#bouyei

The people of China : Part 1

Chinese (汉字/漢字)

Chinese characters (Hànzì) are the oldest continuously used writing system in the world and the only one of the four independently invented writing systems that has remained in continuous use. They derive from the oracle bone script used on animal bones or turtle shells in the late 2nd millennium BCE.

Countries using Chinese characters have standardized their forms: simplified characters (汉字) are used in mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore, while traditional characters (漢字) are used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Standard written Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin.

About 2,000 characters have been simplified. Many of them are based on commonly used abbreviations, some of which have been in use in cursive forms since the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC).

Based on cursive versions:

長 → 长 (cháng) = long, length, strong point

樂 → 乐 (lè) = happy, to take pleasure in, to laugh

Based on obscure or ancient variants:

塵 → 尘 (chén) = dirt, the material world

無 → 无 (wú) = to not have, not

Made by removing radicals:

開 → 开 (kāi) = to open

麼 → 么 (ma/me) = an adverb affix

Made by retaining the radical:

廣 → 广 (guǎng) = broad, numerous

親 → 亲 (qīn) = parent, relative

Made by replacing a part with a simple, arbitrary symbol:

難 → 难 (nán) = hard, bad

這 → 这 (zhè) = this

Notable features

Script type: logography

Writing direction: right-to-left in columns (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), left-to-right in rows (Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, and Singapore)

Number of characters: 80,000+. However, the largest monolingual dictionary contains 106,230 characters. Knowing about 3,000 characters allows you to read about 99% of the characters used in newspapers and magazines. Twice as many are required to read literature and technical texts. 

Languages: Bouyei, Chinese languages, Japanese, Korean, Lakkia, Mienic languages, Okinawan, and Zhuang (8)

A syllable is usually represented by a single character, which can have a range of meanings, sometimes corresponding to different pronunciations. Therefore, there are many homophones—syllables that sound the same but have different meanings, so the same sound can be represented by several characters.

There are three main types of characters:

Semantographs:

Pictographs are visual representations of physical objects, such as 日 (rì, “sun”) and 山 (shān, “mountain”).

Indicatives are visual representations of abstract concepts, such as 上 (shàng, “up”) and 凸 (tū, “convex”).

Compound ideographs combine characters to convey a new meaning, such as 明 (míng, “bright”)—⽇ and ⽉ (yuè, “moon”)—and 休 (xiū, “rest”)—⼈ (rén, “man”) and ⽊ (mù, “tree”).

Phonographs or phono-semantic compounds consist of a semantic and a phonetic component. Examples include 河 (hé, “river”) and 湖 (hú, “lake”), which consist of 氵, a simplified combining form of ⽔ (shuǐ, “water”), and a phonetic component. 河 is pronounced similarly to 可 (kě), while 湖 is pronounced identically to 胡 (hú). They make up around 90% of all characters.

Loangraphs are adaptations of existing characters to write words with similar pronunciations or borrowed from other languages. They are often deliberately chosen to create certain connotations: for example, Coca-Cola is 可口可乐/可口可樂 (kěkǒu kělè, “delicious enjoyable”).

Characters can consist of between one and 64 strokes, which are always written in the same direction and order, using the following twelve basic strokes:

Historical evolution of characters

Pictographs

Indicatives

Compound ideographs

Phonographs

Loangraphs

Les Bouyei (également orthographiés Puyi, Buyei et Buyi ; Bouyei : Buxqyaix, [puʔjai] ou “Puzhong”, “Burao”, “Puman” ; chinois : 布依族 ; pinyin : Bùyīzú ; vietnamien : người Bố Y) sont un groupe ethnique de langue taï qui vit principalement dans la province de Guizhou, dans le sud de la Chine. Avec 3,5 millions de personnes, ils constituent le 10ème groupe ethnique parmi les 56 groupes…

1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Are you afraid to make your prayers too big? Oftentimes this believer is tempted to temper his prayers by making requests that feel a little more manageable or likely to see answered. “God, heal this person of cancer”? No, maybe: “God comfort them in their pain”. “God, let their remaining support come in the next three days”? No, perhaps better: “God, meet all their needs in your time”. It is godly to submit ourselves to God’s will in prayer, but restraining our expectations in prayer can be a symptom of too little faith.

