#Zhuangzi莊子

[daixin]

My name 黛 in #Xiaoyaoyou of #ZhuangZi #莊子 #逍遙遊 #莊子逍遙遊 given by my grandfather Royal Mr. Quan WEICHAO late, my father and son of my grandfather: Peng 鹏 @xue6903 is born in Guangzhou USA, 1950 November. God watches ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 💫🌟💫 (at Stanford University) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClFwLDGLYYI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[adragonsfriend]

Yoda and the Story of Zhuangzi's wife

We've all heard Yoda's words about letting go in Revenge of the Sith,

"Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side…Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them, do not. Miss them, do not. Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is."

It's one of the phrases most often used to call Yoda unfeeling, cold, mean to Anakin, etcetera, and I would like to look at the same lesson presented in nearly the same circumstance, but one with does not have Anakin, and therefore everyone's feelings about Anakin, plastered all over it.

The story of Zhuangzi's wife is a taoist one which was brought up to me as a point of comparison by @tai-feng:

莊子妻死，惠子弔之，莊子則方箕踞鼓盆而歌。惠子曰：與人居長子，老身死，不哭亦足矣，又鼓盆而歌，不亦甚乎。 Zhuangzi's wife died. When Huizi (his friend) went to convey his condolences, he found Zhuangzi sitting with his legs sprawled out, pounding on a tub and singing. "You lived with her, she brought up your children and grew old," said Huizi. "It should be enough simply not to weep at her death. But pounding on a tub and singing—this is going too far, isn't it?" 莊子曰：不然。是其始死也，我獨何能無概然。察其始而本無生，非徒無生也，而本無形，非徒無形也，而本無氣。雜乎芒芴之間，變而有氣，氣變而有形，形變而有生，今又變而之死，是相與為春秋冬夏四時行也。 Zhuangzi said, "You're wrong. When she first died, do you think I didn't grieve like anyone else? But I looked back to her beginning and the time before she was born. Not only the time before she was born, but the time before she had a body. Not only the time before she had a body, but the time before she had a spirit. In the midst of the jumble of wonder and mystery a change took place and she had a spirit. Another change and she had a body. Another change and she was born. Now there's been another change and she's dead. It's just like the progression of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, winter." 人且偃然寢於巨室，而我噭噭然隨而哭之，自以為不通乎命，故止也。 "Now she's going to lie down peacefully in a vast room. If I were to follow after her bawling and sobbing, it would show that I don't understand anything about fate. So I stopped."

— Zhuangzi, chapter 18 (Watson translation)

Zhuangzi is perhaps gentler than Yoda in the way he presents the lesson; he leads Huizi through his own thought process to his ultimate conclusion rather than stating a pure philosophical ideal, but his circumstances are also different than Yoda's.

Huizi serves as a stand in for a student listening to the story for the first time. He is totally naive to the lesson Zhuangzi has to teach him.

Anakin comes to Yoda as an adult, seeking advice, not as a child whose every decision should have to be monitored by the adults around him. When Anakin is unwilling to share the details of his situation, it is not Yoda's place to interrogate him for those details or solve his problems for him.

Personally, (no one rip me apart for oversimplifying a little here) I do not interrogate my friends for every detail anytime they say they are having a rough time, no matter how curious I might be. I listen to the details they want to share, ask for clarifying details if they are relevant, and if I am told enough to recognize a way I could help, I offer them that help. If they refuse my help, or do not offer me a way to help, I offer what advice or what comfort I can. I do not barge into their life and start making decisions for them, because they are adults with reasonable understandings of the world and are more capable of making decisions for themselves than I am, no matter how much I want to be able to make all their problems go away.

To put it another way, I let go of my curiosity, my desire to prove myself helpful, and my desire for a perfect world in order to respect the autonomy of my friends by allowing them to decide how to live and what help to accept.

