Some Chinese Words

One of the list-serves I read consists of adult spellers. A reader presented his most unusual Chinese-derived word for us: it is the term from Confucian philosophy signifying mercifulness, benevolence or humanity. It is spelled "jen" and pronounced "run." He mused at why it hadn't been selected in 85 years of spelling bees, since it would no doubt trip up many spellers. I gave an explanation for the seemingly unusual pronunciation/spelling in a return email, which I shall give below, but the exchange provoked the subject of which Chinese words, especially philosophical terms, have become English words. I will answer that question here but I begin, however, with a few words on Chinese characters and their representation in Roman letters.

On Chinese Characters

Some scholars claim as many as 50,000 characters have appeared throughout the history of the Chinese language, though one only needs command of about 3,000 to read a contemporary text and 6,000 to read classical texts. Because the literacy rate in China was so low in mid-20th century, a plan was conceived and implemented to simplify about 2240 characters so that they would be easier to learn/memorize. Almost all of these 2240 simplified characters now have the same number or fewer strokes as the corresponding traditional character. One should be aware of how significant an accomplishment this was. Many of the traditional characters have between 20 and 30 strokes, with the new character having fewer than 10 strokes. It took considerable work and discipline to master all these strokes of the traditional character. To do this for thousands of characters would mean that the learner had to spend considerable time daily in mastery.

The characters that were simplified of course tended to be characters regularly used, and so the learning of Chinese today is both made simpler and burdened by the awareness that one needs to learn (if one wants complete knowledge) both simplified and traditional characters. As an example, let us take the 18 terms listed in the Wikipedia article on Confucianism, describing traditional Chinese philosopical concepts. Ten of the 18 have different traditional and simplified representations; if we wanted to study the history of Chinese philosophy, then, we would no doubt encounter the traditional characters. Some of the simplified characters have the same number of strokes, such as in the character lian(2), with 13 strokes, meaning honest or the character chi(3), meaning shame, with 10 characters. Why, indeed "simplify" these characters, when the simplification is scarcely different from the traditional? A similar comment could be made about wen( 1), meaning kind, which went only from 13 to 12 very similar-looking strokes. Yet, occasionally there is a considerable savings. The most significant changes are with the immensely important term li(3), signifying proper ritual, which went from 17 to 5 strokes or, even more significant, rang(4), meaning modesty or self-effacement, which went from 24 to 5 strokes. You begin to see that if you take the time to learn Chinese it not only takes a lot of discipline in writing/memorizing, but also considerable attention in how to use the terms.

A Complicating Problem

Making things more complicated are the multiple systems of romanization of Chinese characters. The 19th century way of doing it, codified in the Wade-Giles 1892 Chinese English Dictionary, was standard for the next 60 or more years, and still is recognized in some of the Chinese-speaking world. However, the system of standard pinyin was incorporated in the 1950s, and is the almost exclusive way of romanization learned today. But the problem for spellers comes in the change from the Wade-Giles to the pinyin system. At least three of the 18 philosophical terms are spelled differently in the Wade-Giles and pinyin systems. For example, jen is the Wade-Giles spelling of the pinyin ren, the hugely important word meaning benevolence or humanity. But because the word came into English usage before the 1950s, the word is in Webster's 3rd Unabridged as jen, though pronounced "ren/run." Other philosophical terms spelled differently in the two systems are Wade-Giles hsin, pinyin xin to represent the viture of faithfulness or veracity; Wade-Giles chung and pinyin zhong to represent the word loyalty.

Moving to Chinese Words in the English Dictionary

So how many of these crucial 18 Chinese philosophical terms, do you think, are represented either in the OED or Webster's 3rd International Dictionary? Only three. All three (jen, li, hsin) appear in Webster's, while only li appears in the OED. Here are the definitions:

1. jen--"the cardinal Confucian virtue of benevolence to one's fellowmen."
2. hsin--"Confucianism: the cardinal virtue of faithfulness or veracity."
3. li--(Webster's): "one of the cardinal virtues in Confucianism that consists of propriety or correct behavior as the outward expression of an inner harmony with the ethical principles of nature." The OED, rather than providing a definition, gives six quotations, beginning from the "official" introduction of the term into English in 1913 (but how is that really determined, since, no doubt, it was used earlier in English-language descriptions of Chinese philosophical concepts?): "(1913): "the original li and teh, the only classical rules and ethics which keep man..in perfect harmony with the order of the universe." Or, from 1937: "The 'Rites' (Li) were used in diplomatic relations." Or, from 1953, "The word li used by Confucius, which is often translated by the English word 'religion,' really means something more like ceremonial or ritual, the correct observance of which is needed for maintaining friendly relations with the Power or Powers of the unseen world."

The Wikipedia article says that the two most important terms in Confucian philosophy are ren and yi. Thus, the terms that appear in the English dictionaries are sort of the most important, though not the two most significant. Yet, the three terms all appear in the list of the five basic virtues, yi, li, zhi, ren/jen, xin/hsin. In each case the spelling in the dictionaries is the Wade-Giles spelling, which should cause considerable headaches for spellers; at least jen and hsin (pronounced "shin") should provide problems--li seems pretty simple.

Conclusion--Two Other Terms

The Chinese word for a traditional governor, in Wade-Giles, is tuchun, though it is dujun in pinyin. Yet, the word appears as tuchun in English-language dictionaries. The unit of measurement, li, also appears in English, going all the way back to 1588. The OED is amusing in that none of the quotations tells us how long the li is. For example, we have "The Chinese li contains 285 Russian fathoms"--not exactly something to bring us scintillating clarity. We have to turn to simple Chinese-English dictionaries or the Unabridged to get a precise number: "any of various Chinese units of measurement, esp. a distance of about 1/3 mile." Phew. Now, OED, it wasn't THAT difficult, was it?

I need another essay to explore in more detail the philosophical terminology.

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