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zhōunián

zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年) ← 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.]

February 24, 2023, a few days before the date of this post, was the one year anniversary of Russia’s sending of significant military forces into Ukraine, resulting in the largest scale open warfare in Europe since World War II. So, as of this writing jw.org is featuring the article “Ukraine War Enters Second Year—What Hope Does the Bible Offer?”, and this week’s MEotW is “zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年)”, the Mandarin word used in the Mandarin version of that article to translate the sense of “anniversary”.

Circles

“Zhōunián (Zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年)” literally means “circle (or whole; cycle) of a year”, and can be thought of as a year having gone full circle. Another use of the “zhōu (circumference; circle; ring; periphery [→ [whole; cycle] [→ [week]]] | {to circle; to make a circuit} 周 周/週)” in “zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年)”, that also involves circles/cycles and time, is to mean “week”. Extending from that, “Zhōu’èr (Zhōu’·èr {Circle → [Cycle] → [Week(day)]} · Two → [Tuesday] 周二 周/週二)” means “Week(day) Two”, or “Tuesday”.

Note, though, that in this pattern, “Sunday” is not “Zhōuqī (Zhōu·qī {Circle → [Week(day)]} · Seven → [not used to mean “Sunday”] 周七 周/週七)”, but rather, “Zhōurì (Zhōu·rì {Circle → [Cycle] → [Week]} · {Sun → [Day]} → [Sunday] 周日 周/週日)”. Note also that regarding “Zhōurì (Zhōu·rì {Circle → [Cycle] → [Week]} · {Sun → [Day]} → [Sunday | weekday] 周日 周/週日)”, the excellent resource Referenced Theo. Expressions (RTE) says:

weekday; Sunday; Apparently 周日 can mean either “weekday” or “Sunday”; it was used in w07 7/1 p.17 to mean “Sunday” (周六和周日 “Saturday and Sunday”; the Traditional version of wtl07 uses the variant 週 for 周) but in w95 7/15 p.29 and w93 11/1 p.31 it was used to translate “weekday” (i.e. non-Sabbath day in Israel), and g02 4/8 p.7 (5/8 in zh) uses 在周日 to translate “during the workweek”.

In addition to “Zhōurì (Zhōu·rì {Circle → [Cycle] → [Week]} · {Sun → [Day]} → [Sunday] 周日 周/週日)”, Mandarin dictionaries also list several other ways to say “Sunday”, some of which originated from Catholicism.

Not Regular Joes

The “zhōu (circumference; circle; ring; periphery [→ [whole; cycle] [→ [week]]] | {to circle; to make a circuit} 周 周/週)” in “zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年)” is also used as a surname. For example, for hundreds of years, China was ruled by the Zhōu ({Circumference; Circle (surname)} 周 周/週) dynasty.

A famous Zhōu ({Circumference; Circle (surname)} 周 周/週) of more recent times was Zhōu Ēnlái ((Zhōu {Circumference; Circle (surname)} 周 周/週) (Ēn·lái Kindness · Comes 恩来 恩來) (the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China)) (Wikipedia article), the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, who served from October 1, 1949 until his death on January 8, 1976. An English translation of an interesting speech he gave in 1958 regarding some of the tasks that the PRC government faced relating to reforming the written language—such as simplification of the characters, popularization of pǔtōnghuà (pǔ·tōng·huà common; universal · {through(out) → [common]} · speech → [(Modern Standard) Mandarin (term commonly used in China)] 普通话 普通話), and the creation and implementation of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)—can be found here, on the Pīnyīn.info website.

Usage Examples

In the above-mentioned jw.org Mandarin article, “zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [whole; cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年)” is used as follows:

📖 📄 📘 2023 Nián (Year 年 年/秊) 2 Yuè (Moon → [Month] 月) 24 Rì (Sun → [Day] 日) Xīngqīwǔ (Xīng·qī·wǔ {Star · {Period of Time} → [Week (Day)]} · Five → [Friday] 星期五) shì (is 是) yí (one 一) ge ([mw] 个 個/个) cǎndàn (cǎn·dàn tragic · tasteless → [dismal] 惨淡 慘淡/澹) de (’s 的) rìzi (rì·zi {sun → [day]} · [suf for nouns] 日子), biāozhìzhe (biāo·zhì·zhe {marking (with)} · mark (that) · being → [marking that] 标志着 標志/誌/識着/著) Wūkèlán (Ukraine 乌克兰 烏克蘭) zhànzhēng (zhàn·zhēng war · contending → [war] 战争 戰爭) mǎn ({had filled} 满 滿) yì (one 一) zhōunián (zhōu·nián {circle → [cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年).

The Pleco app’s built-in dictionary provides these usage examples:

wǔshí zhōunián jìniàn ((wǔ·shí five · tens → [fifty] 五十) (zhōu·nián {circle → [cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年) (jì·niàn remembering · {thinking of} → [commemoration] 记/纪念 記/紀念) → [golden jubilee])

yìbǎi zhōunián ((yì·bǎi one · hundred 一百) (zhōu·nián {circle → [cycle] of} · year → [anniversary] 周年 周/週年) → [centenary])

Will There Be Another Anniversary?

