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fāngyán

fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[This reposting of a post that was originally posted on November 16, 2020 seems to be a fitting companion to the recent repostings of the posts on “yǔxì (yǔ·xì language · {tied (things) → [system; family]} 语系 語系) and “yǔzú (yǔ·zú language · {ethnic group → [group of things with common characteristics] → [group]} 语族 語族)”. It discusses the important basic issue of whether Mandarin is just a dialect of “Chinese”, a subject about which much political and cultural propaganda has unfortunately been spread.]

The term “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)” has been used in the Chinese-speaking world in various ways, but the literal meanings of the words that make it up indicate that it refers to the speech pattern of a place, even a place as small as a village. For reference, the “fāng (direction [→ [side; party | place; region | method; way [→ [prescription; recipe]] | power (math.)]] | {[is] square} [→ [[is] upright; honest]] | [mw for square things] 方)” in “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)” is the “fāng (direction [→ [side; party | place; region | method; way [→ [prescription; recipe]] | power (math.)]] | {[is] square} [→ [[is] upright; honest]] | [mw for square things] 方)” in “dìfang (dì·fang {(section of) earth → [place]} · {direction → [place]} → [place] 地方)”, and the “yán (speech; word; talk; language | say; talk; speak | character; syllable; word 言)” in “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)” is the “yán (speech; word; talk; language | say; talk; speak | character; syllable; word 言)” in “yǔyán (yǔ·yán language · {(type of) speech} 语言 語言)”.

Fāngyán (Fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)” has customarily been translated into English as “dialect”, but this practice can be misleading and confusing, because while “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)” and “dialect” can sometimes both be applied to a particular speech pattern, the two terms don’t mean exactly the same thing.

What is a Chinese “Dialect”?

American sinologist and University of Pennsylvania Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Victor H. Mair wrote an extensive article on this subject, “What Is a Chinese ‘Dialect/Topolect’? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic Terms”, which can be found here (PDF) and here (web page) on his website Sino-Platonic Papers.

It has been said that “a language is a dialect with an army and navy”, but in his article Professor Mair gives us a more linguistically correct and useful way to distinguish between a language and a dialect:

Regardless of the imprecision of lay usage, we should strive for a consistent means of distinguishing between language and dialect. Otherwise we might as well use the two terms interchangeably. That way lies chaos and the collapse of rational discourse. Mutual intelligibility [emphasis added] is normally accepted by most linguists as the only plausible criterion for making the distinction between language and dialect in the vast majority of cases. Put differently, no more suitable, workable device for distinguishing these two levels of speech has yet been proposed. If there are to be exceptions to the useful principle of mutual intelligibility, there should be compelling reasons for them. Above all, exceptions should not be made the rule.

What is mutual intelligibility? Simply put, in linguistics, two or more speech varieties are said to be mutually intelligible if they are “able to be understood by one another’s speakers”. For example, if one person only knows English, and another person only knows Spanish, they can’t really understand each other if they try to talk to each other—English and Spanish are not mutually intelligible, and are suitably recognized as being different languages, not just different dialects of “European”.

Similarly, if one person only knows Mandarin, and another person only knows Cantonese, they can’t really understand each other if they try to talk to each other—Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible. So, while they may be “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · {(patterns of) speech} 方言)”, linguistically, Mandarin and Cantonese should really be considered to be different languages, not just different dialects of “Chinese”.

If many of the varieties of speech in China are really different languages, as linguists would refer to them, why have so many people come to think that they are just dialects of a single Chinese language? China’s central government is highly motivated to convince people that China is one unified political and cultural entity which should thus be governed by one central government—them—so they have promoted this idea. In other words, it’s basically political propaganda!

Being Clear on What’s What

Why is it especially important for language-learners in a language field like the Mandarin field to recognize, in spite of the commonly accepted political propaganda, that Chinese varieties of speech like Mandarin and Cantonese really function like different languages, and not different dialects of the same language? Well, as someone who along with many others has come to the Mandarin field from the Cantonese field, I have had the dubious pleasure of observing how some have tried to speak Mandarin by just taking the Cantonese they knew and twisting it a little, since they were relying on the conventional wisdom that Mandarin and Cantonese are just different dialects of the same language. As well-meaning as they may have been, the results were often just as bad as when someone sings badly off-key, or as Star Trek fans may say, they often sounded like the language equivalent of a transporter accident 🙀. Even after decades in the Mandarin field, some publishers who had come over from the Cantonese field still say some Mandarin words with Cantonese-y pronunciations.

