Words of the Day

奸佞jian1ning4
crafty and fawning

為了便於認識三位奸佞小人，我把李定，舒亶和鄧綰的名字譯成容易拼的英文。

For the sake of convenience recognizing the names of three tricky lesser people, I took Li Ding, Shu Dan, and Deng Wan's name and translated them to easier English.

隱瞞yin3man2
conceal, hide

李定隱瞞母親的死訊，不願辭官，在儒家社會是大膽的冒犯。

卿qing1
A common surname

Words of the Day

甘gan1

willingly

庸yong1

lowly

強國的美夢破碎了，他自甘治庸才政府。

The dream of a powerful country was shattered.  He [Emperor Shenzong] willingly governed a lowly government.

陷入xian4ru4

fall into a trap

牢籠lao4long2

cage, shackles, bonds

犧牲xi1sheng1

sacrifice, scapegoat

般ban1

just like

他陷入自己野心的牢籠，成為美夢的犧牲品，夢境增長廣大，然後就像泡影般破滅了。

He [Wang Anshi] fell into the trap of his wild heart, becoming a sacrifice to his dream.  His dream kept increasing in size.  Afterwards it would pop like a bubble.

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.

100th Post! Consciousness and Art

Last time I mentioned how during the Northern Song Dynasty, a piece of art called "Tearful Citizens" convinced the emperor to stop Wang Anshi's extremist economic policy. I like to believe that when Emperor Shenzong first saw the painting "Tearful Citizen," he realized he was a fallible human being.  Instead of logic, an innate feeling for compassion for our fellow man shifted political dialogue to better society.

Can art still do that?  Can art make us more conscious of the human state?

Recently I spent 6 hours at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena.  I forced myself to slow down and spend at least 5 minutes on a piece of art that attracted me.  Specifically I'd like to talk about the biggest painting at the end of the 19th century hallway:  The Ragpicker by Edouard Manet.

(Source:  Norton Simon Museum)

As I sat on the bench, staring intently at this painting for half an hour, I noticed many people would barely glance at the piece.  Only one person bothered to appreciate standing for a minute before moving on. 

The caption next to the painting explained how Manet was trying to romanticize the freedom of the paper collector, unbounded from the birth of urbanization and modernity in Paris.  

At a glance our instinct is to dismiss the ragpicker as not worth noticing, but if we put ourselves in Manet's time, most paintings depicted opulence, joy and luxury.  Why spend so much time and effort on something so low-brow, so common to reality?

I first noticed the tall sturdy stick the old man carries in is left hand.  Though the hand is course and rough, the glow and roundness shows power in his hand.  While the left hand provides balance, the right grips his earnings, and opportunity to live for another day.   The ragpicker's hat tilts upward, and provides movement in his eyes.  He's looking upward for another chance towards opportunity.

It's easy to live with money.  Not only does the ragpicker have to live with the burden of carrying his garbage, what's heavier is the burden of poverty.  His shoulders are slack, and his legs bow outward not because of the weight of the refuse he carries.  Instead the brown sack he carries is empty.  His body is distorted because he carries the burden of poverty.

In many ways, aren't we just like the ragpicker?  Aren't we trying to sift through the junk and dirt of the human world to find value?  Manet piece show's that even with nothing, we still are the same human being. 

Words of the Day

頒ban1

to issue, to distribute

贈zeng4

to give as a present

虛xu1

empty, to empty, sky

銜xian2

rank

御史yu4shi3

A type of ancient government official

除了三省的御史，還有獨立的御史台，另外有各種機構供朝廷頒贈虛銜。

Aside from the ministers? of the three provinces, there are also independent minister? roles. Also there are many systems the royal palace uses to distribute rewards and strip ministers of rank. 

Words of the Day

This is how Su Dongpo labelled Wang Anshi:

【天命不足畏，眾言不足從，祖宗之法不足用】
"Heaven's mandate is not worth fearing, everyone's words are not worth following, the ancestor's ways are not worth using."


拗ao4
To disobey, to go against

Chapter Title:  拗相公
The Disobedient Minister

籠罩long3zhao4
to envelop, to shroud

我們必須了解此一政治鬥爭的本質，因為蘇東坡的一生都被黨爭所籠罩。

We must interpret the source of governance conflict because Su Dongpo's entire life was shrouded by partisan bickering.

堅毅jian1yi4
Persistence

我們都知道堅毅是優良的美德，但是要看一個人決定做什麼事而定。
We all know that perseverance is a good moral quality, but we must look at what the person is doing in order to persist.

標籤biao1jian3
label

Words of the Day: The Tearful Citizens Painting

End of the Chapter:

It was only when a brave small official name Zheng Xia painted the atrocities outside the court walls did the Northern Song emperor finally retract his economic reform.  

**Unfortunately, the original painting lost with time, but here is a a Ming interpretation of the painting of the 【流民圖】or "Tearful Citizens".  (Source)

拖垮tuo1kua1

to be tired out or collapse from burden

暴政bao4zheng4

tyranny

就算沒有異族侵略，暴政也能把國家拖垮。

This counts as not having foreign invasion.  Tyranny can collapse a country.