"Educational"

"I don't want to do that, it's too educational."

The English languages uses the word "educational" as an adjective, describing something that has a quality related to education.  But how did it have a derogatory connotation?

"Learning" is more innate.  An individual arrives at a realization.  "Education" appropriates knowledge from  institution or external entity.  The former is active, while the latter is passive.

I've recently been reading this excellent blog about homeschooling by Penelope Trunk.  Here are a few brief points about her views on educating kids:

1.  Kids can more efficiently teach themselves how to learn if you give them room to be self-motivated.

2. Kids in public schools are taught to passively regurgitate information for a standardized test, not solve complex problems in society.

3.  The structure of the public school system is too rigid to allow for kids to learn for themselves.

4.  The subjects taught in public school education are mostly useless to the real world.

5.  The social environment in public schools is about competing with young immature children, while the working world requires collaboration with adults.

I had to unlearn habits that were enforced from public education.  Education was something you did at school, completely separate from our personal lives.  Public education discourages you from allowing your self-motivation to fully explore the complexity of learning.  You can only learn in a given amount of time and test from an arbitrary outline.

Maybe that's why people don't spend time reading.  It's not that we lack the ability, but somehow we think learning takes place in a finite amount of time.  After graduating, the time to educate ourselves is "gone."  All we only look forward to work, retirement, then death.

I'm still wondering after leaving college whether I truly "educated" myself.  Outside the context of grades and a career, can we still "educate" ourselves?

Sometimes I wonder why I'm still studying Chinese after leaving college.  Then I remember this quote from Mencius.

學問之道無他, 求其放心而已矣

The way to learning requires nothing else, just search for what you let go of in your heart.

                                                     ---孟子  Mencius

Clear Bright - Qingming

(Here's the full scroll.)

Qingming (清明) literally means "clear bright." For those of you unfamiliar, today is Qingming, a special holiday where many Chinese visit their ancestral graves.  The living will visit the graves of their ancestors, give the gravestone a good clean, and offer food to deceased relatives.  And for the pyro deep within us, burn paper money.  It's a day of veneration, reflection, and catharsis.

Ritual gives us a set of instructions on how to act without breaking social convention. It simultaneously exposes our insecurity about a given subject.  I remember when my grandmother was will alive, I was always incredibly careful not to break little taboos.  The words number "4", "the world," and "yes" have the same homophone to death.  It also didn't help that "death" my dialect used "death" and an emphatic marker.  So if it the weather was hot, you might say, "YUAH SEE," or "hot as death."

My friends on the other hand have hilarious views of death.  One of my friends wants his bodies to be stuffed by a taxidermist so he can be placed on a rocking chair on his porch.  We all assigned each other a death letter, and would all agreed we would somehow die by that letter.  Mine was "p."  During one of my trips to New York, a pipe exploded in the middle of the street.  I was exactly on that street the day before it exploded because I recognized the picture on the New York Times.

I don't like the mainstream views of death. The Judeo-Christians construct the concept of "heaven," some distant place where the deceased are neatly tucked away in distant paradise.  They get an eternal version of Florida while God is the real estate broker.  Death becomes something distant from the living.  Oh, and there's hell if you didn't maintain your moral credit rating.

The west celebrates death with Easter, the death of Jesus, and Halloween, who knows what that is.  Halloween is the weirdest day on the calendar.  How did culture decide that children should dress up as demons and beg for candy from random strangers?  Maybe death wants sugar.

Chinese ritual denies death.  Ritual offerings are arranged such that the dead enjoy the feast set up by living descendants.  Burning paper money is to maintain a good standard of living in purgatory.  One of my cousins mentioned that if everyone sent money to their spiritual relatives, wouldn't there be massive spiritual monetary inflation?  I should burn a federal reserve along with the spiritual money.

We fear death because it forces us to examine it's antithesis, life.  Both Halloween and Qingming proffer living good deeds in in change for a good spiritual life.  Bad people go to hell, or have no descendants to provide credit for purgatory.  Let's face it, we will all have to die at some point in time.  For those who practice Qingming and are literally keeping in touch with death, I hope this ritual helps the living find clarity.

 

Record of The Yueyang Tower 岳陽樓記

作者，　范仲淹

By　Fan　Zhongyan

Translated by Yoyo

1046 AD, Northern Song Dynasty

慶曆四年春，

In the spring of 1044

滕子京謫守巴陵郡。

Tong Zijing of Ba Ling was banished as governor.

越明年，政通人和，

Passing into the next year, governance was successful and people were peaceful.

