By Josef Maria Mayer
CHAPTER ONE
LI TAI-PO
The poet, whose first name was "morning star" (his
friends called him "glance" ), was sixty-two years old. He rests on a
warmed Kang, a tile bed, a Chinese sofa, that stood in the house of his relative
Yang Bing. He felt death near and wrote his last testamentary verses:
In heaven above is a city made of white jade,
I ask for entry through the twelfth, the last door.
Immortals touch my head with grace,
My life may endure in eternity.
Yang Bing
now stepped in front of the poet, who in his mystical mirror his hair saw white
as snow since some years, and asked him, bowing down in awe, "Your
obedient servant, your third cousin, faithful friend and companion of your last
few hours, asks you for a magnanimous favour: I want to have the truth of your
life, that you classically strictly written in your most poetic verses in the
new style of the Tang dynasty, hidden to the ambiguous - beautiful mystical
transfigured appearance, these prosaic truth I want merely left as your seal
for posterity. Great is your fame to a thousand springtimes, your name forever
shines and you morning star are known in all five regions of the world, but who
knows of your place of birth? of your four wives? who knows Dang-Tu, the place
where you will board the Yellow Crane in the next three dawns to ascend into
the heavenly realms of immortality? Tell me, tell me a little to know what you
seem worth mentioning in the face of eternity, open your lips smooth and let
flow the last sober speech to the great wine's salvation in the holy
celebration!"
Glance, as
I like to call the poet as his posthumous friend, looked only to himself, then
from his almost transfigured inner man through the magic mirror of his eyes to
the prefect, to Yang-Bing, decided to give the earthly vanities its last mortal
honor.
I was born in 701 in Tokmak, located south of the
Balkhash-lake, near the Turkestan frontier, near the Silk Road. In the ninth
generation, I descended from King Li Gao, the potentate of the Liang State.
With five years I moved with my parents, my grandmother and my sister in the
province of Szechuan. I learned to read, and my grandmother sang to me the
verses from the book of songs, and taught me, when I was ten or twelve, in the
teachings of the great sages of Wisdom, I mean Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, she told
me about the book of Word and Virtue, and about the book of Nanhua. At that
time I wrote my first poem. I remember exactly, it was this:
The clouds and the seas will turn black from dust,
And the cedar tree is in the throes of deadly winds.
Skulls became a mountain - prostrated is faith...
The stars are pale. What is the people's sin?
My parents didn't understood the verses, but an old hermit
in the snow-white mountains, fasting and praying, he understood the secret
meaning of this lines.
I was
always looking for a God-man, and found that the hermit with his introspection
most shared in his essence (far away from the poet), so I was happy in his
miserable hut, myself a man of simple linen dress, and shared with him the
barren rice bread and the bowl of rice wine, taken in pious devotion.
I realized
that the essence of the God-man is justice, which is not realized on earth, but
which we should aspire. And so I gave myself in the fiery zest of youthful
manhood and girded the sword and went into the woods to the robbers and
avengers. We had our wooden huts hidden in an inaccessible bog and went daily
on the prow. We raided corrupt officials and hypocritical bigwigs in their pomp
and splendor litters and took from them gold and scrap silver, to distribute it
to needy widows and orphans, the maimed and starvelings. My boyfriend at the
time, We Hao, pierced so many dignitaries the sword into their fat belly, I was
more the man for devising cunning plans; yes, I sharpened my mind at that time
and learned to use my passions for perfect works.
But I was
talking one day with a pious hermit's conscience, I myself should the robbery
and murder leave (but I myself have never killed) and would rather devote
myself again to my beautiful intellectual talent. I left the forests and made
a long trip to the Blue Stream.
O what I
met for different people and landscapes of China, all images for the poetry of
the way of the people: the butterfly-like southland, a parable for the floating
soul, the Blue Stream flowing into the Dung-Ting-Lake, to is the internals
collection in Heavenly Peace...
And love? -
Yes, also love happened to me since I was twenty-two and became infatuated by
the eyes of the beautiful maiden Dija, a pure lotus flower amidst muddy waters,
with golden brown eyes and black hair, when I untied her ornate knot, it fell
to the lumbar. But even more important was that she better than any flower-girl
played the lute and sang so sweet and charming the folk songs, those rhymes
that taught me my grandmother in my childhood. Dija was my first love and I
still remember her: love endures forever.
I lived at
that time with Dija and with her grandfather, who was chancellor and could know
nothing of my swashbuckling past, in the north of Han-kou.
The
followingspring my second wife ran across the road, which still had longer
black hair and teeth as white as paper, and she sang beautifully, but beyond
that she knew the sayings of Confucius by heart, what impressed me. I left Dija
and moved on after Jen-Cheng, now I lived entirely for poetry, so completely,
that I also completely forgot about love, and so she left me too.
I had
become famous, famous as Du Fu and Wang Wei and Bo Djü-I, and I was proud as a
rooster. The Radiant Majesty, the Emperor Hsuan Tsung (or Ming-huang ) called
me to the court in his circle of wonderful poets, he said to me, "Reverend
is only a man of the linen dress, yet your fame come to Us. How would that be
possible if you had not practiced the way of truth?" And he let me out of
the brush in the forest of the learned and went away. I visited the imperial
capital of Chang-an, but rather the taverns as the lonely woods, because I was
a great friend of the wine (and am up to the present hour): a cup of wine gives
me three hundred poems. When I called the Son of Heaven in his boat, I said,
"Sir, they servant is a genius, lost in wine!" Nevertheless, I got up
after and became a servant of the Emperor and sprinkled my face with water, and
created, according to the tunes of the music official seal, for an imperial
court concert many verses with melodious rhymes, all written in the
enthusiastic spirit of the quest for immortality.
Now my end
was near at the imperial court (by the way my third wife came out of one of the
many imperial side chambers, the Son of Heaven gave her to me ) and how it
happened: I was appointed at the emperor and was drunk on the revelry with
drinking companions, as I entered the lobby, where the eunuch Gao Li received me. I said to him in an high spirits
and confident of my royal lineage, Take off my shoes! Like a real sneak the oil
mouth took my shoes off, but complained then from behind at the Emperor's
favorite Yang Gue-fe, who therefore soon rushed to the Emperor, clung to him
seductively tender and in his hearing ears slightly lisped of naughty offense
and bad arrogance of the court poet Morning Star. Then I laeve the emperor, but
in friendship and respect. I wrote in this connection the following verses,
which again had a secret meaning:
At the moment of parting I feel heavy sadness
And my cap ribbons were wet from tears of rain.
