The Chaos Question

From reader Jeffrey Berthiaume:

"Long time fan, first time caller… Just wondering what you thought about this painting – I’ve seen it over and over for the past few years, and have always wondered whether it was accurate [means "chaos"] or not…"

I have seen this character 屯 before as well. Even though, the translation for it has always been "chaos", I never knew if it is indeed correct or not.

One thing for sure, the character was originally in the oldest Chinese classical text "Yi Jing" (or "I Ching"), the "Book of Changes" (also called "The Book of Wisdom"):

In Yi Jing, hexagram 03, depicted |:::|: is named 屯 (chún), Sprouting. Other translations: R. Wilhelm, Difficulty at the Beginning; G. Whincup, Gathering Support; E. Shaughnessy (Mawangdui), Hoarding.

The modern day meaning of 屯 is "village, hamlet; camp; station". In Japanese, the word for "chaos" is 混沌. If the character is indeed 屯, in Japanese this character has the meaning for "gather" but is mostly used nowadays as the symbol for "ton" as in "the cargo weighed in at two tons." According to the Chinese cultural section of About.com, "chaos" is 混沌 as well. (thanks Rex)

The word "chaos" originally comes from Greek and stood for "the confused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms" according to Merriam Webster and is the opposite of "cosmos" which is "an orderly harmonious systematic universe".

As of right now, I still do not know if 屯 is "chaos" or not. Anyone?

Update: While trying to get more information regarding the true meaning of 屯, I had email correspondences with Larry, who sells replica painting of 屯 on his website for $25.

When I mentioned to him that I have checked in "I Ching", which states 屯 means "sprouting", that is a little far off from "chaos".

He replies:

"Japanese and Chinese has many interpretations of kanji . The statement you made above is the representation of the kanji entitled chaos, "from chaos sprouts new life a new beginning . In its smallest form everything moves fast from neutron to proton... Chaos that begins life . As a forest is engufled by fire , life starts anew . As we stumble in life ... We find the good and move forward."

If that is indeed the case, wouldn't it be more appropriate to translate 屯 as "sprouting" or "birth", rather than "chaos"? Also, I asked him if he happen to have a literary source that can verify his statement.

Larry responds:

"I guess I could explain these thoughts on my site. And no , no source. As educated in the language as you seem. Most characters for Chinese and Japanese were from a simple drawing as a start. I would guess by the way the kanji is it is representing life starting."

Dragon Ball Z Snafu

Reader Julian Grybowski of Hamilton College has sent in a long email titled "Misuse of Japanese characters, by someone who should know better" detailing all the mistakes in the popular animation serie "Dragon Ball Z".

Since I myself is not an avid anime fan, I hope someone would verify the mistakes and see if they are all true or not.

---------------------------------------------------------
From: Julian Grybowski
To: tiangotlost at gmail dot com
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 19:25:59 -0500
Subject: Misuse of Japanese characters, by someone who should know better...

Hello,

My name is Julian Grybowski, and I'm a longtime follower of your site. Until now, I haven't had anything to contribute, but I've sort of been looking forward with fiendish glee to the day where I could see something I've sent in get dissected. And I think now might be my chance.

It's not *completely* on-topic, as it doesn't deal with hanzi/kanji. Rather, it ought to have at least *some* kanji in it, but by sheer incompetence of those involved, it doesn't even get that far. Here is the link:

http://www.dragonballz.com

Allow me to explain. This series, "Dragon Ball Z," was originally released in the United States in an edited format, so as to be suitable for syndication as a children's program. Several years later, the show moved to cable, and an uncut version (with a Japanese language audio track) began to come out on DVD. However, the first two seasons (the aforementioned censored episodes) could not be touched due to contractual obligations with the English dubbing company's previous distributor.

Now that that contract has expired, these first 67 episodes are being released uncut with Japanese and English audio, and the trailer on the page linked above reflects that. But therein lies the rub.

All of the Japanese text is complete gibberish, except for the title logo ("Doragonbo-ru Z," which is correct). This is evident from the very first time the Japanese characters appear. Son Gokuu, whose name uses the same (unsimplified) kanji as "Sun Wukong" (孫悟空) in Chinese, is spelled out as "numahiyu" (ヌマヒユ) in Katakana (one of the two Japanese syllabaries). It only gets worse from there, to the point where the Japanese displayed behind the promotional phrases ("Original Uncut Japanese," etc.) is just long strings of absolute nonsense.

