Ten thousand years
| Ten thousand years | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 萬歲 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 万岁 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese | vạn tuế (萬歲), muôn tuổi (萬歲), muôn năm (萬年) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 만세 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 萬歲 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hiragana | ばんざい | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kyūjitai | 萬歳 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shinjitai | 万歳 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | wànsuì |
| Bopomofo | ㄨㄢˋ ㄙㄨㄟˋ |
| Wade–Giles | wan4-sui4 |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | vae去 soe去 |
| Hakka | |
| Romanization | van55 soi55 |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | maan6 seoi3 |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | bān suè |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | manse |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Revised Hepburn | banzai |
In various East Asian languages, the phrase "ten thousand years" is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "Live long!" in English. The phrase originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the emperor of China. Due to the political and cultural influence of China in the area, and in particular of the Chinese language, cognates with similar meanings and usage patterns have appeared in many East Asian languages.
In some countries, this phrase is mundanely used when expressing feeling of triumph, typically shouted by crowds. In such a situation, "hurrah" is the more accurate translation.
The phrase wansui (萬歲; literally "ten thousand years") was once used casually to wish a person long life. During the Tang dynasty, it came to be used exclusively to address the emperor as a prayer for his long life and reign. Then, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, its use was temporarily extended to include certain higher-ranking members of the imperial court, but this tradition was relatively short-lived: in later imperial history, using it to address someone other than the emperor was considered an act of sedition and was consequently highly dangerous. During certain reigns of weak emperors, powerful Eunuchs such as Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian circumvented this restriction by styling themselves with jiǔ qiān suì (九千歲, literally "9000 years") so as to display their high positions, which were close to or even exceeded the emperor's, while still remaining reverent to the title of the emperor.
Traditionally, empress consorts and empresses dowager were addressed with "thousand years" (千歲) rather than "ten thousand years", which was reserved for the emperor. However, Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto supreme ruler of China from 1861 to 1908, was addressed with "ten thousand years". Several photographs of her show a banner on her litter reading "The Incumbent Holy Mother, the Empress Dowager of the Great Qing, [will live and reign for] ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years" (大清國當今聖母皇太后萬歲萬歲萬萬歲). The Emperor was addressed by the title "Lord of Ten Thousand Years" (simplified Chinese: 万岁爷; traditional Chinese: 萬歲爺; pinyin: Wànsuìyé).
...
Wikipedia