An introduction to my website
It's originally for an art program, positioned to blend the taste in aesthetic in China with that of the Occidental world, in its early stage as in conceptualization and definition. Since, on the one hand, the art itself is an expression of the subtlety highly cultural, interpretation of the manifestation in its notes as well as in the movements has to do with the ideology embeded in it, and that ideology is, undoubtedly as I believe, of Taoism. On the other hand, I assume that, in order to interpret it, one has to stand on the ground that offers one a more systematic approach, a higher standpoint, a wider perspective than what needs to be interpreted, and that, in making equivalence in bridging the two worlds, one has to find out in the West the counterpart of it, and that counterpart, I believe, is a Judeo-Christian faculty. And since the impact of Taoism on the Chinese people 每 in present-day China, for I, a Chinese native am in a constant world of it everywhere 每 is unfathomably profound, the Judeo-Christian also would have to be deeply rooted, for otherwise it simply won't work; one would feel merely helpless. So, in the development of the project, while it's transformed into the online service of bridging the two, I suppose, it's a potpourri of ideas through which part of the mystery of the Chinese civilization is so deciphered.
Alongside the cross-cultural effort above-mentioned, I've done, independently, some research work such as my Chinese studies that are available on my website.
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Pondering over the mentality of the Chinese people in general, that remains appallingly almost unchanged in the development in the material prosperity, that I have to call it primeval, shaped neatly and individually by truly age-old Taoism at large and prevailing, I focus on some evidence of the impact it leaves on the people, such as in the art, in the temperament, in life and in death, in the calmness as well as in the slackenedness, in the good-humoredness and in the lack of vigilance and self-discipline, 每 in everything, indeed.
There's, of my boldness, a little critique, "Is there demagoguery in John King Fairbank's The United States & China fourth edition?" It's a departure from a main voice in the field, I suppose, and I do not think that I shall agree with the "New Order" uttered prophetically by Mr. Fairbank upon which he put hope, although he had, strangely, an unarguable understanding of China.
Since I see in the changing world as in China far more characteristic of one Taoist mind-set than that of modernism: a self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression, I assume the necessity of conducting what is called and popular Contemporary Chinese Studies by way of examining that mindset, nevertheless: the tendons and the muscles and the resiliency. Through which I think it will be more fruitful, in the academic field in theory for example, in, say, the development assistance programmes at the mission in practice.
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One of China's thirty-three happy moments:
"I am sitting alone in an empty room
and I am getting annoyed at a mouse at the head of my bed, and
wondering what that little rustling sound signifies - what article
of mine he is biting or what volume of my books he is eating up.
While I am in this state of mind, and don't know what to do, I
suddenly see a ferocious-looking cat, wagging its tail and staring
with wide open eyes, as of it were looking at something. I hold my
breath and wait a moment, keeping perfectly still, and suddenly
with a little sound the mouse disappears like a whiff of wind. Ah,
is this not happiness?"
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※The
constant care of the Chinese artists is: Leave something for the
imagination!"
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If one
looks into mentality cords of one individual Chinese native, one
would be astonished to find out Taoist intellectual sinews in it,
throughout and so thorough, that the individual himself may not be
in conscience of it at all, that he 每 if he wants apparently
like an old man boy to prefer to the so-called modernism for example 每 would immediately tend to cut off the
identification of it...
Meanwhile, there is a voice from the world without,
concerning the present-day China: ※In the re-creation of an ancient civilisation as a
modern, forward-looking and dynamic economy,§ it seems as though
what is deeply rooted were uprooted and its foundation ever shakened
off.
In
Mao＊s time, was it ever made weakened? No; it was rather fortified:
for Mao himself was intensely featured by Taoism, as one can see
many a volatile of it from his poems. Furthermore, as I suppose it:
whilst the Chinese language character was changed and Confucianism
decidedly wiped out and Chinese Buddhism was tottered down, Taoism
stood out consequently more astonishingly than ever.
Chinese civilization, which may look not difficult
to get in, is actually very, very hard to get through. |
"Only
those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy about
can be busy about what the people of the world take
leisurely."
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CHANG CH'AO |
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"I
have seen a few examples of European Buddhists monks, who talk
altogether too loudly and too vehemently to conceal the tumultuous
passions in their souls. In particular, I have seen one who, in
his energetic denunciation of the West, is willing to call down
fire and brimstone from heaven to burn up all Europe. When
Europeans put on Buddhist gowns and try to look calm and passive,
they merely look ridiculous."
