道胜

[Erwin Beyer]

My name is Erwin Beyer from Germany. I collect pre 1949 Chinese banknotes. To understand the background of these banknotes I am learning Chinese, in fact I have been learning Chinese for 5 years already.

 

My first question: what does 道勝 (道胜) mean? I have banknotes that were first issued in 1913 by a bank called 華俄道勝銀行  (华俄道胜银行). The English name the bank used itself was Russo-Asiatic Bank, but this translation does not say anything about the meaning of 道勝. Cane anybody please tell me? Thank you in advance.

 

Erwin

[skylee]

Similar question - Why is The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) called 香港上海匯豐銀行 in Chinese? The English name of the bank does not say anything about 匯豐.

I don't really know what 道勝 in the bank's name is supposed to mean. But according to the information on the internet, it means "Righteousness Victory".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Chinese_Bank

http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=aesatCvz-PgC&pg=PA70#v=onepage&q&f=false

But it might also be related to the Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Ref - http://hk.huaxia.com/thjq/jsgoucheng/2011/12/2693787.html

First chapter of the art of war - http://ctext.org/art-of-war/laying-plans

[Erwin Beyer]

Thank you for your answer.

 

I had asked Chinese people (students) before, but they could not help me. They all say that 道勝 in today's language has no meaning.

 

The interpretaion in wikipedia that 道勝 means or meant "righteousness victory" may be true, but I am not sure. Other assertions in the same wikipedia article are clearly incorrect (as often in wikipedia). For instance it is not true that the bank later called itself 俄亞銀行. The first Chinese name was 華俄道勝銀行, later they used 俄華道勝銀行, but never 俄亞銀行. In English language they first used Russo-Chinese Bank, later Russo-Asiatic Bank. The author the wikipedia article simply translated "Russo-Asiatic Bank" to 俄華銀行 which is of course a correct translation of the English name, but never was the Chinese name of the bank.

 

The relation to the Art of War by Sun Tsu sound interesting.

 

Erwin

 

P.S.: I know my Englis is not perfect, but English is not my mother tongue