It bothered me all evening. There were three words I could not remember. Everything else was crystal clear, but those three my mind would not let me reconstruct. For two of them, even the pronunciation escaped.
"Something gong something cheung hau ting faa."
Across the river she still sings the 'back courtyard flower'. The writer of that plangent line was Du Mu, fleeing the destruction in the capitol during the middle of the Tang dynasty period. Chinese capitols have often been sacked by the barbarians -- the Western forces in Peking in 1900 are a good example -- but this was most likely part of factional fighting between the eunuchs and the scholar-officials.
THE SWEET DEW INCIDENT
Gānlù zhī biàn 甘露之變 ('gam lou ji pin')
In the eighth year of emperor Wenzong (唐文宗) several high-placed officials conspired to lessen the deleterous influence of the castrati at court. To that end, they assembled troops in secret, albeit with the complicity of the emperor himself, who was heartily sick and tired of the robbery and corruption of the palace roaches.
The plot went awry, and the no-testicle clique took revenge.
The families of the conspirators were wiped out.
Thousands died. And the empire stumbled.
All in all, very similar to American politics, except for the heads on spikes and the slaughter of innocents.
You can read about it on Wikipedia: GAN LU.
Du Mu (杜牧 'dou muk'), who was thirty two years old at the time, was on his way to a posting at Luo Yang (洛陽 'lok yeung') when matters came to a head. Having left Chang'an (長安 'cheung on') several months previously, he was not implicated, but undoubtedly many of his colleagues were, and he would have been consumed with increasing despair as more came out of the persecution and slaughter. Particularly painful must have been the death of friends in the purge.
While on the road, he penned a poem. There is a note of defiant despondency in his lines.
NIGHT MOORING AT QIN HUAI
Hù Qínhuái 滬秦淮 ('wu chuenwaai')
The moon embraces the cold water, the smoke enfolds the sand, I've tied up my boat for the night near a wine shop. Across the water a singing girl does not know the sorrow of a destroyed nation, she still gaily sings the song of the back courtyard flower.
Yue lung hon seui yin lung saa, ye bok chuen waai kan jau kaa,
seung nui pat ji mong kwok han, gaak gong yau cheung hau ting faa.
月籠寒水煙籠沙, 夜泊秦淮近酒家,
商女不知亡國恨, 隔江猶唱後庭花。
[Literal translation: moon basket cold water smoke basket sand, night moor Qin Huai near wine family; commercial woman not know lost country sad, across river yet sing rear court flower.]
No, the term mercantile female does not necessarily imply a working girl; she could just be the daughter of a nearby family employed to cheer up patrons with her dulcet voice. The use of 'basket' (籠 'lung') as a verb to indicate 'embrace, enfold, contain' is not particularly a stretch, though not common then, and somewhat unknown now. The word for 'across' (隔 'gaak') entirely escaped me, as did the word for 'yet' (猶 'yau'), although both of these characters are fairly common.
Something river, something sing.
It was a mental blip.
Now, if you were to ask me about the song Back Courtyard Flower (後庭花 'hau ting faa'), I will draw a complete blank. But so would everyone else. The song has not come down to us, merely the title. It was a popular ditty, gay and cheerful, and considering the horrifying events at the time, highly inappropriate.
I rather wish the song had survived.
It must have been a goody.
I was enjoying some pastry and two cups of HongKong-style milk-tea at a bakery in Chinatown yesterday evening, when the word 秦 (Qín; 'chuen') sparked the memory train. It's the name of the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 'chuen chiu', 221 bce–206 bce), whom I mentioned briefly in yesterday's post, but it's also toponymic. The Qin and Huai rivers join near the southern capitol (南京 Nanjing; 'naam king'), and there are Qin mountains (秦嶺 Qinling; 'chuen leng') in the province west of the passes (陝西 Shaanxi; 'sim sai'). The character originally meant millet. Two hands grasp a stalk (禾).
I had made mention of the tyrant of Qin as successor to Zhou.
Merely in passing, as I waffled about other things.
But the name, initially, had escaped me.
In remembering the character, Du Fu's poem also came back.
Well, except for the something river something sings line.
For the next several hours I could not get the verse with holes out of my head. I was smoking my pipe, you see, and therefore nowhere near my bookshelves or the internet and couldn't look it up.
Really, most businesses would do well to have dictionaries and reference books on hand for their patrons. The world would be a far better place if they did.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Showing posts with label 中文. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 中文. Show all posts
Friday, January 03, 2014
Thursday, January 02, 2014
LEARNING CHINESE: A SHORT LIST OF ESSENTIAL ADDENDA
A friend, whose youth makes him subject to odd fancies -- he grew up in the age of video games, and consequently has trouble with depth and breadth -- has asked what the most important things are when learning Chinese. He wishes to study Mandarin so that he can go live in Mainland China for a few years and make lots of money.
An admirable ambition! To get rich is glorious!
He'll go far. And he will wear nice suits.
Oh fortunate bourgeois puppy!
He's already taking classes, but hopes that there is a shortcut. Mandarin Chinese is incredibly hard, he says, and nearly no one understands him when he speaks.
致富光榮
JI FU GWONG WING
[To get rich is glorious - Deng Xiao-ping]
The reason why he is unintelligible is largely due to him trying to say things which only hold together in a middle-class suburban American context. They don't compute in the Chinese world, at least not the way he expects them to.
Imagine talking cuisine to a Frenchman, when your entire culinary vocabulary consists of grilled hot dogs and chili-cheese fries.
Understandably, the poor frog will look at you funny.
What, he will think, is this running dog saying?
Are those even words in a human tongue?
Ce sont des canines réchauffés?
Et les copeaux garnis?
Ne calcule pas!
Mais non!
Obviously it's even worse when speaking to a Chinese person, and pretending to be at least half-way literate and educated in your own language, when all the concepts that you know, and every book you have ever read, are unlinked and without reference in Chinese.
At the very least, watch some movies from Hong Kong. These will start to impart a feel for the Chinese social environment. Yes, not the same as what a mainlander would know. But it is close enough that opacity will acquire translucence.
And read up.
A lot.
四書五經與其他
SEI SYU NG GING, YIU KEI TAA
[Four writings, five warps, etcetera]
Necessary reading material will include a few in-depth books written by anthropologists and serious China scholars. No need to study these in detail, though, as even a light browse-through will leave you with as many off-kilter impressions as an in-depth cramming of the material would.
The point is to place a range of data in your mind, which you will use as building blocks for further thought.
A background in Chinese history is also essential.
Start with summer, end with today.
From the Hsia dynasty (夏朝 xia chao / 'haa chiu') down to the present.
夏
The Xia dynasty (夏朝 xia chao, 'haa chiu') reigned from 2070 bce to 1600 bce. During this period, the country went from tribal warfare and mythic kings to a centrally organized state, with many of the elements that we now recognize as Chinese: a hierarchical administrative structure, state cults centered around charismatic ancestors, plus bronzes, imperial tombs, and an ideographic writing system.
Much remains unknown or unsubstantiated about this era.
商
Xia (夏 'summer') was succeeded by Shang (商朝 Shang chao / 'seung chiu'), whose name means 'commerce'. They are also called 殷 (yin / 'yan'), which means 'flourishing, abundant; serious; dark red'. From 1600 bce to 1046 bce. Many more bronzes, and the great expansion from the north to the Yangtze river zone. Standardized weights and measures, script reform, more state cults. Shang fell apart when the last kings of that dynasty gave themselves over to degenerate behaviours.
The excess of which is legendary.
And not to be emulated.
周
When the 'Martial King' (周武王 zhou wu wang / 'jau mou wong') of the state of Wu (吳國 wu guo / 'ng gwok') led his troops across the Yellow River (黄河 huang he / 'wong ho') and defeated the Shang army at the 'battle of the cattle fields' (牧野之戰 mu ye zi zhan / 'muk ye ji jin') in 1046 bce, Shang ended, and the great classic age began. The last king of Shang covered himself with jewels, and committed suicide by self-immolation at the Deer Terrace (鹿台 lu tai / 'luk toi').
[Note that Zhou (周 'jau'; circuit, circumference, epoch, complete) was not the original surname. Zhou Wu Wang's clan was Ji (姬 'gei'; concubine, feminine entertainer) and his personal nomen was Fa (發 'faat'; issue, emit). The Ji name commemorates an ancestor descended from a consort to a legendary king.]
Wu Wang ('martial king') installed his father (the 'Literary King', 周文王 zhou wen wang / 'jau man wong') as monarch over the Zhou empire.
The Zhou dynasty lasted till from 1046 bce till 256 bce. During that time central authority fragmented, feudal lords became monarchs, various smaller states which still claimed allegiance to the dynasty waged war and slaughtered each other's tax bases, and bronze casting reached an apex unparalleled. Philosophy and literature were greatly developed -- this is the period of the 'Hundred Schools of Thought' (諸子百家 zhu zi bai jai / 'jyu ji baak gaa') -- and theories of governance and social order which continue to influence Chinese (both the people and their language) to this very day were born.
偏偏之足跡
PIN-PIN JI JUK-JIK
[Wandering footprints]
At this point, you should take a minor side track and read up a bit on Chinese literature and philosophy. You've acquired a slight grounding in the web and woof, now emerging patterns must be recognized.
The fundament of all Chinese thinking can be found in the four books and five classics (四書五經與其他 si shu wu jing / 'sei syu ng ging'), which are the core texts of Confucianism (儒教 ru jiao / 'yiu gaau'). Indeed, there is vastly more than that. But without an awareness of the 'teachings of the scholars' (儒教 "scholarly teachings"), any understanding of what everyone spent the next two millennia interacting with, or reacting against, is nearly impossible. The bureaucrats upheld orthodoxy, the literati commented on it and reformulated it, often heretically, and the rebels, rioters, and brigands that populate the pages of Chinese history borrowed and bastardized its ideas, deliberately mis-understood much, and used it when advantageous.
All subsequent literature and administration utilizes the thought processes and concepts formed by the material.
Even the simplest daily conversation will reflect this basis.
Which is what, exactly? What is this material?
FOUR WRITINGS
These are the core texts: Great Learning (大學), the Doctrine of the Median (中庸), Analects (論語), and the lessons of Mencius ( 孟子). In order, simplistically put: a fairly succinct outline for Chinese political and moral thought, how to maintain a balanced and equitable social structure, philosophical and moral lectures by Confucius and his students, and Mencius' discussions with various rulers who sought his advice.
[Great Learning: 大學 da xue, 'daai hok'; big study. Doctrine of the Mean: 中庸 zhong yong, 'jung yung'; central ordinary. Analects: 論語 lun yu, 'luen yue'; discourse and speaking. Mencius: 孟子 meng zi, 'maang ji'; the eminent master (372 bce to 289 bce), a scholar from Zou (鄒 'jau').]
There are a number of excellent translations, with commentary, on these four books. It is worthwhile to read them, but at the very least gaining an overview is fairly essential.
FIVE BOUND VOLUMES
Poetry, Documents, Rites, Changes, plus the Historical Record of the State of Lu (魯國 'lou kwok') which is entitled 'Spring and Autumn'. In short: three hundred and five ancient songs, documents and addresses by Zhou rulers, court rituals and ceremonies, a strange divination system, and a narrative.
[Classic of Poetry: 詩經 shi jing, 'si ging'; verses volume. Book of Documents: 尚書 shang shu, 'seung syu'; common writing. Book of Rites: 禮記 li ji, 'lai gei'; ritual records. I Ching (Book of Changes): 易經 yi jing, 'yi ging'; change volume. Spring and Autumn Annals: 春秋 chun qiu, 'chuen chau'.]
Some translations are crap, others are better. Avoid anything which paints the I Ching as some great spiritual masterpiece; it is more or less on the same plane as tarot cards. Again, at the very least get an overview of all of these.
There are actually more works than just the classic list (four and five), and often the number cited is thirteen.
The additional books are: Rites of Zhou 周禮 ('jau lei'); Ceremonies 儀禮 ('yi lei'); Zuo's Annals 左傳 ('jor chuen'); Gong-Yang's Annals 公羊傳 ('gung yeung chuen'); Gu-Liang's Annals 穀梁傳 ('guk leung chuen'); the Erya 爾雅 ('yi ngaa'); and the Classic of Filial Piety 孝經 ('haau ging'). The last one mentioned is virtually unreadable, and never the less extremely important; its contents encapsulate the entire welt-anschauung.
Most of these books were written during the twilight years of Zhou, standardized and edited in the centuries since, and finally 'canonized' nearly a millennium later.
There would have been many more, except that the tyrant of Qin (秦始皇帝 qin shi huang ti / 'chuen chi wong dai') destroyed the libraries and killed the literati (焚書坑儒 fen shu keng ru / 'fan shyu hang yiu'; "burn documents, bury scholars").
There are several important words you absolutely must add to your vocabulary and include in your mental toolbox, these being the key characteristics that the gentleman embodies, and the lesser man lacks:
仁 rén, 'yan': humaneness. 義 yì, 'yi': righteousness. 禮 lǐ, 'lai': propriety. 智 zhì, 'ji': wisdom. 信 xìn, 'seun': trustworthiness. 廉 lián, 'lim': incorruptibility. 誠 chéng, 'sing': sincerity. 忠 zhōng, 'jung': loyalty. 孝 xiào, 'haau': filial piety. 節 jié, 'jit': integrity. 恥 chǐ, 'chi': shame. 恕 shù, 'shue': lenience. 慧 huì, 'wai': intelligence. 勇 yǒng, 'yung': valour. 溫 wēn, 'wan': mildness. 良 liáng, 'leung': goodness. 恭 gong, 'gung': reverence. 儉 jiǎn, 'gim': thrift. 讓 rang, 'yeung': modesty. 正 zhèng, 'jing': correct, proper. 道 dào, 'dou': way, path, manner, direction. 德 dé, 'tak': virtue.
Note: the accented transcription is the Mandarin pronunciation, the second transcription is Cantonese.
北有長城、南有靈渠。
THE ENTIRE SHEBANG
[The North has the long wall, the South has a marvelous canal.]
The succession of dynasties and reigns since the first emperor of Qin re-unified China (at that point bigger and better than ever before) and destroyed as much of the Zhou heritage as he could -- while building the Great Wall (長城 zhang cheng / 'cheung sing') and causing the death of millions of his subjects in that project -- are somewhat less important than Xia, Shang, and Zhou to your understanding.
Han Dynasty 漢 ('hon') 206 bce to 220 ce. Three Kingdoms Period 三國 ('saam kwok') 220–265 ce. Western Jin Dynasty 西晉 ('sei juen') 265–317 ce. Eastern Jin Dynasty 東晉 ('tung juen') 317–420 ce. Southern and Northern Dynasties, Nán Běi Cháo 南北朝 ('naam pak chiu') 386-589 ce. Sui Dynasty 隋 ('cheui') 581–618 ce. Tang Dynasty 唐 ('tong') 618–907 ce. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 ('ng toi sap kwok') 907–960 ce. Northern Song Dynasty, Běi Sòng 北宋 ('paak sung') 960–1127 ce. Southern Song Dynasty, Nán Sòng 南宋 ('naam sung') 1127–1279 ce. Liao Dynasty 遼 ('liu') 907–1125 ce. Jin Dynasty (Khitans) 金 ('gam') 1115–1234 ce. Western Xia (heathenish barbarians) 西夏 ('sei haa') 1038–1227 ce. Yuan Dynasty (Mongol psychopaths) 元 ('yuen') 1271–1368 ce. Ming Dynasty 明 ('ming') 1368–1662 ce. Qing Dynasty (Manchus) 清 ('ching') 1636–1911 ce.
If, at this point, you are getting the idea that there is a lot of seemingly extraneous data to absorb, you are right; those who do not know the past cannot repeat it.
In fact, as you progress, you should be mentally composing more and more lists: the dynasties; the important rulers, the rebels, the scholars, the conniving politicians, the great and horrific battles that killed millions, the poets whose words are immortal, the artistic developments, the various historic capital cities, the centres of commerce and culture, the regions and provinces, the rivers that keep overflowing........
An endless catalogue.
Delve into the post-classical literature too.
