Learning a cultural Chinese word Nian2

Hello, everybody! Welcome to this edition of happy online Chinese learning lesson. Today, we will show you an important word for Chinese learners coming from different countries in the world. Can you guess what the word is? Yes, it is 年 which should be read as nian2. So do you know something related with this word? Do you know how to use it in daily conversations? Do you want to learn its history and cultural meaning? Please follow our Chinese learning online lesson of the host jack for more details.

First of all, according to records of Chinese Oracle bone inscriptions, the word nian2 was created at least five thousand years ago. And one of its important meanings is big harvests of grain, soybeans, crops, wheat and so on. But how can you associate the meaning of it with the harvests? The nian2 is a compound ideograph that consists of the He2 (grain) and Ren2 (farmer). So the shape of nian2 looks like a person carrying the grain. Originally, it meant the maturity of crops and harvest.

And then, the word nian2 refers to a unit of time. Chinese people often say yi4 nian2 you4 yi4 nian2 (year by year). Why is that? Because the northern China’s crop ripened once a year and had a grain harvest. For example, a student from Korea uses it very well. He said: last year, l began to lose weight by five kilograms. So the year is also a concept of time which equates to 12 month or 365 days. There are also many time phrases described as different stages of a person’s life, such as you4 nian2 (childhood), qing1 nian2 (adulthood), zhong1 nian2 (middle age).

As a matter of fact, nian2 was a kind of fierce monster always living under the sea in the past. But it came out on land to a village in every New Year’s Eve, hurting local people and swallowing their livestock. So people dared not go out that night. Later on, regardless of persuasion given by local people, an old man remained in the village as the monster showed up in the same place. He set off firecrackers whose red flame and loud sound make the monster tremble and fear, so it ran away in panic. From then on, the method evolved into a annual custom to avoid being hurt on New Year’s Eve. Nowadays, this is the reason why Chinese people would like to wear clothes in red and set off firecrackers at the same time every year.  

Last but not least, the word nian2 also refers to a meaning of a person’s first name and last name. Some Chinese people’s last name is like zhang1 wan4 nian2. Or in Qing dynasty, there was a famous official whose first name is nian2. All in all, the word nian2 is not a unpopular word in Chinese daily conversations. 

Let us review what has gone on today’s Chinese online learning lesson. The meaning of 年nian2 can be explained to several meanings in terms of crop harvest, a unit of time, a person’s name, and the Chinese traditional spring festival. I am sure that you must have learnt this Chinese word in today’s lesson of Chinese learn online. Goodbye.      

Source: 

http://chinesepromoter.kinja.com/learning-a-cultural-chinese-word-nian2-1690436890