青藍(Qinglan)は なんですか？

みなさん、こんばんは！

きょう、I would like to talk something about my name. I was always asked about the meaning of my name, and this has been one of the questions I was really afraid of. Because it's so hard for me to explain it in English. じゃあ、青藍(Qinglan)は　なんですか？

It's a long story.

A famous confucian philosopher Xun Zi (313 B.C.-238 B.C.) once wrote an essay named 勧学(The Exhortation of Learning). Of course it's in ancient Chinese language. I LOVE ancient Chinese language! It's harder to understand but much more beautiful than the language we speak today. But I will not post the original essay here, because apparently it makes no sense to you. I did find the Japanese translation of that essay and I'd like to show you the first paragraph.(Some day we will be able to read that. )

君子はいう、「学問は止めてはならない」と。青色は藍草から取るが藍草より青く、氷は水からできるが水より冷たい。墨縄にぴったりするまっすぐな木でも、 たわめて輪にすればコンパスにぴったりの湾曲になり、日にさらして乾かしてももはやもとにもどらないのは、たわめるというと外力によってそうなったのであ る。だから、木が墨縄をあてられてまっすぐになり、刃物が砥石で磨かれると鋭くなるように、君子も学んで日ごとに何度も反省すれば、知識は確かになり行動にも過ちがなくなるのである。

This paragraph basically says that one should never stop learning, for learning improves one's character. A gentleman should pursue a wide range of knowledge and often engage in introspection, so that his mind gets clearer and he will do less inappropriate things.The sentence in bold is right where my name's from. In Chinese ,“青取之于藍而青于藍。” In modern Chinese language, 青(qing) simply means the color green and 藍(lan) is blue, while in ancient Chinese 青(qing) means the color indigo/dark blue or the indigo dye and 藍(lan) means a certain kind of green blue plants (eg. woad) from which the indigo dye is produced. (Oh my gosh it's tooooo hard to explain...I wish you are more patient than me.) Let me show you the pictures I found.

So the first picture is the one kind of plant Lan. And the second picture is when the plant is made to the dye Qing.

The whole sentence literally means that the dye Qing comes from the plant Lan but is darker/more concentrated than the color of the plant Lan. Then put it back to the context. It indicates that the students who acquire knowledge from their teacher may finally surpass the teacher. Those who learn from the books may finally attain higher wisdom beyond the books. Nowadays, it's also interpreted as that children who are brought up by their parents (will) make greater achievement than their parents. People say so to express a good wish or compliment. So my name Qinglan is not simply two similar colors, but is a heartwarming wish from my parents.



やだああああああ！　This is the first time I explained the whole origin and meaning of my name in a relatively clear way (in English). I'm so exited!

じゃあ　また〜