分久必合、合久必分。
WHAT IS SEPERATED COMES TOGETHER, WHAT IS WHOLE WILL FALL APART。
The Water Margin (水滸傳 shui hu zhuan / 'seui wu chuen') concerns a band of outlaws who hid out in the moorlands surrounding Mount Liang (梁山 liang shan / 'leung saan'), in resistance to corrupt officials and defiance against a rotten social order, somewhat like Robin Hood and his men.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義 san guo yan yi / 'saam kwok yin yi') tells the tale of three great generals (Cao Cao 曹操 'chou chou'; Lui Bei 劉備 'lau bei'; and Sun Quan 孫權 'suen kuen') whose efforts at the fall of the Han regime (漢朝 han chao / 'hon chiu') ended up creating three regional dynasties (魏 wei / 'ngai'; 蜀漢 shu han / 'suk hon'; 東吳 dong wu / 'tung ng'), dividing China. Chinese ideas of chivalry, gallantry, heroism and grand strategems, are all found in these two books.
The young should NOT read the Water Margin, lest they go off the derech, and the old must abjure the Three Kingdoms, so that they aren't tempted to conspire.
少不讀水滸, 老不讀三國 'siu pat dok seui wu, lou pat dok saam gwok'.
The Scholars (儒林外史 ru lin wai shi / 'yiu lam ngo si') tells of several literati whose lives interconnect, lampooning some and holding others up as examples. Not really a roman à clef, but never the less drawn on the author's own social world. It is very entertaining in parts, and dangerous too, especially for the established order.
There are other books, which you will discover as you go along. Many of them are famous, and sources of set phrases, twists of thought, sayings, proverbs, and pithy quotes. Your command of Chinese depends on these.
詩
Don't overlook the poetry of the Tang era either.
It's marvelous stuff.
Evocative.
And above all, learn how to swear. Foulness is just as important as all the rest, and what you overhear is often not the printed word or the elegant saying, though quite as well expressed. All within the four seas cuss, the Chinese often more than most. It adds a lyric quality to their speech, and sharpens sarcasm, cynicism, irony, and despair.
Vitriol is the life blood of a language.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
An admirable ambition! To get rich is glorious!
He'll go far. And he will wear nice suits.
Oh fortunate bourgeois puppy!
He's already taking classes, but hopes that there is a shortcut. Mandarin Chinese is incredibly hard, he says, and nearly no one understands him when he speaks.
致富光榮
JI FU GWONG WING
[To get rich is glorious - Deng Xiao-ping]
The reason why he is unintelligible is largely due to him trying to say things which only hold together in a middle-class suburban American context. They don't compute in the Chinese world, at least not the way he expects them to.
Imagine talking cuisine to a Frenchman, when your entire culinary vocabulary consists of grilled hot dogs and chili-cheese fries.
Understandably, the poor frog will look at you funny.
What, he will think, is this running dog saying?
Are those even words in a human tongue?
Ce sont des canines réchauffés?
Et les copeaux garnis?
Ne calcule pas!
Mais non!
Obviously it's even worse when speaking to a Chinese person, and pretending to be at least half-way literate and educated in your own language, when all the concepts that you know, and every book you have ever read, are unlinked and without reference in Chinese.
At the very least, watch some movies from Hong Kong. These will start to impart a feel for the Chinese social environment. Yes, not the same as what a mainlander would know. But it is close enough that opacity will acquire translucence.
And read up.
A lot.
四書五經與其他
SEI SYU NG GING, YIU KEI TAA
[Four writings, five warps, etcetera]
Necessary reading material will include a few in-depth books written by anthropologists and serious China scholars. No need to study these in detail, though, as even a light browse-through will leave you with as many off-kilter impressions as an in-depth cramming of the material would.
The point is to place a range of data in your mind, which you will use as building blocks for further thought.
A background in Chinese history is also essential.
Start with summer, end with today.
From the Hsia dynasty (夏朝 xia chao / 'haa chiu') down to the present.
夏
The Xia dynasty (夏朝 xia chao, 'haa chiu') reigned from 2070 bce to 1600 bce. During this period, the country went from tribal warfare and mythic kings to a centrally organized state, with many of the elements that we now recognize as Chinese: a hierarchical administrative structure, state cults centered around charismatic ancestors, plus bronzes, imperial tombs, and an ideographic writing system.
Much remains unknown or unsubstantiated about this era.
商
Xia (夏 'summer') was succeeded by Shang (商朝 Shang chao / 'seung chiu'), whose name means 'commerce'. They are also called 殷 (yin / 'yan'), which means 'flourishing, abundant; serious; dark red'. From 1600 bce to 1046 bce. Many more bronzes, and the great expansion from the north to the Yangtze river zone. Standardized weights and measures, script reform, more state cults. Shang fell apart when the last kings of that dynasty gave themselves over to degenerate behaviours.
The excess of which is legendary.
And not to be emulated.
周
When the 'Martial King' (周武王 zhou wu wang / 'jau mou wong') of the state of Wu (吳國 wu guo / 'ng gwok') led his troops across the Yellow River (黄河 huang he / 'wong ho') and defeated the Shang army at the 'battle of the cattle fields' (牧野之戰 mu ye zi zhan / 'muk ye ji jin') in 1046 bce, Shang ended, and the great classic age began. The last king of Shang covered himself with jewels, and committed suicide by self-immolation at the Deer Terrace (鹿台 lu tai / 'luk toi').
[Note that Zhou (周 'jau'; circuit, circumference, epoch, complete) was not the original surname. Zhou Wu Wang's clan was Ji (姬 'gei'; concubine, feminine entertainer) and his personal nomen was Fa (發 'faat'; issue, emit). The Ji name commemorates an ancestor descended from a consort to a legendary king.]
Wu Wang ('martial king') installed his father (the 'Literary King', 周文王 zhou wen wang / 'jau man wong') as monarch over the Zhou empire.
The Zhou dynasty lasted till from 1046 bce till 256 bce. During that time central authority fragmented, feudal lords became monarchs, various smaller states which still claimed allegiance to the dynasty waged war and slaughtered each other's tax bases, and bronze casting reached an apex unparalleled. Philosophy and literature were greatly developed -- this is the period of the 'Hundred Schools of Thought' (諸子百家 zhu zi bai jai / 'jyu ji baak gaa') -- and theories of governance and social order which continue to influence Chinese (both the people and their language) to this very day were born.
偏偏之足跡
PIN-PIN JI JUK-JIK
[Wandering footprints]
At this point, you should take a minor side track and read up a bit on Chinese literature and philosophy. You've acquired a slight grounding in the web and woof, now emerging patterns must be recognized.
The fundament of all Chinese thinking can be found in the four books and five classics (四書五經與其他 si shu wu jing / 'sei syu ng ging'), which are the core texts of Confucianism (儒教 ru jiao / 'yiu gaau'). Indeed, there is vastly more than that. But without an awareness of the 'teachings of the scholars' (儒教 "scholarly teachings"), any understanding of what everyone spent the next two millennia interacting with, or reacting against, is nearly impossible. The bureaucrats upheld orthodoxy, the literati commented on it and reformulated it, often heretically, and the rebels, rioters, and brigands that populate the pages of Chinese history borrowed and bastardized its ideas, deliberately mis-understood much, and used it when advantageous.
All subsequent literature and administration utilizes the thought processes and concepts formed by the material.
Even the simplest daily conversation will reflect this basis.
Which is what, exactly? What is this material?
FOUR WRITINGS
These are the core texts: Great Learning (大學), the Doctrine of the Median (中庸), Analects (論語), and the lessons of Mencius ( 孟子). In order, simplistically put: a fairly succinct outline for Chinese political and moral thought, how to maintain a balanced and equitable social structure, philosophical and moral lectures by Confucius and his students, and Mencius' discussions with various rulers who sought his advice.
[Great Learning: 大學 da xue, 'daai hok'; big study. Doctrine of the Mean: 中庸 zhong yong, 'jung yung'; central ordinary. Analects: 論語 lun yu, 'luen yue'; discourse and speaking. Mencius: 孟子 meng zi, 'maang ji'; the eminent master (372 bce to 289 bce), a scholar from Zou (鄒 'jau').]
There are a number of excellent translations, with commentary, on these four books. It is worthwhile to read them, but at the very least gaining an overview is fairly essential.
FIVE BOUND VOLUMES
Poetry, Documents, Rites, Changes, plus the Historical Record of the State of Lu (魯國 'lou kwok') which is entitled 'Spring and Autumn'. In short: three hundred and five ancient songs, documents and addresses by Zhou rulers, court rituals and ceremonies, a strange divination system, and a narrative.
[Classic of Poetry: 詩經 shi jing, 'si ging'; verses volume. Book of Documents: 尚書 shang shu, 'seung syu'; common writing. Book of Rites: 禮記 li ji, 'lai gei'; ritual records. I Ching (Book of Changes): 易經 yi jing, 'yi ging'; change volume. Spring and Autumn Annals: 春秋 chun qiu, 'chuen chau'.]
Some translations are crap, others are better. Avoid anything which paints the I Ching as some great spiritual masterpiece; it is more or less on the same plane as tarot cards. Again, at the very least get an overview of all of these.
There are actually more works than just the classic list (four and five), and often the number cited is thirteen.
The additional books are: Rites of Zhou 周禮 ('jau lei'); Ceremonies 儀禮 ('yi lei'); Zuo's Annals 左傳 ('jor chuen'); Gong-Yang's Annals 公羊傳 ('gung yeung chuen'); Gu-Liang's Annals 穀梁傳 ('guk leung chuen'); the Erya 爾雅 ('yi ngaa'); and the Classic of Filial Piety 孝經 ('haau ging'). The last one mentioned is virtually unreadable, and never the less extremely important; its contents encapsulate the entire welt-anschauung.
Most of these books were written during the twilight years of Zhou, standardized and edited in the centuries since, and finally 'canonized' nearly a millennium later.
There would have been many more, except that the tyrant of Qin (秦始皇帝 qin shi huang ti / 'chuen chi wong dai') destroyed the libraries and killed the literati (焚書坑儒 fen shu keng ru / 'fan shyu hang yiu'; "burn documents, bury scholars").
There are several important words you absolutely must add to your vocabulary and include in your mental toolbox, these being the key characteristics that the gentleman embodies, and the lesser man lacks:
仁 rén, 'yan': humaneness. 義 yì, 'yi': righteousness. 禮 lǐ, 'lai': propriety. 智 zhì, 'ji': wisdom. 信 xìn, 'seun': trustworthiness. 廉 lián, 'lim': incorruptibility. 誠 chéng, 'sing': sincerity. 忠 zhōng, 'jung': loyalty. 孝 xiào, 'haau': filial piety. 節 jié, 'jit': integrity. 恥 chǐ, 'chi': shame. 恕 shù, 'shue': lenience. 慧 huì, 'wai': intelligence. 勇 yǒng, 'yung': valour. 溫 wēn, 'wan': mildness. 良 liáng, 'leung': goodness. 恭 gong, 'gung': reverence. 儉 jiǎn, 'gim': thrift. 讓 rang, 'yeung': modesty. 正 zhèng, 'jing': correct, proper. 道 dào, 'dou': way, path, manner, direction. 德 dé, 'tak': virtue.
Note: the accented transcription is the Mandarin pronunciation, the second transcription is Cantonese.
北有長城、南有靈渠。
THE ENTIRE SHEBANG
[The North has the long wall, the South has a marvelous canal.]
The succession of dynasties and reigns since the first emperor of Qin re-unified China (at that point bigger and better than ever before) and destroyed as much of the Zhou heritage as he could -- while building the Great Wall (長城 zhang cheng / 'cheung sing') and causing the death of millions of his subjects in that project -- are somewhat less important than Xia, Shang, and Zhou to your understanding.
Han Dynasty 漢 ('hon') 206 bce to 220 ce. Three Kingdoms Period 三國 ('saam kwok') 220–265 ce. Western Jin Dynasty 西晉 ('sei juen') 265–317 ce. Eastern Jin Dynasty 東晉 ('tung juen') 317–420 ce. Southern and Northern Dynasties, Nán Běi Cháo 南北朝 ('naam pak chiu') 386-589 ce. Sui Dynasty 隋 ('cheui') 581–618 ce. Tang Dynasty 唐 ('tong') 618–907 ce. Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 五代十國 ('ng toi sap kwok') 907–960 ce. Northern Song Dynasty, Běi Sòng 北宋 ('paak sung') 960–1127 ce. Southern Song Dynasty, Nán Sòng 南宋 ('naam sung') 1127–1279 ce. Liao Dynasty 遼 ('liu') 907–1125 ce. Jin Dynasty (Khitans) 金 ('gam') 1115–1234 ce. Western Xia (heathenish barbarians) 西夏 ('sei haa') 1038–1227 ce. Yuan Dynasty (Mongol psychopaths) 元 ('yuen') 1271–1368 ce. Ming Dynasty 明 ('ming') 1368–1662 ce. Qing Dynasty (Manchus) 清 ('ching') 1636–1911 ce.
If, at this point, you are getting the idea that there is a lot of seemingly extraneous data to absorb, you are right; those who do not know the past cannot repeat it.
In fact, as you progress, you should be mentally composing more and more lists: the dynasties; the important rulers, the rebels, the scholars, the conniving politicians, the great and horrific battles that killed millions, the poets whose words are immortal, the artistic developments, the various historic capital cities, the centres of commerce and culture, the regions and provinces, the rivers that keep overflowing........
An endless catalogue.
Delve into the post-classical literature too.
分久必合、合久必分。
WHAT IS SEPERATED COMES TOGETHER, WHAT IS WHOLE WILL FALL APART。
The Water Margin (水滸傳 shui hu zhuan / 'seui wu chuen') concerns a band of outlaws who hid out in the moorlands surrounding Mount Liang (梁山 liang shan / 'leung saan'), in resistance to corrupt officials and defiance against a rotten social order, somewhat like Robin Hood and his men.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義 san guo yan yi / 'saam kwok yin yi') tells the tale of three great generals (Cao Cao 曹操 'chou chou'; Lui Bei 劉備 'lau bei'; and Sun Quan 孫權 'suen kuen') whose efforts at the fall of the Han regime (漢朝 han chao / 'hon chiu') ended up creating three regional dynasties (魏 wei / 'ngai'; 蜀漢 shu han / 'suk hon'; 東吳 dong wu / 'tung ng'), dividing China. Chinese ideas of chivalry, gallantry, heroism and grand strategems, are all found in these two books.
The young should NOT read the Water Margin, lest they go off the derech, and the old must abjure the Three Kingdoms, so that they aren't tempted to conspire.
少不讀水滸, 老不讀三國 'siu pat dok seui wu, lou pat dok saam gwok'.
The Scholars (儒林外史 ru lin wai shi / 'yiu lam ngo si') tells of several literati whose lives interconnect, lampooning some and holding others up as examples. Not really a roman à clef, but never the less drawn on the author's own social world. It is very entertaining in parts, and dangerous too, especially for the established order.
There are other books, which you will discover as you go along. Many of them are famous, and sources of set phrases, twists of thought, sayings, proverbs, and pithy quotes. Your command of Chinese depends on these.
詩
Don't overlook the poetry of the Tang era either.
It's marvelous stuff.
Evocative.
And above all, learn how to swear. Foulness is just as important as all the rest, and what you overhear is often not the printed word or the elegant saying, though quite as well expressed. All within the four seas cuss, the Chinese often more than most. It adds a lyric quality to their speech, and sharpens sarcasm, cynicism, irony, and despair.
Vitriol is the life blood of a language.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Thursday, December 12, 2013
THREE HUNDRED POEMS
When I left the house for lunch in Chinatown yesterday it felt like good things were going to happen. Let's just say that my senses were fair tingling with such an expectation.
My senses did not let me down.
During lunch I ended up in conversation with a nice gentleman from Jiangsu (江蘇 'gong sou') province, long a resident of our city.
We had to share a table, and we ate similar things.
I would have had the preserved egg and lean pork porridge (皮蛋瘦肉粥 'pei daan sau yiuk juk'), except I noticed him ordering that, and I did not want to seem to be imitating. Besides, I speak Cantonese, and can read the stuff on the wall.
Show-off time: Request the congee with dried fish and peanuts (柴魚花生粥 'chaai-yü faa-sang juk'). It's written in Chinese.
"Firewood fish" (柴魚 'chaai yü') really tells you what it is. Fatty tuna blanched, dried over heat, fermented with specific strains of bacteria, and lastly sawed into pieces, fragmented, or even finely ground for flavouring. The Japanese use something very similar for their miso soup (味噌汁 'mei chang jap').
