Category: Chinese Classics

The Lantingkao 兰亭考 "Analysis of the essay of the Orchid Pavilion" is a critical study to Wang Xizhi's 王羲之 famous calligraphy Lantingxu 兰亭序 from the Jin period 晋 (265-420). The 12 juan "scrolls" long book was compiled by the Song period 宋 (960-1279) scholar Sang Shichang 桑世昌. The original title of the book was Lanting boyi 兰亭博议 and had a length of 15 juan, but the title was later changed by the publisher Gao Sisun 高似孙, who also abbreviated the study. The calligraphy of the short essayLantingxu that was compiled in 353 CE had for centuries served as a model calligraphy of the running script (xingshu 行书). The calligraphy is 324 characters long and written in 28 columns, and the text describes the opportunity in which a meeting of poets and scholars met at a banquet. The Lantingkao investigates the history of the the calligraphy, its preservation by Wang Xizhi's descendant Wang Zhiyong 王智永 and later by Emperor Taizong 唐太宗 (r. 626-649) of the Tang dynasty 唐 (618-907) who ordered Zhao Mo 赵模 to produce copies of the calligraphy that were to serve as models for practicing calligraphy. The original has vanished, but Zhao Mo's copies helped preserving the style of Wang Xizhi. According to another tale, the calligraphy had been cut into a mountain cliff, where the early Song scholar Li Xuejiu 李学究 detected it and preserved the copy. His son sold this copy to the famous historian Song Qi 宋祁, Marshal Dingwu 定武帅. Song Qi cut it into stone as the so-called Dingwu version 定武本. Sang Shichang also tried to find out the age of Wang Xizhi in the year 9 of the Yonghe reign (Yonghe jiu nian 永和九年, the first words of the calligraphy), when the text was compiled. Wang must have been 51 years old and not, as other scholars say, 33. The Lantingkao had disappeared for some time after Sang Shichang entered a monastery.

李白是一位唐代大诗人,他的一生可以说是始终与酒相伴。他自己在《襄阳歌》中说："百年三万六千日，一日须饮三百杯。"这虽是夸张之词，但也看出"诗仙"的酒量，一天喝半斤八两，恐怕不在话下。Li Bai is a great poet in the Tang Dynasty。 He spent his whole life with liquor. In his poem Song of Xiangyang, he said, "During the 36,000 days in 100 years, I must drink 300 cups of liquor every day." This is a kind of exaggeration, but we can also see that he was a heavy drinker. It must be a piece of cake for him to drink 50 gram of liquor a day.

The "Thunderstorm" by Cao Yu 曹禺, published in 1936, describes a family tragedy the at the beginning of 20th century. Coal mine director Zhou Puyuan 周朴园 once had two children with a servant maid named Shiping 侍萍. For social reasons, he later married a girl of a family named Kuo, and Shiping was forced to leave his household. Trying to drown herself with her son Dahai 大海 , she was rescued and married a man named Lu Gui 鲁贵 with whom she had a daughter, Sifeng 四凤 . Lu Gui kidnaps Sifeng and bring her to the household of Zhou Puyan where she had to serve as a maid. Sifeng is in good relationships with Zhou's son Zhou Ping 周萍 , but his mother, Fanyi 阔蘩漪 , does not agree with the good relationship of the two young people. Looking for their daughter and sister, Shipin and Lu Dahai come to the household of Zhou Puyan where Shipin, for the first time since 30 years, meets Zhou Puyan. Sifeng, learning that her lover Zhou Ping, is her half-brother, kills herself by touching an electricity wire. While Zhou Ping chooses suicide, his mother Siping and his step-mother, Fanyi, fall in insanity. 

"Autumn in the Han Palace" by Ma Zhiyuan 马致远 (1250-1321), also called Po youmeng guyan Hangong qiu 破幽梦孤雁汉宫秋 "Apparition of a lonely goose in a dark dream in the autumnal Han Palace". Emperor Yuandi 汉元帝 of the Han Dynasty sends out the painter Mao Yanshou 毛延寿 to collect China's most beautiful girls for the emperor's palace. In a small town, Mao finds Wang Zhaojun 王昭君 , beautiful and perfect, but her family is too poor to fulfill Ma's covetous wishes. He does not allow her and her picture to be seen by the emperor. Sitting in an adjoining palace, the emperor hears her one night playing the lute, and falls in love with her. Angry about Ma Yanshou, the emperor wants him being beheaded, but Ma flees to the Xiongnu nomads (a usual gateway for political refugees in China), taking Wang Zhaojun with him and marrying her to the Xiongnu chief. Not being allowed to go back home, Wang Zhaojun drowns herself. Regretting her death, the Xiongnu chief arrests Mao Yanshou and sends him as a host to the Han emperor. Emperor Yuandi himself, seeing the picture of beautiful Wang Zhaojun, repents the loss of her, but in a dream, she appears to him as a lonely autumn goose. 

The Haiguo tuzhi 海国图志 "Atlas and description of the countries beyond the seas" is a world geography written by the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911) historian and philosopher Wei Yuan 魏源. Under the impression of China's defeat during the First Opium War Wei Yuan compiled a military history of the Qing dynasty, the Shengwuji 圣武记, and the 100 juan"scrolls" long Haiguo tuzhi. The compilation of a world geography was suggested to him by governor Lin Zexu 林则徐 who had translated Hugh Murray's (1779-1846) Encyclopaedia of Geography, Comprising a Complete Description of the Earth under the title of Sizhouzhi 四洲志 "The Four Continents". The need to deal with a new danger of "barbarians" attacking China necessitated a deeper knowledge of their states, their customs and habits and their history. China was to learn from the advanced technology of the barbarians in order to check them. Foreign naval, military and industrial technology was to be adopted by China. China's armies had furthermore to be modernized, with a clear cut in quantity in favour to a better training and professionalization.

Ernü yingxiong zhuan 儿女英雄传 "The Story of a Hero Boy and Hero Girls", this novel not very known outside of China was written by a person called Yanbei Xianren 燕北闲人 or Wen Kang 文康 and published in 1878. Stories of heroes and fighters are very popular in China still today and of course have been in old China, spread around by storytellers that wandered from town to town. This novel is compounded of many small stories that spin around the couple He Yufeng 何玉凤 and An Ji 安骥. When He Yufeng's father died from sorcery, she went to the woods to divide herself into 13 fighting girls. They help An Ji to free his father from jail and play as a matchmaker for him. Loyalty, piety, righteousness, love and heroism make out this novel that ends in a thorough familiar luck. It is a wishful freeing of social darkness in a time where arbitrary officers blame innocent people. With its rich language, this novel is very widespread and has many sequels.

The Dizigui 弟子规 "Rules for young boys" is a textbook of elementary learning written by the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) writer Li Yuxiu 李毓秀. The original title was Xunmengwen 训蒙文 "Elementary text on compliancy". It was compiled according to the essay Tongmeng xu zhi 童蒙须知 "What small kids have to know" by the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi 朱熹. In four chapters, Li explains the comportment of a Confucian scholar: Filial piety at home, brotherly obeisance outside, reverential and trustful, broad-minded and kindhearted to all people. "The rest of his physical and mental forces are dedicated to learning." (Xing you yu li, ze yi xue wen. 行有余力，则以学文). After revision, the book was renamed Dizigui. It is 360 sentences long, with 1080 characters. The text is written in three-word verses and thus easily to memorize.

The Daxue 大学 "Great Learning" is a Confucian Classic. It is part of the canon of the Sishu 四书 "Four Books", to which it was added as integral Confucian writing on the order and harmony of society.