Dear Siu-Leung (and anybody interested in this topic),

you are so right, the list of cruelties done to animals (and people!) were to be continued almost endlessly.
But still I am hopeful that with regard to factory-like animal production, everybody's fun-hunting and - even - 'sacred' bull fighting in the future there will be a change in the public sense: e.g. think of the ostracism of smoking in public opinion - promoted through our modern media! This 'movement', born in the U.S., meanwhile has swept over to whole Europe. Only very few people want to be outlawed, regarded to belong to the vulgar lower classes. Looking around me, I discovered that since years all my friends, collegues etc. have refrained from smoking (there are only left young people and - many women ;) ). Couldn't it be similar with other 'unpopular' human behaviors?
As you mentioned, becoming a vegetarian could be a good idea that already often came into my mind (my collegues and me more and more often refrain from eating meat ...) If only people could reduce their consuming those lots of junk meat dishes - bad for health anyway - and look for quality food (meat), this already would lead to a significant reduction of animal's mass and cut-price 'production'. We people living in the rich West of the world are able to to do that for us - our body and soul - and the poor creature animals!

Here is some information on:

AnimalNetwork (Tierschutz ohne Grenzen)
e-mail: animalNetwork@t-online.de
Internet: http://www.animalNetwork.de

in cooperation with lots of international organisations like:

ANDA Asociacion Nacional Para La Defensa De Los Animales, Madrid/Spain,
ANIMALS AUSTRALIA Federation of Animal Societies, Collingwood/Australia,
Astrid Lindgren's Foundation For Better Animal Welfare, Stockholm/Sweden,
Stumme Brueder Stiftung, Vaduz/Liechtenstein,
Zentralverband der Tierschutzvereine Oesterreichs, Vienna/Austria,
Deutscher Tierschutzverband, Bonn/Germany.

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª
My Poetry Site

Cruelty to animals is not a unique feature of Asian culture. Every year when it comes to hunting season, I feel uneasy about the killing of deers. Plenty don't hunt with guns but with arrows which are openly sold in any department store, not just for target practice. We don't know how the chicken, cattle and pigs are treated in the slaughter house. I have seen some tv scripts of "modern" American packing houses which are certainly not very appetizing.

While western culture can accept beef and bull-fight, cattle are regarded as more sacred than cats or dogs in some other cultures. Some can watch bull fights yet would protest on dog fights. Who should be to draw up the list of animals that are "pets" and "non-pets"?

(BTW, did any of the animal rights groups protest against bull fighting? )

The safest is to be a vegetarian, which I am approaching to be. But it is not a diet that everyone can accept. In addition, there are also more cruelties to humans in this world that should raise our conerns too, napalm bomb and agent orange being two most disgusting inventions. I agree with Derek's view against animal cruelty, but I think Alfred is right that it should not be labelled as an Asian culture.

Sorry, my 'Reflective Thoughts' URL was posted uncomplete. Hopefully this one is correct now !

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª
My Poetry Site

Dear Derek, thank you for your comment on this dark aspect of Far Eastern 'culture'. As for me, I ever had problems with this special (?) attitude of Asian people toward animals, so much in contrast on the other hand to their appreciation and noble understanding of elegant and refined arts. For me it is - and always will be - disgusting to see how animals are treated in those countries: so I e.g. refused to guide my tourist group to the big market in Canton (where you can see lots of live animals - from snakes and frogs up to cats and dogs - in cages waiting to be killed in front of their purchasers). But, apart from so many other places of interest for sightseeing, my Westerers (!) for what reason ever wanted to be led there.
But this is not only part of Asian but - alas - of our Western 'culture' too: Think of our transports of live cattle and horses across whole Europe e.g. to the Arab countries, just for financial reasons, or of the inhuman 'production' of chicken and eggs in fabrics here in good old Germany...
It's we Western people who also buy those 'products' for our convenience - we are wearing so-called 'gae-wolf' etc. fur coats without much reflection. (BTW, if you are interested in my opinion on our relationship with animals, read my 'Reflective Thoughts' I once wrote down in a moment of 'sentimentality'.)
My neighbour who also watched this TV you mentioned, now works to support an international campaign initiated by AnimalNetwork. She already got in contact with our mayor to get up a petition to be signed on his New Year reception. There are already international activities starting in order to boycott those furier's trades and shops importing furs like that, and also lots of petitions from all around the world addressed to the ambassadors of Thailand, China and the Philippines. If you'd like to join the campaign please address to an organisation next to your place - I think, it's easily found via internet or in public media.

