抄録
The purpose of this study is to analyze homographs in Chinese and Japanese that include the character “正” (zheng/sei), particularly examining the Chinese term “正气” (zhengqi) and the Japanese term “正気” (shoki), and to clarify the differences in their etymology, meaning, and usage through example sentence investigation. The result is that the Chinese term “正气” (zhengqi) has been used since the Warring States period, meaning the vital energy circulating in the natural world, and it has also been associated with the Yin-Yang theory advocated by ancient Chinese Taoism.As an example of its application to people, possibilities are observed in the “suwen” section of the “黄帝内经” (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon). In modern Chinese, it is used to convey a positive evaluation when describing a person's character or good behavior. Furthermore, The Japanese term “正気” (shoki) is derived from Chinese, but its pronunciation is divided into “shoki” and “seiki”. “seiki” retains the meaning of “気” (ki) in the natural world as expressed in ancient Chinese. On the other hand, influenced by ancient medicine, “shoki” came to represent a person's thoughts or mentality.
