#chinese proverb

[thegentlemansresurgence]

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

- Chinese proverb

[kamala-laxman]

“He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.” – Chinese Proverb

[reality-detective]

A very enlightened and profound proverb which I would totally subscribe to, IF we would have been operating on a fair and level playing field. But, was that the case?

I feel wholeheartedly in self-responsibility. I feel that it is our duty, our mission and our purpose to save ourselves. We are, to a certain degree, to blame for our lack of resistance, discipline and courage, which has led us to be totally entrapped within this matrix.

But the cards were always stacked against us. Like innocent and naive children, we were led into our own prison through every deceitful and coercive means possible.

Every trick, every gimmick, every psychological conditioning technique that was used to get us, not only to accept the matrix as the only possible reality, but to build and maintain it through our energy and be-LIE-fs that we were groomed to be-LIE-ve.

So I can blame myself for my own stupidity, and I take responsibility for not ‘seeing’ things sooner, but in all fairness, did we ever stand a chance?

Maybe, like the proverb says, I’m not quite there yet. 🤔

[niteshade925]

有意栽花花不发，无心插柳柳成荫。

-- 《增广贤文》

The intentionally planted flower did not bloom, yet the unintentionally planted willow is now casting shade.

-- from 《增广贤文》, a collection of Chinese proverbs

This proverb is fairly self-explanatory. It's a metaphor for how sometimes intentionally done things don't succeed, and yet unintentionally done things do. In common usage it's often quoted to describe a situation or to lament wasted effort.

[rocknrollflames]

 “Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.”

— Chinese Proverb

[studyingch]

chinese idiom: 不三不四

不三不四  is a chinese idiom that literally means “not 3 neither 4″ and it means neither one thing nor the other;  suspicious (characters); dubious; shady, bad person.

交些个不三不四的朋友: make friends with a lot of dubious characters

sources: x, x, x

[jadeseadragon]

Ohara Koson (1877-1945), Monkey Reaching for the Moon, ca. 1938-42.

水中月

Shuǐzhōng yuè

To fish for the moon in the water. (To make vain or impractical effort.)

[slamdunktheories]

Sannoh's Unusual Team Slogan

Sharing a little Slam Dunk shrine that's in my study! Let's use this to jump into a topic that's rarely discussed: Sannoh's unusual slogan. I might be overthinking here but... considering that Inoue was a Literature major in college before dropping out to become a manga-ka, I'm pretty sure there's something interesting going on here and it didn't happen by accident.

Let's dive in!

Sannoh's slogan (一意摶心) was only revealed in TFSD and I loved it from the moment I saw it. Of all the team slogans that were shown in Slam Dunk, this was by far the best one IMO. What a kickass slogan. What a philosophy to live by. And so on brand. But... there's also something weird about it.

First, what does the slogan mean? The first phrase that comes to mind is actually 一意專心, a similar phrase that's pretty well-known in both Japanese and Chinese. It's a very similar phrase but not exactly what Sannoh has for their slogan. And 一意專心 loosely translates to: to focus or dedicate yourself single-mindedly and wholeheartedly to something.

It's a phrase that still gets used in modern day Japanese and Chinese. And it does seem to fit Sannoh. Just like the phrase itself, there's an air of austerity/Zen-ness to the way Sannoh is depicted in the story. The tradition of the team shaving their heads and resulting in that monk look, the simplicity of their uniform (in both design and colour choice), the discipline that's so evident in the way they play on court during the critical moments, etc. Of course, this is all inspired by Noshiro, the real life high school with a famed history in basketball.

But the thing that made me pause over the Sannoh slogan was the third character: 摶. TFSD was the very first time I'd seen this character in my life (despite being a native Chinese speaker and fairly well-read). I wasn't even 100% sure how it was pronounced. Why would Inoue opt for the more complicated and obscure 摶 instead of 專 when the latter would have been just fine per the modern phrase mentioned above? Was he trying to achieve something by opting for this character for the slogan?

So I did a bit of digging and it turns out... even Japanese natives don't know this character. In fact, some online Japanese dictionaries don't have an entry for this character. And for good reason: Sannoh's slogan is a phrase that first appeared 2,500 years ago during China's Zhou Dynasty, in an ancient text titled Guan Zi written by a philosopher. However, the phrase that was coined in Guan Zi (aka Sannoh's slogan) has virtually not been used outside of that particular book; all subsequent mentions of this phrase actually reference Guan Zi. And there's been barely a mention of this character in recent centuries.

Also, note that even though 2,500 years sounds like a long time ago, in some ways it isn't, considering that the Chinese civilisation is essentially one continuous civilisation that's ~5,000 years old so this was already 25 centuries into its development. The Zhou Dynasty already had a bunch of technology and tools; irrigation systems, canals, chopsticks etc. had already been invented. It was also the time of Confucianism, Daoism, and complex military strategies that still remain relevant today. (That seminal book on military war strategy, "The Art of War", came from this period. GREAT book, BTW.)

Anyway, the next time this phrase appears in another piece of text, it's written as 一意專心 (aka the contemporary version of the phrase). So it could be that the modern phrase that Chinese & Japanese speakers know so well is a corruption/mistranslation of the original phrase (aka Sannoh's slogan). Also, this ancient character 摶 has the additional meaning of unity, circle, and harmony, which 專 does not possess.

