[No. 0030 Kanji] Virtue

This is a 30th kanji on this blog. Let me first thank you all who read KANJI.COM. And this time I'll pick up the kanji above that won on the poll on Facebook page.

"徳" is pronounced as "とく toku" and means "virtue". It sounds a little bit serious, but I think Japanese regard it as very important.

Example:
あのひとは徳（とく）の高（たか）いひとだ。－ He is a person of virtue.
(ano hito ha toku no takai hitoda)

道徳（どうとく）は大切（たいせつ）だ。－ Ethic is important.
(doutoku ha taisetsu da)


As for etymology, this originally consisted of "直" and "心", meaning a obedient mind, which are right side of it. "彳" was added later, which means the appearance walking slowly.

Many Japanese like a person with beautiful mind. For instance, we often don't appreciate a person who is not modest even if he/she looks successful.


#Should you have any kanji you wanna know, please leave a comment or contact share.your.japan[at]gmail.com.

[No. 0021 Kanji] Fleeting

Do you remember the post, [No.0014 Kanji] Dream? If you do so, you might think this Kanji is very similar to the kanji, "夢 ゆめ yume", meaning a dream.

So, what do you think of the meaning of the kanii above? Similar meaning to a dream? The answer is no. The meaning is "fleeting", and it is pronounced, "はかない hakanai".

The interesting story I've mentioned on the article above is the following.
This Kanji, "儚", consists of 2 parts, "亻" and "夢".  "亻" means human beings, as I've told you on this post, and "夢" is a dream.

Here, we can make the equation as below.

HUMAN BEINGS +  A DREAM = FLEETING

In other words, a dream of human is fleeting.
Japanese dream might be a fleeting thing that we will never achieve as opposite to American dream that they can surely achieve.

I think this is a Japanese traditional mind because there were very similar concepts in the past, like "諸行無常 しょぎょうむじょう shogyou mujyou". If you got interested in it, do please visit this or this. The two explain about it, and it would be very useful to you.



#Should you have any kanji you wanna know, please leave a comment or contact share.your.japan[at]gmail.com.