文化

Meanings

Etymology

The modern Chinese term is an orthographic borrowing from Japanese 文化(ぶんか) (bunka, “culture”), which was chosen to serve as a direct translation of the German word Kultur. In its classical form, the term can be interpreted as 文教 (wénjiào, “humanistic education”) + 化育 (huàyù, “transformational development”). Often cited are the following examples: 先秦, 《周易·賁卦彖傳》: 觀於天文、以察時變、觀乎人文、以化成天下 We observe the patterns of the skies in order to inspect seasonal changes. We observe the patterns of human behavior in order to transform and actualize all under Heaven. 南朝劉宋, 范曄, 《後漢書·荀淑傳》: 宣文教以章其化、立武備以秉其威。 Spread humanistic education in order to manifest its transformative potential. Establish military capabilities in order to have a grasp on (its) power. Humanistic education, based on the tradition of rites and propriety 禮教 /礼教 (lǐjiào) have the transformative potential to actualize all under Heaven 人文化成. This is often juxtaposed or contrasted with the use of punishment 刑 (xíng) or military might 武 (wǔ) to establish power and control over a populace, as can be seen in the quote below: 南北朝, 齊王融, 〈從武帝琅邪城講武應詔詩〉, quoted in 《藝文類聚》卷五十九 ，武部，戰伐: 早逢文化洽，復屬武功宣 Having reached an ideal state of (governance by the means of) transformative education at an early stage, we can now focus on the establishment of military power (in the region). 文化 over here is synonymous with 文治 (wénzhì, “governance by means of culture, education, rites and music”). This is not the same as culture in the modern sense of the term. It is within this classical context that the Japanese first coined the term 文化(ぶんか) (bunka) to name an era during the Edo period. When used to translate Kultur during the Meiji restoration, 文化(ぶんか) (bunka) is possibly a contraction of 文明開化(ぶんめいかいか) (bunmeikaika, “to open up and transform through civilization”), which takes the meaning of a civilizing agent i.e. Culture.

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Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

Characters

Example sentences

• 他熟悉日本文化。

  He is familiar with Japanese culture.

• 学生们在探讨语言和文化。

  The students are talking about language and culture.

• 倫敦過去因為經濟和文化的緣故，十分重要。

  London was very important for economical and cultural reasons.

• 同一個符號，不同的人或不同的文化可能會有不同的解讀。

  The same sign may be interpreted differently by different people or different cultures.

Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR

More examples & usage (AI)

Derived terms

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Related words