Anyone who walks down the average street in Macau or Hong Kong can see that at the entrance to any building there are two altars with inscriptions. The inscriptions are always the same. Some of the altars are of exquisite construction and have a lamp which is kept lit all day and night.
You do not even have to go into the street to find these altars. In blocks of flats, there are altars along the corridors at the doors to the Chinese' flats. I noticed this only a short time ago on the sixth floor of the Wanchai building where I work. The inscriptions are vertical and are usually placed at floor level, one on each side of the entrance.
One says: MOEN XHU THE DES DSAOJ ZHEN 門口土地財
The other says: THEEN KOEN TZHY PHOC 天官賜福
When they see "DSAO ZHEN", many foreigners and perhaps even many Chinese might think that it means "God of wealth". They are wrong! Or do most Chinese think they are rich, or hope to become so?
Let us examine the meaning of these sayings with the aid of a good dictionary.
1st inscription:
Moen: House, dwelling-place, home.
Xhú: Entrance, door.
Thu: To see, to keep vigil, to guard.
Des: Responsibility, function, condition.
Dsaoj: Worthy, competent.
Zhen: Spirit, ghost.
In other words: "A spirit worthy of guarding the entrance to the house".
2nd inscription:
Theen: God.
Koen: Is who, is what, is the same.
Tzhy: To give.
Phoc: Happiness.
In other words: "God is the giver of happiness".
Here are two declarations of Chinese faith which are perfectly acceptable to a Christian. This was a very pleasant surprise for me but how was it that having arrived in China fifty five years ago, I only discovered this now? I had taken it for some kind of superstition. And also, there was no missionary who could explain it to me! The others all had the wrong idea, just like me. This is not fair, however, as Christ and His Church always strive to protect anything that is good for all good comes from God anyway. The best missionary starts off by ferreting out everything that is good in a people in order to understand and help them. Christ himself started off his experience on Earth by making Himself into a man just like us. This is the key which opens all doors.
Imagine that a missionary new to his posting walked down a street and, on noticing the writing by the doors and appreciating the expression of faith which it represented stopped and spoke to somebody about it. I am sure he would be invited into the house to sit down and there he would find spirits prepared to listen to him, opening their hearts to the Kingdom of God.
The Chinese believe in one God (in the North, people call him "our Great Father in Heaven") and in a happy afterlife. This belief is still held by the common people but it also exists under a superficial layer of agnosticism held by some intellectuals. This is a faith which originated in distant times and is constantly expressed in the Chinese classics. I should know for I spent fifteen years studying and translating all of them.
One aspect of the Chinese belief which is interesting and also very positive is that the classical texts themselves assume a very tight relationship between the living and the dead. God is believed to make relatives who have died responsible for taking care of their descendents. We are living in the 20th century, however, and a lot of water, both good and bad, has flowed under the bridge. At a time when many Christians have given up their faith, it is not surprising that the Chinese worship their ancestors less than before.
Song 262 in the Livro dos Cantares (Trad. Joaquim Guerra, S. J, Macau, 1979) states: "There is no creature like man/who imposes himself everywhere. "(2nd verse) "You do not have to stand/next to the cracks in the window... The arrival of the Spirits/ cannot be forecast/and still less disdained." (7th verse). Confucius said: "A gentleman behaves well, even when he is alone for even if the blessed spirits are not there, they can arrive at any moment". In the Cerimonial we read that: "At mealtimes, if the host makes an offering to the Spirits, the guest shall eat; if he makes no offering then the guest shall not take any food. Where etiquette is not followed, however good the food may be the gentleman does not help himself."
Let us now examine the classical expression which is still in use for "holy ghosts": KVEI-ZHEN 鬼神(
). The writing in parenthesis is classical script dating from before the Li-Se reforms at the end of the 2nd century BC.
