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zhǐyǐn

zhǐyǐn (zhǐ·yǐn {(pointing with) finger → [pointing]} · guiding; leading 指引) 👈🏼 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.]

Recently, I came across a video entitled “Margarita Königer: Glad I Chose This Career”. (This Watchtower article briefly discusses Sis. Königer’s experience coming into the truth, and her service up to about 1995. The video, which has a copyright date of 2016, is more up to date.)

Because of what I have seen and experienced in the Mandarin field for over three decades, what Sis. Königer said starting at about the 5:10 mark of the video really resonates with me:

English:

If you are in the full-time service, I think it’s like you are travelling and Jehovah is directing you.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 📘 Wǒmen (Wǒ·men we · [pl] 我们 我們) tóurù (tóu·rù {(if) throw} · {to enter} → [(if) participate in] 投入) quánshí (quán·shí full-·time 全时 全時) fúwù (fú·wù serving · {devoting (of oneself)} → [service] 服务 服務), jiù (then 就) hǎoxiàng (hǎo·xiàng (it) {well → [very much]} · {is like} 好像/象) shì ({(it) is (that)} 是) nǐ (you 你) zài ({are in} → [are now] 在) lǚxíng (travelling 旅行), ér (and 而) Yēhéhuá (Jehovah 耶和华 耶和華) yìzhí (yì·zhí one · {being straight} → [all the while] 一直) zhǐyǐn (zhǐ·yǐn {(is pointing with) finger → [is pointing]} · {is guiding} 指引) nǐ de ((nǐ you 你) (de ’s 的) → [your]) fāngxiàng (fāng·xiàng direction · {to be faced} 方向).

As can be seen above, this week’s MEotW, “zhǐyǐn (zhǐ·yǐn {(pointing with) finger → [pointing]} · guiding; leading 指引)”, is used in the Mandarin version of the above-mentioned video to correspond to the English word “directing”.

I have often felt like a fly on the wall observing Jehovah’s hand at work in the establishment and development of several Mandarin groups and congregations in my local area, and I have also seen much evidence that Jehovah has been directing things in the worldwide Mandarin field.

Photocopies and Handwriting

Specifically with regard to the development of material based on the organization’s official Chinese publications, but that includes Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) or Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn {Annotating of} · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音) to help Mandarin field language learners get past the imposing Great Wall of Chinese characters, I saw how things started in the 1980s or 1990s. Somewhere around that time, Chinese congregation elders on the West Coast of North America began directing teams of publishers who would make enlarged photocopies of official Chinese publications, painstakingly handwrite Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) or Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn {Annotating of} · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音) ruby text between the lines of characters, and then make photocopies of these handwritten “originals” and distribute them to hungry Mandarin field language learners at their meetings and via snail mail, etc. (In those days, many of the publishers involved were from Taiwan, where they were taught Zhùyīn (Zhù·yīn {Annotating of} · Sounds → [Zhuyin] 注音 註/注音) in school.)

Photocopied and handwritten _Pīnyīn_ material from 1997, based on the book _The Secret of Family Happiness_

Photocopied and handwritten Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) material from 1997, based on the book The Secret of Family Happiness

PCs, Email, and Printers

A few years afterwards, in the early 2000s, I was serving where the need was great in the burgeoning Mandarin field in Calgary, where I was assigned by an unusually pragmatic and open-minded Chinese elder to develop similar material for the local Mandarin field language learners—the brothers in Calgary at the time felt far from the West Coast, and had decided that they would be more comfortable with a local supply of such material.

Starting with a “clean sheet of paper” and using the personal computer technology that had become available and reasonably inexpensive at the time, I designed and started producing what was evidently the first material of the kind that eventually came to be commonly known as 3-line material. When the above-mentioned elder suggested adding English to the material that had up to this point only contained characters and Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), I balked at first—it was already going to be so much work just to enter the characters and add the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)! However, I decided to make some prototype material that included English, and when one of the local brothers who was learning Mandarin saw a printout of it, his eyes seemed to pop out of his head, and he practically grabbed the printout out of may hands to get a closer look at it! That helped me to decide that the additional time and work needed for me to add the English translations would be a worthwhile investment that would greatly benefit the multiple people who would use the material.

Whereas the photocopied material mentioned above that was produced starting in the 1980s or 1990s was produced and distributed entirely in the paper realm, this new material was produced in the digital realm in word processing programs, and distributed as digital files (albeit ones still meant to be printed out on paper). Thus, I was able to email the files to whoever asked for them, after I emailed a few acquaintances I had in the nearby Canadian and American Mandarin fields about them.

