Summary for Chapter 19
Shlain begins chapter nineteen by describing what the symbol of yin and yang physically looks like. He says it consists of two fluid teardrops placed head to heel and extends into the territory of one another. Shlain explains how each side has a dot of the other color representing its reciprocal. “For the better part of Chinese history, and especially in the last thousand years, the status of Chinese women has been abysmal” (Shlain, 179). He goes on to explain how men could practice polygamy. Treating the main wife as his child bearing wife and using the others as slaves was common in the early days. The women of this time had to, “adapt to their lowly station by effacing their own personalities” (Shlain, 179). Shlain goes onto say that men could divorce their wives for trivial reason, like they talked too much. On the other hand, women could under no circumstance divorce their husband. They could choose to go live with their parents, but that was a disgrace to the family for a daughter to return home. Shlain talks about how family names were built up from the symbol representing woman. He argues that, “If patriarchy had been in existence long before the recording of Chinese history, why would men choose to construct their patronymics upon the spine of a maternal symbol” (Shlain, 180).
Shlain talks about how most words have the same meaning no matter where they appear in a sentence. He compares the 500,000 words in the English language to that of the 400-800 in the Chinese spoken language. Spoken Chinese, he says, depends largely on where the word is in a sentence. The Chinese language has many dialects. Shlain talks about how, “Their use of a pictographic written language instead of an alphabet one strongly affected their historical development” (181). Chinese people today can still read ancient script because it does not vary much from the writing style today. He says that written Chinese does not have rules of grammar like the Western world, and spelling does not exist in the Chinese language. When you read their written language it is read vertically, unlike English writings which are read horizontally. They only speak in one tense; they do not differentiate between past, present and future tenses. He tells how difficult it is to read Chinese and how similar it is to the alphabet, compared to verbal communication.
In this chapter, Shlain tells how things are depicted differently in Eastern and Western civilizations. He explains how left-brained alphabet cultures have been more aggressive in war, conquest, and exploration (184). Alphabet cultures are more likely to impose their beliefs on others. He compares the dragon in both cultures. Shlain finds that in the East dragons are portrayed as good fortune and in the West they were dispatched by heroes. (185) He compares how spelling has encouraged people to see themselves apart from nature, their deity, government and each other. (185) “In contrast, the pattern recognition inherent in ideographic language has immersed users in a web of interpersonal relationships” (Shlain, 185). He claims that depending on how children learn to speak will inherently determine how they think.
Rhetorical Anaylsis
Until I read this chapter I did not really understand the idea of yin and yang. I always knew that it was a Chinese symbol and that it meant somehow two things were equal and complimentary. Now I have a deeper understanding of the symbol and also the ideas behind it. I also have heard that women were treated poorly in China. Let’s be honest women have not always been treated well in our world either. I was amazed to find out that women were not able to do anything pretty much and could be disregarded so easily by their husbands. I think that it is sad that they have to efface their personalities to stay taken care of. This is something that all people should have, especially mothers with children. Hearing Chinese people talks always confuses me and now I kind of know why. Their language is much more complex in my opinion and harder to figure out. They altogether write, speak and communicate differently than we do. It is also nice to see the similarities that exist too and the conclusion that Shlain draws from his studies.
Question
Shlain says that spelling has encouraged people to part from nature, their deity, government, and each other. In contrast, he says the pattern recognition inherent in ideographic language has immersed users in a web of interpersonal relationships. Do you agree that language really dictates people’s actions to the extent Shlain claims it does, use an example from Shlain to back up your answer. Do you think people think about language at all, or do we take advantage of our communication methods?