In contrast, when one recognizes, for example, that Cantonese is Cantonese and Mandarin is Mandarin, and that neither one is just a slightly mutated version of the other, then that paves the way for language-learning progress that is free of being distorted by untruthful and misleading beliefs. Yes, by recognizing and accepting a variety of speech for what it really is, we can go on to freely learn to speak it well and properly, so that we can be as effective as possible at helping people whose mother tongue is that variety of speech.

As with everything else in life, in language-learning too, the truth matters. As Jehovah’s people, we especially want to “worship the Father with spirit and truth”, and when we seek to do so as we learn a language to use it in Jehovah’s service, we will find that ‘the truth will set us free’ from the distortions and burdens of untruthful and misleading beliefs.—John 4:23; 8:32.

Some Official Recognition

The organization has recently demonstrated that it recognizes the truth about how different many of the Chinese varieties of speech are from one another. For example, whereas before there was one Chinese edition of each publication (using Mandarin wording), now, some publications are available in different Chinese editions for different Chinese languages (including Cantonese), each with different wording.

List of different Chinese languages in which publications are available on jw.org as of 2025-06-02
jw.org now has publications in different Chinese languages.

To help reduce the confusion around the inappropriate use of the English word “dialect” to translate “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)”, Professor Mair proposed that the word “topolect” (topo- (“place”) + -lect (“[language] variety”)) be used instead as an exact, neutral English translation of “fāngyán (fāng·yán {direction → [place]} · speech → [topolect; dialect (common but misleading translation)] 方言)”. While not as well-known as “dialect”, the word “topolect” has gained a certain amount of recognition, and it can now be found in several dictionaries, e.g., The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Wordnik, and Wiktionary.

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Culture Experiences History Language Learning Science Technology Theocratic

jídù

jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒) 👈🏼 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.]

I have long especially liked 1 Corinthians 13. It contains counsel on what really does and doesn’t matter in life, an extensive description and definition of the most important kind of love, and a sublime discussion about the need to become complete, mature, as a person. As these apply to life in general, so too do they apply to our lives as Mandarin field language learners.

As Mandarin field language learners, it can benefit us greatly to consider what we can learn from 1 Corinthians 13, and along the way, we can also consider some of the Mandarin expressions used in that chapter in the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible (nwtsty).

Two Ways About It

This week’s MEotW, “jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒)”, is used in verse 4 (WOL) of 1 Corinthians 13:

Screenshot of “_jídù_” in 1 Co. 13:4 (nwtsty, CHS+_Pīnyīn_ WOL)

(Dark mode for the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY (WOL) website, as shown in the above image, can be enabled in the Safari web browser by using the Noir Safari extension. Other web browsers may also have extensions with similar functionality.)

For comparison, here are the current English and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus renderings of 1 Corinthians 13:4:

English:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous. It does not brag, does not get puffed up,

Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus:

📖 📄 📘 Ài (love), yǒu (has 有) nàixīn (nài·xīn {being (of/with) enduring} · heart → [patience] 耐心), yòu (also 又) réncí (rén·cí {is kind} 仁慈). Ài (love), (not 不) jídù ({is jealous} 嫉妒), (not 不) chuīxū (chuī·xū {does puff → [does brag]} · {does sigh → [does praise]} → [does brag] 吹嘘 吹噓), (not 不) zìdà (zì·dà {(does consider) self} · {to be big → [to be great]} 自大),

Both of the morphemes in “jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒) mean “be jealous of” or “envy”. Interestingly, these morphemes can be reversed to produce “dùjí ({being jealous [of]}; envying 妒嫉)”, which means the same thing as “jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒)”. In this respect, these expressions are like “fǎlǜ (law 法律) and “lǜfǎ (law 律法)”. The MEotW post on “fǎlǜ (law 法律) had this to say about this situation:

But, Why?

If “lǜfǎ (law 律法)” and “fǎlǜ (law 法律)” both mean basically the same thing, why did the world’s Mandarin-speaking population bother to switch the order of “ (law; statute; rule; regulation 律)” and “ (law | method; way; mode | standard; model | {magic arts} | {follow; model after} 法)” in popular usage? Who knows? Appendix A2 of the Mandarin NWT Bible, probably wisely, does not get into the why of it, just mentioning that “fǎlǜ (law 法律)” is now the more common usage. Even if it turns out that there was a reason, it may not be what most would consider a good reason. Sometimes people are just weird, and, speaking as a Chinese person myself, that includes Chinese people—just look at some of the arbitrary ways in which Chinese characters have been designed, that have turned trying to figure out the pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar Chinese characters into a guessing game.

