Among the works I am currently reading is the Ai Jiang Nan Fu (Oi Gong-Naam Fu 哀江南賦) by Yu Hsin (Yu Seun 庾信 b. 513 CE d. 581 CE).
[哀 OI: sadness, mourning. 江 GONG: river. 南 NAAM: south. 江南 GONG-NAAM: the area south of the great river that bisects China. 賦 FU: give, endow. By extension a missive to the emperor regarding moral issues, and hence an ode, elegy, or rhapsody. 庾 YU: storehouse for grains. A surname. 信 SEUN: trust, believe. A missive. 庾信 YU SEUN: surname and given name of the author, in a format no longer quite so common, in that it is but a single character as given name. Literati families often gave their sons names that had a radical (character component) in common, later generations semi-copied that with two syllable names of which each generation would share a first syllable (the 'generation name'), and each subsequent generation then another first syllable. The second syllable (more or less the actual given name) was unique to the person.]
In 557 CE the Liang Dynasty (Leung Chiew 梁朝 502 CE to 557 CE) fell to the Chen, and Yu Hsin, Liang ambassador, was held captive in Chang An, (Cheung On長安) capital city of the Western Wei (Sai Wai Chiew 西魏朝 535 CE to 556 CE), for the rest of his life.
During that time three of his children were executed.
[Liang was succeeded by the Chen Dynasty (Chan Chiew 陳朝 557 CE to 589 CE) in a small part of the former domains. Western Wei (Sai Wai Chiew 西魏朝 535 CE - 556 CE) was taken over by the son and the nephew of warlord Yuwen Tai (Yuman Tai 宇文泰; also known as Heita (Hak Tsat 黑獺 'black otter'), a barbarian later posthumously honoured as founder of their dynasty) who had founded Western Wei with a Han proxy - in their takeover of the state they established Northern Chou (Pak Chou Chiew 北周朝 557 CE to 581 CE). All of these petty kingdoms which vied for power in the fragmented world of the fifth and sixth century China were superseded by the Sui Dynasty (Tsoei Chiew 隋朝 581 CE to 618 CE), which prepared the way for the glorious Tang Dynasty (Tong Chiew 唐朝 618 CE to 907 CE).]
It was during the latter period, after the fall of both Liang and Western Wei, that Yu Hsin composed the Lament for the South. Probably one of the greatest single pieces of pre-Tang poetry ever written, densely evocative of the lands from which the author was an exile, the society that had been destroyed, the cities laid waste. Heartrending.
Beautiful stuff.
I first read it back in the nineties. I had forgotten how good it is.
Around six hundred lines, mostly of six characters each.
At some point I will go into further detail, perhaps presenting passages and translations.
There are a number of literary allusions I don't get, but it shouldn't be too difficult to present a word-portrait of a poem-painting.
Yu Hsin was a typical man of his times - exceedingly literate, well-versed in the classics, a scholar made official. As such he was one of the best representatives of Chinese culture at that time, at any time.
The literati were expected to be men of probity and high ethics, besides being able writers, with a depth and breadth to their knowledge. As such they were examples to be emulated. Upright men, righteous men.
And, in Yu Hsin's case, also homosexual. But that isn't why we remember him.
NOTE: Mandarin and Cantonese pronunciations differ considerably, as you may have shperred from the two different styles above. This is not surprising - they are in fact two separate languages, though derived from the same source.
It was during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (Naam Pak Chiew 南北朝 420 CE to 589 CE) period – the very same era during which Yu Hsin lived – that the Chinese language started showing serious regional separatism, eventually leading to the many splintered tongues of the South. Cantonese is the closest to the language of Sui and Tang of all the Sinitic "dialects", but even Cantonese has deviated.
Evenso........
The poetry still rhymes in Cantonese. In Mandarin it sounds off.
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EDUCATED TASTES
After Thanksgiving (sometime next week), we get to stare Christmas in the face. That cold hard face, those haunted eyes. That incessant nast...
9 comments:
OFFTOPIC:
I'm curious if you've seen this article.
Tayere e-kvetcher,
No, I hadn't seen that article. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
"...almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun.""
Well, Western mothers are clearly nuts on that first issue – if you don’t stress it, they will not excel. And regarding the second, learning IS fun. If that idea needs fostering, it shows that the family environment is not conducive – if parents do not inculcate by example, the little shits will not follow in their book-steps.
"...rote repetition is underrated in America"
Which explains why many kids are bad at math, don't know history or geography, and can't spell.
On the other hand, the writer of that article is far too boastful about the successes of her approach, and doesn't admit that it leads to complete and utter neurosis in both parents and children. And I would put money on her kids having issues - one of which very well might be keeping as much of their emotional life secret from their parents as possible. Possibly out of hatred.
Another thing it leads to is suicidal tendencies.
If I show this article to Savage Kitten, it will induce vomiting. As well as anger, fury, scorn - some of it directed at me, for even thinking that this disturbing little essay merits serious consideration. The message of the author of that piece is not backed up by cited concrete data, and in many ways it reflects the biases and, if you will, sharp-edged bigotries of the writer. I would NOT want to know someone like that, and I would probably find their company and discourse offensive.
Still, it's fascinating. I'll mentally file it, and use it for perspective.
I have a lot of baggage with this issue as well, since most Soviet/Russian parents are probably a close second to the Chinese, but what I am curious about, is how prevalent is this attitude across the entire population of Chinese? I mean, in most societies I know, there are people that due mostly to social class don't value education. Are there no peasants in China, are there no proles who just get menial physical jobs, whose parents don't know or care enough that they practice violin 14 hours a day and drill their kids on Chebyshev polynomials?
i have only one thing to say here: the u.s.a. equals rome. and they won't see it coming either. and the "barbarians" which will destroy them are nothing to admire, either. shoyn.
Wow. I started reading that article in the belief that it was satirical, then realized that the woman obviously has zero sense of humor. It makes me even more grateful for my mother, and my father.
Tayere e-kvetcher,
What Ms. Chua is describing is the successful and competitive social layer, and more specifically the overseas Chinese, whether South-East Asian or American.
For various reasons, heading into peasant enterprise is not part of their programme, but rather the environment their ancestors escaped. And even so, immigrant peasant types fairly automatically veer towards forcing their children to excel academically. What's the point of leaving the mud if the very next generation dives right back in?
The parents may work ghastly low-paying jobs in Chinatown all their lives, and the entire family may live in a shit-hole apartment. But the kids will get a college education if it kills them. And throughout their childhood, they’ll be told how so-and-so’s offspring are better, far better. They’ll excel. No. Matter. What.
In China, not valuing education makes you less human. Among the overseas Chinese, it’s tantamount to going native and shoving a bone through your nose. Huge numbers of Javans, Philippinos, Malays, are actually descended from such failures.
And I should mention that Savage Kitten’s older siblings all were born while the family lived in two rooms of a residential hotel in Chinatown. She was the last child, born after they had bought real-estate. At that time her father was in his fifties, her mother mid forties. Forty years of hard work, scrimping, saving, never spending any more than was absolutely necessary. Rice and dried fish.
The family now owns several apartment buildings. They are a successful economic unit, by Chinatown standards.
Her siblings all have college degrees.
Savage Kitten, of course, will not inherit - she is a girl. So even with two degrees, she doesn’t rank.
In her case, pressure to excel was so that they would be able to finally get rid of her. Can't marry off a daughter if she doesn't prove what good breeding stock she comes from........ and her not being married is, in one sense, both a failure and a betrayal.
update
Fascinating material, have you re-read it since then?
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