By Hyon O'Brien
The other weekend, I spotted a column in the International Herald Tribune that triggered some thoughts. Kumiko Makihara, a Japanese writer living in Tokyo, wrote about Chinese four-character proverbs that she would use to describe her son. Her piece reminded me that China, Korea and Japan have these proverbs in common.
All three countries regularly use the same sayings or expressions, composed of four Chinese characters, in everyday language, even though each country may pronounce them differently. These are known in Korean as
- literally, ``four characters make a word."
It is amazing how many there are (my reference dictionary lists 3,200 of them) and how few of them I really know. Maybe 300? I noticed that these four-character sayings often appear as questions in a weekly Korean language quiz show. I wondered whether the young generation of Koreans are learning these sayings at all, as nowadays they seem to be more attuned and attracted to memorizing English vocabulary.
These sayings present much good advice and ancient wisdom. Many of them warn us about things in life that we are well advised to avoid: never give
, never have the stubborn attitude of
; never forget someone's kindness and become a person of
; never tackle something if the result will become
; and never get in a situation where
.
Confused? Here are the literal meanings of these sayings, which are familiar to all Koreans:
``east question west answer": When the answer has absolutely no relevance to the question, we use this phrase. I see this happening a lot during press conferences where politicians evade and avoid answering truthfully or factually. Their skills at skirting around the main points are champion level.
``horse ear east wind": This means a person doesn't pay attention to what others say and ignores them stubbornly. This saying is evidently credited by Lee Bai (701-762), one of the greatest Chinese poets known to Koreans as Lee Tae-baek. He lamented that no one seemed to pay any attention to what he was saying, no more than a horse listens to the wind. We will all surely benefit a lot if we heed the constructive criticism given by others. Teenage kids in either the east or the west seem to be masters at maintaining this behavior that make their parents tear out their hair.
``betray grace forget indebtedness": In this case, the four characters describes a person who betrays someone's kindness and forgets one's debt to the benefactor. There are so many people to whom I owe much kindness. I have discovered that one of the ways I can pay them back is for me to be kind to others. Since my parents are not around for me to express my thankfulness to them, I try to show my appreciation to the parents of my friends.
``dragon head with snake tail": A good beginning that peters out with a weak ending. I started calligraphy lessons in November 2008 with much enthusiasm. I hope I don't end this pursuit with an insignificant finish. I am amazed at the remarkable progress made by my classmates. Unlike me, they seem to spend time practicing calligraphy at home in between the lessons.
``four sides Cho (kingdom) song": This refers to a situation when there seems to be no way out. During a battle between Cho and Han in ancient China, a general of Cho tricked the general of Han to think he was surrounded by a multitude of Cho soldiers by singing their songs constantly. Korea must have felt that way during the economic melt-down that necessitated an IMF bailout in 1998.
I ran across 10 tips for health on the Internet that supposedly originated from Lee Yul-gok (1536-1584), a Joseon Dynasty's scholar, philosopher and a statesman whose mother Shin Saimdang (1504-1551) is the accomplished poet and painter whose face adorns the 50,000 won note. They happen to be all four Chinese character sayings and all with the formula of ``less X and more Y" (literally, ``little X, much Y"). They embody a great common sense approach to healthy living.
: less meat, more vegetables
: less food intake, more chewing
: less salt, more vinegar
: less clothing, more bathing
: less worry, more sleep
: less greed, more sharing
: less sugar, more fruit
: less car, more walking
: less speech, more action
: less anger, more laughter
I for one will do well if I can heed to the advice of less sugar, less salt and less food intake. I invite readers to enhance their wellbeing by following this 16th century scholar's advice that is amazingly applicable even now, some 450 years later. What do you need to decrease and what do you need to increase to attain a well-balanced life?
Hyon O'Brien, a former reference librarian in the United States, has returned to Korea after 32 years of living abroad. She can be reached at hyonobrien@gmail.com.