Note: As I continue to learn the Japanese language and culture, these Spotlight posts seek to highlight things I find curious, interesting, and meaningful. The relationship between language and culture runs deep. In fact, there are many points where it gets hard to tell one from the other. “Language is not merely an indifferent mechanism for cataloguing men’s experience but the language itself affects the cataloguing process…. The language system of each culture is a fluid factor in culture; it varies with each generation and serves as clue to its thinking as well as actually coloring and molding this thinking.” In other words, if I am going to learn how to reach Japanese people, I need to understand how Japanese people think. The process of how they think is intimately intwined with the language they use. Unfortunately for us, it goes far beyond simply using “Google Translate” to come up with the right vocabulary. Language embeds the foundational concepts of culture into everyday interaction. So, deeper we go into this wonderful world of language exploration! Much of this information comes from Charles Corwin’s Biblical Encounter with Japanese Culture (Tokyo, 1967).
Chie (wisdom) is a key concept in Buddhist thought. It can be defined as that which is gained through removal of passions and illusionary conceptions and focusing on becoming free from taint. Thus in many ways in Japan, wisdom is thought of as the mental ability to distinguish what is true from what is false and alternatively as the ability to make decisions through eliminating doubt. Curiously, this word can sometimes also mean bad wisdom, as in ideas that appear to be wise but can lead someone away from the true (perfect) form. Weird!
The Old Testament, however, wisdom includes the idea of skillfully reaching the right end by the right means, but it goes beyond that. Because Biblical wisdom is fundamentally from God and not man, its fullest form will also blend in a sense of goodness or righteousness. Even though “worldly wisdom” may seem to be productively advancing a particular culture and society, if it does not find its locus in God himself, then it is actually folly in disguise.
New Testament writers applied this concept to Jesus directly. Wisdom is deemed to be true wisdom when it aligns with Christ. For Paul, Christ Himself becomes a reservoir of wisdom and the incarnation of the very wisdom of God. So, Japanese Chie is the ability to discover basic principles and the “essence” of things. It can even be the ability to destroy the illusion of opposites and misconceptions. Chie boils down to simply a mental process by which knowledge is applied correctly to a situation yielding the right decision. We might think of it more in terms of “intelligence.”
While Biblical wisdom seems at first glance very similar, it has a very different foundation. It has its locus in God, beginning from Him and effecting a clearer knowledge of His will. Wisdom isn’t just knowing what to do in a given situation. Wisdom is knowing what to do because how it will align with God and foster a deeper understanding of His will. Ultimately, Biblical wisdom is finally found in the person of Christ.
So, even the naivest of men, if united to Christ as the source of wisdom, can walk through this world with confidence.
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 