The idea of "luck" in Russian and Chinese cultures

Golovanivskaya Mariya Konstantinovna Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of Regional Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Faculty of Foreign Languages and Regional Studies 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 Golovanivskaya@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Efimenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0002-4003-5887 Student, Department of Regional Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13 efimenko200205@mail.ru Other publications by this author

 Luck is a concept that permeates many aspects of life and culture of different peoples. However, despite its comprehensive role, few studies have been devoted to the comparative analysis of the understanding of "luck" in various cultural contexts. The present study deals with this important aspect, focusing on the comparison of two significant cultures - Russian and Chinese.

The purpose of our research is to analyze the concept of "luck" in Russian and Chinese, revealing its features in different cultural and linguistic contexts. We will use the comparative historical method, the method of generalization and the method of semantic analysis to achieve this goal. The research begins with an analysis of the etymology of the word "luck" in both languages, as well as its mythological roots, which can throw light on how this concept is perceived in each culture. We will also consider the compatibility of this term and isolate the real connotation, following the methodology of V. A. Uspensky.

Comparing the dictionary definitions of "luck" in Russian and Chinese will allow us to identify similarities and differences in the ways in which these two cultures perceive the concept of "luck". This comparison, based on scientific methods, will allow us to understand the worldview of different peoples and highlight key differences. It should be noted that this topic is considered to be poorly researched, and linguistic and cultural studies covering the concept of "luck" in the context of Russian and Chinese cultures have not been conducted before. This makes our research scientifically groundbreaking.

The data obtained as a result of the study not only contribute to a better understanding between representatives of different cultures, but can also be considered as a kind of conceptual bridge that contributes to strengthening ties and respect between peoples. In addition, the results of our research can be useful in the development of training courses in regional studies, comparative study of cultures, and in teaching relevant languages. 

Thus, this research has a wide range of applications in scientific and educational fields, and can also have a significant impact on mutual understanding and respect between cultures.

The concept of “luck" in Russian

Russian Russian "luck" is an interesting example of a concept that largely reflects the peculiarities of the Russian mentality. Vladimir Dahl connects luck with the verb "to succeed", which comes from "to give" and means "to give up, to experience failure, to be unsuccessful" and so on. The obsolete Russian word "udatok" meant "a concession, a concession to oneself." Then the meaning of "succeed / luck" changed and began to mean "to achieve success, actually to become successful", always using the passive voice, since the reason for success is always attributed not to the subject, but to some unknown force that brings good luck. Dahl explores luck as a desirable event, while modern dictionaries describe it as a desirable event, noting a typical phenomenon of semantic transformation in which a word changes its meaning to the opposite, similar to the case with the word "probably", which originally meant "for sure", and then acquired the meaning "probably"^[3].

From the associations and combinations of words it is clear that "luck" in the Russian language personifies a mythological creature with special properties and functions.

In Russian, we say that "luck favors, smiles, pleases, inspires, turns your head, turned away." We "bring, promise, wait for luck, wish good luck, believe in luck, count on luck", as well as "scare off luck, catch, lure luck, grab luck by the tail, try to win luck" and so on. Luck can be "unexpected, big, long-awaited" and so on.

The analysis of the compatibility of the word "luck" shows the motive of hunting, perhaps, a mythological bird that can smile and give wings. In the mythologies of various countries and peoples, various birds played an important role. We can assume that in Slavic mythology there were not only crows and roosters, but also some fantastic flying creatures associated with luck and happiness, which later led to the standardized metaphor "bird is the happiness of tomorrow" and a number of expressions related to the concepts of "flutter, fly with happiness", "to be inspired with happiness" and so on.

In the Slavic notation system, many meanings were expressed through the symbolism of birds. The raven symbolized misfortune and death, the rooster was a symbol of courage and cheerfulness, the dove symbolized soul and love, the woodpecker symbolized perseverance, and the hawk - strength, military might and predation. Thus, it can be assumed that in Russian mythology there were also associations associated with certain birds, but only parts of these associations remained, and the names of the birds themselves were forgotten ^[4].

Luck comes to a person, regardless of whether he has taken any actions to achieve success or not. Luck can "fall out" or "collapse" on someone (meaning from top to bottom, perhaps this is a later metaphorical borrowing from the European language). In the Russian mind, there is a belief that luck can be "earned" or "lured" by correct behavior. The expression "to do something for luck" or "at random" is a unique phenomenon characteristic of Russian culture.

