The Japanese and Korean term ' () or Chinese (), meaning "not have; without", is a key word in
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, especially
Zen
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...
traditions.
Etymology
The
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 12 ...
* () is
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical e ...
with the
Proto-Tibeto-Burman *''ma'', meaning "not". This reconstructed root is widely represented in
Tibeto-Burman languages
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people sp ...
; for instance, means "not" in both Written Tibetan and Written Burmese.
Pronunciations
The
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...
pronunciation of (, "not; nothing") historically derives from the
Middle Chinese , the
Late Han Chinese ''muɑ'', and the reconstructed
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 12 ...
*.
[, p. 518.]
Other
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of ...
have differing pronunciations of . Compare
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
; and
Southern Min
Southern Min (), Minnan (Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...
(
Quanzhou) and (
Zhangzhou).
The common Chinese word () was adopted in the
Sino-Japanese,
Sino-Korean, and
Sino-Vietnamese vocabularies. The Japanese
kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...
has readings of or , and a (Japanese reading) of . The Korean is read (in
Revised,
McCune–Reischauer, and
Yale romanization systems). The Vietnamese
Hán-Việt pronunciation is or .
Meanings
Some English translation equivalents of or are:
*"no", "not", "nothing", or "without"
[Baroni, Helen Josephine. ]
The illustrated encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism
', p. 228.
*"nothing", "not", "nothingness", "un-", "is not", "has not", "not any"
[Fischer-Schreiber, I., Ehrhard, R. K. & Diener, M. S. (1991). ''The Shambhala dictionary of Buddhism and Zen'' (M. H. Kohn, Trans.). Boston: Shambhala. P. 147.]
*# Pure awareness, prior to experience or knowledge. This meaning is used especially by the
Chan school
Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and So ...
of Buddhism.
*# A negative.
*# Caused to be nonexistent.
*# Impossible; lacking reason or cause.
*# Nonexistence; nonbeing; not having; a lack of, without.
*# The 'original nonbeing' from which being is produced in the ''
Tao Te Ching
The ''Tao Te Ching'' (, ; ) is a Chinese classic text written around 400 BC and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion d ...
''.
[Muller, A. Charles, ed. ''Digital Dictionary of Buddhism'' (Edition of 2010 July 31) page: "''non-existent''"](_blank)
Note this quoted definition is abridged.
In modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean it is commonly used in combination words as a
negative prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...
to indicate the absence of something (no ..., without ..., un- prefix), e.g., // () for "wireless". In
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
, it is an
impersonal existential verb meaning "not have".
The same character is also used in Classical Chinese as a
prohibitive particle
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, fro ...
, though in this case it is more properly written .
Characters
In traditional
Chinese character classification, the uncommon class of
phonetic loan characters involved borrowing the character for one word to write another near-
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (pa ...
. For instance, the character originally depicted a winnowing basket (), and scribes used it as a graphic loan for (, "his; her; its"), which resulted in a new character () (clarified with the
bamboo radical
Radical 118 or radical bamboo () meaning " bamboo" is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. The radical character usually appears at the top of characters and transforms into .
In the '' Kangxi Dictionary'' ...
) to specify the basket.
The character () originally meant "dance" and was later used as a graphic loan for , "not". The earliest graphs for pictured a person with outstretched arms holding something (possibly sleeves, tassels, ornaments) and represented the word "dance; dancer". After meaning "dance" was borrowed as a loan for meaning "not; without", the original meaning was elucidated with the radical , "
opposite feet" at the bottom of , "dance".
''Mu-kōan''
''
The Gateless Gate
''The Gateless Barrier'' (Mandarin: 無門關 ''Wúménguān''; Japanese: 無門関 ''Mumonkan''), sometimes translated as ''The Gateless Gate'', is a collection of 48 Chan (Zen) koans compiled in the early 13th century by the Chinese Zen master ...
'', a 13th-century collection of Chan or Zen ''
kōan'', uses the word ''wu'' or ''mu'' in its title (''Wumenguan'' or ''Mumonkan'' 無門關) and first kōan case ("Zhao Zhou's Dog" 趙州狗子). Chinese Chan calls the word ''mu'' 無 "the gate to enlightenment". The Japanese
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by My� ...
classifies the Mu Kōan as ''hosshin''
発心 "resolve to attain enlightenment", that is, appropriate for beginners seeking ''
kenshō
''Kenshō'' (見性) is a Japanese term from the Zen tradition. ''Ken'' means "seeing", ''shō'' means "nature, essence". It is usually translated as "seeing one's (true) nature", that is, the Buddha-nature or nature of mind.
Kenshō is an ...
'' "to see the Buddha-nature"'.
