I can provide more information about Cao Cao if someone could kindly translate it into English.

Part one

±ä¾Þ¦r©s¼w¡M¤p¦Wªü¿f¡M ¨K°ê (°ê¬Û·í¤_°p) Ã׿¤ (¤µ¦wÀ²­½¿¤) ¤H¡M 155AD ¥X¥Í¤_©x¹±¦a¥D®a®x¡C ¥L¤÷¿Ë±ä·C¬O«Æ©x±äÄ˪º¾i¤l¡C ±äÄË´¿¥ô¤¤±`¨Í¡M®Ù«Ò®É«Ê¶O«F«J¡M¦a¦ì«ÜÅã­n¡C«Æ©x¥»¨Ó¬O¤£¯à ¥Í¨à¨|¤kªº¡M¦ý¥Ñ¤_ªFº~¦Z´Á«Æ©x¶Õ¤O«Ü¤j¡M¶¶«Ò«K¤U¥O¤¹³\¥L­Ì ¦¬¾i¤z¨à¤lŧÀï¡C±äÄ˦º«á¡M ±ä·CÄò©ÓÀï¦ì¡M ¥ý¦Z¥ô¥qÁõ®Õ±L¡M ¤j¥qµ¥Â¾¡CÆF«Ò½æ©x®É¡M ±ä·C´¿¥H¤@¸U¸U¿úªº¥¨´Ú¶R±o¤Ó±L©x¾¡C «Æ©x¦b·í®ÉªÀ·|¤W¬O³Q¤Hª[µøªº¡M¥X¨­¦Wªùªº©x¹±¤h¤j¤Ò´N§ó¬Ý¤£ °_¥L­Ì¤F¡C¦ý¬Oº~¥½«Æ©x±MÅvªº´X¤Q¦~¤¤¡M±ä¤ó®a±Úªº¶Õ¤O«o¬O¬Û ·í¤jªº¡

¤Ö¦~®É¥Nªº±ä¾Þ¡M·R¦n­¸ÆN¨«ª¯¡M®g½b¤ñªZ¡M¡§´å¿ºµL«×¡¨¡M ¥ØµL§±Ð¡M¤£¨ü§«U§ô¡C¤@¨Ç¦³¦a¦ìªº¤H¦ÛµM¬Ý¤£ºD¡M»¡¥L ¡§¥ô«L©ñ¿º¡M¤£ªv¦æ·~¡¨¡C¥L¨û¤÷©Z¤ß¥L¤£¯àÄò©Ó®a·~¡Mª§¦C¦Wªù¡M ¸g±`¦b±ä·C­±«e»¡¥LÃa¸Ü¡M±ä¾Þ¤´¤@¦p¤w©¹¡C±ä¾Þ¦æ¬°ÁöµM¤£¦X·í®É ªºÂ§«U¡M ¦ý¥L¦³ªv¥@ªº§Ó¦V¡M¦bµn®õµØ¤s®É¡M´¿¼g¤U¤F³o¼Ëªº¸Ö¥y¡

¤£±­¦~©¹¡MÀu¥@¤£ªv¡
¦s¤`¦³©R¡M¼{¤§¬°°E¡

³oªí©ú±ä¾Þ·Q§ïÅܪFº~¥½¦~²V¶Ãªº§½­±¡C¬°¤F¹ê²{³o¼Ëªº¬Fªv²z·Q¡M¥L³Õ Äý¸s®Ñ¡M¤×¨ä³ß·R§L®Ñ¡C¥L¦¬¶°¤F¦U®a§Lªk¡M¶×½s¦¨¥U¡MÃD¦W (±µ­n)¡M ÁÙ¬° (®]ªZ¤l) (§Y ¡m®]¤l§Lªk¡n¤Q¤T½g) §@ª`¡C¦¹ª`¸g¹L¤£Â_¥R¹ê¡M´¿¶Ç ¤§¤_¥@¡M«á¨Ó­ì®Ñ¥¢¶Ç¤F¡

±ä¾Þ¬°¤Fµn¤W¥K³~¡M ¹ê²{¦Û¤vªv¥@ªº©ê­t¡M«Üª`·N©M¦W¤h¥æ©¹¡M¸g¹L¤@µf©P §é¡M Á`ºâ±o¨ì¤F±ç°ê¾ô¥È©M«n¶§¦óñªµ¥¤j¦W¤hªº½àÃÑ¡C¾ô¥ÈÃÙ´­±ä¾Þ»¡¡R ¡§¬Ý¨Ó¤Ñ¤U±N­n¤j¶Ã¡M¤£¬O©R¥@¤§¤~¬O¤£¯à¨Ï¤Ñ¤U¦w©wªº¡M¯à¦w©w¤Ñ¤Uªº´N ¬O§A¤F¡C¡¨¥LÁÙ¹ªÀy±ä¾Þ»¡¡R¡§§A­n¦n¦n§V¤O¡C §Ú¤w¸g¦Ñ¤F¡M Ä@·N§â©d¤l ¨à¤k¦«¥Iµ¹§A¡C¡¨¬°¤FÅý±ä¾Þ¨ú±o¦WÁn¡M ¾ô¥ÈÁÙÄU¥L¥hµ²¥æ³\Êo (§Y³\¤l±N).

to be continued if requested.

Re: Putong Hua or Chinese Official Language

Many people thought that Guo Yu (°ê»y) came along only after the establishment of the Republic of China. It is not so. No doubt the term Guo Yu was invented in the earlier years of the Republic of China but Guo Yu or standard spoken language had been in existence for more than 3,000 years.

The official language (Guo Yu) during the Zhou Dynasty (©P´Â1134BC to 256BC) was called Ya Yan (¶®¨¥) which was a dialect spoken in the region around the Zhou capital Hoa (Âî in the present day location near Xi An ¦è¦w city in Shaanxi province ÔE¦è¬Ù). Not only the officials of the Zhou Court using this dialect as official language but representatives from all the vassal States («Ê°ê) also used this language when they arrived in the capital. There were more than 170 vassal States during the Zhou Dynasty. Ya Yan was the language for communication between all the vassal States. For examples, declarartion of wars, signing friendly pacts and many other official functions were all written in Ya Yu.

Kong Zhong Ni (¤Õ¥ò¥§) or Confucius (551BC to 479BC) used Ya Yan language to teach his 3,000 students who came from different regions of the country.

The official language of the Han Dynasty (º~´Â 206BC to 220AD) was called Tong Yu (³q»y) common language which was being used continuously by the successive Dynasties right up to the Song Dynasty (§º´Â 960AD to 1279AD).

In 1094AD Emperor Zhao Xu (»¯·Ö), the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, demoted Su Dong Po (ĬªF©Y1036AD to 1101AD), the contemporary well-known official, scholar and poet. Emperor Zhao Xu banished Su Dong Po to Hui Zhou (´f¦{)in Guangdong province (¼sªF¬Ù). Su Dong Po established a school there and he used Tong Yu as the medium of instruction to his pupils.

Beijing was the capital of the Dynasties of Yuan (¤¸´Â 1206AD to 1368AD), Ming (©ú´Â1368AD to 1644AD) and Qing (²M´Â 1644AD to 1912AD). The Courts of these Dynasties adopted the spoken language in the region of Beijing as the Guan Hua (©x¸Ü) or officials' language. During the Qing Dynasty the Manchus paid special attention to Guan Hua. They were very strict with Guan Hua. Officials and judges could be dismissed if they were caught for not using the Guan Hua during official functions. Students were encouraged to learn and speak Guan Hua.

In 1903 a scholar named Zhu Wen Xiong (¦¶¤åºµ) wrote a book entiled ¦¿Ä¬·s¦r¥À or The New Words Of Jiangsu. He classified Han Yu (º~»y) or Han-Chinese language into three categries. The main category was called Pu Tong Yu (´¶³q»y). Actually Pu Tong Yu was Guan Hua. He argued that it was a common language for all the provinces.

