linggan   灵感              Chinese

Inspiration was at first transliterated into “yan shi pi li chun” 烟士披利纯 in Chinese around the beginning of 20^th century when many Western concepts were introduced to China. Nevertheless, such a translation was not able to spread the meaning of the concept to the nation. We do not know who free translated inspiration to “linggan”灵感 only a few years after the puzzling “yan shi pi li chun” 烟士披利纯. One thing is sure that popular people in China, only then, were able to grasp the meaning of this Western concept by associating many Buddhist terms, in which “ling” 灵is a common word for “soul”, “spirit”, or “magic”, while “gan” 感 means “feeling” or “idea”. Because in the beginning of 20^th century many Chinese translators were influenced by Japanese translation of Western concepts in the end of 19^th century, the translation of inspiration into “linggan” 灵感 could also receive “inspiration” (magic idea) from its Japanese counterpart.

Hsu Chih-mo had to sigh that his inspiration came so rarely. He, as a typical Chinese person, would not to look for it positively or to realize it by his effort. Some people will even sleep in bed to wait for their inspiration.

Interview Questions

========================================

Edwin: What is the word for inspiration and what are some of the synonyms?

Leni: The word is Ling gan ,  /ling35 gan214/ (in a 1 to 5 scale, ling goes upwards from middle to top, ie. 35, gan first down and then up, ie. 214, since Chinese is a language with tones. another thing: ng can be spelled as the "long n", which I could not find in my computer.) definition is the same as your English since it is a loaned word. Some synonyms are;

• lingji: sudden inspiration, brain wave

• qishi: something revealed, revelation

• zhijue: instinctive knowing - without the use of rational processes
   

I see a similarity between Ling gan and ling ji. is lingji a borrowed word as well? What would it mean? ling = soul ji=?

Ling ji is not a borrowed word. Ling means soul, ji has plenty of meanings, here it means flexible or flexibility. Ji also means machine, mechanical, organ, organic, chance, opportunity, etc. Well, a fexible soul is a resource for inspiration, can you imagine?

About Chinese language

Chinese language is a special case in linguistics. It has enormous amount of spoken forms, in other words, dialects. However, most Chinese dialects could not be called language because they do not have their own written form. There is only one written form in Chinese, which pronunciation is based on North Chinese dialect, or Beijing (Peking) dialect. It is called Mandarin Chinese because Mandarin meant officer or official in Chinese in Qing (1616 – 1911), the last dynasty in China.

When translating foreign concepts into Chinese, naturally, it has to use the only written form. At the same time, it is common to adopt Mandarin Chinese pronunciation when transliterating, such as from “inspiration” to “yan shi pi li chun” 烟士披利纯. Of course, free translation does not need to consider pronunciation similarity.

Very often, because Chinese only has one written form, loaned words and translations mean the same in different dialect regions, no matter it is transliterated or free translated. Nevertheless, if someone deliberately pronounces the translation in his or her own dialect, it could mean something different or funny. Motorola, an American brand name, is transliterated into Chinese as “mo tuo luo la”摩托罗拉, which does not mean anything in Chinese, even it is pronounced in many dialects. However, in Cantonese, a common dialect in South China and particularly in Hong Kong, “mo tuo luo la” 摩托罗拉 could be deliberately pronounced as “mo do lo la” which means “nothing to take” in Cantonese.  (More about this.)

Whether “linggan” 灵感 has special association in some Chinese dialects or not, I am not sure because I only speak a few dialects, such as Shanghai or Wu dialect, Hangzhou dialect, and Mandarin. In those dialects, I do not think it means anything more than “inspiration”.

Furthermore, it is wise to remember that there are more than 100 languages besides Chinese in China, such as Tibetan, Zhuang, Miao, etc. “Linggan” 灵感 anyway is only one version in China.

Check the etymology here

 http://zhongwen.com/d/177/x210.htm

http://zhongwen.com/d/198/x70.htm