(identity 'myron)

Tue, 03 May 2005

Loot A Burning House [/books]

Stumbled on Wengu, a really interesting site with some Chinese classics online along with their translations in English and in French. Among them is the Three Character Classic, a book whose three character couplets are like "strands of cultural DNA which are passed on from generation to generation". I believe it's fallen into disuse in the modern day, but it provides an interesting window into what imperial China thought all learned people should know. It first outlines the importance of learning and then the Confucian ethic of hard work, it then goes on to list the areas of learning that every child should seek to master from numbers to the classics to dynastic history. The latter has a passage that faintly resembles the begot sequence of Genesis:

The Hsia dynasty has Yu
and the Shang dynasty has T'ang.
The Chou dynasty had Wen and Wu;
these are called the Three Kings.
Under the Hsia dynasty the throne was transmitted from father to son,
making a family possession of the empire.
After four hundred years,
the imperial sacrifice passed from the house of Hsia.

I found the reasons behind studying dynastic history especially poetic, though the French translation sounds better to me than the English version:

The Seventeen Dynastic Histories,
are all embraced in the above.
They contain examples of good and bad government,
whence may be learnt the principles of prosperity and decay.
Ye who read history
must study the Annals,
whereby you will understand ancient and modern events,
as though having seen them with your own eyes.

Les dix-sept Histoires Dynastiques sont toutes dans ce qui précède.
Elles renferment des exemples
de bon et de mauvais gouvernement.
On en tirera les causes de l'ascension et du déclin (des dynasties).
Celui qui étudie les Histoires Dynastiques
et qui compulse les documents authentiques
comprendra le passé et le présent
comme s'il en avait été le témoin.

Even more interesting than this book is the one titled, Thirty-six Strategies. Unlike the more famous Art of War, this book is a collection of proverbs more suited to being applied in the fields of "politics, diplomacy, and espionage". Some of these scream Asian to me, but they obviously have their forms in other cultures too.

Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea

Moving about in the darkness and shadows, occupying isolated places, or hiding behind screens will only attract suspicious attention. To lower an enemy's guard you must act in the open hiding your true intentions under the guise of common every day activities.

Loot a Burning House

When a country is beset by internal conflicts, when disease and famine ravage the population, when corruption and crime are rampant, then it will be unable to deal with an outside threat. This is the time to attack.

I've read more than a few that I've seen almost used implicitly by myself and other Chinese people I know, despite the fact that none of us have ever learned them formally from a source like this.... Interesting stuff.

// posted at 10:10. permalink   comments