Chinese Etymology 心 - "Heart"

Greetings Scholars! I have a HEART to talk about the character 心 today! Hope you don't find it too disHEARTening!
Video is rated C for Cringe.
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And join the Chinese Merchants Guild www.patreon.com/user?u=69512462
Clips Used:
Rick and Morty
Music used:
Purple Bamboo Tune - Chinese Classical Folk Music
Dance of the Great Wall - ERotMK
Klaymen's Theme - Neverhood
Journey of the Gu Qin - ERotMK
Himalayan Echos - ERotMK
Dream of Red Chamber - Chinese Classical Folk Music
The X-Files Theme - The X-Files
#chineselanguage #chineseetymology #chineseculture #chinesecharacters

[@urotaion9879]

My 心 is on fire. Interpret as you wish

[@spiralingspiral72]

you should DEFINITELY cover 骨 (skull) ancient chinese people literally been postin' their W's in their oracle bones

[@equilibrum999]

yeah, they did invent W before W was a thing, althrough 山 kinda looks like W

[@garfieldh.8820]

@Long-Ya 骨 does indeed mean "bone" in Chinese, not "skull"

[@xXMACEMANXx]

YES! I'm so happy to see my request come full circle! I had suspected that it was originally more pictographic to a heart and had gotten more abstract over time, but I had no idea there was such a range of different ways people wrote it. Thank you so much for humoring me in my request! Fantastic final product as always!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

I'm glad you liked it! I was a bit surprised myself at how much material I could squeeze from a simple pictogram lol. I even had to reign myself in when it came to the cursive forms (various types of squiggly lines) and sino-xenic descendants (like the Chu Nom/Sawndip character 𦙦).... xD

[@xXMACEMANXx]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd I would love to see some Chu Nom content also!

[@Lazy_Fish_Keeper]

​@@SwedishSinologyNerd you and my high school Taiwanese Mandarin instructor would have made a great team! Her deep dives into character development made learning Chinese very ....memorable.

[@xiaq]

Shang people were infamous for human sacrifice ceremonies, 心 is far from the only character that gives you a glimpse of that

[@dolphin550]

This was very educational video. I will never see 心 the same...

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

That's what I'm all about, changing people's lives, one lame-ass meme at a time! xD

[@omarose7504]

Wow! Who knew? I loved this presentation. So out-of-the-usual and FUN! Thank you SSNerd. I'll keep watching.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

I'm absolutely chuffed you liked it! I was afraid I went overboard with the memes lol

[@omarose7504]

Not overboard at all. Amusing and light. As an American, I want to see and read from a different perspective around the world. Great job!@@SwedishSinologyNerd

[@AlejanderLong]

The logo of Xiaomi: "mi" resembles the character for "心" turned upside down.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Oh hey, it does! Do you know if that's intentional or not?

[@aaroncarson1770]

Oh i did not know this. This is my favourite esoteric fact after the symbol for "heaven" in Miqmaw being the inverted pentagram.

[@Frahamen]

I'm too scared to ask how the egg plant character looks like...

[@AlejanderLong]

具or 祖 or且

[@Frahamen]

@@AlejanderLong 目but the lowest stroke longer. Got it.

[@Garfield_Minecraft]

we've been drawing (Noodle So Fucking Wow) since the ancient time

[@aleksythehorse5984]

ღ

[@christophertito8118]

Now THIS is the kind of content I subscribed for. 非常感謝 😁🙏🏻

[@XinaiBeloved]

心💕

[@vampyricon7026]

First time watching, and you've gotten yourself a new subscriber! The level of detail the Shang have of the internal structure of the heart is probably because they're big on human sacrifices (人牲), which is something that isn't really known by many people! Although, I'd kvetch about how this isn't etymology but paleography, since it's not the word that's being discussed but how the word is written down. The etymology of 心, for the record, ultimately comes from some Trans-Himalayan word (I call it Trans-Himalayan because it's straight-up just a better name than Sino-Tibetan), with cognates in other languages like Written Burmese sam /θàɴ/ and Written Tibetan bsams. In Old Chinese, it was \*/səm/, probably passing through a Tang Dynasty form \*/sim³³/ before ending up as Beijing Mandarin xīn /ɕin⁵⁵/, Urban Cantonese /sɐm⁵⁵/, Huiyang Hakka /sim²³/, Shanghainese /ɕiŋ⁵³/, and others.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Welcome aboard! I'm glad you like the content despite the less than professional presentation ^^ While the Shang did practice human sacrifices (and I was about to make an Apocalypto/Temple of Doom cutaway joke but decided against it.... I'll use it in the Shang history vid instead =P) I'm not sure if it was of the very graphic kind that would give them a good idea of what human innards look like, some oracle bone characters hint at various forms of executions but I haven't found any source talking about the sacrifices in any detail.... As for the etymology, I agree but I thinkpeople are more interested in the visual aspect of Chinese characters rather than the sound changes (tho I will be adding more sound changes in videos where it seems relevant, like the upcoming video on 打). The biggest problem I have is I can't find a good source for reconstructed Old Chinese (I like the Zhengzhang system because it's at least pronouncable, but Baxter-Sagart seem to be more accurate, though their reconstructions approach the Lovecraftean at times with regards to pronuncability. For this vid in particular, I saw a hint on wiktionary that it might have been cognate with 念 which would be interesting as a possible noun-verb split in an original word... but because wiktionary doesn't cite their damn sources I couldn't follow it up and decided to cut it out for brevity. Believe me, I'd love to spend another 10 minutes each video tracing a words sound change from PST to OC to MC to modern Chinese languages as well as how the words appear as loans in other languages (Vietnamese would feature heavily lol) but because I'm not fluent in all of those languages and have little confidence in doing the pronunciations justice (caught some flack for my attempt in the video on 茶), I have to pick my battles so to speak. I'll try to add more actual etymology in my vids but probably nothing super elaborate, since I also wanna try keeping to a video every 14 days schedule. Sorry about the text wall, and thanks again for the comment and for being a subscriber! ^^

