Pages 21-40
Return to History 8 China The Examination.
When Chen returns home from Tianquan, he learns of his brother's victory in the cricket fight against Landlord Meng, how is brother Hong won a silver tael, and also how Hong would not give any of the money to their father. Chen then has flashbacks on the examinations that he took a couple years ago in becoming a Flowering Talent, his great ability in memorising characters and poems, and also his experiences with Commissioner Yang Zuolin.
Ideas Expressed in pages 21-40 in The Examination
- Taoism Kites
"He recalled that Taoists, in their search for truth, used to believe that kite flying was a kind of meditation. Imaginary flights of the mind were associated with the air. Altering tension on a kite string to compensate for changes in the wind resembled the need for a human mind to adjust for changes in thought" (21-22). [1]
- Taoism in General
"The garden strengthens one's familiarity with the Tao, the underlying principle of everything. Just as everything becomes different, just as the Tao flows and changes and remains the same" (32). [2]
- Family Structure
"For a boy of his age with a father widely known as a drunkard, such a guarantee of good family seemed like an obstacle that would end his scholarly career before it began" (35). [4]
- Confucianism
‘“Don’t lecture me. I know what Confucius says about respect for parents.’ Ever since Hong could remember, his older brother had lectured him about Confucius. According to Chen, everything in life depended on the ideas of that great sage. Confucius argued that respect for parents was the source of all virtue, so Chen took it to heart” (27). [5]
- Importance of Poetry
“[Chen’s] poetry had to display competence in the use of three modern and two ancient rhyme schemes” (35). [7]
“The final task of the day was to compose a poem in the old ku-shih style, using five words to the line, on a set scheme of even-numbered lines rhyming, and alliteration appearing in the odd-numbered lines” (39). [8]
References
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/march98/tao1.html
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ http://www.markville.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/history/religion/sivakumar%20confucious.htm
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ Bosse, Malcolm J. The Examination. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1994. Print.
- ↑ http://history.cultural-china.com/en/61History7833.html
By Jeffrey Wang
