The idea of anger in Russian and Chinese cultures.

Introduction

The contrastive study of emotions is an important aspect of cultural studies, without it it is difficult to understand non–verbal communication and build an emotional model of the interlocutor.  Emotions are studied not only by psychology, but also by comparative studies. Russians, Europeans, Chinese, Americans - we all feel and show emotions very differently. Let's look at the example of such an emotion as "anger". Anger is one of the fundamental human feelings that is manifested in children in the first year of life, along with other emotions such as fear, joy and disgust. Anger, as one of the forms of aggression, is included in the list of emotions that are actively regulated socially.

This article examines how culture influences the ways of expressing anger, in relation to Chinese and Russians.

In European cultures, including Russian, it is generally accepted not to openly express anger and its manifestations ^[5]. Only persons with a higher social status, such as supervisors, superiors or parents, can be openly angry ^{[8, pp. 26-40]}. This may be due to the fact that stimulating aggression is taboo in human society, and the higher structures in society usually do not respond to aggression with aggression, which corresponds to the civilizational instinct of self-preservation. In modern culture, the suppression of aggression often occurs through education ^{[9; 2]}.

Our contrastive research includes an analysis of the etymology of the word, the mythological roots of the concept, its compatibility, as well as semantic analysis.

The concept of anger in Russian culture

In Russian, the term "anger" describes a vividly manifested feeling of indignation and indignation, which sometimes leads to loss of self-control. Etymologically, there is a connection between purulent-type diseases and "the condition of a patient with ulcers and purulent wounds" ^[7].

Vladimir Dahl defines anger as an intense feeling of indignation, a passionate attraction caused by irritation (similar to the word "heart", as in the phrase "say something in the hearts", where initially Russians have an anatomical place for such emotions, naive anatomy, is still the heart and soul, and not the liver, as in Romantsev) ^[3]. The combinations of the Russian word "anger" give it imagery: we describe it as a wild beast, for example, when we say "tame anger" or "curb your anger." When a person "boils with anger" or "suffocates with anger", this may be due to an increase in body temperature or air temperature. Emotions associated with anger can be associated with various images, such as a wild beast, liquid (splash), fever, and illness. Anger can cause strong emotions in a person, and his behavior can resemble rabies, accompanied by physical sensations such as pain, burning heat, emotional outbursts and subsequent calming.

Special attention should be paid to the expression "noble anger", which reflects the expectation in society to express this emotion in case of violation of social norms and rules. In this context, anger is part of a more complex emotion and assessment, as well as demonstrative behavior, and in this case it does not fit into the basic arsenal of emotions under consideration.

In Slavic mythology we find a partial source of these ideas.  Rage is a strong anger out of control, an emotion whose manifestations are uncontrollable. The connection between rage and fire is even more obvious than anger. Dahl notes the following meanings of the adjective "ardent" (verbal synonyms: "to boil, to boil, to get hot" also express a connection with the most intense heat release from a person in a state of rage): fiery, ardent; angry, angry, fierce, hot, ignited; strong, strong, cruel, sharp; fast, brisk, unrestrained, zealous, zealous; molten, fusible, very combustible; white, shiny, bright; hot, lustful ^[4].

In Slavic mythology, one can find a partial root of such ideas. "Rage" is a highly intense and uncontrollable manifestation of anger where the emotion gets out of control. The connection between rage and fire is even more obvious, since Dahl notes that many meanings of the word "ardent" (verbal synonyms: "to rage – to boil, to get hot" also express a connection with the most intense heat release from a person in a state of rage) emphasize this connection: fiery, ardent; angry, angry, fierce, hot, fiery; strong, strong, cruel, sharp; fast, brisk, unrestrained, zealous, zealous; molten, fusible, highly combustible; white, shiny, bright; hot, lustful. These values express intense heat and fire, which correlates with a state of rage. In the indicated synonyms, you can also see a connection with the maximum intensity of heat release from a person in a state of rage (red with rage, sweaty, fire-breathing)..

The last aspect is related to the basis of the Russian concept of rage - the connection with "yarya" and "yarina", which refers to the vegetative power of the soil, especially transmitted to fungi and sponges of various kinds. "Mushroom jar" describes the seeds or germs found under old mushrooms in mushroom nests. The association between "yarya" and mushroom seeds, as well as the fact that mushrooms in many cultures are associated with symbols of the male reproductive organ ^[7], suggests that initially rage was considered exclusively as a male trait. Cf. their mythology: "Yarilo traveled all over the world, bringing crops to the fields and giving children to people."^[6].

The concept of anger in Chinese culture

In the Chinese naive worldview, the concept of anger plays a significant role, since in the Chinese language, words related to anger can be classified into three groups, each of which has its own associations and history of origin.