But anyway, a Happy New Year to all of you!

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª
My Poetry Site

On the picture of the month, I think you might also include some science and engineering. It does not have to be artisitic painting all the time. "Tian Gong Kai Wu" ¤Ñ¤u¶}ª«, a Ming dynasty book on the engineering of many different things can be interesting. It would remind us that at one time, China was pretty good in science and technology rather than just literature and arts. If time allows, you can have it for more than one per month or in different categories.

I also feel that some how we need to deal with the new impact of western culture to China. China has been quite good in integrating extrinsic cultures and finally melted them into Chinese culture. This seems to be happening less often$ The expreimental Peking opera was a good try that failed miserably. So is the pop music. To me a lot of the pop music is less than "xia li ba ren" ¤U¨½¤Ú¤H. It is a mind pollution for our future generations. It is very sad to see that the healthy music and fine art is giving way to the onslaught of degrading commercialization and celebrity hypes.

I think our forum and this website have a high mission to reverse this dangerous trend.

Dear friends and visitors of this board,
my best wishes for Christmas, Hanukkah and Ramadan to all of you - have pleasant and quiet holidays and a prosperous New Year 1999.

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª
My Poetry Site

How about singing a few bars of God Rest you Merry Gentlemen.. Click here.

The book is over 300 pages long and you should not just ask someone to email you a copy!

This is a wonderful novel, and no one should be disappointed by that fact. There are 8 chapters of the book (in Chinese) at this website.

In Chapter 1, it describes in detail the birth of Monkey king (He came out of a piece of rock.) which leaves no doubt that the story is methology.

You asked whether the Monkey King and all the stories or adventures described in the book are true or believable. Let me answer this question for you first. No. They are not all true . The book is a fiction based on some true historical figures and many of the cities, towns and place did exist or still exist up to this day.

As this book is not a history book, there are many interpretations as to the true message or meaning meant to be delivered by the author. Dr. Lee offered one interpretation and I like to offer another here.

There is a Chinese saying "Our heart is a money and our thinking is a horse ", meaning it is very difficult to control or own thinking, desires and many wild dreams. The author personalifies our thinking with the Monkey King. Isn't it true that we can use our imagination and wild thinking to go to heaven or down the hell ? The Monkey King has the power of 72 changes; so we can too with our imagination. Sometimes, when we try to control our feeling, thinking etc, we just to have pray very hard as the Monk Tang would to control the Monkey King.

You can try Metropolitan Museum, NYCity. They have a print "lotus" by Zhang DaQian (Chang Da Chien). Or, the museum at Golden Gate park, San Francisco.

I did not say it is ALL True. Xuan Zhuang was a true person, a monk who went to India via the Silk Road and returned with the scripture of Buddhism. The temple commeorating his trip is "White Horse Temple" still exists today near LoYang. If you read Chinese, go to my website and follow the lead /hakka/china.htm , you should see a lot of links about China culture. Among them are some links about Shanxi, LoYang. i think they have some picutres and description about this.

The characters Monkey King... are all imaginary, fictional. Certain names of places were real, but not all. The heavenly palace of course does not exist.

The story is based on some facts gathered and reported in Tang Monk Xuan Zhuang's trip to India. There is a "fire mountain" in Xinjiang province, which is bright red like fire from a distance. Also Xinjing is known to be rich in natural oil reserve. It could have been actually burning oil/gas at that time. On the road to India, Xuan Zhuang had to go through a number of small hostile countries and rough terrain. The difficulties and dangers he faced might be no less than what is depicted in the novel.

The novel should be read as a fable for the moral rather than as a documentary.

