Lightning and Thunder. Pls explain.

AiliseuTKA · February 17,2025

I'll post a snippet from a novel, it's self explanatory that way and i won't have to explain my confusion.

This pearl contained an Origin Skill called the “Thunder Drawing Technique”. This Origin Skill could not create thunder, but it could attract thunder. Thus, someone would first need to be around thunder and lightning, before they could use the Thunder Drawing Technique to attack. However, because the technique only conducted the thunder, the strength of that thunder could surpass the limits of one’s cultivation base and Origin Power strength. It was particularly powerful on days with thunderstorms, but otherwise it was not very good.

I have talked about this on this forum and from what i can remember, translating them to english, thunder and lightning are the same?

But clearly above, you see the novel snippet clearly use both terms implying there's a difference or is this also one of those lost in translation thing?

EDIT: Okay, i need to mention this to specify what my question is about.

I'm basically asking an explanation on chinese language about thunder/lightning because it's used as if both are one and the same, an example i posted a snippet up above by a CN novel translated into english - that's why the english also treats both as the same, they simply translate it from chinese to english without changing the english translations to fit known scientific knowledge, i also mentioned how i asked some translator about this and why they don't change/tweak the translations abit and ethically it's wrong since theyre 'translating' and not 'writing' their own novel.

UPDATE: i'm burned out from all the replying i had to do in a short span of time, at this point i can tell this is going nowhere thus i'm no longer as curious as i once was therefore just lock this thread.

DaoistLV38cT · February 18,2025

Thunder is sonic boom, lightning is plasma. Thunder is more popular becuz of Final fantasy and pokemon. People confuse thunder for lightning often. There's no such thing as thunderbolt/thundershock, its lightning bolt and electric shock.

anjanamaharjan · February 18,2025

Well, they are, in fact, not the same in English though. Thunder is specifically the sound produced by lightning as it moves and breaks the sound barrier, repeatedly.

Basastion · February 18,2025

I mentioned in my post that i asked a TL about this and why not just change them in their english translations. Else i wouldn't be running into the same one again reading a different novel.

I forgot the novel i read before this, but currently reading divine throne of primordial blood. It's the same thing, that's why i am curios about the specific details to those who are well versed in the chinese language.

SudhanshuPandey0429 · February 18,2025

Right. But why? Let me copy and paste the snippet again here.

This pearl contained an Origin Skill called the “Thunder Drawing Technique”. This Origin Skill could not create thunder, but it could attract thunder. Thus, someone would first need to be around thunder and lightning, before they could use the Thunder Drawing Technique to attack. However, because the technique only conducted the thunder, the strength of that thunder could surpass the limits of one’s cultivation base and Origin Power strength. It was particularly powerful on days with thunderstorms, but otherwise it was not very good.

Three words, Thunder, Lightning, Thunder and Lightning. These 3 should have different characters in chinese right?

My question is basically why did the author use different characters when a single character either 'thunder' 'thunder and lightning' 'lightning' wouldv sufficed since 'thunder' and 'lightning' have the same meaning in chinese it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I just dont get why they wrote it into different variations within a single paragraph.

EDIT: or am i overlooking something? does the overall phrase change the way characters are written? I have zero understanding of the chinese language and even more so on languages that uses characters instead of letters.

Diaoist12 · February 18,2025

lightning, is the burst of light cause by movement of electron through a gas creating plasma
thunder, is the sound of the expansion of the plasma created by the movemnt of electron
the movemnt of electron through the gas is categorized more properly as an electric spark

Jaywxrld · February 18,2025

Without knowing how the Chinese raw was written, Ai-chan can't say with certainty why the translator translated it so. Like in your example, 'drawing', is it drawing as in the context of painting or in the context of bringing something?

Thunder and lightning is not exactly the same item, it just uses the same base word. For example, if the author just writes lei, without providing any context, then what does that mean? Nobody would know whether it refers to thunder or lightning and since in English, thunder and lightning is not the same, how would you translate this word into English?

Taking the example you provided, Ai-chan can only guess that this was what was written.

This pearl contained an Origin Skill called the “雷 Drawing Technique”. This Origin Skill could not create 雷, but it could attract 雷. Thus, someone would first need to be around 雷電, before they could use the 雷 Drawing Technique to attack. However, because the technique only conducted the 雷, the strength of that 雷 could surpass the limits of one’s cultivation base and Origin Power strength. It was particularly powerful on days with 雷鸣, but otherwise it was not very good.

septimus_heap7 · February 18,2025

This was the same explanation the TL gave me all those time ago but i wanted a specific detailed explanation on the chinese characters.

Because if you read the snippet above, the translation used both thunder as lightning, also using thunder and lightning(implying distinction) and using lightning alone.

That's why im asking this question because in that snippet alone, it showed that it clearly identified both thunder and lightning as the same aswell as a separate entity.

I know translators just translate from raw chinese as accurate as possible so it's probably the same in their raw form.

PolzevatelGooglePAd · February 18,2025

In Chinese, lightning and thunder has the same base character, either lei (thunder) or shan (flash). From lei, you can have lei sheng 雷聲 which without a doubt means thunder. From lei, you also get lei ji 雷击 which means thunderbolt, in other words, lightning. You also get lei ming 雷鸣 which means something like a thunderstorm. You also get lei dian 雷電 which refers to both thunder and lightning.

There's also there character shan (flash) which can be used in several ways. Shan dian 闪电 means lightning (flash electricity). In some cases, the character shan 闪 refers to the speed of something, instead of actual lightning. Blitzkrieg would've used the character shan 闪.

DaoistCv4412 · February 18,2025

When does it ever use lightning by itself?

I see the distinction between Thunder, Thunder and Lightning, and Thunderstorm here.

All the Thunders are the same, which makes sense, and then it says "someone would first need to be around thunder and lightning , before they could use the Thunder Drawing Technique".

This would also make sense, since you can't be around thunder without being around lightning.

This may seem like they are pointlessly adding the word lightning in, but it's basically the same as if they said "someone would first need to be around a thunderstorm" instead of just "someone would first need to be around thunder". It's probably just a more common way to refer to the phenomenon.

However, there may be certain cases where thunder and lightning occur without a thunderstorm. There could never be thunder without lightning, though.

This is why it feels the need to point out that "It was particularly powerful on days with thunderstorms"

Hawk9970 · February 18,2025

Pretty much. The question of "why did the writer use this word" is entirely dependent on what words he actually used. A translation may hint at these words but they're ultimately the work of the translator; not the original writer.

In general though, the Chinese word for thunder is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the word(s) for lightning so it's not surprising to see it used a lot. For more aesthetics in writing, it's considered unattractive to use the same word more than once in a sentence in English, and often even if it's the same word in succeeding sentences. The same restriction doesn't really apply in Chinese where character repetition is commonplace.

Haha · February 18,2025

Thunder is the sound and lightning is the actual light part.

ShinigamiNoInochi · February 18,2025

It could be the combination of characters giving different (or ambiguous) meanings. Like car. If you just say 'car' we know it's a car. But if you add 'riage', it becomes carriage, which is a completely different thing. If you put 'service' in front of 'car', it becomes something else as well. If you put 't' at the end, it becomes cart which is also a completely different thing.