嫁 (Jià) and 娶 (qǔ)

It’s a spring time, as the rest of the world, is a time for natures renewal and love is in the air. It is also a popular season for getting married. This also makes me think of the different Chinese characters used for expressing marriage.

In Chinese, marriage is translated to 婚姻 (Hūn-yīn). Many Chinese people like to joke that someone wants to get married because they have 昏了 (Hūn le) ‘blacked out’. While learning more about these two characters 婚 and 姻, let’s take a close look at 嫁 (Jià) and 娶 (qǔ) first to see how they are used to express marriage.

From a female’s perspective, you would say “she 嫁 (Jià) 入 ‘enter’ 夫家 ‘husband’s home’”. But a male would say “我 (Wǒ) ‘I’ 娶 (qǔ) 老婆 or 妻子 ‘wife’”. Note, there is a 女 (Nǚ) ‘female/woman/girl/daughter’ radical on both characters: 嫁 and 娶, so what is the difference in between these two characters.

The character 嫁 is a combination of 女 (Nǚ) ‘female/daughter and 家 (Jiā) ‘home’, which means quite literally that the female moves to a new home. Her parents would say their daughter moved to a different home. Another way to express this event would use the character 女 (Nǚ) for ‘daughter and 取 (Qǔ) ‘get’ for the character 娶 to show that the husband’s home has received or gotten someone’s daughter. The parents of the husband would say “我 (Wǒ) 娶 (Qǔ)  媳婦 (Xífù) ‘daughter-in-law’”.

Many people knowledgeable of Chinese culture would tell you that marriage for Chinese emphasizes the interaction of two families. We will learn more about marriage in this context while interpreting `the characters 婚 and 姻.

Computer

Last time, I mentioned how people in China and Taiwan called a computer differently; 電子計算機 (Diàn-zǐ jì-suàn-jī) in China and 電腦 (Diàn-nǎo) in Taiwan. Let’s look at these interpretations more literately today.

The characters 電子 (Diàn-zǐ) mean ‘electronic’ and 計算機 (jì-suàn-jī) mean ‘calculator. So people in China call the computer an “electronic calculator”. 電 (Diàn) is also translated to “electricity’ but the character 腦 (nǎo) means ‘brain’. People in Taiwan refer to a computer as “electricity brain”.

With an event more nuanced look we see that people in China view the computer as an “electronic calculator”, when people in Taiwan hold in much higher admiration by describing it as a “super brain”. Why the difference in expression between two common cultures? One explanation could be simply because early on in the development of the computer Taiwanese people had a much greater exposure to science fiction, literature, and media. For example, see this work by a popular Hong-Kong author, 倪匡.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_Kuang

Use of Phrase in China and Taiwan

All cultures use phrases or colloquial language in everyday conversation. It is essential part of communication in countries through the world.

Sometimes, these nuances in language can play a significant part in understanding communication even within similar cultures. Since the relationship between China and Taiwan become more open over the last two decades, work, study, and travel occurs more freely between the two islands. In order to avoid the improper interpretation or understanding of common elements of the two societies, some people work hard to help people in China and Taiwan understanding the phrases and language used for describing common elements of their cultures.

For example: The cornstarch is called 生粉 (Shēng fěn) in China but 太白粉 (tài bái fěn)  in Taiwan. The clay that students play for their art class is called 橡皮泥 (Xiàng-pí ní) in China but 紙黏土 (zhǐ nián-tǔ) in Taiwan.

I have had a similar example from my interest of digital media and technology, I remember I would always try to note distinctions while saying computer, 電子計算機 (Diàn-zǐ jì-suàn-jī) in China but 電腦 (Diàn-nǎo) in Taiwan. There is certainly a different thinking using a literacy interpretation of the two description.

Recently, I’ve discovered these videos that are quite useful for understanding the differences and nuance cultures between China and Taiwan.

http://chinese-linguipedia.org/clk/media/chPage/1

甲骨文 (Oracle bone script)

Ancient Chinese characters found on 甲骨文 (Oracle bone script) were constructed from animal bones or turtle shells used as part of divination during the Bronze Age of China. The royal family used it to divine and chronicle their experiences.

The first record was dated by Anyang examples in 1200-1050 BCE.  

