#The Complete Works of Zhuangzi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

female-malice · 6 months

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A foundational work of Chinese philosophy and literature, the Zhuangzi, traditionally attributed to the philosopher of the same name from the late Warring States Period (475-221BC), is a series of stories, anecdotes and parables that advocate independent thinking and freedom from societal conventions.

Lisa Lam Mun-wai, co-chair of the Gay Games Hong Kong – which will start on November 3, the first time the event has visited Asia – tells Richard Lord how it changed her life.

The first time I read it was as part of the school curriculum, in grade eight or nine. It guided me mentally and emotionally through challenges. This was around the time of my coming of age as a teenager, when I realised I was a little bit different from my friends.

I had these intense feelings for women – I had no words for it, and I felt quite lost. This was in the early 80s, and all you saw around you was that lesbians would have a miserable life or were lunatics or serial killers.

Among the many things Zhuangzi gave me was some space in my heart to look in peacefully and ignore what was going on outside.

He says that it’s not wise to give labels to things, and nothing is entirely either good or bad. We humans are limited by our perspective: something can be useful to me and completely useless to you.

Zhuangzi was very comforting to me at that time because the outside world was so nasty and unaccepting. I realised that it didn’t mean I was a lonely person who had to live a miserable life. It really gave me a chance to look inside, and space to breathe.

The first story I read from it was the butcher (Cook Ding, whose movements are so skilful that, as he explains while butchering an ox, he has not had to sharpen his knife for 19 years). As I grew older, I started to understand the symbolism of that. It’s in a chapter about how to nurture life.

If you look at the cow as your life journey, the knife is like your heart and the butcher is how you navigate through life: the whole story is about how you stay centred. For me, it was about how you preserve your heart.

Zhuangzi lived during a terrible time in Chinese history, and he was trying to show how despite suffering, you can still live a good life.

At the beginning of the chapter, before the butcher story, there’s an opening paragraph about how your life is limited but knowledge is unlimited.

I was 13 or 14 and had never thought of life being limited. I did a calculation: I thought I had about 20,000 days left on Earth. Do I want to spend them worrying how people think? It became crystal clear to me that I wanted to lead a meaningful life.

I go back to it from time to time, especially when I feel stuck or unhappy. Zhuangzi taught me how to be open-minded and not cling onto fixed views or ideas.

If he were alive now, he’d probably be an environmentalist. He constantly talks about how humanity is just one of many beings. We feel superior and try to fix things, not realising that there are lots of things we don’t know.

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poimandresnous · 4 months

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Musing on Laozi 5

First let's post two of the three translations of Laozi 5 that I am working with just for clarity, starting with William Scott Wilson's and then Dan G. Reid's, respectively:

Heaven and Earth are not out to make friends; Thus, they treat all creatures as straw dogs. The sage is not out to make friends; Thus, he treats the people as straw dogs. Perhaps this is something like a bellows between Heaven and Earth: It is empty, but never exhausted; It moves, and creatures are manifested endlessly. A lot of words will get you nowhere; Better to just stay centered.

Heaven and Earth are not (willfully) benevolent. The myriad things are treated no differently Than grass for dogs. Sages are not (willfully) benevolent. The hundred clans are treated no differently Than grass for dogs. The gate of Heaven and Earth Is it not like a bagpipe? Empty yet not finished It moves, and again more is pushed forth. To speak countless words is worthless. This is not as good as guarding balance within.

(I will bounce back and forth with the terminology used here.)

The first few lines of this chapter may be interpreted harshly. Plainly and literally, it tells us to treat the Ten Thousand-kinds-of-entities as straw dogs, items used as offerings to Heaven, according to Zhuangzi, and are thrown away when the ceremony is done. Many may think treating the myriad of things as “straw dogs” is harsh, but it teaches equality and impartiality with one’s benevolence ( 仁 ).

Heaven and Earth are not here to be “kind” or out to gain favors from us and befriend us. Which is why all creatures are “straw dogs” to Heaven & Earth. All the Ten Thousand-kinds-of-entities have their own inherent allotted capacities. Once capacities are used up, we transform; we change, and we dissolve from our corporeality. However, our dissolution of corporeality is not equal to the literal discarding of a ritual straw dog. The straw dog is nonetheless fated to be thrown away at the end of the ceremony, with little thought about it. Likewise, we are fated to die. For we are all equal in this one fact: We will change, we will transform, we will die. We are never exempted from our Fate. I will so naively say that The Sage is absolutely aware of this. The Sage takes this impartial judgment of the myriad things and is equally benevolent to all things. More plainly, the Sage treats all people and sentient beings as equals. Not wishing to befriend anyone for the sake of societal piety/expectations or because of rank, but instead dealing with everyone based on their own natural capacities, treating all people and sentient beings with 仁, benevolence, because that is Heaven & Earth and the Sage’s nature. When the Sage embraces the One with Heaven and Earth, the Sage remains empty, so he can be at one with and “filled” with Heaven (Laozi 11 & 22).