Speaking of what’s commonplace or popular and why, I am reminded of this quote from William Goldman, who wrote the screenplay for The Princess Bride as well as the screenplays for several other successful, well-known movies:

Nobody knows anything…Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess

Regarding which Mandarin expression for “be jealous of” is better to use in the Mandarin field, in the Chinese Mandarin (Simplified) version of the Watchtower Online Library (WOL), searching yielded only 6 occurrences of “妒嫉” (“dùjí ({being jealous [of]}; envying 妒嫉)”), occurring between 1960 and 1974 and fitting on a single page, while there were multiple pages of results for “嫉妒” (“jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒)”), including many occurrences in the current Mandarin New World Translation Study Bible (nwtsty). So, clearly, the organization now uses “jídù ({being jealous [of]}; envying 嫉妒) regularly, and no longer uses “dùjí ({being jealous [of]}; envying 妒嫉)”.

No Way to Live, or Love

While there may be two ways of saying “being jealous” in Mandarin, being jealous is no way to live, or love. Regarding jealousy, the recent MEotW post on “shíjí (shí·jí ten · {(stair)step [→ [level; rank; grade; class]]} [→ [master/expert level (coll)]] 十级 十級) said:

Speaking of being an expert, is that a bad thing? Some of those around us, perhaps out of insecurity or jealousy, may seek to “keep us in our place” if we get “uppity”, exhibit “pretensions of grandeur”, and actually try to be good at something, perhaps better at it than they are. (Matthew 13:54–58)…

However, God’s Word…encourages us to actually give Jehovah the best “sacrifice of praise” that we can. (Malachi 1:6–8; Hebrews 11:4; 13:15) So, ignore any insecure or jealous naysayers around you, and as Jesus said, “let your light shine” in the Mandarin field, even at shíjí (shí·jí ten · {(stair)step → [level]} → [expert level (coll)] 十级 十級) if you can, not to glorify yourself, but to glorify our heavenly Father Jehovah.—Matthew 5:16.

Also, the MEotW post on “guīju (guī·ju [([is] following)] {compasses; dividers → [rules; regulations]} · {carpenter’s squares → [rules; regulations]} → [[[is] following] rules; customs; established practices/standards | [[is] following] social etiquette; manners | [is] well-behaved; well-disciplined] 规矩 規矩) contains the following:

“Strife and Jealousy”

In the New World Translation Bible in the Watchtower Online Library, one of the scriptures linked to 1 Corinthians 13:5 with regard to “indecently” is Romans 13:13:

Let us walk decently as in the daytime, not in wild parties and drunkenness, not in immoral intercourse and brazen conduct, not in strife and jealousy.

Note that among the things that God’s Word lists as being indecent, along with things like drunkenness and sexual immorality, are “strife and jealousy”.

If someone makes an issue of a Mandarin field language learner who, say, uses Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) instead of following tradition and exclusively focusing on characters, is that person not being like those who made an issue of Jesus healing on the Sabbath? Instead of being happy and joyful because of the good that Jesus was doing, those opposers of Jesus were jealous of how “the entire crowd began to rejoice at all the glorious things he did”. (Luke 13:17) Opposers of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) use today may similarly be jealous of how those who make good use of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) can accomplish much in Jehovah’s service without having to put the kind of blood, sweat, and tears into learning characters the traditional way that they did. In their tradition-loving eyes, breaking from tradition and using innovative and game-changingly effective new tools like Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) may seem “indecent”, but in God’s eyes, it is the jealousy-motivated strife such ones cause over people doing good in his service that is truly indecent.

In God's organization, our unity is based on God's truth, not on human tradition.

[image or embed]

— tiandi, Links News (@tiandilinksnews.bsky.social) February 2, 2025 at 8:27 AM

Those who are motivated by true Christian love, as described in 1 Corinthians 13, would rejoice over how Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) helps Mandarin field language learners to bear witness to the truth more effectively, instead of considering it “cheating”, since love “rejoices with the truth”. (John 18:37; 1 Corinthians 13:6) Also, those who are motivated by true Christian love would not be jealous of how game-changing tools like Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) help Mandarin field language learners to more easily get more done, since “love is not jealous”. (1 Corinthians 13:4)…

The Needs of the Many, the Needs of the One

Interestingly, the collectivism of worldly Chinese culture may tend to drive people to be jealous, to hold zero-sum beliefs (that one person’s gain must mean another person’s loss), and to “feel bad about themselves when their friends succeed”. In contrast, real Christian love and true empathy move people to “rejoice with those who rejoice”. (Romans 12:15) The MEotW post on “jítǐ zhǔyì ((jí·tǐ gathered; collected · {body [→ [style; form]]} → [collective] 集体 集體) (zhǔ·yì master · meaning → [-ism] 主义 主義) [collectivism; community spirit]) touched on this:

