The Differences between Chinese and Western Cultures based on the Animal Images in Idioms

Zhao Meiyan

The Differences between Chinese and Western Cultures based on the Animal Images in Idioms

Zhao Meiyan*

Chinese idioms, like English proverbs, are a language form, with a certain philosophical motive and ideological basis, given meaning through people’s lifelong experiences. Throughout the ages, a wide range of beliefs, customs and natural scenery have been condensed into text forms in both Chinese idioms and English proverbs that display certain aspects of the essence of the two cultures. This paper focuses on the study of animal images in idioms, and elaborates on the different interpretations of specific images caused by the differences in history, regions, customs, and values of the two cultures. The purpose of this research is to provide a breakthrough more relevant to students who devote themselves to the study and research of Chinese and English languages and culture from the perspective of cultural contrast and analysis, so as to make a more thorough understanding of differences between Chinese and Western customs, culture and ideology. Therefore, language translations and cultural communications can be improved through a more accurate understanding of the Chinese and Western cultures.

idiom interpretation; animal images; culture differences

The idiom plays an important role in the development of Chinese language for its rich linguistic expressiveness and cohesive content. Chinese idioms that take animals as the content or implications are everywhere. Throughout the development of the natural world and the evolution of history, animals and humans have been in close contact and many creatures have been acknowledged to have high intelligence. In the long history human development and self–growth of mankind ever since the ancient times, animals lived independently in nature but were observed and influenced by humans. Many animals were even closely relatedto and complemented human living conditions and habits. Their images and living habits were often given more meaning through human observations to validate a philosophy of life, behavioral attitudes and understandings. However, due to different cultural backgrounds and historical accumulation between different nationalities, the ancestral cognitions which assigned emotions and intelligence to animals produced fundamental differences, which lead to the circumstance that the same animal was assigned different characteristics and meanings, sometimes even contradictory implications under the different cultural backgrounds between China and Western World.

In the early 1990s, some language researchers calculated the idioms with animal image involved in theChinese Idiom DictionaryandA Comprehensive Dictionary of English Idioms and Phrasesfrom the aspects of animal types and idiom numbers.

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Statistics in the table show the idioms for animals in the Chinese and Western language vary widely. English as the representative, are not even. The idiom numbers of pig, ox and some other animals are comparatively even in Chinese and Western idioms, but the numbers for mouse, wolf, dog and some other animals have wide gaps between Chinese and Western idioms. The variance in the idiom numbers directly reflects the emotional or habitual differences between the two ethnic groups relative to the same animal.[1]Therefore, the question is whether we should preserve the Chinese image of these animals during the process of language translation and cultural transmission or conform to the Western culture perspective and avoid changes in the images of the animals. This paper will give the most ingenious and reasonable methods for understanding the Chinese and Western images of the animals in the idioms, so as to explore the connotations and differences and similarities of Chinese and Western culture more effectively.

1. Differences in Idiom Expressions Caused by the Differences of History and Culture

The history and culture of a society are the cultural synthesis accumulated and formed in the process of social development through continuous summary and integration. It includes not only such cultural carriers and forms as art and architecture which can be touched by the descendants today, but also the thinking habits, moral and ethical concepts formed through thousands of years of development that have penetrated into the collective spirit of a nation. These different accumulation effects are destined to generate different evaluations of the same animal and brew different implications in the long course of development. For example, Jingshengtunquan, a Chinese idiom, is a modest designation for one’s own children. With the very common animal in daily life “tun,” the pig, one makes metaphors with his children to achieve the purpose of modesty. In Sketches of Idle Pleasure, a work by Li Yu, a dramatist of the Qing Dynasty, he wrote “I already have more than one child,although they are not good enough, butican enjoy my life after years with their company, soiwon’t confront with the situation like the poor families that have no children.” This kind of meaning manifests people’s modesty on their children, but not the denial of their ability, which is a vivid embodiment of the self–cultivation and self–sustaining ideas of Chinese traditional culture in language, the culture carrier. However, in English, pig is often used to describe a person who is in dilemma. In the concept of westerners, pigs are less animated and more stupid animals. When it is used to describe people, it is very appropriate to explain people’s clumsy nature in a derogatory sense like, “pig in the middle,” referring to people in a dilemma or being criticized by two opposite parties.[2]There are some other English expressions that give pig the clumsy or unpleasant meanings, like “when pigs fly.” We all know pig cannot fly, but under the bellowing context, somebody says: “Do you think Emma will quit her job now that she’s pregnant,” some other reply, “Yeah, when pigs fly!” Then the expression here obviously means that it is impossible, or at least highly unlikely, for Emma to quit her job. The fact, pig cannot fly, is used here to express the groundless statement or impossibility. There are still some other examples like “buy a pig in a poke”(buy something hastily without seeing the real goods, which implies one will suffer a loss) “This place is a pigsty” (this place is in a mess) and others. These are the unpleasant implied meanings of pig in English slang. From the historical and cultural development point of view, this is basically the same as the mainstream meaning of animals in Chinese idioms, but also occasionally with some examples that differs with the common thinking. In fact, there are still some exceptions for Chinese people to use“pig” to express the meaning of indecent. Some scholars have suggested that people will use “pig”as a modest designation for a child not only for the fact that it is a common animal at home, but also for the interpretation of “pig” as the implicit meaning of “dragon” in the eyes of ancient people. The alias of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is Liu Zhi, whereas Zhi was another word for pig at that time. Therefore the implication of “pig refers to dragon” in ancient Chinese culture is understandable. However, in Western culture, it is hard to find any examples that pig is given such an amazing or even holy implication as dragon.