When Heaven & Earth and the Sage are not out to “make friends” or are “un-willfully benevolent,” they too treat the Ten-Thousand-kind-of-entities as straw dogs because it is in their impartiality where true benevolence arises. True benevolence begins with a reversion back to one’s original nature (Zhuangzi chapter 2.14.22), which is brought about by embracing the One (執一). According to Wang Bi’s commentary in chapter 10 of the Laozi, this embracement of the One is the true nature of human beings. Wang Bi goes on to further suggest that this “embracement of the One” purifies the spirit to an extent that the Sage is never separated from the abode and the One. Being never separated from one’s original nature (Embracing the One), benevolence is not displayed for things such as societal expectations or because the Sage must show it due to a certain partiality toward another human being (a friend, brother, sister, mother, or father).

Instead, the Sage abides by the tenet: “When you complete a meritorious deed, he backs out and goes home, for this is Heaven's Way.” (Laozi 9.) The meritoriousness of The Sage is so great, that they never try to make themselves known, yet when the Sage does act with unconscious intent, "creatures are manifested endlessly." I take this to mean people will follow the Sages for instructions because of their genuine display of benevolence. They are not consciously trying to attract followers for the sake of fame. Still, the myriad things flock to the Sage nonetheless because of the extremely unconscious impartiality and equality the Sage shows to all things. Likewise, the Sage acts without fabrication; he doesn’t fabricate friendships with people for societal piety or to display that they have many friends. If the Sage is fated to become more intimate with people, they simply do, never fabricating a relationship for personal benefit or societal gain. Instead, Fate will forge a relationship or partnership with the Sage because it will be of true benevolence and an entirely natural union (Laozi 3).

The sage has no preferences. They have no partial inclination to another sentient being, person, or external force. For if they indeed are One with Heaven and Earth, All things are regarded as straw dogs, which I hope is clear now that "straw dogs" are nothing more than a metaphor to orate the equality and impartiality we all should strive for. We see in the Essential Huainanzi 1.5 that:

When perception comes into contact with things, preferences arise. When preferences take shape and perception is enticed by external things, our nature cannot return to the self, and the heavenly patterns are destroyed.

This is also why the Sage does not allow external things to entice him as being joyous (helpful) or despairing (harmful). Still abiding by that impartial and equal behavior as displayed in Laozi 5. As Zhongi says in the Outer Chapters of the Zhuangzi 20.27.1-3:

Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and the obstacles of poverty, these are the doings of Heaven and Earth, emanated by the movement of fate. By this I mean they happen together in conjunction with them. A minister who serves his sovereign dares not evade his commands; therefore, since one upholds the way of the minister as attentively as this, how much more attentively should one treat Heaven!

All this means is that the Sage does not treat what we call "harm" as actual "harm." The Sage keeps in step with Heaven and Earth, abiding by extreme impartiality and equality, as echoed in Laozi 5 and Huainanzi 1.5. I assume the "Hundred Clans" refers to the Hundred Family Surnames, a text composed during the Song Dynasty that lists five hundred and seven Chinese surnames. So when the Sage treats the hundred clans no differently than grass for dogs [straw dogs], this is just a more specified way of reiterating the first phrase of Laozi 5 about the actual population of China.

So what does it mean when the passage tells us A lot of words will get you nowhere; Better to just stay centered, or To speak countless words is worthless. This is not as good as guarding balance within? Heshang Gong's commentary illuminates these sentences perfectly. Here it is with the Chinese and English.

多言數窮，多事害神，多言售身，口開舌舉，必有禍患。不如守中。不如守德於中，育養精神，愛氣務言。

Having too many duties harms the spirit. Speaking too many words does harm to oneself. When the mouth is open, and the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, there is sure to be misfortune and worries. It is not as good as guarding De (德) within. Nurture and support your spiritual vitality, cherish your energy-breath, and speak infrequently.

Heshang Gong explains here that when one speaks many words, all they are doing is displaying benevolence and righteousness. I am reminded of the Sophist in Plato's dialogues. The Sophist speaks just to speak, acting like they are experts on the subject they are discussing. Sophists are imitators of knowledge, virtue, and justice (Sophist 267 b-c). This is what Heshang Gong is trying to elude too. Sophists harm themselves by displaying themselves as experts in the subjects they orate about. While Socrates and Plato use many words, they always assert that they are not saying or knowing anything. As such, by "not saying anything," Socrates guards his inner vitality and moral virtue (德 De/Te). Heshang Gong is further saying that by 育養精神, we must nurture our inner spirit in a way that leads us to fewer words, fewer desires, and less knowledge (Laozi 3).

