Archive for Language and religion
December 28, 2024 @ 9:20 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Language and philosophy, Language and religion, Semiotics
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-fifty-eighth issue, “The Dance of Qian and Kun”, by Denis Mair:
ABSTRACT: This collection of papers and interpretive essays reflects my interest in structuralism as practiced by ancient Chinese thinkers who devoted their study to the symbolism of a fertility dance. I point to evidence that the authors/compilers of the oracle used a dance of contraries as a matrix to provide context for archetypal life situations. Some of the papers present empirical evidence of architectonic, dance-like features in the overall formal matrix: oscillations, rhythms, symmetries, and gradients of integration. In other essays I present plausible readings of individual symbols. My aim in doing so is to demonstrate that the symbols contain dense patterning and conceptual seeds that encourage symbolic elaboration. For instance, I show that centrality, ebb-and-flow, rapprochement of contraries, fertility worship, and many other ideas are implicit in the text. Such implicit ideas give the text a wide range of applicability.
The interpretive essays touch upon the question of how human sacrifice, used as a display of competency by late Shang-era elites, eventually tapered off in the early to mid-Zhou era. In that period the Zhou swerved off in a new direction toward civil religion and a concern with intrinsic values of human self-understanding, which pointed the way to the teachings of a humanistic educator like Confucius. Although the internecine wars of the Zhou were violent, the act of killing was no longer put on display as an apex ritual, as it earlier had been, used, for example, to commemorate the building of construction projects in the late Shang. My analyses of specific symbols give evidence of a distinct turn toward humanistic thinking in the early to mid-Zhou.

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December 28, 2024 @ 9:14 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Etymology, Language and history, Language and politics, Language and religion
Dr. Hu Shih (1891-1962) was arguably the greatest Chinese scholar of the 20th century, for whom I have the utmost respect. He and I thought alike on a number of important subjects: language, literature, and script reform, philosophy (we both were attracted to the utilitarian-pragmatist-logician and defensive strategist Mo Zi [c. 470 -c.391 BC]), recognition of the great influence of Indian civilization upon Chinese culture, dedication to public service and education, devotion to democracy, and so forth. Overall, the only other 20th-century thinker and writer who could compete / compare with Hu Shih was Lu Xun (1881-1936), but the latter came from the left, whereas Hu Shih came from the right. I admired them both.
Even when I was a child, I was never a theist, and I stopped going to church when I went to college and my mother wasn't around to urge me to do so. Likewise, I suspected that Hu Shih, being a Confucian minded Chinese intellectual, was not a theist either. So it was quite a surprise when the following notice from the Hu Shih Memorial Hall in Taipei came to my attention:
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December 19, 2024 @ 5:05 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Accents, Language and religion, Topolects
Having just come back from two weeks in London and Belfast, this article is particularly germane for me:
"The Irish and Scots Aren’t Fooled by Your Fake Accent: Some cultures are better than others at spotting impostors. The skill could allow them to pick out outsiders trying to infiltrate their groups." By Eric Niiler, WSJ (12'16/24)
I love to hear Scots and Irish speak, although often I cannot understand all that they are saying. Twenty and more years ago, the head circulation librarian at my university had such a mellifluous lilt that I would sometimes check out books when she was on duty just to hear her sweet tongue, but I had no idea which particular variety of Scottish (I think) she was speaking.
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November 29, 2024 @ 11:42 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and religion, Numbers, Taboo vocabulary, Uncategorized
This elevator panel image was sent to me by Nick Kaldis:
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November 10, 2024 @ 7:21 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and entertainment, Language and religion, Literacy, Topolects
[This is a guest post by Denis Mair]
Cai Xutie was a Taiwanese woman who ran a family farm with her husband in a village near Jiayi in central Taiwan. She was a rice farmer and had never attended a public school. After her husband died in middle age, she sold some of the land, moved to Taipei with her children, and bought a modest apartment. Because of economic pressure, she helped to set up a number of revolving credit pools, which were used by economically disadvantaged people in the 1950s and 60s to obtain credit when they couldn't get it from banks.
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October 2, 2024 @ 2:15 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Idioms, Language and religion
I received a communication with that at the top. I had never seen it before and had no idea what it meant. So I looked it up, and this is what I found on Wiktionary:
Phrase
B"H
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- (Judaism) b'ezrat hashem (Transliterated form of ב״ה, written at the top of documents).
“With the Help of God.” A common phrase used by Jews and non-Jews when hoping for good fortune and God’s support for a better tomorrow.
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- (Judaism) baruch Hashem
As the name of a constituent college of the City University of New York system and the financier-statesman whom it honors, "baruch" is fairly well known in English, though not many non-Jews would realize that it means "blessed". "B'ezrat" is not so well known in English; it means "help".
Hashem (Hebrew: הַשֵּׁם haššēm, literally "the name"; often abbreviated to ה׳ [h′]) is a title used in Judaism to refer to God. (Wikipedia)
With conflict in the Middle East intensifying, I can understand why people might be prompted to use this expression, B"H, now.