Case 1 of ''The Gateless Gate'' reads as follows:
The koan originally comes from the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu'' (), ''The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Zhao Zhou'', koan 132:
The ''
Book of Serenity'' , also known as the ''Book of Equanimity'' or more formally the ''Hóngzhì Chánshī Guǎnglù'' , has a longer version of this koan, which adds the following to the start of the version given in the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu''.
Origins
In the original text, the question is used as a conventional beginning to a question-and-answer exchange (
mondo). The reference is to the ''
Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'' which says for example:
Koan 363 in the ''Zhaozhou Zhenji Chanshi Yulu'' shares the same beginning question.
Interpretations
This koan is one of several traditionally used by
Rinzai school
The Rinzai school ( ja, , Rinzai-shū, zh, t=臨濟宗, s=临济宗, p=Línjì zōng) is one of three sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism (along with Sōtō and Ōbaku). The Chinese Linji school of Chan was first transmitted to Japan by My� ...
to initiate students into Zen study,
and interpretations of it vary widely.
Hakuun Yasutani
was a Sōtō rōshi, the founder of the Sanbo Kyodan organization of Japanese Zen.
Biography
Ryōkō Yasutani (安谷 量衡) was born in Japan in Shizuoka Prefecture. His family was very poor, and therefore he was adopted by another family. ...
of the
Sanbo Kyodan maintained that
This koan is discussed in Part 1 of Hau Hoo's ''The Sound of the One Hand: 281 Zen Koans with Answers''. In it, the answer of "negative", mu, is clarified as although all beings have potential
Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-go ...
, beings who do not have the capacity to see it and develop it essentially do not have it. The purpose of this primary koan to a student is to free the mind from analytic thinking and into intuitive knowing. A student who understands the nature of his question would understand the importance of awareness of potential to begin developing it.
Yoshitaka and Heine
The Japanese scholar made the following comment on the two versions of the koan:
A similar critique has been given by Steven Heine:
Non-dualistic meaning
In
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Maynard Pirsig (; September 6, 1928 – April 24, 2017) was an American writer and philosopher. He was the author of the philosophical novels ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An ...
's 1974 novel ''
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'', ''mu'' is translated as "no thing", saying that it meant "unask the question". He offered the example of a
computer circuit using the
binary numeral system
A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method of mathematical expression which uses only two symbols: typically "0" ( zero) and "1" (one).
The base-2 numeral system is a positional notatio ...
, in effect using ''mu'' to represent
high impedance
In electronics, high impedance means that a point in a circuit (a node) allows a relatively small amount of current through, per unit of applied voltage at that point. High impedance circuits are low current and potentially high voltage, whereas l ...
:
The word features prominently with a similar meaning in
Douglas Hofstadter's 1979 book, ''
Gödel, Escher, Bach''. It is used fancifully in discussions of
symbolic logic, particularly
Gödel's incompleteness theorems, to indicate a question whose "answer" is to either un-ask the question, indicate the question is fundamentally flawed, or reject the premise that a
dualistic answer can be given.
"Mu" may be used similarly to "
N/A" or "not applicable," a term often used to indicate the question cannot be answered because the conditions of the question do not match the reality. A layperson's example of this concept is often invoked by the
loaded question "Have you stopped beating your wife?", to which "mu" would be the only respectable response.
The programming language
Raku uses "Mu" for the root of its type hierarchy.
See also
*
Wuji (philosophy)
*
Wu (awareness)
''Wu'' () is a concept of awareness, consciousness, or spiritual enlightenment in the Chinese folk religion.
According to scholarly studies, many practitioners who have recently "reverted" to the Chinese traditional religion speak of an "openi ...
- Chinese concept of enlightenment
*
''Ma'' (negative space)
*
Mushin (mental state) - Japanese concept of "no mind"
*
Many-valued logic
*
Not even wrong
"Not even wrong" is a phrase often used to describe pseudoscience or bad science. It describes an argument or explanation that purports to be scientific but uses faulty reasoning or speculative premises, which can be neither affirmed nor denied a ...
*
Nothing
*
Wronger than wrong
*
Falsum
The up tack or falsum (⊥, \bot in LaTeX, U+22A5 in Unicode) is a constant symbol used to represent:
* The truth value 'false', or a logical constant denoting a proposition in logic that is always false (often called "falsum" or "absurdum").
...
- Nature of an unsatisfiable logical proposition, neither true nor false
*''
Wu wei
''Wu wei'' () is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action". ''Wu wei'' emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and T ...
'', a term in
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the " Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developm ...
*
Null
References
Sources
*
External links
Four myths about Zen Buddhism's "Mu Koan" Steven HeineThe Koan Mu John Tarrant
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mu (Negative)
Zen
Kōan
Chinese words and phrases
Japanese words and phrases
Korean words and phrases
Discordianism