Pardon me, I'm going to start this thread with a somewhat difficult subject.
Yesterday I wrote an explanation of the two Akyuu books' main titles:
東方求聞史紀 (PMiSS) means "Eastern Histories as Heard by Akyuu".
東方求聞口授 (SoPM) means "Eastern Oral Teachings as Heard by Akyuu".
The most difficult to understand part of the original titles is 求聞. There are multiple ways of understanding this phrase*, but given the context, it can only mean "heard by Akyuu".
* It is also a reference to Akyuu's super-memory ability: 求聞持 "to retain what is heard", which originates from a type of Vajrayana Buddhist mantra 求聞持法 that helps with learning and memorization.
However, there is a problem with explaining 求聞 as "heard by Akyuu".
First, let's look at the pronunciation of these titles:
- 東方求聞史紀, according to
ZUN's blog, is pronounced
Touhou Gumon Shiki.
- 東方求聞口授 is pronounced
Touhou Gumon Kuju. One source is
the April 2012 Nikenme Radio stream, where ZUN showed off the soon-to-be-released book.
It is a Touhou tradtion for a game or book's title to contain kanji from its central characters' names. In these books case, the kanji is 求 from 阿求 (Akyuu).
However, you may have noticed that the kanji 求 is pronounced
kyuu in Akyuu's name, and
gu in the book titles. Why is that so?
In general principle, there are two main ways kanji (the borrowed Chinese characters), are used and read in Japanese,
kun'yomi and
on'yomi.
- In
kun'yomi "interpretation-based reading", a kanji is used to represent, and pronounced as, an equivalent "native" Japanese word (called
yamato kotoba, Yamato words).
- In
on'yomi "sound-based reading", a kanji is pronounced as "the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced" (
wikipedia). Words that incorporate
on'yomi are typically Chinese loanwords, or developed from Chinese loanwords.
The same kanji can have multiple
kun'yomi, due to being equalized with different native Japanese words, and multiple
on'yomi, due to different loanwords containing it being imported at different time periods, from different geological locations. From a linguistic perspective, these different pronunciations have preserved to some degree the Chinese dialects of the eras and locations they originated from.
There are three main groups of
on'yomi sounds: 呉音
go'on, 漢音
kan'on, and 宋音
soo'on (also called 唐音
too'on).
-
Go'on sounds came into Japan through Korea, prior to Japan starting to send scholars to study in China. They accompanied the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and are widely seen in Buddism-related terms. In
go'on, the kanji 白 ("white") is pronounced
byakku, as in Byakkuren (lit. "white lotus").
Short version: go'on words sound ancient and mystical.
-
Kan'on sounds were brought by Japanese scholars, emissaries and monks sent to China from Nara era (710 to 784 CE) to early Heian era. They were the pronunciations preferred by scholars, and widely used in today's common words. In
kan'on, 白 is pronounced
haku, as in hakutaku (lit. "white lake or swamp").
Short version: kan'on words are everywhere, and can sound very formal and abstract, like Latin-derived multisyllable words in English.
-
Soo'on sounds were imported from late Heian era to Edo era. In
soo'on, 白 is pronounced
pai, as in the Dragon Ball villain Tao Pai Pai (lit. "peach white").
Short version: soo'on words are some relatively less ancient and formal loanwords.
Now we can return to the kanji 求 and 聞.