Recently, the word "maybe" has attracted the special attention of linguists ^[5]. It is usually associated with the concept of chance or luck, which a person counts on, but not to such an extent as to include them in their future plans.  Let's give Anna Vezhbitskaya's reasoning on this subject ^[1]: "In essence (maybe – M. G., N. E.) this is an attitude that interprets life as an unpredictable thing: "there is no point in making any plans and trying to implement them; it is impossible to rationally organize your life, because life is not controlled by us; the best what remains to be done is to rely on luck." A. Vezhbitska believes that maybe in a certain sense summarizes the main content of Russian culture, permeated through the theme of fate, awareness of the minimal role of human reason and human forces.

We perceive such generalization with excessive hyperbole. This emphasizes, in particular, the fact that "maybe" disappears or is on the verge of obsolescence, despite this, a special attitude to luck, in which a person always remains passive, remains unchanged. An important aspect of the Russian concept of "maybe" is the idea of it as a designation of a hidden, invisible cause that can suddenly contribute to a person. Russian Russians' views on knowledge and skill, which we focus on in one of the chapters of our book, clearly show that the world and every situation in it have non-secrecy, inexhaustibility and incomprehensibility. This implies that in every situation, from the point of view of a Russian person, there are many hidden reasons and circumstances, one of which is called "maybe". Thus, we assume that among these hidden factors there may be those that are currently inaccessible to understanding, but can significantly affect the outcome of events. Believing in the possibility of such invisible factors, Russians often take risks, but, in fact, they only express their own special concept of the world.

The concept of “luck" in Chinese

In Chinese culture, the concept of luck is connected with the concept of fate. As it was shown in the work of M. K. Golovanivskaya and N. A. Efimenko "The idea of fate in Russian, French and Chinese cultures", the word y?nq? in modern Chinese simultaneously has the meanings of fate and luck, and when used its meanings are often alternative ^{[2, p. 47]}.

The key linguistic unit for the semantic field of this concept is ? y?n. Dictionary Xinhua gives the following interpretation of the values of the given words: z?oy? de R?n, y? zh? m?x?n de t? r?n su? shu? de z?oy? "Event in a person's life; often used to refer to a case in view of superstitious people." ^[16]. With the help of this token, segments of fate are described, where the result depends not on a person, but on another force.

It turns out that according to semantics, this lexeme should denote a neutral case, but when combined with verbs, ? y?n denotes luck. There are at least 3 lexemes that can be combined in this way, forming the same meaning of "lucky": z?uy?n, ji?oy?n, x?ngy?n. Thus, we see that when combined with verbs, this lexeme can only describe luck, and a relatively considerable number of absolute synonyms once again shows that in the Chinese mentality people always hope for the best, because apart from birth and death, according to the traditional view, everything depends only on the person himself ^{[2, pp. 42-43]}.

In Chinese mythology, the god Fu-xing is the god of happiness and good luck. He, along with Lu-sin, the god of career, and Shou-sin, the god of longevity, are called the three star elders. These gods, who appeared thanks to the astral cult in very ancient times, show the most important features of the Chinese worldview. The god Fu-xing corresponds to Jupiter, as the ancient Chinese noticed that during the 12-year cycle of Jupiter's rotation around the Sun, the climate also periodically changes, coinciding with the different location of Jupiter. Since climate is crucial for agriculture, Fu-xing was initially called the god of agriculture, and then the god of happiness and joy ^[12]. Of course, the image of this god has changed greatly over the course of history. If we talk about modern perception, then one of the most important features of his external image is that he holds objects associated with happiness in his hands, and in most cases it is a child, but it can be a jui wand, and New Year's paired inscriptions, and more. It also shows that in Chinese culture, happiness and luck are very often associated with the birth of a child and holidays, which we will notice in further semantic analysis.

For a better understanding of the topic, we will turn to the linguoculturological method, conducting a semantic analysis of lexemes isolated from the "Frequency Dictionary of the Modern Chinese language" ^[6]. Examples of compatibility are mainly taken from various dictionary sources ^{[7, 8, 13]}, as well as from the language corpus system of the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University ^[9].

The Chinese semantic field of the concept of "luck" is represented by the following lexemes: h?oy?n, x?ngy?n, ? h?ngy?n, h?ngy?n.

The lexeme h?oy?n consists of two morphemes: ? h?o and ? y?n.