Anakin gives Yoda nothing to work with except that he is having visions of the possible pain, suffering, or death of someone close to him. They are in the middle of a war, there is pain, suffering, and death everywhere. The person closest to Anakin that Yoda knows about is Obi-Wan, another adult that can take care of himself. Frankly, even if Yoda suspected anything, Padmé is an adult who can take care of herself.

Anakin is an adult who comes to Yoda for advice, not a child seeking an intervention, and Yoda offers him the best advice he has, in a manner that Anakin clearly understands, because he responds to the speech by asking,

"What must I do, Master Yoda?"

He understands what Yoda is saying and asks more about what it means for him. This is the moment where he implies, truthfully or not, that he is ready to learn the lesson, and that he can deal with the problem on his own. There is nothing else Yoda can to without more concrete details but offer him a final instruction,

"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose."

Sometimes the idea that George Lucas had religious inspirations outside of Christianity when it came to the central themes of Star Wars is greatly distrusted in the fandom, but a lot of Star Wars actually validates the fact that he was interested in a lot more than borrowing Samurai aesthetics. It is more common, in my experience, to see the eastern influenced parts of Jedi philosophy denigrated, misunderstood, and over-simplified than the parts which are influenced by christianity.

To me it is difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile concepts of unconditional love and absolute forgiveness without also understanding what it means to let go of attachment.

[jstor]

Mind if I throw you a curve ball? I’m looking for Chinese writers/poets who were influential on Premodern Japanese literature besides Bai Juyi (aka Bo Juyi, Po Chü-i, Bai Letian, Po Letien, Haku Rakuten, etc.). Tang dynasty poets are pretty awesome but I need to branch out.

Here are a few that we came up with:

Zhuangzi (莊子, Sōshi): Zhuangzi, a Daoist philosopher and writer, influenced Japanese literature through the spread of Daoist and Zen Buddhist thought. His ideas about spontaneity and the unity of all things had an impact on Japanese poets and philosophers.

Tao Yuanming (陶淵明, Tōenmei): Tao Yuanming, a poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was known for his pastoral poetry and themes of rural life. His influence can be seen in Japanese literature, particularly in works that celebrated the beauty of the countryside.

Su Dongpo (蘇東坡, So Tōhaku): Su Dongpo, also known as Su Shi, was a versatile Song Dynasty writer who excelled in poetry, prose, and calligraphy. His philosophical and literary works had an impact on Japanese literature, especially in the fields of poetry and essay writing.

Hopefully this helps!

[cyrrenereads]

Shan You Mu Xi (山有木兮) Translation Project Page (Volumes 5-7)

->Back to Volumes 1-4 Volume 5: Liezi Rides the Wind (列子御风【1】)

— Steep cliffs eroded into valleys, while the deep valleys became hillocks. The world had undergone a number of changes, and mulberry fields replaced where vast seas once lay.

110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119

Footnotes:

【1】 The name of another guqin song, about the sagely philosopher Liezi who mastered the ability to drift with the wind after many years that it was uncertain whether he was riding the wind or the wind was riding him. The phrase originated from 《Zhuangzi - 莊子》, which briefly tells of Liezi riding the wind.

[rainydayscore]

how do you do that

for reading the dao de jing i use these two translations, it's handy to have multiple translations on hand and to compare them because it makes you aware of some nuances and sometimes you just might struggle parsing some lines

I have the Zhuangzhi here

And as a special treat here's the copy I use of the Su Nu Jing so you know how to have sex correctly. I don't really remember where I got it from.

[shaguagua]

是你的太師父的莫逆之交

He is your grand master's old friend.

莫逆 is used for very close friends, it has many variation to use, 莫逆之友，莫逆之心，莫逆之間，etc. It describes deep friendship. That they don't care if their word would offend another, anyway they would say anything in their heart.

This phrase came from 莊子 內篇 第6篇, 大宗師 (Zhuangzi Inner-chapter 6, dà zōng shī; the greatest teacher). Where 孔子(Confucius)'s 4 disciples, 子祀(zǐ sì), 子輿(zǐ yú), 子犁(zǐ lí), 子來(zǐ lái), discussed about philosophical riddles.

