Dear Stephen, I do not totally agree with your translation:
"¤µÎئó¦p?" ¤Ò¤ê: "¶H§^¬GÎØ." ©d¦]·´·s,¥O¦p¬GÎØ.
¶H is a 'full verb' here meaning 'make alike/similar' (So, the wife asks her husband; "How shall I make the present trousers/now make the trousers)", and the husband answers: "Make them look like tohe old ones!" Therefore ...).

BTW, my software doesn't seem to have the correct character for "trousers", does yours have?

Alfred

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

I am sure glad that you bring this up so that it gives me a chance to look up »¡ ¤å to find out the meaning of these two words. These two words are under different ³¡ ­º . ¿o is under ¥Ý and it is part of a crop. Whereas åù is under ¤ô and it is the name of a river. However, while»¡ ¤å agrees that åù should be correct, it further says that this word has been commonly written as ¿o as early as in the Han Dynasty days.

Dear Ming, although you're right, the river Ying's character above is no typo: it is the old character used in classical texts (according to my sources). Thus, in famous classical Chuang-tzu, 'butterfly' is written ­J½º instead of ½¹½º

Alfred

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

I use Unionway software and it works fine up to now. Try to download it from http://www.Unionway.com and see if it works on your computer.

As for starting a new paragraph when typing a response to this forum, before you type the new paragraph sentence, type

then start typing your sentence.

To start a new line, you must type the following:
<BR>
I do not publicize this, as I am worried that when someone introduced HTML codes incorrectly, it can affect other people's entries as well as his own.

If you type offline using Word or any other WP program, be sure to save the result as TEXT, without the special format codes of that WP program.

CHINESE MYTHOLOGY:



1. Chinese Mythology: Library of the World's Myths and Legends by Anthony Christie pub. Chancellor Press (prev. Hamlyn). 



2.Myths and Legends of China by E.T.C. Werner pub. Graham Brash (Pte.) Ltd., Singapore (orig. George G. Harrap, UK). 



3.China and Japan: Myths and Legends by Donald A. Mackenzie, pub.Bracken Books, Lond.). 



4.Creations of the Gods Translated into English by Gu ZhiZhong pub. New World Press, 24, Baiwanzhuang Rd., Beijing 100037 Printed by Foreign Language Printing House. 



5. 100 Chinese Gods by Wu Luxing pub. Asiapac Books, Singapore. 



6.Cannonization of Deities (3 vol.) pub. Canfonian Pte. Ltd., Thompson P.O. Box 16, Singapore 9157. Tel. 3388270 Fax 3397851. 



7. Legends of the Eight Immortals pub. Canfonian Pte. Ltd., Singapore. 



8. Unique Exploits of the Jigong (2 vol.) pub. Canfonian Pte. Ltd., Singapore. 



9.The Stories of Jigong (2 vol.) pub. Canfonian Pte. Ltd., Singapore. 



10. Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts by Carol Stepanchuk & Charles Wong pub. China Books & Periodicals, San Francisco.





CHINESE SYMBOLISM:



1. Times Dictionary of Chinese Symbols by Wolfram Eberhard pub. Federal Publications, Singapore ISBN 981-01-3718-4. 



2. Chinese Animal Symbolisms by Ong Hean-Tatt pub. Pelanduk Publications, Malaysia ISBN 967-978-435-5. 



3. T'ung Shu, The Ancient Chinese Almanac, Ed. Martin Palmer pub.Vinpress, Malaysia ISBN 967-81-0106-8. 



4. The Series of the Worship of Four Spiritual Beings compiled by Wang Congren pub. Hai Fenf Publishing Co., Hong Kong. 

a. Dragon ISBN 962-238-235-5. 

b. Phoenix ISBN 962-238-236-3. 

c. White Tiger ISBN 962-238-237-1. 

d. Xuan Wu ISBN 962-238-238-X. 



5. Ancestral Images, three volumes from collections of articles written by Hugh Baker in by South China Morning Press. Pub. South China Morning Press, Hong Kong. No ISBN. 



6. Chinese Creeds and Customs by V.R. Burkhardt pub. South China Morning Press, Hong Kong. No ISBN. 



7. Chinese Black Magic by Ong Hean-Tatt pub. Eastern Dragon Press, Malaysia. ISBN 983-99917-1-X. 



8. Chinese Geomancy by Derek Walters, Vinpress, Malaysia. ISBN 967-81-0135-1. 



9. Feng Shui by Lillian Too pub. Konsep Books, Malaysia. ISBN 983-99825-3-2. 



10. Chinese Numerology in Feng Shui by Lillian Too pub. Konsep Books, Malaysia. ISBN 983-9778-72-2. 



11. Chinese Astrology by Derek Walters pub. The Aquarian Press, UK. ISBN 0-85030-382-6. 



12. China, Empire of the Writtem Symbols by Cecilia Lindqvist pub.Harvill, UK. ISBN 0-00-272161-9. 



13. Understanding Chinese Characters: A beginner's guide to the Chinese Language by Edoardo Fazzioli pub. William Collins, UK. ISBN 0-00-412345-X. 



14. Picture Within A Picture by Shi Zhengyu pub. New World Press, Beijing. ISBN 7-80005-332-6. 



15. The Origins of Chinese Characters by Wang Hongyuan pub. Sinolingua, Beijing. ISBN 7-80052-243-1 & 0-8351-2616-1. 



If you are interested in Chinese culture as an outsider looking in you will find the following three books interesting:



1. The Dragon Book by E.D. Edward pub. Graham Brash ISBN  9971-49-118-4 (Not about Dragons, but Chinese culture).



2. A Treasury of China's Wisdom: A Story Book for Everyone by Chinghua Tang pub. Foreign Language Press, Beijing ISBN 7-119-01861-2



3. Unlocking the Chinese Heritage by Y.K. Wong pub. Pagesetters Services, Singapore ISBN 981-00-1051-6



Happy Reading!

My name is James English, and I happened on your site while trying to find some information on the place of dragons in Chinese mythology. I am writing a fantasy/adventure novel, and because of a love of Chinese history, culture, and mythology, I am endevouring to use Chinese mythology as an inspiration. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction?

Thank you very much.