The oracle bone scripts of the late Shang dynasty constitute the earliest significant corpus of Chinese writing, which is essential for the study of Chinese etymology, as Shang writing is directly ancestral to the modern Chinese script.

Learning to identify Chinese characters

Simply, we can learn to identify the Chinese character based on their look and story. As a teacher, my favorite part is explaining how characters are created with syllables, tone, and varied combinations.

First, we need to use our imagination to understand the evolution of how the characters were created. This is a process called “Pictogram”. We can easily see the similarity of the character, 日, 月, 木, 水 , as they relate to the drawings depicting their meaning. Please view the image below.

Next, we can see the story each character created by combining together.

In English, we learn the language convention of Prefix and Suffixes. Similarly, Chinese has included a “radical” for each character. For example, there is usually the “radical” 手 for characters referring to people, 水 related to water, and 虫 used for insect references. Please view the image below as example.

In conclusion, there are 3 Basic concepts for identify Chinese characters.

1. Character: Pictures, stories, prefixes, suffixes, meaning, categories.
2. Syllable: Tones, sounds, initials.
3. Combination: root + story + sound

The meaning and relationship of ‘person’人(Rén), ‘big’ 大(dà), ‘sky’ 天(tiān), and ‘man/husband ‘夫(fu)

Chang-jei defined the elements associated with 人 is 大. Note there is no short line on the top of 人, indicating that human hold a greater place in human nature and can overcome the animal instincts. That was how Chang-jei created 人.

There is a short line on the top of 天 compared with 大, because sky covers everything.

人 does not  live like any animal, so 夫 has a long line across the 天. If 天 is not shown, it is imperfect and in error as a character.

Going further, there is a character 夭 (Yāo) that means 'death'. 人 holds the exceptional animal, man, to be 夫 in 天. If he is not, there is 夭. 人 is to live to fight with 天, 地 ‘ground’, and other 人.

Chang-jei held such logical thinking for each text and their relationship. We can also see Chang-jei carried human struggle and ambition, as philosophy, to dialect the enlightenment of human being.

Chinese character standard

When people commented on how difficult it is to learn to write the Chinese characters, I can’t deny it. Even the Children in Asia often make mistakes while learning to write characters. Then, as now, a teacher’s only advice is to tell students to practice more by re-writing each character 10 or 20 more times.

A significant difference between English and Chinese is that Chinese is not alphabetic, so the writing is not related to its phonetics. Chinese characters evolved into a text by the graphics, sound, and meaning from their varied combinations. The features of the Chinese characters are: mono, single body, and square structure.

While discussing the history of the Chinese characters, I like to use “creation” while some people refer to their history in terms of “origin”. I prefer to think it term of the characters having been “created” to show respect for ancient sages of innovative thinking. The Chinese characters are representative of the significant accomplishments and contributions of ancient Chinese philosophers. The characters are not the product of random activity, but are representative of disciplined intellectual thought and design.

The development of the Chinese character evolved over three periods: First, by “Chang-jei” in Huang-di period, 2698-2598 BC; Second, with the first emperor of Qin dynasty who unified the text, 221-206 BC, and lastly, the contemporary writing system currently used by and taught to Chinese people.

It is generally accepted that Chang-jei created text, which is a founding point of the Chinese character, and, the origin of the Chinese characters in the history. Chang-jei advanced the interpretation and definition of the “text”, which is the standard of the Chinese characters. The character that do not follow the CJ standard cannot be called a Chinese character.

The Chinese character is a complex system, but formulated and unified by logical thought. For example, learning the character for ‘person’人(Rén), ‘big’ 大(dà), ‘sky’ 天(tiān), and ‘man/husband ‘夫(fu), we can further understand their meaning based on shape, combination, and relationship.

Chang-jei created text is the origin of Chinese language coordination. Again, the character that does not followed the CJ standard is not to be recognized as Chinese character. Because the CJ standard is more than just a symbol, it represents the development, evolution, and the unique history of China. When the emperor of Qin dynasty, Qin-Shi-Huang, unified the Chinese characters, he distinguished the event, time, space, and relationship of each character to reveal the CJ standard. This was a more significant event in Chinese history.