Zoroastrianism in Chinese language

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In recent years, the topic of the presence of Zoroastrianism in China has gained increased interest. New articles appeared in the Internet regarding new archaeological discoveries and old records where the existence of Zoroastrians in this country has been documented.

Most of the articles talk about historical facts; but what they do not talk about is the relations that exist between Chinese language and Zoroastrianism. And this is a point that must be studied in deep.

Being Chinese language as it is, relations between groups, ethnicities and religions, with the mainstream language of China, can be more complex that we may think.

Chinese language does not have an alphabet. It is written using characters. It means that when a new word is introduced to the language, they have to allocate a set of characters to reproduce the sound of the word. With time, a character appears giving a meaning for this word in Chinese language.  There are 2 kinds of Chinese characters currently in use: Traditional and simplified. Simplified is the official script in mainland China, while in Taiwan they use traditional. Old manuscripts and old books use traditional.

I am going to write some examples here. The pronunciation will be expressed in Latin letters according to the “pinyin” system, based in Mandarin, the standard Dialect used in China:

人 (rén)  means “People”, “man”.

火 (Huŏ) = Fire

天 (Tiān) = Heaven

教 (jiào) = Teachings         

年 (nián) = Year  

Some words have more than a character:

学校 (Xuéxiào) = School  

电话 (Diànhuà) = Telephone

Some words are represented by characters that reproduce how it originally sounds.

波斯 (bōsī) = Persia

If we ask google about the Word “Zoroastrian” we may get this answer:

琐罗亚斯德教徒 (Suŏluōyàsīdéjiàotú).  In Traditional would be 瑣羅亞斯德教徒

When we check the name of traditional religions of China in Chinese here are some examples:

-          佛教 (Fó jiào) = Buddhism

-          道教 (dào jiào) = Taoism

-          神教 (shén jiào) = Folkloric Religion of China

As we mention before, the character教 (jiào) means Teaching. In Chinese, there is basically no word for religion like in other languages.

According to http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Religion/xianjiao.html in old manuscripts, the character assigned to Zoroastrianism was祆 (Xiān). Zoroastrians and Zoroastrianism were known by other names like 拜火教 (Bài huŏ jiào), and 火祆教 (Huŏ Xiān jiào), If we take the first word and separate its characters, we can see that 拜 = Worship, 火 = fire and 教 = Teaching, so the word: Bài huŏ jiào for a Chinese is “Teaching of Fire Worship”. Now, going to the other term, we get 火 = fire, 祆 = Zoroastrianism and 教, in all Huŏ Xiān jiào = “Teaching of the Fire of Zoroastrianism. The word Teaching can also be interpreted as “Teacher”, so a Zoroastrian could be also somebody who teaches respect for Fire.

In Chinese, Characters can be analyzed also according to the radicals that compose it. Radicals are simpler characters that can make part of a more complex one. They can also spread some light about the meaning of the character. 

It is interesting to see that the character used for Zoroastrianism, is composed by 2 radicals so祆 = 礻 + 天. The radical: 礻 = 示 (Shì) = Altar. 天 (Tiān) = Heaven. Unlike other religions in china that make more emphasis in other aspects, Zoroastrians were known to have a Fire altar where they pray to Ahura Mazda. They dedicated an altar to pray to a supreme being.

In an article written by Dr Pallan Ichaporia, and that can be read in https://zoroastrians.net/2011/12/19/zoroastrianism-in-china-2/ , he mentions the word 祆神楼 (xiān shén lóu) for a Zoroastrian temple. The transliteration to Pinyin is mine. Separating the words, we have祆 for Zorastrianism, 神 means “God”, and 楼 means “Floor”, Building.  In brief, this word means “Building for Zoroastrian Deity”.  It can also be read as “Zoroastrian Building”.      

In Wikipedia in Chinese, the following page has basic concepts of Zoroastrianism, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%90%90%E7%BD%97%E4%BA%9A%E6%96%AF%E5%BE%B7%E6%95%99 . Some words are transcriptions to Chinese of some important terms like:

阿胡拉 馬茲達 (Āhúlā Măzīdá) = Ahura Mazda

阿沙 撾西史達 (Āshā Wōxīshĭdá) = Asha Vahishta

沃胡 摩那 (Wòhú Mónà) = Vohu Manah

It is interesting to see that the term for the Avesta is 波斯 古經 (bōsī gŭjīng)   that means “Persian Scriptures”.

There is a word I would dispute and is the way the word “Gathas” are Translated in this page they use the word 伽泰 (Gātài), that is the transcription to Chinese of this word.  However, the word “Gathas” exist in Chinese; This word was brought by Buddhist monks, who also have their own Gathas in the scriptures. They use the word 偈 (jì). This Word also meas “Hymn”, “Verse”.

Not only the meaning, leads me to consider that this is the right word. If we separate the radicals of this character, 偈 = 人 + 曷 : rén + hé, where the radical人 means “Person” and the radical 曷 means “Why”. The complete character 偈 represents a person who questions. Perhaps, there is no better translation to the meaning of Gathas of Zarathushtra.