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 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 (chún), Sprouting. Other translations: R. Wilhelm, Difficulty at the Beginning; G. Whincup, Gathering Support; E. Shaughnessy (Mawangdui), Hoarding.

The modern day meaning of is "village, hamlet; camp; station". In Japanese, the word for "chaos" is . If the character is indeed , 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 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 is "chaos" or not. Anyone?

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

When I mentioned to him that I have checked in "I Ching", which states 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 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."

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

In Chinese, 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".

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 is missing a small horizontal stoke. Usually "warrior" is translated as 武士.

= 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 . I thought it was "" which means "growing wild/native" in Japanese.

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

= nine

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

艺术 (traditional version: 藝術) = art

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

自由 = freedom; free; liberty

= jade, precious stone, gem

"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 is correct and means "mother".

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

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

The last character 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?

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