Love In Asian History

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by snailpoo

There are lots of words for love in Chinese and Japanese; this being one of them:

that word was obvioulsy imported from the west.

[snailpoo]

Originally Posted by Gaki

Alright...truth be told, I really don't know. About the closest I could get was 'ai' of course. Which is used both by Chinese and Japanese. But within Japanese culture its used to express love of a non-romantic, where as those under romantic love fall under koi. But even today, ai shiteiru or koi shiteru is rarely used. Instead, it would be suki desu, or I like you.

Well, in addition to the actual words, there's the poems, plays, stories, paintings, legends, mythology, religious tracts, and actual historical events accumulated over the several thousands of years of history centered on love. ...and you're weighing that body of evidence against ... a few fictional novels designed to sell copies by portraying an artifically foreign world?


It seems to me that someone not only offered to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, you've actually made a down payment.

Originally Posted by kimpossible

Snailpoo has given you the benefit of the doubt that your question was genuine and believed it had merit enough to answer it. It's been answered that yes, love was expressed in Chinese and Japanese before Western influence.

That's going to probably be the best deal you'll get out of this. His answers are quite clear and cogent.

Flatterer!

[kimpossible]

I promise to talk shit about you behind your back to even it out.

[DragonKnight]

Umm, wasn't the oldest novel ever written (The Tale of Genji) a romance novel?

[snailpoo]

Originally Posted by kimpossible

I promise to talk shit about you behind your back to even it out.

Just pop my ego if it gets large enough to destroy humanity, but only if. If my ego godzillas a few cities and towns, let it run free.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

We Orientals are just heartless bastards.

[Gaki]

=P Of course, Napoleon. Yer like the Borg. Resistance is futile. You have more numbers.

But honestly, I was just curious. Like I said before, I'm still ignorant to a lot of aspects of Eastern culture.

[kimpossible]

Originally Posted by Gaki

But honestly, I was just curious. Like I said before, I'm still ignorant to a lot of aspects of Eastern culture.

And we don't really function as an Asian culture education board for non-Asians. I think pikachupacabra gave you a head's up in your intro about this. Most members here are American and culturally Asian only by ancestry. If you want to learn about Asian culture and history from the ground up and have many questions you're better off with a class at university or something.

[snailpoo]

Originally Posted by Gaki

But honestly, I was just curious. Like I said before, I'm still ignorant to a lot of aspects of Eastern culture.

In that case, skip the fiction, and head directly to primary source material.







Edit: Yes, I am borrowing Kim's brain today.

[DaMuo]

Originally Posted by Gaki

Alright, I once read that historically, neither the Japanese or Chinese had a word for love. I know that public showing of affection was taboo as far as the Customs went back when as well.

But the lack of any word that meant love...is this true or just something out of a James Clavell novel? Anyone know historically if that was true?

Don't be stupid. The Chinese invented everything. Also, alphabet? You've gotta be kidding me. Hey wait, I think we invented that too.

[Fireblade]

Hmm..... yea. Love didn't exist till westerners came over to asia and taught them that. Yep. All that sex and babies just came out of a need to populate.

wtf. Did you read the Aryan book of Western Influence on the World or something? God, you gotta be REALLY stupid to believe that shit.

[TB4000]

Originally Posted by Fireblade

Hmm..... yea. Love didn't exist till westerners came over to asia and taught them that. Yep. All that sex and babies just came out of a need to populate.

wtf. Did you read the Aryan book of Western Influence on the World or something? God, you gotta be REALLY stupid to believe that shit.

Actually, I think it was a combination effort of Tom Cruise and Ralph Macchio.

[rice cracker]

What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Oh, baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

[Gaki]

Love doesn't have to be part of the equation to have sex and make babies. That falls under lust and well, sex. And most arranged marriages....love was not part of the deal either.

I don't see the flaw in seeing how cultures influence each other. Asian influence has had an impact on Western. It was a misconception I got from bad information. So, Fireblade, do me a favor and don't refer to me as stupid for ignorance.

[SunWuKong]

off the top of my head, i know that 愛 （ai) had been used to to refer to romantic love in Tang poetry. the Tang dynasty existed between 618 AD and 907 AD.

a quick search on google says that the word 愛 was also used by a person named Mozi in his philosophy of 兼愛非攻 (jian ai fei gong), which literally translates to "united love, not attack" - i guess you can loosely translate it to "universal love". Mozi was a contemporary of Confucius but his philosophy never caught on. he disagreed with almost everything that Confucius was saying. Mozi lived 470 BC to 390 BC.