[Buddha-l] Lamas and such

[Dan Lusthaus]

Eric,

> Yes I do believe them, simply because I have many other sources that
> tell me the same.
> It is just an example of the use of xiao in a friendly way in present
> Mandarin idiom.
> You suddenly you shift to the expression xiao ren and that was not the
> subject of my mail,

Your mail was a response to my mail, in which I had said:

"The term xiaosheng (little vehicle) definitely carries negative
connotations. Xiao doesn't just mean little, it means "lesser," "inferior,"
"minor" (as opposed to major), and when used to characterize a person, means
someone of lowly, "mean", "inferior" character, a trifling, small-minded,
petty. That is standard Chinese usage for at least the last 2500 years."

"When used to characterize a person" refers to xiaoren, but other terms as 
well, such as xiaoxin (small minded), etc. So there was no "switching" -- I 
was still discussing the same thing you were supposedly responding to.

Xiao can indeed be used in a variety of ways, including as a diminuitive 
with affectionate overtones, but that is *not* what is occurring with 
xiaosheng (hinayana), xiaoren (petty person), xiaoxin (small minded), etc.

>> Muller's CJKV-English Dictionary (not the DDB) 
>> http://www.buddhism-dict.net
>> gives three meanings for xiao:
>> a.. Small, little, few; tiny.
>> a.. Trifling, of little note. Petty, small-minded.
>> a.. Young.
>>
> So Muller agrees with my point of view,  2 out of  3 meanings are
> neutral or friendly.

In any contrastive pair in which the term opposite the xiao term is a da 
(big, great, major) term, the da term is invariably considered higher, 
better, greater, of greater value than the xiao term, which is the inverse. 
Dasheng (Mahayana) is great, grand, etc., xiaosheng (Hinayana) is inferior, 
lesser. Invariably implicit in the Chinese usage is the axiom that bigger is 
better. Moreover in a culture that prizes filial piety as its prime 
directive nothing is "neutral" about the first or third definitions.

Again, consult dictionaries (or include them in your sources). The better 
the dictionary, the more compounds containing xiao you will find. You will 
certainly find some that are not negative, but you will find that any that 
tend to be evaluative, i.e., express a value or indicate a quality, esp. 
concerning people or a type of person (e.g., peddlar =xiaofan) will probably 
be negative. E.g., "small qi" 小氣 does not mean "lack of energy" or a 
medical deficiency (which would arguably be "neutral" descriptive terms, 
even if of a negative condiion). Xiaoqi means "stingy."

Dan