Boston Chinatown paifang gate - pictures and translation notes

[starandrea]

With lunar new year activities still ongoing, I finally looked up the significance of the writing on the Boston Chinatown gate ♥

(What I learned is that many more hours of study will be required to understand the significance. I included notes from my initial googling below for anyone who's interested.)





♥ 天下为公
(in traditional characters on the gate, right to left: 公為下天)
Translated in a variety of ways including "everything under heaven is for the public" and "the world is shared equally by all."

From a reddit comment by lzyyjz123 on this thread:
"...the 天下为公 on the gate was written by Sun Yat-sen (An important figure in Chinese history). The 天下为公 is picked from "礼记·礼运" (a book written around 2200 years ago), here is a translation I found:

孔子 - 礼运大同篇 Confucius - Liyun - The Conveyance of Rites
大道之行也, 天下为公
When the great way prevails, the world is equally shared by all.
选贤与能
The talent and virtue are elected.
讲信修睦
Mutual confidence was emphasized and brotherhood was cultivated.
故人不独亲其亲,不独子其子
Therefore, people regard all parents as their own, and treat all children as their own.
始老有所终,壮有所用,幼有所长
The elders can live in happiness, the adults are employed by their talent, the youths can grow and educate.
鳏、寡、孤、独、废疾者皆有所养
Widows and widowers, orphans, childless, ills and invalids are all well taken care of.
男有分,女有归
Men and women all have an appropriate role in the society and family.
货恶其弃於地也,不必藏於己
Nature resources were fully used for the benefit of all, and not appropriated for selfish ends.
力恶其不出於身也,不必为己
People contribute their ability to society and not for the private gain.
是故谋闭而不兴,盗窃乱贼而不作
Thus evil scheming is repressed, and crimes fail to arise.
故外户而不闭,是谓大同
So the doors do not have to be shut. This is called "the Age of Great Harmony."

♥ 礼义廉耻
(in traditional characters on the gate, right to left: 恥廉義禮)
Four principles necessary to a functioning society: "propriety, justice, integrity, honor" or "etiquette, righteousness, honesty, sense of shame."

From wikitionary's entry on 禮義廉恥:
何谓四维？一曰礼、二曰义、三曰廉、四曰耻。礼不逾节，义不自进，廉不蔽恶，耻不从枉。
What are these four cardinal values? The first is propriety, the second is righteousness, the third is integrity, the fourth is a sense of shame. Propriety consists in not overstepping the bounds of proper restraint. Righteousness consists in not pushing oneself forward [at the expense of others]. Integrity consists in not concealing one's faults. Having a sense of shame consists in not following those who go awry.
--Guanzi

The same wiktionary entry indicates the following source:
《五代史·冯道传》论曰：「礼义廉耻，国之四维，四维不张，国乃灭亡。」
From: 顧炎武 (Gu Yanwu) (1613-1682), 《廉恥》

Historical Records of the Five Dynasties: Biography of Feng Dao states, "Propriety, justice, integrity and a sense of shame are the four cardinal principles of a state; if the four cardinal principles are not upheld, the country will perish."

Edited to add: per a conversation with tinny in comments, I just realized a translation of the gate's message is provided on the gate itself, literally visible in the first picture :D There's a closeup at this wikimedia commons link, giving the following translation of the four principles: "civility, justice, integrity, humility" (right to left).

Comments

[tinny]

Interesting!

This one of course piqued my interest:

男有分,女有归 - Men and women all have an appropriate role in the society and family.

Does 归 imply being taken care of? Being married off? Or is it really "share equally", but if so, why translate it with this ominous "appropriate role"? Hmmmmm. (Not that I expect 2000 year old texts to be able to recognize women's rights.)

"propriety, justice, integrity, honor"

I find it interesting that sense of shame and honor are the same thing. More things to think about. \o/

[starandrea]

A) I wonder if "share equally" and "appropriate role" are related to filial piety, in the sense of a reciprocal relationship between caregiver & recipient of care, which everyone in the world experiences in relationship to everyone else? (I mean that sincerely, "I wonder," since I have no idea and it was just the first thing I thought of when you mentioned being taken care of: the idea that we owe our service to those who take care of us, and those whom we serve owe us care, to the point that if they stop caring for us then we stop owing them service (perhaps most relevantly here, in terms of government and the people being governed, dating back to the idea that "if a ruler mandated by heaven can be overthrown it proves they've lost the mandate of heaven," but certainly also inclusive of husband and wife).)

B) I was also very interested in "sense of shame," so I googled a definition of shame and was offered this from Oxford Languages: "a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior." I bolded the part that I don't usually think about when it comes to "shame," and am giving it further thought now, especially in the context of it being a pillar of civil society :)

C) HA HA SILLY ME ♥ I just zoomed in on that picture and saw the plaque on the bottom right side of the gate's entrance, that literally translates the gate's message. I can not tell you how many times I have walked through that gate without realizing the English words (obviously, in retrospect, ha ha) reflect the Chinese meaning. Here is a closeup from wikimedia commons, where 耻 is translated as "humility." Neat! \o/

[tinny]

we owe our service to those who take care of us, and those whom we serve owe us care

Oh, that is a very good point. I can very much see how filialness works on that principle, and how it's only fair to return the care (and 归 seems to mean 'return', it would fit).

I'm still a bit miffed about how that giving and returning care applies to women, since taking care of children is generally undervalued - but maybe not in Chinese society? I've seen a lot of modern cdramas and it seems to me that old women are definitely revered there just as old men are. So maybe I'm applying my western society bias here, and shouldn't be.

that literally translates the gate's message.

Lol, the fact that the plaque is translated right there is a) hilarious and b) so very obvious in hindsight. :DDDD I would have overlooked it, too, surely. Also, the research you did was interesting! Totally worth it!

"a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior."

And now I wonder why they translated it as humility and what humility has to do with humiliation. Willing self-humiliation?

I definitely do see the connection between honor and shame - like you probably need one for the other, they're two sides of a coin. You can't be honorable if you're shameless. *blinks* Huh. Right. Wordsssss! \o/

[starandrea]

I'm still a bit miffed about how that giving and returning care applies to women, since taking care of children is generally undervalued - but maybe not in Chinese society?

Totally agree that care of children is both undervalued and assumed to be the woman's job. I actually just saw an example of this in one of Eileen's Mandarin Corner videos, and I had to come tell you about it! :D (I don't know if you watch Eileen on YouTube at all, but she does street interviews about current events, like Asian Boss but more interesting.)

Starting here on YouTube at 21:17, and for about 4 minutes (until 25:15), people talk about the perceived role of husband and wife in raising children. It's from a longer video, Why Are So Many Chinese Getting Divorced? They're responding to the question "Which parent should get custody after a divorce?" which is discouraging on many levels, but very relatable.

(I did enjoy the young women who said that if the woman has to birth the child, then the man should have to raise it, because "that would make it more fair.")

You can't be honorable if you're shameless.

Thank you for writing down the way that worked out in your head, because that was both fun and delightful, and it felt like a great example of how the connotations we apply to words can sometimes be so strong that they obscure the literal meaning (until we say it so explicitly and are like, "oh, right, that's literally what it means!"). I love it ♥♥♥