Concepts of Anger in Mandarin

The most common anger words in Mandarin have been discussed in detail
in the paper Concepts of anger in Chinese by Pawel Kornacki. The various
examples he has given all make sense and are indeed phrases that exist in
Mandarin. However, he forgets to discuss one very important aspect of those words,
which is how often they are used by native speakers. Out of the five concepts listed,
[ (nu)], [ (sheng qi)], [ (nao huo)], [ (fen)] and [ (tao yan)], it can be
argued that only the second and last phrases are used in daily conversation. Even
though the other words are also common and in no way archaic, they tend to be
more stilted depending on how they are used and which words they are paired with
in sentences. The following paragraphs will break each concept down and describe
what is or is not necessary to feel the emotion in question.
(sheng qi)
To start off, Kornacki states that Sheng/qi is, arguably, the most common,
everyday Chinese word roughly comparable to the English angry (265). It is likely
that most native Mandarin speakers would agree with this assessment, perhaps
because it is also the most often used word to describe being angry in Chinese.
[ (sheng)] means to rise, and [ (qi)] means air or gas, which means the
phrase as a whole literally translates to rising air/gas, an image that tends to be
associated with being angry. Qi is very important to a lot of Asian cultures, and to
the Chinese it is crucial for the qi in ones body to be in harmony so as to preserve
life and the notion of normality. If ones qi is out of balance, it means the person is
not in his or her normal state; hence, the idea that rising qi would equate to anger
means it is dangerous and harmful to the body.
Kornacki mentions this briefly, but does not emphasize the importance of qi
in Chinese culture and why it is used to describe anger. In fact, besides [], one
could also say [ (qi si le)], with [ (si)] referring to death. This phrase literally
means the air died, which infers that when a person says this, he or she implies
that he/she is so angry that the harmonious qi inside of him/her has died, causing a
major imbalance inside the body. If it must be compared to English, then it would be
most similar to the phrase I am pissed, which usually suggests a more severe
state of anger. Depending on the situation, however, I am pissed might be used

haphazardly and without much menace. Similarly, and interestingly enough, the
phrase qi si le has also been adopted as more of a slang used by teenagers in
modern Chinese culture. Thus, while the connotation behind the phrase is severe,
the passage of time has somewhat watered the meaning down and has allowed it to
be used in less dire situations.
Regardless of whether these phrases are used to convey intense anger or
not, the important thing to remember is that qi is so crucial to Chinese culture that
tampering with it is direct indication of negative emotion. However, it is not the
only emotion word that refers to a natural element.
Before discussing the other more commonly used phrase [], consider the
following words.
( (fen)) (nu)/ (nao) + (huo)
Kornacki discusses [] and [] by themselves while pairing [] up with [],
but it is actually better to discuss all three words first before adding on other words.
[], [] and [] all suggest a violent and rampant anger, and are a lot more
volatile than []. If compared to English, the phrases to have a fit, to fume,
to seethe and other similar ones all come to mind. Action often follows these
three Chinese words when it comes to describing negative emotion.
But, unlike the English phrases, the three Chinese words are in fact only
words. It is rare to hear someone use any of these words individually. The exception
to this rule would be adding the neutral word [ (le)] (which doesnt mean anything
by itself, but is required to add onto certain sentences in order to make them
grammatically correct) after some, but not all of them. For instance, it is perfectly
normal to order another person (usually a child) to [ (bu yao zai nao le)],
which means stop throwing such a fit. There are no additional modifications in
phrase besides [__] (stop doing __), which is required to make this
statement an imperative, but the word [] at the end is the most crucial part of this
sentence because it makes it grammatically correct.
This brings us to the importance of pairing words up in ways that fit a given
situation in order to convey the desired emotion. For instance, [] and [] can be

