Tag: jw.org

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Culture History Theocratic

Shàngtiān

Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven [→ [God]]} → [Heaven; Providence; God] 上天) ← 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.]

At the time of this writing, jw.org was featuring an invitation to attend an “Exercise Patience”! 2023 convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In one of the places where the English version of this invitation uses the word “God”, the Mandarin version uses this week’s MEotW, “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven [→ [God]]} → [Heaven; Providence; God] 上天)”, which literally means “Above’s Heaven”:

“Shàngtiān” used on jw.org, on the page inviting people to attend the 2023 convention

English:

If you pray to God for help, what can you expect?

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Nǐ ((if) you 你) xiàng (to 向 向/曏/嚮) Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天) qiúzhù (qiú·zhù request · {helping → [help]} 求助), tā (he 他) huì (will 会 會) bāngzhù (help 帮助 幫助) nǐ (you 你) ma ([? ptcl for “yes/no” questions] 吗 嗎)?

Note that this jw.org web page uses the personal pronoun “tā (he 他)” (“he”) to refer to “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天)”, showing that “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天)” here refers to a person, not to an abstract concept or to a place like heaven. Also, the wording shown in the above screenshot indicates that “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天)” here refers to “Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝)”, that is, God.

Addressing People Who Don’t Know God Well

Note also that this web page written using Chinese characters and invitating people to the convention is largely directed towards the Chinese people of the world, who may know God only as an abstract concept, and not so much as a person.

Another example of official material that uses “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven [→ [God]]} → [Heaven; Providence; God] 上天)” when addressing someone who did not know God well is the Mandarin New World Translation Bible’s rendering of Daniel’s words to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:26:

“Shàngtiān” in Daniel 4:26 (NWT (nwtsty), WOL CHS+Pinyin)

Here, “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven [→ [God]]} → [Heaven; Providence; God] 上天)” corresponds with the English expression “the heavens” in the phrase “after you come to know that the heavens are ruling”.—Daniel 4:26 (English).

The Chinese People’s View of God Over Time

As mentioned in the MEotW post on “Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝)”:

The Lasting Peace brochure has a box explaining how the concept of Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝) has been viewed in China throughout its history.

Here is a quote from that box that relates how the Chinese came to view the “Tiān (Heaven [→ [God]] 天)” in “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven [→ [God]]} → [Heaven; Providence; God] 上天)”, and how that affected their understanding of Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝):

…according to Chinese historical records, between three and four thousand years ago, during the Xia and Shang dynasties, the Chinese were already worshipping one supreme deity. The book The Religious History of China explains that they “reckoned that between heaven and earth there was a principal God who stood supreme and had absolute control over all things. . . . This supreme deity came to be called Di, or Shang-di, during the Shang Dynasty, and was known as Tien [heaven], or Tien-di [Emperor in Heaven], during the Zhou Dynasty [11th century to 256 B.C.E.].” Thus, the ancient Chinese believed in the existence of a Supreme Sovereign of the universe.

During the Spring and Autumn period (c. 722-481 B.C.E.) and the Warring States period (c. 480-221 B.C.E.), Confucianism and Taoism gained ascendancy. Influenced by these two schools of thought, the worship of Shang-di was gradually replaced by the abstract idea of reverence for Tien. By the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.–221 C.E.), under the dominance of Confucianism, the Chinese became engrossed in moral culture and social order, and the concept of Shang-di suffered another setback. With the spread of Buddhism into China, the Chinese no longer held to the belief of a Creator who is in control of the universe, but they accepted Heaven, or Providence, as the first cause of all things. Since then, the concept of God, or Shang-di, has become something completely foreign to most Chinese.

Since Chinese people in the world have this historical and cultural background that stretches back for millennia, it is understandable why the organization uses “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天)” to refer to God when addressing them. Perhaps we can think of “Shàngtiān (Shàng·tiān Above’s · {Heaven → [God]} → [God] 上天)” as an acceptable stepping stone between the impersonal “Tiān (Heaven [→ [God]] 天)” and “Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝)”. Hopefully, we will be able to help many more Chinese people to get to know and appreciate Jehovah God as a person, and to eventually get accustomed to referring to him as “Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝)”, and as “Yēhéhuá (Jehovah 耶和华 耶和華)”.

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Culture Current Events Theocratic

jiēlián

jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連) ← 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.]

At the time of this writing, jw.org was featuring the article “Shocking Gun Violence Worldwide—What Does the Bible Say?”. The Mandarin version uses this week’s MEotW, “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)” to express how cases of gun violence just seem to keep on occurring.