In 1912 Dr Sun Yet-Sen established the Republic of China. Many people from Guangdong province lobbied him to adopt Cantonese as the official language of the new Republic. However, Dr Sun rejected the suggestion and adopted Pu Tong Yu as the official language. Dr Sun renamed Pu Tong Yu as Guo Yu (°ê»y) or the language of the nation. However, foreigners called Guo Yu as Mandarin, a Portuguese word which means the language spoken by Chinese officials. Actually Guo Yu is a standard spoken language of the northern provinces and Manchuria.

According to the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore the term Mandarin means Hua Yu (µØ»y) or Chinese language. To them the terminology of Guo Yu means Malaysian or Singaporean official language.

I wonder what Chinese terminology is being used for Guo Yu by the Chinese in U.S.A., Canada and other parts of the world.

There are many sources for Chinese idioms on the Internet. You might start at,
http://chineseculture.miningco.com/culture/chineseculture/library/extra/idiom/blidiom.htm

However, I like this site better.
http://www.openface.ca/~dstephen/chprov.htm
I admire David Stephen's work, and recommend it highly to all.

Dear Mike

Great, a translation for the general readers!

How wonderful to know of a Westerner contributing to an understanding of Chinese poetry! To read and enjoy is satisfying. To create and beautify is admirable. You and Alfred are the one in a million.

Dear Mike

I have a translation by Wai-Lim Yip in his book "Chinese Poetry: Major Modes and Genres". The sad song "Return to East Mountain" was a poem from the ShiJing ¸Ö¸g and was said to be written in honour of the Duke of Zhou ©P¤½¥¹ when he had returned from a three year long expedition. The Duke was generous to his officers, who dedicated this song to him. The Duke of Zhou was the fourth son of King Wen of Zhou ©P¤å¤ý and younger brother of King Wu of Zhou ©PªZ¤ý. He acted as the Regent for his nephew and was considered by Confucius as a role model of a good and righteous ruler.

The translation, with some modifications, is as follows:

Go north up the TaiHang Mountain,
How rugged, how steep!
Goat-Gutted Slope, so tortuous,
Wheels are broken apart.
Trees whistle, so chilling,
North winds blow sorrowfully.
Bears, suddenly confront;
Tigers, leopards, growl from both sides.
In the glen, a few people;
Snow falls, a carpet deep.
I crane my neck, a long sigh;
Distant trip swells with memories,
Enmeshing my sad heart!
I desire to return east!
Deep water and no bridge,
Midway I pace back and forth;
Bewildered, having lost my way,
Dusk and no place to stay;
On, on, farther day by day,
Rider and horse both famished,
Burdened with load, picking firewood,
And axing ice for gruel;
Sad, the song "Return to East Mountain",
Resounding deep into my grief.

As for Cao Cao ±ä¾Þ, you should be able to read about him in many history books on the Three Kingdom Period. He has been cast in the Romance of the Three Kingdom ¤T°êºt¸q by Luo GuanZhong ù³e¤¤ and in Chinese folk tales and operas as a arch villian. I think history looks more kindly to him as an accomplished poet and a very capable administrator who defeated Yuan Shao °K²Ð to become the defacto ruler as Prime Minister to the weak Eastern Han Emperor. He was not only the Prime Minister but also a cunning military strategist that the Wu Kingdom general, Zhou Yu ©P·ì, and the Shu Kingdom strategist, Zhuge Liang ½Ñ¸¯«G, had to contend with.

Following his death, his son Cao Pi ±ä¥A usurped the Han throne to found the Wei ÃQ Dynasty. Cao Pi was afraid of his brother Cao Zhi ±ä´Ó, who was his deceased father's favourite. To eliminate his brother, Cao Pi ordered Cao Zhi, on the pain of death, to composed a poem while taking seven paces. Cao Zhi saved his life by composing immediately the famous poem "Seven Paces Poem" ¤C¨B¸Ö. Cao Pi in his own right was also an excellent poet, having composed a number of poems including one under the Yuefu title Swallow Song ¿Pºq¦æ, also called the "Song of the Lonely Wife".

What made you pick this poem to translate? It is tough! Here is the original text:

¹ï°s·íºq¡M¤H¥Í´X¦ó,
Ä´¦p´ÂÅS¡M¥h¤é­W¦h.

¤s¤£¹½°ª¡M®ü¤£¹½²`,
©P¤½¦R­÷¡M¤Ñ¤UÂk¤ß¡C

¡§¸ô¬O¤H¨«¥X¨Ó ªº¡¨ ¾|¨³ vs. ¡§¸ô¨Ã¤£¿ù¡A¿ùªº¬O¦æ¸ôªº¤H¡¨°ª¦æ°·¡EÆF¤s
Lu Xun vs. Gao Xingjian - :( vs. :)

"Before there was any path, people had to feel their way" (SLL)

Dear Siu-Leung, I like your phrase giving a very intuitive "picture" (causing me remembering when strolling through the Alaskan bush :( ! How about coining it in Chinese? Something like: ¡§¦³¸ô¥H«e­n¤Hı§ä¤§¡¨§õ¥ü¨} ;)

Alfred ¶øÀs

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"Road is created by people who tread on it" was by Lu Xun (¾|¨³). In Chinese is: " ¸ô¬O¤H¨«¥X¨Óªº."

On the quotation of Gao XinJian, I can feel the pessimistic nature of his philosophy: ¡§¸ô¨Ã¤£¿ù¡A¿ùªº¬O¦æ¸ôªº¤H¡¨°ª¦æ°·¡EÆF¤s
This reminds me of another saying "Road is created by people who tread on it." which shows the optimism, perseverance and bravery. Before there was any path, people had to feel their way. It is the pioneers who made mistakes and kept going until a road was created that should be praised.

¡§¸ô¨Ã¤£¿ù¡A¿ùªº¬O¦æ¸ôªº¤H¡¨°ª¦æ°·¡EÆF¤s

This morning I received a notice from the webmistress of the following remarkable site:

http://sinoiseries.ctw.net/gaonuobeier.html

The site is in French and Chinese language and worth a look!

Alfred ¶øÀs

BTW, I question the truth value of the above quotation from "Soul Mountain" (ÆF¤s), since a way (as a means) is mainly defined from its quality to lead to its very destination: what, if it leads to "nowhere land"? (Remember our recent discussion on ¤j¦P/¯Q¦«¨¹¨È - ªÅ·QªÀ·|.) I'd rather opine that there (also) have been lots of honourable men and women on that way!

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As late as the Red Chamber Dream, ladies still play Sheng. Here is a section of the book.
²Ä041¦^ ²Ä¥|¤Q¤@¦^¡@ôS»A±g¯ù«~±öªá³·¡@©É¬õ°|§T¹J¥À½ÀÂÎ
¡@ ¥u¨£¤@­Ó±C¤l¨«¨Ó½Ð°Ý¸ë¥À¡A»¡¡G¡u©h®Q­Ì³£¨ì¤Fí»ºk¡A½Ð¥Ü¤U¡A´Nºt½}ÁÙ¬O¦Aµ¥¤@·|¤l¡S¡v¸ë¥À¦£¯º¹D¡G¡u¥i¬O­Ë§Ñ¤F¥L­Ì¡A´N¥s¥L­Ìºt½}¡C¡v¨º­Ó±C¤lµªÀ³¥h¤F¡C¤£¤@®É¡A¥uÅ¥±o­ºÞ±y´­¡A²Æ²Ã¨Ãµo¡C

Apparently the "ladies" are the musicians.