With these passages in mind, I hope it is ever clearer why the Sage and Heaven & Earth treat the Ten Thousand-kind-of-entities as "straw dogs." Typing this out and laying out other supporting literature greatly aids my understanding, and I hope the same can happen for you, the reader.

#philosophy #daoism #taoism #chinese philosophy #zhuangzi #lao tzu #laozi #huainanzi #chuang tzu #plato #sophist

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callmerasi · 3 months

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There is no end to the weighing of things, no stop to time, no constancy to the division of lots, no fixed rule to beginning and end. Therefore great wisdom observes both far and near, and for that reason, it recognizes small without considering it paltry, recognizes large without considering it unwieldy, for it knows that there is no end to the weighing of things. It has a clear understanding of past and present, and for that reason, it spends a long time without finding it tedious, a short time without fretting at its shortness, for it knows that time has no end. It perceives the nature of fullness and emptiness, and for that reason, it does not delight if it acquires something or worry if it loses it, for it knows that there is no constancy to the division of lots.

Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, Watson tr. (Ch 17)

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ironvitriol · 9 months

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“When you're betting for tiles in an archery contest, you shoot with skill. When you're betting for fancy belt buckles, you worry about your aim. And when you're betting for real gold, you're a nervous wreck. Your skill is the same in all three cases - but because one prize means more to you than another, you let outside considerations weigh on your mind. He who looks too hard at the outside gets clumsy on the inside.” ― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

#zhuangzi #sayings

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andyjharper · 2 years

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Wu Wei (2022) is a binaural audiovisual composition I recorded in Theta -> Beta Frequencies Wu Wei is essentially nothingness, effortless action. One of the principles of the Tao Te Ching that helped create this audiovisual composition. “You have only to rest in inaction and things will transform themselves. Smash your form and body, spit out hearing and eyesight, forget you are a thing among other things, and you may join in great unity with the deep and boundless. Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu Watch the full audiovisual piece: link in bio #wuwei #tao #taoteching #china #chinese #multimedia #interactive #audiovisual #audioreactivevisuals #touchdesigner #video #videosynthesis #videosynth #live #av #future #culture #midlands #town #2022 #multimedia #arts #videos #ableton #binuralbeats #binaural #ambient #composition #spirituality #spiritual (at Loughborough) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjjIfmrjPD9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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psitrend · 5 years

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A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Laozi

New Post has been published on https://china-underground.com/2019/08/21/a-journey-of-a-thousand-miles-starts-with-a-single-step-laozi/

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Laozi

Origin: The quotation is from Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching ascribed to Laozi.

Meaning: even the longest and most difficult ventures have a starting point. Featured image: Zhang Lu, Laozi Riding an Ox 畫老子騎牛. Light ink and color on paper. National Palace Museum

千里之行始於足下。 Qiān lǐ zhī xíng shǐ yú zú xià. literally: ‘A journey of a thousand Chinese miles (li) starts beneath one’s feet’

The Tao Te Ching, 道德經, is a Chinese classic text traditionally credited to 6th-century BC sage Laozi.

The Tao Te Ching, together with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for philosophical and religious Taoism.

The book also strongly influenced other schools of Chinese philosophy and religion, including legalism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and gardeners, have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration.

Its influence has spread widely outside of East Asia and is among the most translated works in world literature.

Chapter Sixty-four of Tao Te Ching

It is easy to preserve when things are stable. It is easy to plan ahead when things have no yet occurred. If one waits until the affair has begun, Then the situation is as brittle as ice that easily cracks and is fragile that easily shatters. Take actions before things occur. Manage before things get out of order. A huge tree grows from a tiny sprout; A nine-story high terrace is built from heaps of earth. A journey of thousand miles begins from the first step. He who acts with desire shall fail. He who tries to possess shall lose. Therefore, the saint acts without effort and so he does not fail. He is not eager to possess and so he does not lose. Most people fail when they are near completion. If one can be cautious from beginning to end, then he will not fail. Thus a saint pursues what people do not pursue. He does not value the hard-to-get objects. He learns what people do not learn and avoids the faults in order to restore his true nature. He follows the course of nature to benefit all things and dares not go astray from the right Way, Tao.

其安易持，其未兆易谋；其脆易泮，其微易散。为之于未有，治之于未乱。合抱之木，生于毫末；九层之台，起于垒土；千里之行，始于足下。为者败之，执者失之。是以圣人无为故无败，无执故无失。民之从事，常于几成而败之。慎终如始，则无败事。是以圣人欲不欲，不贵难得之货，学不学，复众人之所过，以辅万物之自然而不敢为。选自《老子·道德经·第六十四章》

Zhang Lu, Laozi Riding an Ox 畫老子騎牛. Light ink and color on paper. National Palace Museum

Image source: wikipedia

#Laozi, #TaoTeChing, #Taoism

#Laozi #Tao Te Ching #taoism

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philosophybits · 1 year

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Mysteriously, wonderfully, I bid farewell to what goes, I greet what comes; for what comes cannot be denied, and what goes cannot be detained.

Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, Watson tr. (Ch 20)

#philosophy #quotes #Zhuangzi #The Complete Works of Zhuangzi #change #time #conditional #temporary #existence #being

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happypuffy · 25 days

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The Great Man in his teaching is like the shadow that follows a form, the echo that follows a sound. Only when questioned does he answer, and then he pours out all his thoughts, making himself the companion of the world. He dwells in the echoless, moves in the directionless, takes by the hand you who are rushing and bustling back and forth and proceeds to wander in the beginningless. He passes in and out of the boundless and is ageless as the sun. His face and form blend with the Great Unity, the Great Unity that is selfless. Being selfless, how then can he look on possession as possession? He who fixed his eyes on possession — he was the “gentleman” of ancient times. He who fixes his eyes on nothingness — he is the true friend of Heaven and earth.

Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, Watson tr. (Ch 11)

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nousrose · 7 months

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The perfect man uses his mind like a mirror. Going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.

The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

Zhuangzi

#quote #zhuangzi #spirituality

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gladiates · 4 years

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175+ non-Western literature recommendations to diversify your academia, organized by continent + country

I love world literature, and I’ve been frustrated by the lack of representation of it in literature + academia communities on tumblr, so here are some recommendations. I haven’t read all of these myself yet, but the ones I have are excellent and the ones I haven’t come highly recommended from Goodreads and are on my to-read list!

With the exception of anthologies of older works, all of these books were written before 2000 (some literally thousands of years earlier), since I’m less familiar with super contemporary literature. Also, I only included each writer once, though many of them have multiple amazing books. I’m sure there are plenty of incredible books I’m missing, so please feel free to add on to this list! And countries that aren’t included absolutely have a lot to offer as well--usually, it was just hard to find books available in English translation (which all of the ones below are.)

List below the cut (it’s my first post with a cut so let’s hope I do it right... and also warning that it’s super long)

ASIA:

Bangladesh:

Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (1929)

China:

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (6th century BCE)

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (5th century BCE)

The Analects by Confucius (circa 5th-4th century BCE?)

The Book of Chuang Tzu by Zhuangzi (4th century BCE)

Mencius by Mencius (3rd century BCE)

The Songs of the South: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (2nd century AD)

Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems by Li Po and Tu Fu (written 8th century AD)

Poems of Wang Wei (8th century AD)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (14th century AD)

Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling (1740)

Dream of the Red Chamber by Xueqin Cao (1791)

Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu (1809)

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Lu Xun (1918)

Mr Ma and Son by Lao She (1929)

Family by Ba Jin (1933)

Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang (1943)

A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy by Wing-Tsit Chan (1963)

Red Sorghum by Mo Yan (1987)

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian (1989)

The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature edited by Yunte Huang (anthology, 2016)

India:

The Rig Vega (1500-1200 BCE)

The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita (around 400 BCE but not known exactly. The Gita is part of the Mahabharata)

The Upanishads (REALLY wide date range)

The Dhammapada (3rd century BCE)

The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way by Nāgārjuna (2nd century AD)

The Recognition of Sakuntala by Kālidāsa (4th century AD)

The Way of the Bodhisattva by Santideva (700 AD)

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (1910)

Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar (1936)

The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru (1946)

Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh (1956)

A Source Book in Indian Philosophy by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles Alexander Moore (1957)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1993)

Women Writing in India: 600 BC to the Present V: The Twentieth Century by Susie J. Tharu and K. Lalita (1993)

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (1995)

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1996)

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (1999)

Indian Philosophy in English: From Renaissance to Independence (anthology, 2011)

Indonesia:

The Weaverbirds by Y.B. Mangunwijaya (1981)

Iran:

Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsi (11th century AD)

The Essential Rumi by Rumi (13th century AD)

The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (1936)

Savushun by Simin Daneshvar (1969)

My Uncle Napoleon by Iran Pezeshkzad (1973)

Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (1979)

Iraq:

Fifteen Iraqi Poets edited by Dunya Mikhail (published 2013 but the poems are 20th century)

Japan:

The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu (9th-10th century AD)

The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon (1002 AD)

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (1008 AD)

The Tale of the Heike, unknown (12th century AD)

One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse (not sure of year)

Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenkō (1332)

Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki (1914)

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (1948)

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (1948)

The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1948)

Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (1949)

Masks by Fumiko Enchi (1958)

The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe (1962)

A Personal Matter by Kenzaburō Ōe (1964)

Silence by Shūsaku Endō (1966)

Korea (written before the division into North/South):

The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong (written 1795-1805)

Lebanon:

Samarkand by Amin Maalouf (1988)

Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (1998)

Pakistan:

We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (1991)

The Rebel's Silhouette: Selected Poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1991)

The Taste of Words: An Introduction to Urdu Poetry edited by Raza Mir (2014)