A screenshot of early 3-line PDF material from 2001, based on the book _Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?_

A screenshot of early 3-line PDF material from 2001, based on the book Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?

And boy, did people start asking for them! Amazingly, people in the Mandarin field in began telling their friends and fellow workers about the files, and I began to get emails from all around the world—from every continent except Antarctica—requesting them. I remember getting a bit emotional after getting an email from the UK requesting the files and telling me about the growing Chinese fields there—it felt like finding out about a part of your family that before, you had no idea existed. I also remember feeling amazed and doing a double-take after seeing that I had gotten an email from someone in the Chinese group in Budapest, Hungary, where, by the way, it turns out that the Sis. Königer mentioned above served for a long time.

For those who weren’t around then, let me provide a bit more background information about the situation in the worldwide Mandarin field at the time, to help put this enthusiastic worldwide response in perspective. At the time, jw.org was still many years away from coming online and becoming a place on the web where one could just go and view or download abundant material based on official publications and containing Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音). This was also before the iPhone came out in 2007, Android was introduced in 2008, and the iPad came out in 2010. What many people in the Mandarin field did have at that time, though, were personal computers (PCs and Macs), email, printers, and an organizationally existentially urgent situation caused by the frustratingly complex and difficult-to-learn-and-remember Chinese characters, which can take years, even decades, for a language learner to get functionally proficient with.

Pinyin Material or Bust

Many of the Mandarin pregroups, groups, and congregations around the world at that time were quite new, with zero or very few publishers who were native Mandarin-speakers, and thus zero or very few people, especially brothers, who could function in the Mandarin field with publications that contained only Chinese characters. So, they really, really needed material like that early 3-line material. Especially for many Mandarin pregroups and groups around the world at that time, getting the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing material or not literally meant the difference between being able to conduct their Mandarin meetings or not being able to do so.

And so, email requests came pouring in from around the world for the early 3-line unofficial material that I was producing in my little rented basement suite in a territory far from the home where I grew up, with only a few occasional helpers. That was a hard time to go through—the material, while no longer having to be painstakingly handwritten, still took a lot of time and effort to produce, week after week, and many of those around me did not understand or appreciate this highly unusual, pressure-filled, high-stakes situation that I found myself in. During that time, I learned and lived the Mandarin saying “qí ({(if one) rides} 骑 騎)‐hǔ (tiger 虎)‐nán ({(it) is difficult} 难 難)‐xià ({to get down} 下)”. However, like Sis. Königer said, ultimately I could feel Jehovah directing things and helping me through it all.

3lines.org and Official Pinyin Resources

After about two and a half years in Calgary, difficulty in finding secular work caused me to move back to the city I grew up in, where, on reflection, the project in Calgary that produced that early 3-line material would probably never have gotten going, due to the relatively complacent acceptance of the status quo among the local relatively well-established Mandarin congregations. Eventually, I was invited to work with the international team of publishers that created and ran the 3lines.org website, and who began producing 3-line material on an industrial scale.

Meanwhile, on the official side of things, the organization eventually started to produce official printed versions of a few selected publications that contained Simplified Chinese characters with Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) ruby text. (I suppose the official team[s] involved decided that it was not worthwhile to include English translations, due to the tremendous extra ongoing investments in time, effort, and contributed funds that would be required to produce them on an ongoing basis to the quality level required of official material, which after all is primarily spiritual food, not language-learning material.)

Being printed on paper, though, these official Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) publications had to be physically printed and trucked/moved by rail/flown/literally shipped/etc. to the various Mandarin pregroups, groups, and congregations around the world that needed them. Generally these shipments would arrive in time for them to be used at the meetings in which they were scheduled to be used, but unfortunately, in spite of the best efforts of those involved, sometimes they would not—that was just the challenging nature at the time of producing and distributing paper publications on an ongoing tight schedule.

Over time, the organization got better at producing and delivering paper Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) publications on time, and it also eventually began to make digital versions of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing material widely available for download. These developments, along with the massive efforts of others on the 3lines.org team, helped a lot, although there continued to be a lot of work for me to do in this regard as well.