When you look at how 一意摶心 appears in Guan Zi, you get a fuller context of what this original phrase actually means.

The original is here for those interested, but loosely translated it means: to calm your breath and your pulse, to hold your posture upright, to purge your senses of distractions, and to singlemindedly and wholeheartedly devote yourself to a cause, letting nothing distract you physically or mentally from it.（full breakdown of this text here in Chinese)

So that is actually the context in which Sannoh's phrase appears and makes 一意摶心 so much richer than the modern phrase. Again, it evokes a Zen-ness and discipline that fit Sannoh to a T.

In my view, Inoue-sensei wanted to go back to the roots of that phrase and honour the original intent behind it, which carries connotations of unity and that makes sense for a team sport. I'm still amazed that he knows this phrase, considering that it is not known to be in any Japanese texts; again, it really only exists in a Chinese text called Guan Zi.

Anyway, hope this was interesting for at least some of you! Would love to hear what people think about this (and if you have insights on the Chinese or Japanese aspects, please do chime in! I'm not a literary specialist.)

Further reading: This article (Japanese) - it offers some interesting interpretations as to why it was picked for Sannoh's slogan that I didn't mention here since this post is already so long XD

[kamala-laxman]

Don't push the river. It flows by itself." Chinese Proverb

[libbylael]

[niteshade925]

Here are two Chinese proverbs on human relationships:

“己所不欲，勿施于人”

"Never do to others what you don't want to be done to you"

This is an old one, and was a quote by Confucius originating from Analects (《论语》). The proverb version, however, has a slightly different context from the original, where it was an advice to rulers on how they should treat their subjects. In contemporary usage, this proverb can be used for both interpersonal relationships and relationships between groups of people. An alternate translation, and one that may be easier to understand due to different grammatical rules, would be "treat others how you would want to be treated".

“做人留一线，日后好相见”

"Try to be nice, so your next meeting won't be a sour one"

This is a Chinese folk proverb, warning people to refrain from being so extreme in how they treat other people as to cut off all possibility of reconciliation.

[maslimanny]

Live in peace. Spring comes,, and the flowers will bloom themselves.

- Chinese proverb

[jasonpym]

Kill two birds with one stone “一石二鸟” = Kill two hawks with one arrow “一箭双雕” [Chinese Idioms 4]

‘I gave May some cookies, she was so happy she gave me a whole bar of chocolate! My dad laughed and said, “Now that’s killing two birds with one stone, you made a friend AND got some candy!”’

In both Chinese and English, we have the same expression for achieving multiple goals with a single action: “一石二鸟” (Killing two birds with one stone).

In Chinese, a similar saying is “一箭双雕” (killing two hawks with one arrow), which emphasizes exceptional skill or precision.

"My art assignment was rated excellent by the teacher, so I decided to enter the same painting in a competition—and it won a prize! I’m so happy; this is truly ‘killing two hawks with one arrow’!"

我分了几块饼干给小美，她开心地送给我整包巧克力，爸爸笑着说：‘你这叫一石二鸟，既交朋友又赚零食！’”

在中文和英语里，对于用一个行动 达成多个目标，我们有一个相同的表达：“一石二鸟”Killing two birds with one stone".

在中文里，类似的说法还有"一箭双雕"(killing two hawks with one arrow)，这个成语则更多地表现出技巧的高超。

“我的美术作业被老师评为优秀，我试着拿这幅画参加比赛，又得了奖，好开心，这可真是一箭双雕呀！“

[likemilkandhoney]

if you do not see it, you will not be bothered 063024

d.

[minimalist-quotes]

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

[cobotis]

The ultimate cannot be given in any possible way... I go on talking to you, but it is not that which I would like to say... That which I would like to say to you cannot be spoken, and that which can be said is not really the thing that I would like to say to you... It is the ancient dilemma, the dilemma of the mystic... He knows, but he cannot say it; and whatsoever he says is not what he knows... And what I have to say to you is inexhaustible; hence I can go on speaking... For these many years I have been speaking non-stop, and yet I have not said anything -- not even a single word has been said! Hence I can go on speaking, because it can never be said... One can ask, "Then why speak at all?!" There is a reason to it: I have caught so many of you through speaking! If I was just sitting silently here, yes, a few people would have been here, but very few, because silence is a difficult phenomenon, the most difficult to understand... It needs tremendous intelligence; not only intelligence, it needs a certain silence in you too... Then only, two silences can commune... And the world does not teach you to be silent; it teaches you words, language... I have to use words and language so that you become caught in the net... Once you are caught and cannot escape, then you will have to listen to my silence too... And once you have understood my words, you will start feeling the silence that surrounds those words... Those words are born out of silence; they carry something of silence in them, some fragrance around them... But what I have been saying to you is only the most rudimentary; it is for the beginners... As you grow in understanding, as your silence deepens, my contact with you will be more and more of silence... Even while I am speaking, you will listen to the intervals between the words and you will read between the lines... You will not be so much concerned with the words, but with the wordless... You will be more concerned with the origin of it all...

~ Osho