The First Morpheme About Connecting Connects to…

The “jiē ({come into contact with}; {come close to} [→ [connect; join; put together; continue | take hold of [(the baton next)]; catch | answer (the phone) | meet; welcome | receive | take over; succeed to]] 接)” in “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)” seems to have possible basic meanings of “come into contact with”, or “come close to”, and it seems that from these can be derived meanings such as “connecting; joining; continuing”, that seem to apply in “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)”.

This “jiē ({come into contact with}; {come close to} [→ [connect; join; put together; continue | take hold of [(the baton next)]; catch | answer (the phone) | meet; welcome | receive | take over; succeed to]] 接)” also appears in many other Mandarin expressions, such as:

  • jiēchù (jiē·chù {come into contact with} · touch; contact [→ [get in touch with; engage with]] 接触 接觸)
  • jiē ({come into contact with} → [answer] 接) diànhuà (diàn·huà electric · {spoken words} → [phone] 电话 電話)
  • jiējìn (jiē·jìn {come close to} · {to be near/close | approach} 接近)
  • jiēshòu (jiē·shòu {come into contact with → [receive]} · receive; accept → [receive; accept] 接受)
  • jiē ({coming into contact with} → [taking hold of] (the baton next) 接) xialai (xia·lai down · {to come} 下来 下來)
  • jiēzhe (jiē·zhe {coming into contact with → [taking hold of] (the baton next)} · being → [next; after that] 接着 接着/著)

    • While conducting meetings, brothers might use this expression or the previous one in relation to the part on the programme that’s coming up next.

…the Next Morpheme About Connecting

The “lián ({linking to; joining; connecting to} [→ [even; including | continuously; in succession; one after another]] 连 連)” in “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)” also relates to connecting, with possible basic meanings of “linking to”; “joining”; “connecting to”. One interesting use of this morpheme is that “lián ({linking to; joining; connecting to} → [even] 连 連)…” can mean “even…”.

Some other Mandarin expressions that contain “lián ({linking to; joining; connecting to} [→ [even; including | continuously; in succession; one after another]] 连 連)” are:

  • liánjiē (lián·jiē {linking [to]; joining; connecting [to]} · {coming into contact [with] [→ [connecting; joining; linking [to] | connection; conjunction | link (on a web page) | continuously]]} 连接 連/聯接)

    • Note that this expression uses the same morphemes as “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)”, but in reverse order. It does not seem to have the exact same meanings as “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)”, however.
    • Perhaps of interest to readers of this web page, this expression can be used to refer to a link on a web page.
  • liánxiě (lián·xiě linking; joining; connecting · write → [join syllables in Pīnyīn, etc. (so they are not separated by a space) | write Chinese characters with linked strokes] 连写 連寫)

    • This is the actual expression used in the official Chinese government rules for Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) orthography, to refer to writing syllables together without a space between them. This expression is used because in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), sometimes there is no space between syllables, and sometimes spaces are used.
      • Unlike Chinese characters, which are written like bricks in the Great Wall with no spaces at all between them, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) uses spaces to divide groupings of syllables into separate words, like English, French, Spanish, etc. do. This is yet another thing that makes Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) much easier to learn and use, compared to characters.
  • liánxù (lián·xù linking; joining; connecting · continuing; {being continuous/successive}; extending; joining [→ [continuous; successive; in a row; running; serial; consecutive]] 连续 連續)

    • liánxù jù ((lián·xù linking · continuing → [serial] 连续 連續) (jù drama 剧 劇) → [TV series; serialized drama])
  • yìlián (yì·lián (with) one · linking; joining; connecting → [in a row; in succession; running] 一连 一連)

    • yìlián‐chuàn ((yì·lián (with) one · linking; joining; connecting → [in a row; in succession; running] 一连 一連)‐(chuàn {stringing together of} 串) → [series/string/chain/succession of])

Usage Examples

Here are a couple of examples of “jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact; coming close [→ [connecting; joining; continuing]]} · {joining; linking; connecting [→ [in succession; one after another; continuously]]} [→ [in a row; in succession; on end | repeatedly]] 接连 接連)” in use, taken from the above-mentioned article:

English:

Shocking Gun Violence Worldwide

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Qiāngjī (Qiāng·jī Gun · Striking → [Shooting] 枪击 槍擊) Àn ({Long, Narrow Tables or Desks} → [Cases] 案) Jiēlián (Jiē·lián {Are Coming into Contact → [Are Continuing]} · {Are Linking} → [Are in Succession] 接连 接連)‐Búduàn (Bú·duàn Not · {Breaking off} → [Continually] 不断 不斷)