孰能以無爲首 以生爲脊 以死爲尻

Who dare to define, naught as the head, life as the spine, death as the tail?

孰知死生存亡之一體者 吾與之友矣

Who knows the life and the death; the same, the rise and the fall; the same.

四人相視而笑 莫逆於心 遂相與爲友

Four people had lookd at each other smiling then became friends.

Here 莫逆 the literal meaning is that without clogging. It's just so difficult to explain in english as they don't use much of indeterminate forms for emphasis. It's chinese literary characteristics that there are often multiple negative praises. Sometime the meaning gets complicated that it causes many different interpretations.

Well 莊子 itself is famous being metaphorical that no one would know what it actually means and what was the intention of the author. There are many words which are still used in general life, 莫逆 is one of them. 莊子 contains legends and fairytales of the old china, the book is not that difficult to read but the meaning cab be very philosophical. Poeple say 莊子(Zhuang zi) was a disciple of 孔子(Confucius), I have my timid suspicion about that.

Anyway, 容雀(Long que) was a very close friend of 秦懷章(Qín huái zhāng). Well I wouldn't know their actual story but it seems how Long que has met his wife through Qin huaizhang. 太師父 to grand master is just so hilarious suddenly all nuance became star wars. 🥲

I'm guessing that Zhou zishu being a noble, He must had read 十三經 or at least 四書; 論語 孟子 大學 中庸. Then why is he keep quoting from other than those? Did he like to read? Or is that the influence from Qin huaizhang? ༼༎ຶ෴༎ຶ༽ Is it only me? Zhou zishu clothes look like Max Mara.

[fagsex]

philosophers trick you in ways you dont expect. i first learned his name was tchouang-tseu or tchouang tcheou or zhuāng zhōu or maître zhuang because i learned in french and then i realized i had to know in english too so its all of those or zhuang zhou or chuang tzu or master zhuang or zhuangzi and i dont even know which is the most correct translation of his name because i know i cant romanize 莊子 myself and people argue without end what the most accurate version is and of course hes a old school old school philosopher. so he might not EVEN BE REAL. i dont know the books called the zhuangzi after himself and most people stick with that so i guess i should. sound off your favorite romanization of his name i never know what to write in essays nor in textbooks

[inextricableaccess]

惠子相梁，莊子往見之。或謂惠子曰：「莊子來，欲代子相。」於是惠子恐，搜於國中三日三夜。莊子往見之，曰：「南方有鳥，其名為鵷鶵，子知之乎？夫鵷鶵發於南海而飛於北海，非梧桐不止，非練實不食，非醴泉不飲。於是鴟得腐鼠，鵷鶵過之，仰而視之曰：『嚇！』今子欲以子之梁國而嚇我邪？」

Huizi was a minister in Liang. Zhuang Zi went to see him. Some one had told Huizi that Zhuangzi was come with a wish to supersede him in his office. Huizi became afraid, and instituted a search for the Zhuangzi thoughout the state for three days and three nights. Zhuangzi went to see him and said, “There is a fabulous bird in the south of China called a yuanchu. Do you know it?” Starting from the South China Sea the yuanchu flies to the Bohai Sea. Now, if it does not find Chinese parasol it will not rest. It will only eat bamboo seeds [Cheng Xuanying says that lianshi are bamboo seeds. Wu Tingxu says that lian is a loan character for practice.] and only drink from the purest springs. Once an owl caught a rotten rat. When the yuanchu went passing overhead the owl looked up to it and gave an angry scream. Today, do you also wish to use the kingdom of Liang to frighten me with a scream? Yao Nai says that this language shows the vulgar nature of Zhuang Zi's disciples.

