What does the hieroglyph "love" look like? Are the Chinese and Japanese characters for "love" similar?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

Everyone knows the expression "Chinese letter". It denotes something complex, incomprehensible to those who are deprived of knowledge in a certain area. Indeed, hieroglyphic writing is adopted in the grammar of many Eastern peoples, and the symbols themselves are simply countless.

Chinese literacy in practice

Each hieroglyphic sign consists of the so-called radicals, which have an independent meaning. Do those who have taken up the study of Chinese or Japanese need to memorize them all? Their number is estimated at a five-digit figure, but in everyday life “very few” are used - five thousand. To read periodicals and popular literature, knowledge and two thousand is enough. But the main thing is not cramming, but understanding the system by which the meaning of a word (and sometimes the whole sentence) can be guessed. For example, consider the hieroglyph "love", meaning the most important concept in the life of every person, regardless of language, race and nationality. How do the Japanese and Chinese write (or rather draw) it?

What does the claws and paws have to do with it?

Chinese writing does not seem simple, and in order to understand it, one should plunge into the world of complex associative rules. Only those who comprehend to some extent the way of thinking of the great and ancient people can learn to calligraphically correctly reproduce symbols.

The hieroglyph "love" consists of four parts-radicals, located from top to bottom. The upper design, reminiscent of an inverted Russian letter "Ш", written in bold strokes, with a wide base and an inclined last stick symbolizes a claw or paw. Apparently, this is how the ancient Chinese understood the ruthlessness of feeling and its tenacity. After all, we also say that love is not like a potato, and if you throw it out the window, then it will enter the door. And Cupid's arrow is a rather sharp object. In general, hurting the heart is easy, and it's good if the feeling is mutual, otherwise it will hurt.

Roof

Then comes the roof. What does it have to do with love attraction, a European may not be clear. But the housing issue, which, according to one of Bulgakov's characters, greatly spoiled Muscovites, apparently damaged the Chinese people back in those ancient times when their writing was being formed. It is possible, of course, to understand this radical not so literally, but in a figurative sense. The second in order, and perhaps in meaning, the line that makes up the Chinese character for “love” most likely indicates a connection with the place where the feeling settled. Namely, in the heart.

Heart

This organ of all peoples is the home and receptacle of the tender and, on the contrary,violent emotions. Both love and hate live in it, grow and die. Why do people all over the world feel this way? Probably because a rapid heartbeat is the most pronounced sign of excitement. And the symbol of this blood pump is indicated by two lines intersecting at an angle.

Another similar slanted cross, but with a short segment added to the top of the stick, going from right to left and up, means something completely incomprehensible to a person who thinks in a European way. This radical symbolizes a certain slowly moving creature with many legs. But you can find logic in this figure, it’s enough to remember the love yearning that deprives you of strength. Head spinning, legs tangled…

In general, if you combine all four components, it turns out that the hieroglyph “love” contains the following information: “a feeling settled under the roof of the heart that stuck its claws, disturbed the peace so that you want to go somewhere, yes no strength.”

How about the Japanese?

Japanese characters are borrowed from China. This happened in the fifth century AD, and this explains the common ideographic features of the two neighboring peoples. If you carefully consider the Japanese hieroglyph "love", then in its radicals you can distinguish all the elements of its Chinese prototype: the roof, and the claws, and the heart, and even a slow gait, though not immediately. The writing of calligraphers from the Land of the Rising Sun is distinguished by greater softness and smoothness of the lines. It also sounds different. If the letter “R” is completely absent in Chinese, then inIn Japanese, the same applies to the "L" sound. The interpretation of radicals differs in the same way as phonetics.

In the national character of the Japanese, an important place is occupied by the voluntary imposition of obligations and their careful observance. They will never say, like us: "I don't owe anything to anyone." If the homeland, family, parents or enterprise consider that a person needs to do this and not otherwise, then he will give up his emotions or desires and fulfill their will. And if a Japanese loves, then this is eternal love. The hieroglyph consists of many dashes and lines, deciphered by a whole set of feelings. Here and energy, and spiritual intimacy, and peace, and union. In general, the almost ideal bonds of Hymen with some national specifics. The spelling of the character may differ depending on what meaning is given to it (koi or kanji).

Hieroglyphic tattoos

Once upon a time, sailors adorned their bodies with many blue images, reminiscent of distant lands, storms and storms. In places of detention, there was also a tradition of making “tattoos”, and not just like that, but with a certain meaning that was understandable to the “prisoners” (well, law enforcement officers too - even reference books labeled “for official use” were printed). Ordinary men, not weighed down by prison experience and not plowing the seas, also sometimes had underwear inscriptions, but simpler (“Sonya”, “Masha”, “I will not forget my mother”, etc.).

In our time, which is characterized by a passion for Eastern philosophical concepts, everything has become much more sophisticated. Not immediately andeveryone will be able to understand what this or that hieroglyphic tattoo means. "Love" is now pricked in Japanese or Chinese, on different parts of the body and not always, unfortunately, in the correct spelling. But it should be remembered that oriental calligraphy is an art that masters have been studying for years, and any inaccuracy can lead to the sign either acquiring a completely opposite meaning, or becoming a meaningless set of squiggles. In addition, the adherents of Buddhism, Shintoism and other overseas religious and philosophical teachings themselves believe that a wearable image can affect fate. So being careful never hurts.

Is it possible without hieroglyphs?

It is very difficult to convey the phonetics of a Japanese, Chinese or, for example, Vietnamese word using the Russian language. The meaning of the expression, from direct to opposite, depends on how the speaker "sings" a set of sounds. During the time of great friendship between the USSR and the PRC, the idea arose to translate the spelling of words in the Celestial Empire into Cyrillic, abolishing a huge number of characters, just as they had previously simplified Russian grammar, removing “yati”, “era” and other supposedly unnecessary letters from it. But this project, despite the obvious logic, did not take place. This explains what adorns the hieroglyph "love" in the photo of the chosen ones of Chinese and Japanese young people to this day.

About names

It seems that writing a Chinese or Japanese word in Russian is very easy. This is done by everyone who serves orsells radio equipment, cars or other equipment from the Land of the Rising Sun or China. There are many brands: Mitsubishi (or Mitsubishi?), Subaru, Matsushita (again, maybe Matsushita?). There are also names (for example, Emperor Hirohito).

The extent to which our pronunciation corresponds to the original can be judged by the inimitable Japanese accent. If the girl's name is Any, the Japanese will say "Ryuba" when addressing her. And if he is afraid to forget, and he needs to write down the name? Is there a suitable hieroglyph? Lyubov Petrovna, for example, may not understand that they are addressing her. However, the resourceful inhabitants of the Japanese islands find the necessary radicals, trying to convey with them all the richness of the Russian language. It turns out, however, with difficulty.