Chinese traditional character for Wu
In the
Sinosphere
The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The Sinosph ...
, the word , realized in Japanese and Korean as ' and in
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...
as , meaning 'to lack' or 'without', is a key term in the vocabulary of various East Asian philosophical and religious traditions, such as
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and
Taoism
Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ' ...
.
Etymology
The
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
* () is
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
with the
Proto-Tibeto-Burman *, meaning 'not'. This reconstructed root is widely represented in
Tibeto-Burman languages
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spe ...
; for instance, means 'not' in both Tibetan and Burmese.
Pronunciations
The
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...
pronunciation of (; 'not', 'nothing') historically derives from the
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...
, the
Late Han Chinese ''muɑ'', and the reconstructed
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
*.
Other
varieties of Chinese
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...
have differing pronunciations of zh, c=無. Compare
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
zh, j=mou4, labels=no; and
Southern Min
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...
(
Quanzhou
Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...
) and (
Zhangzhou
Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen.
Nam ...
).
The common Chinese word () was adopted in the
Sino-Japanese,
Sino-Korean, and
Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies. The Japanese
kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
has readings of or , and a (Japanese reading) of . It is a fourth-grade kanji.
The Korean is read (in
Revised,
McCune–Reischauer
McCune–Reischauer romanization ( ) is a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer.
According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the American Army Map Service to ad ...
, and
Yale
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
romanization systems). The Vietnamese
Hán-Việt pronunciation is or .
Meanings
Some English translation equivalents of or are:
*"no", "not", "nothing", or "without"
[Baroni, Helen Josephine. ]
The illustrated encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism
', p. 228.
*"nothing", "not", "nothingness", "un-", "is not", "has not", "not any"
[Fischer-Schreiber, I., Ehrhard, R. K. & Diener, M. S. (1991). ''The Shambhala dictionary of Buddhism and Zen'' (M. H. Kohn, Trans.). Boston: Shambhala. P. 147.]
*# Pure awareness, prior to experience or knowledge. This meaning is used especially by the
Chan school of Buddhism.
*# A negative.
*# Caused to be nonexistent.
*# Impossible; lacking reason or cause.
*#
Nonexistence; nonbeing; not having; a lack of, without.
*# The "original nonbeing" from which being is produced in the ''
Tao Te Ching
The ''Tao Te Ching'' () or ''Laozi'' is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. The oldest excavated por ...
''.
[Muller, A. Charles, ed. ''Digital Dictionary of Buddhism'' (Edition of 2010 July 31) page: "''non-existent''"](_blank)
Note this quoted definition is abridged.
In modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean it is commonly used in combination words as a
negative prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
to indicate the absence of something (no ..., without ..., un- prefix), e.g., zh, c=无-线, p=wú-xiàn// () for "wireless". In
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...
, it is an
impersonal existential verb meaning "not have".
The same character is also used in Classical Chinese as a
prohibitive particle
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
, though in this case it is more properly written zh, c=毋, p=wú.
Characters
In traditional
Chinese character classification
Chinese characters are generally logographs, but can be further categorized based on the manner of their creation or derivation. Some characters may be analysed structurally as compounds created from smaller components, while some are not decom ...
, the uncommon class of
phonetic loan characters involved borrowing the character for one word to write another near-
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...
. For instance, the character originally depicted a winnowing basket (), and scribes used it as a graphic loan for (, "his; her; its"), which resulted in a new character () (clarified with the
bamboo radical ) to specify the basket.
The character () originally meant "dance" and was later used as a graphic loan for , "not". The earliest graphs for pictured a person with outstretched arms holding something (possibly sleeves, tassels, ornaments) and represented the word "dance; dancer". After meaning "dance" was borrowed as a loan for meaning "not; without", the original meaning was elucidated with the radical , "
opposite feet" at the bottom of , "dance".
''Mu-kōan''
''
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' (Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen mast ...
