一心不乱

いっしん　ふらん
isshin furan

I've never particularly felt like posting the yoji 一生懸命(いっしょうけんめい；isshoukenmei), because... well, because it's so common that it doesn't even feel like a yoji to me. After all, it's probably the yoji that's used most frequently in conversation, and I know that both Brett and I had each used it hundreds of times before we even knew that it was a yoji.

I even remember the first time I came across it, in my first Japanese text book.　It was written in romaji, and it was defined simply as an adverb meaning : "hard," as in "I study hard." Not a particularly auspicious introduction.

But then I remembered that it wasn't until I came to Japan that I actually started to use it when I spoke (because everyone here says it) and that somewhere along the line someone mentioned to me that the Japanese version of doing something "hard" carried the nuance of expending all of the effort of your heart, your soul, your entire life. And this nuance is buried in the kanji that this yoji is constructed with. 一生懸命 can mean "for dear life," even when applied to innocuous things like studying or playing badminton, because if you do them seriously, you put all of yourself into them.

So with this post, I wanted to take care of the fact that I've neglected the most common yoji ever for far too long, but I was still worried that too many of my readers might see an 一生懸命 post and go, "Meh. I already knew that...." So I did some digging and I did some talking and I found an alternate yoji that will cause more of an impact when you say it. Here you go.

Definition:
心をひとつに集中し、他の事のために心を乱されない。わき目もふらない。
Translations:
1. Intense concentrated effort in one specific direction
2. Single-minded devotion to something (more likely to be a goal than a person)
3. Unwavering concentration

"One heart, no rebellion" according to the kanji. You might recognize the 乱 from words like 乱暴、or ... other words that use 乱. The idea is that when you're in this state of mind, nothing breaks your concentration. The example I got (mundane as it may seem) was that if you're working at your desk, and you're really into it, and a mosquito starts draining your blood and you don't even notice, 「一心不乱に働いている」と言われる.

At Nishi Kawasoe Elementary, we Takeshita-sensei and Kyoto-sensei and I had a long talk about these two yojis (whose meanings are 大同小異) and how they were different. Here's what you should know.

一心不乱 is not used with imperative forms. You can't say 「一心不乱頑張ってください。」

Opinions (two of them) are divided as to which of the two expressions is stronger. Takeshita-sensei contends that 一生懸命 implies that 「命を懸ける」; in the original meaning, your life is at stake, so 一生懸命 has the more powerful meaning. But he was forced to concede to the point Kyoto-sensei made: In modern Japanese, 一心不乱 is rarer, and 一生懸命 is so common that people (like me) don't tend to really HEAR it, any more than they really HEAR an お疲れ様 at the end of the day. If one was to say 一心不乱 in it's place, they'd be more like to grab the listener's attention.

So the consensus (of two) was that while 一生懸命 is stronger in meaning,　一心不乱 is stronger in terms of impact when used.

Note:

• 不乱 is pronounced like "fran."
• The following video is an example of someone who DOESN'T know the meaning of either of today's yoji, and needs to be reminded: 「自転車を乗り、調子乗ってんじゃね！
  
  
  

例文：子供の時から将来の夢は小説家になることです。自分の小説を何冊も書いたことがありますが、本格的に売ろうとしたことがありません。だから、これから、夢がかなうように一心不乱に頑張ります。
Since I was a kid, my dream has been to become a novelist. But even though I've written volumes of my own fiction, I've never REALLY tried to sell anything. So from here on out, I'm going to focus all of my efforts on making my dream come true.

会稽之恥

かいけい　のはじ
kaikei nohaji

I think that I've found a yoji that defeats Rikai-chan! In fact, it defeats all of the Japanese teachers at the desks around me. I considered not posting this one, because it's SO Chinese that it's almost irrelevant (not that I mean to equate China with irrelevancy). But its history is really interesting, and it IS included in two of my "Increase your Japanese Power" books, and then... I remembered that the goal of this blog is to give you things to say that elevate you above the average speaker, even the average native-speaker. If you can ever pull this one off, you might have to explain it to the people around you, but they will be awestruck at your knowledge.