Cheshire Cat

In addition, the differences in the images of the same animal in Chinese and Western idioms may also be based on the specificity of allusion generated under different historical and cultural backgrounds. Taking cat as an example, there is an idiom in Chinese called “cat crying over the loss of mouse,” which describes the hypocrites, pretended compassion, and even treacherous implications. This is mainly based on the properties of cats and mice that they are natural enemies, thus an anthropomorphic interpretation results. However, there is an idiom concerned with cat in the West,“grin like a Cheshire cat,” which is translated into the well–known “smirk” under English context. At first glance people will get puzzled and do not know how this is derived. Actually, it derives fromthe classic plot ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, the famous English fairy tale, where the protagonist Alice meets a smirking cat, the “Cheshire cat” as the Duchess said, in the kitchen. But it is interesting that Alice has never seen a cat laugh before, so it does give her a surprise to see the smirking cat in the Duke’s kitchen. Therefore, the saying “grin like a Cheshire cat” becomes popular with the popularity ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland. But if “grin like a Cheshire cat” is used to describe a person, it is always in a derogatory sense. Therefore the extended meaning of the literal meaning comes into being in the sense of smirking.[3]Here the cat is in no sense conveying treacherous or pretended compassion but is instead a clumsy and silly image. Interestingly, by contrast we can easily find that although the images of “cat” in “cat crying over the loss of mouse”and “grin like a Cheshire cat” differ in emotional meanings, but neither of them enjoys a lovely or positive image.

2. Differences in Idiom Expressions Caused by Differences of Geographic Culture

There is a certain degree of relevance and cross between geographic culture and historical culture. Strictly speaking, geographic culture is a kind of regional cultural patterns formed by the natural environment or geographical conditions, which is influenced and constrained by the historical culture to a certain degree. It is mainly manifested in the differences of custom metaphor and aesthetic habits. Taking dog as an example, the most closely–related and intimate animal in the animal kingdom to human beings, it often serves in the role of “pet” or“gatekeeper.” However, few images of the dog are“commendatory” interpretations in Chinese idioms, some are even vulgar. There are many idioms with“dog” expressing mercy and compassion in the languages of the Western world, like “l(fā)ove me, love my dog” (love for a person extends even to the crows on his roof), “Let sleeping dogs lie” (Stay out of trouble, don’t make changes), He is a lucky dog (he is very lucky), “Every dog has his day” (everyone will have a good day someday) and so on.[4]Of course, the dog does play a less lovely role in many English proverbs, like “hang–dog look” (wear a sad face), “die like a dog” (come to a sticky end). However the proportion of such negative images in English proverbs is much less than those in Chinese idioms. There are so many Chinese idioms that give a negative image of dog with ungraceful or vulgar images, like “crow like a cock and snatch like a dog,” “A dog will leap over a wall in desperation,” “be as cruel as wolf and dog,” “evil associates as foxes and dogs” and so on. This is definitely the specific manifestation of the differences of animal image due to historical and geographical reasons.ibelieve that different feelings regarding the same animal based on the different geographic environments of China and the Western world shows the intrinsically different relationship between the “user” and“partner.” Strictly speaking, this reflects the different understandings and emotional associations of people for the same kind of animal within different geographic cultures, so contradicting characteristics will be derived for the same animal.