Instead of chaai-yü it's called katsuo bushi (鰹節 'gin jit').
I do not think I've ever discussed Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Germanic linguistics with someone from Northern China before.
[Yes yes, I do know that Jiangsu is central-south. But it's far to the north of Lingnan (嶺南), two language groups removed from Canton, and pushing up against the Mandarin Belt. So it's north. Almost as north as you can get.]
His son is taking Latin (拉丁語) in college.
Which is almost as practical as 古文.
Or, for that matter, Old English.
[By the way: the first strophe of Beowulf (hwæt, we Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon) is identified as 'Icelandic' by Google Translate. This is giving those wall-fish eating heathens way too much credit. Instead, a different bunch of savages are lauded: the Bright Speared Danes.]
After a pleasant post-prandial chat we parted ways. I left the restaurant and lit a pipe, wandering first through Spofford (新呂宋巷 'san leui song hong'), then up to Hang Ah Alley (香雅巷 'heung ya hong'), which is now also called Pagoda Alley (寶塔巷 'pou taap hong'), before finally circling around through Waverly (天后廟街 'tin hou miu kai') and down to Grant (都板街 'dou pan kai'). Eventually, after finishing my pipe, I ended up in a cluster of indoor shops. Great Source Commercial.
Where I ended up purchasing a copy of the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty. Of which I already have several copies.
That I cannot find.
See, the problem is that I keep pulling a copy to look something up, whereupon it ends up in another stack, eventually covered by other books...... Earlier today I tried to find Mathews Dictionary of Chinese, but neither copy of that could be found. I'm sure I have both of them somewhere. Along with all copies of the Three Hundred Poems.
Somewhere. Don't know where.
Not a clue.
So indeed, I needed another one.
The elderly proprietor was so tickled at finding someone who gave a damn that he cut me a deal. How could I resist?
I think he'd had the book for years.
It's finally found a home.
唐詩三百首
The Three Hundred Tang Poems is a classic anthology compiled by the Retired Scholar of Heng Tang (衡塘退士 'hang tong teui-si', 1711 - 1778) during the Manchu Dynasty. All the greats are represented within, and since it was first published it has been a constant best-seller. For the truly literate, all is transparent. But like most people, my favourite verses are the ones that I can actually read entirely. Poems with too many words that I have to look up don't rank very high; it is only by repeated exposure that more examples get added to the list.
Many of the words are of little use in daily life.
Some only appear rarely at best.
Others not at all.
Evenso, re-reading the Three Hundred Poems of Tang is like revisiting lost places, which one had last seen very long ago, and again meeting the people who once were familiar.
Part of the reason for that is of course the re-sparked memories, but a larger part is due to the nature of Chinese literati versifying, namely to impart a sense of empathy with those who are elsewhere and elsewhen. Much of the output of the great poets was shaped by their own internal exiles and that of their friends and relatives, and a significant portion of what they wrote shared a sensitivity to time and place with the people whom they were sure would read their writings.
Fellow exiles, wanderers, transients.
Floating scholars.
Imagine the following sample as a series of letters floating in and out of inboxes, as members of the same social network communicate with each other and connect. Marginalia, perhaps; query or comment on their circumstances, certainly; the writers are observant, and show a heightened sensitivity to strange stimulation. Everything has newness.
As stigmata of their displacement, there is a sharp cognizance of detail.
夜雨寄北 YE YU JI BEI
By 李商隐 (Li Shangyin)
君問歸期未有期，巴山夜雨漲秋池。
何當共剪西窗燭，卻話巴山夜雨時。
Jūn wèn guī-qī wèi yǒu qī, bāshān yè yǔ zhǎng qiū chí.
Hé dāng gòng jiǎn xī chuāng zhú, què huà bā shān yè yǔ shí.
EVENING RAIN WHILE RESIDING IN THE NORTH
"You ask me when I will return, but I have no date set; the evening rain on Ba Mountain makes the autumn pool overflow; when shall we once more trim wicks together at the western window? Let's just say that it will be when autumn comes again on Ba Mountain."
YE YU GEI PAAK
Gwan man gwai kei mei yau kei, baa saan ye yu jeung chau chi;
Ho dong gong jin sai cheung juk, keuk wa baa saan ye yu si.
Note: 巴山夜雨漲秋池 can also be read to mean "my exile in this strange and godforsaken place has topped all extremes".
山行 SHAN XING
By 項斯 (Xiang Si)
青櫪林深亦有人，一渠流水數家分。
山當日午回峰影，草帶泥痕過鹿群。
蒸茗氣從茅舍出，繰絲聲隔竹籬聞。
行逢賣藥歸來客，不惜相隨入島雲。
Qīng lì lín shēn yì yǒu rén, yī qú liú shuǐ shǔ jiā fēn.
Shān dāng rì wǔ huí fēng yǐng, cǎo dài ní hén guò lù qún.
Zhēng míng qì cóng máo-shè chū, zǎo sī shēng gé zhú lí wén.
Xíng féng mài yào guī-lái kè, bù xī xiāng suí rù dǎo yún.
WANDERING IN THE MOUNTAINS
"In the verdant depths of the forest there are also people; along a stream there may live several households; during the day the sun delineates the peaks; grass casts stripes to hide the deer;
Tea fragrance comes from a rustic cottage; reeling silk whispersounds cross the garden fence; back from selling herbs the recluse wanders; with sure tread re-entering his island clouds."
SAAN HANG
Ching lik lam sam yik yau yan, yat keui lau seui sou gaa fan;
Saan dong yat ng wui fung, chou daai nai han gwo luk kwan.
Jhing ming hei chung maau se chut, chiu si seng gaak juk lei man;
Haang fung mai yeuk gwai loi haak, pat sik seung cheui yap dou wan.
夜雪 YE XUE
By 白居易 (Bai Juyi)
已訝衾枕冷，復見窗戶明。
夜深知雪重，時聞折竹聲。
Yǐ yà qīn zhěn lěng, fù jiàn chuāng-hù míng.
Yè shēn zhī xuě zhòng, shí wén zhé zhú shēng.
NIGHT SNOW
"Already astounded by the cold of my blanket and pillow, the brightness at the window added to that;
Late at night I knew the snow was thick, when I heard the cracking of bamboo."
YE SUET
yi ngaa kam ngam laang, fuk kin cheung wu ming;
ye sam ji suet chung, si man jit juk seng.
春雪 CHUN XUE
By 韓愈 (Han Yu)
新年都未有芳華，二月初驚見草芽。
白雪卻嫌春色晚，故穿庭樹作飛花。
Xīn nián dōu wèi yǒu fāng huá, èr yuè chū jīng jiàn cǎo yá.
Bái xuě què xián chūn-sè wǎn, gù chuān ting shù zuò fēi huā.
SPRING SNOW
"This new year still lacks fragrance, even by the second month it is startling to see buds;
Though white snow delays the colouration of Spring, a courtyard tree defiantly blossoms."
CHUN SUET
San nin dou mei yau fong waa, yi yuet cho geng kin chou ngaa;
Paak suet keuk yim cheun sik maan, gu chuen ting syue jok fei faa.
春思 CHUN SI
By 賈至 (Jia Zhi)
草色青青柳色黃，桃花歷亂李花香。
東風不為吹愁去，春日偏能惹恨長。
Cǎo-sè qīng-qīng liǔ-sè huáng, táo huā lì luàn li huā xiāng.
Dōng fēng bù wéi chuī chóu qù, chūn rì piān néng rě hèn zhǎng.
SPRING THOUGHTS
"Grasses are intensely green and the willows golden, peach trees riotously blooming and plums fragrant; The east wind does not blow to sadden, Spring days are not suitable for bitterness."
CHUN SI
Chou sik ching ching lau sik wong, tou faa lik-luen lei faa heung;
Tung fong pat wai cheui sau heui, cheun yat pin nang ye han cheung.
月夜憶舍弟 YUE YE YI SHE DI
By 杜甫 (Du Fu)
戍鼓斷人行，秋邊一雁聲。
露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。
有弟皆分散，無家問死生。
寄書長不避，況乃未休兵。
Shù gǔ duàn rén xíng, qiū biān yī yàn shēng.
Lù cóng jīn-yè bái, yuè shì gù-xiāng míng.
Yǒu dì jiē fēn sàn, wú jiā wèn sǐ shēng.
Jì shū cháng bù bì, kuàng nǎi wèi xiū bīng.
REMEMBERING MY BROTHERS BY MOONLIGHT
"Military drums cut the march, far off a migrating goose calls; Dew will be white from this night forward, and the moon is home-town bright;
My younger brothers are scattered hither and yon, with no one at home to ask whether they are alive or dead; mailed letters long await responses, and our troops have no relief."
YUET YE YI SE DAI
Syu gu duen yan hang, chau pin yat ngaan sing;
Lou chung gam ye paak, yue si gu heung ming.
Yau dai gaai fan saan, mou gaa man sei saang;
Gei syu cheung pat pei, fong naai mei yau bing.
It might not be too much to read a note of mild tension in these poems; there is no certainty, all termination is open-ended.
It is, on the other hand, relatively easy to understand how these poets appealed across the generations, when countless of their countrymen experienced distant postings, upheavals, changes of fortune, and displacement. Even today the simple straightforward evocation of something else, and something therefore exceptional, speaks in vibrant verse to the Chinese eye.
I am sorry; my paraphrasis of the texts in English cannot do them justice.
I have tried to give an idea of what they mean, and how they meant it.
POST SCRIPT
While waiting for the Pacific Avenue bus I encountered an old friend. She does not look worried now, and has changed jobs. I am not certain that her current employ gives her the time she needs for her daughter, but she seems less stressed. I hope it will work out.
She has that look of strength, vulnerability, and defiant stubbornness which I find so admirable among certain Cantonese women.
Seeing her again was marvelous.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
My senses did not let me down.
During lunch I ended up in conversation with a nice gentleman from Jiangsu (江蘇 'gong sou') province, long a resident of our city.
We had to share a table, and we ate similar things.
I would have had the preserved egg and lean pork porridge (皮蛋瘦肉粥 'pei daan sau yiuk juk'), except I noticed him ordering that, and I did not want to seem to be imitating. Besides, I speak Cantonese, and can read the stuff on the wall.
Show-off time: Request the congee with dried fish and peanuts (柴魚花生粥 'chaai-yü faa-sang juk'). It's written in Chinese.
"Firewood fish" (柴魚 'chaai yü') really tells you what it is. Fatty tuna blanched, dried over heat, fermented with specific strains of bacteria, and lastly sawed into pieces, fragmented, or even finely ground for flavouring. The Japanese use something very similar for their miso soup (味噌汁 'mei chang jap').
Instead of chaai-yü it's called katsuo bushi (鰹節 'gin jit').
I do not think I've ever discussed Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Germanic linguistics with someone from Northern China before.
[Yes yes, I do know that Jiangsu is central-south. But it's far to the north of Lingnan (嶺南), two language groups removed from Canton, and pushing up against the Mandarin Belt. So it's north. Almost as north as you can get.]
His son is taking Latin (拉丁語) in college.
Which is almost as practical as 古文.
Or, for that matter, Old English.
[By the way: the first strophe of Beowulf (hwæt, we Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon) is identified as 'Icelandic' by Google Translate. This is giving those wall-fish eating heathens way too much credit. Instead, a different bunch of savages are lauded: the Bright Speared Danes.]
After a pleasant post-prandial chat we parted ways. I left the restaurant and lit a pipe, wandering first through Spofford (新呂宋巷 'san leui song hong'), then up to Hang Ah Alley (香雅巷 'heung ya hong'), which is now also called Pagoda Alley (寶塔巷 'pou taap hong'), before finally circling around through Waverly (天后廟街 'tin hou miu kai') and down to Grant (都板街 'dou pan kai'). Eventually, after finishing my pipe, I ended up in a cluster of indoor shops. Great Source Commercial.
Where I ended up purchasing a copy of the Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty. Of which I already have several copies.
That I cannot find.
See, the problem is that I keep pulling a copy to look something up, whereupon it ends up in another stack, eventually covered by other books...... Earlier today I tried to find Mathews Dictionary of Chinese, but neither copy of that could be found. I'm sure I have both of them somewhere. Along with all copies of the Three Hundred Poems.
Somewhere. Don't know where.
Not a clue.
So indeed, I needed another one.
The elderly proprietor was so tickled at finding someone who gave a damn that he cut me a deal. How could I resist?
I think he'd had the book for years.
It's finally found a home.
唐詩三百首
The Three Hundred Tang Poems is a classic anthology compiled by the Retired Scholar of Heng Tang (衡塘退士 'hang tong teui-si', 1711 - 1778) during the Manchu Dynasty. All the greats are represented within, and since it was first published it has been a constant best-seller. For the truly literate, all is transparent. But like most people, my favourite verses are the ones that I can actually read entirely. Poems with too many words that I have to look up don't rank very high; it is only by repeated exposure that more examples get added to the list.
Many of the words are of little use in daily life.
Some only appear rarely at best.
Others not at all.
Evenso, re-reading the Three Hundred Poems of Tang is like revisiting lost places, which one had last seen very long ago, and again meeting the people who once were familiar.
Part of the reason for that is of course the re-sparked memories, but a larger part is due to the nature of Chinese literati versifying, namely to impart a sense of empathy with those who are elsewhere and elsewhen. Much of the output of the great poets was shaped by their own internal exiles and that of their friends and relatives, and a significant portion of what they wrote shared a sensitivity to time and place with the people whom they were sure would read their writings.
Fellow exiles, wanderers, transients.
Floating scholars.
Imagine the following sample as a series of letters floating in and out of inboxes, as members of the same social network communicate with each other and connect. Marginalia, perhaps; query or comment on their circumstances, certainly; the writers are observant, and show a heightened sensitivity to strange stimulation. Everything has newness.
As stigmata of their displacement, there is a sharp cognizance of detail.
夜雨寄北 YE YU JI BEI
By 李商隐 (Li Shangyin)
君問歸期未有期，巴山夜雨漲秋池。
何當共剪西窗燭，卻話巴山夜雨時。
Jūn wèn guī-qī wèi yǒu qī, bāshān yè yǔ zhǎng qiū chí.
Hé dāng gòng jiǎn xī chuāng zhú, què huà bā shān yè yǔ shí.
EVENING RAIN WHILE RESIDING IN THE NORTH
"You ask me when I will return, but I have no date set; the evening rain on Ba Mountain makes the autumn pool overflow; when shall we once more trim wicks together at the western window? Let's just say that it will be when autumn comes again on Ba Mountain."
YE YU GEI PAAK
Gwan man gwai kei mei yau kei, baa saan ye yu jeung chau chi;
Ho dong gong jin sai cheung juk, keuk wa baa saan ye yu si.
Note: 巴山夜雨漲秋池 can also be read to mean "my exile in this strange and godforsaken place has topped all extremes".
山行 SHAN XING
By 項斯 (Xiang Si)
青櫪林深亦有人，一渠流水數家分。
山當日午回峰影，草帶泥痕過鹿群。
蒸茗氣從茅舍出，繰絲聲隔竹籬聞。
行逢賣藥歸來客，不惜相隨入島雲。
Qīng lì lín shēn yì yǒu rén, yī qú liú shuǐ shǔ jiā fēn.
Shān dāng rì wǔ huí fēng yǐng, cǎo dài ní hén guò lù qún.
Zhēng míng qì cóng máo-shè chū, zǎo sī shēng gé zhú lí wén.
Xíng féng mài yào guī-lái kè, bù xī xiāng suí rù dǎo yún.
WANDERING IN THE MOUNTAINS
"In the verdant depths of the forest there are also people; along a stream there may live several households; during the day the sun delineates the peaks; grass casts stripes to hide the deer;
Tea fragrance comes from a rustic cottage; reeling silk whispersounds cross the garden fence; back from selling herbs the recluse wanders; with sure tread re-entering his island clouds."
SAAN HANG
Ching lik lam sam yik yau yan, yat keui lau seui sou gaa fan;
Saan dong yat ng wui fung, chou daai nai han gwo luk kwan.
Jhing ming hei chung maau se chut, chiu si seng gaak juk lei man;
Haang fung mai yeuk gwai loi haak, pat sik seung cheui yap dou wan.