I am not contesting whether Li QingZhao's poem "Picking Mulberries" was authentic or whether she wrote Sheng or Xiao. The following merely shows some interesting history of the musical instruments. The history of Sheng is very old. Many citations appeared in ShiSanJing (The Thirteen Classics). Here are just a few:

¤ò¸Ö ²Ä09-15¨÷¡@¤p¶®¡@
¤p¶®
ËçËç³À»ï¡A­¹³¥¤§Ðm¡C§Ú¦³¹Å»«¡A¹ª·æ§j²Æ¡C §j²Æ¹ªÂ®¡A©Óµ¨¬O±N¡C¤H¤§¦n§Ú¡A¥Ü§Ú©P¦æ¡C

An ancient orchestra included Sheng as a key instrument:
©P§ ²Ä17-27¨÷¡@¬K©x©v§B²Ä¤T
¡@¡@¿k®v¡G¤¤¤h¥|¤H¡A¤U¤h¤K¤H¡F©²¥|¤H¡A¥v¤G¤H¡A­E¥|¤H¡A®{¥|¤Q¤H¡CÄÁ®v¡G¤¤¤h¥|¤H¡A¤U¤h¤K¤H¡F©²¤G¤H¡A¥v¤G¤H¡A­E¤»¤H¡A®{¤»¤Q¤H¡C²Æ®v¡G¤¤¤h¤G¤H¡A¤U¤h¥|¤H¡F©²¤G¤H¡A¥v¤G¤H¡A­E¤@¤H¡A®{¤Q¤H¡CñW®v¡G¤¤¤h¤G¤H¡A¤U¤h¥|¤H¡F©²¤G¤H¡A¥v¤G¤H¡A­E¤G¤H¡A®{¤G¤Q¤H¡C
©P§ ²Ä17-27¨÷¡@¬K©x©v§B²Ä¤T
¡@¡@²Æ®v¡G´x±Ð§j¬ò¡B²Æ¡BÜä¡BÅÔ¡B­¡BêÁ¡BíÁ¡BºÞ¡A²êÃ|¡BÀ³¡B¶®¡A¥H±ÐÚÒ¼Ö¡C¤Z²½ªÁ¡BÅW¡B®g¡A¦@¨äÄÁ²Æ¤§¼Ö¡A¿P¼Ö¥ç¦p¤§¡C¤j³à¡Aåt¨ä¼Ö¾¹¡F¤Î³à¡A©^¦ÓÂ䧡C¤j®È¡A«h³¯¤§¡C
(Here ¬ò¡B²Æ¡BÜä¡BÅÔ¡B­¡BêÁ¡BíÁ¡BºÞ are all wind instruments).
§°O ²Ä14¨÷¡@©ú°ó¦ì
¡@¡@±R¹©¡A³e¹©¡A¤j¿X¡A«Ê¤÷Àt¡A¤Ñ¤l¤§¾¹¤]¡C¶V´Æ¡A¤j¤}¡A¤Ñ¤l¤§¦¥¾¹¤]¡C®L¦Z¤ó¤§¹ª¡A¨¬¡C®ï¡A·­¹ª¡F©P¡A¿¤¹ª¡C««¤§©MÄÁ¡A¨û¤§Â÷¿k¡A¤k´E¤§²Æ®¡C®L¦Z¤ó¤§ÀsðiãÔ¡A®ï¤§±R¤ú¡A©P¤§Âzã|¡C
(In the Record of Rituals, Sheng was said to be invented in the era of NuGuo, the legendary Lady Empress.)

In Tang poems:
¬Û©MºqÃã
¡@¡@¬Û©M¦±¡Aµ·¦Ë§ó¬Û©M¡A°õ¸`ªÌºq¡A¥»¤@³¡¡AÃQ©ú«Ò¤À¬°¤G¡A®Ê¿×¤§ ¡@¡@²M°Ó¤T½Õ¡C­ð®Ñ¼Ö§Ó¤ê¡G¥­½Õ¡B²M½Õ¡B·æ½Õ¡A¬Ò©P©Ð¤¤¦±¤§¿òÁn¡C¤S ¡@¡@¦³·¡½Õ¡B°¼½Õ¡C·¡½ÕªÌ¡Aº~©Ð¤¤¼Ö¤]¡A°¼½ÕªÌ¡A¥Í©ó·¡½Õ¡A»P«e¤T½Õ ¡@¡@Á`¿×¤§¬Û©M¡C¤Z¬Û©M¡A¨ä¾¹¦³²Æ¡B²Ã¡B¸`ºq¡Bµ^¡B·æ¡Bµ\µ]¡Bºå¤CºØ ¡@¡@¡C
The musicians in Tang dynasty were mostly ladies. You can see that picture in the link:
http://trfn.clpgh.org/free-reed/history/sheng.html
http://aris.ss.uci.edu/rgarfias/gagaku/banquet.html
There are two ladies playing the sheng: the third from left in the front row, and the one in front of the hanging stone plates in the back.
In the famous poet Bai JuYi's poem, both Xiao and Sheng were played by ladies.:
­«ÃD§OªF¼Ó¡@¥Õ©~©ö
ªF¼Ó³Ó¨Æ§Ú°¾ª¾¡A®ð¶H¦hÀH©ü¥¹²¾¡C´ò¨÷¦ç»n¥Õ­«Å|¡A¤s±i«Ì»Ùºñ°Ñ®t¡C ®ü¥P¼Ó¶ð´¸¤è¥X¡A¦¿¤k²Æ­©]©l§j¡C¬K­·¬Pöã´MÃɤõ¡A¬î­·Áøä̧ËÀܺX¡C

Alfred ¶øÀs

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288¡D±Õ­É§Á¤ý¤E¦¨®cÁ×´»À³±Ð

«Ò¤l»·Ã㤦»ñÂö¡A¤Ñ®Ñ»»­É»A·L®c¡C
¹jµ¡¤ªÃú¥Í¦ç¤W¡A¨÷¹÷¤s¬u¤JÃ褤¡C
ªL¤U¤ôÁn³Ù»y¯º¡A©¥¶¡¾ð¦âÁô©ÐôS¡C
¥P®a¥¼¥²¯à³Ó¦¹¡A¦ó¨Æ§j²Æ( ¤@§@­) ¦VºÑªÅ¡C

it seems that there is no definite agreement whether Wang Wei uses Xiao or Sheng in his poem.

Generally, xiao is possibly more popular among ladies. This is quite clear in Du Mu's peom about the 24 bridges:

¤G¤Q¥|¾ô¡G¦b´­¦{¦è­¥¡A¶Ç»¡¦³¤G¤Q¥|¬ü¤H§j­¤_¦¹¡C

§ùªª¦³¸Ö¤ª¡A
¡u¤G¤Q¥|¾ô
©ú¤ë©]¡A¥É¤H¦ó³B±Ð§j­¡C¡v

According to her book, the most complete collection of Li Qingzhao's works (The Collected Works of Li Ching-Chao, Chung Hua Book co.) includes only the following: four compositions in prose, about 15 shih and seventy-five ci. Of the 75 ci's, 44 have been generally accepted as written by the poetess; the author ship of the other 35 has not been definitely established.

I posted these 44 on the Internet. Dr. Fang added 5 to become the 49 ci in the webpage at his famous site.

Li Qingzhao became famous and an legend in her own time. Her life story was the subject of many articles, from comtemporary writings to the present. I have included some bio and bibliography in the webpage (at the very end). Thus we ought not to speculate about her drinking habits etc by extrapolate from her poety alone. My readings indicate that she is not a "social type" but stayed home mostly. There is no mention of her musical skills either.

So she mentioned 'sheng' (mouth organ) in one poem and 'xiao' (flute) in two of her peoms.

Let's just say that she knows both musical instruments.

She was neither a renowned musician nor a habitual drinker.

BTW, again and again I'm fascinated by the old language's conciseness. Should have more time to deal with ancient language, alas! (Beautiful, Han Fei's ¤T¦~¦¨¤@¸­!

§º ¤H ¦³ ¬° ¨ä §g ¥H ¶H ¬° ´Ø ¸­ ªÌ ¡A ¤T ¦~ ¦Ó ¦¨ ¡C Â× ±þ ²ô ¬_ ¡A ²@ ¨~ Ác ¿A ¡A ¶Ã ¤§ ´Ø ¸­ ¤§ ¤¤ ¦Ó ¤£ ¥i §O ¤] ¡C ¦¹ ¤H ¹E ¥H ¥\ ­¹ ¸S ©ó §º ¨¹ ¡C ¦C ¤l »D ¤§ ¤ê ¡G ¡y ¨Ï ¤Ñ ¦a ¤T ¦~ ¦Ó ¦¨ ¤@ ¸­ ¡A «h ª« ¤§ ¦³ ¸­ ªÌ ¹è ¨o ¡C ¡z )

Alfred

¶øÀs

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I just discovered (thanks to Alfred) that the group of webpages containing the Chinese text of Story/Parable do not work when viewed with Netscape browser!