After comparing the English text with what is written in "Japanese," I discovered what happened: someone had simply taken the English text seen in the trailer, and converted it to a "kana font" where each letter is assigned a Japanese character. In this case, A = "chi," B = "tsu," C = "te" D = "to," and so on, in Japanese alphabetical order. I can guess that this was done because the primary demographic of "Dragon Ball Z" in the US isn't expected to know Japanese, but as someone who can read what's there, I find this both hilarious and insulting at the same time. Japanese is not English written in some "secret code," and a company that is playing up the Japanese aspect of its releases should know better than to use pretend Japanese to promote it.

Again, while this is somewhat off-topic, I humbly submit this to you as an example of the misuse of Asian writing in Western pop-culture. And on a Japanese product, no less (oh the irony...).

Thank you, and keep up the good work.

--Julian Grybowski

P.S. Here are some more examples (transcribed from the trailer) of the pitifully incoherent "Japanese":

"Vegeta" - "Yonanunayachi"

"Original Uncut Japanese Footage" - "momenonunohochifu yuhoteyuya hachimichihonamona nimamayachinuna"

"Ultimate Uncut Special Edition" - "yufuyanohechiyana yuhoteyuya mominatenochifu natonoyanomaho"

"Exclusive Goku Action Figure" - "naritefuyumonoyona numahiyu chiteyanomaho ninonuyumena"

"The way it was meant to be seen" - "yanena rachiru noya rachimo henachihoya yama tsuna monanaho"

Kun Theater Ticket

When I forwarded the tattoo image above to my associates, each one of them had their own interpretations.

Aaron: "The first one 昆 is usually pronounced 'kon', and it kind of means 'a swarm'. But evidently it used to be read 'ani', which is older brother. Also I guess it also meant grandchildren or something at another time. The second character 券 means 'certificate', basically. So I have no idea. Brother certificate? A swarm of certificates?"

Rex: "This has no meaning in Japanese what so ever. The first character is used in 昆虫 insects (referring to "variety" kinds of bugs) and is also used in 昆弟 referring to two brothers - 昆 - represents the older brother - but this is never used at all. Maybe they meant to write 拳 "fist" instead. What they have here, 券, is 'ticket'. Looks like they messed up again."

I guess 昆拳 may be the tattoo owner's original intention to represent the insect-like fighting style, which is common in 武朮. For example, there is a fighting style mimics the insect mantis called 螳螂拳.

Todd (aka. "You Dork") points out the tattoo may just mean "theater ticket". Considering the second character 券 indeed means "ticket", and there is a style of opera in China called 昆曲.

"Kunqu(昆曲, pinyin: Kūnqǔ), also known as Kunju or Kunqu Opera, is a kind of Chinese opera. It was listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. Its melody or tune is one of the Four Great Characteristic Melodies in Chinese opera." (wikipedia.org)

Does anyone have any more insights?

Charming Tranny

Brendan and I had a good laugh about this tattoo today. The tattoo was correctly done, but we were laughing at its meaning in Chinese slang.

In Japanese, 妖 【よう】 sometimes means "charming", but it would also mean "strange, weird, supernatural".

In Chinese, 妖 is used to describe "goblin; witch; devil; bewitching; enchanting; monster; phantom", or "seductive" as in 妖媚.

But in modern day, when someone is referred as a 人妖, it means he is a transvestite and/or transsexual, as in "chick with dick" or "tranny".

Ocean

I found the painting above at dreamstime.com by Morrhigan:

Image name: Ocean Kanji
Description: Kanji (Japanese Character) for the word Ocean. Hand painted, then scanned and manipulated in Photoshop.

One small problem, there are two small dots missing from the character.

海 = sea, ocean; maritime

Update: In Japanese, the two small dots can be written as a vertical stroke. (Thanks to Ken for verifying this).

Handicapped "Warrior"

The caption of this tattoo was "My first tattoo - It means 'Warrior' in Chinese".