[ravelite]

The parallel world of secret societies, foreign cults, bickering merchants and righteous martial clans came to be known as jianghu, literally “rivers and lakes”. As a metaphor, it was first coined by taoist philosopher, Zhuangzi 莊子, to describe a utopian space outside of cutthroat court politics, career ambitions and even human attachments. This inspires subsequent generations of literati in their pursuits of aesthetic hermitism, but the jianghu we know today comes also from the waterways that form the key trade routes during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). To the growing mercantile classes, jianghu referred to the actual rivers and canals traversed by barges heavy with goods and tribute, a byname for the prosperous Yangtze delta.

The History and Politics of Wuxia | Tor.com

[hong-kong-art-man]

Rise Or Fall? The Complete Understanding Of Metaverse From The Philosophical, Cultural, Scientific And Social Perspectives             

There are many recent popular films on ‘Metaverse’: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Free Guy.

Technology company WayRay promotes its new kind of 'human world' as this: humankind has long been fascinated with a different reality—a different plane of existence, a different identity and a new perspective. To interact with a different reality might have been a dream decades ago, but now it is as real as the phone you are holding today. The technology is now mature enough, and we can all reach into the ‘Metaverse’.

What exactly is a ‘Metaverse’? It was said, “The meta-verse ('Meta’ + ‘Universe') is a virtual ‘reality space’ on the internet where a user can create a ‘human identity’ to live, interact and play, as well as experience things that he could always do in the real world."  Metaverse will be another globe running parallel to and circumventing the existing world. The term came from a science fiction Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson in 1992 and the story depicted a virtual world on the internet that has buildings, roads, parks and shopping malls in which we could enjoy ‘a collateral life’.

It was pointed out Metaverse has 8 characteristics: (1) living under a virtual identity (2) getting along with new virtual ‘co-beings’ (3) instant and spontaneous movements by you commanding your extended identity in the virtual environment (4) an ‘as-if-real’ immersive experience in the virtual world (5) doing the great things which are humanly impossible for you to try in real life such as flying and roles transforming (6) the self-functioning economy of Metaverse by which you can become rich (7) vast supply of fascinating games and contents; and (8) co-building a ‘post-modern human civilization’.

Metaverse was made possible by scientific achievements. The advent of new technologies like 5G or 6G mobile network, Web 3.0, AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (Mixed Reality) solved many technical problems. The necessary equipment to operate Metaverse is expensive and includes special headset, personal computer, mobile phone, web, projection and kiosk. The ‘money’ transactions there involve innovative softwares like De-Fi (Decentralized Finance), IPFS (Inter-planetary File System) and NFT (Non-fungible Token). Mark Zuckerberg announced that ‘Meta’ (formerly known as Facebook) would soon file patent applications for a number of useful devices such as a pair of ultra-sensitive gloves to make 'Meta' bodily experience almost real. Can you afford all these?

Perhaps I am old, if not senile. The real world is already burdensome enough on a daily basis. My sure horror will come from the additional labour and toil associated with consuming a few hours per day on living in another artificial Metaverse. I get enough, if not more than enough, friends. Why should I meet more virtual people in the disguise of different identities and a lot of them may be crooks? I, nevertheless, envy the energetic ones who can handle two lives and two worlds.

I ask around to find out my friends’ interest on Metaverse. A said, “Communication technology simply makes people unnecessarily busy!” B said, “It’s cool! I want to be a powerful KOL or KOC in such a brave new world.” C said, “If I can make lots of money there, why not? I’m planning to buy some lands there.” D said, “I will be horrified when my 22-year-old girlfriend in Metaverse turns out to be an 80-years-old man!” E said, “Would it be lawful or immoral to attend a drug party in Metaverse?” F said, “How exciting it will be since I can hold a big concert there in the face of Michael Jackson?” G said, “I will transform myself into the most gorgeous girl there and attract loads of boyfriends!” H said, “I am afraid of sexual harassment. An English female beta tester was once groped by a stranger on Horizon Worlds!”