Palestine:

Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani (1963)

Orientalism by Edward Said (1978)

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti (1997)

Mural by Mahmoud Darwish (2000, which technically breaks my rule by a year but it’s great)

Philippines:

Noli Me Tángere by José Rizal (1887)

Saudi Arabia:

Cities of Salt by Abdul Rahman Munif (1984)

Sri Lanka:

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai (1994)

Syria:

Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami (1989)

Taiwan:

Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin (1996)

Turkey:

My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk (1998)

Vietnam:

Spring Essence: The Poetry of H�� Xuân Huong by Hô Xuân Huong (1801)

The Tale of Kieu by Nguyen Du (1820)

Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong (1988)

Miscellaneous Asia (country unclear or multiple current day countries):

The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 1800 BCE)

Myths from Mesopotamia translated by Stephanie Dailey

The Arabian Nights (as early as the 9th century AD, lots of changes over the years)

The Qur’an

AFRICA:

Algeria:

Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar (1985)

The Bridges of Constantine by Ahlam Mosteghanemi (1993)

Cameroon:

Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono (1956)

Egypt:

The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940 - 1640 B.C. translated by R.B. Parkinson

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (1956)

The Sinners by Yusuf Idris (1959)

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi (1975)

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (1999)

Ghana:

Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo (1977)

Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah (1979)

In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992)

Guinea:

The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye (1954)

Kenya:

A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thing'o (1994)

The River and the Source by Margaret A. Ogola (1995)

Libya:

The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni (1990)

Mali:

The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1973)

Nigeria:

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola (1952)

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

Efuru by Flora Nwapa (1966)

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (1979)

Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka (1981)

Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English by Ken Saro-Wiwa (1985)

The Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991)

Senegal:

God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène (1960)

So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ (1981)

Somalia:

Maps by Nuruddin Farah (1986)

South Africa:

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head (1969)

Fools and Other Stories by Njabulo S. Ndebele (1986)

Sudan:

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (1966)

Tunisia:

The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi (1957)

Zimbabwe:

The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera (1978)

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (1988)

Miscellaneous Africa:

The Granta Book of the African Short Story edited by Helon Habila (2011)

The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry edited by Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier (1963)

AMERICAS:

Antigua and Barbuda:

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (1988)

Argentina:

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (1944)

Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar (1963)

The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel) by Macedonio Fernández (1967)

Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig (1976)

The Sixty-Five Years of Washington by Juan José Saer (1985)

How I Became a Nun by César Aira (1993)

Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo (2015 but written earlier)

Brazil:

Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis (1900)

Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lúcio Cardoso (1959)

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado (1966)

Pedagagy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1968)

The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (1977)

Vast Emotions and Imperfect Thoughts by Rubem Fonseca (1988)

Chile:

The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso (1970)

Emergency Poems by Nicanor Parra (1972)

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (1982)

Colombia:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)

Cuba:

The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier (1949)

Cold Tales by Virgilio Piñera (1958)

Dominican Republic:

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994)

Guatemala:

Men of Maize by Miguel Ángel Asturias (1949)

I, Rigoberta Menchú by Rigoberta Menchú (1985)

Guadalupe (part of France but overseas):

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé (1986)

Haiti:

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwige Danticat (1994)

Jamaica:

No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff (1987)

The True History of Paradise by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (1999)

Martinique (part of France but overseas):

Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire (1950)

Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961)

Poetics of Relation by Édouard Glissant (1997)

Mexico:

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)

Aura by Carlos Fuentes (1962)

The Hole by José Revueltas (1969)

Underground River and Other Stories by Inés Arredondo (1979)

The Collected Poems, 1957-1987 by Octavio Paz (1987)

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (1989)

Nicaragua:

Azul by Rubén Darío (1888)

Peru:

The Cardboard House by Martín Adán (1928)

The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (1962)

The Complete Poems by César Vallejo (1968)

St. Lucia:

Omeros by Derek Walcott (1990)

Trinidad and Tobago:

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution by C.L.R. James (1938)

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (1961)

Uruguay:

Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano (1971)

Venezuela:

Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos (1929)

Indigenous Writers from Canada and the United States:

American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá (Dakota) (1921)

Winter in the Blood by James Welch (Blackfeet and A’aninin) (1974)

Emplumada by Lorna Dee Cervantes (Chumash) (1982)

She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo (Mvskoke) (1982)

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich (Chippewa) (1984)

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo) (1986)

Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine Deloria Jr. (Dakota) (1988)

The Grass Dancer by Susan Power (Dakota) (1997)

Miscellaneous Americas:

And We Sold the Rain: Contemporary Fiction from Central America edited by Rosario Santos (1988)

Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real edited by Celia Correas de Zapata (2003)

Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicana and Chicano Literature edited by Cristina García (2006)

#dark academia #light academia #academia aesthetic #academic #academia #academics #studyblr #litblr #reading #books #booklr #literature #world literature #poc literature #writers of color #bookworm #bookaddict

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tendaysofrain · 3 years

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Hi! I loved your post about the Daoist elements in CQL. Would you mind providing a few sources where I could read more about Daoism and Chinese history in general? Thanks!