'', a 13th-century collection of
Zen
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
''
kōan
A ( ; ; zh, c=公案, p=gōng'àn ; ; ) is a narrative, story, dialogue, question, or statement from Chan Buddhism, Chinese Chan Buddhist lore, supplemented with commentaries, that is used in Zen Buddhism, Buddhist practice in different way ...
'', uses the word ''wu'' or ''mu'' in its title (''Wumenguan'' or ''Mumonkan'' 無門關) and first kōan case ("Zhao Zhou's Dog" 趙州狗子). Chinese Chan calls the word ''mu'' 無 "the gate to enlightenment". The Japanese
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school, Linji s ...
classifies the Mu Kōan as ''hosshin''
発心 "resolve to attain enlightenment", that is, appropriate for beginners seeking ''
kenshō
Kenshō (Rōmaji; Japanese and classical Chinese: 見性, Pinyin: ''jianxing'', Sanskrit: dṛṣṭi- svabhāva) is an East Asian Buddhist term from the Chan / Zen tradition which means "seeing" or "perceiving" ( 見) "nature" or "essence" ...
'' "to see the Buddha-nature".
Case 1 of ''The Gateless Gate'' reads as follows:
The koan originally comes from the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu'' ( zh, t=趙州真際禪師語錄), ''The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Zhao Zhou'', koan 132:
The ''
Book of Serenity'' ( zh, c=從容録 , p=Cóngróng lù), also known as the ''Book of Equanimity'' or more formally the ''Hóngzhì Chánshī Guǎnglù'' ( zh, c=宏智禪師廣錄), has a longer version of this koan, which adds the following to the start of the version given in the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu''.
Origins
In the original text, the question is used as a conventional beginning to a question-and-answer exchange (
mondo). The reference is to the ''
Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
The ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'' (Sanskrit; , ; Vietnamese: ''Kinh Đại Bát Niết Bàn'') or ''Nirvana Sutra'' for short, is an influential Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhist Sutra, scripture of the Buddha-nature class. The original ...
'' which says for example:
Koan 363 in the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu'' shares the same beginning question.
Interpretations
This koan is one of several traditionally used by
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school (, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng), named after Linji Yixuan (Romaji: Rinzai Gigen, died 866 CE) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism, along with Sōtō and Ōbaku. The Chinese Linji school, Linji s ...
to initiate students into Zen study,
and interpretations of it vary widely.
Hakuun Yasutani of the
Sanbo Kyodan
is a lay Zen school derived from both the Soto ( Caodong) and the Rinzai ( Linji) traditions. It was renamed Sanbo-Zen International in 2014. The term ''Sanbo Kyodan'' has often been used to refer to the Harada-Yasutani zen lineage. However, ...
maintained that:
This koan is discussed in Part 1 of Hau Hoo's ''The Sound of the One Hand: 281 Zen Koans with Answers''. In it, the answer of "negative", mu, is clarified as although all beings have potential
Buddha-nature
In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature ( Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within ...
, beings who do not have the capacity to see it and develop it essentially do not have it. The purpose of this primary koan to a student is to free the mind from analytic thinking and into intuitive knowing. A student who understands the nature of his question would understand the importance of awareness of potential to begin developing it.
Yoshitaka and Heine
The Japanese scholar made the following comment on the two versions of the koan:
A similar critique has been given by Steven Heine:
Non-dualistic meaning
In
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Maynard Pirsig (; September 6, 1928 – April 24, 2017) was an American writer and philosopher. He is the author of the philosophical books ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inq ...
's 1974 novel ''
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', ''mu'' is translated as "no thing", saying that it meant "unask the question". He offered the example of a
computer circuit using the
binary numeral system
A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols for the natural numbers: typically "0" ( zero) and "1" ( one). A ''binary number'' may als ...
, in effect using ''mu'' to represent
high impedance
In electronics, high impedance means that a point in a circuit (a node) allows a relatively small amount of current through, per unit of applied voltage at that point. High impedance circuits are low current and potentially high voltage, whereas ...
