SECRETS OF CHINESE WORDS AND SAYINGS: ANCIENT WISDOM FOR

TODAY
THE IMPORTANCE OF CHINESE LANGUAGE TO MODERN SUCCESS
WWW.WORLDHARMONYORG.NET

BY FRANCIS C. W. FUNG, PH.D.

The importance of learning the Chinese language is not limited to the

fact that almost one fourth of the world’s population, in East and South
Asia and the rest of the world use it wholly or partly. Neither is the
newly discovered importance of Chinese language in world commerce
and world affairs. Apart from its uniquely beautiful calligraphy the
Chinese language obviously also has inherent world cultural
significance. Most of all to the author, the Chinese nation owes its
repute as a nation of wisdom to the innovative cultural formation of its
language. This I will venture to elaborate in this announcement.
Learning the distinctly spatial Chinese words will expand the mental
capacity of citizens of the world who speak native phonetic tongues,
increasing their capacities for different types of intelligence. Added to
this is the cultural wisdom embedded in the formation of the
characters, and in the meaning of Chinese sayings. As most of the
major languages of the word are phonetic, a bilingual person who also
speaks Chinese will exercise different parts of his brain in their daily
undertakings.

The Chinese nation with its continuous and uninterrupted history of

5000 years stands out among ancient nations of the world. Its
language is early and being non-phonetic is also unique among world
languages. Chinese pictographs or characters were discovered as early
as 3000 years ago and predated oracle bones. The Chinese characters
were created by diverse ingenious and imaginative ways throughout its
long history. It is a collective treasure of wisdom and art by design.
Different from the world’s major phonetic languages, the Chinese
language consists of a system of more than 5000 basic characters
instead of a limited number of letters in an alphabet. This larger
system of basic characters at one hand presents a challenge to non
native learners at the outset but it also renders Chinese a language of
wisdom as we shall soon realize.

From this creatively crafted system of basic characters, new words,

two- word- “nomenclatures” and four- word- “ Chinese sayings”
(CHENG YU) are innovatively created to suit evolution of times. For
example the word commonly meaning patience (REN) is the character
knife edge (REN) held above the character heart (XIN). The world
martial (WU) is formed by the character stop (ZI) and the character
weapon (GE). The word war (ZAN) is composed by two parts (DAN)
and (GE) meaning unilateral and weapon. The term crisis is formed by
the two words meaning danger and opportunity (WEI JI)
simultaneously. The term harmony is made up of two words each of
two characters ( HE XIE) together they mean content and consensus.
Thus the words patience, martial, crisis and harmony impart deeper
wisdom above mere meaning for the common use of the words. This
continuing development has persisted without major disruption for
5000 years. A well learned Chinese shows his pedigree by frequent use
of these cultural related nomenclatures and other famous sayings as
explained in the following. Thus the Chinese language incorporates the
richness of the Chinese historical development and culture.

There are many modern advantages to the Chinese language. The

modern Japanese and Korean languages evolved from heavy
dependence of Chinese words into phonetic languages during recent
history. Because of the usefulness and versatility of the Chinese
characters, today many educated Japanese and Koreans read Chinese
characters and still prefer not to totally divorce from the use of
Chinese words. Most of all, the Chinese language is attractive to those
well heeled in the wisdom and cultural content of the innovative words,
nomenclatures and famous sayings mentioned previously. Individual
Chinese characters are monosyllabic, and the four character sayings
which embody Chinese wisdom are as short and as easy to learn and
memorize as acronyms in English. These acronyms like simple wisdom
phrases are handed down through generations and become the
cumulative reservoir of Chinese cultural jewels with deep meaning.
Two most well known four word idioms are (Zhi Ji Zhi Bi, Bai zhan Bai
Sheng), together they mean “know thyself and know thy enemy,
hundred battles hundred victories.” This has come to be one of the
utmost important military strategies of all time. Because it is simple
and easy to remember like an eight letter acronym, even Chinese kids
know it by heart.

The other modern advantages of the Chinese language are many.

Chinese language is concise and compact. A similar length book in
Chinese will take half the space of a phonetic language book. Because
of its compact pictographs, Chinese writing lends itself readily for
speed reading. As a bilingual person of 50 years and receiving most of
my education in America, I can read Chinese books much faster than
English books. This makes it significantly less of a chore to go through
long documents in Chinese than English.
Chinese verbal commands are more limited in sounds, because the
basic system of characters are finite in number so are Chinese words.
English alphabets may be only twenty six but the sounds of phonetic
English words are infinite. Thus the first fully functional verbal input
computer most likely will be Chinese. The first Chinese language input
computer is well advanced is well on its way to commercialization. This
will eliminate the key board input disadvantage of Chinese language
computer once and for all. Although current key board input Chinese
language computers are reasonably efficient, the verbal input Chinese
language computer may prove to be even more efficient and easy to
use.

As a bilingual person practicing a wide range of disciplines of study

from physical sciences to social sciences, from commerce to
international affairs I have discovered a curious phenomenon. Over the
years I noticed that many of my Chinese associates and myself are
more adept in picking up new disciplines of studies. It also seems
rather easy for Chinese to practice new discipline in late life. My
personal career of over 50 years has included many vastly different
fields and professions. The reason may be the threshold of crossing
between various disciplines, is lower in Chinese language. Or Chinese
culture is a more flexible and harmonious from aeronautics to world
affairs. To reach definitive conclusion on this interesting premise will
require more detail analysis on the possibilities of the Chinese
language and the Chinese learning attitude.

One obvious observation that surfaces is the fact that Chinese

nomenclatures in different disciplines are more standardized because
the meaning of the common pictographs that makes the different
jargons of the trades. In the English language jargons, it is easy to
deliberately create different new jargons for different trades. By nature
of the phonetic language infinite number of words with different
sounds can be created by combination and permutation of the 26
alphabets. This does not necessarily make cross discipline studies any
easier. Because the Chinese system of basic characters is finite, even
when the Chinese nomenclatures appear to be different in each
discipline the pictographs will give away its intended meaning. The
beauty of the Chinese pictograph language system as opposed to the
phonetic system most of the world uses, is its relative simplicity. Once
a Chinese learner knows a relatively small sample of pictographs he is
less likely to need the dictionary when pursuing a new discipline. This
significantly lowers the threshold of cross discipline studies and
communications.
This introductory announcement of the secrets of the Chinese words
and sayings is an excerpt of a compilation of the wisdom of ancient
Chinese language for modern success. This new compilation entitled
“Secrets of Chinese Words and Sayings: Ancient Wisdom for Success
Today” goes beyond the usual writings on Chinese wisdom for success.
The compilation goes into the secret roots of the Chinese words and
language itself beyond the mere scope of Chinese ancient philosophical
and military wisdom in print. We welcome comments and contributions
on Chinese ancient wisdom and the modern importance of the Chinese
language from our interested readers.
MY BOOKS ON HARMONY RENAISSANCE, HARMONY DIPLOMACY
AND HARMONY CONSENSUS ARE AVAILABLE FROM
WWW.AMAZON.COM SEARCH FRANCIS C W FUNG