Between Asgard and the Western Paradise...

Chinese Character Quiz 漢字小考

(petrusromanus) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 06:09:20 -0500

Below are ten less well-known Chinese characters. They all come from the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典). See how many you can identify by their pronounciation and meaning. The first one is easy to start you off with, and then they get harder. You can get one point for every correct pronounciation you write, and one point for every correct meaning.

Note: Anyone who attempts to translate the above is either brave or stupid. I'll let someone else decide which it is.

Writing the mantra "Om mani padme hum" in many languages

(petrusromanus) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:09:45 -0500

My previous entry was regarding the meaning of the mantra, "Om mani padme hum". Today, I'd like to post its representation in various scripts. In some schools of Buddhism, it is also useful to visualize the written form of the mantra even if one is reciting it from their mind. However, this also has a somewhat historical value, as it shows some artifacts of dynastic China, and some of the languages and scripts that used to be used in the past.

Tibetan, From a stone inscription in Western Qinghai province:

This particular one also contains the seed syllables (༄༅།), which is common to many Tibetan inscriptions and religious items.

Sanskrit, Tibetan, Uighur, Uighur, Xixia (Tangut), Mongol ('phags-pa), and Chinese, dating to the Yuan Dynasty. According to this site, it was erected in the 8th year of the Emperor Zhizheng in Xining, by the the Prince Sulaiman. Sulaiman is possibly a Sinicization of the name Arabic name Sulayman. Today this region is still quite ethnically diverse. Also note that this Tibetan inscription differs slightly from the previous one and contains no seed syllable.

Here is another piece with Tangut and Chinese side by side; the Tangut writing is a bit clearer. This is supposedly a drawing of the back of a bronze mirror used by Tangut kings. According to Li Fanwen's (李範文),

Tangut-Han dictionary, (夏漢字典), the reading of the characters is roughly "A Mja Nji Pja Mjij Xo". The reading for the Chinese characters is "ǎn má ní bā mí hōng". For those unfamiliar with Tangut and the Xixia, they were a Sino-Tibetan kingdom that existed in what is today Ningxia, Gansu, and Shaanxi. The rulers of the Xixia kingdom took the surname of Li (李) and began to use Chinese names and to absorb some of the Chinese culture, but retained their own language. When they wanted to learn more about Buddhism, they needed a language to write it with, and so the second Xixia king, Li Yuanhou, 李元昊 ordered his scholars to create a script that suited the Tangut language better than Chinese characters.

Next, we have another Sinoform script of the Jurchen (女真) language. The

Jurchen were the ancestors of the Manchurians, who later founded the Qing dynasty. Before they adopted the Manchu alphabet used characters similar in form to Chinese characters. They also established the Jin (金) dynasty, effectively replacing the Liao (遼) dynasty of the Khitan people. Because their country was near China, the upper class adapted Chinese ways of culture, government and rule. Starting with the first King, Abaoji (阿保機), Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were introduced to the Jin dynasty. Later kings of Liao began to favour Buddhism, so eventually, Buddhism became the main religion of the Jurchen people's lifestyle.

This inscription is a detail from a monument in the Vladivostok Museum. It was documented by Jin Guangping (金光平) and Jin Qicong (金啓孮), "Research on the Jurchen Language and Characters" (女真語言文字研究), published in Beijing by Beijing Wenwu Chubaneshe, 1980. The color and contrast have been added by me to make the inscription clearer. The reading of the Jurchen characters is uncertain. It is speculated that it would have been very similar, if not identical, to the Chinese phonetic reading of that time period. Since the image itself is not very clear, it is reproduced below in a more clear form.

Korean: Koreans have had a long history of interaction with China. The Korean pronounciation is based on the Koreanized readings of Chinese characters, or Hanja as they are called in Korea. In the Korean's own script, it is written as 옴마니반메훔, and it is pronounced as "Om Ma Ni Ban Mae Hum".

Vietnamese (quốc ngữ/Latinized script): Like Korea, for many centuries Vietnam used Chinese characters as the medium of writing, since Vietnam had been a defacto colony of China for nearly 1000 years. Later on, they developed a new system of writing, based on Chinese radicals known as Chữ Nôm (字喃),literally meaning "Southern Characters" in the Vietnamese language. When missionaries arrived from the West, they began to use Latin characters with many diactrics (accent marks) to indicate tones, but they still kept many words that originate from Chinese characters, and so in Vietnamese, the mantra is pronounced: Úm ma ni bát ni hồng.