The story is based on some facts gathered and reported in Tang Monk Xuan Zhuang's trip to India. There is a "fire mountain" in Xinjiang province, which is bright red like fire from a distance. Also Xinjing is known to be rich in natural oil reserve. It could have been actually burning oil/gas at that time. On the road to India, Xuan Zhuang had to go through a number of small hostile countries and rough terrain. The difficulties and dangers he faced might be no less than what is pedicted in the novel.

The novel should be read as a fable for the moral rather than as a documentary.

Dear Siu-Leung, yes, yong3 «i is more literary for 'courage' standing for 'bravery' and 'the exercise ¤O of manly vigour'. In order to get to the bottom, I tried to analyse the character: the radical is 'li4' ¤O ('strength'), the phonetic is 'yong3' ¨i ('blooming', 'the opening of flowers'). This character is composed by the phonetic 'yong4' ¥Î and the radical 'han3' with the meaning 'to put forth buds' ¯ó¤ì¤§ªáµo¨çµM , the primitive idea of external manifestation of an interior force, expansion, eruption (sorry, I cannot display the radical - it's modern form is kind of the character ¤Ú without the dot and the 2nd stroke). Composed with the second character qi4 ®ð (breath, air, spirit, vapour) it may indicate something strong, bursting out from a virile body (man or woman) - maybe out of the gall, considered as the seat of brave will!

The more colloquial term dan3zi Áx¤l etc. gives a slight idea of the English expression 'guts' in the meaning of 'gumption', 'pluck'. What is your opinion, I'd say it is less colloquial than the English term?

BTW, in Bavarian dialect there is an expression for this called 'Schneid' (a blade's sharpened edge), going back to an old custom: when in harvest season mowing grass etc. together, the farmhands used to sharpen the scythes for the farm maids joined to their group. The one doing it best (maybe with regard to a special girl) was called in Bavarian 'a schneidiga Bua' (a guy with guts). Different from Bavarian language, talking of 'pluck' in German they now say falsly *der* Schneid (masculine) apparently not knowing the expression's background, going down to (feminine) *die* Schneide (pointed edge of a tool). (Alas! That's the way ethnic minorities are used to be outvoted ;( yet I'm sticking to the right language ;)

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

You asked why emperors have more than one name.

Let me use Lee Sai-man (§õ ¥@ ¥Á ) , the second emperor of the Tong ( ­ð ¡^ Dynasty as an example. Lee is the surname or the family name and Sai-man is the given name. When Lee becomes the emperor, he follows the tradition to give a special name, nin-ho ( ¦~ ¸¹ ¡^ for his reigning period. In this case, he calls it Jing-koon ( ­s Æ[ ¡^ . The Nin-ho is nothing more than a calendar. So his first year of reign would be 1st Year of Jing-koon or ­s Æ[ ¤@ ¦~ .. This tradition is very much alive today. Taiwan is using that tradition still.

When an emperors dies, he will receive another title and in Lee’s case, he is honored as Tong Tai Chong ( ­ð ¤Ó ©v ) .

As for the common people, not necessarily people of high ranks, they also have more than one given name. Let me refer you to S.L. Lee’s discussion comment on December 3. 98. Take Confucius for example. His family name is Hung¤Õ and his given name is Yau ¥C . His other name or ¦r is ¥ò ¥§ ( Chung-ne ) . We usually don’t call people’s given name. It is considered "rude". Only the elders from the same family will do that. We usually address them by the other name. Then, of course, people also have Ho’s ( ¸¹ ) or pseudonym. Many people have more than a few. We often address them by their ho’s as well. One example is So Tung-bo ( Ä ªF ©Y ¡^ . So is his surname and Tung-bo is his "ho".

Now let me get back to Confucius. People have so much respect for him (even when he was alive,) we don’t even call his by his name, or given name or ho. We call him Hung-ji ( ¤Õ ¤l ) or Mr. Hung.