English:

Terrible gun violence continues to take a tragic toll on many around the world.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Shìjiè (Shì·jiè {generation → [world]} · extent’s → [world’s] 世界) gèdì (gè·dì various · lands 各地) jiēlián (jiē·lián {coming into contact → [continuing]} · {linking → [one after another]} 接连 接連) fāshēng (fā·shēng {are having issue forth} · {are having come to life} → [are having happen] 发生 發生) chíqiāng (chí·qiāng holding · gun 持枪 持槍) bàolì (bào·lì violent · force → [violence] 暴力) shìjiàn (shì·jiàn incidents · [mw] 事件), niàngchéng (niàng·chéng {brewing to → [leading to]} · {coming to be} → [leading to] 酿成 釀成) shāngwáng (shāng·wáng injuries · {dyings → [deaths]} 伤亡 傷亡) cǎnjù (cǎn·jù tragic · {theatrical works (dramas, etc.)} → [tragedies] 惨剧 慘劇).

All Connected?

Speaking of connected things, are all these cases of gun violence somehow connected? Well, the Bible does reveal to us that this whole system of things is under the influence of Satan the Devil, the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 1 John 5:19). Those who perpetrate gun violence certainly reflect the spirit of the ruler of this world that they are part of.

Also, the Bible shows us that this world ruled by Satan is now in its last days, and so, things are especially bad now. As the above-mentioned article says:

The Bible describes our time as “the last days,” a time when people would act in fierce, brutal, and savage ways. (2 Timothy 3:1, 3)

Thankfully, since these are “the last days” of this wicked system of things, we can look forward to the time when Jehovah God replaces it with a new system under the rulership of his own Kingdom government.—Matthew 6:10.

Categories
Culture Language Learning Technology Theocratic

Yēsū Xīshēng Jìniàn Jùhuì

Yēsū (Jesus’ 耶稣 耶穌)
Xīshēng (Xī·shēng {Sacrifice (n)} · {(as with a) Domestic Animal} → [Sacrifice] 牺牲 犧牲)
Jìniàn Jùhuì ((Jì·niàn Remembering · {Thinking Of} → [Commemorating] 记/纪念 記/紀念) (Jùhuì Meeting 聚会 聚會) → [Memorial]) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

This year’s Memorial is scheduled for this week, so this week’s MEotW is “Yēsū (Jesus’ 耶稣 耶穌) Xīshēng (Xī·shēng {Sacrifice (n)} · {(as with a) Domestic Animal} → [Sacrifice] 牺牲 犧牲) Jìniàn Jùhuì ((Jì·niàn Remembering · {Thinking Of} → [Commemorating] 记/纪念 記/紀念) (Jùhuì Meeting 聚会 聚會) → [Memorial])”. This is currently the official way to translate “the Memorial of Jesus’ death” into Mandarin, as can be seen by comparing the English and Mandarin pages for the Memorial on jw.org.

It’s worth noting that this is a simple, straightforward, functional translation, free of unnecessary sentimentality or ceremony. As one dictionary puts it, “ceremony”, in this case, refers to:

The formalities observed on some solemn or important public or state occasion in order to render it more imposing or impressive: as, the ceremony of crowning a king, or of laying a foundation-stone; the ceremony of inaugurating the President of the United States.

Indeed, for those of us who appreciate Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, the Memorial is about this appreciation, not about ceremony or empty or showy rituals.

What Price Ceremony?

The matter of unnecessary ceremony reminds me of something I heard in a podcast a while ago:

Here is a clip of the podcast referred to in the tweet above, in which Mr. Cohen speaks of the core goal to make Swift ceremony-free:

As the above tweet also mentions, Chinese characters have oodles and gobs of unnecessary, time-and-energy-consuming ceremony, especially compared to the simple, straightforward, and elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) writing system. And, echoing Mr. Cohen’s observation that ceremony can weigh programmers down and rob them of the joy that they could otherwise feel when coding, many have found that the unnecessary, traditionally mandated complexity and ceremonial baggage of Chinese characters can weigh down Mandarin learners and take away much of the joy that they should be able to feel from learning how to really communicate with Mandarin-speaking people.

Is it appropriate for us to look at the Chinese characters writing system through the same lens that we use to look at a technological system like the Swift programming language? It really is, because while the Chinese characters writing system is indeed a matter of culture, all writing systems are simultaneously technologies, applications of skills and knowledge for practical purposes.