I have made the necessary adjustments to correct this problem.

May I urge to look at these Stories. I am rather proud of this group of stories, and hope that everyone including the young students will come to know about them.

Indeed I could not find "sheng" in the so called complete works of Li Qing Zhao as compiled by Fang Zhou Zi. But in another case I found the following from her ci mentioning sheng. That is the only case. You migtht want to include that:

Good to have you back after the long absence. Write more often.

I think the term 'mouth organ' used by the author is incorrect. I believe the actual musical instrument mentioned in the Chinese poetry is 'xiao' and not 'sheng'.

I think that the musical instrument is wrongly translated by your author as the 'mouth organ.' You mentioned about two poetress, one of them is Li QiZhao. I have the complete poems (ci) by her at this web site. A search of all of her known poems turn up no Sheng (²Æ) at all. Indeed, there are two poems by her (#36 and #38) in which she used the term Xiao (­). See the Chinese text in the 'Complete Li Qingzhao'. Without reading the book you refer to, I can only make some guesses. I think we can safely assume that we are talking about some type of wind instrument rather than string or percussion instrument.

There are of course many variety of wind instruments in ancient times. It's been suggested that it might be a sheng, which looks like this.

I am inclined to disagree. I think we've misled by the term "mouth organ'. I submit the author is wrong in the use of this term. Sheng is more of an instrument for professional musicians, rahter than for refined ladies.

I would venture to quess that the ladies would play either di (dizi) or xiao. Both are flute-like. Di has a very simple construction, mostly made of bamboo. One blows into it from a hole on the side. It looks like this.

It is cheap and easy to learn. Stories have it that small cowboys play it while tending to water bufflo.

Xiao is very similar to di, but one blows from a hole at the end.

Xiao look like this. Both di and xiao are often played as a solo instrument rather than in an ensemble.

Ming

Go to the page I cited, you will see the picture of the actual sheng from the Marquis Zeng Yi's tomb. PaiXiao is like the typical Peruvian native instrument with a row of tubes (reeds) flatly arranged. I am sure you have seen those. Sheng has the tubes(reeds) arranged in a circle. Jiang Di I believe is like recorder. DongXiao is held the same way, longitudinally from the mouth, but there is no mouthpiece.

Dear Siu-Leung, are you talking about instruments like those flutes, famous in Romanian folklore (and now worldwide)? In Romanian there are two types called "nai", pl. "naiuri":
a) an instrument composed of several flute pipes of different lengths ("instrument compus din mai multe fluiere de diferite dimensiuni"),
b) reed flute with seven holes ("fluier de trestie cu sapte gauri")

What type is the one called ªÊ²Ã (ch'iang ti/qiang1di2) in Chinese: "Shepherd's flute"?

BTW, Ming, I can't display your Chinese flute story page on my machine (after loading the red top graphic it would stop!).

Alfred ¶øÀs

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Yu probalby should not be translated as flute. It resembles Sheng in having multiple tubes (like an organ). There is a picture of a Tang dynasty "yu" in the link I provided. Sheng and Yu were in fact very important ceremonial instruments in the Chun Qiu era. It played a leading role in the orchestra. But because there were usually a large number of players, the novice can get by without being noticed.

See Flute Player for the original text as well as English translation.
This and other stories from the Chinese classics can be found at 'Story / Parable' from the Homepage. Many stories are so popular that people forget that they are classics!

It is possible that this is a Han Yu (º~»y) translation from a Xian Bei (ÂA¨õ) tribe language poem which is called ±Õ°Çºq. Xian Bei tribe founded the Northern Wei Kingdom (386AD to 534AD) during the period of South and North Dynasties. The rulers of Northern Wei embarked on Sinification.

±Õ°Çºq

±Õ°Ç¤t¡M ³±¤s¤U¡M ¤Ñ¦üªÆÃf¡MÅ¢»\¥|³¥¡
¤Ñ­Ü»a¡M ³¥¯í¯í¡M ­·§j¯ó©³¨£¤û¦Ï¡

Mouth organ you referred to is probably "Pai Xiao" (row-arranged flutes), an old instrument in Chinese orchestra. It was a ceremonial musical insturment in the days of Confucius, 2500 years ago. A set was excavated in Marqui Zeng Yi's tomb (Hubei province) of the Warring States era. It went out of style replaced by the "Dong xiao" (longitudinal flute) and "Dizi" (horizontal flute). Pai Xiao and the Peruvian zamponas probably have the same origin.

Another possibility of translation for mouth organ is "harmonica" which is much more modern instrument from the west, invented 1821.

Dear Alfred

Li Qingzhao also wrote a number of poems with wine and drinking. Was she really a drinker?

¶¼°s

µ²Ãf¦b¤H¹Ò¡M ¦ÓµL¨®°¨³Ù¡C
°Ý§g¦ó¯àº¸¡M ¤ß»·¦a¦Û°¾¡C
±ÄµâªFÆX¤U¡M ±yµM¨£«n¤s¡C
¤s®ð¤é¤i¨Î¡M ­¸³¾¬Û»PÁÙ¡C
¦¹¤¤¦³¯u·N¡M ±ý¿ë¤w§Ñ¨¥¡C

Beim Wein, V

Den Menschen nah schlug ich die Huette auf;
Und doch droehnt hier kein Wagen, laermt kein Pferd.
Und wenn du fragst, woher das kommen mag:
Mein Herz macht auch die Wohnstatt abgekehrt.

Ich pfluecke still am Ostzaun Chrysanthemen,
Seh nach dem Suedberg am entlegenen Ort.
Des Berges Hauch so schoen im Abendlicht;
In Scharen ziehn die Voegel heimwaerts fort.

Und in dem allen liegt ein tiefer Sinn.
Ich will ihn sagen - und vergass das Wort.

T'ao Yuan-ming

Lines 5 and 6 maybe are the most famous in Chinese poetry; my favorites are the last two.
It could easily be that µâ refers to Ch'u: Yuan (Qu Yuan).
«n¤s refers to (the real) Lu shan Ãf south of T'ao's home - and maybe to  ¸Ö¸g (#166)
§Ñ¨¥ postulated by Chu Tao-sheng (Zhu Daosheng) the predecessor of Zen.

Alfred

¶øÀs

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The title of this poem by ³³²W©ú (365AD to 427AD) is not called South Mountain («n¤s) but Drinking Wine (¶¼°s). Here is the whole poem:

¶¼°s

µ²Ãf¦b¤H¹Ò¡M ¦ÓµL¨®°¨³Ù¡C
°Ý§g¦ó¯àº¸¡M ¤ß»·¦a¦Û°¾¡C
±ÄµâªFÆX¤U¡M ±yµM¨£«n¤s¡C
¤s®ð¤é¤i¨Î¡M ­¸³¾¬Û»PÁÙ¡C
¦¹¤¤¦³¯u·N¡M ±ý¿ë¤w§Ñ¨¥¡C

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan

Have you read 'Learn Chinese' from the Homepage?

Ming

Thanks for correcting the clicking/typo error. Did not look closely and missed out the silk radical. Any answer to my queries?