Oh Master! Son of Heaven! o ruler without limits!
More radiating than the fathers:
You can prepare the lake of fire and erect the tent
To my consolation. About you alone I want to write poetry.
Eleven years later - in the meantime I created according to
my task, in addition I devoted myself to the herbs and stones, and the
sanctifying of the inner self, all I did aspired to the physical perpetuation -
eleven years later the Tungus-Turkish military governour came at Lu-shan in the
direction of the two capitals, and he was cruel and violent, the street dog sat
now on the Dragon Throne! The Radiant Majesty fled westward as the sun, from
the summit of his golden aeon the Middle Kingdom fell close to the abyss. In
the inferno of civil war, I fled with my fourth wife, the buddha-believing
Peach Blossom in the Lu-shan Mountains near the Blue Stream: an immortal in
exile.
Three times
I climbed, alone with my shadow and the moon, the Yellow Crane Tower. And at
the prospect of the myriads of creations of the heavens broke on through in my
soul in the grief of despair to pleasing nowhere.
Three years
ago I got the news from my rehabilitation, it reached a wine-drawn and hiking
man - no, not a man but a poet, because from childhood I was a poet. And my
name will last - Li Tai Bo.
CHAPTER TWO
THE WOMEN - PROVERBS
THE GIRLS
Ten daughters who are beautiful like flowers, you can't
immediately pay for a son with scales on the skin.
Ten daughters who are like peach blossoms, you can not
compare to a son who has warts on his feet.
Ten clever girls can not compare to a man who is a good for
nothing.
Better one son than two daughters.
A daughter is like three thieves , two sons are like five
eagles.
There are two daughters in a house, then there are three
thieves with the mother.
Who equips many daughters with bridal gifts, in him the cash
do no rust.
Daughters are guests of her parents' house.
It is useful to treat the sons with love, but the daughters
to educate them only for others.
A married daughter is like water that you have discarded.
A married woman is like a field, which one has sold.
A married daughter is like dust that has been swept from the
apartment.
A married daughter is like blown away by a demon.
Daughters to raise is as to raise robbers.
A loving daughter, honoring father and mother, is not as
precious as a dry vegetable patch.
A sick daughter is better than a hanged son.
If there are no fishes in the river, the crabs are
expensive. If there are no sons in the home, one estimates the daughters.
A pretty girl and an old rock stuck everywhere.
Girls and glasses are in danger.
Only a gravedigger can guard girls.
Chaste girls are hypocrites, laughing girls are honest.
If a girl bashfully reflected her eyes, she is looking for a
suitor.
Who wants to meet a girl, may watch her at housework.
A girl who loves jewelry, rarely is any good.
A girl who loves beautiful clothes, has little virtue.
Girls want to look pretty, even if they must therefore
freeze.
Girls with warts on their face need make-up. Girls with
dandruff in the hair, stuck flowers in their hair. Girls with small breasts,
cram something in the bra.
The daughter wants to teach the mother how to bring children
into the world.
A child bride is bad, she will secretly nibble chocolate.
THE WIFES
The virgin ascends the wedding carriage and cries, but
actually she laughs. The student has fallen through the testing and laughs, but
actually he is crying.
The bride has probably onions in the brat?
Only laughing bride, then crying woman.
From the marriage on the bride enjoys the least.
In thy bridal bed one groom belongs alone!
To be a newly wedded bride is as difficult as with inverted
dressed wooden shoes to climb a steep mountain.
The boy is the mother of his dearest mum, the man knows only
his wife and not his mother.
In early spring, the newly wedded returned to her parents'
house to pour out her bitterness.
In May you get the bride! Can not you get it, then are
rolling your tears!
There is heaven, prevails in the house of man.
Married the woman a cock, so she follows the tap. Married
the woman a dog, so she follows the dog.
Deviced the woman to an official, so she is a lady, but if
she gets to a butcher, so she must slaughter animals.
The honour of the wife is her husband.
The farmer is dependent on the field, the woman is dependent
on her man.
A wise woman leaves the man's pants.
The man is the head of the wife and the wife is the crown of
the family.
The woman receives her light from the man as the moon from
the sun.
The man's fame beautifies the woman.
Women shall have the religion of her husband.
Where the woman wears the pants, the devil is the host.
Feral hair! But as long as the man appreciates the woman,
she must not slander.
Purchased horse and a married woman can be ridden of mine.
For the man it is no honour to beat his wife.
If a man beats his wife, the devil laughs.
Those who honour their wife, are noble men. Who beats his,
is a pig.
Who spoiled his wife, is a great man. Who beats his wife, is
a dog.
If the husband is in a good mood, his wife for him is the
Virgin Mary, is he in a bad mood, she is the gate of the devil!
If the man is angry, the woman shall be meek.
Talk to the man nearby, let the woman go.
Is there in a house a good woman, it's like when the Kingdom
has a good chancellor.
A chaste wife is blind and deaf for other men.
The pot bears the lid.
A woman is not slave of two men.
Sludge water becomes cloudy, the jealous wife spoils the
marriage's peace.
The jealousy of the bad woman leads to divorce, the jealousy
of the good woman leads to tears.
Take only a wise, chaste woman to testify children in her
womb!
THE HOUSEWIFES
Men work outside, women rule in the house.
When you walked into a house and the house viewed from the
inside, you realized diligence and laziness. When the tea is served, you can
see the wife.
When you enter the threshold, check three things: the stove,
the bed and the children.
Sits the good housewife on the bed, so she works with the
scissors, when she rises from the bed, so she takes the pan.
The good woman worries about the five C: church, cellar,
clothes, children, chambers.
Where is the woman in the kitchen and the man works on the
field, it is well with the economy.
If the man does not work in the fields, the family is
hungry, and if the woman does not weave, freezes the family.
You desire wealth, so may work the man on the field and the
woman weave.
The good woman is not chattering, but think of the loom.
