Re: The fish is dead (was: cases)

From: "John Cowan"

> DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
>
> > A: Ni3 chi1 su4 ma?
> > A: Are you a vegetarian?
>
> (BTW:  Can this mean equally "Do you eat vegetables?" i.e. "Are you an
obligate
> carnivore?"  I suppose this is an un-Chinese concept :-) .)
Indeed. The hun1 (meat and fish eating)/su4 (veg) divide, I think, is
restricted to humans (at least, it sounds weird [and a little amusing] to me
to say "Gou3 chi1 hun1" (Dogs are meat-eaters.). "Chi1su4" to me implies
you're veg because you're a devout Buddhist or you have dietary restrictions
(not because you're a ruminant). Both play into the Chinese medicinal,
macrobiological, philosophical view: "Gee, you're having a bout of gout
because you've been laying a little too heavily on the 'hun1' lately. Why
don't you 'chi1su4' for a couple of weeks and get your body back in
balance?".

Kou