Fifty ways to prove (III) (Chop suey)

Unlike English, which separates words with a space, there is no any space between Chinese characters. Before the use of the modern punctuation, students had to learn to punctuate the Chinese classics, which were not punctuated, using a circle to mark the end of a sentence 句(ju4)and a comma or a dot, to mark the pause 讀(here the word is pronounced dou4, but not the usual du2).

The study of how to punctuate the classics is called句讀學(ju4 dou4 xue2). Different punctuations can lead to totally different interpretations of the same sentence. A well-known case goes as follow.

It’s been said that a prestigious scholar once visited a friend and stayed there for over a month. The host was impatient with the scholar but didn’t know what to say to ask him to leave. On a raining day, the host wrote on the wall, 下雨天留客天留我不留 (xia4 yu3 tian lie2 ke4 tian lie2 wo3 bu4 lie2)

What the host meant was下雨¹，天留客²。天留³，我不留⁴。It’s raining¹. It’s god’s intention to keep the guest². God wants to keep you³, but I don’t⁴.

The naughty scholar grabbed a brush pen and punctuated the sentence as「下雨天，留客天¹，留我不? ²留! ³」A raining day is a day to keep the guest¹. Will you keep me? ² Yes! ³

 

This punctuation game goes on and on. Here I list some other interpretations aside from the above two.

 

3. 下雨天留客，天留我？不留。 The host tries to keep the guest on a raining day. The guest asks himself, “Is it God’s intention to ask me to stay?” But he decides not to stay.

4. 下雨天留客，天留我不？留。 The host tries to keep the guest on a raining day. The guest asks himself, “Is it God’s intention to ask me to stay?” He decides to stay.

5. 下雨，天留客；天留我不留？ The fact that it’s raining seems to show  God’s intention to keep the guest. But the guest is wondering what God’s real intention is.

 

6. 下雨天，留客天，留我不留？ A raining day is a day to keep the guest.  The guest’s asking himself, “Will the guest ask me to stay?”

The list doesn’t stop here. But I think it’s enough to make my point. Some people say that the Chinese language is not a precise language. Well, seeing from this point, you might get this conclusion. With the use of modern punctuation, such ambiguity as shown could be avoided. There’s no denying that it is never an easy language to learn. But there’s a lot of fun and beauty if you get the hang of it.

句讀學=句读学

Fifty ways to prove (II) (Chop suey)

Another headache for the Mandarin learners would be the 四聲(si4 sheng), Four Tones. I’ve seen how foreigners struggling strenuously trying to pronounce the right tone. The combination of the same vowel and consonant but with different tone will make another word. A confusion of the tones might lead to a big misunderstanding.

For example, rain,雨(yu3), becomes fish,魚(yu2). Someone ordered a 轎子(jiao4 zhi), litter vehicle, instead of 餃子(jiao3 zhi), dumpling, at a Chinese restaurant. When receiving a compliment, we sometimes show our modesty by saying過獎(guo4 jiang3), literally meaning you’re over-praising me, or I’m flattered. But a mispronunciation of the tone could turn it into果醬(guo3 jiang4), jam. We’re often amused by this kind of mistakes.

Not to mention that we have so many homophones, which has been a basic element for jokes and play of words such as puns. These days 聖人(sheng4 ren2), saint, is often interpreted as 剩人(sheng4 ren2), the one left over; 賢人(xian2 ren2), sage as 閒人(xian2 ren2), idle man. 玉女(yu4 nu3), Pretty and pure girls like Meg Ryan, could turn to 慾女(yu4 nu3), girl of lust.

趙元任(zhao4 yuan2 ren4) (1892-1982), a Chinese American linguist, once composed a 92-character constrained writing in classical Chinese, all with the shi sound in different tones when read in Mandarin. This is the renowned The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den, 施氏食獅史(shi shi4 shi2 shi shi3)

《施氏食獅史》  

石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。

shi2 shi4 shi shi4 shi shi4// shi4 shi// shi 4 shi2 shi2 shi//

There lives in a stone den a poet with the surname shi, who loves to eat lions and resolves to eat ten of them.

施氏時時適市視獅。

shi shi4 shi2 shi2 shi4 shi4 shi4 shi

He often goes to the market in search of lions.

十時，適十獅適市。是時，適施氏適市。

shi2 shi2// shi4 shi2 shi shi4 shi4// shi4 shi2// shi4 shi shi4 shi4 shi4//

One day at ten, ten lions were sent in when shi was in the market.

氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。

shi4 shi4 shi4 shi2 shi// shi4 shi3 shi4// shi3 shi4 shi2 shi shi4 shi4//

Seeing the ten lions, shi shot his arrows to kill them.

氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。

shi4 shi2 shi4 shi2 shi shi// shi4 shi2 shi4//

He picked up the corpses of the lions and brought them to the stone den.

石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。

shi2 shi4 shi// shi4 shi3 shi4 shi4 shi2 shi4//

The stone den was damp and Shi ordered his servant to wipe it.

石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。

shi2 shi4 shi4// shi4 shi 3 shi4 shi4 shi2 shi//

After the den was wiped clean, shi began to eat the lions.

食時，始識是十獅，實十石獅屍 。

shi2 shi2// shi3 shi4 shi4 shi2 shi// shi2 sh2i shi2 shi shi//

Not until Shi tasted the ten lions did they find out that they were the corpses of ten stone lions.

試釋是事。

shi4 shi4 shi4 shi4.

Please try to explain this incident.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Simplified

四聲=四声

魚=鱼

轎子=轿子

餃子=饺子

果醬=果酱

過獎=过奖

聖人=圣人

賢人=贤人

閒人=闲人

慾女=欲女

《施氏食狮史》赵元任

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸 。试释是事。

Fifty ways to prove (I) (chop suey)

“Why is English so difficult?” This is a question I often encounter at work. Whenever I start teaching a new class, I’ll do a little research in the first class by asking those who find English difficult or troubling raise their hands. Every time I get a full house of hands. No exceptions, at all.

To comfort them, I’ll sometimes “congratulate” them first for being able to use the most difficult language in the world—the Chinese; to be more specific, the more difficult Chinese--the traditional, but not the simplified. I’ll give examples of how foreigners I met had told me the difficulty they’d gone through in learning the Chinese language, especially the characters.

As to English, it is easier than languages such as French or German, so I told them. Though I speak neither of the languages, I’ll give examples showing that English is “easier” with my limited knowledge of these languages. For example, in French or German, every noun has its “gender” and has to go with the adjective of the same gender. And my only impression about German is the lengthy words. I wish I could give them examples of words with 12 or 15 letters to prove my statement.

Indeed the Chinese characters are hard to learn for those whose mother tongue is alphabetic language. When I went to elementary school, way prior to the computer age, the homework we had for the Chinese class was mainly copy the characters. We had to repeat writing a character for like 20, 30 times (or even 50, 100!). When parents wanted to know if the kids had done with their homework, they’ll ask “Have you finish ‘writing’ your homework?” We said “寫(xie3),” writing, homework instead of “做(zuo4),” doing homework because we did do a lot of writing, even with classes like mathematics.

Can you imagine how a typist worked prior to the computer age?

A Chinese typewriter looks like this:

chinesedigger.blogspot.com

You can see from the picture there is a plate about the size of A2, with about 2400 Chinese characters on it and four spare plates, each with 800 characters CA.  (http://www.smartinside.com.tw/else/memory2.html) The plate looks like this:

 http://jasonblog.tw/2009/06/memory-about-chinese-typewriter.html

You can tell the characters are left-right reversal.

To type, you have to remember the positions of the 2400 characters on the plate, which are arranged in the order of 部首(bu4 shou3), radicals. (MY!) You locate the word you’d like to type, clip the character, press the lever, and the character is raised by the clip and typed onto the paper with the ink paper. Unlike the English typewriter, you can type downward with a Chinese typewriter.

When encountering a rarely used word that is not included in the 2400 words on the plate, the typist has to pick out the character from one of the spare plates, put it onto the plate of the typewriter and type it. Looking from a bird’s view, you see a typewriter like this:

 blog.xuite.net

I remember being in a typing office hearing the regular clicking from the typewriter. It’s needless to say how I admired those typists.

There must be 50 ways to prove that English is “easier” than Chinese to my students. I confess that I sometimes encourage them by saying that they are smarter than users of the English language. Don’t slam me for saying that. That’s what a teacher does—inspiring students with white lies; which is also, funny to say, what students do to their teachers—telling them white lies such as how wise or good-looking they are, so that they won’t fail them.

