Ain’t Behavin’: Part 2
Friday, July 25th, 2008
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Last week, I dangled a promise before you. I said that reading 順 words about organizing objects would help you think more clearly. This week, I’m willing to bet that another set of 順 words will have a very different effect.
As we saw last time in a discussion of etymology, 順 (JUN) can mean “order, sequence.” But this character can also mean “to obey, submit to, follow.” And that’s just what bothers me!
To be sure, compliance has its uses. When we “go with the flow,” life becomes considerably easier. The following compound helps make that happen:
順応 (junnō: to adapt or conform to)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation)This word serves as the root of two versions of “adaptability”:
順応力 (junnōryoku: adaptability)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation) +
power
順応性 (junnōsei: adaptability)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation) +
quality
But as I look over other 順 words about obedience, compliance, submissiveness, and the like, I experience a rage that makes little sense. It’s the rage of the captive, the flogged, the forcibly tamed. In a past life, I must have been a gorilla imprisoned in a zoo or a tiger forced to jump through fiery hoops in a circus! Anyway, let me know if these terms rile you up in the same way:
順良 (junryō: faithful, law-abiding) to obey + good
The second kanji is what you already know as いい (ii: good), more formally represented as 良い (yoi: good).
孝順 (kōjun: obedience, filial piety) filial piety + to obey
It’s easy to confuse the initial kanji, 孝, with 教, which you see in words such as 教える (oshieru: to teach), 教育 (kyōiku: education, to teach + to educate), and 教会 (kyōkai: church, doctrine + assembly). Just as 順 irritates with its submissiveness, 教 is quite infuriating when you consider that it means “doctrine,” “faith,” and “to teach.” (I mean, that’s infuriating if you don’t go in for indoctrination.) But here’s the kicker: 教 combines 孝 (filial piety) with 攵, which means “to hit, to strike.” Violence is clearly the means to producing obedient students or doctrinaire followers!
忠順 (chūjun: allegiance, loyalty, obedience) loyalty + to obey
We’ve seen the first kanji before.
柔順 (jūjun: obedience, docility, submissiveness) soft + to obey
The kanji 柔 (JŪ, yawa(rakai)) means “soft,” and by extension means “pliant, gentle, mild, meek.” The meek shall supposedly inherit the earth, but you can see just from 柔順 how well that works. They’re submissive. They’re not inheriting anything! I should note that 柔 plays an important part in both 柔道 (jūdō: judo + the way) and 柔術 (jūjutsu: judo + skill), two Japanese martial arts involving weaponless fighting. In those cases, 柔 means “judo,” according to Halpern.
従順 (jūjun: obedience, docility, submissiveness)
to obey + to obey
Breen considers 従順 an alternate way of writing 柔順. Nevertheless, the initial characters have different meanings.
従 in Chinese Etymology and Japanese Pop Culture …
After all these dismaying expressions of submissiveness and compliance, I think it would be refreshing to see the opposite: acts of rebellion. If we take the last compound, 従順, and precede it with “not,” that brings us a good dose of disobedience:
不従順 (fujūjun: disobedience) not + to obey + to obey
This word contains only one type of vowel: u’s!
Sample Sentences with 従順 and 不従順 …
When Disobedience Turns into Rain …
Not all 順 words have to do with organization or obedience. For more hues in the 順 rainbow, check the next two links.
And finally, the moment has arrived for your Verbal Logic Quiz. Enjoy!
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity |
July 31st, 2008 at 4:31 am
Some of you have asked me over the months why my book (Crazy for Kanji) isn’t out yet. It was originally supposed to come out in the first half of 2007. Since then, the release date has been bumped up by three months, over and over again. And now (as a JPod reader has kindly informed me), the Amazon site for the book says “Out of Print–Limited Availability.” The reader had ordered the book a while back and just received a note from Amazon, saying that they had to cancel the order because they could not get the book from any source. If others of you have been kind enough to order the book, you might have experienced the same thing. So I want to apologize for all the inconvenience and explain what’s going on.
The delays have to do with design problems. You’ve seen what a complicated, hyperlinked design I’ve created for my blogs. Well, I did something similar in the book. And this has posed no end of challenges in terms of layout. Initially, the publisher tried to make it work one way (with the main text and the “linked” exhibits lying side by side). But that made for a chaotic look. So then he started over. Now the main text precedes the exhibits in each chapter. And it’s STILL tough to make everything fit neatly and clearly. We’re almost at the end of smoothing out these wrinkles. In fact, today my task is to chop off parts of a few exhibits that don’t fit cleanly on a 2-page spread.
We’re hoping–really, really hoping–to get this book out soon. I have my sights set on September. I think it’s realistic.
Anyway, someone had warned me that Amazon might cancel orders if the publication delays lasted too much longer. And indeed it has happened. I don’t know how Amazon works. I imagine that once the book is actually out, Amazon will make it look as if the book is available. And … I guess anyone who wants the book will need to order it all over again.
I apologize once more for the hassle and the uncertainty … and the frustration. This book is all about the joy of kanji, but there’s been a certain deficit of joy during parts of the publication process.
I credit the publisher with trying his hardest to bring my content to life and to light in the best possible way. I guess he felt that the initial design didn’t do justice to the text or to the beauty and magic of kanji. A lesser man would have just put the thing out in the world anyway so the book could earn its keep. The delays have likely hurt business. But he stuck with his convictions about how this book should look. Stone Bridge always does beautiful books, and I know the publisher wanted Crazy for Kanji to be one more good-looking book. I am crossing my fingers that it will end up that way!
I will certainly notify everyone when the book is finally out. I have reservations about seeming to advertise or seeming to toot my own horn, so when I do make the announcement, I’ll do so with a level of embarrassment. But I do believe in the book, and of course I believe that kanji is the key to a happier life! I want to share that with you. After all the pain and suffering of the delays and after all the headaches of the design process, I want to celebrate with you (my kanji community) when the book does at last make its way into the world.