Huiming: Know the meaning by looking at the words

Huiming: Know the meaning by looking at the words Tucson Huiming People often use the idiom "Looking for the meaning from the words" to describe those who like to draw conclusions from superficial phenomena...

>Tucang Huiming

People often use the idiom "Looking for the meaning from the words" to describe those who like to draw conclusions from the superficial phenomena, criticizing them for being ignorant and so on. In fact, this criticism is not necessarily correct. As long as you have enough experience and judgment, you can post many correct thoughts and decisions in one article. Although today is the era of big data, if you are keen, you can see the big picture from the small and be aware of the laws of the world without getting stuck in tedious data analysis.

But what this article is interested in is "knowing the meaning by looking at the words". It is really interesting to know the general surface meaning of a word and then delve deeper to know the background of the word and related matters, and then speculate on the future and influence of the word.

I worked in a Shanghai language publishing house in the 1990s, and I dealt with old words and new words all day long. Although Shanghai was not as full of Internet new words as it is now, the publishing house still proactively established a modern Chinese phrase collection group for its own future, specifically to collect popular languages ​​​​in newspapers (computers were not yet popular at that time), or common spoken languages ​​​​for future use in compiling dictionaries.

For example, people in Shanghai call shrimps "kaiyang", whether it's the aunt in the alley or the old Ningbo whose ancestral home is Zhejiang, you come and go. But why shrimps are still called shrimps when they are in the sea, but when they are out of the sea, they are called "kaiyang". They are not called ashore, and no one can explain it when they see the light. Experts searched through dictionaries from Taiwan, Mainland China and even Kangxi, but could not find the answer. Since there was no definite and authoritative statement, the statement from the aunt in the publishing house’s cafeteria was reluctantly accepted by everyone: “This shrimp is bowed in the water, and after it is dried out of the water, it opens its belly, so it faces the ocean instead.” But there is no documentary evidence, it is just oral culture. So no matter Xiami or Kaiyang, it will still be the same in the future, there is no future.

There is also the word "mashing". There are many explanations for why "mashing paste" was first popular in Shanghai. Some people say that this comes from the past when hooligans committed crimes in their own territory and fled the local area to avoid the limelight. It means "escaping from the world". Later, according to the sound, there was a saying of "making a mess". In fact, when it became popular at the end of the last century, this word had completely lost its meaning of Jianghu.

Before being popular, there was already a saying in Shanghai of "bastards" and "bastards", which refers to those who have no real talent and knowledge and yearn for the bright prospects of the upper class. They like to dress themselves up with fancy words and deeds to scare others. But how does it become a "mush"?

According to the laws of language popularity, for a new word to be accepted by modern society, it must first use strong and diverse media to emphasize it day after day. The public will be brainwashed, and the new word will appear. For example, "A single spark can start a prairie fire" was interpreted by Mao Zedong and recited by the people in mainland China, and has become a well-known modern idiom. But how many people know that this famous sentence first appeared in the traditional Chinese classic "Shang Shu Pan Geng" that no longer has the right to speak?

Therefore, the emergence of the paste must be related to the appearance of big shots. In the 1980s, when foreign authorities came to Shanghai, although the officials were submissive, they gave Ginger enough face, because Ginger still brought some new atmosphere to Shanghai. You may think that in the past, officials only had to work as soldiers, and when making reports, they read the secretary's manuscripts. Now, suddenly, a secretary speaking in Shanghainese dialect with a Northern Jiangsu accent and speaking a few words in English from time to time suddenly appeared, which naturally made people feel fresh. But when he always bounces around in the officialdom, the people in the streets and alleys don't take it seriously.