Mobile Devices, the Web, and Linguistics

In the early-2010s, with the post-PC mobile revolution in full swing after the iPad was introduced and became “the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product” ever, I found myself working on my iPhone/iPad app Pinyin Typist, and doing deep research on Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音), Chinese characters, and writing systems and linguistics in general. After all that I had gone through trying to learn characters and helping others to deal with the difficulties caused by characters, when I figured out from my research that actually, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) is a good, workable writing system on its own for Mandarin and that characters are thus not a technical necessity, but rather, just an unusually deeply rooted cultural tradition, that was a mind-blowing moment for me.

To share the potentially game-changing things I had learned with my fellow Mandarin field language learners, I eventually wrote and posted articles including “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Was Plan A”, which it seems many in the Mandarin field have read and benefitted from. Also, I eventually took the learnings from my experience in the Mandarin field and from my research into linguistics and into web and mobile technologies and began producing Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus material, a new generation of mobile-first, speech-first material for helping Mandarin field language learners deal with the Chinese characters they encounter in their ministry.

After a few years, in the late 2010s, as the official Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing resources became established, the unofficial team of publishers running 3lines.org was directed by the organization to fundamentally change their unofficial operation, resulting in that website scaling down drastically. However, even though I know the organization is aware of my activities—outside of 3lines.org—producing materials for Mandarin field language learners, I have not received any similar direction from it. So, I have continued doing what I can to provide resources for Mandarin field language learners, including several Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Plus resources (with deeply researched and extensive disclaimers about them not being spiritual food, but rather, Mandarin field language-learning resources) and this MEotW blog that you are now reading.

“It’s Like You Are Travelling and Jehovah Is Directing You”

Looking back now in 2025, it is evident that in spite of temporarily limited technology and the ongoing traditional cultural inertia and disdainful dismissiveness of those brainwashed by a world that glamourizes and practically idolizes Chinese characters, abundant official (and unofficial) Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)-containing resources have become widely and easily available to Mandarin field language learners around the world. These precious resources help them to be able to powerfully and effectively glorify Jehovah and save lives in the vast worldwide Mandarin field without being egregiously obstructed by burdensome unnecessary difficulties imposed by human tradition.

Interestingly, in this regard, in the above-mentioned video (© 2016), starting at about the 4:35 mark, while describing her experience in the Mandarin field in Budapest, Hungary, Sis. Königer can be seen using one of the old bulky but beloved printed Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) New World Translation Bibles:

Screenshot showing part of a _Pīnyīn_ NWT Bible used by Sis. Margarita Königer

Screenshot of Sis. Margarita Königer using a _Pīnyīn_ NWT Bible

Also, starting at about the 4:43 mark, she and others can be seen using the old printed Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Sing to Jehovah songbook, which included musical notation:

Screenshot of Sis. Margarita Königer and others using _Pīnyīn_ _Sing to Jehovah_ songbooks with musical notation

Yes, in view of what I have witnessed and experienced in the Mandarin field, I heartily agree with Sis. Königer’s conclusion that she states starting at about the above video’s 5:10 mark, that ultimately, Jehovah directs the work of his faithful servants:

If you are in the full-time service, I think it’s like you are travelling and Jehovah is directing you. So I don’t worry. The responsibility is with Jehovah. I mean, we have to be faithful. That is our responsibility. But, what is happening is: Jehovah knows what he lets happen. It’s OK. And I hope everybody who is young, they will do the same because they will miss something, because it’s very satisfying. And working with Jehovah, you cannot compare it to anything else.

Categories
Culture Current Events Experiences History Language Learning Science Technology

zìmǎn

zìmǎn (zì·mǎn self · {full → [satisfied]} → [complacent; self-satisfied; smug] 自满 自滿) 👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

As a Chinese person who grew up in a Western country, and who came to serve in Chinese language fields, I sometimes pondered a question that I eventually learned is called the Needham Question:

“Needham’s Grand Question”, also known as “The Needham Question”, is this: why had China been overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite their earlier successes? In Needham’s words,

“Why did modern science, the mathematization of hypotheses about Nature, with all its implications for advanced technology, take its meteoric rise only in the West at the time of Galileo?”, and why it “had not developed in Chinese civilization” which, in the previous many centuries “was much more efficient than occidental in applying” natural knowledge to practical needs.[source][source]

Indeed, China long ago gave us the Four Great Inventions (the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing), so why did it stop inventing such great things, and leave it to the West to invent digital computers, go to the moon first, etc.?

