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Philosophical Thought
Reference:

The Idea of Fate in Russian, French, and Chinese Cultures

Golovanivskaya Mariya Konstantinovna

Doctor of Philology

Professor, Department of Area Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University

119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13

golovanivskaya@gmail.com
Other publications by this author
 

 
Efimenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich

Student, Department of Regional Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 13

efimenko200205@mail.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8728.2022.10.38954

EDN:

GMCUAS

Received:

15-10-2022


Published:

31-10-2022


Abstract: The article is devoted to the comparative description of the ideas of fate in three national worldviews — Russian, French and Chinese. These worldviews are reconstructed from linguistic data and cultural context. In each of the languages, the synonymic series of the concept is described, etymology, mythological and philosophical origins, modern meanings and compatibility are analyzed. The result of the study is identification of similarities and differences in the ideas about the fate among these peoples. We see that the Russian field of fate is verbal, the French semantic is associated with the idea of falling-falling out, and the Chinese is associated with such actions as changing and understanding. The actual interrelationships of the Russian concept are an indication of the causes of the damage , the French one is a source of well–being, the Chinese one is with ideas about possibility and dependence. The Russian creation personifies the concept of fate in the image of a self-willed woman, as well as in the French picture of the world, while the Chinese figurative thinking identifies fate with a code, an assistant or a rival. In the Russian picture of the world, a person is passive in relation to his fate, in the French he is active, he fights with it, the Chinese gestalt unites both: you can passively accept, you can actively fight.


Keywords:

National mentalities, picture of the world, destiny, predestination, cultural science, linguistic analysis, analysis of real connotations, analysis of compatibility, reconstruction, idea

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

In many cultures, there is an idea that life is controlled by a higher power. She is the reason and explanation of what is happening. [1, p. 160-270]; [2]; [3]; [4, p. 148]; [5, p. 16]; [6, p. 19-26, 61-74]; [7, p. 72-79]; [8]; [9, pp. 207-214]. To analyze the idea of it in the Russian, French and Chinese pictures of the world is the purpose of the study.The scientific novelty of the research lies in its method (and the results obtained thanks to this method), which allows for accurate and evidence-based comparison of abstract concepts in different languages: contrastive analysis goes from etymology and mythology, from compatibility and separation of material connotations to semantic analysis.

The sum of the received data is the basis of the comparison. The scientific elaboration of the topic is based not only on the works of Russian and world researchers listed in the list of references, but also on the monograph of one of the authors – M.K.Golovanivskaya "Mentality in the mirror of language", awarded the Shuvalov Prize.We have chosen three languages and three linguistic cultures as the object of research – Russian, French and Chinese.

It was interesting for us to analyze how one of the key concepts of the universal worldview fate is interpreted by three key civilizations European, Russian and Chinese.  The destruction of Eurocentrism and the conversion of scientific interest to the East is one of the current trends in modern humanities.The idea of fate in Russian culture

The Russian semantic field is "providence, fate, fate, fate, fate".

Slavists record [10] that mythological images of Share, Dash, luck and wealth represent the oldest layer of mythological proto-Slavic concepts of fate. They are represented by:

1. The Court (Usud) — (sends to Meet or Not Meet - the embodiment of a happy and evil fate. (He scatters gold and potsherds in the yards of newborns, predetermining the fate of the rich and poor).

2. Sudenitsy — three sisters traveling to the homes of newborns on the third or fifth day after the birth of a child and name his fate. The older one demands his death, the middle one slightly softens the sentence, the younger one worries about the long and happy life of the newborn. Fate is written on the forehead of a child (hence the expression "it is written on the genus"). [10]

The concept of fate, infrequent in folklore [11], was understood as the verdict of the court, someone of the above.

So. 1. Fate is determined through polemics and recorded. (Ancient Greek parks decide their destinies in complete silence). 2. What they say cannot be changed. 3. Only the Usud is in charge of issues of prosperity.

Russianists note [12] that all designations of fate are verbal derivatives: fate is to judge, share is to divide, rock is speech. The words fate and happiness go back, in their opinion, to the Proto-Slavic verb with the meaning "bite" through the deverbative "part". The word "lot" goes back to the verb with the meaning "to cut" [13, p. 130]. The semantics of fate has signs of perfection, hence the idea of an inescapable, accomplished, accomplished fact. In this regard, there are two aspects in the description of fate's behavior: its behavior is symbolic (fate writes, draws, designates, appoints, judges, speaks, predicts, etc.) and active (it divides, separates, divides, dooms, starts, breaks, plays, etc.

 With a more detailed analysis , four hypostases of fate are distinguished in the modern language: 1. Fate as a higher power; 2. Fate as given by God; 3. Fate as a path; 4. Fate as a building object (metaphorically).

Compatibility allows you to see the real connotations of concepts. Fate in the first hypostasis is a spiritualized female being, rational, emotional, changeable, active. In the orthodox concept, the will of God is opposed to the willfulness of fate. We say: to be a toy in the hands of fate, to be in the hands of fate, to leave everything to the mercy of fate, a mockery, a smile of fate, fate separates, drives, punishes, laughs, is greedy, capricious, bestows, spoils, decides, executes, judges, tricks, tricks it can be anything you like or not with her finger she points the way, she passes sentences, is angry, ironic, smiles, can take pity or execute, etc. The rational role of fate is often associated with the idea of theater: she distributes roles, assigns space, etc. All this was left to us by the sisters of the Court. The fact that a person is usually passive in the face of fate, he is tied up, separated, sent, abandoned, condemned to something, and in this case a person is a toy in the hands of fate, often offended, robbed, experiencing persecution, etc. - just a consequence of verbality. And from the same verbality, the verbal response behavior of a person logically follows — he thanks her, trusts her, obeys his will, etc. A third variant of the relationship between a person and fate in the Russian language consciousness is also possible, although such relationships are described by rather poor idiomatics: a person may disagree with his fate, fight it, go against it, against it, laugh in her eyes, test her patience, etc. These are borrowed, that is, not native, as we will see later, contexts.