Yes, the problem is netscape no longer reads the font correctly. That actually is not just netscape, my Chinese software does not on Office2000 at all. So, now I have to use two computers depending on what I am doing. It is a crazy world. Microsoft is probably trying to build its own Chinese software to cut out all others since they are now entering Asian market.

I didn't think the antitrust law suit against MS was right, but now I am not sure.

Click on testing.html file and let me know if you can see Chinese words or not.

This is a very small test page with just 3 lines of text. There are a few Chinese words coded in [big5]. There has never any problem reading files of this type. However, I receive reports (including myself) that with Windows 98, somehow Netscape browser cannot read the file any more. You just see a lot of small rectangles in place of Chinese words!.

The file can be read with Microsoft IE without any problem. If you download the file, and read it offline, it also works.

Your feedback is appreciated. Give me the version number of Windows and Browser type and version.

Ming
webmaster

S.L. just reports that he cannot read Chinese using Windows 98 and Netscape 4.6. He thinks that the problem may be due to the new Science pages that I put up recently.

In reality, the source of difficulty has nothing to do with the new Science pages. It is Microsoft!

S.L.: please try to use Netscape 4.6 to read other BIG5, or GB files in my website. You will be surprised to find that what used to work no longer works!

Now, log on to any other website, and you will find nothing works! This will prove that the fault is with Microsoft (If you ask them, they will say it is your fault.)

Why? Because you are using Windows 98 and your default browser is IE5.

As a webmaster, I hope my pages can be read by both Netscape and Microsoft browsers (as well as localized Chinese versions of Windows). It is a hard, and losing battle.

Currently, I do most of the testing using IE5. I am about to give up on Netscape.

I would like to get feedbacks from everyone on this matter.

Ming
webmaster

Dear Siu-Leung and Stephen, all that - a bit confusing - stuff derives from my own old sources I used to study classical Chinese from quite some time ago. Mainly, it is all based on famous Berhard Karlgren's pioneering researches on the Chinese linguistic history. B. K. was a Swedish sinologist (1889 - 1978) who adapted his knowledge of Swedish dialectology to his special topic. Up to the moment, I did not find much on his studies on the net, so I had to create all the graphics by myself. With regard to the ancient vowels (including the display of eight tones), it is still a wide field for me to be ploughed. (BTW, my sources include about 600 classical characters with their pronunciation in Middle Chinese.)
K. (and his fellow sinologists) created those characters (posted by me) in order to reproduce the ancient sounds exactly, at the same time using a second set of (Roman) characters to give the modern pronunciation in Mandarin. From the table's characters systematic places you are able to easily imagine their correct pronunciation, because you know 'where' (within your 'tools of verbal articulation') and 'how' each sound respective is produced. For me, it is nevertheless quite difficult to reproduce e.g. the b'-sound of Middle Chinese (being at the same time voiced and aspirated (!) like e.g. in Hindi or Sanskrit).

The Pinyin-system of transliterating/transscribing Chinese is acceptable/practicable with regard to modern language yet lacking any use for giving an idea of historical aspects or interdependences (take English orthography as an example!). Pinyin is also misleading with 'p/b', 't/d', 'k/g' - at least for a Westerner - because pretending that there exist voiced consonants b/d/g in Mandarin (like in German or English: bill, dance, garden etc.). BTW, for a speaker of High German or English, it is not too easy to pronounce e.g. an unvoiced 'explosive' like 'p/t/k *without* aspiration. They are used to do so e.g. in French, Italian, Dutch and Viennese dialect. Yet we, when in school, had to try very hard to pronounce 'Paris' in French, with its voiceless, but *unaspirated* explosive. We got a down feather positioned on the back of our hands, putting it in front of the mouth while pronouncing 'Paris' (pah-ri, and not phah-ri or bah-ri!): the initial had to be pronounced 'hard', yet without the down being blown away!
I also want to mention that e.g. writing ('western-style') 'Peking' instead of 'Beijing' does not in the least has to do with disrespect or anything like that with regard to Eastern conventions: this form of transscription is based on the deep knowledge of western sinologists like Karlgren, v.d. Gabelentz (Germany) etc. etc. exactly giving the word's modern Mandarin sound (and at the same time indicating its historical sources).

Alfred

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

Dear friends interested in old phonology, these are the main consonants of Middle Chinese. There are still the semi-vowels 'w' and 'i'* (see below) - and, mostly unexpressed in transsciption, 'aleph' (preceding most of the vowels).
To list all the vowels, would be to complicated in this place.

	Explo	sivae		Frica	tivae	Nasales
	Tenues	Tenues aspiratae	Mediae aspiratae	Fric. fortes	Fric. lenes
Velares
Palatales
Pal.-Affricatae
Supradentales
Dentales
Dent.-Affricatae
Labiales

Liquida	l
Semi-Vocale	(* written as 'i' below)

As for the development of the consonants 'f' and 'j (r)/erh' etc. from Middle Chinese to Mandarin, here some examples:

piwang *	¤è	fang1	piu*	¤Ò	fu1
p'iwang*	§«	fang1	p'iu*	«R	fu1
b'iwang*	©Ð	fang2	b'iu*	§ß	fu2
nzi`	¤G	erh4
nzi'	¦Õ	erh3
nzie'	Ââ	erh3
nziak*	­Y	joh/ruo4

Here also an interesting link to a great site dealing with ancient phonology, yet a bit more confusing than these examples, because using still other historical transscriptions (adapted for net purposes):
"Welcome to Middle Chinese"

Alfred

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

Dear friends interested in old phonology, these are the main consonants of Middle Chinese. There are still the semi-vowels 'w' and 'i/j' (see below) - and, mostly unexpressed in transsciption, 'aleph' (preceding most of the vowels).
To list all the vowels, would be to complicated in this place.