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September 27, 2024 @ 8:56 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Idioms, Language and food, Language and religion, Morphology, Translation
"Some idioms and terms pertaining to Japan's favorite grain", by Yuko Tamura, The Japan Times (9/25/24)
Rice is an essential part of the Japanese diet, so naturally it's also a part of the language. In fact, the word for "meal," ご飯 (gohan), also means "cooked rice." Before it's cooked, however, you'll see it referred to as 米 (kome). Below are a few terms and idioms that either use the kanji for rice or refer to it in some form.
- 朝飯前 (Asameshi mae): No sweat, a piece of cake. Something that can be done before breakfast. Ex., それくらい朝飯前だよ (Sore kurai asameshi mae da yo, That’s no trouble at all).
- 日常茶飯事 (Nichijō sahanji): Common, everyday things such as drinking tea or eating food that are a part of daily life. Ex., 彼の遅刻は日常茶飯事だ (Kare no chikoku wa nichijō sahanji da, His being late is a usual thing).
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September 21, 2024 @ 9:16 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and kinship, Language and religion
Not only is it hard to spell, few people know what it means.
As I mentioned in earlier posts, on my trip to SLC three or four days ago, I fulfilled three of my childhood dreams: 1. float in the Great Salt Lake; 2. hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in person; 3. visit the Family Research Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest genealogical library in the world (I remember that when I was a graduate student more than half a century ago, Mormon archivists spent two years filming every Chinese genealogical record in the Harvard-Yenching Library; at that time I did not understand why they would do that, now I do).
I was chatting with some people in the lobby of the motel where I was staying, and a young man in his early twenties asked me why I wanted to do #3, visit the genealogy research center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (he himself was a Mormon).
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September 13, 2024 @ 9:10 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Language and music, Language and religion, Names
Mark Swofford stumbled upon this church in Taipei:
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August 31, 2024 @ 4:30 am· Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Books, Language and history, Language and religion, Language and society, Manuscripts, Vernacular
Just published is a volume edited by David Holm, Vernacular Chinese-Character Manuscripts from East and Southeast Asia (De Gruyter), in their Studies in Manuscript Cultures series.
The book has chapters on Hokkien, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Yao, Zhuang, and other Tai-speakers who use Chinese-based vernacular scripts.
Previously announced on Language Log
here.
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August 18, 2024 @ 6:04 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Language and art, Language and philosophy, Language and religion, Lexicon and lexicography, Vernacular
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-fifty-third issue: "Speaking and Writing: Studies in Vernacular Aspects of Middle Period Chinese Culture" (pdf), edited by Victor H. Mair (August, 2024).
Foreword
The three papers in this collection were written for my seminar on Middle Vernacular Sinitic (MVS). They cover a wide variety of topics, from epistolary style to social mores, to philosophy and religion. They reveal how a vernacular ethos informs the thought and life of men and women from different social classes and distinguishes them from those who adhere to a more strictly classical outlook. Although they are on quite dissimilar subjects, this trio of papers harmonize in their delineation of the implications of vernacularity for belief and perception. Taken together, they compel one to consider seriously what causes some people to tilt more to the vernacular side and others to cling to classicism. While the authors of these papers do not aim to arrive at a common conclusion on the meaning of the vernacular-classical divide, the readers who probe beneath the surface of all three papers will undoubtedly find facets that refract and reflect themes that bind them into a unified body of inquiry.
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August 15, 2024 @ 3:55 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Emojis and emoticons, Language and religion, Language reform, Vernacular, Writing systems
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-fifty-second issue: "Dramatic Transformations of Sinography in East Asia and the World" (pdf), edited by Victor H. Mair (August, 2024).
Foreword
The three papers in this collection were written for my “Language, Script, and Society in China” course during the fall semester of 2023. All three of them are concerned with radical changes made to Sinographic script during its adjustment to modernity.
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July 4, 2024 @ 6:28 pm· Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Borrowing, Etymology, Language and archeology, Language and religion, Typography
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-fifty-first issue: "Placing Western Coins Near the Deceased in Ancient China: The Origin of a Custom," by Pin LYU:
ABSTRACT: This article traces the custom in ancient China of placing Western coins in proximity to corpses during burial. Academic attention has focused on the origin of the custom since Marc Aurel Stein initially connected the finding in Turfan of Western coins placed in the mouths or on the eyes of the corpses with Charon's obol, the ancient Greek coin that, similarly placed, paid Charon to ferry the dead to the underworld. Some scholars agreed with Stein's proposal, while others suggested that it was instead a traditional Chinese funerary ritual, unrelated to Greece. This article moves away from over-reliance on written sources and aims at uncovering the patterns underlying this custom, through the collection and analysis of available archaeological material. Results indicate that the custom possibly originated in the Hellenistic practice of Charon's obol and then traveled to China with Sogdian immigrants, developing into a regional funeral ritual in Turfan.
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