«C Colour of Green (¸S), Blue (ÂÅ) or Black (¶Â)

Dear Tin-Kay, thanks for your profound contribution on the colour qing «C. It always had fascinated me. The words peoples "have" for colours in their languages is highly interesting under psycho-linguistic aspects (and hence researched by linguists like Sapir and Whorf).
Just one remark. As far as I understand the matter, «C is not ¸S, ÂÅ or ¶Â if it is regarded seriously: it is the "colour of nature"; we just don't use/have the appropriate *short* names for these shades of blue, green and greyish, blackish in English, German and other western languages. E.g. ÂÅ lan2 is not just blue, but "indigo" (Chinese language is very concrete!). There are different names for "white" also, e.g. ¯À isn't really white but a shade of "natural yellowish white", different "reds" (you once mentioned already ¬õ¡B¨ª¡B¤¦ etc.), there are »a¡B»A and lots of others.
(BTW, in Thai Äx is "gran", so linguists suppose that in ancient Chinese this colour was pronounced as "glan")

aolung. ¶øÀs

________

doi se morji
po'u pa stali tanbo
po'e lei mi'o bloti selpo'i
ge'u poi se renro
fi le xamsi rajma'a
le terbradi be loi
djacu .e lo brife

(le la pEtefi.candor. pemci se fanva zoi gy A.W.T. gy la lojban.)

You may have mis-understood my previous comments. I do not think that this is a translation of Wang Wei's poetry. I did a thorough search of the Complete Wang Wei Peotry and could not find the poem. I do not know who wrote this peom.

Dear Yoon-Ngan and Julian,

I went through all my books on Chinese nursery rhymes and children's poems but failed to locate the ditty Yoon-Ngan wrote:

¶} ªù ¤Ñ ¤Ñ ¨£ «C ¤s,
«C ¤s ¦~ ¦~ ¤£ ¨£ ¦Ñ¡M
¬° ¦ó «C ¤s ¤£ ¦Ñ ÃC¡M
«C ¤s ¦^ °Ý ¦ó ®É ¶¢¡C

It is simple and beautiful, easily understood by young and old. The rhyming is at the two last characters of the third and fourth lines i.e. ÃC yan2 and ¶¢ xian2. What a life with nature, to be daily greeted by the green hills or mountains as we open our door! The mountains, forever young, seemed momentarily frozen in time. If only we can devote some part of our turbulent life to enjoy nature, like watching the green mountains bathed in sunset glory «C¤s¤i·Ó or seeing the rolling green hills from a distance «C¤sÅ|á£. There are so many Chinese poems with the characters qingshan «C¤s (green hills or mountains).

The green mountain is an everlasting symbol. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms had "Blue (or green) mountains never grow old, green waters flow on forever" «C¤s¤£¦Ñ¡M¸S¤ôªø¦s. Also, there is a saying "As long as there are green hills, one need not worry about firewood" ¯d±o«C¤s¦b¡M¤£·T¨S®ã¿N. Generally, we associate mountains with green, but in Australia there is the famous Blue Mountain to the west of Sydney, said to be given a blue discoloration from the Eucalyptus vapour when viewed from afar.

Qing «C is such a simple character yet it can mean green, blue or black. When is qing «C the colour green ¸S, or blue ÂÅ or both (greenish blue or bluish green)? Green vegetables «Cµæ, green grass «C¯ó, green frog «Cµì, green person i.e. greenie or youth «C¦~, green plum «C±ö and green island «C®q (also name of Qingdao Beer from Qingdao, Green Island, in Shandong Province) are all definitely green and not blue. Green-coloured facies is not favourable as in "Green faced and long toothed" «C­±æy¤ú meaning a terrifying demon-like face. Green plums and bamboo horse (childhood game) suggest a friendship developed from childhood.

We use blue in blue sky «C¤Ñ, blue sea «C®ü and blue eyes «C²´, blue vein «Cµ¬ and blue clouds «C¶³. (Blue eyes «C²´, similar to «C·ý, also mean giving favour. Blue clouds «C¶³ mean high official position signifying the atmospheric height achieved.) In the saying «C¥X¤_ÂÅ,¦Ó³Ó¤_ÂÅ the indigo blue extracted from the plant is bluer than the plant it comes from, the meaning is that the pupil excels the teacher, or the successor excels the predecessor. Blue veins protruding «Cµ¬ª½¼É means in anger.

Qing «C also means black or grey as in black fish or carp «C³½, black cow «C¤û, black cloth «C¦ç, black shoes «C¾c, black brick «C¿j, grey tile «C¥Ë and grey jade «C¥É. Wearing black shoes and cloth stockings «C¾c¥¬Äû means becoming a hermit.

I wonder what is the origin of:
1. Green maid and white beauty «C¤k¯À®Z
2. Wearing black clothes and small cap «C¦ç¤p´U
3. (?Green) Oil lamp before the Buddha «C¿O¥j¦ò
4. Black cloth «C¦ç meaning a female role.

Ming:
I don't think that the German translation is that of a Wang Wei poem, because its last line seems to be a quotation of Wang Wei's ¥Õ¶³µLºÉ®É (Look at the poem posted by you earlier, where just the last line is matching!)
It seems unusual that an ancient poet quoted his own lines. Yet, Wang Wei could have quoted that line himself from an earlier poet's (and maybe he did so in two different pieces of poetry).

Gegangen das geliebte Wesen
Und jenseits des Schmerzes wisse
Kurzweil ist des Toten Wanderschaft
Den weissen Wolken endet keine Zeit

BTW, thanks for pointing to the Zhu Yunming brush - his typical hand!

aolung. ¶øÀs

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http://chistory4000.virtualave.net/s_leung/sleung17.htm

Here's now the original four poems (which BTW, are indeed beautifully translated by Prof. Debon).

¨H¬ù¡m¤»¾Ð¸Ö ¥|­º¤§¤@¡n

¾Ð¨Ó®É
¨`¨`¤W¶¥¼U
¶Ô¶Ô±Ô§OÂ÷
ÝgÝg¹D¬Û«ä
¬Û¬Ý±`¤£¨¬
¬Û¨£¤D§Ñ°§

¨H¬ù¡m¤»¾Ð¸Ö ¥|­º¤§¤G¡n

¾Ð§¤®É
ÂIÂIù±b«e
©Îºq¥|¤­¦±
©Î§Ë¨â¤T©¶
¯º®ÉÀ³µL¤ñ
ÜҮɧó¥i¼¦

¨H¬ù¡m¤»¾Ð¸Ö ¥|­º¤§¤T¡n

¾Ð­¹®É
Á{½L°Ê®e¦â
±ý§¤´_²Û§¤
±ý­¹´_²Û­¹
§t­÷¦p¤£°§
Àº¿^¦üµL¤O

¨H¬ù¡m¤»¾Ð¸Ö ¥|­º¤§¥|¡n

¾Ð¯v®É
¤H¯v¾Ê¥¼¯v
¸Ñù¤£«ÝÄU
´NªE§ó¶·²o
´_®£³Ä¤H¨£
¼b²Û¦bÀë«e

aolung. ¶øÀs

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You had two spellings for this person: Shen Ye and Shen Yo. Could it be Shen Yue you were referring to?
http://chistory4000.virtualave.net/s_leung/sleung17.htm
He is a very talented musician and poet (All poets have to know music and tones).
His poems are seen here :
http://64.65.5.128/sinx/sinx0560.htm

You would be interested in this calligraphy written in cao-shu by Zhu YunMing. It is from the National Palace Museum, Taipei

Who is the best Chinese landscape painter? The question is as impossible as who is the best European painter.

It is better to view them all and find your own individual favorite painter instead.

There are a few at the landscape page The selections are arbitrary and chosen mainly becasue I happen to have them. Enjoy.

Vier Gedichte

Ich denke daran, wie sie kam:
Zierlich stieg sie die Stufen zum Schlosshof hinan,
Voll Sehnsucht,dass die Getrennten aufs neue sich faenden.
Ungeduldig, zu sagen, dass sie mich liebe.
Und wir blickten uns an und fanden kein Ende,
Schauten uns an und haben des Hungers vergessen.

Ich denke daran, wie sie sass:
Zoegernd, wie sproede, vorm Seidengehaenge des Lagers;
Gab ihre Lieder zum besten, vier oder fuenf,
Ruehrte dann wieder die Saiten, zwei oder drei.
Und wenn ihr Lachen erklang, kam keine ihr gleich;
Doch wenn sie schmollte, war das entzueckender noch.