	Explo	sivae		Frica	tivae	Nasales
	Tenues	Tenues aspiratae	Mediae aspiratae	Fric. fortes	Fric. lenes
Velares
Palatales Affricatae
Supradentales
Dentales
Dent.-Affricatae
Labiales

Liquida	l
Semi-Vocale	(here written as 'j' below)

As for the developement of the consonent 'f' and 'r/erh' etc. from Middle Chinese to Mandarin, here some examples:

pjwang	¤è	fang1	pju	¤Ò	fu1
p'jwang	§«	fang1	p'ju	«R	fu1
b'jwang	©Ð	fang2	b'ju	§ß	fu2
nzi`	¤G	erh4
nzi'	¦Õ	erh3
nzie'	Ââ	erh3
nzjak	­Y	joh/ruo4

Here also an interesting link to a great site dealing with ancient phonology, yet a bit more confusing than these examples, because using still other historical transscriptions (adapted for net purposes):
"Welcome to Middle Chinese"

Alfred

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

(Do we need to know how Americans pronounce a German name such as Tueting?)

Dear Ming, I'd think yes, of course - because of 'goalie' Sarah Tueting, a young lady winning the gold medal in Nagano with her U.S. ice hockey team vs. Canada! ;) - (I don't now it either, though!)

(Although of much less importance: for the perfect German sound see above; just take the Mandarin pronunciation - with the first character's initial like in Åé and the vowel 'i' dropped.)

Alfred

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

I know many of you have already said that we spent too much time on dialects, but I am sure we all learn more on this topic than hefore.

Since we have so many experts on this subject, I like to get some clarification on two names.

§ù¨j . Many Cantonese have two pronunciations for ¨j . One is pronounced as "­W " and the other is "ÃÐ ". I always argue that the proper pronunication for ¨j is ­W . When ¨j is pronounced as ÃÐ , it is more assoicated with a place or a block such as çE .

¥Õ ©~ ©ö . Again Cantonese have two pronunication on this famous name. ©ö is pronounced as ¤G or ¥ç . When asked what is the proper pronunication, I always say the proper way should be ¤G . My argument is based on this phrase, " ªø ¦w ©~ ¡A ¤j ¤£ ©ö " . To me, that probably is how the poet gets his name.

The word is now pronounced as "Mi Fei", instead of the Archaic pronunciation of "Mi Fu". This is clearly stated in the dictionaries.

Mi Fei was born in Northern China, and lived most of his life in the Yangtze River region. How the word was or is pronounced in Cantonese is not relevant. (Do we need to know how Americans pronounce a German name such as Tueting?)

The remaining question is "Do we use the present pronunciation or archaic pronunciation for Proper names?" I believe that common practice is to use whatever the dictionary says is the current pronunciation. Then you use Pin-yin to convert it to English. Doing it any other way will be chaos.

Using "rules" and "reasons" to deduce language pronunciation is highly speculative, and often leads one astray. George B. Shaw made this point in an emphatic way by saying that if you follow the rules blindly, then the English word "fish" ought to become "ghoti.." If you are interested in this debate, there are 50 sites on the Internet you should go to.

Dear Stephen,
your guess on the lack of the 'labial fricative' consonant 'f' in ancient Chinese language really hit the mark: 'f' did not exist - this is proved since long by sinologist researches. There are sound charts (vowels, consonants and 'sounds') based e.g. on the researches of the famous sinologist Karlgren proving this as a matter of fact (although other results of his efforts in reconstructing the sounds of 'Middle Chinese' might have been called into question).
BTW, through your special interest in dialectal/ancient phonetics, I got the idea to maybe try a page on this topic: I'm quite sure this could resolve many of your problems as a base for your profound knowledge of southern Chinese dialects (Japanese and Korean included). Yet, my problem will be to first design a lot of (graphic) diacritical characters to be able to represent the old pronunciation including the sounds. Maybe you and Siu-Leung then will help me creating the sound files in order to give an idea of the 8(?) sounds within the 2 'stops'.
(This only refers to 'Middle Chinese'; The phonology of classical Chinese is mainly topic for speculation, yet nevertheless very interesting - just one example:
From the initial consonants' sound shift in words with the same phonetic, e.g. §¡BÅé¡A´Â¡B¼q¡A¦U¡B¸ô¡B«È¡A ¥À¡B«V¡B®ü, they deduced that there might have been compound consonant initials like 't'l (now: t'), 'kl' (now: k), 'gl' (now: l) and 'xm' (now: x=h). This theoretical approach seems to bear out with the example of the word 'lan2' ÂÅ 'indigo': its phonetic ºÊ (jian1=kien=kam) obviously leads us to Siamese expression for 'indigo' pronounced 'gram'(!). Thus, the liquida 'l', 'j=r' and 'r' often interchanged (see: Japanese 'r'), the old pronunciation indeed might have been 'glam'.)

As for ªè: in 'Mathews' its listed under 'fei' (but with the note: "pron.: fu"), in historical sources it is under 'fei', each with the meaning of 'shade of a tree', 'umbrageous/overshadowed', 'kneecaps worn with sacrificial dress'. In my opinion, 'fu' is the modern pronunciation.

"The vowels (a, e, i, o, u, yue) are usually the first to change during the language evolution..."
You're absolutely right with this statement! See below also my notes on 'Yiddish'.

Best regards

Alfred

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

Hello, 

Why don't you include antiques?  Furnitures and artcrafts for decoration. 

Saw some in musemes in UK but would like to have some systemetic introductions. 

Thanks. 

-- 

************************************************************

* Dr. Cheng Xiao              Tel. 01483 300800 ext. 2580  *

* Department of Chemistry     Fax  01483 259514            *

* University of Surrey        e-mail c.xiao@surrey.ac.uk   *

* Guildford GU2 5XH                                        *

************************************************************

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Amy Wong 

 PBS special on Chinese Americans





> Here's something that you might be interested in watching...

>

> ---------------------------------

> > WLIW21 New York has produced the first television cultural documentary

> > about the Chinese American experience, which will premiere on PBS this

> > August called THE CHINESE AMERICANS.  A press release and airdates

> > reported so far follows  below.  I hope that you will share this

> > information with others.  Please contact me at

Susan_Soberman@wliw.pbs.org

> > if you need additional information.

> >

> > Thank you.

> >

> > Sincerely,

> >

> > Susan Soberman

> > Publicist

> > WLIW21 New York

> >

> > > THE CHINESE AMERICANS

> > >

> > > THE CHINESE AMERICANS visits generations of Chinese

> > > families who came to

> > > the United States from the mainland, Taiwan or Hong

> > > Kong and with

> > > characteristic understatement forged an American

> > > dynasty.  The program,

> > > premiering on PBS August 1999 (check local

> > > listings), tells an inspiring

> > > success story of amazing achievement built on a

> > > 5,000 year-old legacy of

> > > tradition, integrity, and familial honor.