A woman who likes standing before the mirror, weaves little.
When the cicadas in the spring chirp, has the woman who is
too lazy to weave, no bed curtain.
A woman who spins reluctantly, is wearing coarse clothes.
But it's not all good women who can spin well.
The man dominates the street, the woman dominates the stove.
Even a clever woman can not cook without rice congee.
Also, a newly married woman can not steamed buns bake
without flour.
A good woman is not afraid of the kitchen.
If the housewife dies, spoil milk and eggs.
Does the woman wash her lingerie or bakes the bread, so you
shall not hang on her heels.
The mother feeds the little child, the adult children take
care of the mother.
When men meet, they talk about the Warring States or the
book of the robbers, and when women meet, they talk about their small children.
In the behavior of children is to recognize the virtue of
the mother.
The child tears the clothes and makes them dirty, the mother
washes and mends clothes.
When the child is ill, the care of the mother is the best
medicine.
Every child desires, what the mother brought to the child.
Men have ambition in all four directions, women have their
ambitions in the chamber.
A good man acts in the entire district, the woman turns to
the saucepan.
Women do not come out of the room and scholars not from
their study.
Where a man goes on the streets, it brings him honour, but a
woman walking on the streets, it is her shame.
Good women spin and weave, bad women chatter.
Women and cats are in the house.
The woman and the furnace shall remain at home.
Without wife no family formation.
A man without a wife is like a house without a host, a woman
without a husband is like a house without a roof.
A household without a housewife is like a lantern without
light.
A loving housewife is the most precious treasure on earth.
The man's hand earns outside the money, the woman's hand
collects inside the money in the casket.
THE MOTHERS
The pregnant mother was frightened by a swan!
If a woman gives birth it is between her and death only one
sheet of paper.
The birth of the son is the day of pain for the mother.
No birth without pain of labor.
Is the corn planted, comes the rain. If the child is born,
comes the mother's milk.
Everyone who has given birth to a child, is proud.
Small melons do not fall from the tree and small children do
not leave the mother.
If you have travelled through the world, the mother is the
best. If you have tasted all the food, salt is the tastiest.
The firstborn do not leaves the temple, the youngest child
does not leave the mother's chamber.
To the mother is the ill child the dearest.
The mother's heart is always with her children.
The mother's love is stronger than the children's vomits and
feces.
Like a mother no-one loves on earth.
The pain of the children go to the father's little finger
and to the mother's whole body.
If the mother is still poor, but she gives warmth to the
children.
It is better that died a rich father than a poor mother.
In the children is to recognize the mother.
Do you want to have the daughter, look exactly at the
mother.
Whore-mothers give birth to whore-daughters.
In the good mother's footprints mature dear daughters.
How mother sings the song, likewise the daughter sings.
Mothers must be teachers of the sons, until the sons go to
school, but throughout life, the mothers are teachers of the daughters.
For the unmarried mother her son is not a bastard.
THE SAINTS
The nuns fast until their bellies swell.
You're like some nun of Saint Teresa of Avila: You die more
from love than from disease!
Nun's tears burn holes in the veil.
Who does not recognize the pearl in the soup bowl, persuaded
the Empress with his sister.
The beggar longs for the Empress.
Even the Empress is the wife of the Emperor.
The Empress wears on her naked body the same jewels as the
naked girl.
The Holy Mother of Mercy invite to the banquet that have
many hosts and only one guest.
The statue of the Mother of Mercy they carry out, and wear
inside the idols.
The Virgin Mary is every year seventeen years young!
In each house a Virgin Mary!
Oh, this is the Virgin Mary of Germany!
CHAPTER THREE
PHILOSOPHERS
CONFUCIUS
Among the philosophical schools, the school of Confucian is
the most important. Confucius said, "Be thou a teacher of the educated, be
not a teacher of the commons." The school of Confucian is called Ju, which
means the gentle, soft. Even before the appearance of Confucius there were such
young scholars. They taught the nobles and the people about the rites for the
sacrificial celebrations, they deduced the right funeral and the prayers. In
their free time, they took care of the youth of the towns and villages and
established schools. They were depending on the mercy of the government.
Confucius stood far out from the throng of young scholars. He founded his own
school of philosophy. He was descended from the Yin Dynasty. Posterity has made
Confucius to a saint. He was certainly a truly human personality, very
realistic and thirsty for knowledge. He worked hard at his self-perfection. He
believed himself called to lead his people out of the turmoil and troubles of
his time. In order to realize his ideal, he offered his services to the prince.
Las , in order to realize his ideal, he gathered disciples around him and
taught them his ideas. He taught a unified system that has for centuries borne
the society in China after his death. Heaven's cult played a big role in it.
Heaven follows the Tao, the law of the universe or the Eternal Wisdom. When
heaven adheres to the Tao, then the ruler or Son of Heaven must adhere to the
Father Heaven. What Confucius understood exactly under heaven, he never
explained. But as the Heavenly Father ruled the Imperial Son of Heaven, the
father of the family should govern the son and the whole family. As the
Imperial Son of Heaven should obey his Father in Heaven with love, likewise the
son should follow in reverence the father. So arranges itself for heavenly
worship the patriarchal family according to the universal law of eternal
wisdom, the Tao. After the death of Confucius, his school was divided into
different groups, which were divided among themselves, but had a distance
against other schools of philosophy, one was authored by the oral traditions of
the Book of the Analects of Confucius, the Lun-Yü, which the words of the
master handed. So we created a common basis for the Confucian school. The basic
concept of the Confucian school is Yen, that is humanity, it denotes the virtue
of benevolence between man and man and the feelings of natural affection
between parents and children and between brothers. Transferred to human
society, the affection and love of humanity should create an ideal harmonious
society. The way to achieve this humanity, is a comprehensive education under
the control of ethical principles. The Noble perfected his knowledge and
character, is faithful and honest with the princes, sympathized with his
neighbor. So also the ruler should govern by humanity and should be
distinguished mainly by its high moral character. Confucius was not a founder
of a religion and not really a philosopher in the sense of a metaphysician, but
he was a teacher of morality, who has created a venerable ethic. He probably
believed in heaven and a destiny of man by a divine law, but he has unspecified
divine and metaphysical things. Certainly he was silent about mysteries,
magical powers and the spirits of mischief of superstition. We know little
about his view of the survival of the soul after death. Confucius was a teacher
of philanthropy. He spoke of the law of human love, "Be loyal, even
against yourself, and kind to your neighbor," These human love Yen is a
foreshadowing of the Charity of Jesus Christ.