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed my posts! Also apologies for the late reply, life has officially caught up with me, but don’t worry, I have not forgotten lol.

About sources, I myself cannot claim to be an expert on any of this, I am just a hobbyist who happens to know both Chinese and English pretty well due to growing up in both China and NA, so I will just be speaking from my own very amateur experience doing research on these subjects and share a few of the sources I have used so far:

To be very honest, there aren’t many good sources on Chinese history in English, due to the vast majority of historical texts having no English translation whatsoever, and the English publications on the subject are usually very academic in nature. In light of this, Wikipedia may be of some help here, as it does have some good general articles in English on Chinese history from prehistorical cultures to imperial era history, but it being Wikipedia, the articles are best used as general references only. From personal experience, even if you do know Chinese, searching online for credible sources is usually a pain, as most things reiterated online are usually either modern misconceptions, legends, folk tales, or some mixture of the three. It’s a little bit like how there are many misconceptions of Medieval European history. If you do know Chinese rather well, I would suggest looking up and reading primary sources on archaeological findings (in my amateur opinion the best source for anything pre-Zhou dynasty), as well as historical texts, such as the Twenty-Four Histories (widely considered the “main”/“orthodox” sources for a general timeline from Zhou dynasty to Ming dynasty). All 24 are available on Wikisource for free, but of course, they are all in Classical Chinese, which is rather difficult to understand, even for native speakers; adding to it is the fact that none of them are organized in overall chronological order, and are more focused on notable individuals who lived during a certain period of time. Also, I will caution that although the Twenty-Four Histories were written as reference works, they were not 100% factual, because people back then did not have the amount of information available to them as we do today, and certain things were recorded in a subjective manner, though these texts do give a good general idea of the time periods.

The difficulties with finding good sources on Daoism is a little different, because you may be able to find good ones, depending on what type of source you are looking for. Most English sources online are again, very academic-oriented, and more focused on the philosophical aspects than the religious. This means that most of them were written in an analytical fashion, from a more objective and removed viewpoint. Such sources are very easy to find online, and two that I can think of off the top of my head are Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (link provided here is not the only article they have on Daoism), and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. If you are interested in reading primary sources, the Dao De Jing and Zhuangzi are considered two of the most important foundational texts for philosophical Daoism, and there are many different English translations for each. In fact, you may be able to find some at your local library. As for religious Daoism, since it is very much a cultural thing (this applies to both philosophical and religious Daoism, but is particularly true for religious Daoism), my opinion is that it is better to look for sources that are more “involved” in the practice of Daoism, as I believe immersion is key to a more complete understanding of culture-related subjects. These sources, of course, are much much harder to find in English, and it’s understandable, since there aren’t many native English speakers who are also practicing Daoists. Therefore knowing Chinese will drastically decrease the difficulty of finding credible sources, though to be honest they are a bit scattered about. If you know Chinese well and really want a deep dive into religious Daoism, here’s the Wikisource link for most of the Daoist Canon in Chinese, or you can look up sources about the Daoist Canon for more general information.

So in conclusion (or “tl;dr” I guess, haha), it is really really difficult to find good sources in English that one can do a leisurely reading on, and still come away with a good general idea of the topic. Even when searching online in both languages, one has to be on the lookout for all sorts of “noise”, but sometimes there are gems to be found as well, and because of this mixed nature, I won’t be providing many links here, just a general direction. To be honest, the severe lack of non-academic English sources is one of the main reasons why I started this blog. The process of doing the research, parsing the information to find what is true by checking them against primary sources, and then presenting them in a more easily digestible form is as much for the blog as it is a learning experience for myself, which is something I thoroughly enjoyed.

#asks #thanks and I really appreciate the love!

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parablesoftheone · 3 years

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Ginko and Adashino: a study in Daoist perspectivism

Huizi said, “I am not you, to be sure, so I don’t know what it is to be you. But by the same token, since you are certainly not a fish, my point about your inability to know the happiness of fish stands intact.”

Zhuangzi said, “Let’s go back to the starting point. You said, ‘Whence do you know the happiness of fish?’ Since your question was premised on your knowing that I know it, I must have known it from here, up above the Hao River.”

—Zhuangzi: Essential Writings, pg. 76

It would be criminally neglectful to talk extensively about Mushishi without discussing Ginko and Adashino’s friendship. Apart from Ginko himself, Adashino is the most frequently recurring character in the stories, and he and Ginko obviously share a connection that goes well beyond trading in mushi-related goods.