Christine, as for your query for the Chinese character(s) expressing 'courage' I'd propose:

'dan3 zi' (Áx¤l) or 'dan3 er2' (Áx¨à) or 'da4 dan3' (¤jÁx)

all referring to the gall, in China thought as the seat of courage.
Since I assume that your browser is not able to display 2-byte fonts, I'll send you a gif-graphic via e-mail to demonstrate the Chinese characters.

Good evening

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

By definition, a dynasty is a succession of rulers who belong to the same family. Most Chinese historians certainly follow this definition to decide which one is a dynasty or not. Generally speaking, a dynasty should at least have two successive rulers from the same family. An example is the Chin ¯³ dynasty. If you read the Chinese history, you will note that some rulers ( emperors ) usurped the previous throne, but they were not credited as a dynasty as they lasted only one generation. One example is Wong Mon ¤ý ²õ .

Chinese historians also do not give the term dynasty to some one who overthrew the previous throne from the same family. One famous example is Mo Juk-tin ªZ «h ¤Ñ

If you want to know more about the dynasties, go to the History page of this website.

As to the "Mandate of Heaven", I am not sure exactly what you are looking for. A Chinese emporer called himself the son of heaven ¤Ñ ¤l ,thus giving thim the right to rule . Perhaps that is what you mean the "mandate of heaven". To legitimize their right to rule China, all emperors claimed they were the sons of heaven and had received the mandate from their heavenly father to overthrow the previous emperor.

James, Dr. Lee already mentioned the basic difficulties in learning Chinese calligraphy (or simply meaning Chinese writing - there is a great difference to the *art* of calligraphy!). As for me - I'm trying to learn Chinese language and calligraphy for about 30 years, with limited success though.
To have a basic idea of how the characters are constructed (in the beginning being real 'pictures'), look into my page "The roots of Chinese Writing" .

I wish you good success and - perseverance!

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

Before learning calligraphy, one has to learn the Chinese characters. Calligraphy is the art of writing. There is a site that shows in a java program how the characters are written. The order of strokes got to be done correctly. To someone not familiar wit the Chinese characters, a small difference in the angle or length of the stroke can mean totally different words. You might have to take a Chinese course in some university program. It is hard to learn on your own. Alfred Tueting, our German judge and self-taught sinologist, is an exceptional case of success. I still don't know how he could do that. It is like learning the Egyptian hierograph on my own.

There was also an early question about how Chinese view alphabets and whether it is different from English users view Chinese. I think it is different although the end result of not understanding the other is the same. Chinese words can be very graphic on its own and can convey the message as a picture. The ancient characters ( before much abbreviation and abstraction) are particularly expressive. You can see the "turtle", "man", "sun" ... without being told so. For a phonic language as English (and all Roman languages), if you don't know how a word sounds and nobody told you about what the sound means, you are totally lost. So, it would be easier to "perceive" the meaning of Chinese characters than Roman words.

There is no alphabet in the Chinese language. The sound is not produced by a combination of consonants and vowels. Rather, each word is a single syllible. Certain parts of the word can provide a clue to how it should be sounded, but one has to learn some basics. Korean language has adopted an alphabetical writing system and abandoned the graphic Chinese characters, yet maintaining the single syllabic sound. In my opinion, much of the literary meaning is also lost in this transformation.

Contrary to the complex grammar of Roman languages, Chinese is very simple in grammar. There is no gender, tense for different words. Adjectives and adverbs are added to elaborate the meaning of a sentence. There is certainly no irregulars like goose/geese/gander. However, the same object can be expressed by different words that give a very defined meaning. I think I used the example of multiple Inuit expressions for "snow" as a paraphrase before. A very vivid example is there are more than a dozen words for "food utencils/vessels" by the size and application. These words appeared more than 2000 years ago, indicating the sophisticated cusinary culture, which is still obvious nowadays.

From the homepage, click on the big blue button marked "China Room"

Then study various pages under the "calligraphy" section and "language" section.

The English translation version is much easier than the Chinese one. I own a set published by the Foreign language Press (Beijing) which has illustrations done in the Qin dynasty.

It is extremely stimulating and thoughtful for stretching a child's imagination. I think it should be read by everyone.