夜雪 YE XUE
By 白居易 (Bai Juyi)
已訝衾枕冷，復見窗戶明。
夜深知雪重，時聞折竹聲。
Yǐ yà qīn zhěn lěng, fù jiàn chuāng-hù míng.
Yè shēn zhī xuě zhòng, shí wén zhé zhú shēng.
NIGHT SNOW
"Already astounded by the cold of my blanket and pillow, the brightness at the window added to that;
Late at night I knew the snow was thick, when I heard the cracking of bamboo."
YE SUET
yi ngaa kam ngam laang, fuk kin cheung wu ming;
ye sam ji suet chung, si man jit juk seng.
春雪 CHUN XUE
By 韓愈 (Han Yu)
新年都未有芳華，二月初驚見草芽。
白雪卻嫌春色晚，故穿庭樹作飛花。
Xīn nián dōu wèi yǒu fāng huá, èr yuè chū jīng jiàn cǎo yá.
Bái xuě què xián chūn-sè wǎn, gù chuān ting shù zuò fēi huā.
SPRING SNOW
"This new year still lacks fragrance, even by the second month it is startling to see buds;
Though white snow delays the colouration of Spring, a courtyard tree defiantly blossoms."
CHUN SUET
San nin dou mei yau fong waa, yi yuet cho geng kin chou ngaa;
Paak suet keuk yim cheun sik maan, gu chuen ting syue jok fei faa.
春思 CHUN SI
By 賈至 (Jia Zhi)
草色青青柳色黃，桃花歷亂李花香。
東風不為吹愁去，春日偏能惹恨長。
Cǎo-sè qīng-qīng liǔ-sè huáng, táo huā lì luàn li huā xiāng.
Dōng fēng bù wéi chuī chóu qù, chūn rì piān néng rě hèn zhǎng.
SPRING THOUGHTS
"Grasses are intensely green and the willows golden, peach trees riotously blooming and plums fragrant; The east wind does not blow to sadden, Spring days are not suitable for bitterness."
CHUN SI
Chou sik ching ching lau sik wong, tou faa lik-luen lei faa heung;
Tung fong pat wai cheui sau heui, cheun yat pin nang ye han cheung.
月夜憶舍弟 YUE YE YI SHE DI
By 杜甫 (Du Fu)
戍鼓斷人行，秋邊一雁聲。
露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。
有弟皆分散，無家問死生。
寄書長不避，況乃未休兵。
Shù gǔ duàn rén xíng, qiū biān yī yàn shēng.
Lù cóng jīn-yè bái, yuè shì gù-xiāng míng.
Yǒu dì jiē fēn sàn, wú jiā wèn sǐ shēng.
Jì shū cháng bù bì, kuàng nǎi wèi xiū bīng.
REMEMBERING MY BROTHERS BY MOONLIGHT
"Military drums cut the march, far off a migrating goose calls; Dew will be white from this night forward, and the moon is home-town bright;
My younger brothers are scattered hither and yon, with no one at home to ask whether they are alive or dead; mailed letters long await responses, and our troops have no relief."
YUET YE YI SE DAI
Syu gu duen yan hang, chau pin yat ngaan sing;
Lou chung gam ye paak, yue si gu heung ming.
Yau dai gaai fan saan, mou gaa man sei saang;
Gei syu cheung pat pei, fong naai mei yau bing.
It might not be too much to read a note of mild tension in these poems; there is no certainty, all termination is open-ended.
It is, on the other hand, relatively easy to understand how these poets appealed across the generations, when countless of their countrymen experienced distant postings, upheavals, changes of fortune, and displacement. Even today the simple straightforward evocation of something else, and something therefore exceptional, speaks in vibrant verse to the Chinese eye.
I am sorry; my paraphrasis of the texts in English cannot do them justice.
I have tried to give an idea of what they mean, and how they meant it.
POST SCRIPT
While waiting for the Pacific Avenue bus I encountered an old friend. She does not look worried now, and has changed jobs. I am not certain that her current employ gives her the time she needs for her daughter, but she seems less stressed. I hope it will work out.
She has that look of strength, vulnerability, and defiant stubbornness which I find so admirable among certain Cantonese women.
Seeing her again was marvelous.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, April 01, 2013
INVENTING THE FEMININE PRONOUN: HER
The Chinese spoken languages do not possess a third person pronoun equivalent to 'her'. Classical third person singular (qí 其) always was non-sexual, to be interpreted contextually as masculine, feminine, neuter, this, that, or other.
In modern Mandarin, that third person is 'tā'.
Which was eventually found to be far too imprecise.
Nowadays one can be more specific.
Sometimes one must.
他、它們、與其他的。
TA, TA MEN, YU QI TA DE.
[Him, those, and the others.]
The standard masculine third person singular 他 (tā) is composed of a human (rén 人 shown in the left side position 亻) with the phonetic element 也 (yě: also, too) on the right. Originally this fairly modern grapheme meant the third person singular in all iterations and both genders, the context being relied on to make clear what precisely was meant.
Different forms have since been invented.
她 is the feminine form (nǚ 女 woman, female, next to 也).
牠 is the animalian form (niú 牛 ox; animal category character component, next to 也).
它 is plain 'it'; written with a roof (mián 宀) over a ladle (bǐ 匕).
祂 represents the divine form, used in religious contexts when referring to a deity. It is a spirit or ancestor (shì 示), which nowadays by itself means to be revealed or manifested, next to the 也 glyph.
They are all pronounced the same.
All of these are pluralized with 們 (a gate 門 mén next to the human 亻).
Thus 他們、她們、牠們、它們、and 祂們。Tāmen.
The exception is the formal, or third person singular respectful, character, 怹 (tān), which is used like its ancestor with no regard to gender.
It is formed according to the same pattern as the respectful version of you 您 (nín), which is you (你 nǐ) over xīn 心 (heart, mind, feelings).
In Cantonese, which is the descendant of the Tang-Sung koine, different characters are used for the pronouns: 佢 ('keui': he, him), 姖 ('keui': she, her), and 渠 ('keui': it). The last character (渠) also stands in for all third person singulars, but more so in pre-war writing. There does not appear to be a third person divine yet, possibly because the Cantonese are the most cynical of all the Chinese.
Nor is there a formal version in Cantonese for either the second or third person; probably for the same reason as there is no supernatural third.
Plurals of the Cantonese pronouns are formed by appending the phonetic 哋, which is 'earth' (地 'tei') with a mouth (口 'hau') on the first side to indicate that it is a sound rather than a significant.
Thus: 佢哋、姖哋、渠哋。 All of which are 'keui tei'.
The Cantonese pronunciation 'keui' (洰 rivulet, irrigation ditch) developed from 'kei' (其) over the centuries since the Tang (618 – 907 CE) and Sung (960 - 1279 CE) periods.
The locution 其他 (Mandarin: qí tā; Cantonese: 'kei ta') is the equivalent of undsoweiter, enzovoorts, i taka natatŭk, etcetera, et autres, and so forth.
It is not quite as useful in Chinese as in the European languages.
[In Mandarin: 我 (wǒ)、我們 (wǒ men)；你 (nǐ)、你們 (nǐ men)；他 (tā)、他們 (tā men)；她們 (tā men)、牠們 (tā men)、它們 (tā men)；祂們 (tā men)。
In Cantonese: 我 ('ngoh')、我哋 ('ngoh tei')；你 ('nei')、你哋 ('nei tei')；佢 ('keui')、佢哋 ('keui tei')；姖哋 ('keui tei')、渠哋 ('keui tei')。]
Note: Both Cantonese and Mandarin will understand the character 妳 as being singular second person feminine, but speakers may wonder at the usefulness of such a coinage.
劉半農之創新。
LUI BAN-NONG ZHI CHUANG XIN.
[Liu Ban-nong's innovation.]
In the period after the 1911 revolution, during the New Culture Movement (新文化運動), numerous scholars educated in the traditional fashion which emphasized classical forms of literature and traditional learning, began experimenting with new writing styles, composing their essays, plays, and poetry in the common language. This was considered both modern, and more popularly approachable. Colloquial speech had not resembled the ancient model for several centuries if not millennia at that time, and developing a corpus of literature that expressed ideas in ways that the common man could grasp was considered an important step towards pulling China out of the depths to which it had sunk during the age of Western Imperialism. The difficulty of acquiring literacy in the classical language was, it was felt, a handicap that could only stunt mass development.
The irony of their approach was of course that they themselves were products of that same classical educational norm, and frequently framed their thoughts in a style that their literati ancestors would have well understood, whereas the speech of daily society had till then seldom ever been transcribed.
Many of them realized this, and sought ways to write what had theretofore not been written, and strove to create a common written language.
New characters had to be invented, new words coined.
Written Chinese has always been fairly flexible. As I showed above, in the construction of characters, parts can be combined to create new graphemes, using a signific element and a phonetic element. And though one may think of Chinese as monosyllabic, in actual practise the vocabulary mainly consists of bi-syllabic constructs. It is that second facet which permits new words to enter the language, either by complete phonetic borrowing, such as is common in Cantonese-speaking areas, or combining two or more single-syllable words to express a new datum, such as Mandarin-speakers have done.
Poetry, which had long been constrained by specific forms, also headed into the bright new world. One of the more important writers of the late teens and early twenties of the last century was 劉半農 (Liu Ban-nong, aka 劉復 Liu Fu, pen-name of 劉壽彰 Liu Shou-Zhang), a native of central China who contributed to the literary periodical 新青年 (Xīn Qīng Nián, La Jeunesse, New Youth; founded in Shanghai by 陳獨秀 Chen Duxia in 1915, published in Peking from 1920 to 1926 ).
In 1920, Liu wrote a poem entitled 教我如何不想她 (jiāo wǒ rú hé bù xiǎng tā: "tell me how to not remember her"), which is the first time that the character 'her' showed up in print. He is credited as the inventor, though he may have found it when researching 宋元以來俗字譜 (Sòng Yuán yǐ-lái sú-zì pǔ: "Sung Yuan after vernacular chart", the vernacular characters used since the Song and Yuan dynasties).
It is a rather beautiful poem, which absolutely requires the feminine third person singular for it's impact.
教我如何不想她
天上飄著些微雲
地上吹著些微風
啊...
微風吹動了我的頭髮
教我如何不想她
月光戀愛著海洋
海洋戀愛著月光
啊...
這般蜜也似的銀夜
教我如何不想她
水面落花慢慢流
水底魚兒慢慢游
啊...
燕子你說些什麼話
教我如何不想她
枯樹在冷風裡搖
野火在暮色中燒
啊...
西天還有些兒殘霞
教我如何不想她
Up in the sky faint clouds float,
There is a slight breeze along the ground,
Ah...
That breeze ruffling my hair,
Tells me how to forget her.
The moonlight is passionately in love with the ocean,
The ocean yearns for the moonlight,
Ah ...
This sweet and silvery night,
Tells me how to forget her.
Petals float upon the face of the water,
Underneath, fish lazily drift along,
Ah ...
Oh swallow, what do you say,
Tell me how to forget her.
Barren trees shaking in the cold winds,
And wildfires burning in the darkest nights,
Ah ...
Crimson clouds in the western sky,
Tell me how to forget her.
You will note a subtle change from factual statement ending the first two verses (something 'tells me how to forget her') to an entreaty, almost pleading - oh please tell me how to forget her. The entire poem in effect states that no matter what he has experienced since, he cannot forget her, that memory is always alive.
In another sense, the verses say that it would be unreasonable to even ask him to forget her; everything reminds him of that other person.
It is immaterial who he remembers, it is the fact of remembering that stars in this poem. And, crucially, she would be even more anonymous without this pronomial distinction.
That said, here's miss 韋秀嫻 (Wéi Xiù-xián) singing it from the other side of the linguistic mechitza:
韋秀嫻 ~ 〈教我如何不想他〉
[SOURCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMD5Jw4CkbM.]
In this rendition, the third person is not ' her' (她) but very specifically 'him' (他). The sense is still very much the same, and the audience will automatically think of the correct pronoun.
Lovely, eh? Truly a voice like molten sugar. Who could possibly forget that?
Set to music with a melody by fellow linguistics scholar 趙元任 (Zhào Yuánrèn, Tianjin 1892 – Cambridge MA 1982), this was one of the all-time hits during the twenties and thirties in China, and is still very well known among aficionados of modern Chinese music.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
In modern Mandarin, that third person is 'tā'.
Which was eventually found to be far too imprecise.
Nowadays one can be more specific.
Sometimes one must.
他、它們、與其他的。
TA, TA MEN, YU QI TA DE.
[Him, those, and the others.]
The standard masculine third person singular 他 (tā) is composed of a human (rén 人 shown in the left side position 亻) with the phonetic element 也 (yě: also, too) on the right. Originally this fairly modern grapheme meant the third person singular in all iterations and both genders, the context being relied on to make clear what precisely was meant.
Different forms have since been invented.
她 is the feminine form (nǚ 女 woman, female, next to 也).
牠 is the animalian form (niú 牛 ox; animal category character component, next to 也).
它 is plain 'it'; written with a roof (mián 宀) over a ladle (bǐ 匕).
祂 represents the divine form, used in religious contexts when referring to a deity. It is a spirit or ancestor (shì 示), which nowadays by itself means to be revealed or manifested, next to the 也 glyph.
They are all pronounced the same.
All of these are pluralized with 們 (a gate 門 mén next to the human 亻).
Thus 他們、她們、牠們、它們、and 祂們。Tāmen.
The exception is the formal, or third person singular respectful, character, 怹 (tān), which is used like its ancestor with no regard to gender.
It is formed according to the same pattern as the respectful version of you 您 (nín), which is you (你 nǐ) over xīn 心 (heart, mind, feelings).
In Cantonese, which is the descendant of the Tang-Sung koine, different characters are used for the pronouns: 佢 ('keui': he, him), 姖 ('keui': she, her), and 渠 ('keui': it). The last character (渠) also stands in for all third person singulars, but more so in pre-war writing. There does not appear to be a third person divine yet, possibly because the Cantonese are the most cynical of all the Chinese.
Nor is there a formal version in Cantonese for either the second or third person; probably for the same reason as there is no supernatural third.
Plurals of the Cantonese pronouns are formed by appending the phonetic 哋, which is 'earth' (地 'tei') with a mouth (口 'hau') on the first side to indicate that it is a sound rather than a significant.
Thus: 佢哋、姖哋、渠哋。 All of which are 'keui tei'.
The Cantonese pronunciation 'keui' (洰 rivulet, irrigation ditch) developed from 'kei' (其) over the centuries since the Tang (618 – 907 CE) and Sung (960 - 1279 CE) periods.
The locution 其他 (Mandarin: qí tā; Cantonese: 'kei ta') is the equivalent of undsoweiter, enzovoorts, i taka natatŭk, etcetera, et autres, and so forth.
It is not quite as useful in Chinese as in the European languages.
[In Mandarin: 我 (wǒ)、我們 (wǒ men)；你 (nǐ)、你們 (nǐ men)；他 (tā)、他們 (tā men)；她們 (tā men)、牠們 (tā men)、它們 (tā men)；祂們 (tā men)。
In Cantonese: 我 ('ngoh')、我哋 ('ngoh tei')；你 ('nei')、你哋 ('nei tei')；佢 ('keui')、佢哋 ('keui tei')；姖哋 ('keui tei')、渠哋 ('keui tei')。]
Note: Both Cantonese and Mandarin will understand the character 妳 as being singular second person feminine, but speakers may wonder at the usefulness of such a coinage.
劉半農之創新。
LUI BAN-NONG ZHI CHUANG XIN.
[Liu Ban-nong's innovation.]
In the period after the 1911 revolution, during the New Culture Movement (新文化運動), numerous scholars educated in the traditional fashion which emphasized classical forms of literature and traditional learning, began experimenting with new writing styles, composing their essays, plays, and poetry in the common language. This was considered both modern, and more popularly approachable. Colloquial speech had not resembled the ancient model for several centuries if not millennia at that time, and developing a corpus of literature that expressed ideas in ways that the common man could grasp was considered an important step towards pulling China out of the depths to which it had sunk during the age of Western Imperialism. The difficulty of acquiring literacy in the classical language was, it was felt, a handicap that could only stunt mass development.
The irony of their approach was of course that they themselves were products of that same classical educational norm, and frequently framed their thoughts in a style that their literati ancestors would have well understood, whereas the speech of daily society had till then seldom ever been transcribed.
