Everyone knows the expression "Chinese letter". It means something complex, incomprehensible to those who are deprived of knowledge in a certain area. And in fact, in the grammar of many Eastern peoples, hieroglyphic writing is accepted, and the symbols themselves are simply countless.
Chinese diploma in practice
Each hieroglyphic sign consists of so-called radicals that have an independent meaning. Do those who study Chinese or Japanese need to learn all of them? Their number is calculated in a five-digit number, but in everyday life is used "very little" - five thousand. For reading periodicals and popular literature, knowledge and two thousand are enough. But the main thing is not cramming, but an understanding of the system by which one can guess the meaning of the word (and sometimes the whole sentence). For example, you can consider the hieroglyph “love”, meaning the most important concept in the life of every person, regardless of language, race and nationality. How do Japanese and Chinese write (or rather draw) it?
What does the claws and paws have to do with it?
Chinese writing does not seem simple, and to understand it, you should plunge into the world of complex associative rules. Only those who can comprehend to some extent the way of thinking of the great and ancient people can learn to calligraphically correctly reproduce symbols.
The hieroglyph “love” consists of four radical parts located from top to bottom. The upper picture, reminiscent of the inverted Russian letter "W", written in bold strokes, with a wide base and a sloping last stick, symbolizes a claw or paw. Apparently, this is how the ancient Chinese understood the ruthlessness of feeling and its tenacity. After all, they also say that love does not look like potatoes, and if it is thrown out the window, it will enter the door. And the Cupid's arrow is a rather sharp object. In general, it is easy to injure the heart, and it is good if the feeling is mutual, otherwise it will hurt.
Roof
Then comes the roof. What it has to do with love, a European may not be clear. But the housing issue, which greatly spoiled, in the words of one of the Bulgakov’s characters, Muscovites, apparently caused damage to the Chinese people in those ancient times, when its writing was formed. You can, of course, understand this radical not so literally, but in a figurative sense. The second in order, and perhaps in value, the line that makes up the Chinese character "love", most likely, indicates a connection with the place where the feeling settled. Namely in the heart.
Heart
This organ of all nations is the home and receptacle of tender and, on the contrary, cruel emotions. Both love and hatred live in it, grow and die. Why do people all over the world think so? Probably because a rapid heartbeat is the most vividly felt sign of excitement. And the symbol of this blood pump is indicated by two lines intersecting at an angle.
Another similar inclined cross, but with a short section added to the top of the stick, going from right to left and up, means something completely incomprehensible to a person who thinks in European way. This radical symbolizes a slowly moving creature with many legs. But you can find logic in this figure, it is enough to recall the love of languor, which deprives one of strength. The head is spinning, the legs are braided ...
In general, if you combine all four components, it turns out that the hieroglyph “love” contains the following information: “under the roof of the heart there was a feeling that stuck its claws, disturbed the peace so that you want to go somewhere, but there is no strength”.
What about the Japanese?
Signs of Japanese writing are borrowed in China. This happened in the fifth century AD, and this explains the common ideographic features of the two neighboring nations. If you carefully consider the Japanese character "love", then in its radicals you can distinguish all the elements of its Chinese prototype: the roof, and claws, and the heart, and even a slow walk, though not immediately. Writing calligraphers from the Land of the Rising Sun is more soft and smooth. Speech also sounds different. If in the Chinese language the letter “P” is completely absent, then in Japanese the same applies to the sound “L”. The treatment of radicals differs in the same way as phonetics.
In the national character of the Japanese, voluntary imposition of obligations and their careful observance occupies an important place. They will never say, like us: "I owe nothing to anyone." If the homeland, family, parents or the enterprise consider that a person needs to do this, and not otherwise, then he will give up his emotions or desires and fulfill their will. And if the Japanese loves, then this is eternal love. The hieroglyph consists of many dashes and lines, deciphered by a whole set of feelings. Here and energy, and spiritual closeness, and peace, and union. In general, almost perfect ties of Hymen with some national specifics. The spelling of a hieroglyph may vary depending on what meaning is attached to it (koi or kanji).
Hieroglyphic tattoos
Once upon a time, sailors adorned their bodies with many blue images reminiscent of distant lands, storms and storms. In prisons, there was also a tradition of making “tattoos”, and not just like that, but with a certain meaning understood by the “prisoners” (well, for law enforcement officials — even reference books with the stamp “for official use” were printed). Ordinary men, not burdened by prison experience and not plowing the sea, also sometimes had wearable inscriptions, but simpler ("Sonya", "Masha", "I will not forget my mother," etc.).
Nowadays, which is characterized by a passion for oriental philosophical concepts, everything has become much more sophisticated. Not immediately and not everyone will be able to understand what this or that hieroglyph tattoo means. "Love" is now pricked in Japanese or Chinese, on different parts of the body and not always, unfortunately, in the correct spelling. But you should remember that oriental calligraphy is an art that masters have been studying for years, and any inaccuracy can lead to the fact that the sign either acquires a completely opposite meaning or becomes a meaningless set of curls. In addition, adherents of Buddhism, Shintoism and other overseas religious and philosophical teachings themselves believe that underwear can affect fate. So caution never hurts.
Is it possible without hieroglyphs?
By means of the Russian language, it is very difficult to convey the phonetics of the Japanese, Chinese, or, for example, the Vietnamese word. On how the speaker “sings” a set of sounds, the meaning of the expression depends, from direct to opposite. During the great friendship of the USSR and the PRC, the idea arose of translating the spelling of words in the Celestial Empire into Cyrillic, eliminating a huge number of characters, similar to how they had simplified Russian grammar earlier, removing from it “oty”, “ery,” and other supposedly unnecessary letters. But this project, despite the obvious logic, did not take place. This explains the fact that the hieroglyph “love” is decorated with photos of the chosen ones of Chinese and Japanese young people to this day.
About names
It seems that writing a Chinese or Japanese word in Russian is very simple. This is done by everyone who services or sells radio equipment, cars or other equipment from the Land of the Rising Sun or the Celestial Empire. There are a lot of brands: “Mitsubishi” (or “Mitsubishi”?), “Subaru”, “Matsushita” (again, maybe, “Matsushita”?). And there are names (for example, Emperor Hirohito).
How our reprimand matches the original can be judged by the inimitable Japanese accent. If the girl’s name is Anyone, the Japanese, speaking to her, will say “Ryuba”. And if he’s afraid to forget, and he needs to write a name? Will there be a suitable character? Lyubov Petrovna, for example, may not understand that it is being addressed to her. However, resourceful residents of the Japanese islands find the necessary radicals, trying to convey to them all the wealth of the Russian language. It turns out, however, with difficulty.