Ich denke daran, wie sie sass:
Neigte dem Teller sich zu mit artiger Miene,
Wollte sich setzen und schreckte wieder zurueck,
Wollte schon essen und schaemte sich dessen zugleich;
Hielt im Munde die Speisen, als waer sie nicht hungrig,
Hob mit den Haenden die Schuessel, als fehlte die Kraft.

Ich denke daran, wie sie schlief:
Wenn andere schliefen, wehrte sie standhaft dem Schlaf.
Die Seide zu loesen, bedurfte keiner Ermahnung.
Wartete, dass auf dem Kissen ich naeher sie zoege,
Wiederum fuerchtend, es koenne zuseiten der Mann
Sehen ihr holdes Erroeten im Lichschein der Kerze.

Shen Yo, 441-513 (Yu-t'ai hsin-yung ¥É»O·sµú)

aolung. ¶øÀs

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A.W. Tueting ¼w°ê¼}¥§¶Â Ti@fa-kuan.muc.de

aolung. ¶øÀs

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Dear Debra

It is good that you have just been to the Three Gorges before they complete the Dam and raise the water level. When I was there some three years ago, there were only a few monkeys and no more loud screeches as observed by Li Bai (AD 701-762). Li Bai was accused of complicity in a plot against the Tang Emperor and was banished. Along the way he received news that he was pardoned and he wrote this poem with joy while departing Baide (White Emperor) City.

I am appending five English translations of the poem. You can always enjoy more Li Bai's poems from Prof. Pei's Poetry Section at http://www.chinapage.org/libai/libai2e.html.

¤U¦¿³® also called ¦­µo¥Õ«Ò«°

´ÂÃã¥Õ«Ò±m¶³¶¡
¤d¨½¦¿³®¤@¤éÁÙ
¨â©¤·áÁn³Ú¤£¦í
»´¦à¤w¹L¸U­«¤s

Through the YangZi Gorges
also called Leaving Baide Cheng at Dawn i.e. Leaving White Emperor City at Dawn

1. (From Prof. Pei's CTB site)

From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn
To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles,
Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me
To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.

2. (Translated by XYZ, Prof. Xu YuanZhong ³\²W¨R Beijing University)

Leaving at dawn, the White Emperor crowned with cloud,
I have sailed a thousand li through Canyons in a day:
With the monkeys' adieus, the riverbanks are loud,
My skiff has left ten thousand mountains far away.

3. (Translated by Sun Ta Yu aka Sun Dayu ®]¤j«B)

Leaving Baidi on high at dawn,
Among the clouds in blaze gay;
A thousand li to Jianling City,
I sped within a day;
Unceasingly the gibbons screeched,
On both banks of the river;
As my light skiff shot through the folds,
O mounts, ten thousand with a whirr.

4. (Translated by Tu Di and Tu An ±O²Ã¡M±O©¤)

At dawn I leave the White Emperor Town with the sun dyeing clouds,
And travel a thousand li within a day to Jianling Town;
With the monkeys' ceaseless whines on the rievr banks aloud,
Swiftly leaving a myriad mountains behing, my boat drifts down.

5. (Translated by Rewi Alley)

In the morning going out
of White Emperor City, it was
as if we went on clouds;
from there to Jianling is
one thousand li, but in one day.
the racing waters brought
me down; from both banks
we hear the cries of monkeys
as my fragile boat swept
past a maze of mountains.

There are many more translations, and I hope those above will be helpful.

When we were at school, we always recited this:

¶} ªù ¤Ñ ¤Ñ ¨£ «C ¤s,

«C ¤s ¦~ ¦~ ¤£ ¨£ ¦Ñ¡M

¬° ¦ó «C ¤s ¤£ ¦Ñ ÃC¡M

«C ¤s ¦^ °Ý ¦ó ®É ¶¢¡C

Could someone tell me who wrote it or it just a common saying.

Yoon-Ngan.

Ming is right. «n ¤s is used only rhetorically and may not be referring to a mountain called «n ¤s . The original couplet is like this:

±Ä µâ ªF ÆX ¤U , ±y µM ¨£ «n ¤s . «n is used to match ªF

Look into the buddhism page, http://www.unc.edu/~zhaoj/buda/ where the theme is about µÐ´£¹D¦¸

The second word in Confucius' quotation is 'Dao'.

See chinapage.org/utopia.html

In Confucius' teaching, Dao is the right way.
In the English literature, most people talk about Dao when they talk about LaoZi. So be careful.

Thanks Ming and Siu-Leung

I had a feeling that Siu-Leung would amend this line.
¤¤·³»á¦n¹D
"I rather like Daoism (the Way)" is more appropriate.
I will re-phrase:
Midway in life, leaning towards the Way.

BTW, one book translated Dao ¹D as a "Buddhist Way". Does Dao neccessarily imply the Way of Dao De Jing, or has it a broader meaning, like a search for Truth or a Oneness with Nature? Does Buddhism also use the word Dao?

There is no "South Mountain" in China. There is no "East Ocean" either. There are about 5 small localities (towns) with the name of ªF ®ü; but these are relevant. There is not even a town by the name of South Mountain.

In the phrase ºÖ ¦p ªF ®ü ¡A ¹Ø ¤ñ «n ¤s the expression is rhetorical, and does not imply real locations.

Oops, 3 am. Clicked the character wrongly.

¹Ø¤ñ«n¤s¡M°Æ¦pªF®ü should be ¹Ø¤ñ«n¤s¡MºÖ¦pªF®ü

Dear Ming & Julian

Thanks for the references to Wang Wei and Tao Qian, and for stimulating my interest in Chinese poetry. My question is: Why was South Mountain «n¤s used as a reference in the poems? i.e. What was the significance of the South Mountain to these poets? Was the South Mountain considered a place of reverence or meditation like a Daoist mountain, or was it considered a sight of great beauty like Yellow Mountain ¶À¤s Huangshan ?

Tao Qian (Tao Yuanming) of Eastern Jin Dynasty in his drinking wine poem ¶¼°s, as quoted by Julian, caught sight of the South Mountain «n¤s. The Eastern Jin Dynasty based its capital in Nanjing after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty to the Xiongnu, which captured and sacked Chang-An. The Eastern Jin produced three great scholars, Tao Qian who excelled in poetry, Wang Xizhi ¤ý¿ª¤§, who excelled in calligraphy and Gu Kaizhi ÅU·_¤§, who excelled in painting. (It is still debatable whether three remaining Gu Kaizhi's paintings are actually original.)

Ming's favourite poet, Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty, reminisced of ZhongNanShan ²×«n¤s (Ending South Mountain) in a number of poems. Ming, thanks for explaining that South Mountain «n¤s refers to Zhong Nan Shan ²×«n¤s which was situated to the south of Chang-An (Xian), the Tang Dynasty capital. The old names for Zhong Nan Shan ²×«n¤s were TaiYiShan ¤Ó¤@¤s, DiFeiShan ¦aªÍ¤s, ZhongNanShan ¤¤«n¤s and ZhouNanShan ¶g«n¤s.

In addition to the poem "Sending Off" °e§O featured by Ming, Wang Wei, in another poem titled ²×«n¤s, used Tai ¤Ó, the old name of South Mountain:
¤Ó¤§ªñ¤Ñ³£,
³s¤s¨ì®ü¶¨
Tai (Mt. Tai i.e. South Mountain) near Heavenly Capital (Chang An)
The mountains linking till the edge of the sea....

In yet another poem, "Retreat at Mount Zhong Nan" ²×«n§O·~, Wang Wei wrote;
¤¤·³»á¦n¹D,
±ß®a«n¤s¶«¡C
Midway in life, towards the Way,
In later years, I dwell at South Mountain.

Checking on the Tang poets, Du Fu in "Thinking of Chang-An" in Autumn ªø¦w¬î±æ and Meng Jiao ©s­¥ in "Touring South Mountain ´å´å²×«n¤s (Zhong Nan Shan)" also mentioned of South Mountain. Even earlier, the ancient Book of Songs ¸Ö¸g also featured South Mountain in the Short Hymns ¤p¶® as «n¤s¦³»O...«n ¤s ¦³ ®á...«n ¤s ¦³ ¬e ....