I’ll go on showing you some interesting characteristics of the Chinese language that other languages don’t have.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

寫=写

Confucius, Microsoft and man (joke)

Quite a lot of jokes are about genitals and sex. And there’s no denying some of them are quite hilarious. A while ago I read such a joke online that combines Confucius’ self-description on different phases of his life with well-known brands of electrical appliances. It goes as follows:

男人：(man)

A.   二十(20)弱冠¹，起床²卻是「奔騰³」；

B.    三十(30)而立⁴，名符其實⁵的「日立⁶」；

C.   四十(40)不惑⁷，開始⁸「微軟⁹」；

D.   五十(50)知天命¹⁰，明白¹¹已是「松下¹²」；

E.    六十(60)耳順¹³，卻只能「聯想¹⁴」。

     

The former parts of these sentences are Confucius’ description on the phases of his life, with the number 20, 30…referring to the ages.

1.     弱冠(ruo4 guan4): 冠(guan) means hats. In ancient times when a male grew to the age of 20, a ceremony called 冠禮(guan4 li3) was held, where three different kinds of hats were put on him to mark his reaching the adulthood. 弱(ruo 4) usually means weak, but here it means young. So弱冠refers to men of 20 years old. Here Confucius told us that he had the冠禮 ceremony when he was twenty.

2.     起床(qi3 chuang2): getting up from bed.

3.     奔騰(ben teng2): Pentium. 奔means to gallop, to run fast while 騰also means to gallop or to jump. 

A: When a man is 20, though called「弱」冠, his “that” is strong.

4.     三十(30)而立(san shi2 er2 li4): Confucius said that he got  independent as a man and won his status as a scholar at 30. But 立also means to “stand up,” to “rise.”

5.     名符其實(ming2 fu2 qi2 shi2): Veritable; worthy of the name.

6.     日立(ri4 li4): Hitachi. But the two words日立can also be interpreted as “to ‘rise’ every day.”     

B: When a man is thirty, he gets erection every day exactly like   what Confucius had said--三十(30)而立.

7.     四十(40)不惑(si4 shi2 gu4 huo4): Confucius said he no longer  got any confusion when he reached 40.

8.     開始(kai shi3): begin

9.     微軟(wui2 ruan3): Microsoft. But the two words also mean “slightly soft.”

C. At 40, a man no longer gets confused, but he begins to be  “slightly soft.”

10. 五十(50)知天命(wu3 shi2 zhi tian ming4): Confucius said at 50, he realized the law of nature and fate and follow it.

11. 明白(ming2 bai2): to realize; to perceive.

12. 松下(sun xia4): Panasonic; but the two words mean “under the pine.” Here the key lies in the word 下, down.

D.  At 50, a man realizes how the law of nature and fate is working and the facts that he is now a piece of Panasonic electrical appliance, "down."

13. 六十(60)耳順(er3 shun4): Confucius said at 60 he could tell at once if what others told him was right or wrong.

14. 聯想(lian2 xiang3): Lenovo. The two Chinese words mean to associate or imagine.

E. At 60, all a man can do is “imagine.”

No offense is meant here, gentlemen. At least you learn different ways to call different ages. I happened to learn in the process of my writing this a result of a research claiming that those who are in their 50s, 知天命之年(zhi tian ming4 zhi nian2), are the most content, even though they no longer奔騰or日立.  

I wonder if there’s such a joke on women.

PS: In fact, Confucius’ statement starts with 15 and ends with 70, both of which are not included in the joke. And though 20 years old is really called弱冠, Confucius’ statement does not include 20 years old.  Here I’d like to add the 15 and 70 as a complement.

吾十有五(15)而志於學: I’ve decided to dedicated myself to scholarship at 15.

七十(70)而從心所欲不踰矩: At 70, I can do whatever I want without violating any rules.

Simplified:  

二十弱冠，起床却是「奔腾」；
三十而立，名符其实的「日立」；
四十不惑，开始「微软」；
五十知天命，明白已是「松下」；
六十耳顺，却只能「联想」。

吾十有五而志於學=吾十有五而志于学

七十而從心所欲不踰矩=七十而从心所欲不踰矩

搶孤(chiang3 gu) (II) (custom)

   

When the contestants reach the top of the column, they have to move their body towards the edge of the above platform by their hands, and then turn their body onto the platform by hooking their legs to it. This is said to be the most dangerous stage of the game, where many contestants fall. Back to the old times, there was no security such as a security net. Such an activity was dangerous and could be fatal.

In fact, the activity was so dangerous that I read there had been a time the Qing Government banned it. I’ve been wondering why people back then would risk their lives just for a competitive ritual. But after reading a documentary on World War II in the past few days, I think I understand more.