MENCIUS
Mencius or Meng-Tzu came from a place not far from Lu, where
Confucius was born. He probably knew the ideas of Confucius and was influenced
by them. But his time was different from that of Confucius. Confucius had to
fight against any opponent schools of philosophy, Mencius but had to determine
to other schools his own philosophy in conflict. The essential point of his
philosophy is that man is good by nature. Every human being has a natural
conscience or a heart that is good from its origin and infallible in his moral
judgment about good and evil. Mencius would have agreed to Kan , who said that
every man knows that he has to be good. By nature, and without the aid of
education, said Mencius, knows man, what is good and that he should do good.
The conscience of the people bears the human judgment about good and evil. Four
cardinal virtues designed Mencius of this good in man, that are: a loving
nature, righteousness, propriety and wisdom. These four principles or cardinal
virtues are related to the cardinal virtues of the Bible, moderation,
fortitude, justice and prudence. In this case, the virtue of Mencius, which he
calls loving nature, is the most important and eternal theological virtue of
Christianity, namely, love.. A person who possesses these four virtues as
described by Mencius, has sympathy for his neighbor, has the feeling of shame
and disgust against all evil. This man who follows the fine sense of his
conscience for the good, knows to distinguish between what is to approve and
what is to disapprove. He pays attention to what is truly to worship. But there
are still evil people, whose desire is due for possession and power and
pleasure. The good man can be corrupted by dealing with evil people and by the
negative influence of an evil society. Therefore, man must be vigilant and
guard his heart, so he does not lose the innate goodness of his heart. Mencius
recommends a kind of meditation, a breathing prayer to breathe in the heavenly
spirit, chi, or the breath of God. He does not speak much about this type of
meditation. He's just an especially moralist and not a religious leader or even
religious teacher. Man should be careful to maintain the four cardinal virtues
and to live them and not to be corrupt by the bad influence of sinners. Mencius
further shaped the Confucian patriarchal ethic of the family or of the
relations of humanity by speaking of the five relationships. He's speaking
about the relationship of the ruler to his people, the father to his son, the
man to his wife, the old man to the boy and friendship among like-minded
people. Mencius called Confucius his teacher and the holy rulers of antiquity his
models, namely Yao, Shun and Yu , but also Tang, Wen and Wu, the ideal
emperors. If the goodness of the human heart and life according to the four
virtues become generalized, the people also get a wise and pious ruler. The
government of the ruler should be based on benevolence and kindness and shoul
care enough for the welfare of the country's children. However, if the rule had
degenerated into a tyranny and have thus lost the mandate of heaven, confesses
Mencius the people's the right to enthrone a new ruler after the heart of the
heaven. Mencius therefore assumes that the people, if it lives well, a good
ruler gets, which is the ruler but even committed to being good according to
the mandate of heaven.
HSUN-TZU
Hsun-tzu worshiped Confucius, but he saw himself as an
opponent of Mencius. He took the opposite view, namely that man is by nature
evil. The former social relations suggested this view. He could see how all the
people were driven by their desires, the desires for pleasure and power and
money. From the boundless compliance with desire they follow debauchery and
strife. So does not the artificial education, the civilizing power of
reasonable education. Man must acquire the skill and only acquire virtue. By
learning and the continual striving for the good of man can a man become a
virtuous being. The special subject of instruction of the school of philosophy
of Hsun-tzu were therefore the Li, the customs. The manners call for a social
form, which originally came from the religious ceremonies, on the other hand,
the ethical relations of people build the social hierarchies. Custom means
anything that the saints of antiquity have defined to social rules, to form and
to collect a good nature for the nature of man. This is the purpose of the
sacred music of the ceremonies, which has a moral and uplifting character.
Also, the state must be governed with the help of the custom. The ruler should
seek the advice of the wise men, at all times. Fatalism rejects the
philosopher. Although Hsun-Tzu talks as the Confucians about Heaven, he but did
not believe in a personal God as the school of Mo Tzu.
MO TZU
Mo Tzu or Mo Di founded the eponymous school of Mohists.
After the fall of the feudal aristocracy, the artists and scientists who had
previously lived in the noble courts went among the people. There were civilian
scholars and were Confucians, the others were warriors and formed the group of
Mohists. The Mohists were a backlash against the Confucians. The teaching of
the Confucian leaned heavily on the ideas of the nobility, the Mohists were
closer to the people. To the common people seemed the teaching of Confucian
useless and too complicated. The Mohists but found a large echo in the common
people. Like Confucius also taught Mo Tse that the turmoil of society have
their origin in the lack of appreciation of one's neighbor. The Confucians also
spoke from heaven and from the way of heaven, but Mo Tse saw in Heaven a
personal God (Shang Di, the Most High), who has a will and was handing out
rewards and punishments. The Mohists believed in the existence of spirits
(shen) and were even more religious than the Confucians. The Confucians placed
much importance on the correct observance of the traditional rites and to the
maintenance of class distinctions, the Mohists rejected the traditional class
differences. They taught the worship of the wise men and the saints and took
the saints of old, Yao and Shun and Yu, for example. The central idea of Mo Tzu
was the universal love that knows no variation with groups or class differences.
If people overcome their selfishness and serve the neighbor, they act according
to the will of our Heavenly God. This doctrine is very similar to the Charity
of Jesus Christ. The general philanthropy is a wider term than humanity (Jen),
as Confucius taught. Mo Tzu was concerned about the welfare of the whole
people, but also demanded hard work and thrift. The fatalism refused Mo Tzu,
the happiness of the people is not executed by their good or evil star. He whot
trusteth in his horoscope, does easily neglect his duty of service to others.
Life is meant to be simple and natural living, funerals are not committed to be
expensive and the mourning period not to be too long, otherwise it will ruin
the people. Mo Tzu rejected war, as it contradicts the principle of universal
love, but he recognized the right of self-defense of a state in time of war.