Self-Identity and Balanced Self-Love

Self-identity is one thing that can particularly be a struggle for those raised in collectivistic societies, since the self is relatatively often neglected in such societies. It’s perhaps not surprising then, that, as mentioned above, in the relatively collectivistic Chinese societies, with their relative paucity, or scarcity, of more healthy ways to build and maintain self-identity, so many have such an unhealthy, obsessive attachment to Chinese characters, as something to desperately hang their neglected self-identities on.

Categories
Culture Current Events History Science Theocratic

xīngqiú

xīngqiú (xīng·qiú {star → [heavenly body]} · globe; sphere; ball → [celestial/heavenly body] 星球) 👈🏼 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.]

One of the publications that is now recommended to be used on Bible studies is the Yǒngyuǎn Xiǎngshòu Měihǎo de Shēngmìng—Hùdòng Shì Shèngjīng Kèchéng ((Yǒng·yuǎn Eternally · {Far (in Time)} 永远 永遠) (Xiǎng·shòu Enjoy · Receive 享受) (Měi·hǎo Beautiful · Good 美好) (de ’s 的) (Shēngmìng Life 生命)—(Hù·dòng {Each Other} · Moving → [Interactive] 互动 互動) (Shì (Type 式) (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) (Kè·chéng Lessons · Procedure → [Course] 课程 課程) [Enjoy Life Forever!—An Interactive Bible Course (lff)]) (Enjoy Life Forever! (lff)) book. This week’s MEotW, “xīngqiú (xīng·qiú {star → [heavenly body]} · globe; sphere; ball → [celestial/heavenly body] 星球)”, appears in lesson 6, point 2 of this book:

English:

[The earth] is the only known planet that can sustain human life.

Mandarin (WOL, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus):

📖 📄 📘 Chúle (Chú·le {eliminating → [besides]} · {to completion} 除了) dìqiú (dì·qiú earth · globe 地球), mùqián (mù·qián eyes · before → [at present] 目前) hái ((there) still) méiyǒu (méi·yǒu not · {has had → [has been]} → [has not been] 没有 沒有) fāxiàn (fā·xiàn {sent out → [developed]} · {appearing of} → [discovered] 发现/见 發現/見) biéde (bié·de other · ’s 别的 別的) xīngqiú (xīng·qiú {star → [heavenly body]} · globe → [celestial body] 星球) shìhé (shì·hé {suitable for} · {closing with → [fitting with]} 适合 適合) rénlèi (rén·lèi human·kind’s 人类 人類) shēngcún (shēng·cún living · surviving 生存).

The above-quoted Mandarin sentence is noteworthy in that it was worded differently before, and was revised into the form quoted above for the current 2024-07 Printing of the Mandarin version of the Enjoy Life Forever! book.

Earthrise - This iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.

Earthrise
This iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.

Morphemic Breakdown

The first morpheme in this week’s MEotW, “xīng (star [→ [heavenly body | bit; particle]] 星)”, literally means “star”, but in some contexts it can effectively mean “heavenly body”. (I suspect that in the past, this expression was used to refer to any and all of the points of light visible in the night sky, most of which are what we now call stars. Over time, though, scientists figured out that some of those points of light are technically not what they would call stars, but rather, planets, moons, etc. So, it could be that this revised understanding led to the effective meaning of “xīng (star [→ [heavenly body | bit; particle]] 星) to be revised from always being “star” to being the more general “heavenly body” in some settings.)

The next morpheme, “qiú ({ball (or anything shaped like a ball)}; sphere; globe 球)”, means “ball (or anything shaped like a ball); sphere; globe”. Besides appearing in “qiúsài (qiú·sài ball · game; competition; match 球赛 球賽) (“ball game”), it also appears in “dìqiú (dì·qiú earth · globe 地球) (“the earth”), which also appears in the quote above.

Taken together, the constituent morphemes in “xīngqiú (xīng·qiú {star → [heavenly body]} · globe; sphere; ball → [celestial/heavenly body] 星球) effectively mean “celestial/heavenly body”, most of which are at least roughly ball-shaped.

A Mandarin expression used to directly, specifically translate “planet” is “xíngxīng (xíng·xīng travelling · {star → [heavenly body]} → [planet] 行星)”. “Xīng (star [→ [heavenly body | bit; particle]] 星) is used in the names of specific planets. For example, “Huǒ‐Xīng ((Huǒ Fire 火)‐(Xīng Star → [Heavenly Body] 星) [Mars]) is “Mars” in Mandarin.