For now, it seems uncertain how much longer Russia and Ukraine will continue to battle for. While many experts, including some Western experts, initially expected Russia might succeed in its initial plan to topple the Ukraine government in a few days, Ukraine has succeeded in holding out, and, with much Western support, has even conducted some successful counteroffensives in the last year. Russia continues to have significant combat power, however, and seems intent on continuing to pursue its goals in this war. Recently, the director of the CIA said the USA believes that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia, perhaps in the forms of drones and ammunition. Meanwhile, Ukraine remains intent on completely driving out the Russian invaders, and many nations, including many Western nations, continue to provide it with ever more significant military support, now including advanced Western main battle tanks.

Regardless of how long this war may drag on, may we keep our brothers and sisters in the affected areas in our prayers to Jehovah, the only true God and the “God of all comfort”—John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3.

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Culture Current Events History Language Learning Names Nations Science

Tǔ’ěrqí

Tǔ’ěrqí (Turkey 土耳其) ← 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.]

On February 6, 2023, strong earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, resulting in tens of thousands of people being killed (over 36,000 at the time of this writing), tens of thousands being injured, and hundreds of thousands being left homeless. So, as of this writing, the article “Devastating Earthquakes Strike Turkey and Syria—What Does the Bible Say?” is being featured on jw.org, and this week’s MEotW is “Tǔ’ěrqí  (Turkey 土耳其)”, the Mandarin word for “Turkey”. Knowing this will help us in the Mandarin field as we hear about, talk about, and pray about Turkey in the time ahead.

Note that it is apparent that “Tǔ’ěrqí  (Turkey 土耳其)” was chosen to represent “Turkey” in Mandarin because of what it sounds like, not because of the meanings of the supposedly ideographic (representing meaning directly through visible symbols, bypassing speech) Chinese characters used to write it out (“Soil Ear It”??? 🤷🏻).

Some Related Mandarin Expressions

Here are some other Mandarin expressions from the above-mentioned article that should be useful to know regarding this situation:

  • Xùlìyà (Syria 叙利亚 敘利亞)
  • qiángzhèn (qiáng·zhèn strong; powerful · {quaking → [earthquake]} (abbr. for qiángliè dìzhèn) 强震 強震)
    • dà (big → [great] 大) dìzhèn (dì·zhèn earth·quake 地震)
  • wú‐jiā‐kě‐guī ((wú without 无 無/无)‐(jiā home 家)‐(kě {(that) can} 可)‐(guī {be returned to} 归 歸) → [homeless])
  • cǎnjù (cǎn·jù miserable; tragic · {theatrical work (drama, play, opera, etc.)} → [tragedy; calamity; disaster] 惨剧 慘劇)
  • ānwèi (ān·wèi calming · consoling; comforting 安慰)
    • 📖 📄 📘 “cì (gives 赐 賜) yíqiè (yí·qiè {one (whole)} · {corresponding (set of)} → [all] 一切) ānwèi (ān·wèi calming · comforting 安慰) de (’s 的) Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝).”—Gēlínduō Hòushū ((Gēlínduō Corinth 哥林多) (Hòu·shū Later · Book 后书 後/后書) → [2 Corinthians]) 1:3 (Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) WOL; Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus).

“Tofu-Dreg Projects”

Some have wondered why so many even relatively new buildings failed to withstand these earthquakes. One news report explains:

experts said there is a mountain of evidence — and rubble — pointing to a harsh reality about what made the quakes so deadly: Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings crumbled.

Buildings being poorly constructed, whether or not earthquake-engineering standards exist, is unfortunately not uncommon in this old system of things. There is even a Mandarin expression with its own Wikipedia page that describes such buildings:

“Tofu-dreg project” (Chinese: 豆腐渣工程; pinyin: dòufuzhā gōngchéng) is a phrase used in the Chinese-speaking world to describe a poorly constructed building, sometimes called just “Tofu buildings”. The phrase was coined by Zhu Rongji, the former premier of the People’s Republic of China, on a 1998 visit to Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province to describe a poorly-built set of flood dykes in the Yangtze River.[source] The phrase is notably used referring to buildings collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake disaster.[source][source][source][source][source][source]

In China, the term tofu dregs (the pieces left over after making tofu) is widely used as a metaphor for shoddy work, hence the implication that a “tofu-dreg project” is a poorly executed project.[source]

As we look forward to the new world that will no longer have such natural disasters as these earthquakes, nor the man-made conditions that make them even more deadly, may we keep our brothers and sisters in the affected areas in our prayers to Jehovah, the only true God and the “God of all comfort”—John 17:3, 2 Corinthians 1:3.

Categories
Culture Current Events

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.
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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))