There is a famous philosophical story (莊周蝶夢)(Zhuang Zhou & Butterfly)of our ancient scholar Zhuangzi(莊子)(about 369 to 286 B.C.) that every Chinese knows. Zhuang dreamed that he was a butterfly.  He suddenly woke up and found he was still himself, solid and human. He was puzzled and left us with his great theory of Taoism. “Am I really a man that dreamed of being a butterfly or whether I am a butterfly dreaming as a man?” This great Chinese thinker tried to challenge what we took as real might be unreal and what was unreal might be real. Perhaps he was the first one who inspired us on virtual reality thousand years ago. The French philosopher R Descartes (1596-1650) said, “No certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep.” The development of Metaverse as the popular ‘second reality’ will lead more people to pursue a hot debate: can young people in the 23rd century choose to live in a virtual world of butterflies and refuse to live in a human world?

The other amazing Chinese ancient fairy tale protagonist is ‘The Monkey King’. It is based on the ancient story Journey to the West(西遊記) about a famous monk Xuanzang (玄奘) (602-664) who travelled on foot from China to India for the authentic Buddhist scriptures, escorted by Monkey King(孫悟空). This monkey was clever and rebellious. He acquired an immortal life and could transform him into seventy-two different identities in different situations at the same time. Riding clouds in the sky as a vehicle (Monkey King today will probably use Internet as his vehicle), he was able to travel 108,000 miles by a single somersault to meet friends. Would the Metaverse users dream of being a butterfly or Monkey King which were all old prophecies of ‘virtual reality’.

Many predict that your digital existence will become more important than your physical life. In the Metaverse, your life is fascinating with all that you can enjoy. But on earth, you may be lonely and miserable. Virtual life may be joyful. A real life can be sad. Nevertheless, the more humans lose themselves in a non-existent world, the more Artificial Intelligence technology will control us in future. I do not want to live in the virtual world because it will not give me a nice haircut! Do you? Happiness boils down to simplicity.

MLee

Chinese Version 中文版: https://www.patreon.com/posts/shi-kai-shi-huan-67507595?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare

Movie “Everything Everywhere All at  Once” Trailer HK  https://youtu.be/E7qroZ-IulA  Acknowledgement  – A Really Happy Film

Movie “Free Guy” Trailer  https://youtu.be/_vBOPZBPOjo  Acknowledgement-20th  Century Studios HK

What is Metaverse  https://youtu.be/ZhD0FtWSiRo  Acknowledgement-BBC  News

Metaverse  development in Korea  https://youtu.be/ov_SCy-cKJc  Acknowledgement-BBC News

Metaverse  – Virtual Teresa Teng  https://youtu.be/rN2PNMGtn2Q  Acknowledgement-TBV  News

Spent 100 days in Metaverse  https://youtu.be/mufeRQYgqZc  Acknowledgement-Ryan  Trahan

Metaverse Song  《元宇宙》歌   https://youtu.be/qwWL58XcIYA  Acknowledgement-Leslie Tsang

[aigoowhatafiasco]

Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann

[chinneths]

The man on the mountain that has escaped abstractions lives on 8 grains of rice a day. 發. His mind is the sun. The light is all things.

Einstein in his office followed halfway halving his abstractions to pictured situations of thinking. Drop your words. . . Old Albert learned how the sun and its photon children worked. Zhuangzi is the sun, and everything, photon children.

[steelandcotton]

以瓦注者巧，以鉤注者憚， 以黃金注者殙。其巧一也， 而有所矜，則重外也。凡外重者內拙。

Yǐ wǎ zhù zhě qiǎo, yǐ gōu zhù zhě dàn, yǐ huángjīn zhù zhě hūn. Qí qiǎo yī yě, ér yǒu suǒ jīn, zézhòng wài yě. Fán wài zhòng zhě nèi zhuō.

