current Events History Technology

rèlàng

rèlàng (rè·làng heat · wave 热浪 熱浪) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Currently, many around the world are being affected by heat waves, which scientists say is part of a pattern of global warming caused by human activity. As of this writing, jw.org is featuring the article “Climate Change and Our Future—What the Bible Says”. The Mandarin version of this article uses the expression “rèlàng (rè·làng heat · wave 热浪 熱浪)”, this week’s MEotW, to translate the English expression “heat wave”.

It seems that “rèlàng (rè·làng heat · wave 热浪 熱浪)” is just a simple, straightforward exact translation of “heat wave”. While sometimes, like with “zhǐnán zhēn ((zhǐ·nán {(points with) finger → [points]} · south 指南) (zhēn needle 针 針) → [compass])” (a previous MEotW), the Mandarin expression for “compass”, East and West approached the same thing from opposite directions, other times, like with “rèlàng (rè·làng heat · wave 热浪 熱浪)” and “heat wave”, the reality referred to is so simple and the applicable metaphors are so obvious that East and West settled on the same linguistic solution.

While “rèlàng (rè·làng heat · wave 热浪 熱浪)” is definitely not a loanword (like previous MEotW “kǎlā’OK (karaoke 卡拉OK)” is), which is a word that’s adopted from one language into another language without translation, it seems possible that it’s a calque, or loan translation, which is “a word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language”, according to one of the definitions of “calque” listed by Wordnik.

Wordnik—Chinese Field Connections

By the way, while this blog is mainly about Mandarin expressions, it’s written in English, mainly for English-speakers, and often it will compare Mandarin expressions to English expressions. Of course, it will use English words—like “loanword” and “calque”—to discuss Mandarin expressions. So, it’s good for it to have a resource to refer to like Wordnik, which claims to be “the world’s biggest online English dictionary, by number of words”. Being online, it is not constrained by the limitations imposed by the millennia-old medium of paper, as delightfully explained in this TED talk given by Erin McKean, the founder of Wordnik:

Here are a few quotes from the above video:

Why are you blaming the ham for being too big for the pan? You can’t get a smaller ham—the English language is as big as it is. So if you have a ham butt problem and you’re thinking about the ham butt problem, the conclusion that it leads you to is inexorable and counter-intuitive—paper is the enemy of words.

They’re like, “Oh my, people are going to take away my beautiful paper dictionaries?” No, there will still be paper dictionaries. When we had cars, when cars became the dominant mode of transportation, we didn’t round up all the horses and shoot them. You know, there’re still going to be paper dictionaries but it’s not going to be the dominant dictionary. The book-shaped dictionary is not going to be the only shape dictionaries come in, and it’s not going to be the prototype for the shapes dictionaries come in.

[I still use the illustration about cars and horses when talking to people who worry about what would happen to Chinese characters if Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) were ever to get widely adopted.]

Lexicography [the practice of compiling dictionaries] is not rocket science, but even if it were, rocket science is being done by dedicated amateurs these days. You know, it can’t be that hard to find some words.

This is a little-known technological fact about the Internet, but the Internet is actually made up of words and enthusiasm, and words and enthusiasm actually happen to be the recipe for lexicography. Isn’t that great?

If we get a bigger pan, then we can put all the words in. We can put in all the meanings. Doesn’t everyone want more meaning in their lives?

The web page for this TED talk says it was part of the TED2007 conference. I remember that after I saw it, it influenced my thinking as I subsequently contributed to some of the projects for Chinese-field unofficial language-learning resources. (E.g., “We can do this, whether or not it’s rocket science!” “We can transcend paper now!” “Including the meanings is good! Doesn’t everyone want more meaning in their lives?”) Many such resources, like the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus Expressions (Web) resource, the Referenced Theocratic Expressions (RTE) resource, and even, in a way, the 3-line, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus, etc. material resources can be thought of as specialized dictionaries. (In 3-line, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus, etc. material resources, you can look up Mandarin words in the order in which they appear in certain official Mandarin publications!)

Making Good Use of Bigger Pans

Years ago, there was one project that was discussed, for creating an unofficial pocket-sized paper dictionary for Chinese theocratic terms that was to be…about the size of what we now call a smartphone, except, of course, thicker. Looking back, it’s not surprising that that project never came to fruition, partly because of the limitations of paper. Those limitations would have necessitated selecting for inclusion in the proposed pocket-sized dictionary a subset of the full dictionary also being worked on (which we now have in the form of the RTE), and they also would have led to difficulties regarding formatting and printing out for such a small form factor—it was just too small a pan.

Also, note that 2007, the year that the above-mentioned TED talk was given, was also the year that the iPhone came out. The iPad followed not long after in 2010, and pretty soon, smartphones and tablets proliferated among those in the Chinese fields, along with resources like apps, websites, digital publications, etc. that were designed for such mobile devices. When entire libraries can be contained in one’s smartphone or tablet, one is probably not usually inclined to seek out paper equivalents. Indeed, to many who grew up with touchscreen mobile devices, paper publications that don’t allow things like resizing of text or looking up information on words seem broken.