More than natural elements

[Outofin]

A few words that are constructed by the name of natural elements. In some cases, they sound similar but mean different things. Be careful when using them.

山河 or 河山, the moutains and rivers. Country's land.

江山, the rivers and mountains. It's literally the same thing of 河山. But 江山 can mean the country, the state, the throne. For example, 不爱江山爱美人, means a prince or king gives up his throne for a woman.

江湖, the rivers and lakes. You see this word a lot in wuxia novels. It's the kung fu warriors' society or underworld. Classically speaking, it means a status of freedom, being not serving for the emperor.

风光, the wind and light. Natural scenic view. Also means a very successful career or party or something like that.

风水, the wind and water. Feng Shui. It's already adopted into English.

山水, the mountains and water. A natural status. 山水画, a type of Chinese painting. It can mean "natural scenic view" but is different from 风光. You can say a person is 钟情山水 (likes traveling), but can't say 钟情风光. It's different from 山河 too. 山水 emphasize on "natural" while 山河 on "country's".

风土, the wind and earth. Natural conditions and social customs of a place.

[leeyah]

Outofin, yes, this is very interesting, but what about 风云?

In the sense of (abrupt) changes, could it be interpreted as ups & downs in English? For example: how would you translate 股市风云? stock market fluctuations? or is there a better word for it? Could you please provide more context for 风云 used like this?

Also I've come across xx 风云人物 very often, is there some English phrase for it other than what my dictionary gives as influential persons?

PS: Sorry for asking so many questions at once, but I'd really appreciate some insight on this, thank you.

[Outofin]

Wind and cloud, that's another excellent example. The translations you have is good. I often find that there's no perfect translation.

If you think of 风云 as a picture, strong wind, turbulent clouds, stormy sky, then you get the feeling and the idea of the word. To me, 风云人物 is the people who can make a storm.

[leeyah]

If you think of 风云 as a picture, strong wind, turbulent clouds, stormy sky, then you get the feeling and the idea of the word. To me, 风云人物 is the people who can make a storm.

Perfect! Just the definition I was looking for. Thank you.

[trien27]

but what about 风云?

Anything that's with 风云 could mean "unpredictable", just like the weather.

风云人物 is the people who can make a storm.

People who can make a storm? Usually people do not use grammar like this. Seems to be directly translated from Chinese into English and might not make sense to English speakers.

风云人物 = Successful people [who has been through tough times, hardships and stuggles to get to where they are, mostly at the top.]

[trien27]

山河 or 河山, the mountains and rivers. Country's land.

There's no way you could put the word "country" next to "land" to make it sound perfect or natural.

The word "land" in English, already has a meaning of "country" from Scandinavian languages. Putting them together only gives you more confusion: "Country's land" = "Country's country"? or "Land's land"?

"河山", can be expressed by either words, land or country, not together. Usually, commoners will use this to mean "The land of the people", as in 还我河山/還我河山, "huan wo he shan" when the story of a movie, play, etc... involves revolts against one of China's dynastic rulers. 我 above is short for 我们的/ 我們的.

Edited August 8, 2009 at 03:46 PM by trien27
grammar correction

[leeyah]

Anything that's with 风云 could mean "unpredictable", just like the weather

Yes, thank you, Trien27, this is another good definition.

People who can make a storm? Usually people do not use grammar like this. Seems to be directly translated from Chinese into English and might not make sense to English speakers.

风云人物 = Successful people [who has been through tough times, hardships and stuggles to get to where they are, mostly at the top.]

I disagree. "people who make a storm" here is used figuratively to mean people who have done something extraordinary when nobody expected it, (what you called unpredictable like the weather ) like introduced a novelty or made a significant/outstanding contribution in their area of expertise, or who have performed a great feat (eg. saved other people's lives), or made a great success in what they do, like artists for example, by an extraordinary performance, etc, etc and have thus created a "turbulence", a "storm" among their audience, i.e.in public. Much stronger than just "success". Makes perfect sense.

BTW, I also saw 风云人物 translated as '~ of the year'.

[muyongshi]

"people who make a storm" here is used figuratively to mean people who have done something extraordinary when nobody expected it,

While that may be what it means, in English, when we say someone made a storm it usually has a negative connotation that this person is causing trouble.

[chenpv]

Looks like lots of words of this kind contain ‘风’，such as 风波，风花雪月，风尘，风风火火，风潮，风气，风华（花），风声，风霜， 风雨。Of course there is another without '风' worth mentioning，云雨。