> > >

> > > Using film, photographs and personal recollections

> > > from world renowned

> > > architect I.M. Pei; prize-winning AIDS researcher

> > > and 1996 TIME Man of the

> > > Year Dr. David Ho; television journalist Connie

> > > Chung; PBS cooking show

> > > host Martin Yan ("Yan Can Cook"); playwright David

> > > Henry Hwang; community

> > > and business leaders, artists and others, THE

> > > CHINESE AMERICANS explores

> > > the diversity and rich cultural history of the

> > > Chinese American experience

> > > in a televised "family album."

> > >

> > > Anchored on each coast by Chinatowns in New York and

> > > California, thriving

> > > Chinese neighborhoods across the U.S. recreated the

> > > close-knit villages in

> > > China where every elder was called 'auntie' or

> > > 'uncle' and, as Master

> > > Chinese Chef Martin Yan remembers, perseverance,

> > > endurance, flexibility

> > > and hard work were passed from one generation to the

> > > next.  THE CHINESE

> > > AMERICANS examines the roles Chinese schools, family

> > > and district

> > > associations, and religious organizations - whether

> > > Buddhist, Taoist,

> > > Confuscist or Christian - played in transforming

> > > Chinese immigrants into

> > > Chinese Americans while maintaining the traditions

> > > of the culture.  As

> > > architect I.M. Pei explains, these families became

> > > just as American as

> > > anybody else, but "still Chinese." The program

> > > explores this yin and yang

> > > of the old and the new, a balance between the

> > > archetypes so eagerly

> > > embraced by mainstream America and the desire to

> > > assimilate.

> > >

> > > Though the Chinese represent barely one percent of

> > > the U.S. population,

> > > the power of their contributions to American arts,

> > > sciences, medicine and

> > > education has been tremendous. As television

> > > journalist Connie Chung

> > > discovered, this success has not always translated

> > > into acceptance.  Chung

> > > relates how as a young reporter for CBS News in

> > > Washington, she endured

> > > comments from colleagues about "yellow journalism"

> > > and fought the stigma

> > > of being hired as part of a network minority quota

> > > by proving it was her

> > > ability and not her ancestry that justified her

> > > position.  THE CHINESE

> > > AMERICANS celebrates the extraordinary individuals

> > > whose destinies were

> > > determined not by the Chinese lunar calendar as the

> > > ancestors believed but

> > > by the sheer determination of a new American dream.

> > >

> > > THE CHINESE AMERICANS is produced by WLIW21 New

> > > York, whose other PBS

> > > specials celebrating the diversity and ethnic

> > > character in America include

> > > A LAUGH, A TEAR, A MITZVAH (Jewish Americans); MAY

> > > THE ROAD RISE TO MEET

> > > YOU (Irish Americans); THE ITALIAN AMERICANS; THE

> > > POLISH AMERICANS, THE

> > > GREEK AMERICANS and THE PUERTO RICANS: OUR AMERICAN

> > > STORY.

> > >

> > > Underwriters: The Charles B. Wang Foundation, Public

> > > Television Viewers,

> > > and PBS. Executive Producer: Roy Hammond. Producer:

> > > Roman Brygider.

> > > Director: Roman Brygider. Consulting Producer: Shin

> > > Yu Yang.

> > > Narrator/Consultant Henry Yuk. Format: CC STEREO

> > >

> > > Publicity contacts: Susan Soberman, WLIW New York;

> > > ph 212/974-2121, ext

> > > 3032; fx 212/708-3009; e-mail Susan_Soberman

> > > @wliw.pbs.org and Joanne

> > > Cheng, East-West Corridor Communications; ph

> > > 212/489-2099; fx

> > > 212/489-0375; e-mail jc@ewcc.com.

> > >

> > > THE CHINESE AMERICANS

> > > National Airdates Reported, in Chronological Order

> > > (as of 7/16/99)

> > > Check Local Listings or Call Your Local PBS Station

> > > in other  cities

> > >

> > > KVIE/6  Sacramento, CA  Sun., 8/8 @ 4 PM

> > > KPBS/15  San Diego, CA  Sun., 8/8 @ 5 PM

> > > KOCE/50  Huntington Bch, CA  Sun., 8/8 @ 6:30 PM

> > > WLIW/21  New York, NY  Mon., 8/9 @ 8 PM

> > > KHET/11  Honolulu, HI  Monday, August 9 at 8 PM

> > > WETA/26  Washington, D.C.  Mon., 8/9 @ 10 PM

> > > KRCB/22  Cotati (San Fran), CA  Tues., 8/10 @ 10 PM

> > > WHYY/12  Philadelphia, PA  Tues., 8/10 @ 10 PM

> > > KTEH/54  San Jose, CA   Wed., 8/11 @ 6:30 PM

> > > KCET/28  Los Angeles, CA  Sun., 8/15 @ 5 PM

> > > KQED/9  San Francisco   Tues., 8/17 @ 9:30 PM

> > > WFPT/62  Frederick, MD  Wed., 8/18 @ 8 PM

> > > WTTW/11  Chicago, IL   Fri., 8/20 @ 8 PM

> > > WGBH/2  Boston, MA   Sat., 8/21 @ 6:30 PM

> > > WGBX/44   Boston, MA   Sun., 8/22 @ 5 PM

> > > WCFE/57  Plattsburgh, NY  Wed., 8/25 @ 9 PM

> >

Ò» °à À´ ˵ д Ê« ºÍ д ´Ê µÄ ÈË ¶¼ ͨ ³Æ Ϊ Ê« ÈË

Ó¢ ÎÄ Ö» ÓÐ Ê« ÈË poet , û ÓÐ ´Ê ÈË¡£

I don't think I agree with you on either points that you brought up in your email.

The proper pronunication of ªè is ªÍ and for that matter, Fei is quite acceptable to me. Can you tell me why it must be Fu instead ?

http://fan.hs.com.cn/mzd/
(in GB)

The author of the site has published a number of books and is a specialist on Mao's calligraphy.