百廢具興，乃重修岳陽樓，

100 things that were cast aside are now reintroduced, thereupon the Yueyang Tower was retrofitted.

增其舊制，刻唐賢今人詩賦於其上，

And more added to the establishment.  Carvings of the poetry of Tang worthies are at the top of this place.

屬予作文以記之。

It is entrusted with essays in order to commemorate it.

予觀夫巴陵勝狀，

Ba Ling has a fine and exquisite appearance in my opinion.

在洞庭一湖。銜遠山，吞長江，浩浩湯湯(音：商) ，橫無際涯，

At Dong Tang Lake, distant mountains swallow the Yangze, magnificent and mighty, it is vast with no boundary.

朝暉夕陰，氣象萬千。

Dawn is radiant and dusk is gloomy, atmosphere and scenery has 10000, 1000 aspects.

此則岳陽樓之大觀也，前人之述備矣。

This place is Yueyang Tower's great spectacle, people of the past narrate how they were possessed.

然則北通巫峽，南極瀟湘；

This place also connects north to Wu Xia.  To the extreme south there is the Xiao and Xiang River.

遷客騷人，多會於此。覽物之情，得無異乎？

Banished travelers and poets all meet there to perceive the scenery.  How would they feel differently?

若夫霪雨霏霏，連月不開﹔

As for the incessant rain falling fast, for continuous months they do not open,

陰風怒號，濁浪排空﹔

Dark wind wails incessantly, muddy waves soar,

日星隱曜，山嶽潛形；

The sun and stars are hidden, Shan Qiu a hidden form;

商旅不行，檣傾楫摧﹔

Business and travel cannot traverse,

薄暮冥冥，虎嘯猿啼﹔

The mast topples and the oar breaks, the tiger growls and the gibbon cries.

登斯樓也，則有去國懷鄉，

When one climbs the tower, they are away from the capital and long for home country.

憂讒畏譏，滿目蕭然，感極而悲者矣！

There is anxiety for slander and fear of mockery at court.  One's eyes are full of desolation.  One's emotions are full of sadness.

至若春和景明，波瀾不驚﹔

As for spring's peaceful and bright scenery, waves are undisturbed

上下天光，一碧萬頃﹔

up and down the sky glows,  all jade green for 10000 mu.

沙鷗翔集，錦鱗游泳﹔

Sand gulls flock together, beautiful fish swim;

岸芷汀蘭，鬱鬱青青；

Angelica by the river, rich and luxuriant;

而或長煙一空，皓月千里﹔

Pervasive mist fills the sky, bright moon thousands of li away;

浮光躍金，靜影沉璧；漁歌互答，此樂何極！

Floating golden light dances, deep beneath the water the jade disk, brother fisherman call each other, this is the fullest extent of joy!

登斯樓也，則有心曠神怡，

When one climbs the tower, the heart opens and the spirit rejoices,

寵辱皆忘，把酒臨風，其喜洋洋者矣！

The emperor's favor forgotten, grasping wine and facing the wind, there is vast joy among us!

嗟夫！予嘗求古仁人之心，

Ahh!  I always search for benevolent heart of the ancients,

或異二者之為，何哉？

How would there be a difference in people's emotions?

不以物喜，不以己悲；

They're not happy for this, or sad for this;

居廟堂之高，則憂其民﹔

The neighboring shrine's height, there is anxiety for the people;

處江湖之遠，則憂其君；

Situated rivers and lakes are distant, there is anxiety over the land;

是進亦憂，退亦憂，然則何時而樂耶？

There is anxiety at court, leaving the court, how is there time to be happy?

其必曰：「先天下之憂而憂，後天下之樂而樂」

This must be said: "Before all under heaven, I will be anxious if there is anxiety.  After all under heaven is happy, then I will be happy."

歟！噫！微斯人，吾誰與歸。

Aye, if not this person, who will I turn to?

時六年九月十五日。

The time is 6 years, 9 months, and 15 days.

(Source)

It still exists after 1800 years!!!!

I failed Eileen Cheng

Eileen Cheng will rise from her grave and slap me for not finishing the translation of "Love in a Fallen City."  Instead, I will read "Sex, Lust."  No, it's not porno!  It's another work by Eileen Cheng.

I shall instead announce a new project!  I will re-read "An Anthology of Chinese Literature" in chronological order and review one out of every ten pieces or so.  I will occasionally jump to another dynasty if I feel like it.

My Ethnicity

"Where did your family come from?"