We see a clear connotation of the concept of fate in this sense: a capricious aggressive woman, whose face, voice and hands are additionally accentuated. Justice is not her strong point, she conducts her games with a blind person, favorable or unfavorable for him.

Her good actions are described much more sparsely (gifted, helped, brought together, protected) than negative ones, which is understandable, because two sisters of the Court were evil, and only one was kind. Such an appearance reflects and develops on a different, linguistic, level the given mythological features that we talked about earlier.

Fate in other contexts is thought of as an inanimate object, a thing, what is given, given, what a person is endowed with, in this sense, it can also be an object of the application of human forces: it can be sought, it can be followed, it can be lost, found, met. Sometimes it acts as a kind of text, an encryption (something that is written in the genus), it can be guessed, solved, read, built, built.

In its third hypostasis, fate is movement itself, with a path, winding, difficult (or easy), this path can be shared with anyone, you can turn off it, it often appears as a maze in which you can get lost. Here a person is endowed with will: he can choose his life path, that is, his destiny.

 An active person has a life plan – a tool for managing fate. Speaking about this plan, we operate with the metaphor of construction, creation, architectural and engineering action. But this is not our original image. We took it from the Europeans in the XIX century.

"Rock" is formed from "speech" — spoken, spoken. We say: cruel, malicious, hostile, merciless, senseless, incomprehensible, mysterious rock. Rock pursues, collapses, overtakes, enters. Rock is a dark, evil force, a man is a victim of fate. But fate, unlike fate, does not form a line, a path, its action is always point-like, it cannot be constructed, although these point effects can be included in fate, especially in its final part. So, an unexpected death by accident is always interpreted as fate.

We say "fatal" in relation to a woman or, less often, to a man to denote their disastrous impact. But this is a French femme fatale, albeit in a local incarnation (the image of Nastasia Filippova from the novel "Idiot", for example).

The share, the fate, the lot rather describe the personal sphere, we say: "to be abandoned by a woman is such her share." The share "includes" not only external factors, but also purely internal ones, we can say: "this is my share - to endure, because I don't know how to stand up for myself. The share falls out, they are looking for it, in modern language it can be neither good nor bad (happy, that is, making a person happy: a sign of a person, not herself). In the modern language, the words fate, share, lot lose their activity, get a stylistic coloring (either poetic or colloquial, probably this is somehow connected with their primordial nature and the greatest archaism among all members of the synonymous group) and an ordinary carrier usually finds it difficult if he is asked to create a variety of contexts with these words.

The Russian word "lot" in the meaning of "fate" is used little, limited and stylistically colored: "we had such a lot", "such is our lot", "our lot is unenviable". In the combination of the word lot and partly the word share, we see a trace of the Indo—European prototype - the image of falling-falling, dating back to ancient divination.

The idea of fate in French cultureThe French semantic field of "fate" is "fortune, destin, destinee, sort, providence".

"Christians do not have a sufficiently clear doctrine of fate," the Abbot De Felisse believed [14, pp. 143-147]. French thought and imagery were fed from two traditions — antiquity and Christianity. Fortune is endlessly discussed by humanists (Alberti, Ficino, Pontano, Machiavelli [15], then denied and relegated, then resurrected and gaining new statuses. The clash of fate and providence described by both Montaigne and Diderot [16, pp. 265-266] also testifies to the persistence of ancient ideas, which left a rich trace in language, which led to the coexistence of pagan and Christian images in everyday consciousness.

In medieval iconology [17-18] we find the following descriptions and corresponding depictions of Providence and Fortune:

1. "Providence is a woman with two heads, on one — a wreath of ears, on the other - of grape branches and tassels. There are two keys in one hand and a steering wheel in the other."

2. "Fortune is a blindfolded woman, she hovers over the tree of life and knocks down "crafts" from it with a long stick — gifts: tools, weapons, books, crowns, etc. She's blind, so she shouldn't single out anyone."

Both allegorical characters are female. They operate with the help of additional tools (keys, cornucopia, wheel, steering wheel, stick). The characters who embody these concepts hint to a person how he should behave in relation to his fate: know the past, think about the future, reason. Providence and French fortune are endowed with riches: they have ears of corn, grape branches, cornucopia, gifts – symbols of crafts. These higher "predestinators" of life tell a person how to succeed. All people are equal, fate does not play along with anyone. She is either blind, or rotates evenly on the wheel of time, turning to face everyone.

Fortune n.f. — borrowing from Latin (1130), Fortuna is the name of the Roman deity of happiness, chance and luck. Originally, this word was called the goddess of harvest, as evidenced by the origin of her name from the verb ferre - "to wear",

motherhood and women. Subsequently, perhaps under the influence of the Prenestine cult, Fortune became the goddess of fate, happy and unlucky chance, social success. In the plural, this word meant "wealth".

 In the modern language distinguishes the following three meanings of this word:

1. A force that distributes goods and misfortunes without a visible rule. 2. An event or events, good or bad, resulting from the actions of this force. 3. Well-being, wealth. In this sense, fotrune is included in the following synonymous series: money, capital, property, possessions, wealth.

Fortune in the first two meanings of interest to us has the following metaphorical combinations in French: les caprices, les caresses, les cadeaux, les revers, les revirements, la volonte, la revolution de la fortune; etre favorise, elu, digracie, favorise de la fortune; chercher, tenter, batir, courtiser, corriger, brusquer la fortune, faire contre mauvaise fortune bon Coeur, etre l'artisan, courtisan de la fortune, avoir la bonne, brillante, heureuse, mauvaise fortune, ne pas avoir de fortune.

Fortune's connotative look — femininity — is emphasized by the ability to take care of her, as well as by whims and caresses. But the French fortune is mute, apparently following the ancient ancestor.

Providence n.f. — borrowed from Latin (1165) (from providentia - foresight, providence). The word is formed from the actual present participle of the verb providere — "to see ahead, to foresee". In the Old French language there was a corresponding derivative (porveance) with the meaning "providence", "caution", "wisdom".