May I ask whether the South Mountain in the Book of Songs ¸Ö¸g is the same as the South Mountain ²×«n¤s of the Eastern Jin and Tang Dynasties? Also, when we wish an elderly person "May you live as long as the South Mountain, may your fortune be as boundless as the Eastern Sea" ¹Ø¤ñ«n¤s¡M°Æ¦pªF®ü, is this South Mountain the same as the South Maountain ²×«n¤s of Chang-An (Xian)?

I don't know Wang Wei's original text of this German translation. I went through Wang Wei's Complete Poetry and did not find it, even with the help of your English translation(s).

But this is not the fist time that I have this problem. It just points out the extremely difficulty in translating poetry into another language. Poetry writing requires the highest skills of one's mastery of languages.

The beloved being gone
You ought to know that - beyond pain/grief:
The dead one's roaming is diversion
To white clouds, time is never ending

As I don't seem to have the Chinese original, I'm not quite sure about the meaning of "Kurzweil"=diversion. There seems to be a semantic contradiction between 3rd and 4th line. This were not, if "Kurzweil" had the meaning of "kurze Weile" (short period of time). Thus: The dead one's roaming is just for a short while (compared to the white clouds' never ending time).

aolung. ¶øÀs

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The beloved one being gone,
And, beyond pain, you should know this
The dead one's roaming is diversion
To white clouds, time is never ending

As for machine translation, there's a famous nonsensical example:

"Der Geist ist willig, doch das Fleisch ist schwach", which was somewhat translated as: "The ghost is prepared, but the meat is soft" (the spirit is willing, yet the flesh is weak) :-)

aolung. ¶øÀs

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The beloved being gone
You ought to know that beyond pain
The dead ones' roaming is diversion
To white clouds, time is never ending

As for "Kurzweil", I didn't even find an English expression in the dictionary: It's literally "short-while" (an old and poetic word for "time passing swift while in amusement etc. - Its counterpart is "Langeweile", which is still used in modern speech: lit. "long-while", which is "boredom").

As for machine translation, there's a famous nonsensical example:

"Der Geist ist willig, doch das Fleisch ist schwach", which was somewhat translated as: "The ghost is ready, but the meat is soft" (the spirit is willing, yet the flesh is weak) :-)

aolung. ¶øÀs

BTW, do you have the original Chinese poem?

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Once a while, I make a test translation just to see. Yesterday I came across a German translation of a poem by Wang Wei as follows:

Gegangen das geliebte Wesen
Und jenseits des Schmerzes wisse
Kurzweil ist des Toten Wanderschaft
Den weißen Wolken endet keine Zeit
I cranked it through a Machine Translation program and got back this:

Gone the beloved being
And on the far side of the pain would know
Kurzweil is killed the walls shaft
No time ends the white clouds
The translation program is at: http://www.freetranslation.com/

I can't make any sense of this. Will Alfred comment?

The Chinese for dream, as used in King's speech, is ¹Ú ·Q.

King is a greater orator. It is impossible to translate his speech faithfully and retain its forcefulness at the same time.

In it, the written Chinese language is defined as hanzi or º~ ¦r, and the spoken Chinese is defined as putonghua or ´¶ ³q ¸Ü.

²Ä ¤G ±ø ¡@ ¥» ªk ©Ò ºÙ ªº °ê ®a ³q ¥Î »y ¨¥ ¤å ¦r ¬O ´¶ ³q ¸Ü ©M ýÐ º~ ¦r ¡C

I would recommend that we adopt the terms of putonghua and hanzi [´¶ ³q ¸Ü . º~ ¦r ] in place of "mandarin" etc.

The sentence was quoted from a famous poem by Tao Qian ( Tao Yuan-ming ) ³³ ²W ©ú . You can find this poem and the English translation at this CTB page http://www.chinapage.com/taoy2n.html. In fact, Ming did a good job. You can even listen to the recitation.

You are very observant. It is true that "mountain" and "water" ( the so called ¤s ¤ô µe ) have always been the favorite subjects when it comes to Chinese painting as against other subjects like portraits and still objects. Siu-Leung has already given the reasons for it. Another reason is that China is a mountainous country.

".i mi fi do ca cusku doi pendo fe ledu'u mi mu'inai loi cazi li'i nandu joi se steba cu ca'o pacna da .i da mutce se jicmu le'e merko se pacna
.i mi pacna lenu levi natmi baco'a virnu gi'e tarti tu'a le fatci smuni be leri kriselsku po'u lu mi xusra ledu'u ledi'e jetnu si'unai se jimpe .itu'e ro remna cu jikydunli co'a lenu ri se zbasu li'u
.i mi pacna lenu vi le xunre cmama'a be la djordjas. lei se dzena be loi pu selfu se jibri ponse lei se dzena be loi pu selfu se jibri baco'a kasyzutla'i le kamcectamne jubme
.i mi pacna lenu vi le mu'a .ua la misisipis. jectypau noi pe'a tolfre je glaxlafri ki'u lenu crogla fa le ka tolpajvrude je kusryjatna cu ba se galfi fi lo zancilmystu pe'a be leka zifre je pajvrude
.i mi pacna lenu lemi vo panzi baco'a xabju lo jecta noi ra se pajni ji'u le skari be lera skapi be'o na.e le selkai be lera nuntarti
.i mi cabdei pacna da ..."

Dear friends, reading this Lojban text I remembered our vivid discussion more than one year back in June 1999 - and I searched for it on CTB: "Dare to dream" and "I have a dream". The semantics of English, German, Italian, French, Romanian, Hungarian etc. (dream, Traum, sogno, reve, vis, a'lom) prooved to be quite different from Chinese (¹Ú meng). And we tried to find an appropriate translation in Chinese. Can you give me a hint where to find the Chinese translation on the net?

In Lojban it is similar since "(to) dream" {senva} is not the word. So Nick Nicholas, the author of the above translation used {pacna}, pron. "paashnah", instead, which means "hope/to have hope". Yet, this doesn't seem to be expressing the very meaning of these famous words.

Rereading our discussion from June 99 etc. was a pleasant memory for me ...

aolung. ¶øÀs

A.W. Tueting Ti@fa-kuan.muc.de ¼w°ê¼}¥§¶Â

www.fa-kuan.muc.de
Traces of Butterflies' Dreams - ½º¹Ú²ª "Tieh Meng Hen"
www.fa-kuan.muc.de/MYPOEMS.RXML My Poetry

There is a Chinese saying "Ren zhe Le Shan, Zhi Zhe Le Shui" ( The kind people love mountains; the wise people love water). Mountain and Water (rivers, water falls) bring people's mind to nature, away from the trivials and annoyance of daily life. It is a refreshing experience to be in the mountains. If you can't be there, then having a picture with some imagination is the next best thing.

There are some very scenic mountains in China. Song Shan, Heng Shan, Hua Shan, Lu shan, E-Mei Shan, PuTuo Shan, Tai Shan, DingHu Shan.... and numerous other smaller mountains in Guilin. Each of them has its own sahpe and beauty. There are numerous terms to describe the beauty of mountains in poems. To be able to appreciate the paintings, you should also try to appreciate the poems.

Art appreciation is something you need to feel more to learn. Words are not enough. Go and dive into a museum, or better yet try to climb some mountains. And don't take the tour bus and just a 10-minute round trip.

Let me ask you a question, "Why are there no mountains in Dutch paintings?"

This is being asked all the time. Scroll down this page, as well as to the last (top) message of October for your answers.

Whatever you do, do not attempt to fix it yourself. You can easily damage it beyond repair.

The wrinkles are possibly due to inexperience mounting done by an American framing store using wrong kind of paper backing.

In New York City there are Chinese framing stores who can safely remove and remount the painting. Or, do as I do, just leave it alone.