Many of them realized this, and sought ways to write what had theretofore not been written, and strove to create a common written language.
New characters had to be invented, new words coined.
Written Chinese has always been fairly flexible. As I showed above, in the construction of characters, parts can be combined to create new graphemes, using a signific element and a phonetic element. And though one may think of Chinese as monosyllabic, in actual practise the vocabulary mainly consists of bi-syllabic constructs. It is that second facet which permits new words to enter the language, either by complete phonetic borrowing, such as is common in Cantonese-speaking areas, or combining two or more single-syllable words to express a new datum, such as Mandarin-speakers have done.
Poetry, which had long been constrained by specific forms, also headed into the bright new world. One of the more important writers of the late teens and early twenties of the last century was 劉半農 (Liu Ban-nong, aka 劉復 Liu Fu, pen-name of 劉壽彰 Liu Shou-Zhang), a native of central China who contributed to the literary periodical 新青年 (Xīn Qīng Nián, La Jeunesse, New Youth; founded in Shanghai by 陳獨秀 Chen Duxia in 1915, published in Peking from 1920 to 1926 ).
In 1920, Liu wrote a poem entitled 教我如何不想她 (jiāo wǒ rú hé bù xiǎng tā: "tell me how to not remember her"), which is the first time that the character 'her' showed up in print. He is credited as the inventor, though he may have found it when researching 宋元以來俗字譜 (Sòng Yuán yǐ-lái sú-zì pǔ: "Sung Yuan after vernacular chart", the vernacular characters used since the Song and Yuan dynasties).
It is a rather beautiful poem, which absolutely requires the feminine third person singular for it's impact.
教我如何不想她
天上飄著些微雲
地上吹著些微風
啊...
微風吹動了我的頭髮
教我如何不想她
月光戀愛著海洋
海洋戀愛著月光
啊...
這般蜜也似的銀夜
教我如何不想她
水面落花慢慢流
水底魚兒慢慢游
啊...
燕子你說些什麼話
教我如何不想她
枯樹在冷風裡搖
野火在暮色中燒
啊...
西天還有些兒殘霞
教我如何不想她
Up in the sky faint clouds float,
There is a slight breeze along the ground,
Ah...
That breeze ruffling my hair,
Tells me how to forget her.
The moonlight is passionately in love with the ocean,
The ocean yearns for the moonlight,
Ah ...
This sweet and silvery night,
Tells me how to forget her.
Petals float upon the face of the water,
Underneath, fish lazily drift along,
Ah ...
Oh swallow, what do you say,
Tell me how to forget her.
Barren trees shaking in the cold winds,
And wildfires burning in the darkest nights,
Ah ...
Crimson clouds in the western sky,
Tell me how to forget her.
You will note a subtle change from factual statement ending the first two verses (something 'tells me how to forget her') to an entreaty, almost pleading - oh please tell me how to forget her. The entire poem in effect states that no matter what he has experienced since, he cannot forget her, that memory is always alive.
In another sense, the verses say that it would be unreasonable to even ask him to forget her; everything reminds him of that other person.
It is immaterial who he remembers, it is the fact of remembering that stars in this poem. And, crucially, she would be even more anonymous without this pronomial distinction.
That said, here's miss 韋秀嫻 (Wéi Xiù-xián) singing it from the other side of the linguistic mechitza:
韋秀嫻 ~ 〈教我如何不想他〉
[SOURCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMD5Jw4CkbM.]
In this rendition, the third person is not ' her' (她) but very specifically 'him' (他). The sense is still very much the same, and the audience will automatically think of the correct pronoun.
Lovely, eh? Truly a voice like molten sugar. Who could possibly forget that?
Set to music with a melody by fellow linguistics scholar 趙元任 (Zhào Yuánrèn, Tianjin 1892 – Cambridge MA 1982), this was one of the all-time hits during the twenties and thirties in China, and is still very well known among aficionados of modern Chinese music.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Saturday, March 30, 2013
A THEME OF SPRING: THE POEM 春怨 BY 金昌绪
The avid reader always associates the Spring Season with strife between the civilized world and the savages, as well as political rot. The less-than-avid reader may wonder at times why this is so.
The connection is orioles.
鸎
The oriole symbolizes spring and joy, song and sunlight, as expressed in the idiomatic expression 鶯歌燕舞 (Cantonese: ang goh, yin mou), referring to the warbling of some birds and the lively energy of others - orioles and swallows respectively, indicating that all is well with the world, the weather has improved, and prosperity is on the increase. What is significant is that both types of bird mentioned move north when the weather warms up, and thus harbinge the return of more pleasant days.
[Idiomatic expression: 成語 (seng yu). A large number of them can be found here, with explanations in English and Chinese. Many such expressions are common to both Mandarin and Cantonese, being drawn from literature, classical sources, songs and poetry, and as well as pithy turns of phrase.]
鶯歌燕舞
Orioles sing, swallows dance. Nicely put, and a blameless sentiment, except that one remembers a poem written during the Tang Dynasty showing a darker view of orioles; one that paints them as noisy pests that caused unhappiness in a woman yearning for the man she loved.
春怨
打起黃鶯兒，
莫教枝上啼。
啼時驚妾夢，
不得到遼西。
Spring Sorrow
Oh chase away those orioles,
Stop them singing in the tree!
Their cries destroyed my dream,
And I never reached Liao Hsi!
This broken verse quatrain by 金昌緒 (Jin Chang Xu; Cantonese: Kam Cheung-suei) evokes a husband stationed at the border between the Tang realm and the territory of the Khitans during one of the periodic wars in the north. His wife in the distant heartland imagines herself traveling towards his camp while dreaming, but the birds startle her awake ere she reaches her destination.
CHWUN YUEN
Daa-hei wong ang yi,
Mou gaau ji seung tai.
Tai si geng jip mong,
Pat tak dou Liu-Sai.
[Mandarin: Chun Yuan - 'Da qi huang ying er, mo jiao zhi shang ti. Ti shi jing qie meng, bu de dao liao xi'.]
BARBARIAN HORDES
Khitans? Who or what were the Khitans?
History shows that they were distant descendants of the Tunghu (東胡 tung wu; Eastern Hu), who were a plague upon the border for over a millenium before being destroyed by the Hsiungnu (匈奴 hung nou; clamorous slaves) in the second century BCE. The Tunghu were almost certainly speakers of a Mongolic language, about the linguistic affinity of the Hsiungnu comparatively little is known. Both groups were native to regions in Mongolia, Manchuria, North-Eastern China, and furthest Russia.
After their defeat, remnants of the Tunghu survived as the Wuhuan (烏桓) in Northern China, and the Hsianpei (鮮卑) in Manchuria and Mongolia.
[烏桓 Wuhuan: pronounced wu-wun in Cantonese. The first word is 'crow', with a secondary meaning of 'dark' or 'black', the last a type of tree. Ethnonym.
鮮卑 Hsianpei: pronounced sin-pai in Cantonese, meaning approximately 'freshly despicable'. Significant branches of the Hsianpei included the Murong (慕容 mou-yung; admirable appearance), Yuwen (宇文 yiu-man; structure texts), Tuoba (拓跋 tok-bat; support epilogue or colophon), Duanshi (段氏 tuen-si; section clan), Chifu (乞伏 hat-fuk; beg & conceal), the Tufa (秃發 tuk-fa; baldness issue), et multo plura. ]
For the next several centuries, Chinese rulers often supported the Hsiungnu and the Hsianpei against each other as a means of keeping peace on the border by promoting butchery in the wastelands. This was an effective and pragmatic approach, which the rapacity of the threatening tribes more than justified.
By the third century CE the Hsianpei confederacy dissipated, and various sections established their own polities. The Murong, as one of the more important groups, founded the Former Yan (前燕 chin yin, 337-370 CE), Western Yan (西燕 sai yin, 384-394 CE), Later Yan (後燕 hau yin, 384-409 CE). The Tuoba ruled a part of north-east China as the Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏朝 paak ngai chiu; the northern awesomely-overtowering dynasty) from 386 to 534 CE.
The Khitan (契丹 kaai daan; contract or bond, cinnabar) were slower to establish themselves as pests, however. Their rapacious tendencies, while long evident, did not become manifested as an independent kingdom till the twilight years of the Tang dynasty. In 907 CE they founded the Liao state (遼 liu; distant or far) in what is now Liaoning (遼寧 liu ning; "pacified Liao"), which was defeated by the Jurchen in 1125, when that latter group of proto-Manchus styled themselves the Jin Dynasty (金朝 kam chiu: 1115–1234 CE). The survivors fled into Central Asia and founded the Western Liao Khanate (西遼朝 sai liu chiu: 1124-1218 CE).
Both the Khitan (Liao) and the Jurchen (Jin) were overrun by the Mongols.
The first in 1218, the latter in 1234.
The Mongols were not only the scourge of nations, but the most savagely brutal and reprehensible of all the barbarians to rupture from the deserts.
After the destruction they wrought, much was permanently altered.
The Khitans disappeared, the Jurchens eventually became the Manchus, and subjugated both China and the tribes on the frontiers (including the Mongols), founding the Ching Empire (大清帝國 daai ching dai kwok; great clearness imperial state) and taking Beijing (北京 paak keng; northern capital) in 1644.
遼西 LIAO HSI
[The following paragraphs are parentheses-rich, for which I apologize.]
The principal river in North-East China is the Liao He (遼河 liu ho; distant river), originating in Inner Mongolia, separating the modern-day Chinese provinces Liaoning (遼寧 liu neng; the pacified or settled marches) and Liaotung (遼東 liu tung; the eastern marches), before terminating in the Gulf of Chihli (直隸海灣 jik lai hoi waan; erect servant bay, now called Bohai - 渤海 but hoi; swelling sea).
The provincial capital of Liaoning, Shenyang city (瀋陽 sam yeung; liquid masculine), formerly called Shengjing (盛京 sing-keng; abundant metropole) and also known as Mukden, was where the Manchus built their first imperial palace, nineteen years before they broke through into Sina trans mura and entered Peking in 1644. Even after consolidating their hold on the civilized world, Shengjing remained their ancestral urbis clarissimae.
During the centuries before the Hsianpei and Jurchen became significant the place was called Houcheng (候城 hau sing; expect city), later becoming Fengtian Fu (奉天府 fung tin fu; esteem heaven prefectoral city). Around 300 BCE during the rule of the Yan Dynasty (燕國 yin kwok; swallow country, extant from circa 1045 BCE till conquered by Qin Shihuang* in 222 BCE) the name was changed to Shen Zhou (瀋州 sam jau; pouring state), which the Mongols changed to Shenyang Lu (瀋陽路 sam yeung lou; the Shenyang administrative circuit).
It was subsequently renamed Shenyang Zhongwai (瀋陽中衛 sam yeung jung wai: the Shenyang central commandery) during the Ming period.
In 1914, three years after the fall of the Ching Dynasty, it was given the current name (瀋陽), the meaning of which shows that it is on the sunny side of the Shen River (瀋水 sam seui; pouring water).
[Qin Shihuang (秦始皇 cheun chi-wong; 259 – 210 BCE): founder of the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 cheun chiu; 221 - 206 BCE). Notable achievements include unifying China and terrorizing his subjects. He was followed by his son, an incompetent who met his death in 207 BCE. Note that the term Qin (秦) is the dynastic appellation and an ancient toponym, shihuang (始皇) merely means 'first emperor'. His personal name was Zhao Zheng (趙政 Jiu Jing).]
奉天 "MUKDEN"
As just one instance of the friability of the area, this is the arena where the Japanese created a pretext in 1931 for the invasion of northeastern China. Shenyang was still referred to as Mukden in the Manchu language at the time. After an explosion near a Japanese railway line at Five Willows Lake (柳條湖 Liǔtiáohú; 'lau tiu wu'), staged by rogue officers, the Imperial Japanese Government blamed Chinese bandits, and massively invaded, defeating the garrison troops of Chang Hsue-liang (張學良 Zhāng Xuéliáng; 'cheung hok leung') stationed at the Northern Great Barracks (北大營 běidàyíng; 'baak daai ying') in a few scant hours. They went on to conquer all of Manchuria, and proclaimed the formation of the "Great Manchurian Empire" (大滿洲帝國 Dà Mǎnzhōu Dìguó; 'daai mun jau dai kwok') on February eighteen of the following year.
As their "head of state", the Japanese chose Aisin-Gioro Pu-yi (愛新覺羅·溥儀 Àixīnjuéluó·Pǔyí; 'ngoi san gaau lou·pou yi'), formerly known as the Hsuan-t'ung Emperor (宣統皇帝 Xuāntǒng Huángdì; 'suen tung wong dai') whose abdication in 1912 ended the Manchu era and the imperial age.
The entire watershed of the Liao river and its tributaries was always considered a distant and unstable region, and even today is still partly barbaric. Although Chinese have always lived there -- frequently in internal exile or posted on the frontier -- it was a part of the civilized world that was not infrequently subject to rapine by outside tribes; the Di (狄、翟 dik) and Rong (戎 yung) peoples, then the Hsiungnu, Hsianpei, Khitan, Jin, Mongol, Turk, and Manchu.
遼東郡與遼西郡
LIU TUNG GWAN AND LIU SAI GWAN
During the Tang era, the eastern and western Liao commandaries (遼東郡、遼西郡) along the northern frontier were frequently in a state of chaos, as the Khitans, though nominally subjected, were not well subjugated.
Generations of soldiers and officials were dispatched to pacify the region, their absence much lamented by the relatives they left behind.
In the quatrain cited at the beginning of this essay, the poet speaks as if in the voice of one such family member, utilizing the customary first person self-depreciating term 'qie' (妾 jip; your servant, concubine) employed by wives in that day and age. It is a literary conceit, which allows him to obliquely criticize the government. Surely if politicians are competent and just, all under heaven (天下 tin haa; 'podnebesnaya' ) will be at peace?
Perhaps things are seriously flawed at the imperial court; otherwise such circumstances could not arise, and people would not suffer.
Note: Separation of couples when husbands were sent to the border is an extremely common theme in Chinese literature; the territories at the Great Wall (長城 cheung sing; long fortification) were a source of danger for millennia.
Afterthought: The operative word in all of this may be 緖 (seui: mental thread, clue, state of mind). Which is also part of the name of the poet whose quatrain was cited. It is a very useful word, obviously.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
The connection is orioles.
鸎
The oriole symbolizes spring and joy, song and sunlight, as expressed in the idiomatic expression 鶯歌燕舞 (Cantonese: ang goh, yin mou), referring to the warbling of some birds and the lively energy of others - orioles and swallows respectively, indicating that all is well with the world, the weather has improved, and prosperity is on the increase. What is significant is that both types of bird mentioned move north when the weather warms up, and thus harbinge the return of more pleasant days.
[Idiomatic expression: 成語 (seng yu). A large number of them can be found here, with explanations in English and Chinese. Many such expressions are common to both Mandarin and Cantonese, being drawn from literature, classical sources, songs and poetry, and as well as pithy turns of phrase.]
鶯歌燕舞
Orioles sing, swallows dance. Nicely put, and a blameless sentiment, except that one remembers a poem written during the Tang Dynasty showing a darker view of orioles; one that paints them as noisy pests that caused unhappiness in a woman yearning for the man she loved.
春怨
打起黃鶯兒，
莫教枝上啼。
啼時驚妾夢，
不得到遼西。
Spring Sorrow
Oh chase away those orioles,
Stop them singing in the tree!
Their cries destroyed my dream,
And I never reached Liao Hsi!
This broken verse quatrain by 金昌緒 (Jin Chang Xu; Cantonese: Kam Cheung-suei) evokes a husband stationed at the border between the Tang realm and the territory of the Khitans during one of the periodic wars in the north. His wife in the distant heartland imagines herself traveling towards his camp while dreaming, but the birds startle her awake ere she reaches her destination.
CHWUN YUEN
Daa-hei wong ang yi,
Mou gaau ji seung tai.
Tai si geng jip mong,
Pat tak dou Liu-Sai.
[Mandarin: Chun Yuan - 'Da qi huang ying er, mo jiao zhi shang ti. Ti shi jing qie meng, bu de dao liao xi'.]
BARBARIAN HORDES
Khitans? Who or what were the Khitans?