North Turtle in the legendary“Four Gods”is the image of the combination of turtle and snake.

Another example is the turtle, an animal with sacred and rich interpretation in the geographical culture of China. InInvestiture of the Gods, the mythological novel by Xu Zhonglin from the Ming Dynasty, many immortals use turtles as their epithets (like Guilingshengmu). This gives a clear manifestation that turtle, the representative of longevity and immortality, enjoys a non–mortal concept and meaning in the geographic story of the Chinese Nation. “Although turtle lives long, its days have their allotted span” inTurtles Live Long, a famous work by Cao Cao, turtle also refers to longevity and long life. Turtle shares a similar meaning in most idioms, like Guihexieling, Guilonglinfeng and so on. From the artistic point of view, many of the extant buildings, temples and palaces have carved “turtle” images, which give expectations of house guarding, evil avoiding and longevity. Even the North Turtle in the legendary“Four Gods” is also the image of the combination of turtle and snake.[5]But on the other hand, in some specific contexts, “turtle” also has the meaning of irony, curse or insult. These kinds of meaning are only used in China. In Western society, turtle only refers to a slow–moving, not very beautiful animal, which enjoys a very low sense of existence. Therefore, it will neither be used as words of criticism or insult, nor will it be given a sacred or long–term significance, and even rarely used in the context of rich literature to participate in cultural expression. Such conclusions can be draw based on the above mentioned examples. “Turtle”appropriately demonstrates the difference of thinking characteristics, that is the characteristics associated with certain animals in a geographic culture can hardly been seen in the other geographic culture, or the implications of the same animal are completely different in two cultural contexts.

3. Differences in Idiom Expressions Caused by Differences of Custom Culture

Custom culture, formed by the joint effect of geography, history and society, is a kind of cultural pattern with distinct national implications. Eating habits, weddings and funerals, holiday customs all belong to this category. Custom culture often invisibly influences cognition, awareness and behavior in people with different custom cultural backgrounds. Custom cultural differences will also indirectly affect people in their opinions on certain phenomenon and their thinking strategies and methods. Chinese and Western peoples are also very likely to have different cognitions on idiom meaning and images of the same animal due to such an inevitable subjectivity.

For example, the United Kingdom has a proverb called “Money makes the mare go,” the translation of this proverb is very similar to the Chinese saying“money can make ghost grinding” in implication and structure, which implies a humorous and ironic meaning while showing “money is everything.”However, through a careful observation of the idioms, it is not hard to find that the “ghost” equals to “mare.” In Chinese, the expression of “ ‘ghost’grinding” aims to show the difficulty of task completion, which is based on the characteristic of“ghost,” an imaginary role that is hard to deal with and control in Chinese culture. However, in Western culture, “mare” is used to take this hard task, which is different from the image of horse, inspirational and invigorating in Chinese culture. The image of horse shows a sense of supreme and is insurmountable in Western culture. Actually this derives from a customthat concerns horses in Western society. There is an English idiom, “be on your high horse.”[7]The implication is that someone is angry with the one who is on the horse acting in an overbearing manner and not showing due respect. Therefore, the question is that is there any direct relationship between “on the high horse” and respect.

Another example is the“ox” image which appears repeatedly in Chinese idioms.

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In many historical documents and videos recorded of Western society, it is not hard to find that Western society holds a special feeling about a gentleman. Gentleman not only means to know etiquette, but also means to know how to respect others and value the feeling of being respected. In Western traditional customs, getting down from the horse and greeting others is just a manifestation of gentleman, and to do otherwise means impolite and disrespect. Such language is often used to taint these kinds of self–reliant and disrespectful people. Therefore, we have the antonym “come off the high horse” to show the contradictory image and implication. From this idiom, we can clearly see that the horse enjoys the implication of lofty, hard–to–command, difficult–to–instruct, noble and other meanings in the custom culture of Western society. Then, the “mare” in the English proverb “money makes the mare go” is understandable.

