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Shen (Chinese "spirit; god")

Shen
Chinese name
Chinese
Literal meaning spirit
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet thần
Chữ Hán
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Japanese name
Kanji
Hiragana 1. かみ
2. しん

Shen are Chinese gods. For discussion of them, see the article Chinese gods and immortals.

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Shén (in rising 2nd tone) is the Modern Standard Chinese pronunciation of 神 "spirit; god, deity; spiritual, supernatural; awareness, consciousness etc". Reconstructions of shén in Middle Chinese (ca. 6th-10th centuries CE) include dź'jěn (Bernhard Karlgren, substituting j for his "yod medial"), źiɪn (Zhou Fagao), ʑin (Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Late Middle"), and zyin (William H. Baxter). Reconstructions of shén in Old Chinese (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE) include *djěn (Karlgren), *zdjien (Zhou), *djin (Li Fanggui), *Ljin (Baxter), and *m-lin (Axel Schuessler).

Although the etymological origin of shen is uncertain, Schuessler (2007:458) notes a possible Sino-Tibetan etymology; compare Chepang gliŋh "spirit of humans".

The Chinese shen 神 "spirit; etc." is also in other East Asian languages. The Japanese Kanji 神 is pronounced shin (しん) or jin (じん) in On'yomi (Chinese reading), and kami (かみ), (こう), or tamashii (たましい) in Kun'yomi (Japanese reading). The Korean Hanja 神 is pronounced sin (신).

The Zihui dictionary notes that 神 had a special pronunciation shēn (level 1st tone, instead of usual 2nd shén) in the name Shen Shu 神荼, one of two "gods of the Eastern Sea", along with Yu Lu 鬱壘.


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