Weiqi Gao's Observations - chinese tag

Happy Chinese New Year

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:24:29 GMT

Next next Sunday, February 14, 2010, will be the Chinese New Year. The year of Ox ends and the year of Tiger begins.

恭喜发财! 过年好!

This message comes to you early because I'm leaving for China in a few of hours. I will be visiting family in Tianjin for a couple of weeks.

I'll keep a tradition that I started two years ago going by offering a fresh English translation of a piece of ancient Chinese classics. This year's passage comes from the I Ching, which I have started studying last year (I've even quoted it several times.)

The content of the I Ching was developed over a period of over 2000 years, starting from 伏羲 (Fu Xi, mid 2800s BC) drawing the eight gua (trigrams), followed by 周文王 (King Wen of Zhou, 1099–1050 BC) arranging the 64 gua (hexagrams) and writing the decisions for each, and 周公 (Duke of Zhou, son of King Wen) writing the 387 decisions for each yao (line) of each gua, and culminating in 孔子 (Confucius, 551–479 BC) writing commentaries for all of the above. It's been another 2500 years since its completion.

I Ching (Qian, 15:1)

䷎

(King Wen's Decision)

Modesty: Progressing smoothly. The noble man attains his end.

(Confucius's commentary on the text)

Modesty, progressing smoothly,
the Tao of heaven aids down and shines bright,
the Tao of earth is humble and moves up.
The Tao of heaven decreases the full and benefits the modest,
the Tao of earth changes the full and flows the modest,
ghosts and spirits harm the full and bless the modest,
the Tao of man hates the full and loves the modest.
Modesty is noble and glorious, humble and cannot be exceeded, the end of the noble man.

(Confucius's commentary on the image)

The earth has mountains, modesty; The noble man hence decrease the many and increase the few, weigh things and gives evenly.

Happy Chinese New Year

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:37:12 GMT

Tomorrow, January 26, 2009, will be the Chinese New Year. The year of Rat ends and the year of Ox begins.

恭喜发财! 过年好!

The world entered 2009 with much uncertainty. Bad newses seem to dominate the airwaves and the internet. At a time like this, I would like to continue the tradition that I started last year and offer the following story from the ancient Chinese book 淮南子 (Huai-nan Tzu), by 刘安（Liu An, 179 BC–122 BC). Liu An was a grandson of 刘邦 (Liu Bang), the opening emperor of Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) from which the Han Chinese derived the name of their ethnic group. Liu An was not an emperor himself, and Prince Huai-nan was his title. He was credited as the inventor of Tofu.

Huai-nan Tzu (18:9)

Misfortune and fortune turns and engenders each other, the changes are hard to foresee.

Near Saishang was a man good at fortune telling. His horse for no reason was lost and went into the domain of the Huns. Everyone condoled it. The father said: "Why is this not a good fortune?"

Months passed, the horse came back leading another beautiful horse of the Huns. Everyone congratulated it. The father said: "Why is this not a calamity?"

Now the house had good horses, and the son liked to ride them. He fell and broke his thigh. Everyone condoled it. The father said: "Why is this not a good fortune?"

A year passed, the Huns invaded, entering Sai in big numbers. Able-bodied men drew their bows and fought. Of the Sai men, the dead numbered nine in ten. Only because the son was lame, the father and the son were spared.

Therefore good fortune turns into calamity, and calamity turns into good fortune. These changes cannot be enumerated. Their depth cannot be fathomed.

