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Last week, I dangled a promise before you. I said that reading 順 words about organizing objects would help you think more clearly. This week, I’m willing to bet that another set of 順 words will have a very different effect.
As we saw last time in a discussion of etymology, 順 (JUN) can mean “order, sequence.” But this character can also mean “to obey, submit to, follow.” And that’s just what bothers me!
To be sure, compliance has its uses. When we “go with the flow,” life becomes considerably easier. The following compound helps make that happen:
順応 (junnō: to adapt or conform to)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation)This word serves as the root of two versions of “adaptability”:
順応力 (junnōryoku: adaptability)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation)
+ power
順応性 (junnōsei: adaptability)
to submit to + to respond to (a situation)
+ quality
But as I look over other 順 words about obedience, compliance, submissiveness, and the like, I experience a rage that makes little sense. It’s the rage of the captive, the flogged, the forcibly tamed. In a past life, I must have been a gorilla imprisoned in a zoo or a tiger forced to jump through fiery hoops in a circus! Anyway, let me know if these terms rile you up in the same way:
順良 (junryō: faithful, law-abiding) to obey + good
The second kanji is what you already know as いい (ii: good), more formally represented as 良い (yoi: good).
孝順 (kōjun: obedience, filial piety) filial piety + to obey
It’s easy to confuse the initial kanji, 孝, with 教, which you see in words such as 教える (oshieru: to teach), 教育 (kyōiku: education, to teach + to educate), and 教会 (kyōkai: church, doctrine + assembly). Just as 順 irritates with its submissiveness, 教 is quite infuriating when you consider that it means “doctrine,” “faith,” and “to teach.” (I mean, that’s infuriating if you don’t go in for indoctrination.) But here’s the kicker: 教 combines 孝 (filial piety) with 攵, which means “to hit, to strike.” Violence is clearly the means to producing obedient students or doctrinaire followers!
忠順 (chūjun: allegiance, loyalty, obedience) loyalty + to obey
We’ve seen the first kanji before.
柔順 (jūjun: obedience, docility, submissiveness) soft + to obey
The kanji 柔 (JŪ, yawa(rakai)) means “soft,” and by extension means “pliant, gentle, mild, meek.” The meek shall supposedly inherit the earth, but you can see just from 柔順 how well that works. They’re submissive. They’re not inheriting anything! I should note that 柔 plays an important part in both 柔道 (jūdō: judo + the way) and 柔術 (jūjutsu: judo + skill), two Japanese martial arts involving weaponless fighting. In those cases, 柔 means “judo,” according to Halpern.
従順 (jūjun: obedience, docility, submissiveness)
to obey + to obey
Breen considers 従順 an alternate way of writing 柔順. Nevertheless, the initial characters have different meanings.
従 in Chinese Etymology and Japanese Pop Culture …
After all these dismaying expressions of submissiveness and compliance, I think it would be refreshing to see the opposite: acts of rebellion. If we take the last compound, 従順, and precede it with “not,” that brings us a good dose of disobedience:
不従順 (fujūjun: disobedience) not + to obey + to obey
This word contains only one type of vowel: u’s!
Sample Sentences with 従順 and 不従順 …
When Disobedience Turns into Rain …
Not all 順 words have to do with organization or obedience. For more hues in the 順 rainbow, check the next two links.
And finally, the moment has arrived for your Verbal Logic Quiz. Enjoy!