joined together to form the phrase [ (fen nu)], which literally means to fume
with rage or the like. Just as English can add on prepositions and other parts of
speech to enhance a word, Mandarin does the same in order to boost the intensity
of an emotion. While neither fen nor nu can be used as standalones, together they
form a severe emotion.
Similarly, one can also add on the word [ (huo)], the Mandarin word for
fire, to many negative words, just as Kornacki did with []. [ (nu huo)] and [
(nao huo)] are both plausible phrases that could be found in daily conversation.
[] literally translates to to anger the fire, and [] translates to to
annoy/pester the fire. When someone describes their emotion using either phrase,
he/she means something like to rage with fire. This indicates that the Chinese also
adopted the idea that anger is fire when building their language, and in fact, a lot
of other negative emotion phrases also contain the word fire. Most of them are
four-character phrases that are called Chinese idioms, which are similar to
Shakespearean phrases. They are rarely used now because of their formal and
stilted nature, but were highly popular during ancient China. Kornacki included a lot
of these idioms when describing each Mandarin anger word, which is important
for explaining their exact definitions but is not sufficient when it comes to providing
an accurate portrayal of how natives speak today.
(tao yan)
Kornacki included this phrase in his discussion of anger, which is interesting
considering how it is more similar to disliking something, the severity of which
depends on the context. While [], [], and [] very obviously convey direct
anger, [] conveys annoyance, disgust, or hatred more often than
anger.
However, Kornacki speaks truth when he says that there seems to be
remarkably little restriction on the possible range of things which may cause this
feeling, and goes on the list the various things we can [] (279). For instance,
one can [] anything from a food to an insect to a person to a situation. They can
be tangible things or intangible ideas. They can be animate or inanimate objects.
Most importantly, the phrase can be used in both casual and serious ways. For

example, similar to how one can hate something without actually meaning it (i.e.
saying you got 100% on the test? Oh my god I hate you so much to a good
friend), one can [] something without actually loathing it to an intense degree.
On the other hand, hatred can also be very severe and serious, and [] is no
exception. Thus, the important thing to take away is that the emotion of [] has
an extremely wide scope and is limited by very few things. This is very different
from most other Mandarin emotion words that tend to have specific meanings and
can only be used in certain ways (such as the previously discussed phrases). There
is something special about [] that makes it applicable to a variety of things, and
perhaps the passage of time has also watered down its meaning into a slang used
by teenagers as a friendly jab, rather than as a menacing threat.
As mentioned earlier, anger can be very destructive because it impacts a
persons qi. Thus, it normally unacceptable for someone to display anger in public,
especially the loud and volatile forms of it (i.e. , , and ) because these actions
would disrupt the peace and harm other peoples qi. Seeing as the foundation of
Chinese culture relies on harmony (yin and yang), this comes as no surprise.
However, if someone were quietly consumed with anger in a public setting without
being upfront about it, it is likely that nobody would confront him/her about it
because he/she is doing nothing to disrupt the overall peace.
But, this does not apply to everyone. It all depends on how one is raised and
the values that he/she is brought up with. While one family might value suppressing
emotion, another family might value the expression of emotion, and this leads to
very different scenarios, especially when it comes to family reunions. The family
that values suppressing emotion might end up discussing anything but familial
issues, or perhaps might dine in silence so as to avoid conflict, while the family that
values expressing emotions would tackle them head on without worrying about
what other people think. In the past, the model of a family that suppresses emotion
was a lot more popular and acceptable, but as time passed, these restraints and
social norms have slowly been broken to allow room for other ways of living. In the
end, it really depends on the individual families.
This also carries over to how one conducts him/herself in society. A person
who is taught to suppress emotions would not display anger in public, while a

person who is taught to freely express him/herself would not hold back if he/she is
angry. The surrounding people would then react to both of these people in different
ways depending on how they were taught to deal with emotions, and so on and so
forth. While there might have been an acceptable way to deal with things in the
past, this has been eliminated in most modern Chinese cultures, such as in Taiwan.
There is no can or cannot when it comes to emotions, only how one is raised
and how one chooses to perceive them.

Works Cited
Kornacki, Pawel. "Concepts of Anger in Chinese." Ed. Jean Harkins. Emotions in
Crosslinguistic
Perspective. Ed. Anna Wierzbicka. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter, 2001. 255-90.
Print.