There is an Association of Chinese Calligraphy in America, 39 Bowery Box 925, New york, NY 10002. you can write to them and ask for Mr. Guan Zi Yuan (or spelt as Kwan Chi Yuan). He is the author of a couplet for the stage of the Chinese Community Center in Chinatown. You can also call Joan Wai, director, Youth Buddhism Communications, Inc. 11 E. Broadway, Suit 8B, New York, NYC 10038. Phone 212-406-5109. Tell her you are recommended by me to look for Mr. Guan. She practically knows everybody in Chinatown. Good luck !

Dear Julie

Stefan Landsberger has a book "Chinese Propaganda Posters" ISBN 90-5496-009-4 pub. The Pepin Press, with explanations of the numerous posters. He has also put up many Chinese propaganda pictures at the following website:
http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/index.html

Olivier Laude has collected many pictures at:
http://www.atlasmagazine.com/illust/china_posters/index.html

Harrison Salisbury also featured many interesting posters in his book "100 Years of Revolution" ISBN 0-233-97599-3 pub. Andre Deutsch Ltd.

If you are interested in the Cultural Revolution, you may find this site informative:
http://www.cnd.org/CR/

I believe you mean the celebration of a baby's first month after birth. We call it "A full month" or º¡ ¤ë.

It is a custom that parents celebrate their newly born child after the first month whereby they would invite all relatives and friends to enjoy the occasion with them.

I think the origin of this custom has something to do with the high fatality rate of new born babies at one time in the old days, especially during the first month. So after a full month without any fatality, it calls for big celebration.

I am not sure about the meaning of your question. Will you tell us more? A few paragraphs are better than just than "tell me."

This area is a two-way street. We like to receive as well as to respond.

It is a very interesting subjet and I enjoy reading it. I have an article about it in Chinese, somewhere hidding in my bookshelf. Will send you a photocopy by snail mail if I can find it. It was from a Taiwanese newspaper called Central Daily News.

Do you notice that there are very, very few people using their left hands to hold the chopsticks. Imagine having dinner in a round table by sitting next to a lefthander. You and him will have chopsticks battle through out your meal.

Spend six minutes at this website. From Homepage, go to "A is for Love", "Quotations", and "Tattoo".

Spend a little more time and read about Chinese culture.

I am not sure what your question is about Qi Bai Shi. He is one of the most long-living artist in modern time with thousands of artwork pieces. Many of his paintings are made into prints by Rong Bao Zai, a special shop in Beijing making reproducitons of Chinese paintings. These prints are meticulously done, some through several hundred steps for one pictures. They are artworks by themselves.

You can visit the website of Rong Bao Zai (in Chinese and English).
http://www.rbzarts.com/

Browse through this website, and you will find a wealth of information and paintings about Qi BaiShi.

Coincindentally this month's Pictures of the Month also features paintings by Qi BaiShi.

Qi BaiShi is one of most prolific 20-th century Chinese painters, with prints and reproductions circulating in untold millions.

I possibly have a copy of the same print as desribed by you. It shows a squirrel with four red cherries.

Go to our Yahoo Club and post your print. In the meantime, do study Qi BaiShi's paintings in our website and enjoy.

Many Westerners are fascinated by the usage of the humble pair of chopsticks. I am featuring the history and usage of chopsticks in the Chinese culinary world.

The simple pair of chopsticks, used daily by millions of people in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, South-east Asia (and now increasingly in the West), has an interesting history. It was already found in tombs dating back to 1200 BC and was mentioned in the Book of Rites. It is no less a Chinese symbol than the Dragon and Phoenix, the Goldfish or the Chinese Pagoda.

The discovery of chopsticks during the Shang dynasty (c. 1766-c. 1122 BC) must have been the result of the simplest and most practical concept of handling foodstuff, with easy to learn dexterity. Farmers in the field could just cut two straight twigs and be able to eat. To the Chinese cook, the chopstick is as functional as the wheel, being an extension of the hand. The house-wife can stir, whip, beat, taste or pick out food from boiling soup or oil. A pair of copsticks can hold up a lid to prevent boiling over. It can be used to open a bottle, pick up small amount of seasoning material, marinate, puncture or level food, handle noodles and ferry food pieces or flick rice into small mouths. In rowdy happy meal times, it is used to beat on the bowl to call for attention. Chinese acrobats play with the chopsticks in their juggling. In Kugfu films, a chopstick becomes a flying lethal weapon.

The chopsticks replaced the knife at the meals, changed the way of Chinese food preparation by reducing the size of food into smaller morsels, and emphasized the ascendancy of the scholar over the warrior. Confucius was said to have commented that the gentleman eats small pieces of food that can pass through the mouth. The simple chopsticks later spread beyond China to Confucianist Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Historically, chopsticks were used by the Emperor Xuanzhong of the Tang Dynasty as a gift to his Prime Minister, Song Jin, to honour him for his integrity and honesty in office. During the Three Kingdom Period, Liu Bei was told by his rival, Cao Cao, that they were the only two heroes. Since the cunning Cao Cao, brooking no opposition, had implied that Liu Bei was a threat, the latter pretended to drop his chopsticks in terror on seeing a lightning flash. This reassured Cao Cao that Liu Bei was a coward of no consequence, and he was spared. Another story from the fall of the Qin Dynasty related that Liu Bang's strategist, Zhang Liang, used chopsticks to demonstrate his battle-plan against Xiang Yu.

Chopsticks were made of ivory, gold or silver for the nobility. Silver chopsticks were a social status symbol as well as a "detector" of poison in the food, in the erroneous belief that the tip of the silver chopsticks would turn black on touching poison. Nowadays, chopsticks are made of wood, bamboo, pewter or plastic. The bamboo ones are more popular with cooks because they are easier to wash and less likely to warp than the wooden ones. Chopsticks can be decorative, with fine motiffs and words painted and lacquered. The Chinese chopsticks can be differentiated from Japanese ones, which are shorter, more slender and tipped. I find it unfriendly to the environment that so many trees are sacrificed to make the disposable chopsticks in Japan, Korea and China. Some superstitious Chinese also bury chopsticks with the dead so that they would not go hungry in the nether world.

Chopsticks, with the Emperor Xuanzhong's precedence, can be used as a present to indicate uprightness. They are also given as part of a woman's dowry since the Chinese name, kuaizi ¸_¤l, indicates §Ö¤l "Quick son", a hope for a quick baby boy. Chinese and Japanese chopstick souvenirs can be attractive collector's items. I received a beautiful pair from a Chinese airline by chance while flying from Wuhan to Hangzhou a few years ago. The plane was delayed for a few hours and the irate Chinese passengers on boarding the plane started to tap and complain. The head stewardess, realizing that a rebellion was on, quickly saved the situation by giving everyone a pair of very beautifully decorated Chinese chopstick souvenirs.

How do people use the chopstick? The first step is to anchor the lower chopstick in the web between the thumb and the index finger. The second step is to hold the upper chopstick between the tips of the thumb, the index finger and the middle finger. The third step is to move by tilting the upper chopstick towards the lower chopstick, so that the two tips of the chopsticks can meet and hold some food like a peanut. I have seen a book on how to use the chopstick, but nobody should need a book because holding the chopsticks is really elementary, and very successfully practised. It is said that people who are dexterous with chopsticks are also good at calligraphy. I must ask calligraphists like Ming and Siu-Leung about that.

Lastly, how did we get the English name "chopstick" and the Chinese name "kuaizi" ¸_¤l? The word "chop" is Pidgin English for "quick", hence "kuaizi" which means the "quick one", or "quick son", or "quick stick", was translated to "chopstick".

The original Chinese word for chopstick was zhu4 ºæ. One reference book also used the character zhu4 §U (meaning help) with the added top radical for bamboo as chopstick. Since the word zhu4 ºæ sounded exactly like another character zhu4 ¦í, meaning to stop, cease or turn over, the ancient Chinese, especially those along the rivers and in Wu (present day Jiangsu), refused to use zhu4 ºæ and instead used the character kuai4 §Ö meaning quick. The bamboo radical was then added at the top to form the present character for chopstick kuai4 ¸_.