Words of the Day

軌gui3
track marks, gauge

勃勃bo2bo2
thriving, vigorous

一邊是元老重臣，人數多得足以代表全體，一邊是神宗所支持的王安石，和一群新進小人，野心勃勃卻心懷不軌。

On one side you have old, experienced ministers, who's number mostly represents everyone.  On the other is Emperor Shenzong chiding Wang Anshi, along with a group of new people of lower rank with wild, vigorous hears that are bad-hearted with no gauge.

牽涉qian1she4
To involve

列lie4
rank

為了便於參考，也為了不牽涉太多人名，我排出下列黨爭重要人名表，讓大家看看力量的排列：

For the convenience of examination, and not to involve too many people, I arranged a list of the rank of important members of the partisan battle.  This will allow everyone to see the arrangement of power:

**The text then lists major members of reformists and anti-reformists.  Su Shi belongs to the list of anti-reformists.

Words of the Day

When irrational people like Wang Anshi have political power, they tend to sap power from intelligent people.

拋pao1
cast aside, throw away

【三經新義】其差無比，他死後就被人拋到腦後，沒有一篇留下來。

There was nothing else comparable to "The New Righteousness of the Three Classics."  People cast it aside to the back of their minds, without a single copy remaining.

侮辱wu2ru3
to humiliate, to dishonor

他只花兩年完成【三經新義】， 尤其是對學術的一大侮辱。
He [Wang Anshi] spent only two years to write "The New Righteousness of the Three Classics," but it especially denigrated learning.

滑稽hua2ji1
funny, farcical

半吊子ban4diao4zi(light)
flakey, air head
It literally translates to "half a string of cash"


不過我要提一下，王安石的【字說】非常滑稽，和所有的半吊子的語學差不多。
But I would like to point out, Wang Anshi's "Words and Speech" is quite farcical, it has the language intelligence of any air-head.

Su of the Eastern Slope 蘇東坡

I've been on hiatus studying for a test that could not test me.  I'm back on my blog!

I have to put "The Dream of the Red Chamber" on hold for this man, Su Shi:

(Yuan Dynasty, Painted by Zhao Mengfu)

I recently bought the Chinese copy of Lin Yutang's "The Gay Genius:  The Biography of Su Dong Po" delivered from Taiwan.

I have many reasons for reading Su Shi, but before I make any sweeping statements about his life, please read this poem first:

(Emperor Huizong "draft cursive" 12th century)

No, please don't read the draft cursive.  Heck, I can barely read it.  Su Shi's poem is a reaction to a friend who could write this script.

Su Shi, Shi Cang-shu's "Hall of Drunken Ink" (1068)

All worry and woe in life begins

from learning to read and write---

be able to roughly mark your name

and then you should call it quits.

What point is there in cursive draft

that flaunts the spirit's speed?---

the blur in my eyes when I open a scroll

makes me ill at ease.

Yes, i too have been fond of it,

but always I laugh at myself;

how can we cure this affliction

as it shows itself in you?

You tell me that in doing this

you find a perfect joy,

mind's satisfaction, not distinct

from spirit's roaming free.

Just recently you built a hall

and named it "Drunken Ink,"

comparing this art to drinking wine

that melts anxieties.

I see now that Liu Zong-yuan

wrote something not untrue;

such affliction may crave dirt and ask

as if it were haute cuisine.

Still we may say that in this art

you have achieved the heights:

worn-out brushes pile by your walls

like little hills and knolls.

When the whim strikes, one swish of the hand

and a hundred sheets are gone:

in a fleeting moment a splendid steed

bestrides an entire land.

My own script takes shape to my mood,

I have no special technique:

the dots and lines just follow my hand,

it's a bother to try too hard.

Then tell me why in your critiques

I am singled out for praise,

isolated words an scraps of paper

all find themselves collected.

Your script may be properly judged

no lower than Zhong or Zhang;

on a lower level my own is still better

than that of Luo or Zhao.

You should no longer sit by the pool

and practice so ardently,

in the end just take all that writing silk

and use it to stuff a quilt.

Owen, Stephen. "The Ornaments of "Literati" Culture." An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. 640-41. Print.

During my darker, colder days of college, Su Shi knew the right words to speak to my soul.  His life by some standards may be seen as a "failure" because of his fall from political power.  Yet after a thousand years we remember him like an good old friend.

Lin Yutang puts it this way:  knowing a thousand year old dead guy isn't hard, you just need to write.  The living haven't finished telling their stories.  As the old saying goes, we can decide when the coffin shuts.