New Members AstroProf88 Posted October 22, 2018 at 11:01 PM New Members Report Share Posted October 22, 2018 at 11:01 PM My friend got this tattoo some years ago and was told it meant "Soldier", as he was in the army at the time. Could somebody help me figure out what it really says, if anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted October 23, 2018 at 03:19 AM Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 at 03:19 AM It's the character 師 shī http://www.zdic.net/z/19/js/5E08.htm You can see from that dictionary entry it now usually means other things (all pretty good, including 'teacher' and 'master') but in one sense it means the military in more generally, apparently earliest as a division of 2,500 troops. I wonder if it was in error for 帥 shuài http://www.zdic.net/z/19/js/5E25.htm which means a military commander, inter alia. I don't know Japanese but did a quick check of a dictionary entry for the character in that language and looks like same distinction as in Chinese: https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/師 cf. https://ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/帥 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Members AstroProf88 Posted October 23, 2018 at 11:32 AM Author New Members Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 at 11:32 AM Awesome. Thank you kindly for taking time to help me out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBigZaboon Posted October 23, 2018 at 01:35 PM Report Share Posted October 23, 2018 at 01:35 PM @Jim is a better man than I am to recognize the word 師 out of that collection of vaguely Chinese-ey looking marks. It looks to me more like random copying of the strokes of a character by someone who couldn't read Chinese, and so just chose something to copy from a section of a book or dictionary with military terms in it. But maybe it's a style of calligraphy that I've managed to miss all these years. I wouldn't bet the farm on it actually being 師, but stranger things have turned out to be true. Giving @Jim his due though, if it is 師， it is used in a number of terms in both modern Chinese and Japanese for the large military formation referred to as a division, as in 82nd Airborne Division. It's also used in several combined terms for moving troops around (出師). In addition, it can be used in combinations to refer to, for example, a 厨师 (simplified form), as in cooks and bakers. However, I've never seen it used alone to refer to an individual soldier, or even anything specifically military. In non-military uses, it usually implies mastery of a profession or skill, but normally a character referencing that skill is required. As is often the case, though, I could be wrong. TBZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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