Another example is the “ox” image which appears repeatedly in Chinese idioms, mostlyexplained as stupid, blunt, ignorant, like “Duiniu–tanqin” (means it is just a waste of time to reason with those stupid people), “Niujitongcao” (means the talented and the untalented stay together). In idiom“Niumashenghuo,” “ox” also refers to the ordinary, chaotic and mediocrity of life’s dilemmas. There is a very direct relationship between such images of“ox” in Chinese idioms and the thousands of years of traditional farming practices in China. In farming time, “ox,” as the main farming force, is an important tool to help with tillage. Because of this, ox is treated as an animal merely with straight forward and brute force, but no skill force or “talent.” It is clearly different from the Western sense of “a sacred cow”(holy animal, something not to be questioned or changed), which contains the interpretation of being respected by people.[8]There is a long history for Westerners to eat beef. Due to the good taste and nutrition of beef, cow is extremely respected and liked by the entire Western society, so “a sacred cow”owns a widely respected and liked interpretation. Such idioms with commendatory sense are as follow: An old ox makes a straight furrow (means the experienced person is more accurate in work), which is similar to the Chinese idiom “The older, the wiser.” “Old oxen have stiff horns“ also shares the similar meaning with “The older, the wiser.”

From the comparison between the implication of some idioms in English and Chinese in the following table, we can once again show the rationality of the above point of view.

4. Conclusion: Understanding, Communication and Respect of Cross–cultural Context based on the Differences of Chinese and Western Animal Images in Idioms

Through the above three aspects of observation and analysis, we can give the conclusion that due to the differences of historical culture, geographic culture and custom culture, the idioms with different types and different implications derived from the same animal show diverse features of expressions in the different context of the Chinese and Western worlds. Of course, there are also some animal images that share the same interpretation in a special idiom environment. For example, in “Maoshiyingwu” and“put the cat among the pigeons” (means one cannot do anything but only to wait for the ax to drop),[9]the image of “cat” shows brutal or cruel in both idioms. Another example is “Zhupenggouyou” and “a road hog” (a rude, impetuous and disturbing driver), the image of “pig” shows lazy and selfish. Through the comparison between these two similar examples and the above examples,ihave explained that animal images are a complex unity in every language context and manifest different language implications in every language context. However, this paper mainly focuses on the different implications andimages of the same animal in Chinese and Western idioms, so the similarity is not further discussed in this paper. Language is the basis to have a good understanding of the mapped or direct expressed meaning and the implication and characteristic of idioms in different cultural context.

One cannot do anything but only to wait for the ax to drop.

In the comparison of Chinese and Western culture, we can also turn to medio–translatology, a branch of comparative literature. Medio–translatology study holds that neither poetry nor idiom can be translated due to the objectivity differences in languages. During the transition and transformation from one language to another, there would be losses of language elements and implications. TakingDream of the Red ChamberandHeroes of the Marshes, famous works in China, as examples, the comprehensive interpretation of language in “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” cannot be achieved in the Western language environment, the context of which is phonological words.Dream of the Red Chamberwas even translated into “People who live in red houses”in some translated versions. It is just ridiculous to equal “Red Chamber” with “red houses.” The classic poems inDream of the Red Chamberare translated into Shakespeare’s love stories in the Western language context, which is totally different from the aesthetic feelings of the poems that are closely related to the destinies of protagonists in the Chinese version. There is still another opinion that suggests the value of translation is only limited in the transformation of the name of objects. However, emotions, rhythms and implications cannot be translated by equivalent syllables or rhythms. Therefore,isuggest that the real understanding of the animal images and idiom implications cannot simply rely on language translation, but must be based on respecting cross–culture context and returning to the language itself. Comprehensive expression and understanding should be conducted through deriving the background of the idiom, local history, customs, attitudes and emotions of people towards the animals used in the idiom.

As a product of the development of language, idioms with animals as a metaphor carry the role of “image project” in both English proverbs and Chinese idioms. They have the functions of mapping and metaphor with different emotions. Althoughihave multi–directionally collected the data and information of Chinese and Western idioms which involves the animal image, it is still negligible compared with the development process of idiom and language and the changes of image and position of animals along with the human development process. Therefore, the theme of this paper is not only a summary and image collection of the existing Chinese and Western animal idioms, but also an important channel to understand the different cultural backgrounds and historical development processes and the historical culture of different nations through idioms. Only by clarifying the different emotions and implications of animal images in Chinese and Western languages, can we better spread the magnificent part of Chinese culture, and let Chinese learners understand Chinese history and Chinese culture through idioms, a lively and interesting form of language.

(Translator: Zhao Meiyan; Editor: Yan Yuting)

This paper has been translated and reprinted with the permission ofForum on Chinese Culture, No.6, 2016.

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*Zhao Meiyan, lecturer, International Education College, Sichuan Normal University.