Concept

Yuanfen

Résumé

Yuán () or Yuanfen (), "fateful coincidence," is a concept in Chinese society describing good and bad chances and potential relationships. It can also be translated as "destiny, luck as conditioned by one's past", or "natural affinity among friends." It is comparable to the concept of karma in Buddhism, but yuanfen is interactive rather than individual. The driving forces and causes behind yuánfèn are said to be actions done in previous incarnations. Scholars Yang Kuo-shu and David Ho have analysed the psychological advantages of this belief: by assigning causality of negative events to yuanfen beyond personal control, people tend to maintain good relationships, avoid conflict, and promote social harmony; likewise, when positive events are seen as result of yuanfen, personal credit is not directly assigned, which reduces pride on one side of the relationship and envy and resentment on the other. Yang Kuo-shu and David Ho trace the origins of the term to traditional Buddhism and observe that yuan or yuanfen are important concepts. Yang and Ho's research found that these concepts are still very much alive in Chinese social life and culture among university students. The concepts of yuan and yuanfen and beliefs in predestination and fatalism have waned, and belief in yuan has waned as well, but continuity with past conceptions is still strong. Marc Moscowitz, an anthropologist, finds that yuanfen appears frequently in contemporary popular music. Here yuanfen refers to a “karmic relationship” with someone who was known in a previous life and is used to explain the end of a relationship that was not destined to work out. The proverbial saying "have fate without destiny" (有緣無分) refers to couples who were fated to come together, but not destined to stay together, and as such is sometimes used as a break-up line. Upon meeting a person (of any gender) who is hard to find, one might aptly exclaim: "It is yuánfèn that has brought us together!" When one encounters another repeatedly in various locations such that it seems to be more than coincidence, one can refer to yuánfèn.

Source officielle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuanfen

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