There are Chinese characters which indicate a lot just by the way they are written. This is the case with the two characters we have here. The first character("kvei") is the outline of a dead man. With regard to the second character ("zhen") I shall quote what I wrote in my work on Confucius, Quadrivolume de Confúcio: "The character for "Zhen" shows on the left influences from above... and on the right the play between opposite (moreover, intimately linked) forces... in this world... Zhen are the Ghosts of the Forefathers or "Spirits" but in the sense of the human spirits of those who have passed away or "returned", to use the quaint classical Chinese expression."
A semantic analysis of these words, however, shall lead us to a greater understanding of their true meaning. Semantics are the message conveyed by structure of words themselves. The Chinese-Portuguese Dictionary of Universal Semantic Analysis is intended precisely for this kind of study of words with the added advantage that it is a common "key" for all languages. By using this dictionary, we can understand the reason why many words have different meanings.
Take, for instance, the case of the word "kevi" which can have four meanings:
1) (Gy. Ook + Vei. Oog) (
荽) = already + finished.
2) (Gy. 1gh + Vei. 1gi)(惎愇) = to announce, proclaim + saint, good.
3) (Gy. 9ad + Vei. 1de)(伎委) = to accompany, keep = charge.
4) (Gy. 8dg + Vei. 9oh)(怨諉) = envious + malign.
The last meaning is the "kvei" as in "mao kvei" ("demons"). This negative meaning has been imported via Buddhism and is thus not part of pue classical Chinese tradition.
The other three meanings all fit into the "kevi-Zhen" structure.
Let us look at the word "zhen" (zh + en). The dictionary offers several meanings: "spirits of the dead", "God or divine", "powerful", "supernatural". The semantic analysis is as follows:
1) (Zhe. 8df + Yn. 6dk)(姼夤) = dead relatives + worship, honours;
2) (Zhy. 9af + Yn. 8eh)(侍寅) = beside + company.
3) (Zhe. 3li + Jn. (a)(禔人) = happiness, peace + men, people.
4) (Zhy. 2he + Yn. 6dk(是夤) = truly + worshipping, immense.
The fourth combination is suitable for indicating "God". The other three also fit in well with the various meanings for "kvei".
Further confirmation of this can be found in the Khanghi Dictionary: "After dying, man becomes Spirit (Zhen"). "Those who watch over natural elements and forces are called Spirits or Ghosts (Zhen)").
"Kvei-Zhen" are thus the "Blessed Spirits or Saints”.
Now we shall see that the Portuguese word "Alma" also has the same semantic overtones as the Chinese:
AL: (Aow. 7dj) (奧) = to interior, spirit; function, service.
MA: a) (Mao. 8bq) (
) = to revive, animate.
b)(Mar. 9dg) (孖) = to unite, comrade.
c)(Mhãw. 4hg) (望) = to watch over, keep vigil.
The spirit is thus an "interior furnishing" with the purpose of providing life and maintaining harmony between soul and body.
EDITOR'S NOTE
In this text Father Guerra makes constant reference to his Chinese-Portuguese Dictionary of Universal Semantic Analysis. It may be of some assistance to the reader if we give an idea of what this reference work involves.
Far from producing a simple Chinese-Portuguese Dictionary, Father Guerra has also attempted to produce a code for a universal semantic analysis, a new and revolutionary "key" based on the roots of all the languages in the world.
His starting point is the idea that to those who study them and manage to get inside their secrets all languages display a "system superior to anything made by man, indicating that their creator is divine"; that there was a prehistoric, pre-babelish language which was the originator of the subsequent explosion of languages; that the Chinese are the direct descendents of Noah and thus the guardians of our primitive, common Mother-Language - "consequently, it can be understood that Chinese Phonetics and Vocabulary are the Semantic Key to all the languages in the world".
The codified notes which follow each phoneme refer to particular entries in the Chinese-Portuguese Dictionary of Universal Semantic Analysis (Joaquim A. de Jesus Guerra, SJ, Jesuítas Portugueses, Macau, 1981) organized according to the Key to Structural Semantics: "a list of 535 basic words containing one, two or three letters which, once they are taken back to their origins, are the basis for the thousands of sounds contained in Chinese phonetics. This dictionary has a list of the Chinese phonemes which can produce primary phonemes or phonetic derivatives with any semantic value. The dictionary has around eighteen thousand entries and introduces the true Chinese phonemes identified by their respective characters with all the possible meanings found in the best dictionaries in an attempt to provide a genuinely universal linguistic analysis ".