However, war is equated with murder, the philosopher calls the warmongers
criminals. The state should be guided rather by the advice of wise men and people
of the lower classes should follow the instructions of the ruling ways. Later,
various Mohist sects were developed on the basis of the teachings of Mo Tzu,
which, as Chuang Tzu said, each of the groups described itself as orthodox and
the other as heretical.
DIALECTIANS
The school of the dialecticians discussed if the ratio of
the essence of a thing is the name of a thing. They trained in the art of
disputation. Their thoughts are similar to the Confucian school, but probably
came from the school of the dialecticians the Mohists. Their most famous
representatives were Hui Shih and Kung-sun Lung. Hui Shih taught Mo Tzu the
universal love and pacifism. He was very learned and had a large library. His
teaching we find in the writings of Chuang Tzu. If one does not consider the
spatial difference, one can say that the capital of Chu is as big as the whole
world. If you do not observe the time's difference, it can be said that there
are in an egg feathers. When you consider that the names actually are arbitrary,
one can say that a dog is not a dog and the turtle is longer than the snake.
The fire is not hot because the heat of the fire is only felt by the people.
The empirical world is not real. A white dog is possibly a black dog because
human perception of whites is subjective. One of the central ideas of Hui Shih
is the unity of the universe. All spatial and temporal differences and all
relations of equality and diversity are only relative. Such differences makes
man himself, to adjust the universe to convenience to the human capacity.
Therefore Hui Shih taught a universal love that goes beyond the general human
love of Mo Tzu, not only all the people encompasses this love but every
creature, "Love all things in the same way, because heaven and earth form
a unity." This universal love for all creation is the main duty of the
moral man. Kung-sun Lung was also a pacifist such as Mo Tzu. To this end, he
was a sophist and spoke subtle theories. His problem was the relation of the
idea to the actual thing, the relationship between substance and accident. A
white, hard stone does not consist of three things, of hardness and whiteness
and stone. Because if you call the stone hard, one turns to the sense of touch,
when you call the stone white, one turns to the sense of sight. Each adjective
is intended for a purpose. Therefore is either the stone a hard stone, for the
sense of touch, or a white stone, for the sense of sight. But if man speaks of
a hard, white stone, man connects with his mental ability the experience of two
senses. Thus, the hard, white stone exists solely in the mind of man, but
hardness and whiteness are not really properties of the stone itself, because
if the person does not think, this whiteness and hardness does not exist. And
if no eye sees and when no light is shining, the white does not exist, although
the stone does exist. These problems employed later in Europe Immanuel Kant in
his theory of knowledge. They are not only sophistical subtleties,
shadow-boxing. A white horse is not a horse, for example. Because white is a
color that denotes a horse's shape. Color and shape are independent of each
other. When one speaks of a white horse, he is talking about the color, but not
about the shape of the horse. What refers to the color, can not simultaneously
describe the shape. Therefore, a white horse is not a horse, but something
white.
TAOISTS
Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are the main philosophers of Taoism.
About the historical figure of Lao Tzu nothing certain is known and the time of
the origin of the Tao Te Ching is controversial. The first tradition about Lao
Tse has written the historian of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian. He depicts the
legend of the origin of the book Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu had received a visit
from Confucius, who had asked him about the rites and customs. Later, Lao Tzu
had withdrawn himself from public life and crossed the pass of Han-ku . At the
request of the local passport coma Danten Yin Hsi, Lao Tse wrote down his
thoughts and gave the Tao Te Ching to the passport coma Danten Yin Hsi. The
doctrine of the Tao Te Ching is more philosophical than the moral teachings of
Confucianism. For the Confucians, the term Tao was the idea of humanity and the
custom of the holy kings of antiquity, Lao Tzu's Tao became a philosophical
idea that goes beyond time and space, in the beginning is the first principle.
It is unknowable and imperceptible. It is also referred to as non-being, which
indicates the existence, from its existence then appears all that exists. The
Tao brings the unit, the unit produces the duality, the two cosmic forces yin
and yang, the duality brings forth the trinity, the third is the universal
harmony between the two primal forces of Yin and Yang. The moral sanctification
of man is to tie back to this primordial substance of the universe, this
ineffable first principle. To this goal help but no learning and great
knowledge and not artificial rituals. Man must instead of that return to the
simplicity of the child and originality of nature. Man shall not covet, he
should let things happen and find true inner peace. Who found home in the
simplicity of the child and to the origin of the innocence of nature, to the
first principle of creation, to the Tao (Logos), this man is a holy man or a
True Man. Transferred to the society, this philosophy rejects the rape of
nature by man and the tyranny of the ruler. Lao Tzu was familiar to the soul of
the people who would be governed even if it would not be suppressed by force.
Law system, rites, education rejects Lao Tzu. He trusts in the Eternal Wisdom,
which is called wisdom of nature and the soul of the people and all is
regulated by itself, man must be only guided by the wisdom of nature and have
nothing to determine self-willed himself. In the period in which the Taosimus
arose, the political and economic turmoils were great. Lao Tzu wanted to set up
a counter-program against the tyranny and the unbridled egoism and arrogance of
man. The other Taoist, Chuang Tzu, is historically tangible. He lived a little
later than Mencius. He wrote the True Book of the Southern Blossoms' Country.
He also represents the philosophical monism, the primal monad or the head of
the universe is non-being, the first principle, the ineffable Tao. The will of
the people can not prevail in absolutist self-glory, but depends on the Tao.
Therefore, if the people arguing about truth and falsehood, so comes it that
they get lost in the non-essential and overlooked the first principle.
Metaphysical speculation about non-being and being, whether the world had a
beginning or had no beginning, Chuang Tzu rejected as idle. The meaning of life
is in the pilgrimage to the place of the immortals, which is located in the far
north in the sea, in the deepest midnight in the boundless ocean. To get to the
place of immortality, man must be a non-useful person, one who can not be used
and can not use anyone, but lives the silence and interiority in peace, and
peace of mind arises. Such a wise man rises above life and death, he is empty
inside of his own efforts and of all desire and lets the eternal wisdom of
nature prevail in and flow through. He forgets his learning, he forgets his
bodily desires and results in self-oblivion, in contemplation of the original
principle. This is a meditative, mystical wisdom, a contemplative philosophy.