The Wikipedia page linked to above, and also this page that I found on the web, mention many possible factors that scholars have proposed relating to the Needham Question. It may be said that since this question focuses on scientific and technological progress in the context of human political and cultural systems, it is not quite the number one question that we Mandarin field language learners need to be concerned with. However, gaining some understanding of factors relating to this question can help us develop a balanced view of how and how much we should allow traditional Chinese political and cultural views to influence how we apply science and technology to our God-honouring and life-saving work in the Mandarin field. At the very least, the very fact that many have pondered the Needham Question over the years demonstrates that no, worldly Chinese culture is not so perfect and accomplished that we should just unquestioningly adopt worldly Chinese ways of doing things in the Mandarin field.

While the web pages linked to above discuss many sociological, cultural, technical, etc. factors that may have played a role in how China developed, or failed to develop, scientifically and technologically compared to the West, going over this information brought to mind some principles mentioned in the Bible.

“By Their Fruits”

Regarding what really matters in our lives and in our work, Jesus said this at Matthew 7:16–18:

By their fruits you will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? Likewise, every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit. A good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce fine fruit.

I remember in years past seeing ads for job openings that required candidates to be “results-oriented”. When I saw such ads, I would wonder, “Why bother saying that? Isn’t every worker of course supposed to be results-oriented?” It turns out that actually, many people are more focused on appearing to be working, on procedures, on climbing the corporate ladder, on office politics, etc., than on actually doing the work and getting results.

What Jesus said in the above-quoted scripture emphasizes to us that in our lives and in our work as his disciples, we should be focused on producing “fine fruit”, getting good results for Jehovah, not just on unthinkingly following whatever traditions or procedures we inherited from the worldly human culture we grew up with. Also, we should not be focused on appearing to others who also grew up with such traditions, procedures, and ways of doing things that we are following them, so as to get “glory from men”.—John 5:39–44.

“Pride Is Before a Crash”

As someone who has studied and worked with technology for decades, one thing I have observed regarding the march of changing computing technologies—e.g., impressive IBM mainframes being eclipsed by “toy” personal computers running Microsoft and Apple operating systems, Microsoft’s then-CEO ridiculing the iPhone when it came out, Microsoft prioritizing its Windows legacy and becoming largely irrelevant in the mobile and tablet spaces, etc.—is that the Bible principle at Proverbs 16:18 holds true:

Pride is before a crash,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

This basic factor of the progress-limiting effects of being proud and self-satisfied is well expressed in this week’s MEotW, “zìmǎn (zì·mǎn self · {full → [satisfied]} → [complacent; self-satisfied; smug] 自满 自滿)”. As is often discussed on this blog, in the Mandarin field, one area in which progress-limiting pride and self-satisfaction play huge roles is the attitude of many towards the archaic, cumbersome human-invented technology that is the Chinese characters. And yes, a writing system like the Chinese characters is indeed a technology:

[Writing] really is a technology. It’s a thing you do on top of language to do stuff with language, but it’s not the language itself. There are thousands and possibly millions of languages that have never been written down in the history of humanity. We have no idea. We’ve never met a society of humans, or heard of a society of humans, without language. But those are spoken and signed languages, which are just kind of there. Writing, by contrast, was invented somewhere between 3 and 4 times in the history of humanity.

Since writing systems like the Chinese characters are technologies, we should expect writing systems to change and progress like other technologies do, no matter how proud and self-satisfied some people are when it comes to traditional, long-established writing systems like the Chinese characters.

If we generally no longer use punched cards to control computers because we now have keyboards, mice, trackpads, touchscreens, etc., then why use the archaic Chinese characters when the more modern simple and elegant Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) system is available? Is “‘everyone’ still uses Chinese characters” really a good reason? What if “everyone” still used punched cards? What would you do, as someone who knows about way better and easier-to-use alternatives?

Punched card used to load software into an old mainframe computer

Creative Commons Attribution License logo BinaryApe [source]

Chinese characters are the punched cards of writing systems. Punched cards were not totally impossible to use, but there are now much better and easier-to-use ways to control computers.

Of course, in situations in which we need to share information with people who still use computers controlled by punched cards, we would probably need to use punched cards, but how about other situations? Similarly, when producing publications for or writing to people who only read Chinese characters, we need to use Chinese characters, but how about other situations? For example, we Mandarin field language learners usually read and write Mandarin so that we ourselves can be helped to say something good in Mandarin at the right time. Can we make advantageous use of Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) in such situations?