Definition:
敗戦の恥辱。他人から受けたひどいはずかしめ。また、それをリベンジする苦しみ。
Translation:
1. A crushing defeat or humiliation that instills a deep, burning desire for retribution.
2. The shame of being beaten; the suffering of the hunger for revenge

The first two Kanji are taken from the name of the capital city of the ancient Chinese Kingdom of Yue, which was around during the 春秋時代, or Spring and Autumn Period, (722-481 BC). There was a princess of Yue who married into the neighboring Kingdom of Wu, but decided she didn't like Wu all that much so she left her husband and fled back to her home. King Helu of Wu led a war on Yue over this insult, but he was defeated and mortally wounded. He made his son, King Fuchai of Wu vow to neither forgive nor forget their enemies in Yue until Wu honor was avenged.

This is NOT where the phrase originated. Remember, it's not Wu's shame that the yoji refers to. It's Yue's shame.

See, King Fuchai didn't forget, and he led a successful resurgence against Yue three years later, capturing Yue and it's King, Goujian of Yue. Instead of fully annexing Yue, as his advisors recommended, Fuchai decided to make a peace with them. And apparently, as per the terms of the peace, Fuchai chose to keep King Goujian and his minister Fan Li as slaves. They eventually earned their freedom (after three years) when King Fu Chai fell sick. Fan Li recognized the nature of Fu Chai's illness, and at his urgings Goujian went to offer a diagnosis. After Goujian performed a dramatic "examination," including checking the color and TASTE of Fu Chai's excrement, he assured Fu Chai of a quick recovery. When Fu Chai did in fact recover, he took the exchange as a sign that the two could forgive their old rivalry, and he allowed Goujian to return to power in his own Kingdom. But a man who must eat shit to earn his freedom does not soon forget the taste.

After his release, Goujian spent ten years rebuilding his kingdom's economic and military capabilities. He also undertook a complex campaign of bribery, espionage, and political intrigue designed to weaken the state of Wu on all possible fronts.

For this entire ten year period Goujian slept on sticks, dressed in rags, and ate food suitable for peasants, which he always prefaced by forcing himself to "taste bile." He did this so that he would never forget the conditions of his humiliation, and so that his thirst for revenge would never diminish. This, in itself, spawned this:

BONUS YOJI:

臥薪嘗胆
がしん しょうたん
gashin shoutan

The chinese write this as 卧薪尝胆 but, notice how "尝" shorts out Rikai-chan? The fact that the Japanese don't use this kanji necessitated the change.

Translation:
Literal - Sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall.
1. Enduring the unthinkable for the sake of revenge.
2. Pursuing a goal no matter how high the cost.

So with his preparations in place, bile on his dinner table, and King Fuchai away on an expedition, King Goujian led his army to capture the Capital of Wu. He took the city in a blitzkrieg of blood (One of his tactics was to stock his front lines with condemned prisoners who would decapitate themselves at the outset of a battle as a method of intimidation). King Fu Chai fled to a palace in the mountains where he committed suicide after King Goujian refused to negotiate any terms of peace.

Wu became a part of the Yue Kingdom, and Yue became the last great power of the Spring and Autumn Period.

This site has all sorts of information about the conflict, and Chinese history in general.

Now that you know all of that, and have the background to explain not only the 意味 (meanings ) of these yoji but their 由来 (origin) as well, here's how you might be able to use them:

As far as 会稽之恥 and 臥薪嘗胆 go, 'revenge' doesn't have to mean getting back at someone who hurt you. It can be used in situations where a failure, particularly an embarassing one, drives you to retry that goal until you accomplish it... and force it to commit suicide.

I passed the JLPT 3kyuu last year and am gunning for 2kyuu. My passion to succeed is not as powerful, though, as someone who DIDN'T pass 2kyuu last year, and has set their sites on 1kyuu this time around.

例文：
前回不合格という会稽之恥を糧に、もう一度試験に挑戦する。俺の大好きなナンパ時間がなくなっても、焼酎を飲むことを止めるようになっても、先生のことが好きでいるふりをしないといけなくても、まさに臥薪嘗胆だ！
Fueled by the shame of my humiliating failure on that last examination, I'm gonna pass the hell out of the next one! Even if it means having no time to chase girls, giving up drinking, or having to pretend that I like my teacher, I'm gonna do this, no matter how much it costs me!