Zai Yu

Zai Yu (Chinese: 宰予; Wade–Giles: Tsai Yü; 522–458 BC),courtesy name Ziwo (Chinese: 子我; Wade–Giles: Tzu-wo), commonly known as Zai Wo (Chinese: 宰我; Wade–Giles: Tsai Wo), was a prominent disciple of Confucius, known for his gift in speech. However, Confucius severely criticized him for proposing to shorten the three-year mourning period after the death of a parent.

Life

Zai Yu was a native of the State of Lu. He was considered the most eloquent speaker among Confucius' disciples. However, the only references of him in the Analects were Confucius' criticism of him. In an important discussion of mourning, Zai Yu questioned the necessity for the three-year mourning period after the death of a parent, and suggested a maximum of one year of mourning. Confucius severely criticized Zai Yu, describing him as inhuman. Confucius also criticized him for sleeping during the day, comparing him to rotten wood that cannot be carved (朽木不可雕也). Despite the criticism, he remained one of the Master's close disciples.

Zai

Zai may refer to:

Given names

Zai (surname)

Zai is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of the Chinese surname written 宰 in Chinese character. It is romanized Tsai in Wade–Giles. Zai is listed 302nd in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. It is not among the 300 most common surnames in China.

Notable people

References

Zayin

Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Zayin , Hebrew 'Zayin ז, Aramaic Zain , Syriac Zayn ܙ, and Arabic Zayn ز. It represents the sound [z].

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z , Latin Z, and Cyrillic Ze З.

The Phoenician letter appears to be named after a sword or other weapon. In Biblical Hebrew, zayin (זין) means "sword", and the verb lezayen (לזיין) means "to arm". In modern Hebrew slang, zayin (זין) means "penis" and lezayen (לזין) is a vulgar term which generally means to perform sexual intercourse (similar to "fuck"), although the older meaning survives in maavak mezuyan ("armed struggle") (מאבק מזוין), kohot mezuyanim ("armed forces") (כוחות מזוינים), and beton mezuyan (בטון מזוין) ("armed, i.e., reinforced concrete"). The Proto-Sinaitic glyph may have been called ziqq, based on a hieroglyph depicting a "manacle".

Hebrew zayin

In modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of zayin, out of all the letters, is 0.88%.