History shows that they were distant descendants of the Tunghu (東胡 tung wu; Eastern Hu), who were a plague upon the border for over a millenium before being destroyed by the Hsiungnu (匈奴 hung nou; clamorous slaves) in the second century BCE. The Tunghu were almost certainly speakers of a Mongolic language, about the linguistic affinity of the Hsiungnu comparatively little is known. Both groups were native to regions in Mongolia, Manchuria, North-Eastern China, and furthest Russia.
After their defeat, remnants of the Tunghu survived as the Wuhuan (烏桓) in Northern China, and the Hsianpei (鮮卑) in Manchuria and Mongolia.
[烏桓 Wuhuan: pronounced wu-wun in Cantonese. The first word is 'crow', with a secondary meaning of 'dark' or 'black', the last a type of tree. Ethnonym.
鮮卑 Hsianpei: pronounced sin-pai in Cantonese, meaning approximately 'freshly despicable'. Significant branches of the Hsianpei included the Murong (慕容 mou-yung; admirable appearance), Yuwen (宇文 yiu-man; structure texts), Tuoba (拓跋 tok-bat; support epilogue or colophon), Duanshi (段氏 tuen-si; section clan), Chifu (乞伏 hat-fuk; beg & conceal), the Tufa (秃發 tuk-fa; baldness issue), et multo plura. ]
For the next several centuries, Chinese rulers often supported the Hsiungnu and the Hsianpei against each other as a means of keeping peace on the border by promoting butchery in the wastelands. This was an effective and pragmatic approach, which the rapacity of the threatening tribes more than justified.
By the third century CE the Hsianpei confederacy dissipated, and various sections established their own polities. The Murong, as one of the more important groups, founded the Former Yan (前燕 chin yin, 337-370 CE), Western Yan (西燕 sai yin, 384-394 CE), Later Yan (後燕 hau yin, 384-409 CE). The Tuoba ruled a part of north-east China as the Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏朝 paak ngai chiu; the northern awesomely-overtowering dynasty) from 386 to 534 CE.
The Khitan (契丹 kaai daan; contract or bond, cinnabar) were slower to establish themselves as pests, however. Their rapacious tendencies, while long evident, did not become manifested as an independent kingdom till the twilight years of the Tang dynasty. In 907 CE they founded the Liao state (遼 liu; distant or far) in what is now Liaoning (遼寧 liu ning; "pacified Liao"), which was defeated by the Jurchen in 1125, when that latter group of proto-Manchus styled themselves the Jin Dynasty (金朝 kam chiu: 1115–1234 CE). The survivors fled into Central Asia and founded the Western Liao Khanate (西遼朝 sai liu chiu: 1124-1218 CE).
Both the Khitan (Liao) and the Jurchen (Jin) were overrun by the Mongols.
The first in 1218, the latter in 1234.
The Mongols were not only the scourge of nations, but the most savagely brutal and reprehensible of all the barbarians to rupture from the deserts.
After the destruction they wrought, much was permanently altered.
The Khitans disappeared, the Jurchens eventually became the Manchus, and subjugated both China and the tribes on the frontiers (including the Mongols), founding the Ching Empire (大清帝國 daai ching dai kwok; great clearness imperial state) and taking Beijing (北京 paak keng; northern capital) in 1644.
遼西 LIAO HSI
[The following paragraphs are parentheses-rich, for which I apologize.]
The principal river in North-East China is the Liao He (遼河 liu ho; distant river), originating in Inner Mongolia, separating the modern-day Chinese provinces Liaoning (遼寧 liu neng; the pacified or settled marches) and Liaotung (遼東 liu tung; the eastern marches), before terminating in the Gulf of Chihli (直隸海灣 jik lai hoi waan; erect servant bay, now called Bohai - 渤海 but hoi; swelling sea).
The provincial capital of Liaoning, Shenyang city (瀋陽 sam yeung; liquid masculine), formerly called Shengjing (盛京 sing-keng; abundant metropole) and also known as Mukden, was where the Manchus built their first imperial palace, nineteen years before they broke through into Sina trans mura and entered Peking in 1644. Even after consolidating their hold on the civilized world, Shengjing remained their ancestral urbis clarissimae.
During the centuries before the Hsianpei and Jurchen became significant the place was called Houcheng (候城 hau sing; expect city), later becoming Fengtian Fu (奉天府 fung tin fu; esteem heaven prefectoral city). Around 300 BCE during the rule of the Yan Dynasty (燕國 yin kwok; swallow country, extant from circa 1045 BCE till conquered by Qin Shihuang* in 222 BCE) the name was changed to Shen Zhou (瀋州 sam jau; pouring state), which the Mongols changed to Shenyang Lu (瀋陽路 sam yeung lou; the Shenyang administrative circuit).
It was subsequently renamed Shenyang Zhongwai (瀋陽中衛 sam yeung jung wai: the Shenyang central commandery) during the Ming period.
In 1914, three years after the fall of the Ching Dynasty, it was given the current name (瀋陽), the meaning of which shows that it is on the sunny side of the Shen River (瀋水 sam seui; pouring water).
[Qin Shihuang (秦始皇 cheun chi-wong; 259 – 210 BCE): founder of the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 cheun chiu; 221 - 206 BCE). Notable achievements include unifying China and terrorizing his subjects. He was followed by his son, an incompetent who met his death in 207 BCE. Note that the term Qin (秦) is the dynastic appellation and an ancient toponym, shihuang (始皇) merely means 'first emperor'. His personal name was Zhao Zheng (趙政 Jiu Jing).]
奉天 "MUKDEN"
As just one instance of the friability of the area, this is the arena where the Japanese created a pretext in 1931 for the invasion of northeastern China. Shenyang was still referred to as Mukden in the Manchu language at the time. After an explosion near a Japanese railway line at Five Willows Lake (柳條湖 Liǔtiáohú; 'lau tiu wu'), staged by rogue officers, the Imperial Japanese Government blamed Chinese bandits, and massively invaded, defeating the garrison troops of Chang Hsue-liang (張學良 Zhāng Xuéliáng; 'cheung hok leung') stationed at the Northern Great Barracks (北大營 běidàyíng; 'baak daai ying') in a few scant hours. They went on to conquer all of Manchuria, and proclaimed the formation of the "Great Manchurian Empire" (大滿洲帝國 Dà Mǎnzhōu Dìguó; 'daai mun jau dai kwok') on February eighteen of the following year.
As their "head of state", the Japanese chose Aisin-Gioro Pu-yi (愛新覺羅·溥儀 Àixīnjuéluó·Pǔyí; 'ngoi san gaau lou·pou yi'), formerly known as the Hsuan-t'ung Emperor (宣統皇帝 Xuāntǒng Huángdì; 'suen tung wong dai') whose abdication in 1912 ended the Manchu era and the imperial age.
The entire watershed of the Liao river and its tributaries was always considered a distant and unstable region, and even today is still partly barbaric. Although Chinese have always lived there -- frequently in internal exile or posted on the frontier -- it was a part of the civilized world that was not infrequently subject to rapine by outside tribes; the Di (狄、翟 dik) and Rong (戎 yung) peoples, then the Hsiungnu, Hsianpei, Khitan, Jin, Mongol, Turk, and Manchu.
遼東郡與遼西郡
LIU TUNG GWAN AND LIU SAI GWAN
During the Tang era, the eastern and western Liao commandaries (遼東郡、遼西郡) along the northern frontier were frequently in a state of chaos, as the Khitans, though nominally subjected, were not well subjugated.
Generations of soldiers and officials were dispatched to pacify the region, their absence much lamented by the relatives they left behind.
In the quatrain cited at the beginning of this essay, the poet speaks as if in the voice of one such family member, utilizing the customary first person self-depreciating term 'qie' (妾 jip; your servant, concubine) employed by wives in that day and age. It is a literary conceit, which allows him to obliquely criticize the government. Surely if politicians are competent and just, all under heaven (天下 tin haa; 'podnebesnaya' ) will be at peace?
Perhaps things are seriously flawed at the imperial court; otherwise such circumstances could not arise, and people would not suffer.
Note: Separation of couples when husbands were sent to the border is an extremely common theme in Chinese literature; the territories at the Great Wall (長城 cheung sing; long fortification) were a source of danger for millennia.
Afterthought: The operative word in all of this may be 緖 (seui: mental thread, clue, state of mind). Which is also part of the name of the poet whose quatrain was cited. It is a very useful word, obviously.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
FIRES ALONG THE BORDER
While the Tang Dynasty (唐朝, 618 CE to 907 CE) is rightly considered one of China’s golden ages, because of the huge amount of art and literature that was created during the long prosperous years of peace under able emperors, there were always pockets of flame flickering here and there in the empire. Not all the barbarians brought under the imperial sway were equally pleased to be part of the most cosmopolitan society that existed on earth, nor were some of them even remotely capable of appreciating the warm embrace of civilization.
THE PESTILENTIAL SCOURGE
This is not surprising, when you consider that many malcontents were Turks. Their ancestors had assaulted the borders for over a millennium, bent on slaughter, rapine, and pillage. It wasn’t till very many generations after the fall of Tang that some Turkish tribes would actually acquire a written language and more acceptable manners.
During the eighth and ninth centuries they were still vicious savages happily despoiling all settled societies within reach.
The Chinese frontier, even during the height of Tang power, always tempted confederacies of horse-borne brigands, who would search out weak spots, and strike at opportune moments. Sometimes they succeeded in breaking through the wall, and laid waste to entire provinces.
Yes, I know. It isn’t politically correct to talk about an ethnic group in such disparaging terms. Even the Turks.
But were it not for their greed, bloodlust, depraved savagery, and brutal opportunism, the thousand mile wall to keep them out would never have been necessary, let alone built. The Great Wall more than anything else preserved China, and persuaded the heathen desert demons to expand westward, where their descendants eventually raped Russia, destroyed the Caliphates, and conquered Byzantium.
Until the extermination of the Zhungar Khanate by the Ching under Chienlung (乾隆帝) in 1755, which served as a splendid object-lesson to the other wasteland terror-ethnicities, the eastern Turks and Turco-Mongols were kept at bay at best, feared as inhuman monsters at worst.
The three thousand year struggle to keep the heartland from being ravaged by the barbarians beyond the wall occupied the government of every dynasty, created an undying cultural memory of threat and immense sacrifice, and also inspired great literature.
That last far outweighs any contribution from the other side.
Whose impact worldwide has been mostly desolation.
Now, having riled up your liberal sentiments, possibly offended you (ESPECIALLY if you are a cultural relativist, a socialist, or simply ignorant), and having also perhaps insulted your ancestors, if you have the ghastly bad karma to actually be descended from the bestial hordes, here are a few lines of poetry from the height of the Tang period that express beautifully what the long frontier meant to the Chinese.
隴西行 LUNG-SAI HANG
陳陶
誓掃匈奴不顧身, 五千貂錦喪胡塵。
可憐無定河邊骨, 猶是深閨夢裡人。
Sai sou hung-nou bat gu san, ng-chien diu-gam song wu-chan;
Ho-lin mo-ding ho pin gwat, yau si sam-gwai mung-leui yan.
THE TURKESTAN CAMPAIGN
By Chan Tou (Chen Tao)
"Sworn to crush the Hsiungnu without considering themselves, five thousand clad in fur and silk lie buried in the Tatar dust;
How pitiable, those bones by the river of shifting sands, that still populate their widows' dreams."
[Notes: 匈奴 hung nou: an ancient term for the barbarians; 'Hun'. 貂錦 diu-gam: sable and silk, metaphorically the splendid accoutrements of imperial service. 可憐 ho-lin: how sad, how pitiable! 深閨夢 sam-gwai mung: dreams in the women's quarters. ]
夜上受降城聞笛 YE SEUNG SAU HONG SENG MAN DAK
李益
回樂峰前沙似雪, 受降城外月如霜。
不知何處吹蘆管, 一夜征人盡望鄉。
Wui lok fung chin saa chi suet, sau-hong seng-ngoi yuet yu seung;
Pat-chi ho chyu cheui lou gun, yat ye jing-yan cheun mong heung.
AT NIGHT HEARING A FLUTE ON THE CITY WALL AT SHOU-HSIANG
By Lei Yik (Li Yi)
"The sands before Hui-Le Peak seem like snow, beyond Accept-Surrender city the moon shows frost;
Not knowing from where the flute sound comes, all night long recruits think of home."
征人怨 JING -YAN YUEN
柳中庸
歲歲金河復玉關, 朝朝馬策與刀環。
三春白雪歸青塚, 萬里黃河繞黑山。
Seui-seui gam ho fu yuk gwaan, chiu-chiu maa-chaak yu dou-waan;
Saam cheun pak suet gwai ching chung, maan lei wong ho yiu haak saan.
A SOLDIER'S RESENTMENT
By Lau Jung-yung (Liu Zhongyong)
"Year upon year returning to the Jade Pass, age after age of horsewhips and sword hilts;
Three springtimes now snow has blanketed green graves, for a thousand miles the Yellow River girds Black Mountain."
[Notes: Dense visual imagery posed in contrast - snow versus the grasses growing on tombs, as ceaselessly the troops come to guard the frontier; though just the latest recruits in this eternal war, the writer states that for three years they has seen the seasons shift here, but the heartland (Huang Ho: 'Yellow River') will remain constant and timeless.]
AFTERWORD
The phonetic transcription I have given is based on the Cantonese language. This is fitting not only because many of the Chinese in San Francisco speak Cantonese, but also because the Cantonese are the only group to refer to themselves as 'Men of Tang' (Tong yan: 唐人), and their language as 'Tang-speech' (Tong-wa: 唐話).
It is also suitable, because the poetry of that era still mostly rhymes when voiced in their language, the last and greatest descendant of the koine of Tang
The barbarians are yet at the gates, by the way. But they are vastly outnumbered now, and have become rather less relevant since the conquest of Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang: 新疆) by the Ching Dynasty.
Other than occasional outbursts of irredentist violence, they have no significance.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
THE PESTILENTIAL SCOURGE
This is not surprising, when you consider that many malcontents were Turks. Their ancestors had assaulted the borders for over a millennium, bent on slaughter, rapine, and pillage. It wasn’t till very many generations after the fall of Tang that some Turkish tribes would actually acquire a written language and more acceptable manners.
During the eighth and ninth centuries they were still vicious savages happily despoiling all settled societies within reach.
The Chinese frontier, even during the height of Tang power, always tempted confederacies of horse-borne brigands, who would search out weak spots, and strike at opportune moments. Sometimes they succeeded in breaking through the wall, and laid waste to entire provinces.
Yes, I know. It isn’t politically correct to talk about an ethnic group in such disparaging terms. Even the Turks.
But were it not for their greed, bloodlust, depraved savagery, and brutal opportunism, the thousand mile wall to keep them out would never have been necessary, let alone built. The Great Wall more than anything else preserved China, and persuaded the heathen desert demons to expand westward, where their descendants eventually raped Russia, destroyed the Caliphates, and conquered Byzantium.
Until the extermination of the Zhungar Khanate by the Ching under Chienlung (乾隆帝) in 1755, which served as a splendid object-lesson to the other wasteland terror-ethnicities, the eastern Turks and Turco-Mongols were kept at bay at best, feared as inhuman monsters at worst.
The three thousand year struggle to keep the heartland from being ravaged by the barbarians beyond the wall occupied the government of every dynasty, created an undying cultural memory of threat and immense sacrifice, and also inspired great literature.
That last far outweighs any contribution from the other side.
Whose impact worldwide has been mostly desolation.
Now, having riled up your liberal sentiments, possibly offended you (ESPECIALLY if you are a cultural relativist, a socialist, or simply ignorant), and having also perhaps insulted your ancestors, if you have the ghastly bad karma to actually be descended from the bestial hordes, here are a few lines of poetry from the height of the Tang period that express beautifully what the long frontier meant to the Chinese.
隴西行 LUNG-SAI HANG
陳陶
誓掃匈奴不顧身, 五千貂錦喪胡塵。
可憐無定河邊骨, 猶是深閨夢裡人。
Sai sou hung-nou bat gu san, ng-chien diu-gam song wu-chan;
Ho-lin mo-ding ho pin gwat, yau si sam-gwai mung-leui yan.