Are you confident when you pray for a transformation of Bouyei society? Do you believe that God will expand his kingdom among the Bouyei people through a rapid multiplication of churches and believers? God’s kingdom coming and his spirit transforming Bouyei people, even many people in short time, is certainly a request in accordance with God’s will. While our prayers are not directive of how God must act, they are reflective of our trust in our Father.

May we, by praying big prayers expectantly for the Bouyei people, build our trust in God’s plan and his word. May we have confidence that God desires far more than we do that the Bouyei people would be saved. May we not temper our prayers with practicality or doubt. Our God hears. Our God saves. Our God will reach the Bouyei multitudes through the prayers of his people.

1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

Story: Chain of Faith, part 6

Loong lies on his bed with a clear mind but an ailing body. The doctors say it is a matter of weeks. There is a knock on the door, and Loong calls out for the visitor to enter. Loong’s niece, Saan, steps in with a load of groceries in her arms. “How are you, uncle?” she asks. “I’m tired,” Loong confesses. “Are you in pain?” “Not much.”

Saan tells Loong of some of the happenings in her life and the lives of people Loong knows, leaving out the part about being questioned by the police for listening to Christian sermons online. Saan hesitates, wondering if what she has come to say will get her in trouble. Finally, she makes up her mind. “Uncle, do you remember what I told you before about the Creator God and his Son, Jesus?” Saan proceeds to share the gospel again, and this time an ember of faith sparks in Loong’s heart.

Loong prays to receive Christ, and light fills his heart as the disease continues to ravage his body. Three days later, Loong passes away from his earthly tent and enters halls of unending life and light.

1 John 4:18-19 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

Story: Gwan, part 3

Gwan is hungry for knowledge. At the after-school program, she pours over the wealth of books on the shelves. But the book she is currently reading confuses her. It is a book that talks about science but from the perspective of the Christian Bible. Gwan has learned a lot about science in school, but what she’s learned seems somewhat different from what this book is talking about. Gwan asks one of her teachers about the book. As the teacher explains about the worldview of the Bible, Gwan’s eyes narrow.

The next day at the after-school program, a black leather-bound book on the shelf catches Gwan’s attention. “Oh, so they have a Bible right here!” Gwan thinks to herself and plops down to read it. With a little direction from one of her teachers, Gwan finds the stories of the God who created the universe and how he loves and cares for mankind. She finds explanations of how the broken relationships and evil in this world come from rejecting God’s ways.

Gwan thinks about her mother. Besides her grandma, everyone who ought to love Gwan has abandoned her. But she senses that God, who has no real obligation to love her, does love her anyway. Peace and joy fill Gwan’s heart. As Gwan continues to read the book over the weeks, the teachers talk about it with her and help her take steps to come to know and understand the God who loves Gwan.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Story: Chain of Faith, part 5

Loong sits on a slab of pavement in front of his house. At nearly 70 years old, each of Loong’s days is much the same. Loong does a little work growing corn and vegetables in the small plots behind his house. Loong’s two children died in childhood, and his wife passed away from cancer over 10 years ago. A few more distant relatives check in on Loong from time to time. Loong often goes to the small stall that sells a few snacks and basic necessities to chat with whoever stops by. But most of the time, Loong sits by himself in front of his house and watches the days pass.

Loong used to make yearly sacrifices to the river god, the mountain god, the god of his fields, the village god, and other spirits as need arose. Worship of traditional Bouyei gods has slowly died away with Loong’s generation. His niece has talked to him about some other god, but Loong doesn’t have much faith to believe.