"... Indeed, the intellect feeds on the best exotic food that nourishes the most enquiring mind!" (Tin-Kay)

Ming, you're right also mentioning Yiddish. But alas, it also seems to be a dying idiom. It has disappeared in Eastern Europe (extinguished with most part of its speakers by H.'s "purges"). As far I know, New York now has the greatest Yiddish speaking population left in the world, Israel included. Yet, also there, this language seems to disappear, slowly being absorbed by English. Some time ago, I've heard that a Yiddish newspaper (I think it was 'Forward') had published its last edition in favor of its English version because of the knowledgeable readership more and more decreasing).
Yiddish has much of German (southern) dialects, yet nevertheless being a culturaI language, able to convey philosophical matters. I can understand great deal of it (more than from Dutch). It has its own specific 'warmth' using very much diminutives, e.g. 'yingele' (little/dear boy/son) etc. It's famous also for its lullabies and other songs. You even can hear this 'warmth' when referred to this language as 'mame losh'n' (mother tongue).
Since written in Hebraic alphabet (with the vowels usually unexpressed), the texts are/were able to cover all different dialectal variations of spoken language from the Baltics down to the Black Sea (the Crimea), thus to a certain extent comparable to written Chinese!

Alfred

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

He invented the word to make fun of certain people in a series of writings about futility of reforms of the English language.

I would give any the answer. You may even find it on the Web.

One of the earliest painting I included here some 4 years ago is about the 8 immortals by the Japanese painter Tani Bucho in the collection of Mituibishi Museum. I just checked and it it still there.
You can see it at my Immortal page.

Have you heard about the joke that as the Chinese dragon emmigrated to Korea, it lost one toe and became a 4-toed dragon. When it emmigrated from Korea to Japan, it lost another toe and became 3-toed dragon.

Perhaps as the 8 Immortals sailed to Japan, one of them did not make it in the Japan Sea? :-)

Dear friends, back from my short trip to ªü©Ô´µ¥[ I can report that it was strenuous but altogether successful, with a long sockeye run this year not yet ending even when we left. (BTW, Stephen, I didn't run into Tin-Kay - although wishing so - because he infact was not there: you misinterpreted my e-mail ;)).

Stephen, Hebrew never was a 'dead' language (like Latin now seems to be since the Middle Ages), but it had quit being a (really) spoken language since more than 2000 years. It had survived as a language of (mainly religious) literature and poetry in the two forms of (ancient) Bible Hebrew and the so-called Mishna Hebrew. In the Middle Ages also profane literature and poetry was written mainly in Spain and Italy (Mishna), whereas in England, France and Germany the old Bible Hebrew was used to write religious and philosophical texts. Later, in the 18th century it also was promoted for modern texts by Moses Mendelsohn (Berlin, 1729-1786) etc., but it was up to the East European jewry of our times to make Bible Hebrew a media for modern poetry and fiction (Haskala).
Like in other cases of language revivals too, those achievements usually trace back to the efforts of devoted single persons having a nearly 'mad' stubbornness in following their 'dreams'. So, making Hebrew to a modern spoken language again (i.e. not only understood by - educated - male jews, but spoken by everybody!) beside others goes back to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (born in Lithuania as Eliezer Yitzchak Perelman). He even spoke nothing but Hebrew to his mother and sister - who could not understand this language! Later in Israel, he was eager not to have his first son hearing anything else than Hebrew during his childhood, inventing modern words like ice-cream, omelette etc. for him - once shouting at his weeping wife who had forgotten this for one moment and humming a Russian lullaby in presence of her little boy ...

Here is a very interesting article to learn more about this great man:

"Eliezer Ben-Yehuda: A Language Reborn" by Jack Fellman

... and still another, maybe helpful to your purposes:

"Bringing a Language Back from the Dead,
Small nations across the world are attempting to reclaim the lost languages of their cultures.
The Israeli experience of reviving Hebrew has proved to be a helpful example" by Simon Griver

One should also mention the work of another individual to create a language for the Jewish diaspora: it was the Polish-Jewish dentist Dr. Zamenhof who created the common/world language 'Esperanto' (hope), the vocabulary of which is based on European languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian), whose linguistic structures/logics derive from Hebrew.

And finally, not to forget another wonder of linguistic survival - still more impressing for me: the preservation of Romanes, the great Gypsy language, only orally passed on up to our times. This miracle is based on the traditional strength kept in small family and clan units: at the same time yielding and powerful-enduring. More than Hebrew, Romanes is open to change, easily adopting and incorporating new (foreign or invented) vocabulary - and wether preserving it for many centuries or carelessly leaving it behind again. I think we should learn from it. (But I'm not sure wether Romanes in our days isn't also bound to die like many other precious tongues ...)

At last a riddle: do you know the meaning of the common English word 'ghoti'??? It is 'original' English spelling! From its pronunciation it also exists in German. A tip: take the spelling of 'enough', 'women' and 'national'! (The sample is taken from 'DeFrancis, Beginning Chinese, Yale).

Alfred

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

Remember way back last year there was a discussion that in Japan, they have 7 immortals instead of 8 immortals. I can't remember who raised this question.

Recently I came across an Art shop and I found a stone carving of 7 immortals in a boat. This is a famous theme and usually there are 8 immortals. In this particular piece, I can only count 7 of them. I tried to figure out who was the missing one, but I couldn't as the figures were too small to tell for sure.

REPLY:
ÁÂÁÂ! §Ú¨S¦³ ¡§¨H¬A¡¨ªº®Ñªk¡C ¤¤µØªº¤åª«¤¶²Ð ¤Ó¦h¤F ¤@®É ¤£·|¼W¥[ ¡C

There are records and tapes on the market that teach Mandarin conversation. There are such tools for English, Cantonese etc as well. I don't think there anything such things available on Hakka or other minor dialects. I am only guessing. May be it is not economical enough to produce these commodities.

I have been away from this forum for a while as I was enjoying myself and admiring the ancient civilization of Egypt. Glad to be back.