Brahmi and Sanskritic scripts: Devangari is the modern script which is used for writing Sanskrit in scholarly texts. However, Sanskrit has been written in a variety of scripts, and many of the Brahmi-descended scripts can be used. Here is a sample of a few of them:

Devangari

Lantsa

Siddham

Tibetan (cursive form)

Last but not least, I will show it in the Arabic script. I do not know of any case when Arabic has actually been used to write the mantra "om mani padme hum", but it is certainly not physically impossible to do so. In fact, I concieved of this idea after hearing about the use of "Xiao'erjing," a form of Arabic used to notate Chinese. Even so, I believe the written form of Arabic calligraphy to be quite beautiful, even whimsical. Please note, though, that my knowledge of the Arabic script is limited, and as it is a transliteration, there are many ways to do it. This particular calligraphy is in the Persian style of "Nastal'iq". The words syllables "ma-ni" and "pad-me" are both contracted into a single word here (spelled in Arabic as mni and pdmi, respectively), resulting in four Arabic words.

Walking down the path: Musings of a wanderer

(petrusromanus) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:06:00 -0500

不管出家在家,生死路上的獨來獨往都是一樣,心中有法就可以了!

Even today, I sit around and wonder what happened to the four weeks in Taiwan. When I was there, some days in the boiling sun, in a classroom without air conditioning, seemed so long. Yet, when I come back, it seems as if I had never left. Sure, there are new buildings going up in Nashville, or new people moving into campus, but day by day the mundanity of the American lifestyle creeps up on me, the stench of modernity becoming like a python which never lets go, but chokes one to death.

In fact, last night I dreamt -- and it is not often that I dream -- that I was still in Taiwan among family, but also among friendly strangers whom I had never met. I dreamt of seeing the clouds streaming over mountaintops in Taidong, and flying through them as if I had wings. I saw peaceful nights in the shadow of a placid forest. My dream lead me to think, "Where is home?". Ever since I left Pittsburgh for family reasons, I feel as if I had been without a home to return to, forever cursed to wander such a path. And at that time, I applied myself to my studies. I indulged in good food and strong drink. Eventually, I concluded, but with no certainty -- that perhaps, when all else fails, home is eternally the land of our origins, the place where our blood was spilled, and the place where our forefathers lived and died.

But, for those of time as being an arrow following a path to a terminus, it is convenient to think of home as being merely a structure within a town in which we dwell; it is simple to think of the ultimate goal of life to make a profit and be successful. But for those who can see time in terms of the numerous cycles of kalpas, who can think of existance in terms of countless lifetimes this is not enough. Yet, as the generations for centuries or millenia may have come and gone, perhaps one day far in the future even the land shall die. It shall bear forth no more food, and become parched and dry as the desert. Thus, if one can learn only one thing, it should be that clinging and attachments can lead only to suffering. For us, we must also be able to know that just as generations rose and fell over the centuries and millenia, so too will the land change. And our fortunes? When we die, they pass from our hands to those of our children; and by then it is too late. It can be squandered within a year's time, or it can be kept for their children.

At last, I realized that even such a basic idea as 'home,' originates from the mind. If we can keep our emotions from boiling over, and if we keep our thoughts still, we have will have no problem finding that certain serenity that is common to living at home. Many languages have a distinction on this level. For example, in Chinese, if one refers to 'going home', he says hui jia (回家). The character jia contains the roof radical, implying protection but also the pig radical implying nourishment. It can mean the equivalent of the English word house, but in this sense does not strictly imply a structure as the word character fang (房) does. Jia also means family; whereas fang does not. Also, when a man goes out to become a monk and devote his life to the Buddhadharma, he is said to have left home (出家). Yet these people are not miserable. So by close examination, having a home is not merely owning a building and stocking it with certain goods; and one can be content with only still thoughts.

Then again, this is not always so easy. Becoming distracted is easy, when you see reflections of a former self in the rear-view mirror. You might see the eyes of a former romance in a perfume ad, or the smells of good food that you once loved from a restaurant, or a bawdy tune playing from someone's car radio. They're there, but don't stop, for you might find yourself wandering back to where you started out from. After all, there are places to be, and many more things to see along the way -- and it's not good to be late.

- 林德偉 2007/08/20

A Madman's Three Odes

(petrusromanus) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 00:59:08 -0500

I. Ode to a Victorious General
Holding ten mighty banners, each five fathoms long,
He walks with a courageous pace!
A sword in his right hand, reflects the sunlight,
And men are happy when he arrives,
Mounted on an iron-clad horse.
His mighty eye surveys the world --
To the west, a cluster of emeralds
Piercing high heaven;
Beyond it, weeds grow on ancient plinths
And the echoes of conquered Jie.

II. Ode for a Morning Offering
Pure morning stillness follows the solemn night;
The clouds part, and the sun shines bright.
To this sacred place,
I prostrate myself before the altar.
O, ye who have continued onwards,
We shall forever revere your righteousness!
Enmesh us and prevent our Fall to Sin!
Today, I have brought my offerings.
May Heaven accept them!

III. Ode to a Tree at Sitou Mountain
O, thou ancient witness,
To the passage of immortal time
Thy withered hands straining for the grey sky!
Tell me, I implore thee --
Which ancient hammer hath carved the mountains?

O, thou patient guardian,
Vigilant over the forests of the night,
Watchful without sleep for thousands of years
Tell me, I implore thee --
Which divine brush has painted they brothers?