This is a heavily charged question that plucks a delicate nerve.  Depending on context, I'm mostly happy to answer.

My ancestral family lived 300 to 400 miles NE of Hong Kong.  The city is swampland, on Hanjiang river delta.



The place is famous for scholars sent to exile.  Han Yu wrote a memorial dissuading the emperor from allowing the Buddhism to enter Tang China.   "Offerings to the Alligators" was a political satire about him using the will of the emperor to banish alligators.

Why do we have an innate curiosity of this question?  Why does do people frame the identity of another person within this context?

I'm personally not offended when people ask me about my family history, but I'm frustrated that the answer to this question doesn't go beyond the stereotypes and closed off world-views.

For instance, my parent's generations constantly complains about how my generation is "forgetting the past," and that something is irrevocably lost with modernization.  Yet they too have been altered by modern times.

Cultural history is important in that it provides a chronological outline of the chain of events that produce the people of the present.  From an anthropological view, modernity thrusted us far away from out ancestral norms.

I initially believed out heartless modern world was lacking some moral high-ground of the past.  My study of China in  college helped me weave the rich narrative that connects the ancient past to the present.  I felt certain that my understanding of history and culture would show where to find this moral high-ground.

There's only one person on earth I trust when she describes my family history.  She lived through some of the most traumatic events of modern Chinese history with my own family (They were neighbors).  After one month of  graduating with a Chinese major, I had the mindset of a Chinese scholar, ready to enlighten me on the darkest parts of my family history.

I asked her if I could record her biography and preserve history for the next generation, she said,

"No.  I don't want to relive the painful moments of my life and have it exposed to everyone.  People shouldn't use me to cling onto past.  It's good to not repeat the mistakes of history, but one also has to be aware the present can change and count the blessings of the present.  Longing for an ideal to exist again blinds you from the happiness in front of you."

Our attachment to the nostalgia of family history is like an old favorite pen without ink.  It was able to communicate our thoughts from the past.  We still cling onto it, even though it no longer serves a purpose.

The past people we admire the most weren't historians or soothsayers, but the ones who defied circumstance and upbringing to do good at that moment.  History tells us that we should value the present pursuit of happiness.

Power

(Source)

I'm entering this weird "I must know everything about the Supreme Court" phase.  I know, we've all been through that.

When the Constitution first established it's three branches of government, the legislative branch was a given.  All the states wanted some control of their respective jurisdictions.  And the executive was easy because who wouldn't want the awesome quarter-back sized George Washington to lead?

The judicial branch was a shambles.  At the very beginning, the appropriations to power were still being debated.  It's no wonder the first supreme court had a convicts, drunks, and senile men.  But as time progressed, the judicial branch uses the premise that all men are created equal to rationalize how power is distributed.

Fast forward in history and I'm listening to the supreme court hearing on same sex marriage.  It's the first time I've listened to to supreme court hearing, and it struck me we how oddly casual it felt.  Granted their choice of wording and arguments are carefully crafted, but the justices and lawyers are laughing at certain point of their argument.

When I think about the premise of power in China, the concept of "天命", or Heaven's Mandate, vested power onto the Emperor.  Here's how a discussion of administering power might look like.

During 3:00- 5:00 of the clip gives you a few reconstructed views of the palace.  In 664 AD on the first day of the lunar calendar, a huge celebration was thrown for the first day the Tang Royalty would move into the palace.  This monstrosity makes the Forbidden City look like an outhouse.

At 14:00 to 16:00, the clip talks about the formal etiquette of court official to the emperor.  The long sticks they're holding are requests from the emperor.  Ivory for the highest officials, and bamboo for the lower.   Speaking out of turn, standing on the wrong position, or even holding the requests crookedly would penalize one month's salary!

But if we strip the pomp and circumstance, this dialogue on the Analects greatly expresses China's view on where power originates.

1. The Duke of Sheh informed Confucius, saying, "Among us here there are those who may be styled upright in their conduct. If their father have stolen a sheep, they will bear witness to the fact."

2. Confucius said, "Among us, in our part of the country, those who are upright are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this."

Legge XIII.18.

Confucius claims that one is upright when one protects the social order and recognizes the inherit power of the superior, regardless of the superior's conduct.   Social order comes at the cost of an unequal society.

It's a somewhat comforting to know that when we in America debate about the most pressing social issues of our time, we can allow our humanity to show. A reminder that power derives from our ability to rationalize the human condition at the present moment, not from some authoritarian narrative.

Please feel free to comment.  Also, how do I make a contact page on wordpress?

