The Concept of Yuanfen: “Predestined connection”
As it comes up a lot, or, more and more in conversation amongst alterhumanity, I often toss in this word called Yuanfen.
What is yuanfen?
緣分 yuan2 fen4, a very culturally common belief/idea/concept amongst the Chinese (and others that have shared roots, like Vietnamese, Japanese, etc). It talks about how one's relationships with anyone—friends, family, lovers, coworkers, and nonhuman relationships such as pets, as well as connections towards the non-living—how these relationships are
- the predestined affinity towards a person, an object, a place
- driven by karma (not the negative connotation, but just as a general concept)/past incarnation/past life connection
- a fated/chanced meeting
To list a few ways this concept is presented.
I would call me finding a community a yuanfen
Me meeting someone, even through the internet, is a form of yuanfen
My relationship with my family, my close bond with my sibling, can be attributed to past live(s), or can also be called good yuan
Supposedly I and my mother don't have direct yuanfen, I was just borrowing her womb to come to this world. According to a seer/psychic.
Yuanfen, because a part of it is based on karma, can be positive or negative, it can also simply be neutral.
A plural system being in a system together, I would call that possibly yuanfen.
Is someone finding out their kintype later in life, that can potentially be attributed to yuanfen, as it is something that sometimes, "the time just isn't right".
Of course, being a very passive concept, it's not exactly applied every second, but generally, you'd seen people who use it on big eventful chance meeting that seems like a "starstruck" or "love at first sight" kind of moment, the very strong affinity between certain people from seeming stranger to immediately close friends or even enemies. And, again, can be applied to other nonhuman nonliving relationships, but it is most often used in interpersonal relationship connections, and more commonly used in romantic settings.