Do Chinese Look AT our Alphebet the same way that we look at there calligraphy

The best way to understand or appreciate the Monkey King is to read the novel. I am not sure whether you can read Chinese or not. If you can, my advice to you is to read the original Chinese novel. If the language is too difficult for you, you should get a novel written in modern Chinese language.

If you can't read Chinese, I would suggest you to read an English translation version. You can find out the book title etc from the "Buy Book" icon of this homepage.

From Mr. Yang's angle, China's calligraphy needs to develop some new directions. Be more graphical, be more easily understood as image art to non-Chinese readers. No doubt, to gain international recognition, the first step is to be understood. On the other hand, I think in China, the traditional and fundamentals of calligraphy are sometimes oversimplified and underestimated. Frankly, the same goes for Japan's modern calligraphy. There are still certain principles of aesthetics in general, whether one understand the meaning of the words or not. The visual impact of calligraphy is clearly there. What constitutes "good" and "bad" calligraphy have been tested by history, including appreciation by non-Chinese art critics. As I said in the Prolog at my calligraphy website, the "words" in Chinese calligraphy still need to be understood. Under that, one can express infinite imagination. When the words are no more recognizable, then it is not calligraphy but just any abstract visual art form, using calligraphic techniques. The context of calligraphy is also an important element of the artwork. This is a part that is difficult for people who don't understand the Chinese characters.

I also mentioned in the Prolog that with the proliferation of "regular fonts" in computer, in fact a calligraphic presentation is more attractive as a piece of commercial art. If one picks the numerous websites and television graphic arts, there is no lack of examples of "free form" calligrpahy used in Roman alphabets. The adoption of brush calligraphy techniques by the Roman language users is a good sign that Chinese calligraphy has found its place in social "application".

Granted, there is a woeful negligence of non-marketable art form in a commercialized society. But I believe in the end, Chinese calligrpahy is still useful in transmitting contextual philosophical messages to the readers, other than just an abstract graphical image.

I have posted your papers to my calligraphy website:
Modern Chinese Calligraphy (1898-1998) in English and GB.
Chinese Calligraphy Websites in GB.

Your hotmail mailbox bounced my mail. I have to use this forum to notify you. Also for others who might be interested:
http://www.asiawind.com/art/callig/index.htm
Click on "news". Thanks for your contribution to my website.

Many Chinese poems can only be appreciated and not to be translated. ¥u ¥i ·N ·| ¡A ¤£ ¥i ¨¥ ¶Ç . This poem falls into that category. Anyway, I try to translate it for you as follows. I hope others can correct it if it is not translated right.

The breeze by the river covers three to five miles

Bright moonlight shines upon the front and back bays

By the pillow, I hear the sizzling sound of the frost

The Autumn Mountain is tinted with the silvery colour of the night sky.

I can suggest a couple of ways where you can find a fung fu master.

1. Look up the Yellow Pages under Martial Art schools.

2. Go to China town and ask some shop owners. They should be able to tell you.

The name of China
¤¤°ê - the 'Middle Kingdom'
¤¤µØ - the 'Central Splendour'

MeiLien Yeh raised the interesting question what was the meaning of China's name which Dr. Lee had answered already for the most part. But aside from the names Ch'in/Qin ¯³ and Han º~ the 'real' name for China is Chungkuo/Zhongguo ¤¤°ê or in the official version Chung Hua/Zhonghua ¤¤µØgoing back to China's national identity to be the 'Middle Kingdom/Country', the roots of which are philosophical:
In Chinese thinking space and time formed a unified whole, devided into five parts: east/spring, south/summer, west/autumn, north/winter - and the centre/a fifth season in the middle of the year after the 3rd lunar month of summer. Space was regarded as a square 'fang' ¤è - the middle of it as a ideal point without extension. So was the centre of time: the fifth season representing the middle of the year without any extension. Thus the centre had been regarded as space/time condensed into its very essence. In Chinese thinking these five parts corresponded with five different colours (elements, animals, tastes etc.), the colour 'yellow' (huang ¶À) standing for the middle, thus also representing the (famous) yellow earth of Central China. Chungkuo, the Middlecountry, in the eyes of ancient China was the centre of the world, the point of highest density, the very essence of human culture etc., the origin or spring from which space/time is continuously renewing and regenerating itself. From there toward the peripheries, space/time's density was regarded to decrease more and more, thus the 'real world' of the middle losing itself in barbarous regions at the end of space. 'Middle Kingdom's' very centre was the appropriate place of the prince/emperor, the 'Son of Heaven' ¤Ñ¤l (in later centuries his emperial colour also being yellow): He was the link between men and heaven, his virtue being the regenerative power to guarantee the welfare of the whole empire.

