Re: How Inaccurate is History of Ma Diao or Mahjong?
- From: al <alee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:50:20 -0700 (PDT)
On Mar 13, 12:29 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 12, 6:12 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:"String of Cash" and "myriad of Cash" were derivatives from mental
On Jan 17, 10:10 pm, al <a...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:> NAQ (Never-asked-Question):
How Inaccurate is History of Ma Diao or Mahjong?
Interesting question...but no discussion on it.[..]
[ To people who discovered the mahjong,] Cash was
the only connection [recognizable]. [..].
exercise.
Lo's translation paper came much later than Himly's work. Where did
Can't help but wonder what text was being translated...I mean did Feng
or pan call those "strings of Cash"? or did Lo interpret it using
Himly's terminology?
Lo's "string" come from? That is my question.
A radical indicates the nature of an object as, 线 (thread or
[..]
I have mentioned elsewhere in a post. The Chinese language was
developed from pictographs. Words are abstracts of pictures or
symbols. Symbol have meanings embedded in them;
string)，and 绳 (rope or string) both words are characterized by the
radical on the left-half structure. One important point to note and
has been neglected is the fact that the radical comes first in writing
the words in both cases. That is an indication that the radical is a
prominent component of that particular object; namely it is what makes
the object.
Now here is something interesting. 索 (suo3) is a word that has the
same radical, but the radical is inside the structure and appears
last. Logic leads to a simple conclusion that there was a reason for
that.
If a component radical written first for a word indicates the
prominence of that radical, then when the same radical comes last in
another word, logic says it is not the key component in that word for
an object. I would think. 线, 绳, 索, all 3 words use a common radical in
their construction, the importance of the radical part in them is not
the same.
For Suo3, 索; has a thread inside as part of the object, whereas 绳 has
the thread symbol outside of the word construction showing what the
rope is made of.
A possible picture to mind of an object with a thread inside as part
of it looks like this; a bundle of 10 bamboo strips tied together as a
page in ancient writing. The bamboo strips would have burned-in
Chinese characters on them. Boos were made with pages as such in
ancient time.
[..]
Here is a good example, 同 = one mouth (voice inside a room or house.symbols of something else. Take the word or symbol for mouth, a
square; it can represent a person, a voice or the mouth itself with
lips and all.
The meaning is "same (voice)"
The word is used figuratively in "ten-thousand" ways.
As shown, a mouth is more than just meaning a physical part of a body.[..]
It could mean a person behind the mouth or a voice comes out of a
mouth.
The symbol for "mouth" = 口
Ranking position is a pictograph of an organization chart 品,
represented by a group of mouths.
Personal character 品 格 has implication of conduct and behavior of a
person in a group.
What is needed to feed a group of mouths among a population is 物品.
Thus one symbol can have multiple levels of metaphoric meaning.
So "ten-thousand" in Ma Diao or Mahjong does not necessarily mean
10,000' [in numerical value only].
[..]More than that even...
[..]
However, Rong, Pan and Feng had all missed the historical meaning of
Ma Diao, it seems to me, unless there were more to their manuals than
what was translated.
But then it is obvious. They did not agree on the meaning of the
game's name. That is an indication that there was no central idea to
Ma Diao. [..]
That means they did not have any written documentation to go by when
they wrote their instruction manuals which later translated by Lo.
Without written documents, how did Pan and Feng get their knowledge of
the game? Needless to say, they got it from the spoken words. Judging
by the numerous names of the game, mahjong, we know how inaccurate
spoken words could be.
I still think so.[..]
In view of evidence cited, I can say the Late Ming edition of Chinese
card game Ma Diao and its interpretation deviated from, and is
inaccurate and incomplete with reference to, its original intended [purpose and application].
Yet, where are the mahjong scholars and historians?
In plain language, the game lost its meaning before Late Ming period.
[intended] version. Ma Diao along with its translation became a game of
meaningless "strings" of Cash and without "purpose" or "application".
The symbol for [it] was done after it was "discovered" in the 19th century.
Unfortunately, the damage to Ma Diao is carried onto mahjong.
The history of Ma Diao and Mahjong is not accurate; yes, it's
inaccurate.
Cheers again....al
++++++++++++++
.
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