The hieroglyph ? h?o is a hieroglyph of an ideographic category, structurally consisting of a part ? n?, denoting a woman, and a part z?, meaning "child"; the initial meaning of the hieroglyph is "good" ^{[11, p. 1094]}. The structure of this hieroglyph, from the Jiaguwen script to the modern one, has always consisted of the two above-mentioned parts, which is not usual for a hieroglyph, but emphasizes the fact that the designation of good and beautiful through the concept of a woman with a child passes through the entire diachrony of the Chinese language. There is an opinion that the original meaning of the word is associated with female fertility, because in a matrilineal-tribal society, the status of a woman was very high, since the strength of the tribe directly depended on childbearing, so the birth and upbringing of a child by a mother was directly associated with something good ^{[15, pp. 192-193]}.

Thus, the lexeme h?oy?n will be directly translated as "a good case", which the Xinhua dictionary interprets: T?r?n hu? y?w?i y? d?o de h?osh?. "A good event that happened suddenly or unexpectedly" ^[16]. Image of surprise is also shown in the compatibility of the token: d?il?i h?oy?n "to bring good luck", zh? h?oy?n "wish you luck", h?oy?n ji?ngl?n "fortune has arrived", h?oy?n l?il?n "fortune has arrived" ji?o h?oy?n "meet with a success" p?ngd?o h?oy?n "meet your luck", p?ngsh?ng h?oy?n "stumble luck", y?d?o h?oy?n "encounter with luck", h?oy?n d?ol?i "luck has come," h?oy?n zhu?n l?i "luck is back", z?u h?oy?n "go luck", h?oy?n su?x?ng "lucky", xi?ngsh?u h?oy?n "to enjoy good fortune", zh?n sh?ng h?oy?n "a little smear luck", hu?d? h?oy?n "get lucky", c? h?oy?n "honoring luck", xi?ngx?n h?oy?n "believe in luck", q?d?o h?oy?n "to pray for success", zh?nx? h?oy?n "take care good luck", sh?q? h?oy?n "losing a fortune".

From the given compatibility we see that luck has the following real connotation:

1. The bride or groom. The arrival of luck is often grandiose; since the token ji?ngl?n is combined with important and serious events, to which the arrival of luck is attributed, then when a person sees it, he immediately goes to her, wants to get acquainted with her. Also, when there is no luck, a person prays that it will come to him. In this case, we see a clear image of when an important event occurs in a young person's life: since in ancient times weddings depended on the wishes of parents, and not on the wishes of their children, so a person could be active only after he learned about which woman his wedding would take place with.

2. A traveling companion. There are various ways of meeting a person with luck, after which luck can accompany a person. Even if a person has lost his luck, there is still a chance that it will return after some time. This performance shows us the image of a fellow traveler whom we meet on the path of life and then walk along it together.

3. Chinese vodka of the highest quality. The lexeme zh zhnsh?ng in Chinese is combined with an indication of various liquids, so this item must correspond to this attribute: it is a thing that can be brought, therefore this liquid must be in some kind of container, also the item is expensive, because someone will be honored with it, and after receiving it, a person takes care of it, but you can also use this liquid at the right time and enjoy it. From this description, a full-fledged image of an expensive and high-quality alcoholic drink appears, which a person cherishes and appreciates, and enjoys it only during important events, for example, a holiday or a wedding.

From these three significant connotations, we see that in the Chinese worldview, luck is strongly associated with a wedding, because this event was a turning point in fate, which by and large decided the rest of life for a young man or girl in ancient China, and everyone hoped that fate would turn for the better.

The lexeme x?ngy?n consists of two morphemes: ? x?ng and ? y?n.

The hieroglyph ? x?ng, which was originally written as ? x?ng, is a hieroglyph of an ideographic category, structurally consisting of a part ? y?o, denoting death at a young age, and ? n?, meaning "on the contrary", therefore, the original meaning of the hieroglyph was "to avoid the misfortune of early death", but later became used to denote success or avoiding trouble by absolute chance ^{[11, p. 911]}.

It is easy to see that this description is clearly not related to the traditional Chinese concept of "luck". In Chinese, there is a lexeme ji?ox?ng, which means "maybe; fortunately" in Russian. However, in Russian, as it was written above, this phraseology has a positive connotation, whereas in Chinese the word has a clearly negative connotation. According to the data from the language corpus, the word began to be used in Chinese only at the very end of the XIX century and further in the XX century it has already taken root in literary Chinese and began to appear in such major writers of that period as, for example, Lu Xin, Hu Yoping, Mao Dun, etc.

If you look at history, then the end of the XIX century is just the time of close cooperation between Russia and China for the construction of the KVZhD. Therefore, we can make a cautious assumption that this idea of luck is a semantic borrowing from the Russian language picture of the world.