:
The word features prominently with a similar meaning in
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945) is an American cognitive and computer scientist whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, Strange loop, strange ...
's 1979 book, ''
Gödel, Escher, Bach
''Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid'' (abbreviated as ''GEB'') is a 1979 nonfiction book by American cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter.
By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Esc ...
''. It is used fancifully in discussions of
symbolic logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
, particularly
Gödel's incompleteness theorems
Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that are concerned with the limits of in formal axiomatic theories. These results, published by Kurt Gödel in 1931, are important both in mathematical logic and in the phi ...
, to indicate a question whose "answer" is to either un-ask the question, indicate the question is fundamentally flawed, or reject the premise that a
dualistic answer can be given.
"Mu" may be used similarly to "
N/A" or "not applicable," a term often used to indicate that the question cannot be answered because the conditions of the question do not match the reality. An example of this concept could be with the
loaded question
A loaded question is a form of complex question that contains a controversial assumption (e.g., a presumption of guilt).
Such questions may be used as a rhetorical tool: the question attempts to limit direct replies to be those that serve the qu ...
"Have you stopped beating your wife?", where "mu" would be considered the only respectable response.
The programming language
Raku uses "Mu" for the root of its type hierarchy.
See also
*
Falsum
"Up tack" is the Unicode name for a symbol (⊥, \bot in LaTeX, U+22A5 in Unicode) that is also called "bottom", "falsum", "absurdum", or "the absurdity symbol", depending on context. It is used to represent:
* The truth value false (logic), 'fal ...
*
''Ma'' (negative space)
*
Many-valued logic
Many-valued logic (also multi- or multiple-valued logic) is a propositional calculus in which there are more than two truth values. Traditionally, in Aristotle's Term logic, logical calculus, there were only two possible values (i.e., "true" and ...
*
Muji
, or is a Japanese retailer which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-brand" policy. ...
, a Japanese clothing retailer self-styled as "no-brand"
*
Mushin (mental state) - Japanese concept of "no mind"
*
Mokusatsu
*
Neti neti
*
Not even wrong
"Not even wrong" is a phrase used to describe pseudoscience or bad science. It describes an argument or explanation that purports to be scientific but uses faulty reasoning or speculative premises, which can be neither affirmed nor denied and th ...
*
Nothingness
Nothing, no-thing, or no thing is the complete absence of ''anything'', as the opposite of ''something'' and an antithesis of everything. The concept of nothing has been a matter of philosophical debate since at least the 5th century BCE. Earl ...
*
Wronger than wrong
*
Wu (awareness)
''Wu'' () is a concept of awareness, consciousness, or spiritual enlightenment in the Chinese folk religion and Chinese Buddhism.
Chinese Buddhism
The term originally appeared Chinese Buddhism as a shortened form of ''juéwù'' (), a term seen ...
- Chinese concept of enlightenment
*
Wuji (philosophy)
In Chinese philosophy, ''wuji'' (, meaning 'without limit') originally referred to infinity. In Neo-Confucianism, Neo-Confucian cosmology, it came to mean the "primordial universe" prior to the "Taiji (philosophy), Supreme Ultimate" state of bei ...
*''
Wu wei
''Wu wei'' () is a polysemous, ancient Chinese concept expressing an ideal dao, practice of "inaction", "inexertion" or "effortless action", as a state of personal harmony and free-flowing, spontaneous Improvisation, creative manifestation. In a ...
'', a term in
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy (Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 中国哲学; Traditional Chinese characters, traditional Chinese: 中國哲學) refers to the philosophical traditions that originated and developed within the historical ...
Notes
References
Citations
Works cited
*
External links
Four myths about Zen Buddhism's "Mu Koan" Steven HeineThe Koan Mu John Tarrant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mu (Negative)
Zen
Kōan
Chinese words and phrases
Japanese words and phrases
Korean words and phrases
Kyōiku kanji