2.

SEMINAR IN ORIENTAL LITERATURE

1. The poem of Chinese classical and Modern poets (Wang Wei, Li Po, and Tu Fu) and
Modern Chinese poets, Xu Zhino, Al Quing, And Li, Shizey (DuoDuo)- wala pa.

A. Wang Wei (Chinese Classical Poets)

Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician, and statesman during the Tang dynasty; combining the
humanist ideals of a Chinese scholar-official, he served various bureaucratic posts in the Tang court,
both in the capital and in the province in Shantung. After weathering the Anshi Rebellion (755–759)
and grieving over the deaths of his wife and sister, he retired to his country villa on the Wang River,
where he deepened his study of Buddhism and wrote many of his best poems.
Wei founded the Southern School of painter-poets. He is particularly known as a landscape
painter, developing the possibilities of monochrome and pomo (“breaking the ink”), a technique in
which ink is applied in patches or washes that leave blank spaces. None of his paintings are
extant, though the spiritual quality of his landscapes influenced many painters. Wei’s poetry likewise
embodied Zen Buddhist ideals of detachment and simplicity; in his poems, he uses details
sparingly, frequently narrating natural phenomena such as water and mist rather than human
presence. His poetry is widely anthologized, and he is frequently mentioned alongside other poets of
the Tang dynasty, such as Li Po and Tu Fu.

A Green Stream
by
t
Wang Wei
 
I have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers, 
Borne by the channel of a green stream, 
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains 
On a journey of less than thirty miles.... 
Rapids hum over heaped rocks; 
But where light grows dim in the thick pines, 
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns 
And weeds are lush along the banks. 
...Down in my heart I have always been as pure 
As this limpid water is.... 
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock 
And to cast a fishing-line forever!
 
This poem is in the public domain.

NOTE: (Poem Analysis)

Poetic as anything can possible be. I truly love these

kinds of poems, such positive and descriptive words used
to describe a simple yet lovely scene.
Such a beautiful landscape painted here with a backdrop
of running streams and fishing poles...Glad I didnt have
to walk those "ten thousand turns " though.

Wonderful connection between soul and Nature ...

Typical of all Eastern poetry, is the philosophical and
simplistic message between the lines ... Here the
identification with the purity of the stream ...

B. Li Po (Chinese Classical Poets)

Li Po also known as Li Bai was a sixth century Chinese

poet. He was a Taoist and member of a small group of
Chinese poets who were devoted to nature and wine.
The poem “Drinking Alone with The Moon” is likely from
that period of his life. Some other subjects that he studied
in his poetry which may apply were an interest in alchemy,
friendship and solitude. He was a wondering poet
traveling throughout China. His imagination and humorous
character are apparent in this poem.

The following translation of the poem looks to give a line

by line account. We must remember that this is for our
benefit as Chinese writing is vertical and breaks are best
interpreted with an open mind. Since the Chinese language
use of punctuation is hard to interpret, I will not emphasize
that much here, except where it is an indicator from the
translator to the reader.

Drinking Alone with the Moon

From a pot of wine among the flowers

I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till raising my cup, I ask the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were born companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
....Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.

http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~yangzw/libai1.html

“Drinking Alone with The Moon” encompasses

several of the characteristics that define Li Po. As
a devotee to nature, wine, solitude and humor, Li
Po reveals much of himself in this poem. Thus the
importance of this poem to understanding his
other works and ancient Taoism is apparent.

“From a pot of wine among the flowers

I drank alone. There was no one with me -“

This statement I would take very literally. This poem

shows a progression from realistic into the imaginative
and from sober state to drunk. The flow of this poem
tells more of a story than just setting and looking at the
moon while drinking wine. Notice the slight change in
tone of the next lines:

“Till raising my cup, I ask the bright moon

To bring me my shadow and make us three.”

Now we start to see Li Po’s imaginative wit and the

involvement of the wine in this scheme. He does not seem
to be drunk yet, but he certainly expects to be, in fact
drunkenness is his goal. His playful treatment of nature at
this point is unmistakable. He asks the moon to give him
his shadow? This is an unrealistic request, but as a poet I
must appreciate the metaphor and the use of words.
This is what makes Li Po one of the most celebrated poets
of Chinese history. Does he expect this of the moon? Of
course not, he is insinuating the moon as a companion and
partner in this quest for the surreal. For Li Po this would
be perfectly natural as all things are mutual in Taoism.

“Alas, the moon was unable to drink

And my shadow tagged me vacantly;”

These lines punctuate the inference I have made in the

previous paragraph. He jokingly offers the moon a drink
which it cannot take. When the shadow doesn’t show Li
Po doesn’t seem to say it is not existent. Instead, it seems
to have “tagged” him, which means that it is attaching
itself to him but is unseen. What wonderful wit and
communal spirit. The elements of nature are not seen as
without spirit in East Asian cultures, especially in ancient
culture.

“But still for a while I had these friends”

The three friends here refer to Li Po, the moon, and his
shadow. I think by this time Li Po is starting to feel tipsy
at the very least. Wine did have a very special place in Li
Po’s life and writing. He often depended on it to
enhance his poetry.

“To cheer me through the end of spring....”

This line brings us back to his solitude. He must have

expected that he would remain alone until the end of
spring. He expects to remain cheerful as a part of the “three
friends.” This indicates that he is able to entertain himself
in solitude. He lets his imagination go the more inebriated
he becomes. This is indicated in the following lines.

I will make note of the “…” after the word spring. It may
be that a portion of the poem is missing here and the
translator wanted to indicate this. It may simply be they felt
the need to indicate something not complete. Li Po wrote
other poems by the same title similar to this. My guess is
that he was probably developing the same poem, but in the
time since his death, it may be difficult to know which
meant to be the finished product.

“I sang. The moon encouraged me

I danced. My shadow tumbled after.”

I love the picture this presents. We have to imagine a drunk

dancing and singing to the moon. The image of his shadow
tumbling behind him makes me wonder if he wasn’t falling
down drunk by now. The word tumble could also simply
be a word used as movements in dance.
“As long as I knew, we were born companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.”

This gives a bit of forlorn quality toward the end of this

poem. He is admittedly drunk. However the first line is
more finished by the second than separate in my
estimation. Li Po indicates a oneness with himself, the
moon and his shadow. This is interesting and somewhat
unique to Chinese or Asian literature. Your shadow is
always with you whether you see it or not. The moon is a
personal companion. They were “born” to be together is
a way of saying it never leaves him even when he no
longer sees it. It also indicates that Li Po is living the
life he was destined for since birth.

I’m wondering if “I was drunk” is an indication that he has

reached a point of being close to passing out drunk. He
indicates the loss of the moon and shadow because of over
drinking. Of course, drunk seems to me where he was
aiming, but as anyone who has ever been in the state
knows the drunker you become the more brooding you can
get. These lines also lead into the last two which are the
aim of drinking so much and reaching his state of
becoming philosophical.

Li Po as with many poets of the time was a philosopher.

He felt that wine aided in reaching this state of
understanding and becoming one with what was around
him.

“....Shall goodwill ever be secure?

I watch the long road of the River of Stars.”

The translator of these lines indicates that there is

something prior to the word ‘Shall’. This is also a question.
We don’t know what may or may not have been in that
space but the question would seem out of place in this
poem if we did not know that something was leading to it.
His query is now directed at the heavens and heavenly
bodies of the moon and stars as indicated by the next line.
Li Po is reaching that state which allows him to simply
observe and try to answer the important questions in life.
Or, is he questioning if he will reach that oneness.

Goodwill is something we often consider a human

characteristic. Li Po had been treated unfairly by
others. I don’t see him as really feeling sorry for
himself but possibly questioning the character of
people. He may also be asking for the goodwill of the
natural elements to help him find that unity with all
that is around him.