THE TURKESTAN CAMPAIGN
By Chan Tou (Chen Tao)
"Sworn to crush the Hsiungnu without considering themselves, five thousand clad in fur and silk lie buried in the Tatar dust;
How pitiable, those bones by the river of shifting sands, that still populate their widows' dreams."
[Notes: 匈奴 hung nou: an ancient term for the barbarians; 'Hun'. 貂錦 diu-gam: sable and silk, metaphorically the splendid accoutrements of imperial service. 可憐 ho-lin: how sad, how pitiable! 深閨夢 sam-gwai mung: dreams in the women's quarters. ]
夜上受降城聞笛 YE SEUNG SAU HONG SENG MAN DAK
李益
回樂峰前沙似雪, 受降城外月如霜。
不知何處吹蘆管, 一夜征人盡望鄉。
Wui lok fung chin saa chi suet, sau-hong seng-ngoi yuet yu seung;
Pat-chi ho chyu cheui lou gun, yat ye jing-yan cheun mong heung.
AT NIGHT HEARING A FLUTE ON THE CITY WALL AT SHOU-HSIANG
By Lei Yik (Li Yi)
"The sands before Hui-Le Peak seem like snow, beyond Accept-Surrender city the moon shows frost;
Not knowing from where the flute sound comes, all night long recruits think of home."
征人怨 JING -YAN YUEN
柳中庸
歲歲金河復玉關, 朝朝馬策與刀環。
三春白雪歸青塚, 萬里黃河繞黑山。
Seui-seui gam ho fu yuk gwaan, chiu-chiu maa-chaak yu dou-waan;
Saam cheun pak suet gwai ching chung, maan lei wong ho yiu haak saan.
A SOLDIER'S RESENTMENT
By Lau Jung-yung (Liu Zhongyong)
"Year upon year returning to the Jade Pass, age after age of horsewhips and sword hilts;
Three springtimes now snow has blanketed green graves, for a thousand miles the Yellow River girds Black Mountain."
[Notes: Dense visual imagery posed in contrast - snow versus the grasses growing on tombs, as ceaselessly the troops come to guard the frontier; though just the latest recruits in this eternal war, the writer states that for three years they has seen the seasons shift here, but the heartland (Huang Ho: 'Yellow River') will remain constant and timeless.]
AFTERWORD
The phonetic transcription I have given is based on the Cantonese language. This is fitting not only because many of the Chinese in San Francisco speak Cantonese, but also because the Cantonese are the only group to refer to themselves as 'Men of Tang' (Tong yan: 唐人), and their language as 'Tang-speech' (Tong-wa: 唐話).
It is also suitable, because the poetry of that era still mostly rhymes when voiced in their language, the last and greatest descendant of the koine of Tang
The barbarians are yet at the gates, by the way. But they are vastly outnumbered now, and have become rather less relevant since the conquest of Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang: 新疆) by the Ching Dynasty.
Other than occasional outbursts of irredentist violence, they have no significance.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, January 10, 2011
LAMENT FOR THE SOUTH - BRIEF BACKGROUND
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.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
[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.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, December 27, 2010
FOUR FACES CHU SONG - ECONOMY OF EXPRESSION IN CHINESE
A correspondent opined that the Chinese are devoted to their character-script as a matter of cultural identification and preference, and it was further suggested that there was something not entirely logical about adhering to a system that seemed so much more cumbersome than the alphabet.
Well, yes.
And no.
The main reason the Chinese won’t switch to an alphabetic system is that it would not convey anything other than mere sound. When many morphemes are homophonous – even if tones are taken into account – a strictly phonetic script is far less precise than an ideographic script with phonetic elements to the characters.
Mandarin has approximately 600 distinct syllables that are morphematically independent.
If multiplied by the four tones, you end up with around 2400.
Yet the script encompasses about 8000 characters (more or less, and entirely excluding alternate ways of writing the same character).
Some syllables have only two or three meanings. Others, like 'shi' and 'zhi' have dozens of meanings – most not in any way related to each other or derived from each other.
Additionally, spoken Chinese and written Chinese diverge considerably – spoken Chinese uses many more bi-syllabic and polysyllabic constructs than are necessary in Written Chinese, which tends towards brevity.
Old-style literary Chinese is even more condensed – thus, attempting to convey what a piece says by writing as if one were speaking, will lead to a text three to five times longer than the original, which is unnecessarily prolix by the standards of anyone with more than a grammar school education.
Largely as a result of this density, when you read a passage from the classics or a poem aloud, your listener will often not be able to make much sense out of it – unless they’re already acquainted with it.
However even if only barely literate, most people know enough quotes, sayings, and idioms based on literary references that unless something is really abstruse they can make an identification.
THE PARTING OF THE PRINCE OF BA AND HIS LADY[霸王别姬]
As just one example of a literary idiom that can be used to convey much meaning more brevitously than a mere flat phrase, consider the expression 'se mian chu ge' (四面楚歌): literally translatable as "four faces Chu song" - in idiomatic English, "the songs of Chu can be heard from all sides".
Meaning that one is surrounded, the cause is hopeless, the situation extreme.
漢兵已略地
四面楚歌聲
大王義氣盡
賤妾何聊生
Han-bing yi luo di,
Se mian Chu-ge sheng;
Da-wang yi qi jin,
Jian-qien he liao sheng?
"The army of Han has conquered our land,
On four sides there are the songs of Chu;
My lord's spirit is exhausted,
How then should this lowly concubine hold on to life?"
BACKGROUND
In 202 BCE, General Liu Bang (劉邦) of Han (漢) faced the army of the prince of Western Chu (西楚) at Gai-Xia (垓下) in the Central Plains (Zhong-Yuan: 中原). At night he had patrols entirely surround the encampment of the Western-Chu forces, singing well-known songs of their homeland, thus fooling the opposing side into believing that Han had conquered the state already and incorporated it’s people into the Han army, and that consequently the surrounding force was far greater and far more successful than it actually was – this so demoralized the soldiers that many deserted and fled.
[Interpolated addendum as of 12/28/2010
Tzipporah said: "Please clarify the pronouns in your account. Which "he" is surrounding the camp? It sounds like the songs of HAN are surrounding them, not the songs of Chu... ?"
Chu is the ancient name of a Central-Southern state that was a barely Sinicised periphery to the rest of the Chinese world - which at that time did not extend significantly further south than the watershed of the great river.
At its greatest extent Chu included Hunan (湖南), Hubei (湖北), Henan (河南), Anhui (安徽), the southern part of Jiangsu (江蘇) and the northern reaches of Jiangxi (江西). Like the other Chinese states, Chu vied for power and primacy - unifying China always proved that one had the Mandate of Heaven.
Han is the term for the dynastic polity founded by Liu Bang, subsequently holding sway over all China upon conquering the other territories of the Chinese world, including Western Chu.
By having his men sing the familiar airs of Chu, Liu Bang of Han waged psychological war against the soldiers of Western Chu (Xiang Yu's army). It was utterly successful. ]
Rather than being an encumbrance and possibly dishonoured - and so furthering disgrace and defeat for her lord - the consort of the Western-Chu leader committed suicide.
Prince Xiang Yu (項羽) was eventually left with only a few hundred men, which was gradually whittled down to 28 when the remnant of Western-Chu reached Dongcheng (東城) across the Huai river (淮河). Rather than returning to Chu, they fought till their deaths in a last stand on the banks of the Wu (烏江).
Thus, with only four syllables, four words, a huge wealth of reference is called to mind, and a desperate set of circumstances made clear.
How much more evocative than merely saying "the jig’s up".
AFTERWORD
Before facing the forces of Han with his remaining men at the Wu channel, Xiang Yu asked a ferryman to escort his beloved dappled steed Zhui (騅) back to Jiandong (江東).
After his death, the state of Western Chu surrendered, and Liu Bang became the first emperor of Han.
Xiang Yu was given a grand funeral, and his relatives were ennobled.
虞兮虞兮奈若何
Yu xi, Yu xi, nai ru he?"
Oh Yu, Yu, what will become of you?"
If you've seen the movie 'Farewell My Concubine', you are already familiar with part of the tale - specifically the suicide of Xiang Yu's consort (the lady Yu - 虞姬) at Gai-Xia, theme of the famous opera 霸王别姬 - Ba-wang Bie Ji. The movie borrows from the opera, which in turn is based on events described in The Records of the Grand Historian ('Shi Ji': 史記) and The History of the Earlier Han ('Qian Han Shu': 前漢書), as well as a wealth of subsequent analysis and poetification.
NOTES
Xiàng (項): Back of neck; numeral classifier for clauses, tasks, projects, etcetera. Surname.
yǔ ( 羽): Feather. A musical tone. Yú (虞): Expect, anticipate. Concern, anxiety. Surname.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Well, yes.
And no.
The main reason the Chinese won’t switch to an alphabetic system is that it would not convey anything other than mere sound. When many morphemes are homophonous – even if tones are taken into account – a strictly phonetic script is far less precise than an ideographic script with phonetic elements to the characters.
Mandarin has approximately 600 distinct syllables that are morphematically independent.
If multiplied by the four tones, you end up with around 2400.
Yet the script encompasses about 8000 characters (more or less, and entirely excluding alternate ways of writing the same character).
Some syllables have only two or three meanings. Others, like 'shi' and 'zhi' have dozens of meanings – most not in any way related to each other or derived from each other.
Additionally, spoken Chinese and written Chinese diverge considerably – spoken Chinese uses many more bi-syllabic and polysyllabic constructs than are necessary in Written Chinese, which tends towards brevity.
Old-style literary Chinese is even more condensed – thus, attempting to convey what a piece says by writing as if one were speaking, will lead to a text three to five times longer than the original, which is unnecessarily prolix by the standards of anyone with more than a grammar school education.
Largely as a result of this density, when you read a passage from the classics or a poem aloud, your listener will often not be able to make much sense out of it – unless they’re already acquainted with it.
However even if only barely literate, most people know enough quotes, sayings, and idioms based on literary references that unless something is really abstruse they can make an identification.
THE PARTING OF THE PRINCE OF BA AND HIS LADY[霸王别姬]
As just one example of a literary idiom that can be used to convey much meaning more brevitously than a mere flat phrase, consider the expression 'se mian chu ge' (四面楚歌): literally translatable as "four faces Chu song" - in idiomatic English, "the songs of Chu can be heard from all sides".
Meaning that one is surrounded, the cause is hopeless, the situation extreme.
漢兵已略地
四面楚歌聲
大王義氣盡
賤妾何聊生
Han-bing yi luo di,
Se mian Chu-ge sheng;
Da-wang yi qi jin,
Jian-qien he liao sheng?
"The army of Han has conquered our land,
On four sides there are the songs of Chu;
My lord's spirit is exhausted,
How then should this lowly concubine hold on to life?"
BACKGROUND
In 202 BCE, General Liu Bang (劉邦) of Han (漢) faced the army of the prince of Western Chu (西楚) at Gai-Xia (垓下) in the Central Plains (Zhong-Yuan: 中原). At night he had patrols entirely surround the encampment of the Western-Chu forces, singing well-known songs of their homeland, thus fooling the opposing side into believing that Han had conquered the state already and incorporated it’s people into the Han army, and that consequently the surrounding force was far greater and far more successful than it actually was – this so demoralized the soldiers that many deserted and fled.
[Interpolated addendum as of 12/28/2010
Tzipporah said: "Please clarify the pronouns in your account. Which "he" is surrounding the camp? It sounds like the songs of HAN are surrounding them, not the songs of Chu... ?"
Chu is the ancient name of a Central-Southern state that was a barely Sinicised periphery to the rest of the Chinese world - which at that time did not extend significantly further south than the watershed of the great river.
At its greatest extent Chu included Hunan (湖南), Hubei (湖北), Henan (河南), Anhui (安徽), the southern part of Jiangsu (江蘇) and the northern reaches of Jiangxi (江西). Like the other Chinese states, Chu vied for power and primacy - unifying China always proved that one had the Mandate of Heaven.
Han is the term for the dynastic polity founded by Liu Bang, subsequently holding sway over all China upon conquering the other territories of the Chinese world, including Western Chu.
By having his men sing the familiar airs of Chu, Liu Bang of Han waged psychological war against the soldiers of Western Chu (Xiang Yu's army). It was utterly successful. ]
Rather than being an encumbrance and possibly dishonoured - and so furthering disgrace and defeat for her lord - the consort of the Western-Chu leader committed suicide.
Prince Xiang Yu (項羽) was eventually left with only a few hundred men, which was gradually whittled down to 28 when the remnant of Western-Chu reached Dongcheng (東城) across the Huai river (淮河). Rather than returning to Chu, they fought till their deaths in a last stand on the banks of the Wu (烏江).
四面楚歌
Thus, with only four syllables, four words, a huge wealth of reference is called to mind, and a desperate set of circumstances made clear.
How much more evocative than merely saying "the jig’s up".
AFTERWORD
Before facing the forces of Han with his remaining men at the Wu channel, Xiang Yu asked a ferryman to escort his beloved dappled steed Zhui (騅) back to Jiandong (江東).
After his death, the state of Western Chu surrendered, and Liu Bang became the first emperor of Han.
Xiang Yu was given a grand funeral, and his relatives were ennobled.
虞兮虞兮奈若何
Yu xi, Yu xi, nai ru he?"
Oh Yu, Yu, what will become of you?"
If you've seen the movie 'Farewell My Concubine', you are already familiar with part of the tale - specifically the suicide of Xiang Yu's consort (the lady Yu - 虞姬) at Gai-Xia, theme of the famous opera 霸王别姬 - Ba-wang Bie Ji. The movie borrows from the opera, which in turn is based on events described in The Records of the Grand Historian ('Shi Ji': 史記) and The History of the Earlier Han ('Qian Han Shu': 前漢書), as well as a wealth of subsequent analysis and poetification.
NOTES
Xiàng (項): Back of neck; numeral classifier for clauses, tasks, projects, etcetera. Surname.
yǔ ( 羽): Feather. A musical tone. Yú (虞): Expect, anticipate. Concern, anxiety. Surname.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
DEATH ON MA WEI SLOPE
The astute reader will have noticed the clickable label 唐人街 under several posts discussing Chinatown on this blog.
The words 唐人街 ('Tong-Yan Kai') literally mean Tang Person Street - that being the name for the Chinese district in San Francisco, as well as most Chinatowns elsewhere. It is strictly a Cantonese term; the Cantonese refer to themselves as men of Tang, after China's arguably most splendid era.
In the Western World, the Tang dynasty is known mainly for San-Tsai pottery and horse paintings, whereas to the Chinese that period is famous primarily for poetry, fat beauties, and Turks.
The Cantonese, like all Chinese, take great pride in the poetry.
Not so much the fat beauties or the Turks.
Here in San Francisco we have Chinese people, and also enough plump hell-cats to make an emperor drool. Quite likely we have Turks as well.
[Honestly, what is it with modern San Francisco girls? Why do so many of them pack more poundage than I do? Why is there such a surfeit of young ladies here, so much younger than yours truly yet so much heavier? I'm a mature man, Fercrapsakes!
I'm not supposed to look trimmer and spryer than you lot! Really!]
No other Chinese describe themselves as Tang, only the Cantonese. It is deliciously odd.
INCESTUOUS THREATS
The Tang Dynasty (Tong Chiew: 唐朝 - anno 618 CE to 907 CE) was one of the high-water marks of Chinese civilization, during which the empire reached its furthest expanse. Great advances in the arts and sciences were made, and due to the many splendid achievements, especially in literature, the Tang Dynasty truly counts as one of the golden ages of human history.
Yet there was always a haunting sense of fragility.
Several societies have traditionally been endangered by howling savages from the north - Rome had the Germanic tribes, Israel has the Lebanese, and we have the Canadians.
China for centuries has had the Turks.
More than the fashionably fat temptresses beloved by the grandees of the capital, the constant threat of invasion by barbarians from beyond the frontier shaped Tang society. Scholars and officials for generations either were posted north to fend off the fur-clad mob, or fled south to escape their depredations. The sight of men on horseback was a constant in metropoles north of the Yangtze, and returnees told harrowing tales of deprivation and endurance in the waste lands.
Ironically the Tang Dynasty itself was actually part Turkish, albeit long Sinicized and acclimatized. The ruling clan, and of much of the Northern aristocracy, had been on the frontier for generations, and represented a subculture that was more-or-less Chinese politically, but had overmuch in common with the tribes that beset the border.
