If you are a batty Chinese language learner or a bloodsucking vampire novel lover, you might like to read today’s extremely batty post:)
In most western culture, bats are considered evil, vampires related, for people think bats suck blood. Are bats really this bloodthirsty like vampires are? There are over one thousand different types of bats, but only a few feed on blood. Therefore, bats are not really that awful or gross as bat soup looks like. You can do image search on Google on bat soup, you will know how gross it can be. But be warned, you might throw up, so Google at your own risk.
Let’s learn somethings lucky and encouraging about bats from Chinese cultural perspective. Hope after you finish reading today’s post, you might consider to capture a bat as a pet, and the instruction of how to capture a bat will be provided.
[audio:http://www.chinesetolearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sentence3.mp3|titles=sentence]Learn mandarin – How to say ” In China, bats are regarded as auspicious creatures; however, some other cultures view bats as evil” in Mandarin. Zai4 zhong1 guo2, bian3 fu2 bei4 dang1 cheng2 shi4 ji2 xiang2 dong4 wu4, ran2 er2, you3 xie1 bie2 de5 wen2 hua4 ren4 wei2 bian3 fu2 shi4 xie2 e4 de5. 在中国，蝙蝠被当成是吉祥的动物。然而，有些别的文化认为蝙蝠是邪恶的。Zai4 （在 preposition word, in) zhong1 guo2 (中国 proper noun, China), bian3 fu2 (蝙蝠 noun, bats) bei4 (被 passive voice marker– are verb + ed or were + verb + ed) dang1 cheng2 (当成 verb phrase, regarded) shi4 (是 verb, are) ji2 xiang2 (吉祥 adjective, auspicious or lucky) dong4 wu4 (动物 noun, animal), ran2 er2 (然而 conjunction, however), you3 (有 verb, have) xie1 (些 adjective, some) bie2 (别adjective, other) de5 (的 particle, to connect attribute and the noun it modifies) wen2 hua4 (文化 noun, culture) ren4 wei2 (认为 verb, regard or view) bian3 fu2 (蝙蝠 noun, bats) shi4 (是 verb, are) xie2 e4 (邪恶 adjective, evil) de5 (的 particle, usually put after adjective, 动物 dong4 wu4 two characters are omitted here).
In ancient China, due to their weird appearance and their odd habitat, Chinese people did not like much about these wing flying rat like creatures. In the Three Kingdom (三国 San1 guo2) era, there was a famous poet, 曹植 Cao2 zhi4, wrote a poetic essay about bats. In the 蝙蝠赋 （Bian3 fu2 fu4， Poetic essay of bats）, Cao2 thought bats are the creatures with evil spirits, as well as with strange outward appearances (looking like a rat with a pair of wings) and odd habit (being hyper at nighttime and dozing upside down at daytime).
Nothing is everlasting, so was this judgmental view toward bats. It took time to develop a new trend — until around 16th or 17th centuries, the Chinese people started to see bats with an admiring eye. The reason behind this change is: the Chinese word for bat is 蝙蝠 bian3 fu2, and the 蝠 fu2 (bat) and 福 fu2 (good fortune, happiness) belong to same homophone (with same pronunciation but different characters). Around the 17th century bats began to be featured as a symbol of happiness. Nowadays, you can find bats in pictures, coins, sculptures, chinaware, architecture, embroidery, and furniture. Different numbers of bats have different meanings. Two bats means double luck (shuang1 fu2, 双福，双 means a pair of something） while five bats means Five Fortunes. What are your definition of five fortunes? If you are a video gamer, then your five fortunes probably are: Call of Duty, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, and Grand Theft Auto. If you are a sports fan, your five fortunes might be: a league pass, playing on your favorite team, autographs, being a neighbor to your favorite player, and VIP box seating’s to all of your favorite teams’ games! However, we are learning Chinese culture now, so, no matter how fancy those fortunes you might think they are, they will not be our further discussion.
The term 五福 wu3 fu2 comes from the Classic of History 书经 Shu1 jing1. According to the Classic of History:
第一福 (di4 yi1 fu2 the first good fortune) is “长寿” (chang2 shou4, long life)，第二福 (di2 er4 fu2, the second good fortune) is “富贵” (fu4 gui4, wealthy and valuable)，第三福 (di4 san1 fu2, the third good fortune) is “康宁” (kang1 ning2， healthy and peaceful), 第四福 (di4 si4 fu2, the fourth good fortune) is “好德” （hao4 de2, benevolent virtue)，第五福 (di4 wu3 fu2, the fifth good fortune) 是“善终” (shan4 zhong1 (good death, well died or good ending of life). All of above fortunes are easy to understand, just the last one needs a bit of explanation. 善终 shan3 zhong1 means a person died peacefully at the time he or she was supposed to die after a happy, fulfilled life. So, if a person died from a car wreck or a cancer or a heart attack, then that is not a 善终 (good death). Besides that, proper burial and careful observance of mourning practices are also part of 善终 . Fail to follow ritual might result in family disharmony, economic difficulty, or incurable diseases.
There are a few proverbs about 善终:
善始者必善其终。
Shan4 shi3 zhe3 bi4 shan4 qi2 zhong1.
The one who started well in the beginning definitely will do well in the end.
无善始则无善终.
Wu2 shan4 shi3 ze2 wu2 shan4 zhong1.
Without good start will lead to not good ending.
There is another proverb:
好的开始是成功的一半
Hao3 de5 kai1 shi3 shi4 cheng2 gong1 de5 yi2 ban4.
A good beginning is half done.
Wish you have good ending of everything in life: test result, job promotion, investment, choosing life partner and of course, good ending of comprehending today’s post too:)
As I mentioned in the beginning, the post is going to be very batty. Hope you will like the following interesting and informative videos about this special creature.
In case you developed a fondness for bats and want one as a pet —
How to capture a bat
You might want to catch the biggest one in the world —
Largest bat in the world
Lucy bats
.
BAT SENSE – by Nature Video
The very last, yes a song
Batman The Dark Knight Theme – Hans Zimmer
How to say batman in Chinese? We call him 蝙蝠侠 bian3 fu2 xia2.