Providence did not retain the meaning of "foresight", as it was replaced in this meaning by the word prevention and prevoyance. This word has been preserved in the religious dictionary and only.

 In a pair of terms destin/destinee, the main difference is the idea of duration (not expressed in Russian). Destinee is, as it were, the embodiment, the realization of the second (destin) in the actual ongoing process of life.

Both French terms are deverbatives. The verb destiner was borrowed at the beginning of the XII century from Latin (destinare — "fix, bind" and figuratively "decide, assign", as well as "stop your choice on something".  Destin compatibility: se livrer au destin, le destin entraine, se prononce, regle, ordonne, dispose, n'a pas dit son dernier mot, on suit son destin, n'echappe pas a son destin, tournant du destin, l'inconstance du destin, destin tragique, heureux, derision, doigt du destin, Dieu fait et defait le destin etc.

We see that destin is similar to fortune, but destin is endowed with speech and female features are reduced in his appearance. And yet: destin manages not only the social success of a person, but also personal. In his appearance, a strong (masculine) principle is emphasized: they are given into his power, he drags them along, etc. The presence of a pointing finger in destin emphasizes its imperativeness (the pointing finger is an attribute of a tribune, a teacher, and a phallic symbol) and activity. The activity of destin leaves no room for human activity, we cannot say * chercher, lier son destin, etc. So destin: animate, strong, active, indisputable, impermanent, all-encompassing.

Destinee is associated in the French worldview with a specific human life and, perhaps, its purpose (Ce a quoi une personne est destinee). They say it like this: tenir entre ses main la destinee de qn, accomplir sa destinee, trancher la destinee de qn , snasip est l'ouvrier de sa destinee, subir le joug de la destine, finir sa destinee, unir sa destinee a qn etc. Destinee is thought of as something inanimate and passive, being the object of human actions. In relation to destiny, a person can do a lot — hold it in his hands, implement it, interrupt it (as if cutting the hair on which the sword of Damocles hangs). There is a curious roll call, the French say "to be a worker of your destiny", and the Russians after them use "to be a blacksmith of your happiness". This kind of "French" fate is very often associated with a person's private life (c'est sa destinee d'?tre parfaiture aimee), which indicates that in the minds of the French, as in the minds of Russians, there is a distinction between the fate of the lower, human and the fate of the higher — for society or God.

Fatalite (another synonym in this series) is borrowed from folk Latin (fatalitas — "the indisputability of fate" and "a natural or supernatural force that pre-determines everything that happens"). It's always the cause of something negative. The adjective fatal, related in origin, came from the classical Latin fatalis ("prophetic", "predestined by fate", "sinister, deadly"), comes in turn from the Latin fatum (prediction, fate and, most interestingly, the time allotted for someone's life). Hence, obviously, the negative connotation of the word in all Romance languages.

The evil force can be both outside and inside a person. It is obvious that fatalite is the enemy of man, an animated, aggressive force, malicious, without pity. But a person in the collective consciousness of the French can resist it, fight. Let's remember how Odysseus fought with his fate and won, how Oedipus fought and lost. Many ancient heroes defied fate, but no one has ever done this, nor even thought about it (we can make such a judgment not only from the analysis of Slavic myths, but also from the analysis of Russian fairy tales) [19].

The central designation of fate in French is sort. The French sort (n.m.) came from sortem (980), an accusative of the classical Latin sors, sortis (n.f.), which originally designated small wooden tablets designed to communicate with oracles through casting lots, for example, when distributing judicial powers in magistrates. Hence the expression "tirage au sort" and "resultat de tirage" - "a prophecy inscribed on a tablet, one of which was chosen by a child who had previously thoroughly mixed the tablets", as well as "a duty, a position assigned by prophecy". This is the key maternal meaning associated with the Romance, and in particular, the French understanding of fate and chance, a key developing image, the influence and traces of which we can detect in many groups of concepts.

In French, sort has inherited many Latin meanings. Firstly, it is a way to make a decision through lots, (see the expression jeter sort of the XIII century, which meant to roll the dice in order to solve something in this way, which turned into jeter, tirer au sort in the XVII century and is used to this day. In the XIX century, with the help of tirage au sort, young people from poor backgrounds were recruited into the army, which completely determined their future fate. The expression Le sort en est jete came into use thanks to Malherbe, who thus translated Alea jacta est (The die is cast). After the song about Roland (1080), another meaning of sort was established, to which sorcier adjoins, a word denoting a magical effect of a negative property (whence the expressions jeter un sort a qn and il y a un sort - to bewitch someone and the dominant failure). In the 19th century, sort borrows the Latin meaning "prediction, prophecy", then out of use.

Sort can be favorable and unfavorable (in the XV century mauvais sort meant "poison") or neutral, in the latter case associated with the case. The meanings associated with the placement of capital under rent have disappeared in modern French.

Today , this word obviously has the following three meanings:

1. A magical action, usually of a negative nature, the subject of which is a person. 2. What should happen happens by chance. 3. An imaginary force that determines the course of human life, a fictitious reason for what is happening.

In the modern language , sort has compatibility:

Le sort sourit, sert, favorise, se joue, veut, abandonne, defavorise, tourne devant etc. Les coups, les caprices, les injures, l'ironie du sort. Subir, infliger, reserver, accepter, avoir un sort. Lier son sort a celui d'un autre. Disposer, decider du sort du qn. Partager, plaindre, invier, se lamenter, s'apitoyer sur le sort de qn. Etre resigne a son sort.Arbitre du sort, abondonner qn a son sort, faire un sort a qn, faire un sort heureux a qn, faire un sort. Le sort peut etre digne, enviable, heureux, malheureux, cruel, indigne, lamentable, deplorable, pitoyable, propice.

The French sort has no single—root words, the most frequent verb used with the word sort is jeter, emphasizing the etymological meaning of the word and linking the concept with the idea of "throwing", therefore, the case.