The ancestors of many such clans had been heathen warlords co-opted by titles and power, and gradually brought into the civilized fold.
They were 'gentled' by their association with Chinese culture, but not entirely converted - during periods of instability, their opportunism and rapacious native tendencies would resurface.
The following poem adds to that irony - it references the killing of the emperor's concubine during a period of crypto-Turkic rebellion and bloodshed.
Now please note: the ruling family of Tang was named Li (Lei: 李), a surname that very often indicates a Barbaric origin (hence so many Turco-Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and others of questionable antecedents thus appelled). The lady in this quatrain was surnamed Yang (Yeung: 楊), that being also the name of the crypto-Turkic clan that the Lis of Tang had superceded (and both she herself as well as her lord were in fact related by blood to the previous dynasty), yet Yang is a very Chinese name with absolutely no heathen hue.
Though people with these surnames are USUALLY fully Chinese, these particular Lis and Yangs were MOSTLY of 'foreign' origin.
This poem could NOT be more Chinese - yet the people in it were barely so.
If anything, they were Tang.
馬嵬坡 - MA WEI PO
玄宗回馬楊妃死， 雲雨難忘日月新。
終是聖明天子事， 景陽宮井又何人。
[詩者: 鄭畋]
MA NGAI PO ('Ma Wei Slope')
Yun-Tsong wui ma Yeung-Fei sei,
Wan-yiu naan-mong yat-yuet san;
Jung-si Sing-Ming tien-ji si,
Ging-Yeung Gung jeng yau ho-yan?
[Written by Zheng Tian (Jeng Tin 鄭畋) ]
Translation:
Hsuan-Tsung return horse Yang honoured consort dead,
Cloud-rain difficult forget day month new;
Finality indeed Sheng-Ming son-of-heaven business,
Ching-Yang Palace waterwell once-more who?
Paraphrasis:
When Hsuan-Tsung came back from his ride Lady Yang was already dead,
His love for her will be remembered for all eternity;
‘Recollect the affair of the Sing-Ming emperor............
And who (also) ended up in the well at the Ging-Yeung Palace?’
In short, while the emperor was off riding, his soldiers killed his concubine, whose family they hated.
CLARIFICATORY BACKGROUND
In the year 712 CE Li Longji (Lei LungKei: 李隆基 born 685 CE, died 762 CE) became the seventh emperor of the Tang Dynasty (styled Tang Hsuan-Tsung / Tong Yun-Tsong: 唐玄宗), reigning till 756 CE. After several years of quite able rule, he grew lax and careless, eventually bringing the empire to the edge of ruin. The name most associated with this latter period is Yang Kweifei - the imperial consort Yang.
Yang Yu-Hwan (Yeung Yiuk-Waan: 楊玉環 - born 719 CE, died 756 CE), the daughter of Yang Hsuan-Yan (Yeung Yun-Yim: 楊玄琰), was the wife of Hsuan-Tsung's son the Prince of Shou. After emperor Hsuan-Tsung noticed her, she divorced her husband, became a Buddhist nun for while to ensure plausible deniability, then rejoined the world (circa 737 or 738 CE) and became the emperor's concubine, receiving the title kweifei (gwaifei: 貴妃 honoured consort).
[The Prince of Shou (Sau Wong: 壽王): Li Mao (Lei Mo: 李瑁) born 715 CE died 775 CE. The eighteenth son of the emperor, whose mother was Consort Wu (Wu Wuifei / Mou Waifei 武惠妃), daughter of a clan that had nearly usurped the throne in a previous generation. Consort Wu never became empress due to the extreme wariness of court officials, who remembered what had happened. She never the less had great status and influence in the palace, and was deferred to as the highest lady in the land. She died in 737 CE.
Like many other power-circles within the imperial court, the Wus were border aristocracy and related by blood to the imperial family. The surname Wu (Mou: 武) means martial, military, warlike - characteristically a surname chosen by Sinified barbarians in the North. ]
As the emperor became ever more besotted by his lady, he acceded to her requests to bestow favours upon her relatives, making her cousin Yang Kuo-Chong (Yeung Kok-Chung: 楊國忠) prime minister, and several of her other kinsmen high officials. Over the years while the power of the Yang family grew affairs of state were neglected and the treasury despoiled, leading to rebellion in the provinces.
In 755 CE, An LuShan (On LokSan: 安禄山), a feudal lord of mixed Sogdian and Central-Asian Turkish ancestry from the North-Eastern border of the empire, raised the standard of revolt and marched on the capitol Chang-An (Cheung-On: 長安 - modern day Hsi-An/Sei-On: 西安).
The imperial court fled south towards Shu (Suk: 蜀 - modern day Szechuan), and at Ma Wei Station (Ma-NGai Yik: 馬嵬驛) in Shaansi (Simsai: 陝西) the military escort decided to exact revenge for the destruction that the emperor's concubine and her rapacious relatives had wrought.
The emperor's tearful objections were stilled when he was reminded that ONE death might not be enough - killing ineffective rulers also had historic precedents.
SO FAR, SO GOOD .......
After slaughtering several court officials and members of the Yang family, troops and officers remonstrated with the emperor.
Thereupon Yang Kweifei was taken to a nearby Buddhist temple and strangled, following which she was unceremoniously buried at Ma Wei slope (馬嵬坡).
In 757 CE, when the now retired emperor Hsuan-Tsung returned to Chang-An, he wished to retrieve her body for a proper entombment, but was dissuaded by his officials, who feared tumult if the military should hear of it.
Historians are of two minds about the reputation of Lady Yang – was she the root of trouble, or merely a symptom? And who deserves more blame – the emperor for his weakness, Lady Yang for her manipulation on behalf of her kinsmen, or her relatives for being so unworthy of benefice?
Was she a vixen, or merely a victim of her time and place?
[I need not even mention that she was also rumoured to have had an affair with An Lu-Shan. Who was, notabene, an honorary 'adopted' son of the emperor!]
Whatever her true role in the convoluted court politics of Tang may have been, Yang Kweifei is mainly remembered as one of the greatest temptresses of all time, charming enough to alter the course of history - pleasingly plump and full figured, pale, with a lively and intelligent face.
A classic Chinese beauty. And thus a dangerous woman.
TONG YAN KAI
To the Cantonese, the distant Northern Border might as well be on the far side of the moon. Nothing in their environment prepares them for the extreme cold, the dryness, the aridity. The idea of being sent to man an outpost in the sands of Turkestan is enough to make them blanch.
Yes, the Cantonese are proud of China's achievements, and of the extension of empire along the Silk-Road - but everything North of the great river is a foreign world, and arguably not even Chinese. Certainly not proper Chinese.
They talk funny, eat weird crap, and smell funky, up there in the North.
Why, they're probably even half Turks!
NOTE: The two types of pronunciation given for Chinese characters above reflect Mandarin, which is the official language, and Cantonese, which is spoken here in San Francisco. In addition to being the Chinese language with which I am most familiar, Cantonese is also much more appropriate in the context of this post: It is the Chinese language whose pronunciation is closest to the koine of the Tang period.
As many Cantonese proudly assert, and educated Northerners grudgingly acknowledge.
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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
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The words 唐人街 ('Tong-Yan Kai') literally mean Tang Person Street - that being the name for the Chinese district in San Francisco, as well as most Chinatowns elsewhere. It is strictly a Cantonese term; the Cantonese refer to themselves as men of Tang, after China's arguably most splendid era.
In the Western World, the Tang dynasty is known mainly for San-Tsai pottery and horse paintings, whereas to the Chinese that period is famous primarily for poetry, fat beauties, and Turks.
The Cantonese, like all Chinese, take great pride in the poetry.
Not so much the fat beauties or the Turks.
Here in San Francisco we have Chinese people, and also enough plump hell-cats to make an emperor drool. Quite likely we have Turks as well.
[Honestly, what is it with modern San Francisco girls? Why do so many of them pack more poundage than I do? Why is there such a surfeit of young ladies here, so much younger than yours truly yet so much heavier? I'm a mature man, Fercrapsakes!
I'm not supposed to look trimmer and spryer than you lot! Really!]
No other Chinese describe themselves as Tang, only the Cantonese. It is deliciously odd.
INCESTUOUS THREATS
The Tang Dynasty (Tong Chiew: 唐朝 - anno 618 CE to 907 CE) was one of the high-water marks of Chinese civilization, during which the empire reached its furthest expanse. Great advances in the arts and sciences were made, and due to the many splendid achievements, especially in literature, the Tang Dynasty truly counts as one of the golden ages of human history.
Yet there was always a haunting sense of fragility.
Several societies have traditionally been endangered by howling savages from the north - Rome had the Germanic tribes, Israel has the Lebanese, and we have the Canadians.
China for centuries has had the Turks.
More than the fashionably fat temptresses beloved by the grandees of the capital, the constant threat of invasion by barbarians from beyond the frontier shaped Tang society. Scholars and officials for generations either were posted north to fend off the fur-clad mob, or fled south to escape their depredations. The sight of men on horseback was a constant in metropoles north of the Yangtze, and returnees told harrowing tales of deprivation and endurance in the waste lands.
Ironically the Tang Dynasty itself was actually part Turkish, albeit long Sinicized and acclimatized. The ruling clan, and of much of the Northern aristocracy, had been on the frontier for generations, and represented a subculture that was more-or-less Chinese politically, but had overmuch in common with the tribes that beset the border.
The ancestors of many such clans had been heathen warlords co-opted by titles and power, and gradually brought into the civilized fold.
They were 'gentled' by their association with Chinese culture, but not entirely converted - during periods of instability, their opportunism and rapacious native tendencies would resurface.
The following poem adds to that irony - it references the killing of the emperor's concubine during a period of crypto-Turkic rebellion and bloodshed.
Now please note: the ruling family of Tang was named Li (Lei: 李), a surname that very often indicates a Barbaric origin (hence so many Turco-Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and others of questionable antecedents thus appelled). The lady in this quatrain was surnamed Yang (Yeung: 楊), that being also the name of the crypto-Turkic clan that the Lis of Tang had superceded (and both she herself as well as her lord were in fact related by blood to the previous dynasty), yet Yang is a very Chinese name with absolutely no heathen hue.
Though people with these surnames are USUALLY fully Chinese, these particular Lis and Yangs were MOSTLY of 'foreign' origin.
This poem could NOT be more Chinese - yet the people in it were barely so.
If anything, they were Tang.
馬嵬坡 - MA WEI PO
玄宗回馬楊妃死， 雲雨難忘日月新。
終是聖明天子事， 景陽宮井又何人。
[詩者: 鄭畋]
MA NGAI PO ('Ma Wei Slope')
Yun-Tsong wui ma Yeung-Fei sei,
Wan-yiu naan-mong yat-yuet san;
Jung-si Sing-Ming tien-ji si,
Ging-Yeung Gung jeng yau ho-yan?
[Written by Zheng Tian (Jeng Tin 鄭畋) ]
Translation:
Hsuan-Tsung return horse Yang honoured consort dead,
Cloud-rain difficult forget day month new;
Finality indeed Sheng-Ming son-of-heaven business,
Ching-Yang Palace waterwell once-more who?
Paraphrasis:
When Hsuan-Tsung came back from his ride Lady Yang was already dead,
His love for her will be remembered for all eternity;
‘Recollect the affair of the Sing-Ming emperor............
And who (also) ended up in the well at the Ging-Yeung Palace?’
In short, while the emperor was off riding, his soldiers killed his concubine, whose family they hated.
CLARIFICATORY BACKGROUND
In the year 712 CE Li Longji (Lei LungKei: 李隆基 born 685 CE, died 762 CE) became the seventh emperor of the Tang Dynasty (styled Tang Hsuan-Tsung / Tong Yun-Tsong: 唐玄宗), reigning till 756 CE. After several years of quite able rule, he grew lax and careless, eventually bringing the empire to the edge of ruin. The name most associated with this latter period is Yang Kweifei - the imperial consort Yang.
Yang Yu-Hwan (Yeung Yiuk-Waan: 楊玉環 - born 719 CE, died 756 CE), the daughter of Yang Hsuan-Yan (Yeung Yun-Yim: 楊玄琰), was the wife of Hsuan-Tsung's son the Prince of Shou. After emperor Hsuan-Tsung noticed her, she divorced her husband, became a Buddhist nun for while to ensure plausible deniability, then rejoined the world (circa 737 or 738 CE) and became the emperor's concubine, receiving the title kweifei (gwaifei: 貴妃 honoured consort).
[The Prince of Shou (Sau Wong: 壽王): Li Mao (Lei Mo: 李瑁) born 715 CE died 775 CE. The eighteenth son of the emperor, whose mother was Consort Wu (Wu Wuifei / Mou Waifei 武惠妃), daughter of a clan that had nearly usurped the throne in a previous generation. Consort Wu never became empress due to the extreme wariness of court officials, who remembered what had happened. She never the less had great status and influence in the palace, and was deferred to as the highest lady in the land. She died in 737 CE.
Like many other power-circles within the imperial court, the Wus were border aristocracy and related by blood to the imperial family. The surname Wu (Mou: 武) means martial, military, warlike - characteristically a surname chosen by Sinified barbarians in the North. ]
As the emperor became ever more besotted by his lady, he acceded to her requests to bestow favours upon her relatives, making her cousin Yang Kuo-Chong (Yeung Kok-Chung: 楊國忠) prime minister, and several of her other kinsmen high officials. Over the years while the power of the Yang family grew affairs of state were neglected and the treasury despoiled, leading to rebellion in the provinces.
In 755 CE, An LuShan (On LokSan: 安禄山), a feudal lord of mixed Sogdian and Central-Asian Turkish ancestry from the North-Eastern border of the empire, raised the standard of revolt and marched on the capitol Chang-An (Cheung-On: 長安 - modern day Hsi-An/Sei-On: 西安).
The imperial court fled south towards Shu (Suk: 蜀 - modern day Szechuan), and at Ma Wei Station (Ma-NGai Yik: 馬嵬驛) in Shaansi (Simsai: 陝西) the military escort decided to exact revenge for the destruction that the emperor's concubine and her rapacious relatives had wrought.
The emperor's tearful objections were stilled when he was reminded that ONE death might not be enough - killing ineffective rulers also had historic precedents.
SO FAR, SO GOOD .......
After slaughtering several court officials and members of the Yang family, troops and officers remonstrated with the emperor.
Thereupon Yang Kweifei was taken to a nearby Buddhist temple and strangled, following which she was unceremoniously buried at Ma Wei slope (馬嵬坡).
In 757 CE, when the now retired emperor Hsuan-Tsung returned to Chang-An, he wished to retrieve her body for a proper entombment, but was dissuaded by his officials, who feared tumult if the military should hear of it.
Historians are of two minds about the reputation of Lady Yang – was she the root of trouble, or merely a symptom? And who deserves more blame – the emperor for his weakness, Lady Yang for her manipulation on behalf of her kinsmen, or her relatives for being so unworthy of benefice?
Was she a vixen, or merely a victim of her time and place?
[I need not even mention that she was also rumoured to have had an affair with An Lu-Shan. Who was, notabene, an honorary 'adopted' son of the emperor!]
Whatever her true role in the convoluted court politics of Tang may have been, Yang Kweifei is mainly remembered as one of the greatest temptresses of all time, charming enough to alter the course of history - pleasingly plump and full figured, pale, with a lively and intelligent face.
A classic Chinese beauty. And thus a dangerous woman.
TONG YAN KAI
To the Cantonese, the distant Northern Border might as well be on the far side of the moon. Nothing in their environment prepares them for the extreme cold, the dryness, the aridity. The idea of being sent to man an outpost in the sands of Turkestan is enough to make them blanch.
Yes, the Cantonese are proud of China's achievements, and of the extension of empire along the Silk-Road - but everything North of the great river is a foreign world, and arguably not even Chinese. Certainly not proper Chinese.
They talk funny, eat weird crap, and smell funky, up there in the North.
Why, they're probably even half Turks!
NOTE: The two types of pronunciation given for Chinese characters above reflect Mandarin, which is the official language, and Cantonese, which is spoken here in San Francisco. In addition to being the Chinese language with which I am most familiar, Cantonese is also much more appropriate in the context of this post: It is the Chinese language whose pronunciation is closest to the koine of the Tang period.
As many Cantonese proudly assert, and educated Northerners grudgingly acknowledge.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
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