Shanghai people are never afraid of authority. When the British and Indians showed off their power in the concession, the Shanghainese people still called you "Red-headed Asan". The Japanese fought arrogantly in Shanghai, and the Shanghainese people still called you "Little Japan" under your noses. Therefore, later people discovered that the newcomers did not have any new tricks. They described themselves as very revolutionary, very avant-garde, very strategic, and even very traditional and very responsible. People who like to call others "Too Simple" actually have nothing in mind. Without the help of Marshal Zhu and General Xu behind him, Shanghai would not have a blueprint for the future. But when you brag to the public opinion and above, it is always your own merit. Without me, Lao Jiang, making decisions behind the curtain, there would be no theory that a general could win a decisive victory thousands of miles away. I am very complacent and boastful.

It is difficult for ordinary people in Shanghai to trust an actor for a long time, no matter Mao Shanyu or Zhou Libo, let alone actor Jiang. But on the whole, it's still passable. After all, I'm still a southerner who landed in Shanghai. So in response to a friend's question about Lao Jiang, ninety-nine out of a hundred Shanghainese would laugh and say, "Looking for paste." Later, when it was interpreted in Mandarin, it turned into "making paste". It is also true that "making mistakes" is too vivid. From now on, anyone who does not do practical things and likes to brag, whether they are political experts or ordinary people, will be labeled as "making mistakes". The difference is that the popularity of this paste is from the bottom up, not from the top down like "a single spark can start a prairie fire".

The word "grasp" was also popular in Shanghai. Later, the person who coined "grasp" became a state minister of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The "grasp" was also used in the party newspapers for several years. There is a saying all over China that "use xx as the grip" to do something well and develop something. In fact, the original meaning of "handle" is "handle". To put it more elegantly, it means "opportunity" and "opportunity". But why did such an implicit word become such a naked expression of demand?

This is related to two major events that happened at the beginning.

First, after the end of the Maoist era, Deng Gong saw that the country's economy was in a bleak state, and felt that just scolding the Gang of Four was not enough, so he created many simple development theories, such as the cat theory and the theory of touching stones, which were well known to people at the time. But what really affects the people and official circles is the theory of "let some people get rich first". This theory may seem plain, but it is a starting point. If the common people catch it, they can get millions of shares, and if the officials catch it, they can get resources and connections.

Secondly, that year students took to the streets and the secretary went out of office. Xinjiang, who was ignorant and ignorant, was elected as the chief helmsman by Deng Gong, which made many people jealous. According to the secrets of the market, could it be that this Jiang had grasped some handle to achieve such a rapid rise?

As soon as Lao Jiang went north, Huang Juhua and Chen Zhima, who coveted the top spot in Shanghai, understood better than anyone else the importance of opportunities to themselves and Shanghai, so they put forward the theory of "grasping hands" in keeping with the times. At that time, people were surprised when there were no "grasping hands" in newspapers and documents in Shanghai and Pudong and in the mouths of officials. Could it be that someone was marginalized again?

If we look at the basis for collecting words in the dictionary, the documentary evidence of "grasp" is enough and it can appear as a new word. But what I didn’t expect was that this word was born and disappeared quickly. After the chrysanthemums fade, few people mention the "grasp" anymore. Maybe people have avoided suspicion.

In fact, it is conceivable that this word disappears. Those people who like to shout for help work more hurriedly, using money as the catcher or criterion everywhere, depleting social resources and their own credibility. At that time, the author wanted to publish a book "Spread Your Wings" to promote the success of children in adversity, and hoped that celebrities from all walks of life would sign and inscribe the book to spread it widely. I asked the president of a charity foundation - the wife of the secretary who raised the hand first, if she could give our child a message or something? The president must have been immersed in the "grabbing hand" theory for a long time, so he asked his secretary to say: "Thirty thousand yuan for an inscription!" To the editor, thirty thousand yuan at that time was equivalent to three hundred thousand or more today. If he couldn't get the money, he couldn't get the inscription, and he brought back a lot of resentment for being discriminated against. Now that I think about it, the ones who are regretful, resentful and even repentant should be these "grabbers" who threw away thousands of years of Chinese tradition and grabbed a lot of power and money, only to be arrested themselves.

Fortunately, the publishing house’s collection of phrases at that time confiscated the “grasping hand” thing as a phrase.