Ming, the calligraphy composition with words of the Lan-t'ing Prologue on my site was done by an awarded contemporary calligrapher from China, as I've been told. His name is Dr. Julian Jiangting Zhu and now mentioned on the page respective.
I've now added the original brushwriting of Wang Hsi-chih (part) I - at last ;) - discovered in my personal chinese library.
BTW, the URL of my pages with some poetry of Mao tse-tung (mentioned earlier here) has been altered.

Alfred

You may send your photo to me my email, using the "enclose" feature of the email program.

"All I wish to say is, sure, let us read Shakespeare and Goethe, but let us ALSO read Li Po, Tu Fu, Ch'ao Hsueh-Ch'in, Rumi, Attar, Firdausi, Lady Murasaki, Kalidasa, and whatever other authors I have not mentioned. . ."

K.T., I deeply can agree with you so far - and for my person, I am doing so! (To a certain extent I also share your opinion, that one can find a sort of arrogant disregard toward non-western literature, arts etc. in western countries, yet this always being nourished from deep ignorance - and I hope, this will improve step by step.)

Regards

A.W.

K.T., are you sure, not mixing up two different matters: world literature and literature of the world? Is Shakespeare's Hamlet *not* world literature??? I am sure, you know Beethoven? Is his music *western* music or world music? It is not a question of language or culture, but of 'global' quality. Prof. Pei made those texts available on the net in *chinese* language - and I think, it is only a beginning, hoping much more "world literature" to follow.
BTW, shall I find it "deeply offensive" not to find works of Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe or Friedrich v. Schiller there?

A.W.

Of course there is the story about the mother of Mencius , who was so concerned about the education of her young son, that she moved her whole family residence three times. Mencius's fame as a philosopher is second only to Confucius.

Julian pointed out, rightly, the role of mother as the guardian for the education of her children ¬Û ¤Ò ±Ð ¤l .
Throghout the Chinese history, and to this day, Chinese mothers assume a dominant role for the education of her children. Their influence on shaping the society is profound.

The site "100 celebrated women ..." mentioned by Prof. Pei is really remarkable and a good and serious information. I included the site's link in my homepage. To get a short overview of the women's role in Chinese history, read the introduction by Kate Foster, who has translated the precious texts.

A.W. http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

Siu & Julian, thank you for your precious comments: I have read many times of Li Bai as "the genius" ¥P ("der Genius/Titan"), of Du Fu as "the saint" ¸t ("der Heilige") and - sometimes - of Li He as "the demon" °­ ("der Daemon"). I don't like the latter, thinking, that one mentioned by you, Siu, fits much better (xiong qi ¶¯©_), but it is not easily to translate into one english/german expression! (vigorous and - in a positive sense! - very special).

Siu, as you know, my situation with chinese literature has become rather poor the last years here in Munich: if I will not succeed in finding Li Ho on the net, I'd like to contact you for perhaps some scans of a couple of poems.
BTW, I just started a page with some Mao poems I like.

Alfred

Ming: Thank you for your information on Li Ho's §õ¶P personal name. Do you know, where to get his original poetry?

BTW, did you realize, that your source's dates of life differ from mine? Li indeed was a first-class poet and as it seems a child prodigy too: But the German sinologist G. Debon (Prof. emeritus, still living and publishing) says, he only was appreciated by a couple of admirers at his time. Debon uses the term "seltsam-bizarr" (strange-bizarre?) and his poetry obviously being "banned" from the usual anthologies of T'ang dynasty (you really can't find them there!). I do not know, from what chinese(!) source D. took the above expression, perhaps it was "kuei ts'ai" °­¤~. The translation "genious in an unorthodox way" might be correct too (and very complimental - but D.'s translation is not at all depreciatory). I did not find the compound of "kuei ts'ai" °­¤~ none of my dictionaries, even good-old Mathews had such an entry (but my chinese extension on the Mac!!): I can imagine, that there are quite a couple of possibilites to translate the term (and "encircle" its content). If you read Li Ho's poetry (I did it only in German versions!), you might easily see the "dark" pictures of it , as his poems are rich with metaphors (not very common in chinese poetry!). Li's family was "declining" (Debon: "im Niedergang begriffen"); he lived retired with a boy servant in deep melancholy (and obviously was ill too). I took the fact, that he lived in "severe poverty" from one of his poems: "Bei der Lektuere in Tschang-gu meinem Dienerknaben aus Ba gezeigt" (Prof. Debon), where he mentions to his servant his "bittere Not" (bitter poverty, misery - difficulties etc.). Maybe this doesn't hit the point.

The poet you refer to is §õ¶P
My reference says he is a child prodigy, and died young at the age of 27 (790-816).
He enjoyed early fame, and is not all not appreciated. He was a first-class poet, and was known as °­¤~.
The term °­¤~, according to Liang's Chinese-English Dictionary means, "genious in an unorthodox way."
This is a very complimental term. I think "dark" or "strange-bizarre" are not the correct translation of his reputation.