Even though the English translation may be correct, but the tattoo itself is not. The character 武 is missing a small horizontal stoke. Usually "warrior" is translated as 武士.

武 = military; martial, warlike

Nine Art Liberty Jade

I sure hope these characters have significant meaning to the owner and he did not pick them randomly.

At first I had trouble to realize it was 自由 due to the poor quality of 由. I thought it was "自生" which means "growing wild/native" in Japanese.

Adam has commented that it is not 九 but a poorly miswritten simplify version of 龍, which is 龙.

九 = nine

艺 (traditional version: 藝) = art; talent, ability; craft
术 (traditional version: 術) = skill, art; method; trick, device

艺术 (traditional version: 藝術) = art

自 = self, private, personal; from
由 = cause, reason; from

自由 = freedom; free; liberty

玉 = jade, precious stone, gem

Love is Blind or Blindness

My associates and I are trying to figure out if this tattoo means "love is blind" or "love is blindness".

愛 = love, be fond of, like
是 = indeed, yes, right; to be; demonstrative pronoun, this, that
盲 = blind; unperceptive, shortsighted
目 = eye; look, see; division, topic

also according to the Japanese section of 盲,

盲目 means "blindness", and 盲目的 means "blind/devotion".

Brendan has commented that:

"I had the impression that 盲目 was generally used as an adjective. Seems like this one could really be either; I'd incline toward 'love is blind,' though I suppose it depends on how much U2 the person listens to."

Aaron Batty from English Language Institute at Kanda University of International Studies has emailed this:

"Well, my wife and I think it would indeed translate better as 'love is blindness,' but basically it's not very Japanese. It's kind of half and half, I think. The second character is 'kore,' which means 'this.' But no one actually uses the character; they spell it out in hiragana since it's a grammatical word (as opposed to lexical). So it kinda says 'Love (n.) this (pronoun) blindness (n.)' Grammatically, it's nonsense."

What is your call?

"Crazy Diarrhea" Has A Name-O

Ms. Naomi Chaney has sent in the following photos to verify the "Crazy Diarrhea" tattoo was indeed belongs to her.

* Photo(s) have been removed on behalf of Ms. Naomi Chaney's (owner of the "crazy diarrhea" tattoo) Request *

In an email statement to me, she said:

I am the author of the anon. note and the owner of the tattoo. I am assuring you that it was intentional.

I wanted to get some stupid tattoo in kanji that meant something totally outrageous. It was my own way of making fun of people that get stupid kanji tattoos but at leastｔ I meant for mine to happen.

It is kind of fun being famous for my silly tattoo.

This is actually some sort of friendship tattoo. My friend has 'liquor' and 'anus' tattooed on her. Though I'm not sure if she ever got them read to see if they were right.

Naomi (nachaney@earthlink.net)"

That Bad Tattoo Guy

Phoenix radio station 103.9 FM The Edge has made a reference to bad tattoos this morning:

"Japanese symbol that guy, you are all included too, don't think you are not. Unless you have spent time in Tokyo, you have no need to link yourself to its culture. After all, When is the last time you see a Japanese dude with 'Brave' written in English across his ankle?"

clip: badtattoo.mp3

(thanks to Elizabeth for the tip)

"The Mother Ten Thing Are Expensive"

Via Flickr, I saw this photo with caption of "Cindy, a beautiful canvas". I wish I could say the same about the artist, but unfortunately the mistakes are so obvious.

The first character 母 is correct and means "mother".

The second one, I am not sure if it was suppose be a Christian cross, 十 means "ten" with four sparkling flares, or 米 means "rice" which also phonetically translated as America in Japanese.

The third one is a mistake. The character 物 is vertically mirrored. When written correctly, 物 means "thing, substance, creature".

The last character 貴 means "expensive, costly, valuable".

Even if all the characters are correctly tattooed, the translation would still be:

"The Mother Ten Things Are Expensive"

What does that mean exactly?

Update: Todd thinks this tattoo means "Expensive American Malt Liquor":

It is 母米物貴. "母米" is from "酒母米", as in "American malt liquor". The whole thing means "expensive american malt liquor".

Could anyone verify this?