In contrast to Ginko’s other significant relationship, this one is not with someone who shares his degree of centeredness. Adashino’s focus is markedly external, his habits of life and outlook very much out of line with the teachings of Lao Tzu. Most obviously, he stockpiles a wealth of mushi-related treasures and is always on the lookout for more, while Ginko’s possessions are pretty much what he has in his backpack. The storing up of wealth and possessions, the Dao De Jing warns, can only bring grief: "Amass a store of gold and jade,” it says in verse #9, “and no one can protect it.” And indeed, Adashino’s storehouse is invaded with dire consequences no later than the tenth episode of the first season. His insatiable desire for interesting items persists nonetheless, leaving him open to a level of emotional excitability Ginko never displays even at his most distressed.

(Still, a man’s gotta protect his property...)

This is hardly the only particular in which Adashino and Ginko are decidedly unalike. S2 E8 "Wind Raiser” especially develops their differences. When Adashino takes credit for Ginko’s cure, Ginko completely ignores it; when Adashino speculates about what the young man Ginko advises will do, Ginko responds with a laconic, “Who knows?” These simple interchanges point toward their fundamental contrast: Ginko’s mindset is Daoist, and Adashino’s is (mostly) not. In accord with multiple verses of the Dao De Jing (#2, #10, #30...), Ginko doesn’t care a damn about who gets credit for his work; neither does he care to speculate about future events, preferring to “move with the present” (Dao De Jing #14). His focus is centered; Adashino's is outward.

Given these divergent values and the fact that Ginko reguarly cheats Adashino—of which Adashino is well aware—an observer might wonder why these two have anything to do with each other, much less why they’re such good friends.

But their bond makes perfect sense through a Daoist eye.

Daoist perspectivism

To the Daoist mind, contrasts and differences are part of how the world functions—and this includes differences from the Daoist mind. Zhuangzi not only teaches followers of the dao to not disdain non-Daoist values but hold “perfectly to the differing allotments of things” (Zhuangzi: Essential Writings, pgs. 70–71); his own closest friend Huizi is a man with whom he trades debates and criticisms throughout the Zhuangzi (pgs. 8, 38, 112...). This worldview doesn’t seek the exclusion of others—the Daoist idea of “oneness” means that opposing views and forces are inherently one, without being made to unite or agree.

Along with this embracing of contrasts comes a firm belief in perspectivism: that anything that can be affirmed from one perspective can be negated from another and vice versa, and that each person and creature’s nature and experiences determine what is right from her/his/its own perspective. "The embrace of the same viewpoint,” says the Zhuangzi, “comes simply from being in the same position” (pg. 101).

Just as Ginko understands that the natures of the mushi are rightful parts of the world whether they’re valued by humans or not, he also understands the validity of differing human viewpoints. Though he scolds Adashino for the trouble his collection causes, he doesn’t consider him lesser or unworthy of friendship because of it, or because of any other contrasts between them. Through all the disparity in their values, they share a connection—and in true Daoist fashion, their differences are likely what brought them together in the first place. Ginko gathers mushi-related items, and Adashino wants them. Ginko has no desire to collect things or haul them around, so he’s happy to sell... if not always honestly.

Which raises the next point about their relationship: Ginko’s shady business ethics.

Perspectivism applies here too. As Zhuangzi tells us, “whatever might be [from some perspective] strange, grotesque, uncanny, or deceptive” (pg. 13) can be affirmed as right from another view, and this certainly applies to Ginko and Adashino’s exchanges. To an outsider, they’re questionable as all get out—but it’s not an outsider’s view that matters. Both Ginko and Adashino freely choose to associate with each other on their current terms, because that choice makes sense to them. Adashino knows from the start that Ginko isn’t always on the level—from his first appearance in S1 E5 “The Traveling Swamp,” he’s questioning Ginko’s story about the green sake cup. And as Ginko points out, Adashino is under no obligation to buy from him—he chooses to, knowing the odds, and continues to choose to. And we can see in “Wind Raiser” that Adashino values even the more questionable items Ginko’s sold him; he’s held on to all of it, even the stuff he's probably guessed is junk.

Whether this arrangement makes sense or seems right to an outsider is irrelevant. Ginko and Adashino accept each other as they are, and the only ones who need to validate those choices are themselves.

So, for all their differences, do Ginko and Adashino have anything in common?

In fact, they do—and one significant value they share is the very perspectivism that shapes their relationship. We can see as much in “The Traveling Swamp,” when Adashino asks Ginko why he’s so determined to save Io from becoming a mushi.

“If the girl said she wanted desperately to live,” he says, “I’d understand. But she wanted to become part of the swamp, right? That might be her happiness... Sometimes that’s the way it is in this world, though it sounds cruel...”

Adashino’s statement points to the path along which he and Ginko connect: No less than Ginko, Adashino is open to another’s perspective, even one that he acknowledges sounds terrible. He fully understands that “rightness” for one person is not the same as “rightness” for another.