The time's relationship of Chuang Tzu was also chaotic and brutal enough so
that the desire of the ways to escape from the world and to retreat into the
heaven of ideas, are understandable. This idea of heaven or this ideal country
found its poetic expression in the dream of the island of the blessed,
Peng-Lai, where the Immortals, the saints and sages live in eternal youth and
eternal bliss. The first Emperor of China, Shi Huang Di, was full of longing
for this ideal land of eternal youth in eternal bliss. But his mage did not
know the way, so he slew all, until he himself has also died and was buried
with great pomp. But the wisdom of Chuang Tzu ranges from sinking into the the
first priciple of all beings, to the path of contemplation, to the longing for
the heaven and the idea of immortality. So this philosopher also was near to
Jesus Christ, the Logos, who was in the beginning, the master of contemplation,
the giver of eternal life.
FOURTH CHAPTER
THE LONG I AND MAJIA-HE
My boy, let your grandmother tell you a fairy tale. I once
dreamed that I had lived a long time ago in China. It was in the time of the
Xia Dynasty, the golden age of matriarchy in the Middle Kingdom. Even the
Yellow Emperor was not born, the rainbow girl had not revealed to him the
mysteries of the heavenly music and the mystical love of arts, nor were Yao,
Shun and Yu occurred, it was long before the flood. The mothers ruled the
society and the mother's brothers were the children's uncles and to them a
thousand times closer and better than the natural fathers, which were nothing.
So that was it then. Yes, this is still sometimes so. But at that time happened
a great cosmic catastrophe. The big cosmic disaster was more worse than the
later flood. Namely the demonic powers in the air created to the one dear sun
further nine suns, so that the sky was threatening to destroy the earth and the
sea and all its inhabitants. Many people began to rebel against heaven and
cursing, but just as many also prayed to heaven, that he might send a savior.
And heaven was gracious and sent the Savior, the Lord. That was certainly our
dear Lord Jesus. But this name is difficult to pronounce for a Chinese tongue,
so they always called him only the Long I. His wife was our dear lady Mary. But
because the Chinese tongue the R can not pronounce, so they called them
Majia-He. If I remember correctly, meant Majia-He as much as the Yellow Mary,
because she was of a yellow color like the Chinese, she had just such slit eyes
and long black silk hair. Well, the Long I wore the bow and arrow, he had come
as a warrior. He asked Majia-He, to stay at home and pray for the success of
his mission. Then he sat down on his Mongolian horse and rode out into the
world. Up there burned the nine demonic suns, the fierce fire of wrath. But the
Long I put the arrow on, took his bow and shot the first sun from the sky, the
second, the third, and so on, until he had shot all nine demon suns from the
sky. The suns fell in the Bo-Hai, the Yellow Sea, and were drowned. The Long I
rode back into his little hut in the unknown village of Anci. There, our lady
Majia-He greeted him. The fame of the Long I was great and there were gathered
disciples around him, who wanted to be inaugurated by him in the art of
archery. For the archery according to the teaching of the Long I was a mystery.
They were about to refrain from all target shortfall, this was considered a
sin, and to hit the target exactly in the golden mean, this was considered a
union with God. Thus, seventy-two disciples gathered themselves around the Long
I, but he chose twelve special men, to which he also announced deeper secrets,
such as the secrets of eternal youth. The leader of the twelve disciples was
Gen, the rock. That was a strong man. But the favorite pupil of the Long I was
Yen Hui, later named after him was also the favorite student of Kung Fu Tzu.
But one
student had the Long I, which was a flower girl, which he named only Meh-Meh,
little sister. He initiated her into the mysteries of the rainbow girl. It was
a mystical doctrine, the sexual union of the male and female principle as a
parable for the union of man and the supreme deity. The Long I now taught for
three hundred years his students, then he became a hermit to seek the herb of
immortality. He was on the summit of Tai Shan, the eastern mountain, alone with
the Supreme Lord of Heaven, who showed him the herb of immortality. The Long I
brought it back to his house and kept it carefully in a chest. He said: I shall
now soon return home into heaven. After death, heaven will show you if any of
you is worthy to taste the herb of immortality. I can not allow it to you. For
you are all sinners, that is, poor devils, who miss the mark in the mystical
archery. You all are not worthy, the herb of immortality to taste. The Long I
rode away and was not seen again. Only seven small children, three girls and
four boys, told that they had seen him riding on his Mongolian horse through
the sky. But the people did not believe them. Now were gathered all the
students to Majia-He, to our Lady of China, the Yellow Majia. She counted nine
hundred years, when she dreamed, now she must cost a tip of a leaf from the
herb of immortality. She was so humble and considered herself to be the poorest
of all poor devils, that she licked with her tongue at the root of the stem.
She went on in a huge vortex into the sky and flew straight to the moon. First,
she saw in the middle of the moon a high full cinnamon standing and theron sat
a little snow bunny who rubbed the bark with a pestle in a small mortar to
alchemistic powders of dreams, which he then scattered over the earth. But the
tree grew smaller. If only one rootstock remained, the whole moon was seen as
light full moon from earth. At that time the women menstruated yet regular at
the time of the full moon.
But then
again grew the cinnamon tree again from the rootstock, and when the whole big
wide tree stood in the middle of the moon again, the moon was eclipsed and the
people said on earth: Now is new moon. At new moon always prophesied the
great-grandmothers and the poets sang mysterious love songs. And Majia-He came
to the moon palace, which was built entirely of white jade. Inside hung many
mirrors, so that the palace seemed infinite. In the middle of infinity but a
throne was of a single clear jasper. There, now Majia-He sat down and was now
the Queen of Heaven. Sometimes people see when the moon comes close to them
even the Queen of Heaven smiling. This happened many ages later to a poet. He
was madly in love with the most beautiful woman of China, but of course,
unhappy, or he would indeed have not been a poet. Therefore he caroused immense
and rose roaring drunk in a small fishing boat and rowed to the Dung-Ting-Lake.
The poet saw in the mirror of the lake, the full moon glowing like a peach of
immortality and in the immaculate mirror of the full moon he saw the face of
Our Lady of the Middle Kingdom, the Yellow Majia. Then she threw the reflection
of the moon in the Dung-Ting-Llake and the poet drowned in the lake, so the
unbelievers say. But the believers say, he sank into the love of the Queen of
Heaven forever!