For a deeper understanding of this topic, we will use the method of linguoculturology, conducting a semantic analysis of the lexical units that we extracted from the "Frequency Dictionary of the modern Chinese language" ^[11]. Examples of compatibility will be taken from various dictionary sources ^{[14; 17; 18; 19; 20]}, as well as from the language corpus provided by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University ^[10].

The two key lexemes for anger are ? f?n and ? n?, around which a huge number of words are formed denoting different states of anger. These two lexemes in combination can also form a word denoting a strong state of anger, but without context, its cause will not be known.

The hieroglyph ? f?n is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category. It has a meaning associated with the "heart", phonetically read as ? f?n. The initial meaning of the hieroglyph is "longing; depression" ^{[13, p. 946]}.

With the help of this lexeme, an explanation of the causes of anger is given in modern Chinese:

The precise division of anger by subject in the Chinese language confirms the fact that anger is a common phenomenon for the Chinese worldview.

The hieroglyph ? n? is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category. It has a meaning associated with the "heart", phonetically read as ? n?. The initial meaning of the hieroglyph is "anger and rage" ^{[13, p. 943]}. The Chinese language has no words, calling a weak level of anger, but there are many words that mean strong anger and combined with the lexical ? n?, forming dozens of brand synonymous meaning words denoting a state of intense anger of man: d?n?, sh?ngn?, ku?ngn?, zh?nn?, xi?n?, f?nn?, w?in?, h?ngn?, y?nn?, y?nn? "very angry".

The lexeme ? n?, in addition to the meaning of anger, in modern Chinese still has the meaning of a powerful force: you can say n?f?ng to denote a magnificent flowering of flowers or n?t?o to denote stormy waves.

Thus, we see that in this view anger cannot be causeless, it is always a consequence of events. Also, anger is always strong, because even in the semantics of the lexeme itself, its comparison with powerful energy is embedded, indicating the specificity of the idea of anger in the Chinese worldview.

To find more specific associative images, we decided to turn to the compatibility of the lexeme f?nn?, generalizing the idea of the above lexemes about anger:

From the above compatibility, we see that anger has the following material connotation:

1. A wild beast. From the vocabulary compatibility, the image of an animal is clearly traced, since it can be led, it can be replaced when it ceases to be necessary; however, it is clear that this animal is wild and disobedient, it does not always obey the owner, and when it is dissatisfied, then a person should try to calm or calm it down. This beast often shows a wild disposition, and a person should be able to restrain it so that it does not hurt people. Thus, we see the image of a wild beast that a person is trying to tame.

2. Orgasm. We see that anger can only be active when combined with a description of a liquid. This is what a person can feel, and it is always a powerful flow, because it is combined with words such as gushed or poured out. This process is pleasant for a person, it is shown by a combination with the lexeme sh?xi?, which also in Chinese can mean psychocatarsis, when a person spills out everything that worries him and gets calm.

Another group describing anger is associated with the cult of the god of thunder in ancient times, which is shown by the lexeme l?it?ng. In modern Chinese, it has two meanings: 1) thunderclaps; 2) very strong anger.

To understand the reason for the association of thunder with anger, we need to refer to the philosophical work "Lun Heng" by the Chinese encyclopedic philosopher Wang Chong, who lived in the I century AD. In this treatise there is a chapter called "" L?i x? pi?n "On the falsity of faith in the god of thunder." The whole chapter is devoted to the most popular belief in the god of thunder at that time, where the author, using the method of objective dialectics, proves the connection of thunder with nature, and not with the deity. The whole chapter criticizes the connection between the wrath of the deity and thunder, trying to prove that thunder is not a manifestation of the wrath of the deity, and lightning is not a punishment of god. To clarify his position, the author also talks about the people's ideas about thunder:

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L?ngl?ng zh? sh?ng, ti?n n? zh? y?n, ru? r?n zh? x? x? y?. Sh? w? y? zh?, m? w?i b?r?n.

"Rumbling thunder is the sound of the wrath of heaven, because it is like the roar of a man. And all over the world, no matter if people were smart or stupid, everyone blindly believed in it" ^{[12, p. 134]}.

From this treatise it becomes clear that in the 1st century AD the connection between thunder and the wrath of God was already fixed, so we can assume that this image appeared in Chinese culture much earlier than the period described above.

However, in modern Chinese, this combination is used very rarely, which has led to the lowest possible compatibility of the lexeme. But it is often used in phraseological units chenhui, for example, b?oti?or?l?i, d?f?l?it?ng, l?ich?ndi?nn?, l?it?ngzh?n?, p?oxi?or?l?i, which all have the value of "very strong wrath."

The latter group includes lexemes that denote anger as a term of Chinese medicine. There are three lexemes in this group: f?hu?, f? p?q? and ? sh?ngq?. These lexemes are verbs that will be translated as "angry", but their analysis is necessary, since the influence coming from Chinese medicine on the formation of the concept of anger in the Chinese language is very strong.