Love in a Fallen City 傾城之戀 Part 7

http://www.rain8.com/article/class10/1512.htm

by Eileen Chang 張愛玲

Translated by Yoyo  幽柚

Part 6

流蘇突然叫了一聲，掩住自己的眼睛，跌跌衝衝往樓上爬，往樓上爬……上了樓，到了她自己的屋子裡，她開了燈，撲在穿衣鏡上，端詳她自己。還好， 她還不怎麼老。她那一類的嬌小的身軀是最不顯老的一種，永遠是纖瘦的腰，孩子似的萌芽的乳。她的臉，從前是白得像瓷，現在由瓷變為玉——半透明的輕青的 玉。下頜起初是圓的，近年來漸漸尖了，越顯得那小小的臉，小得可愛。臉龐原是相當的窄，可是眉心很寬。一雙嬌滴滴，滴滴嬌的清水眼。陽台上，四爺又拉起胡 琴來了。依著那抑揚頓挫的調子，流蘇不由得偏著頭，微微飛了個眼風，做了個手勢。她對著鏡子這一表演，那胡琴聽上去便不是胡琴，而是笙簫琴瑟奏著幽沉的廟 堂舞曲。她向左走了幾步，又向右走了幾步，她走一步路都彷彿是合著失了傳的古代音樂的節拍。她忽然笑了——陰陰的，不懷好意的一笑，那音樂便戛然而止。外 面的胡琴繼續拉下去，可是胡琴訴說的是一些遼遠的忠孝節義的故事，不與她相干了。

Suddenly Liu Su shouted, covering her own eyes, rushing and tumbling down the stairs, down the stairs... up the stairs, to her own room.  She opened the lights, threw herself onto the dressing mirrors and closely looked at herself.  Not bad, she wasn't too old.  Her dainty body type mostly hides old age, a forever slim waist, child-like sprouting breasts.  Her face, in the past was white like marble, now marble turned to jade-- half clear young jade.  The beginning of her lower jaw was round, over the past few years it slowly sharpened, making her little face more prominent, small, and cute.  Here face was wide as it was small, but the space between her eyebrows were wide.  I pair of sweet, delicate, and clear eyeballs.  On the balcony, 4th Brother was playing the huqin.  With the rise and fall of the melody, Liu Su couldn't help but tilt her head, with a slight glance fluttering by, gestured with her hands.  She faced a mirror and started to perform.  That huqin wasn't listened to as a huqin, but a flute and qinse played with the deep hidden temple dance. She shuffled to the left, then shuffled to the right.  Each of her steps was like writing an ancient musical beat lost in translation.  She suddenly laughed, softly, a laugh of malicious intent, suddenly the music stopped.  The huqin outside continued to play, but the huqin was telling a distant story about didactic morals that no longer had anything to do with her.

這時候，四爺一個人躲在那裡拉胡琴，卻是因為他自己知道樓下的家庭會議中沒有他置喙的餘地。徐太太走了之後，白公館裡少不得將她的建議加以研究 和分析。徐太太打算替寶絡做媒說給一個姓范的，那人最近和徐先生在礦務上有相當密切的聯絡，徐太太對於他的家世一向就很熟悉，認為絕對可靠。那范柳原的父 親是一個著名的華僑，有不少的產業分佈在錫蘭馬來亞等處。范柳原今年三十三歲，父母雙亡。白家眾人質問徐太太，何以這樣的一個標準夫婿到現在還是獨身的， 徐太太告訴他們，范柳原從英國回來的時候，無數的太太們急扯白臉的把女兒送上門來，硬要□〔左"提手"右"亞"〕給他，勾心鬥角，各顯神通，大大熱鬧過一 番。這一捧卻把他捧壞了。從此他把女人看成他腳底下的泥。由於幼年時代的特殊環境，他的脾氣本來就有點怪僻。他父母的結合是非正式的。他父親有一次出洋考 察，在倫敦結識了一個華僑交際花，兩人秘密地結了婚。原籍的太太也有點風聞。因為懼怕太太的報復，那二夫人始終不敢回國。范柳原就是在英國長大的。他父親 故世以後，雖然大太太只有兩個女兒，范柳原要在法律上確定他的身份，卻有種種棘手之處。他孤身流落在英倫，很吃過一些苦，然後方才獲得了繼承權。至今范家 的族人還對他抱著仇視的態度，因此他總是住在上海的時候多，輕易不回廣州老宅裡去。他年紀輕輕的時候受了些刺激，漸漸的就往放浪的一條路上走，嫖賭吃著， 樣樣都來，獨獨無意於家庭幸福。

