Fall down seven times; stand up eight
faanastasia
July 18, 2011 at 08:51 AM posted in I Have a QuestionHi, everybody.
There is English saying "Fall down seven
times; stand up eight" (meaning is that you shouldn’t despair if smth goes wrong).
It's said that it has Japanese or Chinese roots. What do you think about it?
How the Chinese saying sounds?
Why 7 and 8 numbers are used?
Why 7 used in meaning “to fall” and 8 in meaning to “stand up”?
Nastya
zhenlijiang
July 20, 2011 at 04:50 PM
Hi, 七転び八起き nana-korobi ya-oki is Japanese. I didn't think that was an English saying. It means 1) an indomitable spirit, and also 2) that life is all about vicissitudes. I'm not certain but I believe this is one of ours, not one of the many Chinese sayings or chengyus that became part of Japanese.
I did read a Japanese blog about a visit to the temple and hearing a monk talk about the saying, addressing why there are eight times getting up when there are only seven falling downs. The first of the eight 起き, the monk said, is the first time ever we stand on our own feet as babies, with the help of and under the loving watch of our parents and others. Then throughout our lives we will take falls, pick ourselves up and stand again, again and again.
zhenlijiang
July 21, 2011 at 07:04 PM
Hey Changye~~! And Patty. Long time no see indeed.
So but I'm not mistaken am I, that 七転び八起き is not Chinese in origin?
Do drop by more often!
kimiik
July 21, 2011 at 02:58 PM
In Buddhism, the kowtow (叩头) is often performed in groups of three.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowtow#Religion
kimiik
July 21, 2011 at 01:41 PM
Hi Changye,
Nice to see you back!
I guess 三落三起 comes originally from 三俯三起 and 三臥三起 (prostration 俯卧).
bababardwan
July 21, 2011 at 12:47 PM
CHANGYE !! 就是。。好久不见啊！看见你就让我很开心。你最近怎么样朋友？
ps. hopefully this is very apt, this saying, if we just tweak it a little:
disappear twice, reappear 3 times, hehe :)
changye
July 21, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Hi zhenlijiang and RJ
Long time no see. The best-known version of this kind in China perhaps should be "三起三落" （or 三落三起）, which literally means "stand up three times, fall down three times". This usually refers to the turbulent life of 邓小平 (Deng Xiaoping), who was a great political leader of the PRC in the 20th century. See you again.
RJ
July 20, 2011 at 06:34 PM
It is indeed Japanese according to wikipedia :
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Japanese_proverbs
Heres a couple more I liked:
猿も木から落ちる。
* Saru mo ki kara ochiru.
* Literally: Even monkeys fall from trees.
馬鹿は死ななきゃ治らない。
* Baka wa shinanakya naoranai.
* Literally: Unless an idiot dies, he won't be cured.
faanastasia
July 19, 2011 at 07:14 AM
Does anybody know why 8 considered to be "happy" number in China?
Asked familiar chineses - they just made some proposals but seems that really nobody knows.
faanastasia
July 18, 2011 at 01:38 PM
I see... all these sentences should be translated in special CHENGYU dictionaries as I understand. If translate them "as is" - they have no sense.
So ... as I understand there is no any meaning of using 7 and 8, like 3 and 4...
iaing
July 18, 2011 at 09:28 AM
There are a lot of Chinese sayings with 7 and 8 in them.
七零八落, 乱七八糟, 夾七夾八, 杂七杂八, 横七竖八 etc.
I had it explained to me that the 7 and 8 just represents "a lot".
But I too have never really seen any truly satisfying explanation (for example, why not use 8 and 9?).
faanastasia
August 05, 2011 at 07:39 AMLong time wasn't here, thanks for comments. Was glad to read thought "first time ever we stand on our own feet as babies", I also came to the same conclusion.