Ginko’s reply underscores that he shares this value. In S1 E1 “The Green Throne,” he made a human a mushi because it was her choice—despite his own assessment that becoming a mushi is a terrible fate for a human. He seeks to prevent the same from happening to Io, not because he doesn’t value her choice, but because his observation of her has convinced him that she doesn’t understand what she’s giving up—that she’s making her choice without full knowledge.

Interestingly, in this sense, Ginko and Adashino’s exchange is reminiscent of one between Zhuangzi and Huizi. Crossing over a river with his friend, Zhuangzi comments on the happiness of the fish below. Huizi protests and asks, "Whence do you know the happiness of fish?” In his frequently smartass fashion, Zhuangzi replies that he knows it from the position where they stand, above the river, watching the fish (pg. 76).

Not simply a play on words, this exchange is an illustration of Daoist perspectivism. Zhuangzi’s point is that, while we truly can’t know the perspectives of anyone other than ourselves, we must proceed from our own—including our observations of what may or may not make others happy. Not able to consult Io on the matter, Ginko has to proceed from his own observations, which lead him to believe she still cherishes human feelings.

Like Zhuangzi and Huizi, Ginko and Adashino both know that perspective is individual, and they respect the choices others make from their own. Adashino respects that Io may, after all, want to become a mushi, and Ginko respects that, in his assessment, she probably doesn’t—just as, in Renzu’s case, he respects that she does.

By this same principle, they respect each other’s natures, Ginko accepting that Adashino is an outward-focused, obsessive collector of things, and Adashino accepting that Ginko will occasionally chastise him or sell him a bad coat.

On these multiple levels, their relationship is one of Daoist perspectivism. And in the same way that Ginko can guess what Io’s happiness might be, we can “know” from observing them that Ginko and Adashino value their relationship just as it is—with no need for any foundational “rightness” other than their own choices.

With all that said, there is another kind of rightness to their friendship. In their contrasts to each other, Ginko and Adashino fit together. This is even signaled visually: Adashino's light-reflecting monocle signifies the yang within his yin, just as the tokoyami in Ginko's opposite eye is the yin within his yang. Like Ginko and Tanyuu, Ginko and Adashino form a Taiji, interlinked and corresponding through their similarities and their differences alike.

#mushishi #ginko #adashino #the traveling swamp #wind raiser #lao tzu #zhuangzi #spoilers

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baeddel · 3 years

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books about hermeneutics? do you know of anything in particular to look out for?

no ;___; i mentioned it because it's how Møllgaard concludes his article on how to approach Zhuangzi and i had been leaning on it. he only mentions Gadamer (who seems to be the big man on campus in hermeneutics; see his debates with Derrida and Habermas), citing Gadamer in Conversation, a collection of informal transcriptions, and he cautions against proposing a "Gadamerian hermeneutics" (in his own scare quotes). there's a long article called Hermeneutics on the SEP (2020). im a bit too stoned to really do the legwork on this question.

Gadamer apparently formulated his formal hermeneutics in the context of reading Plato. the idea is that Plato is generally interpreted in this very formal way where you extract the arguments from the text and talk about them separately. Plato had a 'theory of forms' for example and you can talk about this for a long time without ever touching the text. but this is not how Plato wrote; he wrote fiction, where every claim was wrapped in quotations and followed by speech tags attributing it to a character who speaks from a certain position and in a certain context. i have read two articles that repeat this gesture, both reading the Crito as a work of literature in order to find it making a different point than is usually supposed, and these i had in mind when composing that answer. they are Ann Congleton's Two Kinds of Lawlessness (1974) and Frederick Rosen's Obligation and Friendship in Plato's Crito (1973) (read them in that order, despite the chronology; they're both very short). the basic idea is that classicists & philosophers discussing the Crito have generally focused on the long theorietical argument that Socrates makes at the end, and completely ignore the dramatic context its placed in; while, in the dialogue, Socrates delivers this speech in a pathetic, tragic context. Crito arrives at the jail with the tools to help him escape but Socrates refuses. while Crito begs him, weeping, knowing that he can save his dear friend if only he'll listen, Socrates delivers a long sermon about the importance of the law in society. in the end Crito can't convince him to come and Socrates is executed. when you remember all of this it becomes hard to support a purely theoretical analysis of the speech at the end as though it represents the unmediated legal philosophy of a man called Plato.

it's a bit harder to make this point with Federici because, of course, she is writing a work in the form of an academic history, but that's why I bring up Nietzsche and the Genealogy; i think those are quite similar. a lot of the same criticisms that we make of Federici are regularly made about Foucault's self-consciously Nietzschean genealogies. per Steven Lukes ambiguous comment: "Foucault beamed floods of light on these questions, in an excessively rhetorical style entirely free of methodological rigour, but in a way that has stimulated much thinking and research in a variety of fields."

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