”I watch the long road of the River of Stars”

Finally the last lines indicate that he is getting there. He is

visualizing a path ‘river’ through the stars. Could the
heavens have shown him the way, this would explain the
seeming dual meaning of ‘long road’ and ‘River of Stars.’
this line is essential to his Taoist philosophy. Man is to
harmonize and be one with nature not fight it. Question
it but not act. The ideal is to be an observer. The “River of
Stars” is a way of placing himself within the scheme of the
heavens.

Studying the works of great Chinese Poets as Li Po helps

us to understand more of that history. What may seem a
light and not so fluent poem now becomes fluent. We have
an understanding of the progression of his quest. I would
imagine that this poem would be the beginning of a night
of writing more philosophical pieces. For whatever
reason, this poem is considered an important work of Li
Po. “Drinking Alone with the Moon” now has much more
meaning.

Tu Fu (Chinese Classical Poets)

Also known as Du Fu, Tu Fu is considered with Li Po

to be one of China’s greatest poets of the Tang
dynasty. Tu Fu was born to a minor scholar-official in
Henan Province. His mother died while he was
young, and an aunt helped raised him. Though he
studied for the civil service exam to become a civil
servant like his father, Tu Fu failed to pass and
spent many years traveling. His early poems thread
together incidents from his travels and personal
accounts of the hardships he endured; he also
wrote poems to or about Li Po.

Tu Fu petitioned the government for an official

position and was appointed registrar in the crown
prince’s palace, though the An Lushan Rebellion of
755 prevented him from occupying the post. The
rebellion, which lasted for nearly eight years,
severely disrupted Chinese society. In these years, Tu
Fu led an itinerant life, writing poetry about the
events he witnessed and endured—famine,
political unrest, and personal tragedy.

Though he eventually took up the post of registrar, Tu

Fu is thought to have caused trouble by being overly
conscientious and was demoted. He eventually
moved to Sichuan, where he lived in a cottage and
wrote many poems describing his relatively happy
life. His last years were again spent moving from
place to place, including a two-year period at
Kuizhou, where he won the support of the
governor of the region and wrote many poems in
his dense, late style. Tu Fu and his family began
traveling again in 768. He died in Hunan Province
and was survived by his wife and two remaining
sons.

Tu Fu is often described as a poet-historian, and

his works convey the emotional impact and import
of political and social issues and register a range of
private concerns, trials, and dramas. His poems are
remarkable for their range of moods as well as
contents. According to one of his translators, David
Hinton, “[Tu Fu] explored the full range of
experience, and from this abundance shaped the
monumental proportions of being merely human.”

Full Moon
By: Tu Fu

Above the tower — a lone, twice-sized moon.

On the cold river passing night-filled homes,
It scatters restless gold across the waves.
On mats, it shines richer than silken gauze.

Empty peaks, silence: among sparse stars,

Not yet flawed, it drifts. Pine and cinnamon
Spreading in my old garden . . . All light,
All ten thousand miles at once in its light!

ANALYSIS…

Above the tower — a lone, twice-sized moon.

The moon is shining above the tower and since it is

the night of a full moon, is twice the size of its
normal state as a quarter moon. This line is simply
emphasizing how on this certain night, the moon is
bigger than normal and alone in the dark night sky.
“Lone” implies that the sky is clear besides the moon.

On the cold river passing night-filled homes,

This sentence is to inform the reader that it is late at

night and very dark, lights are turned off within
the homes that the moon is providing light to. It
also presents the image of the moon reflecting off
of the cold river. This has a visual impact on the
reader.

It scatters restless gold across the waves.

On mats, it shines richer than silken gauze.

These lines once again emphasize the affect that the

light from the moon has on the sea and the waves
through reflections. Mats can be any fabric of hemp
or pliant material that is used to wipe feet off of
before you enter a home. Therefore, the moon is
shining upon these people’s homes, creating a look on
the mat that is more beautiful than a material that used
to be made to create silk. Silk is a very beautiful and
soft material so these lines are just showing the true
beauty of an act as simple as a moon’s light shining on a
floor mat.

Empty peaks, silence: among sparse stars,

Once again, the scene and landscape is being
described that plant a scene in the reader’s mind. We
are given the image of tall mountains through the
words “empty peaks”. The night it quiet for most of the
town is asleep and not even realizing what true beauty
is right outside of their windows. “Amongst sparse
stars” is telling once again of the clear sky that is
mostly dominated by the big, full moon.

Not yet flawed, it drifts. Pine and cinnamon

The moon has yet to leave its “full moon” stage and
is still perfectly round. It moves throughout the sky
and time and night passes.

Both the words “pine” and “cinnamon” relate to trees

and shrubs as cinnamon produces an aromatic scent
and comes from tree bark and pine is a tree of the
Pinus genus that is also a coniferous tree. I do not
know, however, how these words relate to the poem
or what is trying to be said. Both a full moon
reflecting on the sea and the though of a cinnamon
and pine scent bring a sense of relaxation, tranquility,
and comfort.

Spreading in my old garden . . . All light,

All ten thousand miles at once in its light!

The moon is capable of not only lighting a small

area such as the author’s garden in his yard, but
has the ability to provide light for thousands and
thousands of miles. Although we all see it and feel
like it is close to us, lighting the area that we are
in, it is also a thousand miles away and lighting the
world for someone else who feels like they are just
as close/connected to the moon as the man who is
states away.

I believe that the purpose of this poem was to allow the

reader to realize the importance of little things, of nature,
and of pure beauty such as a full moon reflecting its pure
light on the crippling sea. So many people go through
their days and lives just ignoring what is around them,
searching for material pleasures, and miss out on the
natural pleasures that exist all around us every night.

This poem mainly focused on descriptive writing;

explaining the landscape, how the moon looked,
comparing the trees and surroundings to pine and
cinnamon, and showing the perfection of the moon
that is up in the dark, clear, night sky.

The words and descriptions provide the reader with

a sense of relaxation as you read about something
you know and can relate to, for every reader has
viewed the moon at night. It is a simple poem that
captures the reader through its magical words and
descriptions of a beautiful landscape that many of
us probably have never paid attention to before.

Modern Chinese poets

A. Xu Zhi Mo (Modern Chinese poets)

On Leaving Cambridge
By: Xu Zhi Mo
Xu Zhi Mo, one of China’s foremost poets of the twentieth
century, is widely known for his poem (On Leaving
Cambridge) composed in 1928 when he was studying in
Cambridge as a visiting scholar. His poem was so
influential amongst Chinese people that many tourists
now visit Cambridge, not just for the prestige and
beauty of Cambridge University but also to see the
stone on which the poem can be found along the bank
of the river Cam behind Kings College where Xu Zhi
Mo studied.

