"Baton" and "needle" in space

Martin Delson asked about a couple of Chinese expressions that appeared in this article from the San Jose Mercury News (6/17/21):

"China launches crew to its new space station", by Carlos Garcia and Shubing Wang

Complete, and more easily accessible version from Reuters (6/17/21):

"Chinese astronauts board space station module in historic mission", by Carlos Garcia

The three astronauts are Nie Haisheng, 56, Liu Boming, 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45.

"This will be the first crewed flight in the space station (construction) phase, and I'm lucky to be able to have the 'first baton,'" Nie told reporters in Jiuquan a day before the launch.

Wang Yaping, a member of the Shenzhou-12 backup team, told state media.

"In our crew, elder brother Nie is like the needle that stills the sea…".

Martin requested an elucidation of "first baton" and "needle that stills the sea".

In the 16th-century novel, Journey to the West, the simian hero, Sun Wukong ("Monkey Enlightened to Emptiness") possesses a magical staff, the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton") that has transformational properties.  One of its forms is that of the dìnghǎi shénzhēn 定海神针 ("numinous needle that stabilizes the sea"), which was actually the original source of the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton").  The we can see that both of the objects that Martin asked about are attributes of the supernatural simian, Sun Wukong, of Journey to the West.  (Of course, the meaning of "baton" for relay racing is also operative.)

This continues the tradition of using terms from Chinese legend and myth for names of objects, equipment, places, etc. in space related research and technology.

 

Selected readings

• "Persian peaches of immortality" (1/22/21)
• "Kids Bong" (11/10/18)
• "Macaque and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (12/17/20)
• "Makaku, macaco, macaque, macaca…" (8/16/06)
• "Monkeys in Chinese culture" (Wikipedia) — especially the section on "Hou and Muhou".
• Diana Shuheng Zhang, "The Reins of Language: The Mantra of the Heart Sutra in The Journey to the West," Sino-Platonic Papers, 286 (June, 2019), 1-61 (free pdf)

 

[Thanks to Chenfeng Wang and Fangyi Cheng]