Space: the Final Frontier…

These days, many, including some serving in the Mandarin field, are fans of science fiction stories like those of Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. A common feature of such stories is the idea that humans will eventually travel to and live on other planets besides the earth. What has God’s organization said about this? Here are a couple of paragraphs that I found that comment on this idea, from the article “Space Exploration—What Does the Future Hold?”, in the September 8, 1992 issue of Awake! magazine:

What can be said from a Biblical viewpoint? True, man was told by God to ‘multiply and fill the earth.’ (Genesis 1:28) At the same time, he was given intelligence and an insatiable desire to know more about his context, including the biosphere, the stratosphere, and beyond. That context includes our tiny solar system and the stars beyond. Thus, King David was inspired to write some three thousand years ago: “When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man that you keep him in mind, and the son of earthling man that you take care of him?”—Psalm 8:3, 4.

The Bible shows that Jehovah God, earth’s Maker and Landlord, will soon take action against this planet’s unruly and unrulable tenants. Only the truly meek will be left to inherit the earth. Then only will we get to see what further purposes God has in mind for an obedient human family.—Psalm 37:11, 29; Revelation 11:18; 16:14-16.

Also interesting is this paragraph that I found, from the Awake! article “Is There Life Beyond the Earth?”, from way back in 1973:

But what about the other planets? Were they put in space and into orbit for no reason at all? No, we cannot conclude that. All that God does has meaning and purpose. Obviously the Creator Jehovah God has a purpose for these planets, including the planets in our own solar system. In time, he may well reveal that purpose to obedient mankind. We should not be so shortsighted as to think that the earth is the center of the universe.

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft

Many people today, including some Mandarin-speaking people whom we may meet in the ministry, are also fascinated by the idea that intelligent beings from other planets are visiting the earth in spacecraft that appear to people as unidentified flying objects (UFOs), unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), etc. Jehovah’s organization has warned us about what may be behind such phenomena. For example, the article “UFO’s—Messengers From God?”, in the July 8, 1996 issue of Awake! magazine, said:

Instead of assisting mankind to survive, stories about ‘nonhuman beings’ divert people’s attention away from what God actually requires for their everlasting welfare.

Who may try to steer mankind away from God’s means of survival, yet claim to represent God? Ed Conroy, in his book Report on Communion, states that “serious ufologists [those who study UFO’s] with training in the psychological and social sciences” include comparative studies of “‘bedroom visitors,’ ghosts, poltergeists, apparitions, religious visions, and what have been regarded as demons.” Many ufologists and those who claim to be extraterrestrials in human form state that using spaceships to travel is mostly unnecessary. They say that these beings can travel invisibly and materialize anywhere on earth without arriving in spacecraft.

The Bible warns that Satan and his demons are intent on misleading mankind. They take advantage of mankind’s despair and hopelessness to offer attractive, but false, solutions. (2 Corinthians 11:14) Hence, the Bible warning: “In later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons.”—1 Timothy 4:1.

In like manner today, any supposed visits and seemingly beneficial guidance from such beings should be rejected, whatever form they may take. Those who would rather follow the advice of “extraterrestrials” than God’s Word are bound to be misled—a terrible mistake to make in these critical times.

The Only Possible Real Way to the Stars

In the Mandarin field, we have the privilege of helping Mandarin-speaking people to not be misled by the misinformation from Satan and the demons, but rather, to come to know and draw close to the true God Jehovah. Jehovah created all the stars, planets, and other celestial bodies in the universe, and, as mentioned above, he may in good time tell us more about his purpose for them. The only way to find out for sure about that is to do God’s will now, and make it into the new system that he will bring to the earth, this pale blue dot that we are now living on, and that is still the only celestial body we know of that can sustain human life.—1 John 2:17.

Pale Blue Dot - This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, taken from a distance of more than 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) from Earth, is a part of the first ever “portrait” of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 (Earth is the blueish-white speck almost halfway up the rightmost band of light.)

Pale Blue Dot
This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, taken from a distance of more than 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) from Earth, is a part of the first ever “portrait” of the solar system taken by the Voyager 1 space probe. (Earth is the blueish-white speck almost halfway up the rightmost band of light.)


For convenience:

The direct link for the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resource for the Enjoy Life Forever! book is:

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Enjoy Life Forever! 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 Enjoy Life Forever! book will be made available in the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus web resource as time allows.