Melting pot, ethnic stew

Either way, we’re all in this vessel together

渾然一体
kon.zen.i-.ttai

Literally: all – “sort of thing” – one – body

Alternately: Disparate things mixing together to form a harmonious or unified whole. A workable sum of parts. The ideal of American society.

Notes: The 渾 may be replaced with homophone 混, “mix.” The compound may also be followed by ~となる (to naru), “to become (a complete whole).” 渾然一体となる can also simply mean “to be joined together.”

This compound comes to us from the seventh chaper of the Huainanzi (『淮南子』), which we’ve seen before. Note also that things becoming 一体 is a recurring theme in yojijukugo.

KonZenParty

Got to have every class of combat waifu in your strike team, see.

About Confanity

I love the written word more than anything else I've had the chance to work with. I'm back in the States from Japan for grad school, but still studying Japanese with the hope of becoming a translator -- or writer, or even teacher -- as long as it's something language-related.
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