He did not leave many poems to us, which is perhaps why he is not as popular nowadays.

He was never poor.

There is a poet of Tang dynasty I am very fond of: His name is Li Ho (§õ¡H), yet I don't know his personal name's chinese character, so up to now I did not succeed in getting the character text of his poems on the net (or elsewhere). Li Ho is not included in "Tang Shi Yi Bai Shou" (­ð¸Ö¤T¦Ê­º). I think, he was not known well (and appreciated too much) in ancient or even modern China, as his poems being regarded as "dark" and "strange-bizarre" (in an almost modern way). He lived 791-817 A.D. in severe poverty (although a nobleman) and had no successors in his special way of writing poetry. I know a couple of his poems in German translation and would like to give his "traces of butterfly's dreams" some space on my personal poetry page. Who can give me further information?

A.W.T. http://www.muc.de/~tueting/

I am just reasoning from a non-architect's viewpoints. There could be more answers, or I could be wrong. BTW, Chinese architecture is not done with any nailing at all even for the heaviest roof. Everything is put together by dovetails and dowels.

There is a page about Mulan in China the Beautiful. Click on the "Mulan" button on the homepage to go there. It has links to several sites devoted to the Movie as well.

From the little I have seen, the movie is beautifully made. But it is a Disney movie. The story is Disneyfied to become a story from the Magic Kingdom rather than the Middle Kingdom. :-(

Getting drunk in wilderness

Derek, I only have a graphic kind of a 'tiger' (chinese people designed those animals as lions and sometimes tigers too, in a very fancy way!). This one is with a pair of magpies - symbol of joy/luck etc..

The old poets (and others too) drank 'wine' °s, i.e. brandy made from rice, 'kao liang' or other sorts of grain - not from grapes.

Alfred

Mao wrote a lot of poems, all are available on the net, in Chinese.

As for me, it was an accident. I wasn't drawn to the culture. Nor was I seeking out something different. I have to admit, that I'm not into *every* aspect of Chinese culture, but only those which crossed the paths of my other interests. I started taking the language at 14 in High School. My reasoning was that it would look good on a resume compared to yet another Spanish or French speaker. The culture part sneaked up on me! =) Once I commit myself, I go as far as I can, so I became more immersed. Then my other two favorite Western interests of art and reading got mixed in, as well as an interest in the language for it's own sake. I guess that, and my mom working in an International office since I was a kid.

Lanting - followup

Thank you Ming, I am going to clarify the matter (& will give you notice then).

Alfred

I am just wondering, who composed Wang's (¤ý¿ª¤§) characters in a new order as in the calligraphy on my site (maybe Wang himself??) A.W.

------

I believe the fragment of Lanting in your site came from the site
http://www.tuns.ca/~zhangji/.shufa.html

I am very dubious about what are shown at that site. It is my guess that many of the examples shown at this site is simply the author's own handiwork. He presented them as if they were the works of the master calligraphers.
IMO, the quality of the work is questionable. I am particularly distressed by, for instance, the example of "Mi Fu" (He mis-pronounced the name.) and in the final example of "Happy New Year".
These cannot be the works of the masters!

Alfred, since there are many fine examples of Wang's work, I would suggest that you choose another illustration in place of this one.

I am just wondering, who composed Wang's (¤ý¿ª¤§) characters in a new order as in the calligraphy on my site (maybe Wang himself??) A.W. I am very dubious about what are shown at that site. It is my guess that many of the examples shown at this site is simply the author's own handiwork. He presented them as if they were the works of the master calligraphers.
IMO, the quality of the work is questionable. I am particularly distressed by, for instance, the example of "Mi Fu" (He mis-pronounced the name.) and in the final example of "Happy New Year".
These cannot be the works of the masters!

Alfred, since there are many fine examples of Wang's work, I would suggest that you choose another illustration in place of this one.

Colors are used differently in different cultures. Whether they have deeper meanings or symbolism, or simply social customs is another question.

In Western societies, brides wear white at the weddings; and black is associated with funerals. Are these color symbolisms?

In China, red is the color of weddings, and white is worn at the funerals.

Andy is right. Nowadays with jet travel and all, people seem to pay less attention to "symbolisms" of colors.

Trudy,
Julian Yiu has answered your query, and I think he is right. Where did you get the story of people traveling upstream to worship to their ancestors? This (i.e. pulling the boats) might have been a local necessity due to the special landscape. Was it a novel being set in a specific part of China?
BTW, offering (sweet)meat to the deceased of a family/clan goes back to the roots of chinese history: this was (and still is) a filial duty (§µ - hsiao4), carried out not only by love and respect, but also through fear, thus preventing the dead members of the family from doing evil to their descendants - and wandering about as evil spirits or ghosts. Mencius said: "The nourishment of parents when living is not sufficient to be accounted the great thing. It is only in the performing their obsequies when dead, that we have what can be considered the great thing." Works of Mencius (Legge)
A.W.