Betting for clay roof tiles, one is shoots skillfully. Betting for a belt buckle, one dreads the outcome. Betting for gold, it feels like dying from drinking poison. One’s skill is the same in each, but each is valued differently, the outside is heavy. When the outer has greater weight the inner becomes clumsy.  

From Zhuangzi’s Fully Understanding Life (莊子達生 ).

Trans. - Scott M. Rodell

(The image is of Lü Bu, 呂布, saving his friend with a shot that hit a halberd at a great distance. For the complete story please see: http://kongming.net/novel/events/lubu-saves-liubei-with-a-feat-of-marksmanship.php)

[ganymedesailor]

[promiscuous-jalapeno]

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha are half-demon girls with blood from both youkai and humans.

Towa and Setsuna are twin girls who became separated when caught in a forest fire when they were young. Towa passes through the tunnel that crosses time and space, traveling from the feudal period to the present era. Raised by the Higurashi family, she grew up to be a Junior High School girl who excels at martial arts. Meanwhile, her sister, Setsuna, who was left in the warring states period, was raised under Kohaku who has become head of the Demon Slayers. Moroha is the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome. As a bounty hunter, she has taken on the nickname “Monster Slayer Moroha” and is devoted to exterminating demons.

It’s been 10 years since they were split up. The historical trees tunnel that connects time and space has been reopened, and Towa is reunited with Setsuna in the present day era. However, Setsuna does not remember Towa for some reason. Together, Setsuna, Towa, and Moroha join to regain their past in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Higurashi Towa, 14

A 14 year old female Junior High School student living in the modern era. 10 years ago, she slipped through the tunnel from the feudal era to the Reiwa era. She was helped by Kagome’s brother, Sota, and raised as a daughter. Excelling at martial arts, she often finds herself entangled in fights with delinquents, and has had to transfer schools several times. Now she has transferred to St. Gabriels, an all girls school. In the present, she meets Setsuna and Moroha. To get back the memories of Setsuna, they must return to warring states period. She finds men’s clothing is easier to fight in. Actually, she is the daughter of Sesshomaru who remains in the feudal era.

Setsuna, 14 

14 years old, she makes a living slaying demons as part of the Demon Slayers led by Kohaku. When she was 4 years old, she was separated from her twin sister. 10 years later, along with Moroha, she slips into the present era and is reunited with Towa. However, she has no memory of her childhood because she was robbed of her reality in dreams [t/n: they say here 夢の胡蝶に眠り and I believe it is a reference to 莊子 Zhūangzi, a Chinese philosopher and his butterfly dream. “Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.”] She doesn’t believe Towa is her sister. When she regains sleep, she returns to the feudal era...She inherited Sesshomaru’s calm disposition. 

Moroha, 14 

14 year old bounty hunter. The necks, fangs, and bodies of her demon prey are all sold to a trading company for a bounty. Sword she wields--kurikaramaru. Nickname ‘Monster Slayer Moroha’ (t/n: might also be just demon slayer moroha). When she puts on the crimson lipstick she keeps in a pearl shell, she transforms into the crimson half-demon of destruction. Personality is bright and cheerful. She is the most accustomed to the ways of the world and how to survive, compared to Setsuna and Towa. Actually, she is the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, but she’s lived alone since she was little, she hardly knows of her parents. 

[revolutionoftenderness]

“If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.” ~ Chuang Tzu [Water Lilies, 1917 - 1919 - Claude Monet] 

• Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu 莊子 “Master Zhuang” late 4th century BC) is the pivotal figure in Classical Philosophical Daoism. The Zhuangzi is a compilation of his and others’ writings at the pinnacle of the philosophically subtle Classical period in China (5th–3rd century BC). The period was marked by humanist and naturalist reflections on normativity shaped by the metaphor of a dào—a social or a natural path. More: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zhuangzi/ 

• “One instant, one aspect of nature contains it all,” said Claude Monet, referring to his late masterpieces, the water landscapes that he produced at his home in Giverny between 1897 and his death in 1926. More: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/16568/water-lilies