Thus, sort is a random result, a function of chance. This case can activate a person, not a deity, which is why in compatibility this word often takes the position of a direct complement, and the place of the agent is given to a person or God. In the direct complement function, sort appears in the second of the listed meanings and is understood as some inanimate object with which actions similar to those performed in Rome with sors are performed. Sort can be imposed, forced to transfer, accept, share, you can envy him or complain about him. Human activity in relation to sort is also expressed in the frequent use of the verb faire with this word. One person can make another happy, help him financially, help him achieve a position in society, and all this will be described using the verb faire and the noun sort. A person can find applications of a thing, and it will also be described using the same lexical means. The "fate" of a thing, an inanimate object, can also be described in French using the noun destin, but destin, unlike sort, cannot be made by a person.

The idea of the relative passivity of sort, "preferring" to hide either behind the back of another deity, or behind the back of a person, is also emphasized by a group of epithets — adjectives with the suffix - able - verbal adjectives indicating the possibility of performing an action with the characterized noun, set by the corresponding verb.

Sort in the third sense is a personified higher power, characterized by rather "soft" manifestations, which, in our opinion, is due to the passivity of this word in the second sense just described. In general, the appearance of this higher power is not sufficiently manifested, only the ability to help and not to help, to favor and not to favor, to leave, etc. is determined. However, putting sort in the position of the subject (that is, the acting subject) is not preferable and most often the participial construction will be used to express conditionally active positions of sort: favorise par le sort il... etc. It should be noted that sort is not endowed with speech, however, like all these deities, he is able to smile and turn: le sort lui a souri, le sort tourne devant lui, and it is in these two universal contexts for the lexical group described that sort acts actively, as befits a higher power that disposes of human life.

The idea of fate in Chinese cultureChinese semantic field of "fate" — m?ngy?n ????? yu?nf?n??? s?m?ng??? ti?ny???? ti?nm?ng??? q?y?n??? y?nq?.

In Chinese mythology, there is no specific god who is "responsible" for fate. The only thing that can control a person's life is the Book of Life and Death. In the original view of the Chinese worldview, hell was a world of dead souls and was in no way connected with the idea of fate. The classical concept of "hell" in Chinese culture came along with Buddhism, which introduced ideas about sin and punishment. Images of the lord of hell Yan-wang and his assistant Pan Guan, who keeps the "Books of Life and Death", appeared. For the first time, the "Book of Life and Death" was indirectly mentioned in the collection of Hung Maya ???? Y? ji?n zh? "Notes of Yi Jian" [20, p. 22]. From this collection it was revealed that in the "Book of Life and Death" the dates of birth and death of each person and animal are written; after death, a trial takes place; everything good and bad that a person has had in his whole life is painted in the book, and it is with the help of this book that the further path of the soul is determined.

But the linguistic use of lexemes-names of the concept "fate" is not always the same with its folklore image. There are 4 thematic groups of stable and free combinations, which include these tokens:

1. Fate gives the beginning and the end of life; 2. Fate as a reflection of cause and effect; 3. Fate commands a person; 4. Fate as the movement of qi.

At the moment, there is a relatively small number of studies devoted to the Chinese concept of "fate" [21, pp. 99-102]; [22, p. 189-192]; [23]; [24, pp. 84-91], but almost all of them analyze only the 1st and 3rd thematic groups, analyzing the most common image fate, transmitted by the token ?? m?ngy?n. Unlike them, in our work we will consider the concept of "fate" as widely as possible.

We will divide the analyzed semantic field by the functions of fate:

1. Fate gives the beginning and the end of life.This group includes the token ?? m?ngy?n. ??"fate" is a combination of 2 morphemes: ?m?ng and ?y?n.

The hieroglyph ? m?ng "life" appeared when using the Jinwen script, is a hieroglyph of the ideographic category; in the most ancient Chinese jiaguwen script, this hieroglyph was also used, but was an alternative with the hieroglyph ? l?ng "order": and the original meaning was "to give orders" [25, p. 82]. The earliest use of the hieroglyph ? m?ng was found on the Maogong tripod, where the phrase was written: ???? y?ngsh?ud?m?ng "Accept the command of heaven". It turns out that the share of fate that ? m?ng carries has already been distributed by someone initially, it is not for nothing that abstract concepts associated with ? m?ng have fatality. This is something that a person cannot change on his own, something given initially: a? sh?ngm?ng "life",a?? s?m?ng "karma",a? ti?nm?ng "the command of heaven",a?? sh?m?ng "destiny".

The hieroglyph ? y?n appeared when using the Zhuanshu script, is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category and its original meaning is "to move" [25, p. 121]. In the concept of "fate", ? y?n is associated with movement, refers to the endless changes in human life. This is the part of fate that does not depend on God or heaven, but only on the person himself. Therefore, the abstract concepts, including Kornilov ? y?n, always changing: ?? y?nd?ng "move"??? y?nch?u "to plot"??? y?nzhu?n to function??? di?oy?n "direct"??? y?nsu?n "calculate".

The combination of these two concepts in the word ?? m?ngy?n at once is not unexpected, because the Chinese mentality is a combination of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. A ?? m?ngy?n is a neutralization of the philosophical ideas of Taoism and Confucianism. Confucius himself promoted the concept of ?? zh?m?ng "to know fate", for example: "??????" W?sh? ?r zh? ti?nm?ng "At the age of 50 it is necessary to know fate" [26, p. 8]. But the concept of "knowing fate" does not mean having it, but means humility with it. People can know what awaits them, but they cannot change it, because it is given by heaven. Absolutely the opposite opinion was in Taoism. In the book "Nanhua Zhenjing" [27], this opinion was expressed directly: it was believed that "Tao" is the material basis of the world, and it was not recognized that there are gods or some kind of heavenly force that dominates the world and people. It is not for nothing that people still often say: ??????? w? m?ng y?u w? b?y?u ti?n "My fate depends on me, not on heaven." As it is written in the work of Cheng Mingren "???????": ??? [28], this phrase is precisely the popular thought of Taoism.