BTW, China's old name Hua µØ(originally meaning 'flowers', 'flowery', 'variegated', 'ornamental/bright coloured' etc.) might be a proof for the ancient Chinese' original fondness of colours, only in later centuries - for different reasons - being diminished under the influence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

Good evening

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

At the bottom of the homepage, click on either "About" or "Few words from the webmaster" which should tell you about this site.

Dear Siu-Leung and Mr. Yang,

I'd highly appreciate the publication of articles on calligraphy on the web, because this media is rather adequate also to demonstrate examples of what one is talking about. So I just can hope that copyright reasons won't be a barrier to also publish the brushes.

Best wishes

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²

Thanks for your article on Internet calligraphy sites. If you don't mind, I will post it to my website too.

It is difficult for Chinese calligraphy to establish itself in the western world because the appreciation requires understanding of the Chinese language. Japanese calligrpahers are trying to break through this barrier by just using single words or simple expressions so that concepts can be introduced in smaller pieces, and the expression can be easily associated with the characters. You mentioned that some Chinese calligraphers are trying colors on calligraphy. I think it is a good attempt and I have seen some works like that. However, black ink itself already have its "colors" and a noisy piece of calligraphy will detach itself from the "Zen" serenity that traditional calligraphy can convey.

The other pictures are all expressive of the rich imagination of Chinese people in Han dynasty, almost 2000 years ago. These pictures were used to decorate the tombs of nobilities, so that they might enjoy life after death.

As Julian said:
The "History of Ming Dynasty" (©ú¥v) has a detailed record of Zheng He's visit to Malacca and other places in his trips to explore the world outside China.
Let me tell you what little I know about Malacca.

I have begun to add the digitized version in the website. You can read it at the History Page.

For those (myself included) who are not familiar with Malacaa, it is a harbor city on the west coast of the Malaysia, between Singpaore and Kuala Lumpur and about 150 miles North of Singpore.

In 1405, the Malaccan ruler Parameswara came to the Ming Court and swore his alliance to Emperor Zhu Di. There is a portrait of Emperor Zhu Di in the portrait of emperors page. The famous Zeng He made many trips sailing to the South Seas, Red Seas and East coast of Afraica. There is a brief page about him here also.

During his third and 4-th expeditons in 1407, Zheng He stopped in Malacca, and made Malacca his staging point for his voyages to points west. He built a stockade with towers and four gates near the harbor.

Martin: I am very interested in your inquiry, as you are the first person to write from Malacca. Please tell me more about Malacca!

I am trying to paraphrase WuLing and Shangrila. No, they are not the same place but both are earthly paradises. WuLing is in Hunan province. In Tao Qian's poem, the people there fled the Qin regime. When a Han discovered them, they have been there for some time. Not knowing what was going on in the rest of China, they still waore Qin costumes. I recalled that such a place does exist even not long ago in mountainous region of Hunan (or Jiangxi?). People there knew little about the rest of the world. A "bigfoot" like apeman has been rumored to inhabit in the Shennong Jia ¯«¹A¬[ of Hunan province.

Chinese literati can make up terms from different words easily.(The easy part of Chinese :)) As long as it sounds correct, soon it will become an idiom/compound.

ªá´Â«á¤T¤é means 3 days after the "birthday of all flowers", which is the 12th day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar. I have a calendar to trace back to the exact date in the western solar calendar to be March 19, 1924. ªá´Â is not really a holiday, but quite commonly used by scholars for a picnic to appreciate the blooms.

