An interesting question you've got.This is just my guess, and I haven't learned ethymologyseriously so I may be completely wrong.
AFAIK, the Chinese order follows the mithological "rank" ofthe directions. East is the most important because, as you'veguessed, the sun rises in the east. The order of otherdirections also have "reasons", but I don't know if the orderwas decided after these reasons, or the reasons were made upafter the actual order (clockwise from east).Also there is certain association between four directions andfour seasons.
I don't know why we use different order in Japan, but I'd guessthere's a logic kind of similar to the order in western languages- east, west (the opposite), south, north (the opposite)
Oh, and your guess about the importance of north is the otherway round actually - direction of the head at death is northbecause it is the most ominous direction.
Ron Andrews wrote on 14 Sep 2003 10:00:06 -0700in article <7594b59c.03091...@posting.google.com>:>Here's a language question I've been wondering about for a while that>I'm hoping some among you might help me understand better.>>Does anyone know the etymology or history behind the traditional>orders of compass directions stated in different languages?>>In English, German, possibly French, Italian, Spanish and others, the>order is stated as "north, south, east, west". In Japanese, however,>the order is "east, west, south, north" [東西南北 (tou, zai, nan, boku)].>In Chinese, I believe it's different again, as "east, south, west,>north" [東南西北 (dong, nan, xi, bei)]. Other than some guessing at the>importance of east (rising sun) and north (direction of the head at>death in Japan), I haven't come up with what sound like plausible>reasons for these different orders. The orders used surely reflect>other characteristics of the cultures involved, but what are they? One>Japanese fellow I asked said he thought it was because in Japanese>it's just easier to say it that way. I'm thinking it's got to be>deeper than that.>>I've scoured the Net and looked through a few language books I have>but have found nothing yet. Also, so far I've posted this question to>the four NGs above as well as to the SWET (Japan-based Society of>Writers, Editors and Translators) and Nihongo mailing lists, but if>anyone can suggest other newsgroups, mailing lists, etc., that would>be very helpful.>>So why are there different ways of saying the order of these>directions in different languages?>>Many thanks for any help with this.>>Ron in Nara
- Ken Kato (kato....@cij.co.jp)