Analysing language form, it is easy to see that, from a syntactic point of view, if the token fate is as an object immediately after the verb, it is associated with words that convey the meaning of the control of the person: ???? zh?ngw? m?ngy?n "master of fate"????? ju?d?ng m?ngy?n "to decide the fate"????? g?ibi?n m?ngy?n "change destiny"????? ni?zhu?n m?ngy?n "to turn"????? d?k?ng m?ngy?n "resisting fate"????? zh?ngf? m?ngy?n "conquer destiny"????? g?ixi? m?ngy?n "rewrite destiny." And if the token fate plays the role of a subject, his use of brand changes: ???? m?ngy?n n?ng r?n "fate mocks the man"? b?i j? ????? m?ngy?n ku? "to be broken destiny"?????? m?ngy?n de ?np?i "decomposition of destiny"?????? m?ngy?n de w?nxi?o "the joke of fate"?????? m?ngy?n de ch?l?n "gear of fate"?????? m?ngy?n de zhu?n?ng "irony of fate"?b?i ?????? m?ngy?n su? sh?f? "to be bound in fate."

So, in the linguistic aspect, the two-sidedness of the concept of "fate" in the Chinese worldview is expressed. Fate and man are rivals. A person resists fate, tries to defeat it, and in response it "plays" with a person, mocks him. And a person has only two ways: either to lose to fate, or to win.

2. Fate as a reflection of cause and effect. This group includes the lexemes ?? yu?nf?n and ?? s?m?ng.

The word ?? yu?nf?n consists of two morphemes: ? yu?n and ? f?n. ? yu?n is a hieroglyph of the phonetic category, consisting of parts: ? m? "threads of cloth" and ? tu?n "mouth of a pig". The original meaning was for the korneslog ? yu?n "to use threads as fillets for clothes" [25, p. 1143]. ? f?n is a hieroglyph of an ideographic category. Initially, the hieroglyph meant "to cut an object into two or more parts with a knife" [25, pp. 64-65]. Therefore, judging by the etymology, ? yu?n is a framework that is unchangeable, and ? f?n means a further continuation of events where there is uncertainty. The concept of ?? yu?nf?n originated from Buddhism, and in modern Chinese, the lexeme ?? yu?nf?n is used in the meaning of communication between people, when it is said that someone, regardless of circumstances, must separate from another person or, conversely, must meet someone. All these probabilities are unavoidable, as it is fate.

In modern Chinese, ?? yu?nf?n is a concept that can be measured, while having 2 countable words: ? du?n and ? f?n. Countable word ? du?n can be used to refer to parts of something whole, for example, ??? y?du?n l? "gap road" ????? y?du?n sh?ngzi "part of the rope" ????? y?du?n sh?ji?n "period of time"????? y?du?n ti?l? "part of the railway". Countable word ? f?n can be used not only for abstract concepts such as a sense, fate, love, etc., but as the unit of account of the quantitative things that are not transferred when you use the Russian language: ???? y? f?n g?ngzu? "one job", ???? li?ng f?n x?nshu? "two paychecks", ???? y? f?n b?ozh? "one newspaper", ???? f?n z?li?o s?n "three"document.

In the Chinese language lexeme ?? yu?nf?n may appear when talking about the connection of people: ?????????? Yu?nf?n b? w?men y?q? b?ng z?ile "Fate brought us together," ??????? Yu?nf?n r?ng w?men xi?ngsh? "Fate gave us to meet you," ??????? K?o yu?nf?n y?q? z?u d?o "With the help of fate we met". But it can also be used when this connection between people ends: ?? Su Su?nsh? yu?nf?n d?ot?ule "The end of fate has come", ?????? Zh? f?n yu?nf?n du?nle "This fate is cut", ???? Yu?nf?n j?nle "Fate is over". We see that when the token ?? yu?nf?n is used, it acquires the image of an assistant: it does not enmity with a person and does not force him to do something, but, on the contrary, it helps him to find people who should appear in his life. And there is also an image of an object that can be tied, cut, that is, a thread or rope. But, on the other hand, this image is limited, it has its beginning and end, and can also be repeated, which gives it the image of a road, a path.

The word ?? s?m?ng combines 2 morphemes: ? s? and ? m?ng. The hieroglyph ? s? appeared when using the jiaguwen script and is an ideogram, and the original meaning of this word was "a man sleeping at home on a mat" [25, p. 661].

When the root syllable ? s? is used as a definition in modern Chinese, it means what has already happened before: ?? s?g?n "root cause"??? s?yu?n "cherished desire"??? s?zh? "long-standing intention". Therefore, the fate conveyed by the word "s?m?ng" is dependent on a person's previous life: everything that a person has gained or lost depends only on what he did before this life.

If you look at the syntax of the phrase, it is found that the word ??s?m?ng used in phrases consisting of definitions and word ?? s?m?ng, which is defined by this definition: ????? ?iq?ng de s?m?ng "fatal love", ????? Shu?sh?u de s?m?ng "the fate of a sailor" ????? W? de s?m?ng "my destiny"?????? R?nl?i de s?m?ng "fate of humanity", ??????? W?f? t?ol? de s?m?ng "inevitable fate"? ??????? B?k? de g?ibi?n s?m?ng "the same fate." The lexeme ??s?m?ng means fate, which cannot be controlled by a person, but acts as a law that cannot be changed. Usually in modern language it is used with a negative connotation, and if you replace it with the word "ji?su" "fetters", then they will be perceived in the context as partial synonyms.

Both considered lexemes are Buddhist concepts denoting fate, which is unchangeable since the birth of a person, as they are associated with the concept of "karma". But there are big differences in their semantics: ?? yu?nf?n is a separate fragment of fate concerning only two people, having a beginning and an end. This abstract concept is embodied in the image of a thread that connects people to each other, or a path that a person must follow; ?? s?m?ng is a fate that concerns only one person, it has the image of a law or even a burden; no matter how a person treats his fate, he must recognize it and obey it.