STORY CONTENT:
China, a country rich in culture, creativity and history has
come to the foreground of the world stage in the 21st
century with its huge economic growth and its immense
role in globalisation. With the largest population of
1.3billion people and growing, as well as a landmass
roughly 44 times bigger than the UK, China has become
very influential in international affairs and our individual
daily lives from the things we buy to the things we eat.
Chinese culture, especially its cuisine is rapidly infiltrating
the West as students, families and pandas immigrate
Westward - even to Scotland!
This subject provides a sweeping insight into the
characteristics of China’s landscapes, its people and its
language. China’s geography is a vital factor contributing
to its arts and culture as many of China’s historical art,
poetry and music was inspired by the beauty of nature.
Although, the more common landscape is now one of
skyscrapers and traffic jams, the rural scenery which made
up most China before the 20th century was what
influenced the arts and philosophy much of which is
extracted from lessons learnt through observing nature.
China’s history spans back across thousands of years being
one of the first civilisations to develop with its first
Emperor of the united China established in 220BC, the
Emperor Qin. The dynastic traditions as well as the more
well known ‘Confucianism’ has been vital in China’s
development of culture and the way in which Chinese
people choose to lead their lives today. Many values and
principles which the Chinese hold such as discipline and
hard work translates in their parenting and teaching styles
which has been sensationalised in the West as ‘Tiger
Mother-ism’.
The Chinese language is complex yet beautiful with
poetry as a crucial means through which Chinese
philosophy and the ways of life are shaped. Idioms used
in everyday conversations as well as the practice of
recitation of poetry results in the teaching of morals
from a very young age. Similar to the traditional
awareness in the West of Aesop’s fables, Chinese children
are expected to recite poetry starting from primary school
all throughout their education in order to be able to
understand their role in society as well as appreciating
traditional language.
Xu Zhi Mo took inspiration from the traditional Chinese
poetry and combined it with Western literary influences in
writing ‘On Leaving Cambridge’ breaking from
traditional Chinese poetic structure whilst still describing
the beautiful landscape of Cambridge at the heart of his
poem. Despite the many differences between China and
the West culturally and traditionally, Xu Zhi Mo’s poem
‘On Leaving Cambridge’ captured the beauty of
Cambridge in a Chinese style and inspired an image of
English nature which had not been previously
experienced in China.
To seek a dream is the title of the piece commissioned by
Historyworks based on the poem by Xu Zhimo - see:
For Xu Zhimo poetry translation, see below:
Composed in 1928, a famous poem about Cambridge
internationally, was written by Xu Zhimo, one of China's
foremost poets, habitually learnt by Chinese
schoolchildren. This poem translates variously as "On
Leaving Cambridge", "Saying Goodbye to Cambridge,
again" & here we are taking the title "Taking Leave of
Cambridge Again". This translation is taken from Peter
Pagnamenta (ed.) "The University of Cambridge: an 800th
Anniversary Portrait", (London: Third Millenium
Publishing, 2008), page 29:

Taking Leave of Cambridge Again

By Xu Zhi Mo

Softly I am leaving,
Just as softly as I came;
I softly wave goodbye
To the clouds in the western sky.

The golden willows by the riverside

Are young brides in the setting sun;
Their glittering reflections on the shimmering river
Keep undulating in my heart.

The green tape grass rooted in the soft mud

Sways leisurely in the water;
I am willing to be such a waterweed
In the gentle flow of the River Cam.

That pool in the shade of elm trees

Holds not clear spring water, but a rainbow
Crumpled in the midst of duckweeds,
Where rainbow-like dreams settle.

To seek a dream? Go punting with a long pole,

Upstream to where green grass is greener,
With the punt laden with starlight,
And sing out loud in its radiance.

Yet now I cannot sing out loud,

Peace is my farewell music;
Even crickets are now silent for me,
For Cambridge this evening is silent.

Quietly I am leaving,
Just as quietly as I came;
Gently waving my sleeve,
I am not taking away a single cloud.

Duo Duo
Li, Shizheng (DuoDuo)

Duo Duo 多多 (penname for Li Shizheng 栗世征) grew up

in the years when China was going through historical
changes. He was born in 1951, shortly after the turnover of
political power in 1949 and a few years before the “anti-
rightist” movement in 1957-1958. His formal schooling
was interrupted and eventually ended when the Cultural
Revolution broke out in 1966. He was sent to
Baiyangdian farm for reformation during Mao’s
campaign which sent students and intellectuals from
the cities to the countryside to receive "re-education".
Incidentally, Baiyngdian became the cradle of
contemporary Chinese poetry: Shi Zhi, Gen Zi, Mang Ke,
Duo Duo and many other earlier poets spent their youth
and early writing careers there.

Duo Duo began writing in 1968 in the tradition of classical

Chinese poetry but soon found it impossible to go beyond
what had been achieved by ancient poets. After
encountering nine poems by Baudelaire in translation in
1972, he immediately started writing modern poetry. In
his own words, it was as if "Baudelaire fired a gun shot
 at me." Like other poets of his generation, he read
widely despite lack of formal college education, His
work thus represents this tension between cultures.
Throughout his work, Duo Duo as we see consciously
breaks away from the massive influence of Western
tradition to carve out a style and approach of his own.

After he went to Netherlands in 1989 and remained

overseas for fifteen years, he returned to China in 2004 and
was warmly welcomed by the Avant garde poets and was
awarded "The Poet of the Year" by the South Daily. Since
2004 he has been teaching at Hainan University in
southern China and currently dividing his time between
Hainan and his hometown Beijing. He won the Neustadt
International Literature Prize from Oklahoma University
(U.S.) in 2010.

Duo Duo's early poems are short and elliptical; in which

some see barbed political references. In his early poems,
there are numerous intertextual links to Western poets such
as Charles Baudelaire, Marina Tsvetaeva and Sylvia Plath.
His style underwent a shift in the mid-1980s to longer,
more philosophical poetry. In contrast to the clipped,
image-based style of Bei Dao, Duo Duo tended to use
longer, more flowing lines, and paid more attention to
sound and rhetoric. Some of his poems border on the
essayistic, such as the 1984 Lessons also translated as
Instruction (诲教), which spoke for China's "lost
generation" as much as Bei Dao's Answer.

In 1989, Duo Duo having been witness to the Tiananmen

Square protests of 1989, as fortune had it was booked on a
plane on 4 June to London where he was due to give a
poetry reading at the British Museum. He went on to live
for many years in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands.
His poetic language went through another shift, taking up
the themes of exile and rootlessness. In the absence of a
Chinese-speaking community, Duo Duo began to use the
Chinese language more self-consciously. Sometimes his
poems border on the impenetrable yet are highly effective,
such as the poem Watching the Sea (看海).

In 2009, a jury representing nine countries selected Duo

Duo as the 2010 winner of the $50,000 Neustadt
International Prize for Literature, making him the award's
21st laureate and the first Chinese author to win the prize.
[2][3] He is also associated with many respected Chinese
literary festivals and awards, such as Yinchuan Poetry
Prize and others.

Al Quing,

2. Chinese Philosophers ( Confucius, Mencius, Lao Tze)

2. Confucius was an influential Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure known for his popular
aphorisms and for his models of social interaction.
Who Was Confucius?
Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), also known as Kong Qui or K’ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher,
teacher and political figure. His teachings, preserved in the Analects, focused on creating ethical
models of family and public interaction and setting educational standards. After his death,
Confucius became the official imperial philosophy of China, which was extremely influential during
the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.
Confucianism is the worldview on politics, education and ethics taught by Confucius and his followers in
the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. Although Confucianism is not an organized religion, it does provide
rules for thinking and living that focus on love for humanity, worship of ancestors, respect for elders, self-
discipline and conformity to rituals.
As of the fourth century B.C., Confucius was regarded as a sage who had deserved greater recognition in
his time. By the second century B.C., during China’s first Han Dynasty, his ideas became the foundation
of the state ideology. Today Confucius is widely considered one of the most influential teachers in
Chinese history. The philosophies are still followed by many people living in China today and has
influenced thinking in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Confucius’ Beliefs, Philosophy and Teachings