FIFTH CHAPTER
THE SONG OF SONGS IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
This is te love song of Chinese poetry. Of Shi Tuo-Tang, the
first poet of the Tang Dynasty. With his oil mouth he should kiss me! His
kisses are intoxicating as the hot rice wine! Your musk smells strong! Your
name is like musk! Therefore you lured by the the flower girls. Draw me to
yourself! Quickly! The Son of Heaven lead me into his chamber's fragrance! We
want to cheer: A-ya, A-ya! Your love is more worthy of glory than three hundred
cups full of rice wine, carousing the poet! There is only one right moral and
true virtue: to love you! I'm like black jade, ye flower girls of Xian, I'm
like a beautiful black jade! I'm like the tents of the Mongols and as the
curtains of Ming Huang! Why do you look at the black jade? I went for a walk in
the sun without a sun screen. My grandmother's grandsons are mad at me. I
should cultivate their gardens. But my own garden I have not been maintained.
Beloved, where do you rest at noon, where are you playing with phoenix and
dragon? What should I wander through the streets of red dust to the other guys?
If you do not know, you fairest of the fair, then let your cockatiels free! You
are the favorite mare in front of the chariot of the emperor Shi Huangdi, my
beloved! How beautiful is the smooth jade of the skin of your face with the
earrings of pearls. How beautiful is your ivory white neck with the string of
coins. We make for you still silver necklaces with small charms. When the Son
of Heaven sits at the table, then smells my orchid. My beloved is to me a
sachet of cinnamon bark between my breasts. A peony is my lover, a peony on the
way to the rice fields. You are beautiful, a real beauty, princess. Your eyes
are like meteors. You are beautiful, strong and vigorous, my beloved. Under the
rustling bamboo is our bed. Pine trees are the walls of our fragrance chambers.
I am a peony in the realm of Xian, I am a pure lotus flower in the pond. A
lotus flower with nettles is my beloved among the foolish women. A peach tree
under pine trees is my beloved among the foolish guys. I want to rest in the
shade of the peach tree and cost its sweet peach with my palate. He led me into
the house of wine. His banner over me was love! Strengthen me with plum cake,
refreshe me with lychees! I am sick of love! His left hand is under my head and
with his right hand he caresses me. In the unicorns and the white elephant cows
name I charge you, O flower girls of Xian, do not interfere with our love until
we wake up. Ah, the lover comes! Behold, he cometh! He jumps over the eastern
mountain, he hops over the western hills. The unicorn is like my lover, the
winged serpent! Outside he is! Through the window hole he is spying and peeping
through the silk curtain of my bedchamber. The lover whispers with a smooth
tongue: Arise, my beloved, you beauty, and come!
The winter
is over and the snow has melted. In the gardens are blooming peonies. The
oriole sings. The cockatiels are chirping in the bamboo cages. The peach trees
are blooming and flowering. Before the tavern rice wine is served. Arise, my
beloved, fairest of the fair ones, and come! My dove in the pine tree, my
female magic bird in the mulberry, come, let me see your face and hear your
whispering voice! Catch the fox-ghosts, catch the female fox-ghost who wants to
suck my manhood! The beloved is mine and I am his; he stores in the Lotus
flowers. When the day is gone and the shadows are long, come, beloved, and be
like a unicorn on the O-mi-mountain! At night I was sleeping under my gauze
curtain of the bed in my bedchamber, but I was looking for my lover, but the
bed was empty, alas! I want to get up and wander through the streets of the red
dust and goe in the houses of the flower girls, if I can find him. I want to
see if he is on the Tiananmen Square. I searched him and did not found him. The
guards of Beijing had found me. Have you seen him whom my poor humble soul
loveth? As soon as I left bigwigs and their monks, I found the beloved. I
embraced him with my jade white arms. I took him to my grandmother in the
house, who raised me up, in the chamber of her who read to me from the Book of
Songs. In the unicorns and the phoenixes name I will summon you, flower girls
in the world of red dust, does not bother me and the beloved, until we our game
of love finished - Sung-Chou! Who is she which cometh out of the wilderness,
like smoke of incense ascending, incense sticks of cinnamon and opium, as the
fragrant spices of the pharmacist? See, here is the litter of Ming Huang. Sixty
bigwigs accompany him. Theyall carry daggers in the silk sleeves, against the
foreign devils from midnight. A litter the Emperor Ming Huang made from tung
oil trees from the western mountains, the post of jade, nephrite from the
backrest, the seat of brocade, inlaid with pearls. Come, ye flower girls from
Beijing, and see, o flower girls from Xian, see the Emperor Ming Huang with the
wedding ring, which his empress mother from bamboo branches braided for the day
of the wedding of the emperor with his favorite concubine, the night of his
greatest pleasures! A heavenly beauty you are, my beloved, a heavenly beauty
you are! Behind your silk are shimmering your eyes like meteors. Your hair is as
smooth as silk and as black as lacquer. Your teeth are like melon seeds. Your
lips are like raspberry. Like a peach is your temple under the silky hair. Like
an ivory tower is your neck, there is hanging a Gong of the pagoda. Your
breasts are like jujubes-dates, two jujube-dates, and your nipples are like
jade buds on jade mountains. When the day is gone, I want to go to the hill of
frankincense and the mountain of cinnamon. Everything about you is beauty, my
beloved, you're made out of jade! Come with me, my bride, come from the
O-mi-mountain, come down with me from the O-mi-mountain! Away from eastern
mountain, away from the western mountain, away from the hills of the dragons
and tigers! You have enchanted me, using the magic of your eyes and the spell of
your amulet on the neck. Oh, how beautiful is your gorgeous love art, beloved,
my bride! Your love art intoxicate me more than three hundred cups of rice
wine, your sweat is intoxicating as the best oils and essences.
