Two Tigers in the wild...

ningmeng
November 24, 2008, 04:46 AM posted in General Discussion

A question!  Is it a bad thing for two tigers to date or ...marry in the minds of most Chinese?  My boyfriend has said that the logic works like this: ever seen two tigers living together in the wild?  While I question the practicality of this--who ever sees a wild tiger at all?--I guess animal planet knowledge would say no, you often don't. 

And for an added layer of complexity, how about two fire tigers?

Really, I don't see how this qi-centric attitude can argue anything on the grounds of real life...

Your thoughts?

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pearltowerpete
November 24, 2008, 09:17 AM

Hi ningmeng

The two tigers question has fixated great minds for ages. Here is one school of thought, rendered in song.

http://mp3.baidu.com/m?z=0&cl=3&ct=134217728&sn=&lm=-1&cm=1&sc=1&bu=&rn=30&tn=baidump3&word=%C1%BD%D6%BB%C0%CF%BB%A2&pn=0

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changye
November 25, 2008, 11:57 AM

Hi bababardwan,

你怎么知道我是83年生的?
How did you know I was born in 1983?

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changye
November 24, 2008, 10:42 AM

两雄不并立......?

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kimiik
November 24, 2008, 10:51 AM

Changye,

I don't know how to say that in chinese but could a dominante female be described as 雄 ?

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changye
November 24, 2008, 11:14 AM

两雄不并立

Two great men do not want to stand side by side.
If two men ride upon a horse, one must sit behind.

To be honest, I don't know exactly what pete and ningmeng are talking about, haha, and the link goes nowhere. Probably there is a filksong of "两只老虎".

 

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ningmeng
November 24, 2008, 04:02 PM

Its just the question of whether or not two people born in the year of the tiger can have a healthy relationship together since tigers don't have life-long mates in the wild.  The second part of my question was dealing with the elemental aspects of personalities.  People usually have one or two dominate elements in their personality.

So my question, can two fire tigers date, is both literally and symbolically fun to think about.

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paganfarmer
November 24, 2008, 04:31 PM

Both tiger woods' parents are tigers. That's why they named him tiger. Although some say 'thai' comes from his thai mother and 'ger' from his black father (winkwink). thai-ger, 理解吗?i heard michele wie's a tiger too... groowwwwl...

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kimiik
November 24, 2008, 10:30 AM

Illustration with a famous chinese proverb

一山不容二虎 (Pinyin : yī shān bù róng èr hǔ)

Literally: One mountain cannot abide two tigers.

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changye
November 25, 2008, 01:47 AM

Hi ningmeng,

I know now, thanks. I don't know about the superstition about Chinese "fire tiger" (丙寅), but in Japan, some superstitious people believe that a woman born in the year of "fire horse" (丙午) usually has a fiery temperament and she might "eat" her husband just like a female mantis! For the record, recent years of 丙寅 and 丙午 are as follows,

丙寅 (fire tiger) 1926, 1986, (2046)
丙午 (fire horse) 1966, (2026)

Some young Chinese guys born in 1986 might have a trouble when they get married, haha.

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changye
November 25, 2008, 02:30 AM

Hi guys,

Tiger Woods' parents were both born in the year of "monkey" (申), i.e. 1932 and 1944. Below is the etymology of the "Tiger" in his name from Wikipedia (English).

At birth, Woods was given "Eldrick" and "Tont" as first and middle names, respectively. His middle name, Tont, is a traditional Thai name. He got his nickname from a Vietnamese soldier friend of his father, Vuong Dang Phong, to whom his father had also given the "Tiger" nickname. He became generally known by that name and by the time he had achieved national prominence in junior and amateur golf, he was simply known as "Tiger" Woods.

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ningmeng
November 25, 2008, 04:31 AM

Awesome, we solved the question of Tiger Wood's origin. 

I had no idea that my boy was talking about an actual 'fire tiger' year, I thought it had to do with the fact that both our personalities were dominately 'fire' ... Does that mean that we're firey fire tigers? 

Will such a combination cause a rip in the universe?

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changye
November 25, 2008, 06:16 AM

Hi ningmeng,

In Chinese traditional calendar, every year has its own name based on “干支 cycle, or “Sexagenary cycle”, and the name of the year has been repeated every 60 years for more than two thousand years.

A historical event is sometimes named after the 干支 of the year in which it happened., e.g. 辛亥革命 (Xinhai Revolution) happened in 1911, the year which name is “辛亥” in 干支 cycle.

Incidentally, I was born in the year of 己亥 (ji3 hai4, Earth Pig), which is not considered to be a good year in the cycle, unfortunately. Please click on the link below for more information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle

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bababardwan
November 25, 2008, 11:07 AM

changye,

Thanks for the link and also for giving away your age.The article shows you were born in 1839/ 1840 which means you're 169.No wonder you're so wise.

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nial
November 25, 2008, 01:29 AM

paganfarmer, I seriously hope you are not intimating what I think you are in regards to where the "ger" part in his name come from.