精忠報國 or 盡忠報國 (Yue Fei's tattoo)

I've seen different spellings for Yue Fei's tattoo.

jìn zhōng bào guó; literally "serve the country with the utmost loyalty"


Which one is the correct (traditional) Chinese spelling? What's exactly the difference between the two?

精忠報國 or 盡忠報國

greatboi said:

I've seen different spellings for Yue Fei's tattoo.

jìn zhōng bào guó; literally "serve the country with the utmost loyalty"


Which one is the correct (traditional) Chinese spelling? What's exactly the difference between the two?

精忠報國 or 盡忠報國

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Personally, I would say 盡. 盡 is the traditional version of 尽, which is regularly used in conjunction with 力 to form 尽力 meaning try your hardest. If the translation means 'serve the country with UTMOST loyalty', then the 盡 corresponds with the 'utmost'.

jobjed said:

Personally, I would say 盡. 盡 is the traditional version of 尽, which is regularly used in conjunction with 力 to form 尽力 meaning try your hardest. If the translation means 'serve the country with UTMOST loyalty', then the 盡 corresponds with the 'utmost'.

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What does the other character mean?

greatboi said:

What does the other character mean?

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Actually, I did a little digging and I found out that while both makes sense, it's the 精 that was spoken by Yue Fei. 精忠报国 means serving the country with utmost 精神, or spirit/motivation, kind of hard to translate directly into English. 尽忠 and 精忠 mean different things but when used in conjunction with the phrase, both makes sense and means almost the same thing.

Though both sentences make sense, I believe the "精忠報國" is Yue Fei's while the other is not. To me, although both sentences have similar word and pronunciation but have huge difference in meaning. 盡忠 may means with all the possible patriot and 精忠 might means with the utmost spirit. The later sounds more serious and suits the case of Yue Fei. If you look at the second photo more clearly, it was signed by Chiang Ching Kuo. Just my two cents.

I believe jobjeb got it right, and that's the "direct" cause of the differences between thoudsand years ago Yue Fei's tatoo and modern time people's artistic slogan.

The "indirect" cause, is that in Chinese culture the offspring (the modern people) CAN NOT claim, or self-dramatizing, or "artisticly expressing the commitment" - exactly like the ancestry (the older generation, despite 100 generations older or 1 generation older).

It can not be exactly the same, it's considered an offense to the ancestry if you do so. It's like self-dramatizing that you are as good as the ancestor's greatness (even you are good, you can not yelling about it). I suppose modern USA president would look George Washington in high respect that in no condition (especially in front of a TV) LOOK LIKE he is comparing himself to George Washington - That's the culture, universally.

Now, a modern general (or in this case, chief commander of 国民革命军，国军 Nationist Revolutionary Army, 蒋经国 Jiang Jingguo), trying to leave his mark to motivating his troops, in no condition it shall looks like he is comparing himself to a great historical figure Yue Fei (Yue Fei's mother actually), so the artistic expression, shall not be exactly like Yue Fei's - You can quote exactly Yue Fei's mark 精忠報國 in a book or a classroom, but since you are now making your own mark, you are not considered quoting if you write the exactly same 精忠報國， but to self-comparing to Yue Fei (and that's reputation suicide in Chinese culture), the modern people have to play the trick to chaning one character and remains almost the same meaning - thus the “盡忠報國”.


The other situation is, you don't say exactly "the other guy" said. I found interesting when I in Singapore, during election period, there is this expression that the government shall "serve the people" in great care. While "Serve the people" looks alright in English - in Chinese, “为人民服务” is like CCP's exclusive slogan and it is damn sure no Singaporean party can afford to LOOKS LIKE CCP. So at Chinese language news paper, they use the term: 为民众服务.

避讳 (avoid the subtle indication) is universal culture.

Thank you Jobjed, RedSword and Steelbird for clarifying.
The reason why I'm asking is because I just got a tattoo of 精忠報國.
Then I realized that there were two different spellings and because wikipedia and various other sources depicted the 盡 character more often.

jobjed said:

Actually, I did a little digging and I found out that while both makes sense, it's the 精 that was spoken by Yue Fei. 精忠报国 means serving the country with utmost 精神, or spirit/motivation, kind of hard to translate directly into English. 尽忠 and 精忠 mean different things but when used in conjunction with the phrase, both makes sense and means almost the same thing.

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Where can I find these sources?

Actually, from what I've read, the original term is "尽忠报国", while the term "精忠报国" dates from the ming/qing dynasties.

Yue Fei's tattoo is most likely a myth. It has been said that no one in his era mentioned anything about his loyalty tattoo. Even his own great grandson did not mention anything about a tattoo in his biography of his great grandfather. Since this tattoo has been considered a major symbol of his resolute loyalty to his nation, his great grandson would have mentioned it if he had one. The earliest mention of Yue Fei's tattoo was in Yuan dynasty (at least 100-200 years after his death), which described the tattoo as 尽忠报国. Then in the Ming dynasty, the tattoo became 赤心救国. The earliest mention of 精忠报国 came in 1552, almost half a millennium after his death (he was killed in 1142).

So none of the versions of the tattoo was modern invention. Jiang Jingguo simply chose the earliest version. And all of the versions seem to be fictional.


section 岳母刺字

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