The Elixir of Immortality

The Elixir of Immortality



Download audio file (immortality.mp3)

Australian Man: Five thousand years ago?
Chinese Man: Maybe two thousand five hundred years ago.
Australian Man: Years ago.
Chinese Man: During the Qin Dynasty.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: When we had the first Emperor of China. We called him “Qin Shi Huang”. That means first Emperor of China.
Australian Man: Uh-huh. Qin Shi Huang?
Chinese Man: Qin Shi Huang. Yeah right.
Australian Man: Not the Yellow Emperor?
Chinese Man: Not the Yellow Emperor. You know? (The) Yellow (one) is a new one.
Australian Man: M-hm. More recent.
Chinese Man: More recent. Yeah. More recent.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: The Yellow Emperor is the… ; we call him the original emperor of China.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: But at that time it was only regional.
Australian Man: M-hm. China was very small.
Chinese Man: Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor to control the whole (of) China.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: And…But he..When he…When he (it was recorded) occupied all the Chinese lands; he said he wanted to live forever.
Australian Man: Mhm
Chinese Man: You know he wanted to live for ever.
Australian Man: M-hm. Forever.
Chinese Man: He wanted to live forever.
Australian Man: Forever. To be immortal.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: You understand that word? Immortal.
Chinese Man: I don’t know (it)
Australian Man: It means “to not die”.
Chinese Man: Not die! Yes.
Australian Man: I want to be immortal.
Chinese Man: Right. Exactly. He wanted to be immortal.
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: And so he dispatched somebody.
Australian Man: He sent somebody.
Chinese Man: He sent somebody.
Australian Man: He dispatched somebody to..
Chinese Man: He dispatched somebody to “Go find me the long live grass!” Herbs!
Australian Man: In English we say “Elixir of Immortality”.
Chinese Man: “Elixir”.
Australian Man: “Elixir” is like “medicine”.
Chinese Man: Ok. Elixir. Yes
Australian Man: The elixir of immortality.
Chinese Man: Of immortality..
Australian Man: If you drink the elixir of immortality you can live forever.
Chinese Man: Right. exactly.
Australian Man: What do you call that in Chinese; the elixir of immortality?
Chinese Man: “Chang sheng bu lao yao”
Australian Man: “Chang sheng bu lao yao”.
Chinese Man: “Yao” : “medicine.” “Chang” means “long”. “Sheng” : “live”. Long live. “Bu lao” means “never (get) old”. “Lao” means “not old.” Chang sheng bu lao yao. There are many words (that are pronounced) “yao”.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: Because Chinese … why people think it is very complicated Chinese has (too) many same pronounce words. (words that are pronounced the same)
Australian Man: Same. Yeah.
Chinese Man: Words with the same pronunciation.
you have to connect it with the friend word; the host word
Australian Man: Synonyms. (not synonyms! Homophones!)
Chinese Man: Synonyms.
Australian Man: Those words which like “yao”. Many words have the same pronunciation
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: Synonyms (homophones, homonyms, you fool!)
Chinese Man: Synonyms. Right. (no, wrong. This is a mistake.)
Australian Man: So the emperor..
Chinese Man: Qin Shi Huang sent two officials.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: At that time maybe diplomats. I don’t know.
Australian Man: Uhuhu uhuhuh.
Chinese Man: “Go find me the elixir of immortality!”
Australian Man: The elixir of immortality.
Chinese Man: Elixir of Immortality
Australian Man: Yes.
Chinese Man: Certainly the man could not find that…
Australian Man: Because it does not exist?
Chinese Man: Right. Exactly. So. But he dared not…
Australian Man: He looked everywhere..?
Chinese Man: ..Did not come back because if he could not complete his mission he would be killed…
Australian Man: Right. Ok.
Chinese Man: So he wrote a letter to the emperor (and he said) “I found it!”
Australian man: I found it.
Chinese Man: I found it but I need five hundred boys and five hundred girls to get this because this medicine..what called this? (What is this called?) “What do you call this?”
Australian Man: The elixir of immortality
Chinese Man: Huh
Australian Man: The elixir of Immortality
Chinese Man: “The” is ..?
Australian Man: “The” is “the”
Chinese Man: Ok. So. The man wrote a letter to the Emperor Qin. Qin Shi Huang.
Australian: U-huh.
Chinese Man: He said: because the elixir of immortality is controlled by god.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: Which (who) is on an island.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: And so we must have five hundred boys and five hundred girls to get there…to make a big ceremony …to hold a big ceremony…
Australian Man: Mhm.
Chinese Man: …and then we can get the elixir of immortality back to you. And the Emperor was like: “Ok and give (gave) him five hundred boys and five hundred girls..
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: And a big ship.
Australian Man: So they went to the east.
Chinese Man: Away.
Australian Man: Away from China.
Chinese Man: Finally they really found a big island.
Australian Man: Uh-huh.
Chinese Man: Which is Japan. So they lived there forever. They could not come back.
Australian Man: Right ok.
Chinese Man: Because they would be killed. So that is why the Japanese; you know they have to have immigrated from the mainland.
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: Because you know by science, by logical science…
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: People cannot live on an island.
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: They must be from the mainland, right?
Australian Man: M-hm. M-hm.
Chinese Man: And also they have similar characters Chinese characters in the Japanese language.
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: A lot of Chinese ; because they forgot a lot of Chinese characters…they had to re-invent them themselves. Because they brought a lot of books and that is why they have a different (version of ) the Chinese language … but the different pronunciation…
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: You know they had only old men. (brang/brought) All of these children; five hundred boys and five hundred girls in an island. No people taught them how to pronounce it correctly. But that is why the pronunciation is different but the language…
Australian Man: M-hm.
Chinese Man: Language the same
Australian Man: I understand.
Chinese Man: They came from China. You call that “aborigines”?
Australian Man: Aborigines?
Chinese Man: Aborigines!
Australian Man: Normally aborigines are the people who lived in that country first.
Chinese Man: Ah. Lived in this country first. I see that.
Australian Man: So if Chinese people went to Japan…
Chinese Man: Yes.
Australian Man: To find the elixir of immortality….
Chinese Man: Yeah.
Australian Man: …Living in the mountains in Japan were some people with long beards and long hair.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: They were not Asian people. They were very hairy people.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: Those people are called “aborigines”. The people who were there first.
Chinese Man: I see. Ok.
Australian Man: So this word means ah..
Chinese Man: Aborigines?
Australian Man: Mm. It is Latin. “Ab” means “from”. “Origine” means “origin.”
Chinese Man: Oh I understand you now. It is not immigrants.
Australian Man: No no no. It is not immigrants. It is original “inhabitants”.
Chinese Man: Original people. I understand. Ok ok. I understand so actually (the) Japanese are immigrants from China.
Australian Man: Uh-huh. I had a student… I have been teaching English for twenty years.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: And (I have had) students from many countries.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: And one of my students from Korea; he told me that the Japanese moved from Korea.
Chinese Man: Yes.
Australian Man: To Japan.
Chinese Man: Yes, it is true. Because they had to move …mainland China…to Korea…
Australian Man: And then across..
Chinese Man: And then they moved again.
Australian Man: Right. Ok.
Chinese Man: Because geographically ..
Australian Man: It is close.
Chinese Man: It is close. Because you know in ancient times the ships were not very strong.
Australian Man: Yeah.
Chinese Man: They had to find a shortcut.
Australian Man: A shortcut. Yeah.
Chinese Man: Right.
Australian Man: Yeah. Yeah.