At the moment, 4th Brother was by himself stroking the huqin, actually because he knew that the family meeting downstairs had no extra room for his voice.  After Madam Xu left, the Baigong place couldn't avoid investigating and analyzing her opinion.  Madam Xu calculated being a go-between for Bao Luo and someone named Mr. Fan.  Recently that person and Mr. Xu had family relations at the mining company.  Madam Xu regarded their family very quickly with familiarity, believing absolutely they were reliable.  That Fan Liuyuan's father is a famous overseas Chinese person, having industry distributed throughout the Sri Lanka Malaysia region.  Fan Liuyuan is 33 this year, mother and father are deceased.  Everyone in the Bai family interrogated madam Xu, why this proper husband until now is still a bachelor.  Madam Xu told them during the time Fan Liuyuan returned from England, countless mothers jostled and forced their daughters to his door, determined (With the "raise" of the left hand, and a "sigh" with the right) to give away their daughters to him.  Locked in constant strife, all showing their magic touch, a period of big hubbub and excitement, all flattering him to death.  From then on he saw women as mud under his feet.  Due to the unusual circumstances of his childhood he had an eccentric temperament.  His parent's ties were unofficial.  His father once went abroad to investigate.  In London for the first time he meet an overseas Chinese social flower, and the two secretly married.  The birthplace of the mother was also hearsay.  Because she was afraid of the first wife's wrath, the second wife didn't dare return home, so Liu Fanyuan grew up in England.  After his father passed away, although the first wife only had two daughters, Liu Fanyuan  originally wanted to go to court to prove his identity, which became a thorny problem.  He alone stayed in London, and overcame some odds.  Afterwards suddenly he received his rights to inheritance.  To this day the Fan clan still have a grudge  towards him.  As a result the time he stayed long periods of time in Shanghai, easily knowing he could not go to his old hometown in Guangzhou.  When he was young he suffered some provocation, and gradually walked an unrestrained path, chasing women, gambling and eating.  He did everything, alone without thinking of his family's happiness.

白四奶奶就說："這樣的人，想必是喜歡存心挑剔。我們七妹是庶出的，只怕人家看不上眼。放著這麼一門好親戚，怪可惜了兒 的！"

4th wife Mrs. Bai said, "This kind of person enjoy being deliberately picky.  Our 7th Sister is common, I'm just afraid people will look down on her.  Letting go of such good family, no wonder the son is pitiable!"

三爺道："他自己也是庶出。"

3rd Brother said, "He himself is a commoner."

四奶奶道："可是人家多厲害呀，就憑我們七丫頭那股子傻勁兒，還指望拿得住他？倒是我那個大女孩子機靈些，別瞧她，人 小心不小，真識大體！"

4th Wife said, "But he's amazing!  But him with our dumb 7th Sister, think we can hold onto him?  If only my oldest daughter were more clever, don't even bother with her.  If other people aren't careful, they should know better!"

三奶奶道："那似乎年紀差得太多了。"

3rd Wife said, "Apparently the age difference is too big."

四奶奶道："喲！你不知道，越是那種人，越是喜歡年紀輕的。我那個大的若是不成，還有二的 呢。"

4th Wife, "Hey, don't you know?  With people more that way, they like them young!  If the biggest won't work, I still have a second!"

三奶奶笑道："你那個二的比姓范的小二十歲。"

3rd Wife laughed, "The second is younger than Mr. fan by 20 years."

四奶奶悄悄扯了她一把，正顏厲色地道："三嫂，你別那麼糊塗！護著七丫頭，她是白家的什麼人？隔了一 層娘肚皮，就差遠了。嫁了過去，誰也別想在她身上得點什麼好處！我這都是為了大家好。"

4th Wife quietly tugged her, with a serious tone said, "3rd madam, don't be silly!  Protecting 7th girl, who is she in the Bai household?  Separated by another mother's belly, the difference is huge.  After marrying her off, no one's even going to bother thinking for her benefit!  I'm doing this for everyone's good!"

然而白老太太一心一意只怕親戚議論她虧待了沒娘的七小姐，決定照原 來計劃，由徐太太擇日請客，把寶絡介紹給范柳原。

Yet Mother Bai was single-minded fearing the family discussion was unfairly treating the motherless 7th sister, deciding to follow the original plan, going with Madam Xu's date to invite the guest, and introducing Bao Luo to Mr. Fan Liuyuan.