Siu, I just became aware of your question not at least being answered to the bottom. So here some more reasons for western people's fascination toward Far Eastern culture:

It is the philosophy behind: First of all the idea of 'wan wu' (¸Uª«), all things of the universe depending on each other, being organical 'part' of one entirety, also the most minute one having influence on the most important and the whole. Hence the special attraction of TCM for modern times' westerners, as it really seem to look at the human body/soul as an entirety, thus defining health in its proper latin meaning of 'integritas' (since long missed in western high-tech medicine and spare part surgery).
Then, the really intelligent principle of 'wu wei' (µL¬°), of having things 'done' by the forces of nature (much better than ours, in contrast of sailing in the wind - and yet steering your desired direction without effort(!) or rowing a boat): Hence the special attraction of martial arts to people young and old.
The special philosophy of Zen Buddhism (ÁIªk) with the reduction of forms and colours in all kinds of arts e.g. painting, ceremonies, calligraphy; its highly refined 'nature-like' simplicity, its suggesting emptiness (I therefore appreciate e.g. grass-style calligraphy (¯ó®Ñ), Japanese-like pottery/furniture etc. rather than regular-style writing or items wholly covered with ornaments and symbols), its capability of laughing, far off from any religious doctrine, missionary zeal or fanaticism.
... and I like those pretty/good-looking chinese people with their ivory complexion, dark hair and eyebrows - especially one other treasure of China: the children - and all the nice girls too ;Ð).

Alfred

BTW, this now is the correct URL of my resumee, sorry!

Siu,

the appreciation of chinese culture or language in the western world is not at all homogeneous. The interest in far-eastern stuff (having encreased during the last 10, 20 years) seems to be to a very, very great extent quite superficial and a kind of fashionable trend. There are lots of 'well-educated' people not knowing about e.g. Li Bai or even having heard this name. They do not have the least idea about the structures of the chinese language or that chinese characters do not represent a sort of alphabet, as I am asked so many times ... (But you can meet European booksellers too, who never ever heard about the greatest poets of e.g. Hungary or Romania, and you are asked without any embarrassment to spell out their names to them.)
When I started to deal with Chinese language, there only was a handful of sinologist students at Munich university - now, about 30 years later, due to the commercial opening of PRoCh there may be more - but the bookstore with Chinese literature has disappeared since several years already (a well-known sinologist had had it for years, selling chinese food (!), some other stuff and - books too, thus making his living by it). Now finally he's got a job at the German ambassy in Peking - but the books have disappeared from the shop!
My attitude toward Chinese language and culture (and I think also of other interested people too) is fascination, mainly attracted by the written language, really being unique and unparalleled in its beauty (and - at a closer and more expert glance - also its capacity of 'storing thoughts'). Siu, I really am envious for your being able to read characters 'at one glance' and your skilled handwriting - but, being familiar with it since you were a child, can you ever have felt the fascination as I did - and still am doing??
I tried to express my attitude toward chinese writing (and poetry) in my anthology's introduction ("Reflective Thoughts") and also on the info page in a kind of "Resumee". I absolutely agree with Prof. Ledderose's understanding of the special and outstanding qualities of chinese character writing. It was the famous French sinologist Granet (you find his works' titles on my list 'Sources'), who first pointed out the 'emblematic' function and capability of the chinese language, that is, the characters' - but nevertheless the sound's(!). (With regard to characters lavishly structured, this thesis is quite understandable, but a revolutionary idea referring to spoken mandarin ...)

Alfred

Lanting - ²M¡UÐá

thank you, Prof. Pei: the original brush text on your site shows clearly, that Wang used to write the "water" radicals with one dot (dian ÂI) stroke only (so I think, it's qing1 ²M - the meaning of the two characters although not being very different).
I am just wondering, who composed Wang's (¤ý¿ª¤§) characters in a new order as in the calligraphy on my site (maybe Wang himself??)
A.W.

The file in question is newyear.html

I no longer has this file anywhere. If anyone has downloaded this file, please get in touch with me.

The sentence says," The sky is clear, the air fresh."

You can find the full text in China the Beautiful at: lanting3.gif and wang1.gif

Lanting Xu

²M¡UÐá

Julian, thank you for your comment. Could you please give me some more explanation. Do you have the character text of LTX? I know, that sometimes in running hand style the "water" radical is written with only one dot. Is this the case here?

Alfred

Just a quick response to your query about the Book of Odes.

Yes. It is a truly remarkable literary work. Too bad many people thought it too hard or too ancient to be of interest.

Greg Gao wrote a piece about it which may answer your initial questions.

http://www.okcom.net/~ggao/Asia/China/song2.html

His website has a good deal on poetry, and I highly recommend it to all.