Avoid Unbalanced Admiration

Both Western and Eastern human worldly cultures have their strong points and successes, but they also both have their problematic aspects and failures. So, we should not oversimplify things and jump to the conclusion that either culture is all good or all bad. I myself have found it advantageous to have had the opportunity to be exposed to both Western and Eastern ways of doing things, and to be able to select useful aspects of both to apply in my own life and work. Yes, balanced appreciation of the possibly useful differences between East and West can be beneficial. However, especially since we have the privilege of being taught by Jehovah himself, we need to avoid unbalanced admiration of either Eastern or Western worldly human cultures. (Isaiah 54:13; John 6:45; 1 Corinthians 1:18–31) We Mandarin field language learners particularly need to avoid having what sinologist and linguist John DeFrancis called “Exotic East Syndrome”:

The belief that in the Orient things strange and mysterious replace the mundane truths applicable to the West.

Yes, spiritual and scientific truths remain true for China and Chinese people, such as the basic linguistic truth that speech is primary and writing is secondary.

Commendably, many Chinese individuals have shown themselves to be humble lovers of truth. Unfortunately, though, as I have studied the worldly Chinese culture, I have found that it is in many ways a proud, self-satisfied culture, as described by this week’s MEotW. As has been discussed before on this blog, China is the only nation that routinely calls itself the “Central Nation (Zhōngguó (Zhōng·guó Central · Nation → [China | Chinese] 中国 中國))”. Also, the whole concept of “losing/saving face” is based on the worldly Chinese concept of miànzi (miàn·zi face · [suf for nouns] [→ [reputation; prestige; esteem; honor]] 面子).

As for the worldly Chinese/Eastern cultural practice that “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, this really shows pride and self-satisfaction on a systemic or cultural level—while enforcing humility (humiliation?) among individuals, it shows that there is a proud and self-satisfied assumption that the system or culture overall is so good already that it is above being improved upon by “mere” individuals. Really, though, the only One who has demonstrated that he is truly at that level is Jehovah God himself, and the Bible shows that still, he is willing to invite individuals to provide their ideas and input, and to empower them to follow through on them. (1 Kings 22:19–23) Unlike many proud, self-satisfied humans and their systems and cultures, Jehovah has shown that he does not suffer from “not invented here” syndrome, the zìmǎn (zì·mǎn self · {full → [satisfied]} → [self-satisfied] 自满 自滿) belief that only he could possibly have a good idea or make or do something useful. This is so even though he himself is the Almighty Creator of the whole universe.

“Throw Off Every Weight”

Regarding the Needham Question, another Bible scripture that comes to mind for me is Hebrews 12:1, which says, in part:

Let us also throw off every weight…, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

As is widely known, Chinese characters are a huge part of worldly Chinese culture, and with their inhuman number and complexity, they are also abnormally difficult for us imperfect humans to learn and remember. So, naturally, some wonder if Chinese characters have had the effect of weighing China down, or holding China back. In fact, as my article “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Was Plan A” says:

Concerning the obstacles presented by Chinese characters, the great Chinese writer Lǔ Xùn, who passed away in 1936, reportedly said, “Hànzì bú miè, Zhōngguó bì wáng.” (“汉字不灭，中国必亡。/ 漢字不滅，中國必亡。” “If Chinese characters are not abolished, China will certainly die.”)

Of course, since the time of Lǔ Xùn ((Lǔ {Stupid; Rash (surname)} 鲁 魯) (Xùn Fast; Quick; Swift 迅) (pen name of Zhōu Shùrén, the greatest Chinese writer of the 20th cent. and a strong advocate of alphabetic writing)), China has not died, but has instead gone on to much worldly success, so at least so far, it seems that Chinese characters are not quite fatal to China. However, even a rudimentary technical analysis, along with real-world phenomema like tíbǐ (tí·bǐ {carry (hanging down from the hand) → [raise; lift]} · pen; pencil; {writing brush} [→ [start writing; write]] 提笔 提筆)‐wàng (forget 忘)‐zì (character 字) (character amnesia), makes it obvious that the extraordinary unnecessary complexities and vagaries of Chinese characters impose great costs and difficulties on those using them—who knows, if China had long ago moved on from the characters to use alphabetic writing, maybe it could have gotten to the moon first. True, some athletes purposely train while wearing additional weights, but the way traditional Chinese culture insists on pervasive use of the unnecessarily extraordinarily complex characters, it’s like requiring those athletes to actually run marathons, etc., for real while wearing heavy unnecessary weights.