Due to the fact that this word exists for a relatively short time, at the moment there is practically no compatibility of this lexeme with verbs, respectively, it is impossible to identify a significant connotation.

The lexemes h?ngy?n and ? h?ngy?n are the same in meaning and sound, but different in spelling. Judging by the chronology, the lexeme h?ngy?n appeared much earlier: this word was found on the "Stele of Merits and Virtues in the ancient Weidayun Temple in Liangzhou", which was built in 711 ^[14], and the lexeme ? h?ngy?n began to be used much later, only in the XIX century. It can be assumed that the word h?ngy?n was originally an incorrect form of spelling of the word h?ngy?n, since the symbolism of the lexeme h?ngy?n could also be associated with luck. As an example, we can take the novel "Continuation of the History of Jigong", written by Keng Yusheng in the Qing Dynasty, where the lexeme was used for the first time, but this lexeme in the text had the following compatibility: "luck in the middle of the road". In Chinese, the combination with the lexeme d?ngd?o means that someone has blocked the road and does not let pass, for example, ch?il?ng d?ngd?o (direct translation: "jackals and wolves in the middle of the road", figurative meaning: "villains in power"); ji?nch?n d?ngd?o (direct translation: "crafty officials in the middle of the road", figurative meaning: "villains in power"); w?l?ng d?ngd?o (direct translation: "fierce wolf in the middle of the road", figurative meaning: "a very dangerous path"). The combination of h?ngy?n d?ngd?o is inherently clearly incorrect, because luck goes to meet a person, trying to help him, and not blocking his path. Perhaps, in this case, the author also incorrectly used the lexeme h?ngy?n, which led to the appearance of a new word for luck.

The main meaning of the hieroglyph ? h?ng is "wild goose". Geese in ancient Chinese culture were considered the most sincere and humane birds, since in a caravan of geese the strongest goose always flies in front, and young and weak geese follow him, and even if there are geese that lag behind, they are still not abandoned. The discipline and kindness of geese pleased the ancient Chinese so much that 4 absolute synonyms were created for the formation of flying geese: y?nz?, y?nzh?n, y?nh?ng, y?nx?. As it is written in "Li ji", the main book of rites and rituals, in ancient China, before the wedding, the groom's family was obliged to give a goose to the bride's family, because it is a symbol of loyalty ^[10], since geese find only one life partner in their entire life. In addition, the ancient Chinese wedding followed a very strict rule, for example, the sequence of young people in the family who will marry is as pre-arranged as the position of geese in a caravan. Thus, geese in Chinese culture are directly associated with marriage, and for the Chinese, getting married and forming a family is great happiness and good luck, therefore the lexeme h?ngy?n, directly translated as "goose case", means good luck.

The hieroglyph "h?ng" conveys the meaning of red. As you know, the color red in Chinese culture is associated with beauty, holidays, happiness, luck and wealth. This concept is easy to trace in modern Chinese: when a woman is magnificently dressed up, it is called a "red outfit"; when a woman is beautiful, she is called a "red face"; a wedding is called a "red joyful event", and a gift from the groom to the bride is called a "red pledge"; lanterns Those that are hung up on the Chinese New Year are called the "red lantern"; for the New Year, money can only be given in a "red envelope"; even in the financial sphere, the bonus will be called the "red profit", and "distribute profit" literally translates as "divide red"..

We see that the red color in Chinese culture has a very good symbolism, so it is no coincidence that when using tokens, the goose was replaced with red, because both the first and second images in Chinese culture are vividly positive.

Conclusions

Luck, etymologically connected with the verb to give, is an active mythologized being, with which a person's relationship is built according to the hunting scenario. Russian Russian luck is associated with a specifically Russian "maybe", together with which it expresses a special worldview of the Russian ethnic group. The words luck, maybe, chance are positively connoted in the Russian language.

Russian luck seems animated and active. Russian Russian luck, as well as specifically Russian maybe, reveal in a special way the interpretation of the idea of responsibility (more precisely, irresponsibility, coming from the idea of the non-secrecy of the world).

In Chinese, luck is based on the concept of ?, which is closely related to the concept of fate. Starting from mythology, ending with semantics, there are two concepts associated with luck in the Chinese language: family and wedding. This idea can be traced throughout the original Chinese synonymous series of the concept. Also in Chinese there is the concept of , which entered the Chinese language only at the very end of the XIX century and has similar specifics with the Russian "maybe". After the analysis, it was suggested that this could be a semantic borrowing from the Russian language.