Archive for February, 2010
Confucius’ Delight
Posted by Sylvia Xiaorui in Literature on February 18, 2010
Sometimes I wonder whether it is a curse for Chinese literati to have Zhuang Zi and Tang Yuanming sitting in the middle of the long river of history and culture drinking wine and talking about butterfly. And even if you can not choose your parents and ancestor, whether it is a collective choice of educated Chinese to marginalize Li Bai ‘s unconstrained and romantic romantic and Du Fu’s forever concerns about the country and people.
Drinking Songs
Posted by Sylvia Xiaorui in Literature on February 17, 2010
Drinking with a Hermit in the Mountain
Li Bai
Among mountain flowers blossom, the two of us drink together
One cup after another, over and over and over.
Now I’m drunk and feel sleepy, my friend you better go -
And tomorrow come back if you wish, bring your lute with you!
《山中与幽人对酌》
李白
两人对酌山花开，
一杯一杯复一杯。
我醉欲眠卿且去，
明朝有意抱琴来。
The Single Path
Posted by Sylvia Xiaorui in Literature on February 16, 2010
If Taoism is a dialectic between yin and yang, then Buddhism is into transcending duality, Red Pine argues.
The Taoist understanding of emptiness is the oneness with the Tao through the creation of an immortal spirit body, the Buddhist emptiness on the contrary is not to do anything instead of the permanent current in Taoism.
Reading Cold Mountain’s poem The Simple Path, I wonder whether he believed there was only one single path or there were single paths all leading to the Cold Mountain? Is Cold Mountain more taoist or buddhist, or it doesn’t matter when one reaches mindlessness? Read the rest of this entry »
Su Dongpo Rides The Wind
Posted by Sylvia Xiaorui in Literature on February 15, 2010
Buddha should be delighted to know that we had delicious Buddha’s Delight for dinner on the Chinese New Year’s day. More delightful is to read Lin Yutang’s The Gay Genius and Burton Watson’s Selected Poems of Su Tung-p’o after.
Su Dongpo must have read Liezi at very early age, which has been inscribed on his memory even since. Wind appears in Su Dongpo’s poems and essays in almost every other line, either as an admiration to an enlightened Taoist sage flying completely unconstrained in the wind, or being a tiny reed flower being helplessly blown about by the wind.
《元日》Spring Festival
Posted by Sylvia Xiaorui in Literature on February 13, 2010
《元日》
王安石
爆竹声中一岁除，
春风送暧入屠苏。
千门万户瞳瞳日，
总把新桃换旧符。
Spring Festival
Wang Anshi (Song Dynasty)
As the clattering crackers send away the old year,
A warm breeze of spring drifts into the cup of wine.
On a thousand doors, in the first rays of sunshine,
New pairs of tutelary deities in gaiety all appear.
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