If we turn to the composition of the first word, then the lexeme f?hu? consists of two morphemes: ? f? and ? hu?. The hieroglyph ? f? is included in the phonetic category with the original meaning of "shoot an arrow" ^{[13, p. 1126]}, and the hieroglyph ? hu? is a hieroglyph of the pictorial category, the original meaning of the hieroglyph is "fire" ^{[13, p. 885]}.

To explain the connection of anger with fire in Chinese culture, it is necessary to refer to the philosophical concept of "five elements". As it is written in the seminal book on Chinese medicine, The Treatise of the Yellow Emperor, each organ of the human body corresponds to a certain element. About the heart reads: "" L?i t?ng y? x?n q? ^{[16, c. 30]}, where "?" l?i "thunder storm" is translated as l?ihu?. Since fire from lightning was considered a natural phenomenon and such fire was considered the most correct, bestowed by heaven and earth, then in modern Chinese this phrase should look like this: "" l?ihu? zh? q? t?ng y? x?n and translated as "The qi of fire corresponds to the human heart." In addition, there are a number of phraseological units that show the heart as a place of accumulation of anger:

"" n? c?ng x?nt?u Q? ? ? xi?ng d?n bi?n sh?ng direct meaning "anger born in the heart", figurative meaning "extreme degree of anger"

"" n?hu? zh?ng sh?o "the flame of anger burns the heart (soul)"

"" y?f?nti?ny?ng "noble anger bursts the chest"

"" m?nqi?ng y?f?n "the heart is full of righteous anger."

This illustrates the connection of the heart and fire with anger.

The lexeme f? p?q? will be translated directly into Chinese as "release the qi of the spleen", however, "spleen" in this combination is used not so much as the name of a human organ, but as a special term of Chinese medicine. Since the spleen is one of the "five organs" corresponding to the five elements of nature, the combination of ? p? and ? q? shows that in this case we are interested in the movement of qi, that is, the internal energy of a person, from the spleen.

In Chinese culture, an important concept is the concept of "" q?q?ng "seven senses", where each sense corresponds to a certain element. Anger in this case will correspond to the element of wood, and from human organs it will correspond to the liver. Turning once again to the "Treatise of the Yellow Emperor", one can see: "" N? sh?ng g?n "Anger hurts the liver" and ", " G?nb?ng zh?, l?ng r?n sh?n n? "When liver-related diseases appear, a person is easily angry" ^{[16, p. 31]}.

Then the question arises: why do people in Chinese not say "release liver qi", but say "release the energy of the spleen" – an organ that, it would seem, has no connection with anger? This is because in the five elements, one element oppresses the other, namely, the tree oppresses the earth. Thus, "" p?x? g?nch?ng "the fire in the liver is so strong that it weakens the spleen through the oppression of the elements," i.e. the disease that should have appeared due to anger in the liver is transmitted to the spleen. As it is written in the ancient Chinese monument of Chinese medicine "j?n ku? y?ol "Essays from the Golden Room":

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Ji?n g?n zh? b?ng, zh? g?n chu?n p?

"The disease that appears in the liver will be transmitted to the spleen" and "If you ensure the health of the spleen, the liver will heal itself" ^{[15, p. 2]}.

In modern Chinese, one can say d?d?ngg?nhu? to denote strong anger, but its result will be the transfer of possible diseases to the spleen, and a person will waste the qi that was there, which led to the formation of the concept of f? p?q?.

The last lexeme of the sh?ngq? directly shows that anger for the Chinese consciousness can be the cause of improper movement of qi inside a person. The hieroglyph sh?ng is a hieroglyph of the ideographic category, the original meaning is "the grass that has grown" ^{[13, p. 552]}. Therefore, the lexeme sh?ngq? can be directly translated as "the origin of qi".

In the "Treatise of the Yellow Emperor" it is written: "" n? z? q? sh?ng "When a person is angry, qi goes to the head" ^{[16, p. 176]}, which shows anger as an object capable of spoiling the cycle of qi movement inside a person. You can also notice this idea in phraseological units, for example, "" n?f?ch?nggu?n "to be so angry that the hair stood up", that is, qi instead of proper movement reached the head and led to the appearance of various symptoms.

Conclusion

The coincidence of the Russian and Chinese worldview in relation to anger is amazing: in both naive worldviews, anger is associated with illness, male manifestation, medicine, hierarchy. Being a basic emotion peculiar to a person regardless of the region of residence, we can assert that the unity of understanding this emotion goes back to the opposition of male and female, to a kind of categorical universality. The only difference is that in Chinese culture, anger as a kind of qi is thought of positively, and in the Russian picture of the world, largely shaped by Christian morality, it is thought negatively. The example of these two concepts clearly shows how basic and cultural factors interact in different cultures in shaping the mentality of a particular people.

Comparison of ideas about anger in Russian and Chinese cultures: