struck by lightning

[zozzen]

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that a 37-year-old iPod-listening jogger in Vancouver suffered serious injuries when he was struck by lightning. If that happened in China, the jogger would be too embarrassed to tell his story. Do you know why?

[roddy]

No. Tell us now please.

[rootfool]

I think the reason is the meaning of "天打雷劈"

usually this idiom is used to describe a punish to the guilty man comes from god .

[zozzen]

Hehe, Rootfool must be Chinese! Chinese have a strong belief that a guilty man would be struck by lightening. These guilt is not theft or robbery, it's about an extremely immoral crime and crime related to injustice.

This belief is intensified in many Chinese drama and movies in the past few decades. In a movie, when someone shows irreverence to the God or parents, there'll be a loud lightening to let audience know that the "Sky" is so angry.

Other common lightening scenes include a poor servant girl being raped by a rich landlord, an innocent man being maligned by a corrupted official, an incest between a sister and a brother, a husband being murdered by an adulterer. In other words, when there's a crime that acts against Confucius' value, there will be lightening.

Although the scientific knowledge tells us it's just a natural phenomenon, this belief is still strong held in Chinese society. When Chinese know a friend struck by lightening, it's very likely for them to show sympathy to him in front of him, but they will privately wonder "Did he do any bad thing? " That's why, these victims are always embarrassed to tell their misery.

[madizi]

What about this man? How could Tian punish him?

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/07/chinese-electri.html

[zozzen]

This man must be a very charming guy, because he can transfer electricity. In Cantonese, 電 can mean 迷倒. If a woman is bewitched by a handsome man, we say "她被電倒了".

[xianu]

Its really interesting how powerful Confucian values are. What you are saying is that there is "folk" belief that Tian 天responds to people who go against Confucian values with things like lightening strikes. I have been working off and on on a paper about stories of women who because they uphold confucian values, get imbued with magical powers. (stories like Hongxian红线, nuxia女侠, etc. Its interesting to me to hear that these ideas perpetuate into common folk belief (or as some people put it, "superstition"). Are there any more stories like this? Any other ways the heavens let loose their displeasure in (super)natural phenomena?

[zozzen]

Xianu,

Another very famous folk legend is "hail blows in June" (六月飛霜). About two thousand years ago, a famous scholar Zou Yan ( 鄒衍, 305BC-240BC) was framed and jailed. There was a hailing during the summer time and people believed that the "Tian" was so angry for the injustice.

In the following thousand years, playwrights often use this phenomenon when a protagonist was maligned. Ten years ago, a famous Chinese TV drama 包青天 still featured a lot of phenomenon, so "hail blows in June" is no good in China.

From dictionary http://140.111.34.46/cgi-bin/dict/GetContent.cgi?Database=dict&DocNum=53255&GraphicWord=yes&QueryString=%A4%BB%A4%EB%AD%B8%C1%F7

戰國時鄒衍事燕惠王被讒下獄，時值五月炎夏，卻突然降霜的故事。典出唐˙徐堅˙初學記˙卷二˙霜第三˙事對。但後代傳說成六月，故後世多以六月飛霜比喻有冤獄。唐˙張說˙獄箴：匹夫結憤，六月飛霜，可以安危，可以興亡。幼學瓊林˙卷一˙天文類：鄒衍下獄，六月飛霜。