jokerswild
Why is Chinese medicine called 漢方 in Japanese and not something like 中国薬? I understand that 漢方 is Chinese medicine that has been researched and adapted for Japanese people. I know it isn't the exact same thing as traditional Chinese medicine, but why the use of those particular kanji to define the word is what I'm asking?
16 de sep. de 2015 7:24
Respuestas · 4
3
This is just my guess but there might be better answers if one digs around the net. 漢 was a kingdom that existed more than 2000 years ago. And perhaps that's the root or origin of the chinese medicine we see today. 方 has the meaning of way, or direction as well. So I'm guessing it's trying to point out that the medicine comes from the 漢 era. I'm sure there might be better answers, but this is my take on it.
16 de septiembre de 2015
2
I'm not familiar with Japanese (I only started learning it very recently), but I think I can make a pretty good guess based on my knowledge of Chinese Hanzi (from which Japanese Kanji is derived from). "漢/汉" refers to the Han race, the ethnic group that makes up the vast majority of Chinese people. It's the same character that's used in "漢語/汉语" (Chinese language) and "漢字/汉字" (Chinese characters). "方" means 'side'. I'm guessing it's used to mean "Chinese side" in the same way "西方" refers to the West. For what it's worth, I looked up "汉方" in my Chinese dictionary and it just says "Kampo {ie. the Japanese form of Chinese medicine}, so it looks like the two characters were combined in Japan after Hanzi and Kanji became two separate things.
16 de septiembre de 2015
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