    the japanese and korean term mu () or chinese wÃº () meaning "not have; without" is a key word in buddhism, especially the chan and zen traditions. ==the word== the chinese word wÃº ç¡ "not; nothing" was borrowed by east asian languages, particularly the sino-xenic "cjkv" languages of chinese, japanese, korean, and vietnamese. ===pronunciations=== the modern standard chinese pronunciation wÃº ç¡ historically derives from (c. 7th century ce) middle chinese mju, (c. 3rd century ce) late han chinese muÉ, and reconstructed (c. 6th century bce) old chinese *ma.schuessler, axel (2007), abc etymological dictionary of old chinese, university of hawaii press, p. 518. other varieties of chinese have differing pronunciations of ç¡. compare cantonese mou4 or mou; and min nan ipa: [ boË§Ë¥ ] (quanzhou) and [ bÉË§Ë¥ ] (zhangzhou). the common chinese word wÃº ç¡ was adopted in the sino-japanese, sino-korean, and sino-vietnamese vocabularies. the japanese kanji ç¡ has on'yomi (sino-japanese) readings of mu or bu, and a kun'yomi (japanese reading) of na. the korean hanja ç¡ is read mu (in revised, mccuneâreischauer, and yale romanization systems). the vietnamese han viet character ç¡ is pronounced vÃ´ or mÃ´. ===meanings=== some english translation equivalents of wÃº or mu ç¡ are: *"no", "not", "nothing", or "without"baroni, helen josephine. the illustrated encyclopedia of zen buddhism, p. 228. *nothing, not, nothingness, un-, is not, has not, not anyfischer-schreiber, i., ehrhard, r. k. & diener, m. s. (1991). the shambhala dictionary of buddhism and zen (m. h. kohn, trans.). boston: shambhala. p. 147. *[1] nonexistence; nonbeing; not having; a lack of, without. [2] a negative. [3] caused to be nonexistent. [4] impossible; lacking reason or cause. [5] pure human a
Chinese_words_and_phrases Discordianism Japanese_words_and_phrases Koan Korean_words_and_phrases Nothing Zen_Buddhist_terminology