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Was listening to @FMAnalysts and their discussion of the word “Alkahestry'' which, as far as we could tell, is a neologism made specifically for the show based on Paracelsus's concept of the "alkahest" (aka the theoretical universal solvent).
This reminded me though
This reminded me though
that the japanese for this isn't a neologism so much as an onyomi reading of the older chinese concept of 錬丹術 (ancient chinese alchemy as practiced in the time of Qin Shi Huang aka the first emperor of china https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%85%89%E4%B8%B9%E8%A1%93)
which is pronounced in japanese (including FMA) as Rentanjutsu and spelled even in modern traditional chinese as 煉丹術 (though the conservative form would use 錬) and pronounced as liàndānshù in mandarin and len tan ʑiuɪt̚ in middle chinese (which the japanese term derives from)
I had also been wondering why it might not be apparent why Ling would be so amenable to Father's idea of becoming a Homunculus and then realized that without the background regarding Qin and the correspondence behind the source word for alkahestry & Chinese immortality medicine,
Ling would seem to have lacked characterization when he's playing on a character trope well known in sinosphere asia that the series could have maybe done better to emphasize in localization.
While I do agree that Roy becoming a homunculus would have been incredibly interesting for the show, I like how this sidestep sets Greedling to be a foil for BOTH Roy AND the Fuhrer on a 2 axis compass. (Labeling those axes has been left to the reader as an exercise)
ALSO: Looking at the Japanese form and its corresponding ancient chinese form, i saw the radical for "metal/gold" (金) in the ren part (錬) and remembering the segment we did on the 4 nen exercises, realized ITS THE SAME CHARACTER: https://hunterxhunter.fandom.com/wiki/Nen#Ren
*Bill Nye Voice* ETYMOLOGY RULES
whoops: forgot to mention the reason its the same character is because in japanese it means to temper but in chinese it means to refine or purify (all of which are the purpose of Nen's ren).