During the sixth century B.C., competing Chinese states undermined the authority of the Chou Empire,
which had held supreme rule for over 500 years. Traditional Chinese principles began to deteriorate,
resulting in a period of moral decline. Confucius recognized an opportunity — and an obligation — to
reinforce the societal values of compassion and tradition.
The Golden Rule
Confucius’ social philosophy was based primarily on the principle of "ren" or "loving others" while
exercising self-discipline. He believed that ren could be put into action using the Golden Rule, "What you
do not wish for yourself, do not do to others." (Lunyu 12.2, 6.30).
On Politics
Confucius’ political beliefs were likewise based on the concept of self-discipline. He believed that a
leader needed to exercise self-discipline in order to remain humble and treat his followers with
compassion. In doing so, leaders would lead by positive example. According to Confucius, leaders could
motivate their subjects to follow the law by teaching them virtue and the unifying force of ritual
propriety.
On Education
Confucius’ philosophy of education focused on the "Six Arts": archery, calligraphy, computation, music,
chariot-driving and ritual. To Confucius, the main objective of being an educator was to teach people to
live with integrity. Through his teachings, he strove to resurrect the traditional values of benevolence,
propriety and ritual in Chinese society.
‘Analects of Confucius’
Lunyu, which sets forth Confucius’ philosophical and political beliefs, is thought to be compiled by his
disciples. It is one of the "Four Books" of Confucianism that Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi, a self-
proclaimed Neo-Confucian, published as Sishu in 1190. Far-reaching in its influence, Lunyu was later
translated into English under the title The Analects of Confucius.
Other books by Confucius include a rearrangement of the Book of Odes as well as a revision of the
historical Book of Documents. He also compiled a historical account of the 12 dukes of Lu, called the
Spring and Autumn Annals.
When and Where Was Confucius Born?
Confucius was born probably in 551 B.C. (lunar calendar) in present-day Qufu, Shandong
Province, China.
Family and Early Life
Little is known of Confucius’ childhood. Records of the Historian, written by Ssu-ma Chi’en (born 145
B.C.; died 86 B.C.) offers the most detailed account of Confucius’ life. However, some contemporary
historians are skeptical as to the record’s accuracy, regarding it as myth, not fact.
According to Records of the Historian, Confucius was born into a royal family of the Chou
Dynasty. Other accounts describe him as being born into poverty. What is undisputed about
Confucius’ life is that he existed during a time of ideological crisis in China.
When and How Did Confucius Die?
Confucius died on November 21, 479 B.C. in Qufu, China, a year after losing his son, Tzu-lu, in battle. At
the time of his death, Confucius was convinced that his teachings had not made a significant impact on
Chinese culture, even though his teachings would go on to become the official imperial philosophy of
China. His followers held a funeral and established a mourning period in his honor.

Mencius (c. 372—289 B.C.E.)

Mencius Better known in China as “Master Meng” (Chinese: Mengzi), Mencius was a fourth-
century BCE Chinese thinker whose importance in the Confucian tradition is second only to that of
Confucius himself. In many ways, he played the role of St. Paul to Confucius’ Jesus, interpreting
the thought of the master for subsequent ages while simultaneously impressing Confucius’ ideas
with his own philosophical stamp.
He is most famous for his theory of human nature, according to which all human beings share an
innate goodness that either can be cultivated through education and self-discipline or squandered
through neglect and negative influences, but never lost altogether.
Mencius was born in a period of Chinese history known as the Warring States (403-221 BCE), during
which various states competed violently against one another for mastery of all of China, which once was
unified under the Zhou dynasty until its collapse, for all intents and purposes, in 771 BCE.
It was a brutal and turbulent era, which nonetheless gave rise to many brilliant philosophical movements,
including the Confucian tradition of which Mencius was a foremost representative. The common
intellectual and political problem that Warring States thinkers hoped to solve was the problem of China's
unification. While no early Chinese thinker questioned the need for autocratic rule as an instrument of
unification, philosophers differed on whether and how the ruler ought to consider moral limitations on
power, traditional religious ceremonies and obligations, and the welfare of his subjects.

