Preface
In daily life, we always have such and such questions, such as watermelon, pumpkin, winter melon, why there is no pumpkin, there is a round manhole cover, why there is no square manhole cover......
Among them, people are most puzzled about why "buying things" is called buying "things", rather than buying "north and south". Is it because "north and south" is not good?
In fact, there are many versions of the answer to this question, and people have debated it since ancient times, and Zhu Xi, a master of science, once asked such a question, and the answer to the question was actually a 10-year-old child.
Intense class discussions
Zhu Xi was a master of science in the Song Dynasty, and he was quite accomplished in academics, and was mentioned alongside Confucius and was called "Zhu Zi".
As the saying goes, "a teacher, so preach and teach to solve doubts", Zhu Xi, as a teacher, not only imparts knowledge in the classroom, but also answers the questions of students.
On this day, the classroom, which was supposed to be filled with the sound of reading aloud, was full of people and noisy, and the voice seemed to be that of a hawker in the market. People passing by probed one after another, wondering what was going on in the school.
In the school, I saw the teacher Zhu Xi sitting in front of him calmly, watching the students in the hall discuss problems. The students, you and I are talking a word, and even three or two people are gesturing, their faces are red, and the scene is very chaotic.
Seeing such a scene, people looked at each other, and they had to think that Zhu Xi and the students should be discussing the problem, not having a dispute. So, what kind of "problem" did Zhu Xi propose?
Unexpected question
It turned out that Zhu Xi saw that the students were interested and listless during the lecture, and planned to ask a question to arouse the students' interest in studying. He said, "Can you answer a question from you? ”
When the students heard the teacher's question, some of them were confident that they would be able to answer, some buried their faces in the book for fear that the teacher would call them, and some whispered to the classmates around them, not caring about the teacher's questions at all.
Zhu Xi glanced at the students' reactions and said slowly: "Why is it called buying 'things' instead of buying 'north and south' when we usually buy food and clothing?"
Hearing Zhu Xi's question, the students were very surprised, they thought that the teacher would ask some questions about the way of life or the meaning of study, but they didn't know that it was such a common question. But it's such a daily problem that stumps the students.
At first, everyone began to talk about the answers. Later, the scene got out of control, and everyone showed each other their answers while listening to others' ideas, and the school was very lively.
Zhu Xi was not surprised by the students' reactions, and he wanted to take this opportunity to test the students' response skills and problematic thinking. It's been a long time, and the students are so anxious that no one can come up with a reasonable answer.
At this moment, a 10-year-old child stood up and said in a loud voice, "Teacher, I thought of it. "No one would believe that a 10-year-old child would say anything convincing, because he has no life experience and cannot understand so much knowledge and theory. But Zhu Xi was looking forward to this child's answer.
With the help of the Five Elements Theory, the child explained that "east" means "wood", which corresponds to the bamboo basket used to buy things, and "west" means "gold", which corresponds to the coins used to buy things.
Hearing this answer, the students present were quite shocked, they were ashamed of themselves, and they were also ashamed of their previous performance in class.
In fact, there is no standard answer to this question itself. What matters is the thought process of thinking about the problem and the observation and reflection of daily life.
Zhu Xi was also a little surprised when he heard this child's answer, thinking that he was still young but had such an opinion, and he was not stage frightened in the face of a group of people older than him, so courage and insight were admirable.
In fact, the Five Elements Theory was already relatively mature in the Song Dynasty. It advocates that all things are mutually reinforcing, which is an analogy of all things and a kind of philosophical reflection for people to understand the world.
The ancient time, solar terms, geography, feng shui, and even traditional Chinese medicine on the mainland all have the figure of the Five Elements Theory, which embodies the wisdom of the working people and their simple understanding of the world. There is a certain rationality in explaining the word "thing" with the help of the Five Elements Theory.
Other interpretations of the word "something".
There is a saying that in ancient times, there were many places on the mainland that lived by water, because the terrain of the mainland was high in the west and low in the east, many rivers were in the east-west direction, and the main roads were in the north-south direction.
At that time, people were short of goods, and the goods traded were often food or agricultural tools, etc., and in order to avoid the fatigue of traveling and facilitate trading, merchants mostly sold goods on the roadside.
According to Xi, it is agreed that on the east side of the road is food, and on the west side of the road is food or other items. In this way, when people buy grain, they say "buy east", when they buy non-staple food or other items, they say "buy west", and if they want to buy, they say "buy things". Over time, people have referred to buying supplies as "buying things" for short.
There is also a theory that during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Luoyang was called "Tokyo" and Chang'an was called "Xijing". These two places were shopping malls at that time, and the goods were relatively complete, and people went to buy food and clothing, and most of them went to these two places.
For the sake of convenience, people call it "buy east" and "buy west".
Later, with the development of the times, it evolved into today's "buying things". Moreover, during the Tang Dynasty, "cities" appeared, and the middle and west markets were the most prosperous. People refer to shopping in the East and West markets as "shopping" for short.
During the Song Dynasty, the "city" broke through the limitations of time and space, the commodity economy developed rapidly, people's material life became richer, transactions were more frequent, paper money appeared, and people also provided convenience for trade, and the word "thing" may have been used more frequently.
There are many interpretations of the term "something", but the above are the more common answers. In fact, no matter how it is interpreted, the evolution of the word "east and west" bears witness to the evolution of the mainland's linguistic traditions and history from ancient times to the present, and is a testimony to people's daily language Xi.
epilogue
Chinese culture is vast and profound, and in the long history of more than 5,000 years, we have many language Xi and traditions. It's like "Where are you going?" and "I'm going to buy something." ”
This kind of dialogue is commonplace for us, it is an expression that people form and habitually use in daily life, it is a inheritance that we use every day without knowing it, and it is a microcosm and witness of people's lives.
Nowadays, we have also derived many new words, which reflect the face and atmosphere of today's society, and they will also be inherited by people from generation to generation, releasing vitality and vitality.