In the Mandarin field, it seems quite possible that the unnecessary costs and difficulties imposed by characters could actually be fatal in some cases, barring extraordinary intervention from Jehovah God. As the article “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Was Plan A” goes on to say:

True, with the simplification of the characters, the assistance of Pīnyīn, and the extra hard work put forth by the Chinese people to “tough out” the extra technical burdens presented by the characters, it now seems unlikely from a worldly viewpoint that the use of characters will cause the nation of China to die (although we know it will die at Armageddon, and its culture’s influence will eventually fade away completely after that). However, how sad it would be if many Chinese people died unnecessarily because the ongoing obstacles presented by Chinese characters hindered our efforts to reach their hearts with the life-saving message from God’s Word.

So, as Hebrews 12:1 says, let us Mandarin field language learners “throw off every weight”, and whenever possible, not allow the unnecessary heavy cultural baggage of the Chinese characters to weigh us down in our vital God-honouring and life-saving work. Even if Jehovah makes special arrangements to make sure that none of his Chinese sheep ultimately get left behind, what will he think of us if we fail to make every reasonable effort to avoid unnecessary difficulties as we do this life-saving work that he has assigned to us?—Ezekiel 3:17–19.

Categories
Culture Experiences History Technology

shūfǎ

shūfǎ (shū·fǎ writing · methods; ways → [calligraphy; penmanship] 书法 書法) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Many know “shū (write | writing [→ [book | letter | document | style of calligraphy; script]] 书 書)” as the Mandarin word for “book”, but it actually has an old meaning of “write”. From “write” is derived “writing”, and from that, it’s easy to see how “shū (write | writing [→ [book | letter | document | style of calligraphy; script]] 书 書)” has come to have its modern meanings of “book”, “letter”, and “document”. For example, “shūxiě (shū·xiě write | writing 书写 書寫)” means “write” or “writing”, “Yǐsàiyàshū (Yǐsàiyà·shū Isaiah · {Writing → [Book]} 以赛亚书 以賽亞書)” is the Book of Isaiah, and a “qíngshū (qíng·shū {feelings; affection; emotion → [love]} · {writing → [letter]} 情书 情書)” is a love letter. Yet another effective meaning of “shū (write | writing [→ [book | letter | document | style of calligraphy; script]] 书 書)”, that can be derived from its meaning of “writing”, is “style of calligraphy”, or “script”.

The “fǎ (law | method; way; mode | standard; model | {magic arts} | {follow; model after} 法)” in “fāngfǎ (fāng·fǎ direction · method 方法)” can mean “methods; ways”, and when it’s combined with “shū (write | writing [→ [book | letter | document | style of calligraphy; script]] 书 書)”, we get this week’s MEotW, “shūfǎ (shū·fǎ writing · methods; ways → [calligraphy; penmanship] 书法 書法)”. This expression literally means “writing methods/ways”, and it is used to effectively mean “calligraphy”.

Eastern and Western Calligraphy

Calligraphy that involves the artistic writing of Chinese characters, as practised in Asian cultures, is well-known and highly esteemed. However, does calligraphy only exist in Asian cultures? Are beauty, artistry, and craftsmanship the exclusive province of Chinese characters? Is Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) only able to be cold, efficient, and artless, since it lacks the arguably self-indulgently complex visual designs of Chinese characters? No, no, and no! The fact is that there is a long history—and yes, tradition—of calligraphy involving the Latin alphabet, the alphabet that was deliberately chosen for Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) by the Chinese team that developed it.

This reminds us that while the Latin alphabet used by Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) may have originated outside of China, its adoption for use in Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) for writing Mandarin Chinese makes it part of Chinese culture. As the article “Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) Is a Good, Workable Writing System on Its Own” puts it:

While Pīnyīn uses the Latin alphabet, it does so because the Chinese developers of Pīnyīn of their own free will purposely chose to base it on this international alphabet (it’s not just the English alphabet) so that users of Pīnyīn would benefit from its familiarity. This Chinese design decision has caused the international Latin alphabet to be adopted as part of Chinese culture. As Zhōu Ēnlái (the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China) said, ‘When we adopt the Latin alphabet, in which we make necessary adjustments to suit the needs of the Chinese language, it becomes the phonetic alphabet of our language and is no longer the alphabet of ancient Latin, still less the alphabet of any foreign country.’