2. The Mencius of the Text

Mencius inherits from Confucius a set of terms and a series of problems. In general, one can say that
where Confucius saw a unity of inner and outer - in terms of li (ritual propriety), ren (co-humanity), and
the junzi (profound person)-xiaoren (small person) distinction - Mencius tends to privilege the inner
aspects of concepts, practices, and identities. For Mencius, the locus of philosophical activity and self-
cultivation is the xin (hsin), a term that denotes both the chief organ of the circulatory system and the
organ of thought, and hence is translated here and in many other sources as "heart-mind." Mencius' views
of the divine, political organization, human nature, and the path toward personal development all start and
end in the heart-mind.
Mencius thus shares with Confucius three assumptions about Tian as an extrahuman, absolute power in
the universe: (1) its alignment with moral goodness, (2) its dependence on human agents to actualize its
will, and (3) the variable, unpredictable nature of its associations with mortal actors. To the extent that
Mencius is concerned with justifying the ways of Tian to humanity, he tends to do so without questioning
these three assumptions about the nature of Tian, which are rooted deep in the Chinese past, as his views
on government, human nature, and self-cultivation will show.
Mencius proposes various economic plans to his monarchical audiences, but while he insists on particular
strategies (such as dividing the land into five-acre settlements planted with mulberry trees), he rejects the
notion that one should commit to an action primarily on the grounds that it will benefit one, the state, or
anything else. What matters about actions is whether they are moral or not; the question of their benefit or
cost is beside the point. Here, Mencius reveals his antipathy for - and competition with – philosophers
who followed Mozi, a fifth-century BCE contemporary of Confucius who propounded a utilitarian theory
of value based on li (benefit):
In the end, Mencius is committed to a type of benevolent dictatorship, which puts moral value before
pragmatic value and in this way seeks to benefit both ruler and subjects. The sage-kings of antiquity are a
model, but one cannot simply adopt their customs and institutions and expect to govern effectively (4A1).
Instead, one must emulate the sage-kings both in terms of outer structures (good laws, wise policies,
correct rituals) and in terms of inner motivations (placing ren and yi first). Like Confucius, Mencius
places an enormous amount of confidence in the capacity of the ordinary person to respond to an
extraordinary ruler, so as to put the world in order. The question is, how does Mencius account for this
optimism in light of human nature?
Mencius is famous for claiming that human nature (renxing) is good. As with most reductions of
philosophical positions to bumper-sticker slogans, this statement oversimplifies Mencius' position. In the
text, Mencius takes a more careful route in order to arrive at this view. Following A. C. Graham, one can
see his argument as having three elements: (1) a teleology, (2) a virtue theory, and (3) a moral
psychology.
Mencius' basic assertion is that "everyone has a heart-mind which feels for others." (2A6) As evidence, he
makes two appeals: to experience, and to reason. Appealing to experience, he says:
Supposing people see a child fall into a well - they all have a heart-mind that is shocked and sympathetic.
It is not for the sake of being on good terms with the child's parents, and it is not for the sake of winning
praise for neighbors and friends, nor is it because they dislike the child's noisy cry. (2A6)
It is important to point out here that Mencius says nothing about acting on this automatic affective-
cognitive response to suffering that he ascribes to the bystanders at the well tragedy. It is merely the
feeling that counts. Going further and appealing to reason, Mencius argues:
Mencius makes an assertion about human beings - all have a heart-mind that feels for others - and
qualifies his assertion with appeals to common experience and logical argument. This does little to
distinguish him from other early Chinese thinkers, who also noticed that human beings were capable of
altruism as well as selfishness. What remains is for him to explain why other thinkers are incorrect when
they ascribe positive evil to human nature - that human beings are such that they actively seek to do
wrong.
Mencius goes further and identifies the four basic qualities of the heart-mind (sympathy, shame,
deference, judgment) not only as distinguishing characteristics of human beings - what makes the human
being qua human being really human - but also as the "sprouts" (duan) of the four cardinal virtues:
A heart-mind that sympathizes is the sprout of co-humanity [ren]; a heart-mind that is aware of shame is
the sprout of rightness [yi]; a heart-mind that defers to others is the sprout of ritual propriety [li]; a heart-
mind that approves and condemns is the sprout of wisdom [zhi]…. If anyone having the four sprouts
within himself knows how to develop them to the full, it is like fire catching alight, or a spring as it first
bursts through. If able to develop them, he is able to protect the entire world; if unable, he is unable to
serve even his parents.
Mencius devotes some energy to arguing that "rightness" (yi) is internal, rather than external, to human
beings. He does so using examples taken from that quintessentially Confucian arena of human relations,
filial piety (xiao). Comparing the rightness that manifests itself in filial piety to such visceral activities as
eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse, Mencius points out that, just as one's attraction or repulsion
regarding these activities is determined by one's internal orientation (hunger, thirst, lust), one's filial
behavior is determined by one’s inner attitudes, as the following imaginary dialogue with one of his
opponents shows:
In other words, the rightness that one manifests in filial piety is not dependent on fixed, external
categories, such as the status of one's younger brother qua younger brother or one’s uncle qua one's uncle.
If it were, one always would show respect to one’s uncle and never to one's younger brother or anyone
else junior to oneself. But as it happens, shifts in external circumstances can effect changes in status; one's
younger brother can temporarily assume the status of a very senior ancestor in the proper ritual context,
thus earning the respect ordinarily given to seniors and never shown to juniors. For Mencius, this
demonstrates that the internal orientation of the agent (e.g., rightness) determines the moral value of given
behaviors (e.g., filial piety).
==================================================================
Lao Tzu
Little is truly known about the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (sometimes also known as Laozi or Lao
Tze), who is a guiding figure in Daoism (also translated as Taoism), a still popular spiritual practice.
He is said to have been a record keeper in the court of the central Chinese Zhou Dynasty in the 6th
century B.C., and an older contemporary of Confucius.
Lao Tzu is said to have tired of life in the Zhou court as it grew increasingly morally corrupt. So he left
and rode on a water buffalo to the western border of the Chinese empire. Although he was dressed as a
farmer, the border official recognized him and asked him to write down his wisdom. According to this
legend, what Lao Tzu wrote became the sacred text called the Tao Te Ching. After writing this piece,
Lao Tzu is said to have crossed the border and disappeared from history, perhaps to become a hermit. In
reality, the Tao Te Ching is likely the compilation of the works of many authors over time. But stories
about Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching itself passed down through different Chinese philosophical schools
for over two thousand years.
Lao Tzu leaving the kingdom on his water buffalo
Today there are at least twenty million Daoists, and perhaps even half a billion, living around the world,
especially in China and Taiwan. They practise meditation, chant scriptures, and worship a variety of gods
and goddesses in temples run by priests. Lao Tzu has been revered for thousands of years by millions of
people; one of his religious titles is even “Supremely Mysterious and Primordial Emperor.” Daoists also
make pilgrimages to five sacred mountains in eastern China in order to pray at the temples and absorb
spiritual energy from these holy places, which are believed to be governed by immortals.
Daoist pilgrims visit a temple on Mount Tai, one of the five sacred mountains in Daoism
Daoism is deeply intertwined with other branches of thought like Confucianism and Buddhism.
Confucius is often believed to be a student of Lao Tzu. Similarly, some believe that when Lao Tzu
disappeared, he travelled to India and Nepal and either taught or became the Buddha. Confucianist
practices to this day not only respect Lao Tzu as a great philosopher but also try to follow many of his
teachings.
A 12th-century Song Dynasty painting entitled ‘Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are one’ is artistic
evidence of the way these three philosophies were mixed over time, and often believed to be fully
compatible
There is a story about the three great Asian spiritual leaders (Lao Tzu, Confucius, and Buddha). All were
meant to have tasted vinegar. Confucius found it sour, much like he found the world full of degenerate
people, and Buddha found it bitter, much like he found the world to be full of suffering. But Lao Tzu
found the world sweet. This is telling, because Lao Tzu’s philosophy tends to look at the apparent discord
in the world and see an underlying harmony guided by something called the ‘Dao’.
"The Vinegar Tasters"
The Tao Te Ching is somewhat like the Bible: it gives instructions (at times vague and generally open to
multiple interpretations) on how to live a good life. It discusses the “Dao,” or the “way” of the world,
which is also the path to virtue, happiness, and harmony. This “way” isn’t inherently confusing or
difficult. Lao Tzu wrote, “the great Dao is very even, but people like to take by-ways.” In Lao Tzu’s view
the problem with virtue isn’t that it is difficult or unnatural, but simply is that we resist the very simple
path that might make us most content.
In order to follow the Dao, we need to go beyond simply reading and thinking about it. Instead we must
learn wu wei (“flowing” or “effortless action”), a sort of purposeful acceptance of the way of the Dao and
live in harmony with it. This might seem lofty and bizarre, but most of Lao Tzu’s suggestions are actually
very simple.
An immortal (here walking on water) has certainly mastered wu wei, living in harmony with the Dao
First, we ought to take more time for stillness. “To the mind that is still,” Lao Tzu said, “the whole
universe surrenders.” We need to let go of our schedules, worries and complex thoughts for a while and
simply experience the world. We spend so much time rushing from one place to the next in life, but Lao
Tzu reminds us “nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” It is particularly important that
we remember that certain things—grieving, growing wiser, developing a new relationship—only happen
on their own schedule, like the changing of leaves in the fall or the blossoming of the bulbs we planted
months ago.
An 11th-century Chinese painting depicts a scholar practising stillness by studying nature in a meadow
When we are still and patient we also need to be open. We need to be reminded to empty ourselves of
frivolous thoughts so that we will observe what is really important. “The usefulness of a pot comes from
its emptiness.” Lao Tzu said. “Empty yourself of everything, let your mind become still.” If we are too
busy, too preoccupied with anxiety or ambition, we will miss a thousand moments of the human
experience that are our natural inheritance. We need to be awake to the way light reflects off of ripples on
a pond, the way other people look when they are laughing, the feeling of the wind playing with our hair.
These experiences reconnect us to parts of ourselves.
An open, decorated metal pot from the time of Lao Tzu
This is another key point of Lao Tzu’s writing: we need to be in touch with our real selves. We spend a
great deal of time worrying about who we ought to become, but we should instead take time to be who we
already are at heart. We might rediscover a generous impulse, or a playful side we had forgotten, or
simply an old affection for long walks. Our ego is often in the way of our true self, which must be found
by being receptive to the outside world rather than focusing on some critical, too-ambitious internal
image. “When I let go of what I am,” Lao Tzu wrote, “I become what I might be.”

Deified Lao Tzu looks peaceful because he knows who he really is. A sculpture from between the 8th and
11th century
Nature is particularly useful for finding ourselves. Lao Tzu liked to compare different parts of nature to
different virtues. He said, “The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete
with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way (Dao).” Each
part of nature can remind us of a quality we admire and should cultivate ourselves—the strength of the
mountains, the resilience of trees, the cheerfulness of flowers.
This 12th-century painting depicts a Daoist temple nestled in nature
Of course, there are issues that must be addressed by action, and there are times for ambition. Yet Lao
Tzu’s work is important for Daoists and non-Daoists alike, especially in a modern world distracted by
technology and focused on what seem to be constant, sudden, and severe changes. His words serve as a
reminder of the importance of stillness, openness, and discovering buried yet central parts of ourselves.

3. Japanese Poems of any one of the following Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Yosa Buson,
Kobasayashita Issa, Masaoka Shiki, Natsume Soseki .

Biography of Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho poet

Bashō was born Matsuo Kinsaku around 1644, somewhere near Ueno in Iga Province. His father
may have been a low-ranking samurai, which would have promised Bashō a career in the military
but not much chance of a notable life. It was traditionally claimed by biographers that he worked in
the kitchens.
However, as a child Bashō became a servant to Tōdō Yoshitada, who shared with Bashō a love for haikai
no renga, a form of cooperative poetry composition. The sequences were opened with a verse in the 5-7-5
mora format; this verse was named a hokku, and would later be renamed haiku when presented as stand-
alone works. The hokku would be followed by a related 7-7 addition by another poet.

In 1662 the first extant poem by Bashō was published; in 1664 two of his hokku were printed in a
compilation, and in 1665 Bashō and Yoshitada composed a one-hundred-verse renku with some
acquaintances.

Yoshitada's sudden death in 1666 brought Bashō's peaceful life as a servant to an end. No records of this
time remain, but it is believed that Bashō gave up the possibility of samurai status and left home.

Biographers have proposed various reasons and destinations, including the possibility of an affair
between Bashō and a Shinto miko named Jutei, which is unlikely to be true. Bashō's own references to
this time are vague; he recalled that "at one time I coveted an official post with a tenure of land", and that
"there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love", but there is no indication
whether he was referring to real obsessions or even fictional ones.
He was uncertain whether to become a full-time poet; by his own account, "the alternatives battled in my
mind and made my life restless". His indecision may have been influenced by the then still relatively low
status of renga and haikai no renga as more social activities than serious artistic endeavors. In any case,
his poems continued to be published in anthologies in 1667, 1669, and 1671, and he published his own
compilation of work by him and other authors of the Teitoku school, Seashell Game, in 1672. In about the
spring of that year he moved to Edo, to further his study of poetry.