3. Fate commands man.This group includes 2 lexemes: ?? ti?ny??? ti ti?nm?ng. Both of them are connected with the abstract concept of heaven in the Chinese worldview. The word ? ti?ny? combines 2 morphemes: ? ti?n and ? y?. In Chinese folklore is the God of gods, who rules over everything, its called ?? ti?nd? "heavenly Lord", and still his image is present in modern Chinese language, for example, when in a state of wonder people say: ???????W? de l?oti?ny? a! "Oh my God!", where ??? l?oti?ny? and means heavenly Lord ?? ti?nc?i (literally "a gifted talent from the sky") "genius" ?? ti?nl? (literally "the truth from the sky") the "law of nature", ?? ti?nz?i (literally "calamity from the skies") "a natural disaster". Even the emperor in Chinese is designated as the "emperor" (literally "son of heaven"), which confirms the Chinese belief not in some god, but in heaven itself. The hieroglyph "ti?n" appeared when using the jiaguwen script, and is included in the symbolic category of hieroglyphs in the original meaning of the earth, which is located above a person's head [25, p. 2].

The hieroglyph ? y? appeared when using the Xiaozhuan script, the hieroglyph is included in the phonetic or ideographic category. If the hieroglyph is included in the phonetic category, then the original meaning is "the meaning that is in the human heart." If the hieroglyph is included in the ideographic category, then its original meaning is "the voice of the heart", that is, something that is hidden deep in a person and that is difficult to convey in words [25, p. 925].

In modern Chinese, the word ? y? is also associated with the desires that a person experiences: ?? y?si "interest", ?? x?ny? "intentions", ?? y?t? "aspiration".

After the analysis, it becomes clear that ?? ti?ny? means "the desire of heaven". It is no coincidence in the modern Chinese language, its use in such utterances: ????????? Sh?ng xi? de zh? n?ng k?n ti?ny?le "Everything depends on fate", ????????? W? xi?ngx?n ti?ny? b?ngzh? n? hu? "I believe that fate will help you", ???? Ti?ny? sh?r?n "This is the result of fate", ?????? Ch?ngb?i z?iy? ti?ny? "Victory or defeat depends on fate."

The word ? ti?nm?ng combines 2 morphemes: ? ti?n and ? m?ng. As already mentioned in the analysis of other lexemes, the ti?n is a heavenly force that cannot be resisted, and the m?ng is the part that is unchangeable in fate, it is independent of a person. Therefore, in this context, fate is something that absolutely does not depend on a person, these are the orders that heaven gives, and a person must obey. We can say that this is the most unfree image of fate. Therefore, when used in modern Chinese the word used in this way: ???? ji?n sh?n ti?nm?ng "deeply reflect on destiny", ???? ti?nm?ng b? ch? "not to understand your destiny," ???? ti?nm?ng zh? y? "So destined destiny" ?????? ti?nm?ng t?o b? ji? y? "Fate long will fluctuate over their decisions."

We see that with this use, fate is like a doctrine or a law. A person can try to study fate, but this will not change the result, which depends on the heavenly mandate. In addition, the lexemes ?? ti?ny? and ? ti ti?nm?ng have different valuations. With the token, a person voluntarily gives up all his chances and is passive, giving himself up to fate and hoping for the best, and with the token, a person initially no longer has the right to choose fate and can only carry out its orders.

4. Fate as a qi movement. This group includes the lexemes ?? y?nq? and ?? q?y?n. The morphemic composition of the lexemes is the same, but in the opposite order, which led to their language difference. ? q? appeared when using jiaguwen and is a hieroglyph of the pictorial category, i.e. the outlines of these signs approximately correspond to the shape of the object. Initially, the hieroglyph had the meaning of a moving cloud. In modern Chinese, it has the meaning "a gaseous body of any kind" [25, p. 26].

In the Chinese foundational book on medicine, the Hu?ngd? n?ij?ng "The Treatment of the Huangdi Emperor", the hieroglyph ? q? was explained as the energy that surrounds us, but people do not see it, but the movement of this energy can affect everything that exists in the world. It was written: "?????????" Sh?n y?n q? zh?, b? zh?ng y? w? q? "Whoever understands the law of qi movement can clearly tell about the results of qi movement and its influence on the environment" [29]. As we can see, the lexemes ?? y?nq? and ?? q?y?n combine 2 identical morphemes: ? y?n and ? q?, which in both cases will be directly translated as "qi movement", but their meaning is very different in the language. The word ?? y?nq? in modern Chinese at the same time matter of fate and luck, and the use of values is often a alternative: ???? zh?w?ng y?nq? "count on the fate/ to rely on luck" p?ng ??? y?nq? "to try to maybe" ???? xi?ngx?n y?nq? "to believe in fate/ luck", ???? y?nq? b? h?o "unlucky/bad destiny" ??? y?nq? h?o "luck/good fortune," ?????y?nq? d?ot?ule literally "goose is cooked", ???? y?nq? l?ile literally "happiness basement". In this case, fate acquires the image of an assistant on whom a person relies, but whether a person will receive help depends only on the desire of fate.

In modern Chinese, the lexeme ?? y?nq? is used with the counting word ? du?n. We can say ? y y?du?n y?nq?, which means "the variability of fate." The word ?? q?y?n also has the meaning "fate": ???? q?y?n sh?ngshu?i "prosperity and decline of destiny", ???? q?y?n zh? shu?i "the decline of destiny", ????? gu?ji? zh? q?y?n "the fate of the state," ????? zh?ngsh?n de y?n q? "the fate of all life", ????? ji?z? y?n q? zh? "the fate of the family." But this word is more often used to describe the fate of a large object, for example, a family, a country, a people, and not one person. Even if we are talking about only one person, it immediately describes the fate of his whole life. The lexeme does not have a counting word combined with it, fate is a whole concept, an object's fate can sometimes be successful, sometimes unsuccessful, but it is considered as a whole, not in parts.

