Lǐ Sā / 禮 撒 / Lisa

[flubberto]

Hi. I'm writing a story about a woman who is diagnosed with schizophrenia and ends up rejecting society.

The Confucian idea of Lǐ / 禮 is what this woman loses (let go - Sā / 撒.)

So, naturally, I want to name this character Lisa / Lǐsā.

Does this make enough sense to work?

Thanks!

[Lu]

You're free to name her Lisa, but the reasoning doesn't really work, I think. 撒 is not really the word you'd use in this meaning. And I haven't read your story, but I think 禮 might not be the right term for what this woman loses. Lastly, Lisa is not, to my knowledge, a Chinese name.

All that said, it's your story and you can call her whatever you like, or have her call herself Lisa for any reasons she chooses.

[Shelley]

Are you going to be using Chinese characters in your story for her name? If not and you are going to just use Pinyin, which really just looks like the English version of Lisa, it might not immediately bring to mind the characters you want as there are usually more than one character to a sound, even with the tone marks.

 

As @Lu says you can call her what you like, its your story.

 

Just be aware your carefully crafted reasons may not be obvious.

 

 

[Publius]

I agree with above posters. It doesn't work.

Lisa is a Western name. 禮撒 is an unusual transliteration of a Western name, calling to mind biblical times. Lǐ Sà could be a Chinese name, but the characters associated with it won't be the ones you've carefully chosen. (EDIT: Note I wrote Sà, not Sā. There are 12 'sa' characters listed in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. Only 1 or 2 of them are suitable for a name. It's true that every syllable has a meaning in Chinese. But that doesn't mean you can combine them at will. And you wouldn't name your kid Dwab or Twerp or Bling, would you? Same goes in Chinese. We're not weirdos.)

[flubberto]

I'm only asking about the translation. I'm not concerned about the name or the story!

 

I just want to know if Lǐ + Sā means the right thing in Chinese. The literal translation into English is: "rules of propriety, good custom, ritual" + "to cast out, let go" and so I hope that "Lǐ Sā" has a meaning in Chinese that is similar to meaning it has when translated into in English.

 

If you need to understand the context in order to explain the meaning, the idea is that the character, Lisa, will be a good person who holds 4 of the 5 Constants (wǔ cháng.)

 

Like this –

 

Rén (仁, benevolence, humaneness);

Yì (義/义, righteousness or justice);

Lǐ (禮/礼, proper rite);

Zhì (智, knowledge);

Xìn (信, integrity).

 

The story is going to be in English, for English speakers, and I don't expect anyone to understand this connection to Chinese philosophy. I don't expect anyone to see the name "Lǐsā" and realize it is pinyin. I just want to know. Just me. Does the Chinese "Lǐ Sā" mean what I think it means?

 

 

[陳德聰]

The short answer, no. The name as you've chosen it, "禮撒" is gibberish. Because that's not how Chinese works. Maybe call her Molly (莫禮) or Shelly (舍禮) or something.

[Lu]

On 02/12/2017 at 7:14 PM, flubberto said:

The story is going to be in English, for English speakers, and I don't expect anyone to understand this connection to Chinese philosophy. I don't expect anyone to see the name "Lǐsā" and realize it is pinyin. I just want to know. Just me. Does the Chinese "Lǐ Sā" mean what I think it means?

No, it doesn't. Possibly you would have been better off not asking, because if you don't expect your readers to understand the connection, Lǐsā could have had that meaning for you.

[Publius]

On 12/3/2017 at 10:06 AM, 陳德聰 said:

Maybe call her Molly (莫禮)

For some reason this reminds me of allegedly how Celine Dion managed to memorize the lyrics of Jasmine Flower.

Hear the effect in Google Translate.