At a time of war or great immigration and land cultivation, people are facing death every day. The only thing they can count on is their courage and stamina. Those who are stronger, braver, and more skillful survive. The搶孤ritual was a showcase for the strong and skillful. When it came to the deities and ghosts, people couldn’t be more serious.

Back to the competition. After the first contestant reaches the platform, the孤棚, he sweeps off the cakes and cookies the “ghosts” have “enjoyed” down the platform to feed the poor and hungry.

The game is not over yet. After reaching the platform, the contestants have to race climbing up the pyramid-shaped column to cut the rope and grab the flag, 順風旗. Only at the moment do we have a winner.

Besides 超渡亡靈(chao du4 wang2 ling2), to release souls from purgatory, 搶孤is also meant as charity to benefit the poor. There’s no denying it is a challenge for people to hone their skills and strengthen their stamina. Somehow the repeating process of people slipping down the columns and climbing up reminds me of Sisyphus, the stone-rolling hero. What a metaphor of life.

These days in Taiwan, the ritual usually takes place in 頭城(tou2 cheng2), Yilan and Kenting, the northeastern top and the southern top of Taiwan respectively.

Of course there have been many variations in today’s搶孤 from that of the past. Security such as safety nets or suspension strings has been set up so that the contestants no longer have to take the risks our ancestors had to. It might have been made easier so that it won’t take so long. The point is to preserve the convention, recall our ancestors and have fun.

搶孤is only part of the中元普渡. There are other interesting rituals such as display of water lanterns that are worth seeing. It’s a pity that this year’s 搶孤wasn’t held as planned due to Typhoon Nanmadol, which had collapsed the 孤棚.

You may watch some brief introduction on this website to get a general idea of this activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhJthjYxCb4

超渡亡靈=超渡亡灵   

頭城=头城           

搶孤(chiang3 gu) (I) (custom)

In Taiwan, lunar July is a month of low season for many businesses, including restaurants, moving companies, real estate agencies, car dealer . . . , because most people don’t get married, move, or purchase a house or a car in this so-called “ghost month.” 鬼月(gui3 yue4).

People believe that since the first day of this ghost month when the “hell gate” 鬼門(gui3 men2) is open, those 孤魂野鬼(gu hun2 ye3 gui3), ghosts without any offspring to offer sacrifice, are allowed to come from Underworld 陰間(yin jian) to our world. To appease those孤魂野鬼, people prepare abundant sacrifice to worship them three times this month,  with the one on the 15^th day this month the biggest, which is called 中元普渡(zhong yuan2 pu3 du4).

The Han Chinese have thought that people without offspring or people who 死於非命(si3 yu2 fei ming4), die of an unnatural death such as an accident or a murder, would turn to sinister ghosts and harm people after they die. During the immigration era from the 17^th century, when a great number of the Han Chinese started to immigrate to Taiwan, there had been tons of deaths caused by shipwrecks, natural disasters, plagues or fighting for land. To prevent those 孤魂野鬼from doing harm and also, out of sympathy for those who die an untimely death, people have taken the worship for ghosts very seriously.

Aside from the usual worship, there is a unique custom originating from Yilan 宜蘭(yi2 lan2) called搶孤, which takes place on the last day of the lunar July as a contest.

                                                                    

Before the activity, a platform is erected supported by 12 big columns that measure around 30 meters in length and one man’s arms around. The platform is called 孤棚(gu peng2).

  (fm4715/魯獅  flickr.com)   

Above the platform stand thirteen (these days, it can be simplified to only one) some 30 meters long pyramid-shaped columns with a variety of sacrifice around. A flag called 順風旗(shun4 feng qi2)is flying on the top of one of the pyramid-shaped columns. This part of columns is called 飯棚(fan4 peng2). The preparation won’t be complete without applying a thick layer of cattle fat onto the 12 big columns supporting the platform.

 (fm4715/魯獅  flickr.com)

When the gong is beaten to mark the start of the game, each of the team rushes to a column trying to climb up to the platform along the slippery column. Tools such as hemp ropes or strips of cloth are used to increase friction. Human pyramids are also made to reach the goal. With the fat, it’s really a time and energy-consuming task. (To save time, I’ve seen sometimes the game changed to a personal competition without so much fat.)

(TO BE CONTINUED)

                                                                                            

搶孤=抢孤

陰間=阴间

飯棚=饭棚

順風旗=顺风旗