Notes

This story has been told and retold many times over the last 2148 years since it appeared in Huai-nan Tzu. In the west, it is popularly known as the story of the farmer and his lost horse.
As most other ancient Chinese stories, this one gave rise to an idiom: 塞翁失马，焉知非福 (Sai Weng Shi Ma, Yan Zhi Fei Fu—Sai man lost horse, why sure not fortune). It is still used today as a phrase of encouragement at moments of loss or misfortune.
In this translation, as in the one I did last year, I tried to preserve the original Chinese phrase order and style. This is harder than you think.
For hilarities' sake, here is the original and the translation by Google:
夫禍富之轉而相生，其變難見也。近塞上之人有善術者，馬無故亡而入胡。人皆吊之。其父曰：“此何遽不為福乎？”居數月，其馬將胡駿馬而歸。人皆賀之。其父曰：“此何遽不能為禍乎？”家富良馬，其子好騎，墮而折其髀。人皆吊之。其父曰：“此何遽不為福乎？”居一年，胡人大入塞，丁壯者引弦而戰，近塞之人，死者十九，此獨以跛之故，父子相保。故福之為禍，禍之為福，化不可極，深不可測也。

Fu-fu bad turn of Aioi, the change is also rarely seen. Near the Frontier of people have good technique, and get killed for no reason Hu Ma. Everybody's hanging. His father said: "This is not a lucky even何遽?" Home a few months, the horse will be Hu Horse and naturalization. He everyone. His father said: "This can not harm even何遽?" Andrew Ma Liang, the son of a good ride, falling and folding his thigh. Everybody's hanging. His father said: "This is not a lucky even何遽?" Home for one year, the National People's Congress into the Cypriot Hu, DING Zhuang, who cited war chord, Near Cypriot people, 19 of the deceased, this independence to a lame reason, the son of Paul . Fukunosuke harm it, bad as the happiness of not very much, is also unpredictable.

Happy Chinese New Year

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:46:49 GMT

Tomorrow, February 7, 2008, will be the Chinese New Year. The year of the Pig ends and the year of the Rat begins.

恭喜发财! 过年好!

Seeing that my past postings have risen to the top of the results page for the "happy chinese new year" search phrase on Google.cn, topping even the Wikipedia page on the same topic, I'm encouraged to keep the tradition going, even though I'm battling a bad cold right now.

I'll try something different this year. I will attempt an English translation of one of the classical Chinese stories.

Peach Blossom Village—Tao Yuanming (365-427)

In the reign of Taiyuan of the Jin dynasty (376-396), a man from Wuling made his living as a fisherman. One day he was following a stream and forgot how far he had gone. He came upon a grove of peach trees along the banks for hundreds of paces. There wasn't a different kind tree among them. The grass was fragrant and fresh and beautiful. The fallen peach blossom pedals were everywhere and colorful. The fisherman thought this strange and rowed his boat more to get to the end of the peach grove.

The end of the grove was the source of the stream. And there was a hill. The hill had a small passage way and lights were coming out of it. He got off his boat and entered the passage way. The beginning of the passage way was very narrow, enough just for one man. He walked a few tens of paces, the passage way suddenly widened. A flat land was in front of him with neatly situated houses, rich fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo bushes and the like. The south-north and east-west trails in the fields connected together. The sounds of chickens and dogs could be heard. People worked in the fields. Men and women were dressed just like the people outside. The elderly and the children were among them. They were happy and without a care. When they saw the fisherman, they were very surprised. They asked him where he was coming from, and the fisherman answered their questions one by one. They invited him to their houses, brought out liquor and slaughtered chicken for dinner to treat the fisherman. The villagers heard of this, they all came to ask questions. They said their ancestors came to this place with their wifes, children and villagers to flee the wars of the Qin dynasty (221 BC-206 BC). They never went out, hence they were isolated from outside people. They asked the fisherman what dynasty this was. They did not know about Han (206BC-220AD), let alone Wei (220-265) Jin (265-420). The fisherman told them all the details of the outside. They all were amazed and sighed. The rest people each invited him to their home and treated him with liquor and food. He stayed for several days. Then he bid goodbye. The villagers told him: "Don't bother telling the outside people about us."

He came out, got his boat, and went back along the way he came, leaving markers everywhere. He went to the jun (a jun has several counties) seat and told his story to the Tai-Shou (head of a jun). The Tai-Shou sent people to find this place with him. They followed his markers but eventually got lost and could not find the way.

Nanyang's Liu Ziji was a noble person. When he heard of this, he was happy and wanted to visit this place. But he couldn't make the trip. He died shortly after. After that no one else ever tried to find the place.