Whoa,great photo! You've outdone yourself this time Calkins.I'd love to meditate in a spot like that.Even the umbrella is levitating.hehe.Though they say if you're really good you should be able to do it on a traffic island in heavy traffic.Don't know how wise it would be being that good.

Breakdown:

ming   ....dark or deep [obviously more deep in this case]

and of course

xiang  ...to think

Interesting that ming2 冥can mean dark whereas  ming2 明 can mean bright

Hi bababardwan

Good point. The two characters happen to have the same sound in modern Mandarin, and in fact, they had the slightly different sounds in the past, probably more than one thousand years ago. 明 was pronounced as something like "miang", and 冥 "mieng". Ancient Chinese had more kinds of vowels than modern Mandarin.

changye,

Thanks.It still amazes me that you know such things.I suppose it just comes down to context or what other characters they're combined with nowadays to distinguish them in speech.

There is no trick to it. To tell you the truth, I discussed the same topic with other guy here in the forum a long time ago, hehe.

Hi bababardwan,

Here are two words that combined with冥.

冥纸ming2zhi4 is the money for dead people!

冥王ming2wang2 is Pluto.

cassielin,

Thanks for those.I particularly like ming2wang2.The ming2 here is presumably probably for it's "deep" meaning,as Pluto is deep in our solar system.As it is not only deep in the solar system but a dwarf planet also,it's certainly not as bright as other planets,but I don't know if that means you could go so far as to apply it's "dark" meaning also.I'm wondering why the wang2 part.Was this after some Chinese astronomer?

What is money for dead people all about? Is it given by friends and rellies to a widow for example?

Pluto, god of the underworld. Or perhaps king of the deep and dark underworld?

bababardwan, I think Cassie is referring to the paper money that gets burnt for ancestors (which you buy with real money). I have seen it whenever I have been in Singapore in the 7th month, which is around the time of the Ghost festival (中元节). You see people burning it under the blocks of flats. I think it's considered unlucky to open businesses and stuff during that month. I imagine most people wait for the 8th month.

sebire,

Thanks.Ah yeah,of course re Pluto from the Roman Gods.I was thinking purely in Chinese.

Thanks also re the money that gets burnt.Sounds familiar.

Hi bababardwan

You need money even after death. Some corrupt officials might ask for bribe in the next world. Here are some Chinese sayings that should be equivalents of "Money talks" in English.

有钱能使鬼推磨 (Money can even make ghosts work hard)
钱可通神 (Money can even move the gods)

Hi bababardwan,

bababardwan, I think Cassie is referring to the paper money that gets burnt for ancestors (which you buy with real money).

sebire is right.  And our knowledgeble changye added a very common chinese saying.有钱能使鬼推磨you3qian2neng2shi3gui3tui1mo4.