Tradition Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Mandarin Expression of the Week

piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见偏見) ← 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 “Prejudice—Are You Infected?”. The Mandarin version uses this week’s MEotW, “piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见偏見)”, to translate “prejudice”.

The “piān (incline; slant; lean [→ [insist on | diverge; deviate]] | inclined; slanting; leaning [→ [partial; prejudiced | stubbornly; wilfully; insistently; persistently; contrarily]] 偏)” in “piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见偏見)” literally means “inclined; slanting; leaning”, and the “jiàn (see | seeing → [view (opinion)] 见見)” used here is a well-known expression that means “seeing”. So, “piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见偏見)” literally refers to a way of seeing that’s not on the level—an accurate way of describing prejudice. The “piān (incline; slant; lean [→ [insist on | diverge; deviate]] | inclined; slanting; leaning [→ [partial; prejudiced | stubbornly; wilfully; insistently; persistently; contrarily]] 偏)” in “piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见偏見)” literally meaning “inclined; slanting; leaning” is an interesting contrast to the “píng ({[being] flat, level, even} [→ [[being] peaceful; calm | peace | [being] equal; fair; just | standard; level]] | {make [to be] flat, level, even} [→ [make peace; pacify; calm down]] 平)” in “gōngpíng ({[is] just; fair; impartial} · {[is] flat, level, even → [[is] equal; fair; just; objective]} → [[is] fair; just; impartial; equitable | fairly; justly] 公平)” (“fair; just; impartial; equitable”) literally meaning “flat, level, even”.

Buried Prejudice Illustrated

Of course, we who are Jehovah’s people especially consciously avoid having and displaying prejudice. However, as it happens, last week’s MEotW post on “Dōng (East 东東)‐Xī (West 西)” mentioned that scientists have observed that there is such a thing as buried prejudice (prejudice that we may unconsciously have and act on), while the above-mentioned article (which originally appeared in Awake!) being featured on jw.org applies the following interesting illustration to prejudice:

English:

Prejudice is like a virus. It harms its victims, and people can be unaware that they are infected.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Piānjiàn (Piān·jiàn {inclined → [prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice] 偏见偏見) jiù (exactly 就) xiàng (like 像/象) bìngdú (bìng·dú disease · {poison → [virus]} → [virus] 病毒) yíyàng (yí·yàng {(of) one} · {pattern → [way]} → [the same way] 一样一樣) huì (will 会會) duì (towards 对對) rén (people 人) zàochéng (zào·chéng make · {to come to be} 造成) shānghài (shāng·hài {hurting → [harming]} · harming → [harm] 伤害傷害), érqiě (ér·qiě and · moreover 而且) yí (one 一) ge ([mw] 个個/个) rén (person 人) wǎngwǎng (wǎng·wǎng {going towards} · {going towards} → [often] 往往) chájué budào ((chá·jué scrutinizes · {to wake to → [to become aware of]} → [is aware of] 察/查觉察/查覺) (bu·dào not · {arriving at} 不到) → [is not aware]) zìjǐ (self 自己) yǐ (already 已) bèi ([passive signifier] → [is] 被) gǎnrǎn (gǎn·rǎn {feeling → [being affected by]} · {having caught (disease)} → [infected] 感染) le ([indicates a change] 了).

We Don’t Have Time for This!

As also mentioned in last week’s MEotW post on “Dōng (East 东東)‐Xī (West 西)”, the Mandarin field is one in which East often meets West, and while people can find the differences interesting, differences can also pose spiritual challenges, since something being different than what we are used to means that we are not used to it, and it generally means that we do not deeply know or understand it.

Will we respond to the unknown with fear of the unknown? Let us make good use of the above-mentioned Awake! article and other provisions from Jehovah and his organization, to help us rise to the spiritual challenges posed by the people and things we encounter in the Mandarin field that are different from what we have been used to. That way, we can focus on contributing positively to all the important God-honouring and life-saving work we still have to do in this field.

The worldwide Mandarin field may in fact be the largest language field that has ever existed in human history, and with about 95% of the planet’s Chinese people living in China itself, all the government opposition there has been to our work, all the traditions-based encumbrances and propaganda-fueled confusion that Mandarin field language learners have had to deal with, etc., we may just have scratched the surface of the work that still needs to be done in this massive worldwide field. So, we really don’t have time for the problems that can be caused by prejudice, buried or otherwise.

