What this means

[oly2006]

i've atached 2 photos with chinese writing..i'm interested to know what they means...thanks a lot

[HashiriKata]

盆栽 (pen2zai1): bonsai, miniature trees & plants

[Koneko]

That's actually a Japanese phrase.

It's commonly known as 盆景 (pén jǐng) in Chinese.

K.

[skylee]

盆栽 is a Chinese term (it is also used in Japanese). The meaning and pronunciation are as what HashiriKata said.

[HashiriKata]

I've had a look in the dictionary and I think Koneko and skylee are both right. The word "bonsai" in Japanese includes the 2 disctinct senses of "pén zāi" and "pén jǐng" in Chinese; and this can be expected, as there are usually no exact matches cross languages.

[Koneko]

盆栽 is a Chinese term (it is also used in Japanese).

Hmm... Not originally though. This term was actually created by the Japanese first, and then borrowed by the Chinese.

It's known as 和製漢語 (Wasei Kango) in Japanese.

More examples include:-

電話 denwa (telephone)

漫画 manga (comics)

哲學 testugaku (philosophy)

社会 shakai (society)

經濟 keizai (economy)

etc

經濟 is quite interesting. The original meaning in Chinese was "the workings of the state", when the phrase was exported to Japan from China, it became "economy". Its new meaning was later re-introduced back to China as "economy"

Hence, 盆栽 is a Made-in-Japan Chinese term; whereas 盆景 is a Made-in-China Chinese term.

K.

[HashiriKata]

I know about 和製漢語, but where did you find out that 盆栽 is one of them? It should be a useful source to know.

[Koneko]

Behold, the naked truth of bonsai...

Fact 1:-

While mostly associated with the Japanese form, "bonsai" originated in China and was originally developed from Chinese penjing.

Fact 2:-

Penjing is very similar to and the precursor of the Japanese art of bonsai

K.

[HashiriKata]

Hehe!

Fact 1: I've looked at your facts but couldn't find anywhere that states that the word "盆栽" originated from Japan.

Fact 2: I did say in post #5 that in Japanese, 盆栽 includes the meaning of "penjing". So we're in agreement in the first place, aren't we?

[Koneko]

So you see, it's first invented by Chinese as penjing, then introduced by the Japanese to the West as bonsai.

It's a bit like 經濟 example but with two seperate terms.

K.