The dictionary is organized in alphabetical, etymological and tonal order. It also serves as a tool for analysing Chinese monosyllables ("which are almost all semantic couples")and a universal semantic analysis using Chinese radicals as its basis.
In order to explain to the reader how this functions, we shall offer a concrete example. The case we have chosen is that of the word "eye" and it must be borne in mind that we have followed exactly the same presentation as appears in the dictionary, translating only those words in parenthesis which in the original work offer a Portuguese translation of the meaning:
1) ÓCULO (Latin)/ = O +CU + LO: Hw. 9ah (to look) + Koes. 1al (to pry) + Lue. Onf (that which is visible).
2) OLHO (Portuguese) = O+LH+O: Ngú. Odi (to look, to see) + Le. 2rk (light, to show) + YO. 2Ka (organ).
3) OJO (Spanish) = O + JO: Yo. 2ka (organ, means) + Tshuy, 9kk (observation).
4) OEIL(French) = O+E+I+L: Yo. 2ka (organ) + Yh. 9ab (for + Is. 7ok (to see) Le. 2rk (light).
5) EYE (English) = E +Y +E: Gne. 9am (tool) + Yr. 2hi (light) + Yr. 9ke (to see).
6) OCCHIO (Italian) = Oc + Chi + O: Yug. 6hg (to be useful for) + Tzyh. 11 (to see) + Yo. 6gc (place, far off).
7) OFTHALMOS (Greek) = OF + Thal + Mós: Hoeb. Olc (apt) + Tsaou. 5hh (for) + Mog. 9k (to see, show).
8) AUGE (German) = Au + Gg: Hab, 5if (apt, for) + Ge. 4hh (to see).
9) NGAIN (Chinese) = Ngah. 2rd (Adapted, good for) + Xien. 9ag (to see).
10) BEGI (Basque(= BE+G+I): Be. 5oh (means for) + Ge. 4hh (to look, see) + Xhy. 4if(appearances, that which is offered).
11) (Dutch) o: OOG. Xue. 9kc (to look); O + Og: Yug. 6hg (organ for).
12) Swedish. OGA = O + E + G + A: Yo. 2ka (organ) + Yh. 9ab (for + Ge. 4hh (to look, see) + Hãw. 1sc (things, the environment).
13) Danish. OJE=O+E+JE: Yo. 2ka (organ) + Yh 9 ab (for) + Ge. 4hh (to see).
14) ESA )Tupí, Brazil) = E + SA: Yh. 9ab (for + Shauq. 9ig (to light up, to see)...
15) Nawi (Quechua) = Ne. 4eb (useful for) = Has. 9ki (to see) = Ue. Ohd (the environment, place).
16) MÉ (Japanese) = M + E: Mih. 5mc (to look, to admire) + Yai. 6 qd (things).
17) MATA (Timor, Philippines, indonesia) = MA + TA: Mhãw. 4hg (to see) + Tão. 2kh (around).
18) Bantu languages: DISO (Zambezia) = DI + SO: Thyx. 9o1 (to observe) + Shue. 4 go (that which is ahead).
LISO (Quimbundu, Luanda) = LI +SO: Le. 41f (light) + Shu. 5s (feeling for).
Translated from the Portuguese by Marie Imelda Macleod
*Entered the Jesuits in 1925 after graduating in philosophy. In 1933 he left for the Shiu-Hing Mission in China founded by Mateus Ricci in September, 1583. He was ordained in Shanghai where he completed a Theology Degree in the Belarmino Faculty. He has lived in China for tens of years and is regarded as the most important living Portuguese sinologists and one of the most important sinologists in the world. He has translated, and written critiques on, the principal Chinese classics, and is the author of Dicionário Chinês Português de Análise Semântica Universal (in Portuguese) and Structural Semantics (in English).
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