矛盾 (mao dun) literally means “spear shield”. What’s so special about packing these two characters into one word? It can mean contradiction (in logic) or conflict (in a situation)!
Pronunciations
Medieval Chinese: mu dzun/ mo dun
Mandarin: mao dun
Hokkien: mo dun
Vietnamese: mâu thuẫn
Korean: mo sun
Japanese: mu jun
Origins
The term came from an anecdote written by the Legalist philosopher Han Feizi (韓非子) around 250 BCE. The story goes like this:
楚人有鬻盾與矛者，譽之曰: 吾盾之堅，物莫能陷之。
以譽其矛曰: 吾矛之利，於物無不陷也。
或曰: 以子之矛陷子之盾，何如？
其人弗能應也。夫不可陷之盾與無不陷之矛，不可同世而立。
There was a man in the state of Chu who sold shields and spears. He said: “My shields are so hard, nothing can pierce them.”
He praised his spears saying: “My spears are so sharp, there is nothing that they cannot pierce.”
Someone asked: “What if you used your spears to pierce your shields?”
The man could not answer. A shield that cannot be pierced and a spear that can pierce everything cannot exist at the same time.
STZheng 