Training Everyday
For a true gentleman [junzi], learning is a matter of working on oneself. When slander and praise, glory and disgrace come, not only is his mind unmoved by such things, but he uses them as…
Category: China
Scribbled after Reading Weinberger’s “New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry”
Take the vows Follow the precepts Study the sutras Honor my teachers Keep quiet Be relentless –from novel-in-=progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris
Sunday Afternoon
Sitting outside at Stella and Bella’s Cafe The Presidential debate two hours away Reading Su Tung-P’o’s bamboo poem Will Clinton deliver the knock-out blow? On my ballot, I’ll write in: Chuang Tzu –from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic…
Summer Reading, 2009
I recently found this in an old file… CHINA Annping Chin, The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics David Hinton, Selected Poems of Wang Wei D.C. Lau, trans. Mencius Andrew Plaks, trans.,…
Weiwei-isms
Later I became very involved in writing. I really enjoyed that moment of writing. People would pass around my sentences. That was a feeling I never had before. It was like a bullet out of…
Mao’s Revolution
Yet a Maoist doctrine that played so vital role during the revolutionary years, bringing about a historically necessary revolution in the social state of China, paradoxically had disastrous human and political consequences when it was…
For K. L.
After his own New York show in 1988, his work dried up. He moved many times and every time he moved he dumped what little work he had produced. But he didn’t stop thinking of…
An Hour for Ai Weiwei
After meeting with Marty, J’Ann, and Suzanne, I offered to propose something for a gathering of old and new friends Thursday 1 October at Hartford Coffee on Hartford from 4:30-5:30. I want us to discuss…
It’s Michelle Yeoh’s Face
A skeptical friend asked why I like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon so much… so the following, off the top of my head, even though I recognize de gustibus non est disputandum… Why is it the best (for…
Reading Du Fu
Some friends and I are reading Du Fu in David Young’s translation. Here’s what Ye Xie (1627-1703) had to say about him– “Take any one of Du Fu’s poems, or even one line, and everywhere…