[@ChristianJiang]

Yess! We tend to have a very linear conception of the evolution of Chinese characters. 篆字 became 隶书 which became 楷书… But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Bamboo slips show how Chinese used to be written during a time when 篆字 was still carved. And that slowly turned into the clerical script, whose cursive then spawned 草书… I wonder whether the ancient Chinese also made fun of the shape of 心 lol, that’s so obvious come on! Btw I’m glad I found this channel! I’m going to binge watch all your vids! EDIT: I just realised that those were Chu bamboo scrolls. So I guess since Qin Shihuang standardised the characters, those can’t be the precursors to later clerical script forms. Nevermind! EDIT (x2): 5:28 Straight and rigid 💀

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

I actually want to make a video "deboonking" some common myths about Chinese script held even by Chinese, chief among them is the linear view that for example often assume that Hanzi were somehow invented for writing on turtle shells (when all evidence points to a wealth of bamboo/wood slip literature that has tragically rotted away over thousands of years). Heck, even many simplified forms were invented centuries and sometimes millenia before the script reform... It is entirely possible that Chu forms influenced later forms, because many forms conventionally labeled as "Chu" were often used in several states, only we have much less evidence from them. Research has also shown that the Qin standardization was (pirate voice) "moar guidelines than actual rules", at best only enforced in the state buearocracy, which is why Xu Shen could collect so many WArring States characters even 400 years later, they survived on the grassroots level. Also, I'm glad you like the vids! Maybe not binge the earliest videos cause they're quite atrocious ^^; I plan on remaking at least the heaven and earth vids sometime in the future...

[@ChristianJiang]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd When I went to a museum in Gansu, I was told about 隶变 and everything, which was so interesting as it proves that the Chinese script evolved more gradually. A breath of fresh air, considering that I’ve heard from some Chinese people that 隶书 was invented by a single man (I think there’s a story like that). And probably the fact that thinking in terms of drastic breaks is often far from the truth can be applied to Chu vs. Qin Shuhuang characters too. Our collective imaginary has led us to think that book-burning has wiped out all other forms of Chinese writing, but language writing and habits often manage to slip through top-down imposition. I’ll watch your old videos first then! And then get to the more recent ones, so that instead of noticing a drop in quality I’ll witness an increase instead (but I’m sure they’re very high quality from the very first one, and anyway I’m here to learn!).

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@ChristianJiang Dang, I need to try go to that museum, sounds interesting! I think the Chinese have a strong love of.... what's the best word? "Lionized history" maybe? That is they often approach history not necessarilyin a factual way but what is "true". So they will attribute inventions to a single person even though the actual chain of events may have been much more complicated, because it makes history tidy and orderly, and also makes for a good story. Like Cang Jie inventing writing: the minister Cang Jie was ordered to create writing by the Son of Heaven, and went out into the world, and when he saw the footprints of a Qilin he got the idea of using symbols to represent words because the Qilin's footprints were unique to it and could serve as a symbolic representation of the creature itself.

[@ChristianJiang]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd Oh yeah, I know that story! Somehow one person created the entirety of the writing system lol, but I’ll cut them some slack coz that’s an origin myth, and many cultures have them… A similar phenomenon was by me witnessed at the very same museum in Gansu I mentioned in the previous comment. Basically taking ancient history and projecting it onto modern national concepts. They use many fancy nouns to describe ancient China and modern China, but why are these features (and not others) embodied by some ruins in the desert?? Mystery… An extract from one of the descriptions in the museum: “Vestiges of the past remain on the two passes, and the Great Wall remains vigilant and vigorous. The passes and the Great Wall represent the essential spirit of diligence, wisdom, bravery, tenacity, inclusiveness and confidence within the Chinese chizen. These historical monuments embody the Chinese people’s patriotism and devotion to peace, harmony unity and self-improvement, along with the strong force of vitality, cohesion and creativity. These rational characters and nationalist spirit have pushed for the history of the Chinese nation and the Chinese civilization and also become the force behind the great rejuvenation of the Chinese dream.”