So, since Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) has both Eastern and Western aspects, Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) calligraphy would be both Eastern and Western calligraphy.

Calligraphy and Computer Fonts

In the modern world of computing, handwritten calligraphy has been augmented by computer fonts, which enable the billions of users of desktop and laptop computers and mobile devices to enjoy and benefit from the work of artists and designers who work with text and typography.

Incidentally, some of you may have noticed that there are way fewer fonts available for Chinese characters, compared to the overflowing cornucopia of fonts available for the Latin alphabet. This is undoubtedly yet another negative consequence of the simple fact that there are literally thousands of characters in common use that would have to be supported by any font for Chinese characters that’s intended to be usable in daily life, never mind the tens of thousands of Chinese characters that exist in total.

An interesting thing that some may not know is that calligraphy influenced the development of modern computer font design and technology. Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, maker of the iPhone, the iPad, the Macintosh personal computer, etc., said the following in the Stanford Commencement address that he gave in 2005:

Much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Time-Lapse Videos of Calligraphed MEotWs

Another way in which modern computing has augmented handwritten calligraphy is by supplying new tools for this ancient craft. A while ago, I acquired the app Procreate for my iPad, and more recently, I also bought an Apple Pencil on sale. As time allows, I hope to be able to put my old hobby of calligraphy to use, and use Procreate to create time-lapse videos, like the one near the beginning of this post, of certain MEotWs being hand-calligraphed. Hopefully these amateur efforts of mine will add a little artistry and craftsmanship for readers of this blog to enjoy.

The Truly Precious Things of All the Nations

The calligraphy produced of Chinese characters is a major aspect of what some fear would be lost if the hypothetical total replacement of characters with something as “mundane” as an alphabet were ever to take place. However, first of all, with how proud and stubborn worldly Chinese people are when it comes to their precious characters, there is little likelihood of that actually happening in the little time that this old system has left. (There’s probably just about as much likelihood that all the Catholics or all the Buddhists will come into the truth before the end comes!) As the MEotW post on “Yànwén (Yàn·wén {Proverb (Korean: Vernacular)} · Writing → [Hangul/Hankul (modern Korean writing system)] 谚文 諺文)” (the modern Korean writing system) said:

If Hangul took hundreds of years to become the dominant writing system in Korea, even with the added nationalistic motivation of it having been invented in Korea to be used instead of the characters invented in China, then Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) could take even longer to become the dominant writing system for Mandarin, if it ever does, and if this old system were hypothetically allowed to last that long—the supporters of invented-in-China Chinese characters are even more proudly and stubbornly resistant to the idea of changing away from Chinese characters in China itself.

At this rate, the current government of China, as long as it lasts, will probably never explicitly officially approve of using Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) as a full writing system for Mandarin in China, even if it’s just as an alternative to the characters instead of as a total replacement for them. Even if it actually wanted to do so, even this government would hesitate to approve of something like this that would probably be opposed by many of the people of China. (As a historic comparison, in 1977, the PRC promulgated a second round of simplified Chinese characters, but this was rescinded in 1986 following widespread opposition.)

The existence of much calligraphy based on the Latin alphabet that is used by Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) and many other writing systems reminds us that art and beauty do exist apart from Chinese characters. As for the precious things of China and Chinese culture, while humans may point to Chinese characters and the calligraphy based on them, what is truly precious about China in Jehovah God’s eyes? This quote from the September 2021 issue of The Watchtower reveals the answer as it discusses Haggai 2:7–9:

He tells us that as a result of the shaking, “the precious things [honesthearted people] of all the nations will come” to worship Jehovah.

Yes, to Jehovah God, the truly precious things of China are the honesthearted people in it, not the cultural products of any part of this old world that is passing away.—1 John 2:15–17.

While culture can definitely influence the people that are exposed to it, ultimately, people don’t come from culture. Rather, culture comes from people. So, let us focus on helping to save honesthearted Chinese people, not on trying to save the old world’s Chinese culture. Then, we will be able to enjoy the beautiful cultural products that these people will produce for eternity, as they live forever in paradise in God’s new system. Those cultural products will greatly surpass anything ever produced by this old world’s Chinese culture in its relatively brief (compared to eternity) and troubled existence, as the Chinese people who are able to live in the new system join the rest of God’s universal family in being “taught by Jehovah”. (Isaiah 54:13) As Haggai 2:9 says, “the future glory…will be greater than the former”.