I just want to throw in this suggestion in the preservation of some of the "ancient" dialects. There are many softwares available in the market that allow us to hear the pronunication of the words. I know Cantonese and Mandarin are readily available. If they can do that with Cantonese and Mandarin, they should be able to do it with other dialects and include them in the software. This way, for those who are interested to learn how certain words are pronunicated in Hakkar, for example, can just choose that dialect from the option button.

I understand all your points. It is an awkward situation. I think the best way to address it is to use the original Latin words which would definitely agree with the symbol abbreviations. Japanese or Chinese all have the problem of associating the original Latin words and the symbols.

Dear Ming, sorry, also the Japanese tables aren't in characters: seemingly also Chinese chemistry uses the western symbols since I could not find a single Chinese site with ¤¸¯Àªí although searching in both BIG5 and GB with lots of different engines. By many sites dealing with chemistry I was lead to http://www.ithaca.edu/hs/chem/chem1/tablebig.jpg , yet this is just a 'piece of paper' with the elements' handwritten Chinese characters on it! Without translation. A printed table in Chinese with the elements western symbols and names would do much better a job - and maybe fit into your cultural site.

Alfred

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

Dear Ming, there seem to be lots of periodic tables in Chinese on the Net: I just found this Japanese site (Java enabled):

http://sciwww.misc.hit-u.ac.jp:8000/~poweryuh/JLintra/DPTable3/DPT.html

Alfred

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

It is free, and can be downloaded from their site. For a small fee, one can also order a CD directly from Microsoft. (Just the browser, without Windows)

But, does it come with the Chinese fonts?

Microsoft also sells Windows 98, second edition on a CD. This includes the new IE 5.0. But it seems that it also does not have the Chinese fonts in this CD.

Will you please verify this?

Ming

Did anyone see one? (Table of elements from Hydrogen to Uraninum etc.)

I wonder, whether, by "symbols" you mean the Chinese written characters or the Chinese physical or numeral images or objects that identify or relate to a topic or feeling.

In this discussion page we have readers of a whole spectrum from the very learned (like Prof. Pei, Dr. S.L. Lee, Dr. S. Hwang, Judge "Fa-Kuan, Mr. R. Chang) to enthusisasts like me, of Chinese origin but from a very Anglicized education but trying to delve deeper into the Chinese culture and language. I can empathise with you the difficulty of learning such an enormous culture in both depth and width, but it is rewarding in seeing different interpretations and philosophies of life.

I am not an expert in the Chinese written characters, for which I will leave it to our more eminent experts. However, I am appending a few books in my collection which will reflect on Chinese physical, numeral and written symbols.

Chinese traditional live evolves to a large extent on symbolism, e.g. a natural calamity, is a signal from heaven that the then existing dynasty or government has lost its mandate. The Chinese are by and large very shy about expressing their romantic emotions, so there is not much about the word, love °®, in the index sections of the books I am appending, though you will find the relationship to love described in various small parts. Most new students of Chinese quickly realised that the old Chinese character has a heart in it, but the new simplified character from Beijing has dropped out the heart,ÐÄ.

For love, I can think of the two loving mandarin ducks among the lotuses, or two swallows around a willow tree. The written twinning of the character for happiness, xi3, ϲ, to ϲϲ, as a single character, signifies a wish of happiness for a loving couple. The Chinese equivalent of "Romeo and Juliet" is called the "Butterfly Lovers", the love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The Chinese equivalent of Lady Chatterley's Lover is "Golden Lotus" also called "Chin P'ing Mei".

There are also certain differences between the Chinese and Western interpretations of physical symbols. For example, a bat is usually a symbol of darkness and evil for the Westerner, but is a lucky symbol for the Chinese because "bat" in Chinese sounds like "luck". The crow or raven is also identified as associcated with evil (Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King and the Omen), but the Chinese accept it as an animal of filial piety for being able to take care of its parents when they are disabled and old. The dragon was slew by St. George, but is a regal symbol of strength, benevolence and blessing.

For numeral symbols, ceratin Chinese are crazy about the number eight because it sounds like "prosperity", especially among the Cantonese. The number four is anathematized as sounding like "death". You won't be wrong for concluding that the Chinese is a rather superstitious race. As a result of these beliefs, the Chinese, even educated ones, are dependent on the Feng Shui (wind-water)風Ë® geomancers to effect the best outcome for an event or undertaking.

The books which may help you to know more anout Chinese symbolism are:

From the homepage!!

Welcome to China the Beautiful.
As I have noted (in red) that only last month Microsoft removed the free Chinese fonts from all of their mirror sites. There was no public announcements about this action.

I am exploring alternate method to make these available again.

In the meantime, why not follow "Method 1" as described by me? It still works.

Stone rubbing takes special care and techniques, which are documented and explained. I am not sure what arrangements are necessary to do rubbings yourself. It is not free like it used to be anymore.

On Fu Yiyao's exhibition, I want to say a bit more. I have a website with some of her paintings and biography. A complete list of her collection at this exhibition will be posted by June 28, 1999:
Fu Yiyao's Art

I think I mentioned before in this forum that National Arts Club is the most prestigious promoter for arts. Over the 100 years of history of National Arts Club, only three Chinese artists have been sponsored: Jian Wen Shu ²¤åµÎ, Cheng Ji µ{¤Î and Fu Yiyao ³Å¯qº½.

Ms. Fu's style has some trace of her father's, but has more details. She has been commissioned to paint the entire history of propagation of Buddhism from India to Japan. This painting is now displayed in National Heritage Hall of the first and oldest temple in Japan. For a Chinese artist to have received such honor is exceptionally unusual in Japan. Her other specialty is on Japnese folk festivals. She is historically the first artist to paint on this subject. She has almost painted every single important folk festival in Japan. Please don't miss this opportunity of see her exhibition. IF you have any question, please write to me.

I agree that Hakka and Hoklo are closer to each other than to Mandarin. But I am not sure Hoklo is close to Han pronunciation than Hakka is closer to Tang. It is a fact that the migration of central Chinese to Guangdong started in late Qin. And they established what is known as the North Pearl River Hakka. I have not heard of this type of Hakka, but obvious when it is called Hakka, it should be communicable with others. Hakka migration went through several stages (please see my website). It is true that Japanese language did have most of Tang culture since the transportation was a lot better than. The communication between China and Japan during Wei dynasty has already been proven by the excavation of bronze mirrors sent to the Himiko Empress in Japan, around Nara. this was recorded in San Guo Zhi.