This difference is precisely the reason for the order of hieroglyphs. The lexeme ?? y?nq? emphasizes movement, a person moves and feels qi around him, and the energy surrounding him, moving to another place, also changes, so fate in such semantics is the most changeable. But the lexeme ?? q?y?n emphasizes the concept of qi, it is not the movement of a person, but the movement of energy itself, it is a global, large-scale movement, therefore in language it is often used to denote the fate of not one person, but many.

Having analyzed the semantic field of the concept "fate", we can draw the following conclusions:

I. In Chinese mythology, there is one meaning of the concept "fate", whereas in Chinese there are as many as 4 categories and 7 lexemes, which shows a greater breadth of semantics of this concept in the language than in mythology.

II. In different philosophical and religious currents of Chinese culture, the relationship of fate and man is different: 1. In the Confucian view, a person does not own his fate, because from the beginning of life he is controlled by heaven, a person must accept his fate (?? ti?nm?ng?? ti ti?ny?). 2. In the Taoist view, fate depends on the person himself and on the energy surrounding him — qi (?? y?nq?? q q?y?n). 3. In the Buddhist view, fate depends on the concept of ?? y?ngu?: what a person will have in this life is related only to what he had in past lives (?? yu?nf?n??? s?m?ng).

III. Of all the lexemes naming fate, the lexeme ?? m?ngy?n is the most commonly used: 1. The token goes back to the mythological meaning of this concept. 2. The concept of ?? m?ngy?n includes the idea of inevitability (came from Confucianism) and the idea of movement (came from Taoism).

IV. The divine power (heaven) manifests itself only in lexemes associated with the most conservative – Confucian understanding of fate, and in other lexemes the concept of "fate" is practically unrelated to the deity.

V. Due to the variety of philosophical trends, the concept of "fate" in Chinese has different, and sometimes even opposite meanings, therefore, for example, the lexemes struggle and dependence can be freely combined with different lexemes with the meaning of "fate". VI.

There are two spatial dimensions of destiny in Chinese: 1. Temporary: fate has a beginning and an end, has the image of a path or thread, and after the end of one fate, the next one immediately begins: ?? yu?nf?n? y y?nq?. 2. Constant: fate is an immeasurable concept that is considered holistically. The scope of such a concept of fate is equal to the birth and death of a person: ?? m?ngy?n??? s?m?ng?? ti?ny??? ti ti?nm?ng??? q?y?n.

VII. Only in a few cases does the lexeme fate metaphorically have a human image. Then she can play the role of either a human assistant: ?? yu?nf?n,?? ti?ny?,?? y?nq?, or the role of a rival: ?? m?ngy?n.

VIII. The lexeme fate has three key subject images: 1. Fate as a law, or a code that a person must follow: ?? ti?ny???? ti?nm?ng. 2. Fate as the path that a person must take: ?? y?nq?, ?? yu?nf?n, ?? s?m?ng. 3. Fate as a thread that binds people's lives: ?? yu?nf?n.

In a generalized form, the ideological difference between the ideas of Russians, French and Chinese about fate can be represented as follows:

 

Key points

Russian Vision

The French Vision

Chinese Vision

Origins

Say, give

Throw, drop out

Change, understand

Current relationships

damage

welfare

opportunity, dependence

 

Partitioning the situation

8 words: 3 words from a part, a piece, 1 from the lot, 2 from speaking, judging, 2 religious – from predestining, foreseeing

6 words: 2 – to ordain (not religious), 1 lot, 1 goddess of fertility, 1 religious, 1 antique from fatum

7 words: 1 from the fate of life, 2 from destiny, 2 from God-will, 2 from the movement of qi

Image

Wayward woman (borrowed from French)

Wayward woman (borrowed from Latin)

Subject image: code, path, helper, rival

The role of a person

Passive (accept)

Active (catch)

Passive (accept), active (fight)

Influences

Slavic mythology, Christianity, French worldview context

Antiquity

Confucianism,

Taoism, Buddhism

 

 

In many cultures, there is an idea that life is controlled by a higher power. She is the reason and explanation of what is happening. [1, p. 160-270]; [2]; [3]; [4, p. 148]; [5, p. 16]; [6, p. 19-26, 61-74]; [7, p. 72-79]; [8]; [9, pp. 207-214]. To analyze the idea of it in the Russian, French and Chinese pictures of the world is the purpose of the study.The scientific novelty of the research lies in its method (and the results obtained thanks to this method), which allows for accurate and evidence-based comparison of abstract concepts in different languages: contrastive analysis goes from etymology and mythology, from compatibility and separation of material connotations to semantic analysis.

The sum of the data obtained is the basis of the comparison. The scientific elaboration of the topic is based not only on the works of Russian and world researchers listed in the list of references, but also on the monograph of one of the authors – M.K.Golovanivskaya "Mentality in the mirror of language", awarded the Shuvalov Prize.We have chosen three languages and three linguistic cultures as the object of research – Russian, French and Chinese.

It was interesting for us to analyze how one of the key concepts of the universal worldview – fate - is interpreted by three key civilizations – European, Russian and Chinese.  The destruction of Eurocentrism and the conversion of scientific interest to the East is one of the current trends in modern humanities.