On his return to Edo in the winter of 1691, Bashō lived in his third bashō hut, again provided by his
disciples. This time, he was not alone; he took in a nephew and his female friend, Jutei, who were both
recovering from illness. He had a great many visitors.

Bashō continued to be uneasy. He wrote to a friend that "disturbed by others, I have no peace of mind".
He made a living from teaching and appearances at haikai parties until late August of 1693, when he shut
the gate to his bashō hut and refused to see anybody for a month. Finally, he relented after adopting the
principle of karumi or "lightness", a semi-Buddhist philosophy of greeting the mundane world rather than
separating himself from it. Bashō left Edo for the last time in the summer of 1694, spending time in Ueno
and Kyoto before his arrival in Osaka. He became sick with a stomach illness and died peacefully,
surrounded by his disciples. Although he did not compose any formal death poem on his deathbed the
following, being the last poem recorded during his final illness, is generally accepted as his poem of
farewell:
POEM
The Old Pond - Poem by Matsuo Basho
Following are several translations
of the 'Old Pond' poem, which may be
the most famous of all haiku:

Furuike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

- Basho

Literal Translation

Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya,

ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into)
mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound)

ANALYSIS
This is poem of east and not from west so it is not about the external world but about internal mind. Pond
is like inside human consciousness that is still and silent. Frog means worldly things that jumps into our
conscious mind and creates sound means create thoughts.
this poem is about the futile nature of life. The splash is your entire lifetime. A slightly less boring version
of the still pond, before everything returns to normality.
well, here my interpretation. the old silent pond stands for the essence of all questions that you were able
to answer all by yourself and just by your own experience. a pond full of erratic answers, no questionings
around, just silence. the frog embodies the smart ass coming up to you and telling you that black is white
and day is night. he puts his dirty ass into your pond of truth but you don't care at all. all you can hear is a
short splash. and then it's quiet again at the old silent pond.
In my own opinion, the old pond refers to a calm and peaceful place then suddenly a frog jumps in who
broke the silence and brought disturbance to that place. like what is happening now in some countries,
before they are peaceful and were contented of what they have then suddenly colonizers or trespassers
exist which brought violence and complication in their status of life.
In Bansho’s Haiku, I believe the ancient pond refers to the world that is today in developing countries.
The pond grows dirtier and infested from the sticks and leaves that fall in it. The pond becomes dirtier,
and less clear. In today\'s world, human beings are becoming infected and dying every second. The frog
represents a human life. It can change everything on this world. With the jump of the frog, or the step of
the human race, the entire pond, or the entire world can change. The sound of water is the result of the
actions the life had taken. The splash is a result of the frog jumping, a new world with new voices being
heard, changing our economy, our politics, our society itself. The world can be affected, a new revolution
can occur. The sound of water, the reformation of the dying world people in developing countries live on.
I think this is a poem about an older, aged person's life. They are an "old pond". Their lives have slowed
down and have almost become stagnant. Everyone almost forgets that they are there.
Suddenly, a frog jumps in. The pond's world is disturbed and reawakened. An occurence has brought out
the importance and livelyhood of an older person, causing the younger generation surrounding them to
realize their importance, their beauty, and their significance.

4. Any Japanese short stories of akugatawa such as “Rashomon”, Death Register”, Spinning
gears by Akutagawa.

‘Spinning Gears’ by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

To me, the story itself is a literary masterpiece in the sense that it lingers in the mind for days after
reading it; it beckons me to read it again and again, as if whispering that the answer to why one of Japan’s
finest literary minds would take his own life lies somewhere in the text. Throughout his depiction of the
protagonist’s descent into madness, Akutagawa’s language remains clear and his style deceptively simple,
immersing the reader gradually into the narrator’s mind, thus making the story’s ending all the more
terrifying.
The story opens with the first person narrator taking a taxi to the train station and being told by a fellow
passenger about a ghost who wears a raincoat. Concerned about missing his train to Tokyo, the
protagonist dismisses the story but as soon as he reaches the station, he spots a man in a raincoat. The
angel-of-death-like appearance of this rain-coated apparition marks the beginning of the collapse of the
protagonist’s mind and its presence continues to shadow him everywhere he went: on the train, at the
hotel in Tokyo, on the city streets. Later, he would learn that his brother in-law had committed suicide by
throwing himself under a train wearing a mere raincoat in spite of it being the coldest time of the year.
Symbols of death and decay pervade the narrative: the appearance of maggots on the narrator’s dinner
plate; the reflection of his own face in the mirror revealing the bones beneath his skin; a dog passing him
in the streets four separate times or the crows cawing four times assuming significance simply because
number four in Japanese is also a homonym for death. Books picked up a random all seem to taunt him,
depict his life or predict his death. In the Maruzen bookstore, the caption on a poster of St George slaying
a dragon reminds him of the character ‘dragon’ which he uses in his own name; the knight’s face
resembles the face of his enemy. This in turn reminds him of a story about the art of slaughtering dragons,
a metaphor for a useless skill: writing. Throughout the narrative, we find the narrator’s mind combining,
recombining, associating and re-associating isolated incidents, hallucinations or otherwise, to give them
meaning: each event a portent of his own death.

From Akutagawa’s own suicide note, A Note to a Certain Old Friend, it seems to me that these tropes of
death are no less than metaphors for the self-confessed thoughts of death which had plagued the author in
the last couple of years of his life. In other words, it seems to confirm the view that if one is constantly on
the look out for signs one is bound to find it everywhere.
In the midst of his anxieties, optical illusions would assault the narrator in the form of a set of translucent
spinning gears whose numbers would increase until half his field of vision was blocked, and then vanish
within moments, to be replaced by a headache. At other times, warnings of death would plague him
through acousma or auditory hallucinations whether in the form of overheard conversations between
strangers, or whispers in the night, telling him that diable est mort, the devil is dead. Commentators such
as Haruki Murakami and Jorge Luis Borges have suggested Spinning Gears to be an allegory for the
disintegrating machinery of modern life, the author’s indictment on the collision between western/eastern
cultures at the turn of the 19th century and its harrowing effect on an individual’s psyche. Bit by bit, we
also learn about the narrator’s (and Akutagawa’s own) crippling fear of inheriting his mother’s madness,
and his attempts to drown out his anxieties with drugs including Veronal: the same pills which
Akutagawa would use to end his life.
Of course, the reader can never really know the actual reasons why Akutagawa contemplated suicide. In
A Note to a Certain Old Friend, he himself confessed that ‘no one who attempts suicide … is fully aware
of all his motives, which are usually too complex’; all he knew of his own suicide was that it was driven
by ‘a vague sense of anxiety, a vague sense of anxiety about my own future.’
However, given that a writer’s self-esteem, especially one of Akutagawa’s stature, is often inextricably
linked with his reputation, I began to explore to what extent his death was hastened by his insecurities as
a writer.
Young Man of Shou Ling