第一個禮拜結束了

(petrusromanus) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:37:29 -0500

So the first week has finished. It's been quite an interesting experience. The students have strong accents. Some of them are lazy and need to be reminded of basic pronounciation, but others are more proficient than that.

We've been going out almost every night just to see the town. It's always a long drive from Luye, but it's worth it.

We went down to Taidong City last night for Karaoke. It was pretty fun, but I don't know that many songs. I sang some older songs I remember from when I was younger, like 「月亮代表我的心」, 「梅花」, and of course the overplayed song 「童話」, but that was only because everybody sings knows it. We got some food and beer while we were there, which was paid for by one of the director's friends. The downside was that we got back at 11pm, and had to start working rather late. We finished around 3 AM, so I was pretty tired.

I've made it a point to teach them moral principles in English every day. For example, I gave them a short phrase of Confucius to memorize every day, and whoever can recite it will recieve a prize.

First day of classes

(petrusromanus) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:52:50 -0500

I've arrived in Taidong for a few days, and have had quite an experience. The scenery is quite beautiful during the day. One can see the clouds coming over the mountains on a clear day. If you look closely, you can see them moving slowly across the mountaintops.

Last night we went to the night market, so we ended up getting back pretty late. We had to work on our lesson plan starting at 11, and finished around 4:30 AM, at which point I went to sleep a couch since I needed to get woken up at 6:30 to practice our skit.

I gave a speech at the opening ceremony. Completely impromptu. You can laugh at my poor Chinese, but it went something like this: 各位校長和學生們早。我今天很快樂能回到台灣幫助教英文。還要感謝洪先生這幾天歡迎我們到台東,讓我們感覺這裡的人的親切。我認為這是一個很好互相機會因為我們從海外來的不能講國語,還有台灣人沒有機會說英語．那，校長請求我們多說英文，讓學生習慣聽英語的發音，所以．．now I will speak English!

After the speeches, we had a performance, which included the popular tune 「童話」. I played the violin instead of singing. As many of the students there are also of Aboriginal descent, I played some folk music of Western ethnicities, as I thought it was quite appropriate for the situation.

They told us that the students wouldn't know too much English, so to start out with something basic. This was an error. We decided to teach them some elementary greetings, but this bored them, and we finished the lesson very quickly, and we have nothing to do. I decided to teach them some miscellaneous phrases, but they seemed to be reluctant to speak out.

These kids are actually quite intelligent, but rather lack motivation and confidence in speaking English, so the goal is rather to get them to feel comfortable with each other and with the instructors.

Greetings from Taipei, Taiwan!

(petrusromanus) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:53:28 -0500

I arrived at about 6 AM, July 12th local time here in Taiwan. As always, the weather is hot and muggy, and almost unbearably so.

We went to my uncle's (dad's brother) place for breakfast. I met my aunt (my dad's brother) there too, as well as my cousin and his wife, and my two nephews. It's odd to be called "uncle"...almost makes me feel older than I really am.

Later we went out to get some paperwork done for my dad. I went along, only because I wanted to get out and see something. On the way back, we had some braised beef noodle soup (紅燒牛肉麵) for lunch. For those that don't know, this is one of the famous dishes of Taipei. This was probably the best meal that I had in quite a while, so I really enjoyed it. For my American readers who might be familiar with the Vietnamese dish "pho", which also contains beef and noodles in a soup, these two are nothing alike. Pho is to Taiwanese beef noodle soup what Bud Light is to Guinness.

For Taiwanese beef noodle soup, stew meat and bones are cooked in a pressure cooker for many hours to draw out all flavour, and is heartily flavoured with, most notably, star anise, dried chilli, soy sauce, and ginger. This is cooked further, resulting in a savoury broth. At the end of several hours of cooking, all the bones are removed from the pot, and the meat is cut up into small sections. Other cuts of meat and vegetables might be added, too. The dish is finished by adding chilli oil, pickled mustard greens, and scallions.

After lunch, we went to Longshan temple in Wanhua, which was built in the 1700's. It's pretty much a typical Chinese temple, representing a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism.

一些笨美國人

(petrusromanus) — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:57:46 -0500

The Infantryman's Lament

(petrusromanus) — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:15:53 -0500

Following the Auspicious Cloud by day,
The heavenly flame by night,
Then hearing the rumble of foreign chariots,
I draw my sword.

“Ten thousand leagues,
ten thousand leagues of lonliness!”
Thus the cry voices in the wilderness.
In the west, there is a desert,
In the north, mountains,
To the East, a blood-red sea.
To the south, forests.
Heaven above and Hell below.

Now light and dark clash beyond the horizon –

Around me,
Sounds
Of clashing of flesh and weapon,
Bone and sinew
Envelop my existence.

Even as I march on, comrades beside me,
Proud though I am, I yearn to escape
From this world or any other.
Yet I know that one cannot escape
From oneself.