From your
lips, mistress, flows peach juice, peach juice and rice wine flows under your
tongue! The scents of your silk are like the scents of a pharmacy. A Japanese
Garden is my beloved, a Japanese Garden in the Forbidden City, a sealed
fountain. A pleasure garden you are! Peach trees with delicious peaches
sprouted in you, jujube-dates, plum trees, lotus, orchids, peonies,
chrysanthemums, bamboo! A pure source you are, a pure source, such as the water
that flows down from the Himalayas. Come, ye winds of the Dragon and the
Phoenix, blowt in this pleasure-garden that the scents, that the tantalizing
scents intoxicate me! Let my beloved come into his orchard and eat of the sweet
peaches of immortality! I'm in my orchard, granddaughter of my grandmother, my
beloved, my favorite concubine! I eat my peaches, including the plums, I drink
my rice wine with the plums juice! O poets, ye joyous revelers, come and be
drunken of love, of the arts of my beloved! I slept, but my humble soul was
awake. My lover was pounding as loud as my heart: Open up, Meh-Meh, my sister,
my love, my magic female bird, you flawless jade virgin! My head is full of
dew, from my black hair are dripping the dew-drops of the night. I've taken off my silk and laid
my transparent silk clothes away, should I get dressed again? I have bathed my
little cute lotus feet, should I stain them again with the red dust of the
world? My beloved puts his hand through the hole, my body trembled with lust. I
arose, I opened the door for the Beloved. The lock of the door drops with gum
arabic. I opened for him, the beloved. But since he had disappeared. I was left
without breath, because he was gone! I sought him, but found him not. I called
him, but he did not answer. I found the bigwigs in their passage through the
night, the moral police beat me and took me my light silk cloak, they beat me
with the nine-tailed whip, the guardians of public morals. I charge you, flower
girls, when my lover is with you, so say to him that his mistress is sick of
love's desire! Who is your lover before other guys, you fairest of the fair?
What surpasses your lover the other guys that you so charge us? My beloved is
white as jade and red as nephrite. He is the captain of millions of Chinese.
His head is as transparent as jade. His sleek hair is black as lacquer. His
eyes are almonds, washed in dew. His teeth are like a string of beads of the
monks. His cheeks smell like spices of the pharmacist. His lips are sweet as
lychees, they overflow with soymilk. His hands are as gold bullions and he
wears rings of magicians. His body is like ivory. His legs are pillars to curl
up the winged serpents. His shape is like the eastern mountain Tai-Shan,
sublime as the pines of long life. His mouth is like rice wine, everything is
intoxicating on him. Ten thousand times happiness to her that is loved by him.
This is my beloved, this is my Go-Go, my brother, ye flower girls from Beijing!
Where has your beloved gone, you fairest of the fair? Where has your lover
disappeared? We must seek him in all beds. In his pleasure garden was my lover,
to the gardens of herbs went the wise hermit, to walk in the orchard and pick
lotus flowers. I am to my beloved his most devoted handmaid, and the beloved is
my most obedient slave, he who walks among lotus flowers. Beautiful as
Peng-lai-shan are you, glorious as the Forbidden City of Beijing, heavenly as
the constellation of the weaver, my beloved! Turn your magic eyes from me, for
they enchant me. Your hair is fine as silk, black as laquet. Your teeth are
melon seeds. Your peach cheek once I caroused. Sixty empresses has Ming Huang,
eighty concubines, flower girls without number, but only one is his mistress,
his bride, her mother's darling! She is the unique female magic bird, the
immaculate virgin of jade!
Behold the
flower girls his beloved, then they are jealous, the concubines and empresses
see her, then the bile is burning in them. She is beautiful as the smile of the
dawn, she is radiant like the sun, she is inspiring as the moon, the poets sing
drunken about the moon. She is shining like the milky way, she is
affectionately as the heavenly weaver. In the garden with the almond trees I
climbed, and up to the date-tree, to check on the dates. I wanted to see if the
plum trees and peach trees are in bloom already. Turn around in a circle, Yang Gue-Fei,
spin around in a circle, so we can consider you. What do you want to see Yang
Gue-Fei? The Dance of the Phoenix and the female magic bird! How beautiful are
your lotus feet, you princess! Your thighs are like jewels of a master
blacksmith. Thy navel is the cup from which is carousing the Son of Heaven!
Your breasts are jade mountains and your nipples jade buds of immortality. Thy
neck is a tower of ivory with many Gong on it. Your eyes are like pools of
mandarin ducks pairs of Szechuan. Your head is like the western mountains of
the Queen Mother Xi-Wang-Mu, in your hair like silk the Emperor is caught. How
lusting you are and how provocative, o beloved, beloved full of lust! Like a
date palm is your body, your lap is split like a date. I will climb the palm
tree and pick the date. Jugs of rice wine are your breasts, I will drink my
fill. Your kisses are like overflowing rice wine, which makes the reveler drunk
that he talks in his sleep. I am to my beloved his most devoted handmaid, and
my beloved is mine as my most devoted slave. My lover desires no other
girl-friend than me alone! Come, my beloved, we walk incognito, incognito
through the Middle Kingdom and walk to the fields of poor farmers and sleep in
the villages under bamboo. Earlier we want then go to the rice fields, to see
if the rice is already mature for the rice wine, whether the peach blossoms
bloom, whether the plum blossoms bloom. There I will give you my full devotion.
The mandrake of the magician screams. Oh, are you not my brother, Go-Go, which
sat with me on the knees of my grandmother? Then might I kiss you in public and
no moralist would clamor. I want to lead you and bring you into the chamber of
my grandmother who raised me up alone with the Book of Songs. There I gave you
the juice of plums and peaches. His left hand is under my head and his right
hand caressing me. I charge you, flower girls of Beijing, do not interfere with
our love's peace until we wake up. Who is she that comes from the Mongolian
Taiga, arm in arm with her lover? Under the peach tree of immortality you woke
up, lit up under the fig tree of religion, where your grandmother has passed
away in the heavenly realm of ancestors. Stronger than death is heavenly love!
Jealousy is but hot as hell. The glow of lust is a glow of heaven! Even the
Yellow Sea and the Yang-Tse-Kiang can not extinguish the fire of love's lust.
Spends one the wealth of the Emperor of India for love, wet would only mock
him. You who dwell in the pleasure gardens, on your whispering voice are listening
the poets, the revelers at night. Let me hear your sweet whispering. Quick,
quick, my lover, dance like a phoenix with the female magic bird and ride in
the heavens like a yellow crane!
