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A comment on Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name. Parent comment

Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by archgoon on Monday April 01, 2019 @02:19AM (#19540969)
Huh, according to Jim Breen's dictionary (http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic) 'good, fortunate' is '礼' (rei). '令' (rei) is listed as 'command, decree'. The official character that is being used is '令'.

Is there some rule or convention that explains why 令 means 'good, fortunate' here? Is it due to the usage in the 7th century poetry that is referenced in the article?

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by comex on Monday April 01, 2019 @05:56AM (#19541814)
Even though there's an explanation, I've seen a bunch of negative reaction to the name from Japanese people online because of the association with "command", also linking it to the current prime minister and his relatively militaristic politics.
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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by archgoon on Monday April 01, 2019 @03:43PM (#19547362)
Interesting; came across this Twitter thread with a fairly detailed analysis.

https://mobile.twitter.com/nick_kapur/status/111270395164693...

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by tanilama on Monday April 01, 2019 @02:35AM (#19541024)
In this particular case, '令月' means[1], a good month.

https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%A4%E6%9C%88-660939

If we have to trace back even further, it can date back to the ancient Chinese classic, the Classic of Poetry, where it is being used as good/respectful:

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BB%A4%E9%97%BB%E4%BB%A4%E6%...

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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by needle0 on Monday April 01, 2019 @03:58AM (#19541384)
The namers can publicly claim it to mean one thing while privately intending to be another, of course.
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Re:Abe explains choice of Reiwa for next era name by tanilama on Monday April 01, 2019 @04:38AM (#19541533)
In case of Chinese characters, they can be interpreted under different context, I agree.
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