Murakami in his introduction to Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories likened Akutagawa to a ‘pianist
who has been born with a natural gift for superb technique. Because his fingers move so swiftly and with
such clarity, the task of pausing occasionally to look long and hard at something – at the inner depths of
the music – can be inhibited before he is aware of it. His fingers move with natural speed and grace and
his mind hurries to keep up. Or perhaps his mind forges ahead and the fingers hurry to keep up. In either
case an unbridgeable gap begins to form between him and the movement of time of the world around him.
Just a gap almost certainly added to Akutagawa’s pscychological burdens and impelled him towards
suicide.’
In the text of Spinning Gears itself, the narrator alludes to being the perfect ‘Young Man of Shou Ling’,
the protagonist of a Chinese story by Han Fei, whose name Juryo Yoshi the narrator had ironically used
as a pen name earlier on in his writing career. In the story, the protagonist had left the rural village to
learn the elegant walking style of the city dwellers of Handan but found himself crawling home because
he had forgotten to walk in the Shou Ling style before mastering the Handan style. As an analogue to
Akutagawa’s own life, it seems to imply that owing to his meteoric rise, Akutagawa had begun his career
by flying before learning how to walk, and as a result had skipped certain stages which were critical to his
development as a writer. Among them, I believe, is learning how to fail. Having been feted as a prodigy
by no less than the literary legend Natsume Soseki very early in his career, Akutagawa had not only lost
out in terms of building up his resilience to failure and the criticism of his peers, he had also never found,
in Murakami’s words, ‘that single thing he absolutely had to write about.’
In an attempt to advance his work, Akutagawa began to write in the confessional ‘I-Novel’ style, basing
his fiction closely on the facts of his life. With hindsight, Akutagawa had written these last stories, replete
with self-examinations and recriminations, to his detriment. By its very formulation, the author of the ‘I-
Novel’ must also be the protagonist of the story and the genre is one which exposes the dark side of the
author’s life. Given Akutagawa’s hypersensitivity, this type of writing would hinder him as the author
from keeping an objective distance from his protagonist. I also believe that his very act of committing his
dark thoughts to writing had the effect of reinforcing them in his mind, perhaps even to the extent of
subconsciously devising in his last manuscripts the blueprint and rationale for his own suicide.
If one’s own writing is indeed a reflection of oneself, I shudder to think what Akutagawa must have felt
when he looked in his mirror of ink and saw the face of the man whom he knew in his heart of hearts will
commit murder; his own.

Dark Night of the Soul

Akutagawa may well have written fiction such as Spinning Gears with his life as subject-matter to seek
refuge from his acute despair, but it seems that this same introspection had led him to conclude that
nothing was real.
‘I began to feel that anything and everything was a lie. Politics, business, art, science: all seemed just a
mottled layer of enamel covering over this life in all its horrors.’
The narrator’s paranoia concerning fires and images of inferno flashing through his mind suggest that the
layer of illusion was burning right before his eyes, revealing nothing but horror. Life as he knew it had
lost all meaning.
Something about the narrator’s identification with the spiritual struggles of the protagonist in Naoya
Shiga’s A Dark Night’s Passing alerts me to the possibility that the narrator could be going through
nothing less than the dark night of the soul, in the mystical sense; the fires and infernos he was seeing,
synonymous with the shattering of the mind’s attachment to the ego; and the horror he was experiencing,
the realisation of the void, or nothingness. We often hear of mystics suffering frightening periods of
depression or ‘darkness’ in the interim period before their enlightenment, and many had even
contemplated suicide.
Could it be that Akutagawa had given a negative interpretation to what was actually a blessing in
disguise? Could it be that having reached the very end of his intellect, Akutagawa had mistakenly
perceived the void confronting him as nothing more than a prelude to madness? And rather than
acknowledging the death of his ego he had chosen to kill his body instead, thus depriving himself of what
could be the most transformative experience of his self? Of course, these are mere speculations, and one
cannot know for certain.

Something niggles though; reading the postscript to A Note to A Certain Old Friend, the romantic in me
cannot help but feel that had he hung on to his life a little longer and surrendered to his experiences, he
would have gained what he had desired all his life but forsaken through his death: ‘to make a god of
[him]self’.

5. Anyone of Hindu poems, epics, short stories, and playwrights

…
Body Is A Temple - Poem by louis rams

My body is a temple
My bleeding is divine
My womanhood is spiritual
In ways that an intolerant devotee like you cannot understand
So when you barr me from entering Sabarimala
Remember that you can't stop a goddess
Saraswati is wise but her rage is wild and merciless
Lakshmi will create earthquakes that will devastate
Durga will pierce your heart with her spear
Parvathi will leave her abode and run into the streets
Kali will destroy you in unimaginable ways
They reside within us
We will cut our feet on your shattered glass
We will shout till our voices become hoarse
An army of neglected women will create a tsunami
Till you're on your back, crying
Till you give up your apparent 'religion-saving'
Helpless, wailing
And bleeding

ANALYSIS…
The Supreme Court of India ruled that not allowing women in their “menstruating years” into the
Sabarimala temple is against the constitution, and all women should be allowed to enter the temple. This
was met with a lot of opposition from the conservatives and the entry of women into the temple was
blocked by protestors.

Ramprasad is one of the most inspired poets in Bengali literature. Born at Kumarhati in West Bengal in
1718, he was well educated in medicine and languages. However, he had no interest in material life. It is
said that, after marriage, he obtained a job as a book-keeper for an accountant. However, he wrote Divine
Mother’s name all over the ledgers. The employer saw this and recognized a saint in making. He sent him
home with a promise to support him and his family.
Ramprasad used to wade into the river Ganges up to his neck and sing the songs in honor of the Divine
Mother. Boats cruising the Ganges would stop to listen to his songs, people dying on the banks of the
river would ask Ramprasad to sing to them. Ramprasad became a favorite of the local king but he was
never attached to riches till he passed away in 1775.
Ramprasad’s songs are still sung to his day by everyone, even school children. His songs became very
famous in the west because Sri Ramakrishna used to quote from it.

Hindu (Short story)

Symbolism behind Krishna’s butter stealing act

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Krishna, the eternal ruler of hearts, stole butter from the neighbourhood. Along with his friends, he would
quietly enter people’s houses and grab clay pots full of freshly churned butter. And hence even till date he
is addressed as Makhan Chor, meaning butter thief.

But have you ever really wondered what this butter stealing act means?

Krishna stole hearts that were as pure and soft as butter. Just the way butter is white; our hearts need to be
spotless. One mustn’t nurse anger, pride, greed, envy, hatred and ego in the heart. Hence, Krishna is also
known as Chittachora (one who steals hearts).

Here’s another explanation – The mind must be as light as butter. When we churn the curd, the butter
floats on the surface. Likewise, our minds must be detached from the materialistic world. Only then,
would we succeed in attaining enlightenment.

Also, the Supreme Being is the ultimate power. We are governed by it. We take birth and subsequently
perish according to his wish. It’s his leela. Nothing belongs to us.

The women in the Gokul neighbourhood spent hours to churn the curd to get butter, but in the end, it only
belonged to Krishna, the Almighty.
 As Krishna grew older his pranks increased. Tales of his love for milk and butter had spread in every
household. Whenever the milkmaids crossed the fields, Krishna and his friends shot pebbles at them to
break the milk pitchers.

image:
http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/images/krishnas_love_for_butt
er.jpg

Krishna eating butter Knowing Krishna's love for milk products, Yashoda kept the butter jars tied
together and hung them from a high ceiling where Krishna's hands could not reach. One day, seeing
Krishna fast asleep, she went to fetch a bucket of water from the nearby well. Krishna jumped up and
whistled aloud. A group of boys and monkeys came running into their home. They quickly huddled
together to help Krishna stand on their shoulders and get down jars.

Then they sat down to eat the butter. They were so absorbed that the did not see Yashoda enter the house.

Furious, she chased them with a stick. The monkeys and friends ran away but Krishna got a good
spanking from his mother.

Read more at
http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fairytales/indian_mythology_stories/krishnas_love_for_butter.htm#J
yiPUjRiDbDH112E.99

===========================================

The award, instituted in 2008, carries a prize of ₹ 2 lakh for the best original, unpublished and
unperformed play script in English.
Three playwrights — Annie Zaidi, Swetanshu Bora and Sneh Sapru — have been shortlisted for their
works submitted for The Hindu Playwright Award 2018. The award, instituted in 2008, carries a prize of
₹ 2 lakh for the best original, unpublished and unperformed play script in English.