I have been using this, and it is better than the old version. Not only is the quality of the sound better, downloading is much improved.

That's the good news.

Unfortunately, the new G2 files cannot be played with the free Player version 5.0 or older. You must download the newer free G2 Player. And I urge you to do so.

Now the bad news. I just received confirmation from RealNetwork, that they do not yet have the unix or mac version of G2 Player!. These may come out in Q3 or Q4.

There is a Chinese saying that conveys a similar idea:

You Zhi Bi Cheng!

Perhaps we can change the word "bi" to "meng", so we will have the word dream in it. Thus,

You Zhi Meng Cheng

Also, "Dare to Dream" is meant to be extendable to,
Dare to Dream to Become President.
So the translated sentence should be able to do the same.

Dear Siu-Leung, I somehow like your proposal ¼¥¼© (chong1 jing3) for its expressive strength. My software even 'knows' the compound. Yet I could not find the word in any of my sources. Could you give a translation of it? The meaning of the character ch'ung ¼¥ itself doesn't seem to be too positive: irresolute, unsettled, wavering, crazy (ch'uang4); ¼© is better: rouse, awaken, become conscious of right.
From this, my guess (in a positive interpretation) would be: awakening and becoming aware of ones rights in a daring far-reaching and free (not fenced-in) way.
(There is no use analyzing the characters, because both of them are simple §ÎÁn).

Alfred

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

Hakka's ancesters migrated from the North (Loyang) as early as the third century to the South. They are "guest family."

Hoklo are "boat people" who did not come from the North, as I understand it.

Even within Hakka, there are many dialects.

S.L. can tell you more.

Dear Stephen, just to precise this wonder of linguistic resurrection and human will (dare to make dreams come true): 2000 years before, Hebrew was a language no longer spoken or understood by ordinary people!!! The language of Jesus and his Jewish contemporaries was Aramaian (sorry if misspelled), Hebrew was already an ancient language like Latin in our days, only understood by scholars. Jesus' famous last Hebrew words before dying hence had not been understood by the people watching his crucification.

Alfred

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

Dear friends, isn't it a pity ancient Chinese (written) language is no longer used! Thus, there is no further developement - one just can express the old contents! Yet, one has to use a weapon to keep its edge and point sharp! (Take a look at Hebrew, once an old rusty sword, or Yiddish, a somehow ridiculous mix of mediaeval German and other languages: the daily use by great thinkers and inventive speakers made them sharp instruments capable to express and convey (even) philosophy.) As already mentioned, the ancient Chinese also linguistically were very inventive - this tradition seems having stopped now in our modern days.

If I would dare, I'd propose: ´±¹ê¹Ú ('shih' here in the meaning of modern '¹ê¦æ' or '¹ê²{').

BTW, "I have a Dream" and the entire speech is to be listened to - only reading it, is a 'wimpy' impression too compared with this powerful and upstirring words to thousands of people.

Alfred

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

He repeated the sentence, "I Have a Dream", again and again. It is a rallying cry. He extolled the audience to action. He shouted it to the audience at the top of voice. It was a powerful speech, by a great orator.

How do you translate it into Chinese? One cannot translate it as a line in a poem. It is not sufficient for the translation to be literally correct. In this instance, it has to be instantly understood by the audience. One has to be able to deliver it orally with power.

I can translate it as,

But I donot think it is good enough. It is too wimpy. It may be used in a polite discussion among a literary group of friends. But as a punctuation sentence in a speech to an audience of thousands, it will never do.

A better substitute for "dream" is needed here. This is why good translation is so hard.

How would you translate Martin Luther King's famous words "I had a dream ..." into Chinese without losing its magic power? I think the connotation of the expression 'dream/Traum/meng4' are quite similar in English, German or Chinese (and many other languages). It really means 'unreal', different from reality etc..
The convicing power/picture of the above expression lies in the meaning: daring to have visions/dreams, "to dream the undreamable dream" - and only thus forcing the unbelievable to come true, turn to reality. In my opinion, dropping the word 'dream/¹Ú' (with its connotation of unreality) and using something 'possible/real/reachable' like e.g. "far-reaching thoughts" might be a loss of the expression's very power, because shortening its 'height of fall', decreasing its linguistic tension. It would be a pity ... But I'm not a Chinese, and you might be right.
(BTW, I often encountered the fact that modern Chinese seem to be somehow conservative, also in language matters - hardly daring to widen an expression, although the ancient had been rather inventive and creative. In Chinese poetry, my favorite therefore is Li Ho §õ¶P, hardly to be found in anthologies).

Alfred

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

Dare to Dream is the name of a "movement" originated by Grace Shafir, and has generated a good deal of interests and following, at least in the U.S. It has even now commercial activities based on the idea.

The goal is to help and inspire young girls and women to achieve high goals in life.

The title (slogon) really means "Do not be afraid to aspire and to achieve the highest goals in life (just because if you are female)." In this instance, the word "dream" does not refer to dream as in sleep but rather "to set a lofty goal".

Here are two sites about this movement.
http://www.visionary-resources.com/dare.html
http://www.daretodream.org/graceshafir.htm

Christina did not state this explictly, but I think she is refering to Grace Shafir's Dare to Dream.

Alfred: I would suggest a different choice of words.

Dear Christina, for "DARE TO DREAM" as kind of a motto I'd suggest the lapidar ancient term "´±¹Ú" kan3 meng4 (rather than a sentence like "À³´±§@¹Ú" ying gan zuo meng). If others more competent than I will agree to it (or make better proposals), I'll do a gif graphic for you.
I like the idea behind your saying. Although dreams had great importance in ancient China (and many other native cultures too), I think that this deeply human feeling was rarely expressed in former times China, so expressions of "dare to dream" seem hardly to be found in the classics or in traditional Chinese poetry. I didn't even find it in the "Book of Odes" ¸Ö¸g (said to be comparably "free").

Alfred

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

There is a Tattoo page in this website.

From the Homepage, click on "China Room", scroll down to "Tattoo".