[@k.c1126]

If your other videos are this much fun, I might subscribe 😁😁😁

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Unfortunately I can't make any promises, but I do my best to try and make my hyperfixation engaging to my viewers! xD

[@rule.burmannia]

1:04 The original heart is more similar to the actual. Why t fdid they changed to that 1:18 kind of p-like symbol? Thank goodness 5:31 they finally changed back to heart-like heart 心. I'm already interested in 漢字, I've subscribed you and want to learn more!

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

As for the why, I'm lik 89% sure it was due to esthetics (or "vibes" in zoomer speak xD), most of our examples from this period are from bronze ware, which were pretty expensive to make. So whoever comissioned the pieces were probably like "I want it to say THIS on my awesome expensive tripod and make it look swanky AF" and the rest is history. The end result of this trend was the "worms and birds" style where either the lines were all drawn very squiggly (like worms or tadpoles) or had random bird-features added to them. These eements had zero value in conveying the meaning of the text and were really just there to make the text look more awesome, like using a nifty font on your PPT presentation ^^

[@georgedeng8646]

Really gives meaning to the saying "I love you with all my heart"

[@littlefishbigmountain]

Yeah… Those cannot all be a coincidence… No way generations and generations of men never noticed anything funny about that character 😅

[@Tursiopstruncatus]

Hey, Emperor music! Haha

[@aroacecreature]

I don't even study Chinese, and still it was a pretty interesting video!

[@justaregularslitherwing]

Idk if you wanna take more requets but you should look into the origins of 且, I already know that it depicts some type of sacrificial altar and was the original form of 俎 but I think some scholars mayyyyy have interpreted **very** differently in the past (⁠ ͡⁠°⁠ ͜⁠ʖ⁠ ͡⁠°⁠)

[@AC58401]

♥

[@koicc1192]

Wow it's always really amazing the story of the Chinese characters and their evolution. But i'd like to know the story of the colors and their evolution for representing something so abstract as "oh hell yeah that says red" --> 赤

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

There is a video on the five Chinese prime colors (青、赤、黃、白（素）、玄（黑）) in the works! Because it deals with several words and characters, as well as Chinese color theory, it's gonna be a long one so it might still be a while...

[@lyuktentiok]

Hmm my name has some interesting characters being 陸天篤 陸 and 篤 may have some interesting etymologies

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Oh hey, that's a good name! Earth-Heaven-Earth, very stable and dependable but with enough Yang to not be sluggish! And I can for sure cover both those characters eventually ^^

[@KuraSourTakanHour]

I started thinking about 小 and how it means small, and I noticed the central line between the 2 diagonal almost looks like it's breaking something in two? So from the breaking we get 2 smaller lines and we can reach the meaning of "small"... unless it has another explanation

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Well, they’re prolly upcoming videos but 小 and 少 are related characters that seem to depict small grains of…. Something. Could be sand (origin of 沙？) but might just as well be grains, it’s a bit of a mystery :)

[@karkasos]

Amaxing... o_O

[@user-sn8oe4ic6w]

心

[@RarelyAChump]

Noice

[@CXu-hd5nb]

Where are you😭😭

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Here I am! xD kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWnGnWifndeSeas

[@equilibrum999]

would the name of your character be in chinese as '虫木'?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Haha, it’s actually 艾 or the Artimisia plant, aka mugwort aka wormwood, it’s a common herb used in TCM esp. for moxibustion

[@equilibrum999]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd aha, 谢谢 for explaining.

[@gustamanpratama3239]

🫀->❤->💔->❤️‍🩹

[@steve5123456789]

Same logic applies to Japanese with this stuff right?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Largely yes but with some exceptions/glitches caused by applying a monosyllabic script to a polysyllabic, completely unrelated language, as well as some localizations/adaptions made by the Japanese themselves. One day I'll have do a dedicated video on Japanese Kokuji...

[@steve5123456789]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd But the Etymology stuff is mostly the same just with some tact on meanings sometimes?

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@steve5123456789 Yup

[@balkanexplorer6092]

[@OmegaTaishu]

Bruh 心 just got so much more loaded with meaning, but now 忄makes much more sense. Thanks so much for the vid~

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Thank YOU for watching! ^^ I was afraid I went overboard with the dank memes and d*ck jokes lol