Idrus' 2nd poem
ªZ³® Shangri-La?

Dear Siu-Leung,

>The poem is again an overtone of ³³¼ç Tao Qian's ®çªá·½°O Tao Hua Yuan poem. WuLing is equivalent to >Shangrila

I'm sure you are right - even when Shangri-La only 'exists' since the year 1933 (when James Hilton published his novel 'Lost Horizon', with this place hidden in the mountains of Tibet, a paradisiacal community of long life, refinement, unworldliness, and peace...). Can you tell me more about your idea of Wu Ling ªZ³® being Shangrila? How do you come to it?
As far I know, this expression Wu Ling was very concrete in Ancient China, being one of the names for the Sung capital Hangchow ªC¦{ . This city was - and still is - famous for its beauty, so I could imagine people (and esp. poets) thought of it as a beautiful and peaceful place to long for. I also remember the Chinese saying in reference to Hangchow (and Soochow): ¤W¦³¤Ñ°ó¤U¦³Ä¬ªC - an earthly paradise! Could it be that this concrete historical name had changed to an abstract expression for something one might call Shangrila?

BTW, I couldn't find the ancient Chinese compound ¾Ô¥ï 'chan-fa' (for war/struggle) in my sources. Is this a common expression?
What's the cao-shu-style looking character preceding '... ¤T¤é'? Is it «á (after)? I was looking through my charts, yet could not find it under this meaning.

Alfred

http://www.fa-kuan.muc.de
"Traces of Butterflies' Dreams" - ½º¹Ú²ª

Thanks for pointing out. I don't know enough of Wu Zheng's biography to interpret "Daiqiu" as his Zi or Hao. My translation is literal. I would love to read your paper on the study of contemporary Chinese calligraphy. Can I have a copy? Or do you have it on a website?

Dear Idrus, Chinese names can be be quite confusing. There is a name that the parent pick for you, that is Ming. There is also a name that usually used by your friends, that is Zi ¦r. An artist or scholar usually also pick a Hao ¸¹ to indicate his favorite or temperament. In this case, Wu Zheng's other name is Daiqiu «Ý¬î (Zi), and LuShiWanRen (Hao).

If you ever want to have a complete set of official Chinese history books or records ( ¥¿ ¥v ¡^ but are not able to, I recommend that you take a look at the ¾ú ¥v ¶Ç °O page on the homepage of this website. Dr. Pei has just added this feature in his site. It is by no means complete yet, but I am sure Dr. Pei will continue to enrich it with new additions. My heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Pei.

In my Hakka Chinese webpage there is a whole list of links on "Chinese culture", many are art sites, including museums. Please visit the site below and follow the links.

The "History of Ming Dynasty" (©ú¥v) has a detailed record of Zheng He's visit to Malacca and other places in his trips to explore the world outside China. This voluminous book with many chapters was compiled by the imperial court as official history. All official Chinese histories are recorded by names rather by chronological order. Zheng He is the first listed under the record of court officials.

S.L. is obsolutely correct when he said " the poem is again an overtone of Tao Qian's Tao Hua Yuan Poem."

The last msg should be revised as follows:

Green waves stretching wide, over ten miles of river and sky,
Rosy blossoms lining the banks - spring is still not faded.
I say : without wars in this place,
The peach flowers are just like those in WuLing.
--- Wu Zheng, March 19, 1924 waiting for autumn
(3 days after the birthday of all flowers ªá´Â, which is the 12th day of the second month in Chinese calendar)

I have translated the poem as follows:

Green waves stretched wide along ten miles of river and sky,
Blossoms red as dusk line the banks - spring is still not faded.
I say : without wars in this place,
The peach flowers are just like those in WuLing.
Wu Zheng, March 19, 1924 waiting for autumn
(3 days after the birthday of all flowers ªá´Â, which is the 12th day of the second month in Chinese calendar)

The poem is again an overtone of ³³¼ç Tao Qian's ®çªá·½°O Tao Hua Yuan poem. WuLing is equivalent to Shangrila. I believe the other two may be variations of the same theme. Usually these frames are either in fours ¥|«Ì.