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First Peer Review

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The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The author presented his article "The idea of fate in Russian, French and Chinese cultures" to the journal "Philosophical Thought", in which a study of the semantic field of the concepts "fate", "share", "providence", "fate" in various languages and cultures was conducted. The author proceeds in studying this issue from the fact that in many cultures there is an idea that a higher power controls life. She is the reason and explanation of what is happening. Unfortunately, the author does not specify the relevance and scientific novelty of the study. There is also no theoretical justification for the study, an analysis of the degree of scientific elaboration, and a bibliographic review of works devoted to this topic. In addition, speaking about the importance of higher powers in human life, the author does not present a full-fledged bibliographic analysis, but simply provides links to a list of works. The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideas of fate in the Russian, French and Chinese worldviews. The author does not explain in the article what he was guided by when choosing these particular languages and cultures. The methodological basis was an integrated approach, including comparative, etymological, semantic, and lexical analysis. To achieve this goal, the text of the article is divided by the author into logically justified sections. Russian Russian Culture's Concept of Fate section is devoted to the analysis of the Russian semantic field — "providence, fate, fate, fate, fate." The author notes that the mythological images of fate, dash, luck and wealth represent the oldest layer of the mythological proto-Slavic concepts of fate. The semantics of fate has signs of perfection, hence the idea of an inescapable, accomplished, accomplished fact. In this regard, in describing the behavior of fate, the author identifies two aspects: her behavior is symbolic (fate writes, draws, designates, appoints, judges, speaks, predicts, etc.) and active (she divides, separates, divides, condemns, starts, breaks, plays, etc. In a more detailed analysis in modern Russian, the author identifies and distinguishes four hypostases of fate: fate as a higher power; fate as given by God; fate as a path; fate as an object of creation. In the section "The idea of fate in French culture", the author analyzes the semantic field of "fate" in French — "fortune, destin, destinee, sort, providence". As noted by the author, French thought and imagery were fed from two traditions — antiquity and Christianity. Fortune is endlessly discussed by humanists. The relevance of the topic of the clash of fate and providence also testifies to the persistence of ancient ideas, which left a rich trace in language, leading to the coexistence of pagan and Christian images in everyday consciousness. The author explores both the allegorical depiction of fate in medieval iconology, as well as the semantic range of these words, and their numerous connotations. Section "the concept of fate in Chinese culture" devoted to the description of Chinese semantic field of "fate" — ?? m?ngy?n,?? yu?nf?n,?? s?m?ng,?? ti?ny?,?? ti?nm?ng,?? q?y?n,?? y?nq?. The author notes that in Chinese mythology there is no specific god who is "responsible" for fate. The only thing that can control a person's life is the Book of Life and Death. In Chinese mythology, there is one meaning of the concept of "fate", whereas in Chinese there are as many as 4 categories and 7 lexemes, which shows a greater breadth of semantics of this concept in the language than in mythology. In different philosophical and religious movements of Chinese culture, the relationship between fate and man is different. The linguistic use of lexemes-names of the concept of "fate" in Chinese does not always coincide with its folklore image. The author identifies 4 thematic groups of stable and free combinations, which include these lexemes: fate gives the beginning and the end of life; fate as a reflection of cause and effect; fate commands a person; fate as the movement of qi. The section provides a lexical, syntactic and connotational analysis of lexemes. In conclusion, the author presents a conclusion on the conducted research in the form of a table, which contains all the key provisions of the presented material. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained suggest that the study of the perception and designation of similar concepts by different world cultures is of undoubted scientific and practical cultural interest and deserves further study. It should be noted that the author has achieved his goal. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. This is facilitated by the choice of a methodological framework. The bibliographic list of the research consists of 33 sources, including foreign ones, which seems sufficient for generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the studied problem. It should be stated that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication after the above shortcomings have been eliminated.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The problem raised by the author in the presented article suggests a comparative analysis of Russian, French and Chinese cultural traditions, however, the grounds for such a comparison are not quite grasped – the mentioned traditions are so different that it is quite difficult to draw parallels between them in three distinctive loci at once while maintaining methodological certainty throughout the study. In this case, convincing arguments will be required from the author to find a common basis for comparing these cultural traditions. However, the topic of fate, of course, is of indisputable interest for research at the interdisciplinary level, and the probability of obtaining results with heuristic value in this case increases significantly. Meanwhile, the author in his research gradually turns to the characterization of first the ideas about fate in Russian culture, then in French and Chinese. The relevant sections of the article are devoted to these research perspectives. At the same time, the so–called introductory part is formal in nature, it literally fits into one paragraph of the text – here the author tried to formulate the main scientific attributes, for example, purpose, novelty, but as for the methodology – it was ignored - and in vain, because it is from an adequate choice of methodology in this case that the validity of the presented final conclusions will depend and the results. In addition, it would be necessary to pay attention to the scientific discourse, highlight the key areas of research on the identified issues and fit your own approach into this discourse, pointing out its advantages over the developments already available in science. In this case, it is not just about strengthening the research apparatus, but about objectifying the contribution of the author of the article to the development of the problem raised. As for the direct representation of the theme of fate in various cultures, the author has collected quite interesting material here, which opens up opportunities for valuable generalizations. For example, the author analyzes the Russian semantic field "providence, fate, fate, fate, fate", i.e. relies on linguistic versions of ideas about fate. This is not an easy research path, I would like the author to explain why it is necessary to turn to the semantic field, and not, say, to cultural universals, which are more indicative in assessing the "substantial outline" of fate, but at the same time, if we proceed from the unconditional attribution of language to cultural phenomena, doubt about the adequacy such a scientific course is pushed into the background and, in fact, does not matter in principle – nevertheless, the author "works" with cultural "material" - this is just beyond doubt. The assessment of the connotations of the concept of fate, as follows from the content of the article, refers to the tasks of the author, and he, I must say, copes with this task – the positions formulated in this regard have novelty and clearly indicate the ethnonational coloring of ideas about fate in a particular culture – in this case, the cultures of Russia, France and China. At the same time, the author adheres throughout his analysis to a clear "algorithm" that allows making the necessary generalizations for comparing cultures – it is important that the author practically does not deviate from this "algorithm" or, if I may say so, a given course, therefore successfully combines contextual analysis of fate and destiny with analysis of lexicalsemantic and even symbolic (hermeneutical). As a result, the author comes to the opportunity to highlight the grounds for comparing ideas about fate, even in the form of a table. In general, I find no objection to this generalization. After finalizing the article regarding the definition of methodological foundations and the elaboration of scientific discourse, the article may well be recommended for publication.