Screenshot of spreadsheet table and chart showing the estimated numbers of Chinese people inside & outside China in 2023

(The above is from a spreadsheet which contains source links. A PDF file (with working source links) for that spreadsheet can be downloaded here.)

tóngbèi yālì

tóngbèi (tóng·bèi (from people of the) same · generation → [peer] 同辈同輩)
yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

At the time of this writing, jw.org was featuring a video with the following title, which includes this week’s MEotW, “tóngbèi (tóng·bèi (from people of the) same · generation → [peer] 同辈同輩) yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力)”, in the Mandarin text:

English:

Stand Up to Peer Pressure!

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Xiàng (To 向向/曏/嚮) Tóngbèi (Tóng·bèi (from People of the) Same · Generation → [Peer] 同辈同輩) Yālì (Yā·lì Pressing · Force → [Pressure] 压力壓力) Shuō (Say 说說/説) Bù (No 不)!

Morphemic Breakdown

In “tóngbèi (tóng·bèi (from people of the) same · generation → [peer] 同辈同輩) yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力)”, “tóng (same; similar | {together [with]}; {in common} 同同/仝)” means “same”, and “bèi (generation | lifetime | {people of a certain kind}; class 辈輩)” means “generation”. Additionally, in this context, we can consider it to be implied that the “tóngbèi (tóng·bèi (from people of the) same · generation → [peer] 同辈同輩)” effectively means “(from people of the) same generation”, or “peer”, used as an adjective.

As for the “yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力)”, in this expression, “yā (press; {push/hold down} [→ [control; quell]] 压壓)” means “pressing”, and “lì (power; strength; force [→ [ability]] | forcefully 力)” means “force”. So, “yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力)” here effectively means “pressure”, and thus “tóngbèi (tóng·bèi (from people of the) same · generation → [peer] 同辈同輩) yālì (yā·lì pressing · force → [pressure] 压力壓力)” effectively means “peer pressure”.

As mentioned in the MEotW post on “shǔlíng (shǔ·líng {(in the) category (of)} · spirit → [spiritual (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “shǔlíng” to “xīnlíng”, etc.)] 属灵屬靈) zhànzhēng (zhàn·zhēng war · contending → [war; warfare] 战争戰爭)”, Satan and his underlings undoubtedly continue to view peer pressure as a highly effective spiritual weapon of mass destruction for them.

Should We Fear the Dead?

What do dead people have to do with peer pressure? As ones educated in Bible truth, we know that the dead are not conscious, so they can no longer affect those of us who are living, right? (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10) Well, they can if we let them, as illuminated by this English saying:

Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people.

Yes, while many may assume that peer pressure is mainly just a problem that affects young people who have not yet come into their own as individuals with their own minds and hearts, the truth is that people of all ages who follow traditions handed down from those who came before us are going along with peer pressure from these dead people—they all did x so we also do x. Sometimes, such following of tradition can be good, just as some peer pressure can be positive. However, just as peer pressure to smoke, to take drugs, to engage in nationalistic, immoral, or false religious practices, etc. is bad, some traditions can be bad too.

Peer Pressure and Chinese Characters

Since Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used writing system, lots and lots of tradition has accumulated around them, that is, lots and lots of peer pressure from lots and lots of dead people. However, even with this exceptional weight of tradition, is there any more reason to go along with the traditions associated with characters than there is to go along with any other traditions or peer pressure from imperfect humans in Satan’s world? No! For example, the exceptional weight of tradition involving Christmas, so beloved and celebrated by so many for so long, does not make it any less problematic for God’s true people.

汉字 / 漢字? Pīnyīn?

Regarding characters and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), after decades of learning Mandarin for the Mandarin field and several years of research into how first principles of linguistics apply to such learning, the advice I now give is: Use the simple, elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) system when you can, and just use the unnecessarily extraordinarily complex characters when you have to.

That advice may be contrary to the traditional consensus of thousands of years’ worth of dead people, as well as that of most living people, but as Jesus taught us, the wide road can lead to a bad place, and the narrow road can be the one that leads to a good place. To walk such a narrow road when most are on the corresponding wide road, we need to overcome peer pressure, whether it comes from the living or it comes from the dead in the form of tradition.—Matthew 7:13, 14.

piānjiàn (piān·jiàn {inclined; slanting; leaning → [partial; prejudiced]} · seeing → [prejudice; bias] 偏见 偏見) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”