I cannot tell you how to develop a happy relationship with your Mother-in-law. I am not sure that any wise men in this world can.

I can only tell you that you are not alone with this "problem", as any human relationship takes time and effort to develop. There is no "love at first sight."

There is a famous poem in the "300 Selected Poems of Tang Dynasty" that goes as follows:

The poem describes a young bride a thousand years ago who wants to know the likes and dislikes of her monther-in-law. So she enlists the help of her sister-in-law.

Why not make an effort? In your own way. It will be worth it.

Good to hear from you. I receive a few emails from Viet Nam. I hope you will come back soon and tell us a little about your interests

I have a webpage about dragons and robes which should give you a start to search for the information you want. In the past, the written language of Viet Nam is Chinese. Can you still read Chinese?

I admire his work very much.

I enjoyed the cultural exchange between you two on the translation of the poem by Li Bai. That is exactly what we want to read in this forum - different view points in poetry appreciation, translation included of course. Well done, gentleman.

Some web pages are simple pages, and you can just print them. More and more webpages are more complex, and are composed of "frames". These are a little harder if you use Netscape's browser.
The steps are a little different depending on whether you are using Microsoft IE browser or Netscape's Navigator browser.

With Microsoft's IE, it is very simple. Just click on "File" and then select "Print...". You may then be asked to choose between several options (or there may not be options.)

With Netscape's Navigator, when the webpage is composed of frames, it will be necessary for you to
(1) Move the mouse to the graphic area,
(2) Right click with mouse.
(3) Select save picture as a local file
(4) Log off and then print the file
and then "Save As" to save it to your local disk first.

This means that you cannot input graphics, sound, or movies files.

However, if you store a sound file in your own website, then you can give a hyperlink URL to it, and the readers will get it seamlessly, as if it were stored here. That is the basic wonders of Internet!! Most any internet server will give you, as part of the email service, free space to store your file.

If your own internet server does not, then it is time to get another company.

Or, you can even get free space from hundreds of companies such as Microsoft, Xoom, Hotbot, etc. etc.

Stephen: I put up your sound file here. I think you need to make some adjustments in volumne, etc.

I put up another page for a Han Shan's poem. It is here. There is also a good calligraphy rendering. Enjoy

If you go to the home page of this site and click on "Novel" icon, it would lead you to Water Margin, whereby you can order an English translation book on Water Margin.

If you don't want to buy the book, you can search the net ( say via Yahoo ) by typing in Water Margin and I am sure you can find a lot of references there.

Dear Stephen,

I'm not inclined either to bore others with linguistics and German studies on Chinese poetry, so I'll try to be short:

• (according to my sources) §¨ (jia/chia 1,5) meets the tone pattern rules. It's ¥­ in Mandarin; the 3rd line's pattern is 'a ¤· a(¥­) ¥­¤·' ('a' standing for anceps/choicefree according 'Toshi-sen shosetsu', Kanno Domei, Tokyo, 1942; the brackets' content goes back to Morohashi Tetsuji, Dai Kan-Wa jiten', Tokyo, 1955-1960).
  You see, even following the 2nd source, Mandarin ¥­ is okay!
  ¾ï (ju/chue2+5) is ¥­ in Mandarin, but ¤JÁn (=¤·) in ancient language (and in Hakka or Hoklo, I'd guess). That is the point you're right ;))) (Up to now, I indeed didn't meet an ancient poem with *absolutly* perfect sound in Mandarin).
• Your knowledge of German language seems to be pretty good! But one must not analyze a foreign version of a piece of poetry in a surgeon's manner. That's okay with a translation, but we don't call it 'translation' (Uebersetzung) in German, but 'Uebertragung' (which means a kind of 'conveyance/transferring' into a different language): It is not enough to wholly translate the poem's content without hitting the 'original poetic sound' and create a picture before the reader's 'inner eye'. This is anything else than a 'knochentrocken' (bone-dry) job - yet nonetheless very hard, sometimes even impossible! G. Debon does it very, very well and is as close to the original as possible (I'm very often 'stirred up' to alter a translation done by others, (almost never ever with regard to poetry transferred by G.Debon). BTW, modern translators of (Chinese etc.) poetry say one has to 'sinisize' one's own language rather than press and force the original in your own language's mould. (I agree to a certain extent - Prof. D. tends to a very skilful compromise.)
  1. "¤s¾å±æ´¸ªÅ": you're right - and wrong at the same time! The picture and 'poetic sound' is perfectly conveyed to German.
  2. ±m­i (Chinese word for rainbow): right too, but the job is to provoke the same 'picture' you - as a Chinese - have in mind at the foreign (German) reader! Redundant? Not at all, at least with regard to the beautiful German sound of the word 'regenbogenbunt' (I therefore recorded the sound too, for demonstration!).
  3. "¤H·Ï´H¾ï¬c" : Again right! 'Rauch'/smoke is adequately translated (but necessarily a bit short to give the picture to a foreigner not having e.g. visited ¤­¤Ó¤s¦x with the village surrounded by ¤H·Ï , seen from fresh sunny heights above ! (G.D. very often succeeds in saving the originals' parallelisms, but this is not at all usual, but a lucky case every time anew.)
  The translation '...hain' literally is ªL (a group of trees), for, as you mention it yourself: what the hack is the translation of ¬c in German or English??? I know it - and not! My sources say 'pomelo' (is this a matter for a doctor???? ;) )
  3. Is the word "Hoehn" a mis-spelled? It means 'heights' (Hoehen, not Hohn); I agree, I'd write it "Hoeh'n" to indicate the 'e' dropped for sound reasons. 'Turmes Hoeh'n' means on top of a tower or something like 'in towering heights'.
  4. I have big question on the translation on the last sentence "Á{­·ÃhÁ¤½":
  The translation of the German sentence is: "Longing for you (Á²·¡UÁ¤½), exposed to the winds". (preisgegeben=exposed, surrendered, abandoned).
  "Mr. Xie" ;)) is the famous poet (464-499) who had the tower built when being prefect in Hsuan-ch'eng/Suan-tschong in Anhwei «Å«°. Li Bai was admiring his fellow poet all his life long and was following his traces with great love and care.
  
  
  Alfred

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

Sincerely,