"Crazy Diarrhea", The Legend Continues

* Photo(s) have been removed on behalf of Ms. Naomi Chaney's (owner of the "crazy diarrhea" tattoo) Request *

The original can be viewed at BMEzine.com: http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A50210/high/bmegl019014.jpg

In October 14, 2004, when I first saw this tattoo, I was stunned and speechless. It literally means "crazy diarrhea" in both Chinese Hanzi and Japanese Kanji.

狂 = crazy
瀉 = to flow out, diarrhea

One comment from the supposely owner of the tattoo (he/she submitted the comment anonymously and there is no confirmation) claimed that:

"I knew pretty much what it meant and got it as a joke to people who get stupid shit tattooed onthemselves without knowing what it was. Though yes I thought it meant violent diarrhea, crazy diarrhea isn't too far off. I had help from an asian friend of mine to pick this out."

I wonder if this is the same person, or there has been a "crazy diarrhea" cult spawned.

Inspired by "All Your Base Belongs To Us" animation, I would like you, the fans of Hanzi Smatter, to come up some clever ways and locations to place this cult-classic tattoo.

Please submit your creations to:

tiangotlost at gmail dot com


Update: Wesley has submitted the following entry:



Brady McTigue has submitted the following entry:





Jan has submitted the following entries:

"Extremely Military Affairs Stopping"

The first top two "characters" are just partial radicals, which have no significant meanings. The next three are random characters:

極 = extreme, utmost, furthest, final
武 = military; martial, warlike
止 = stop, halt, desist; detain

In other words, the tattoo is complete gibberish.

"Cow Elephant Chicken Lucky Unicorn Dragon Crane Liu Shallow"

I believe all consumers deserve the right to know what they are paying their money for. One thing I really don't like is seeing someone unknowingly duped into being the butt of jokes. Unfortunately, this courtesy is rarely practiced in the business world.

The shirt above is for sale at ChoiceShirts.com, but there isn't any translation of what the Chinese characters mean. From the picture of the white tiger, most people would think all the characters would have some kind of association with tiger.

牛 = cow, ox, bull
象 = elephant; ivory; figure, image
鸡 = chicken
吉 = lucky, propitious, good
麒 = legendary auspicious animal, mythical unicorn
龙 = dragon
鶴 = crane
刘 = surname "Liu"
浅 = shallow, not deep; superficial

But where is the "tiger"?

Since the manufacturers and retailers are purely focused on making money rather than provide consumers with good quality goods, the only ways to restore balance are:

1. File a complaint with retailer, and demand a refund
2. Force retailers to post accurate translation, and provide linguistic reference links if possible
3. Boycott and inform others about irresponsible retailers

The best rule of thumb for everyone would be: Buyers Beware!

"The Fiercest Calm I've Been In" Ring

The line of "You are the fiercest calm I've been in" is from Tori Amos' song "Concertina".

However, the Chinese characters on the outer surface of this ring are random phrases, and the same ring showed up on another page with different inner engraving.

灵感 = inspiration
幸 = fortunate; lucky
厚 = thick; substantial; greatly
媚愛 = flattering love
姁 = chatter like old woman; cheerful; beauty
情慾 = passion

"Faith", "Virtue", or "German Life"

From reader Dirk:

Hello, The man in the attached picture is Gunter, a pretty good soccer player (so they say) and an ex-boyfriend of a friend of mine. Here in Belgium, he's being nominated as Golden Stud of the Year by a popular magazine called HUMO. According to the interview, he claims the tattoo on the chest stands for "faith". As a regular reader of your blog, I immediately thought: yeaaaah right. What do you think?

First of all, the two characters are done correctly. The top character 德 means "virtue" or "ethic", and the both character 命 means "life" or "destiny".

But, 德 is also used phonetically to translate "German" 德國的 or "Germany" 德國.

Therefore this tattoo could also be mistakenly read as "German Life".

Product Naming: The Notion of Foreign Branding

Prof. Harold A. Schiffman of University of Pennsylvania has linked his course webpage to Hanzi Smatter.

One of the course's topic is "Product Naming: The Notion of Foreign Branding and its use in Advertising and Marketing". I am very happy to see Hanzi Smatter is featured under the Japanese/Chinese section.