The three plays, Untitled 1 (Annie Zaidi), Guilt (Swetanshu Bora) and Hello Farmaish (Sneh Sapru), were
chosen by a panel of three independent judges from a list of 68 plays submitted.

The judges had initially created a longlist of eight plays and from these three were selected. The other five
are The Lottery by Nayantara Nayar and Tanvi Patel, The Joker and The Thief by Alistair Bennis,
Shaayari 2.0 by Manjima Chatterjee, Four Magical Words by Parag Motwani and When I Grow Up (I
want to be) by Sumit Ray.

In Untitled 1, Ms. Zaidi explores a time when freedom of creative expression is under constant
surveillance in an India of the future. A journalist whose body of work includes fiction and graphic
storytelling, the Mumbai-based Ms. Zaidi says: “The play is really about the idea of being monitored and
controlled, constantly.” Her work includes Gulab, a novella, an illustrated collection of poems titled
Crush and a 42-minute documentary film, In Her Words: The Journey of Indian Women, that traces the
lives and struggles of women as reflected through their literature.

Hello Farmaish is a satire, which Ms. Sapru describes as a “drama with bold streaks of magic realism.”
The Mumbai-based copywriter, screenwriter and playwright’s work is on people in a hamlet who, on
hearing of Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla’s journey into space, set off on adventures of their
own. Ms. Sapru’s first play script, Elephant in the Room, was nominated for the Best Original Script at
the META Awards 2017.

Bengaluru-based Swetanshu Bora’s Guilt is about re-discovering relationships, post tragedy. An actor and
playwright, Mr. Bora performs and writes in Hindi and English. He was shortlisted for The Hindu
MetroPlus Playwright Award in 2011 and won the Toto Funds the Arts Award for Writing in 2013.

The winner of The Hindu Playwright Award will be announced on August 9, 2018 on the eve of the
opening of the 14th edition of The Hindu Theatre Fest in Chennai on August 10.

Epic Hindu Literature: Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita

Eventually, Hindus followed the impulse that had appeared among the Sumerians: they wrote poetic
stories that focused on the power of the gods. These stories were written to create ideals for people to
follow. The better known of these are poems called the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Ramayana translates as the Story of Rama. It is believed to have been written by a Brahmin named
Valmiki, a man whose style of poetry was new and a style to be copied thereafter. It is said to have
appeared between 400 and 200 BCE. The story takes place centuries earlier, when Aryans were
expanding their influence over Dravidians in southern India, the Aryans engaging in missionary
endeavors supported by military power and a strategy of divide and conquer. In its seven books and
24,000 verses the Ramayana praises the heroism and virtues of Aryan warrior-princes: the Kshatriyas.
The Ramayana has as its main hero a prince called Rama, whose life the Ramayana describes from birth
to death. Rama and his brothers are depicted as embodying the ideals of Aryan culture: men of loyalty
and honor, faithful and dutiful sons, affectionate brothers and loving husbands, men who speak the truth,
who are stern, who persevere but are ready and willing to make sacrifices for the sake of virtue against
the evils of greed, lust and deceit.

Lord Rama
Lord Rama, with brother, wife, and devotee.

The Mahabharata, meaning Great India, is said to have been written by a Brahmin named Vyasa, between
400 and 100 BCE, but no one really knows. Across centuries, priestly writers and editors with different
attitudes in different centuries were to add to the work, and the Mahabharata emerged three times its
original size. The Mahabharata was divided into eighteen books of verses interspersed with passages of
prose. It attempted to describe the period in which Aryan tribes in northern India were uniting into
kingdoms and when these petty kingdoms were fighting to create empire. The work attempted to be an
encyclopedia about points of morality. One of its heroes is Krishna, described as a royal personage
descended from the gods – an eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu. The Mahabharata's heroes are
described as yearning for power but, like the heroes of the Ramayana, devoted to truth and having a
strong sense of duty and affection for their parents.

New contributions to the Mahabharata gave greater focus to the gods Vishnu and Shiva. A story
incorporated into the Mahabharata became known as the Bhagavad Gita (the Lord's Song), shortened by
many to the Gita. The Bhagavad Gita became Hinduism's most popular scripture and into modern times it
would be read by many for daily reference – a work that Mahatma Gandhi would describe as an infallible
guide to conduct. In the Bhagavad Gita, Vishnu acquired a new incarnation: Krishna. Krishna was
originally a non-Aryan god in northwestern India. In the old Mahabharata he was a secondary hero, a god
who had appeared in human form. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna became the Supreme Deity in human
form.

The Gita is an account of the origins, course and aftermath of a great war between royalty. In it a dialogue
takes place between a prince, Arjuna, and the charioteer alongside him as the two ride into battle at the
head of Arjuna's army. The charioteer is Krishna in disguise. Arjuna sees that his opponents ahead of him
are his relatives. He drops his bow and announces that he will not give the signal to begin the battle. He
asks whether power is so important that he should fight his own kinsmen, and he states that the pain of
killing his kinsmen would be too much for him, that it would be better for him to die than to kill just for
power and its glory. Krishna is like the god of war of former times: Indira. Krishna gives Arjuna a
formula for accepting deaths in war, a Hindu version close to the claim that those who die in battle will go
to paradise. He tells Arjuna that bodies are not really people, that people are souls and that when the body
is killed the soul lives on, that the soul is never born and never dies. According to Krishna, if one dies in
battle he goes to heaven, or if he conquers he enjoys the earth. So, according to Krishna, one should go
into battle with "a firm resolve." Attitude was of the utmost importance. "Let not the fruits of action be
thy motive, nor be thy attachment to inaction."

Krishna reminds Arjuna that he is a warrior and that to turn from battle is to reject his karma, in other
words, his duty or place in life. He makes the irrefutable argument, an argument that leaves no room for
questioning one's own intentionality: that Arjuna should make war because it is his destiny to do so. He
states that it is best to fulfill one's destiny with detachment because detachment leads to liberation and
allows one to see the irrelevance of one's own work. To give weight to his argument, Krishna reveals to
Arjuna that he is not just his charioteer, not just another military man who talks like he is divine but that
he is the god Krishna – a claim that Arjuna accepts. Some readers of the Bhagavad Gita interpret this to
mean that Arjuna does not need to step from his chariot to find God and that humanity does not need to
search for the divine: that God is with a person and for a person.

Arjuna expresses his support for family values, and he is a defender of tradition. He complains of
lawlessness corrupting women, and when women are corrupted, he says, a mixing of caste ensues.

Krishna became the most loved of the Hindu gods, a god viewed as a teacher, a personal god much like
Yahweh, a god who not only believes in war but a god of love who gives those who worshiped him a gift
of grace. A loving god could be found here and there in the old Vedic hymns of the Aryans, but this new
focus on a loving god and the satisfaction it brought to the people of India was a challenge to Hindu
priests, for it offered salvation without the need for ritual sacrifices. In the Bhagavad Gita (1:41), Krishna
says: "Give me your heart. Love me and worship me always. Bow to me only, and you will find me. This
I promise."

According to Krishna, as expressed in the Gita (2:37), one could accumulate possessions and not lose
blessedness so long as one remained indifferent about success and failure. One can attain salvation so
long as one restrains one's passions in whatever one does. One should be fearless, steadfast generous and
patient. One should be compassionate toward other creatures. One should be without greed, hypocrisy,
arrogance, overweening pride, wrath or harshness in speech. And one should "study the Holy Word,
austerities and uprightness." (16:1-2)

The Gita (2.22) describes the soul as shedding a worn-out body like an old worn-out garment and putting
on a new body as one would a new garment. The soul is immortal and the body is subject to birth and
death. The Gita extends the metaphor to reincarnation, to Karma as described in the Upanishads. Where a
soul went depended on how well a person had behaved in his previous life. Good actions in the former
life led to a soul to take on a new higher form of life. The soul of the doer of evil led a soul to take the
body of a lower form of life. Hinduism epic literature described what was good behavior, and in a new
work, the Laws of Manu, defined more clearly what was bad.