The use of the phrase 'ten thousand years' in various
East Asian languages originated in
ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the Emperor, and is typically translated as "long live" in English. Due to the political and cultural influence of
China in the area, and in particular of the
Chinese language, cognates with similar meanings and usage patterns appeared in many East Asian languages (see the table to the right for an overview of these). In recent times, the term has been associated with
Imperial Japan (due to a
Meiji-era reintroduction of the term as ''banzai'') and with the
Cultural Revolution in Mainland China, where it was used to laud
Mao Zedong. Although its usage in both countries is now less common, it nevertheless does not engender a negative connotation and, especially in the
greater China area, continues to be used in historical contexts and occasionally informally.
China
The phrase was once used casually, much like "cheers to your health". During the
Tang Dynasty, it came to be used exclusively to address the emperor as a prayer for his long life and reign. Then, during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, its use was temporarily extended to include certain higher ranking members of the imperial court,
[1] but this tradition was relatively short-lived: in later imperial history, using it to address someone other than the emperor was considered an act of sedition and was consequently highly dangerous. During the
Ming Dynasty, especially during the reign of weak emperors (such as the
Tianqi emperor), powerful
eunuchs such as
Liu Jin and
Wei Zhongxian circumvented this restriction by styling themselves with "''jiǔ qiān suì''" (
九千歲, literally "9000 years") so as to display their high positions, which were close to or even exceeded the emperor's.
Usage
Classically, the phrase is repeated multiple times following a person's name or title. For example, in ancient China, the Emperor would be thus addressed: "Wú huáng wànsuì, wànsuì, wànwànsuì" (), literally "May my Emperor [live and reign for] ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousands years"). An important distinction made in Chinese but not in English is the use of suì to mean year, rather than the equally common nián (年), which is also translated as year. The former is used as a counter for years of life, whereas the latter is used for periods of time and calendar years. Thus the phrase "ten thousand years" in its original sense refers to ten thousand years of life, and not a period of ten thousand years.
The significance of "ten thousand" in this context is only that "ten thousand" in Chinese (and in many East Asian languages) represents
the largest discrete unit in the counting system, in a manner analogous to "thousand" in English. Thus 100,000 in Chinese is expressed as 10 ten-thousands; similarly, whereas a million is "a thousand thousands", the analog in Chinese, yì, is ten-thousand ten-thousands. Because of this, Chinese people often use wàn in a manner analogous to "thousand" -- whereas an English speaker might exclaim "there are thousands of ants on the ground", the Chinese speaker would substitute ten thousand in his description. So in the context of wànsuì, a literally incorrect but culturally appropriate translation might be, "may you live for thousands of years". The number simply denotes innumerability, in a manner etymologically similar to the Greek
myriad (although the current usage of that word differs).
Modern use
One of the most conspicuous uses of the phrase is at the
Tiananmen gate in
Beijing, where large placards are affixed to the gatehouse reading "''Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó wànsuì''" () and "''Shìjiè rénmín dàtuánjié wànsuì''"(). During the
Cultural Revolution, the saying "''Máo Zhǔxí wànsuì''!" () was also common. Apart from these special cases, the phrase is almost never used in political slogans today. In casual conversation, however, the phrase is used simply as an exclamation of joy. For example,
CCTV commentator
Huang Jianxiang shouted "Long live Italy!" (
意大利万岁) during a game of the
2006 FIFA World Cup.
Japan
The Chinese term was introduced to
Japan as ''banzei'' (Kana:
ばんぜい) in the
8th century, and was used to express respect for the
emperor in much the same manner as its Chinese cognate.
''Banzei'' was later revived as ''banzai'' after the
Meiji Restoration. ''Banzai'' as a formal ritual was established in the promulgation of the
Meiji Constitution in 1889 when university students shouted ''banzai'' in front of the emperor's carriage.
Around the same time, ''banzai'' also came to be used in contexts unrelated to the emperor. The supporters of the Freedom and People's Rights movements, for example, began to shout "''Jiyū banzai''" (
Kanji:
自由万歳;
Kana:
じゆうばんざい, literally "Long Live Freedom") in 1883.
During
World War II, ''banzai'' served as a
battle cry of sorts for Japanese soldiers, with
kamikaze pilots reportedly shouting "banzai!" as they rammed their planes into enemy ships,
[2] and ground troops doing the same as they attacked Allied encampments. As a result, the term "
banzai charge" (or alternatively "banzai attack") gained common currency among English-speaking soldiers and remains the most widely understood context of the term in the west to this day.
In modern Japan, ''banzai'' has lost most of its historic associations and has become a generic expression of congratulation.
Korea
The same term is pronounced ''manse'' in
Korean. In
Silla of the
Three Kingdoms of Korea, it was used as a casual exclamation. It was a part of the
era name of
Taebong, one of the
Later Three Kingdoms, declared by the king
Gung Ye in 911. During the
Joseon dynasty, Korea used ''cheonse'' (Hanja:
千歲; Hangul:
천세, literally "one thousand years") in deference to the Chinese emperor.
In the 20th century, various protests against
Japanese occupation used the term in their names, including a pro-independence newspaper established in 1906, the
March 1st Movement of 1919, and the June 10th Movement of 1926.
Today, in
North Korea, ''manse'' is used to wish
Kim Jong Il a long life, and is also used for his father,
Kim Il Sung, despite the fact that he died in 1994.
Vietnam
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The
chữ Nôm characters used to write "muôn năm" in antiquity, a native Vietnamese word not cognate to the original Chinese but nonetheless having the same meaning.
In Vietnamese, "vạn tuế" is the phrase cognate to the Chinese ''wàn suì'' and is the proper Vietnamese reading of the
hán tự "萬歲". However, this word is rarely used in the modern language, appearing instead only in China-related contexts (such as in "vạn tuế, vạn tuế, vạn vạn tuế" -- compare to
Chinese usage, above). In other situations, "muôn năm" is used instead, and is frequently heard in communist slogans, such as "Hồ Chí Minh muôn năm!" (Long life to
Ho Chi Minh) and "Đảng cộng sản muôn năm!" (Long live the Communist party).
Because "muôn năm" is native Vietnamese and not of Chinese origin,
chữ Nôm characters were created to write it and were used before the
Latin-based
quốc ngữ script became standard. "Muôn" is a sound-meaning compound consisting of a gate for the sound part (its pronunciation, "môn", approximates "muôn") and the character for "ten thousand" (vạn) for the semantic part. The character for "năm", also a sound-meaning compound, uses "south" (pronounced "nam") for the phonetic portion of the character and "year" (niên) for the meaning. These characters, while archaic, are nonetheless part of
Unicode and are mapped to U+28DC8 and U+221A5, respectively, and with the right fonts installed may actually display:
𨷈𢆥.
See also
★
Sto lat, a similar Polish phrase and song meaning "one hundred years"
Notes
1. Ouyang, Xiu. Davies, Richard L. [2004] (2004). Historical Records of the Five Dynasties. Columbia university press. ISBN 0231128266
2. p.3, The Cambridge history of Japan, by John Whitney Hall, 1988 Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521223520
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