每
Lin Yutang (1895-1976)
"A
book about China, worthy to be about China, can be none of these
things. It must be frank and unashamed, because the real Chinese
have always been a proud people, proud enough to be frank and
unashamed of themselves and their ways. It must be wise and
penetrative in its understanding, for the Chinese have been above
all peoples wise and penetrative in their understanding of the
human heart. It must be humorous, because humor is an essential
part of Chinese nature, deep, mellow, kindly humor, founded upon
the tragic knowledge and acceptance of life. It must be expressed
in flowing, exact, beautiful words, because the Chinese have
always valued the beauty of the exact and the exquisite. None but
a Chinese could write such a book, and I had begun to think that
as yet even no Chinese could write it, because it seemed
impossible to find a modern English writing Chinese who was not so
detached from his own people as to be alien to them, and yet
detached enough to comprehend their meaning, the meaning of their
age and the meaning of their youth."
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Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)
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Being aroused by something in me, I set aside
my hat and, in preoccupation, I slipped into my look-and-look
activity. |
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※Sometimes I would squat by a broken, earthen
wall, or by a little bush on a raised flower-bed, with my eyes
on the same level as the flower-bed itself, and there I would
look and look, transforming in my mind the little plot of
grass into a forest and the ants and insect into wild
animals.§ | |
"The man on the buffalo"
typifies what is of China.
Laozi, the author
of Tao Te Ching: whose authorship
of it is widely accepted.
A scroll of Tao Te Ching, the first chapter.
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The above image, "The man on the buffalo", typifies what is of China, I
think. To interpret it , I wish to
have opened a Judeo-Christian eye to look into the very heart
of it that is the heart of one Taoist monk, for, as I assume
that, the former is typically of the West and the latter
China. |
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Lo, what＊s in his hand is not an Aaron＊s rod,
but a twig. And no guns in his belt, and he enjoys being
closer to the natural world: ※Why should I use sewed fig
leaves to cover, or garments of skins to cleanse? For I＊ve
never eaten of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of
the garden. Nor have I ever touched it.§ He might have said
so. Mounted not on a donkey but on a water buffalo, 每 its tail
haphazardly in swing as in patting its back, he is carefree 每
as much as it can be, and he's in his dreamland as in a
countryside, seeing miles and miles away a red light in the
sky, about the size of a big basket, bobbing up and down upon
the high sea, and the horizon reddened as if illuminated by a
great fire. He is not in awe of it and would not have a humble
image thereafter, for his world is already part of that world;
for ※being humble§ is what＊s on behalf of the earthly world,
not his. Nor has he to put the stiff-necked under his feet....
He is merely and simply carefree. He sees no need to triumph,
either; yet the whole scene is aromatic, thus triumphing the
most, and it is irresistible. This is an image of a perfect
Taoist monk in the spirit.
- Interpreting the Eden in September,
2009 |
Domineering the state of mind of every individual Chinese is
the Taoist spirit, throughout the whole history, till
present-day China. One shall bear in mind the fact that it
triumphs over Buddhism: when Buddhism came to China in Tang
Dynasty (618-907) its doctrine had to be translated into
Chinese, and it is the phraseology of Taoism that was used to
conduct the translation, that the religion originally from
India is henceforward called Chinese
Buddhism.
※In the re-creation of an ancient
civilisation as a modern, forward-looking and dynamic
economy,§ as it is so commented upon most recently, and when
one recalls the conceptualized term, ※the New Order,§
commented conclusively and prophetically by John King Fairbank
in 1948 in his famous the United States & China,
one shall not say that Taoism is not largely included in the
Order 每 a connotation that, like Confucianism and Chinese
Buddhism, Taoism is wiped out at large, likewise. Rather as
actually it is the core of it. While witnessing this changing
world China in the re-creation, I have witnessed ramifications
of Taoism everywhere, numerous indeed! From the most casual
and vernacular
utterance to the most carefully conceived presentation, there
isn＊t anything that is not imbued by and imbibed in
it.
Sometimes I wonder if one should think that
its impact upon China is deeper and wider than that of the
Christianity upon the Occidental world, for, taking the first
chapter of Tao Te Ching as an example, the word in it
is also unfathomable, meanwhile it is not
exclusive. |
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Chinese
puzzle: 1: an intricate or ingenious puzzle.
2: something intricate and obscure.
Chinese wall:
a strong barrier, especially: a serious obstacle to
understanding.
- From Merriam Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary (11th Edition) |
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Is there anything that dispels the mystique of the
Chinese puzzle and pulls down
the Chinese wall? For they are the
shackles that may have chained peoples not only in the world but
also outside of it.
Ideological involvement as an effort that
I've made:
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Heading for the Australian Pavilion Expo
2010 Shanghai
Ideas
Ideas that are used as some
reflection of the West
and are supposed to touch subtlety
of the Far-East
involve understanding of
both. |
My memoirs between the West and China.
Click on it to see it. |
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To build up a bridge between China
and the West, the key is, I assume, that one shall have a
Judeo-Christian eye sharp enough - in order to perceive and to
hold fast and, at the same time, cognition of the very heart of
a Taoist monk, for what has capstoned the civilization of the
West is the former and what has shaped the Chinese
civilization 每 throughout the whole history till the
present-day China 每 is the
latter. | | |
