|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | In pages 21-29, Chen returns home from Tianquan and learns of his brother's victories and actions, such as not giving any money to his father, which, according to Bao, disgraces the family name. In pages 29-40, we learn of Chen's history of taking previous examinations and about his mentor for a brief time: Ex-Commissioner Yang.
| + | I |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Ideas''':
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''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).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | http://www.guernsey.net/~jim/img/kites/tao.gif
| + | |
| − | *For more information on the history of the kite and its religious significance as well as a history of the origins of the kite in various countries, visit http://www.penninetaichi.co.uk/index_files/Page371.htm
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Taoism in General:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "The garden strengthens one's familiarity with the Tao, the underlying principle of everything...I often watch the shifting light of day, how the shadows fall and how the walls by changing color become different walls at sunset from what they were at sunrise. Just as everything becomes different, just as the Tao flows and changes and remains the same" (32).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Family Structure:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "On a long strip of framed paper were written the names of ancestors for five generations" (23).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "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).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Confucianism:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | " 'Three Brother and Father argued terribly over money, but Three Brother refused him.' Bao threw up her hands in horror. 'Hong is a disgrace to the family name! Refused his own father money!' " (25).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | " 'I know what they're saying: she's the sister of the boy who turns his back on their father. Father can be an awful man,' Bao sobbed, 'but he's father to us and to Hong and we must all respect him. Isn't that so?' " (25).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | " 'Don't lecture me. I know what Confucius says about respect for parents.'...Confucius argued that respect for parents was the source of all virtue, so Chen took it to heart." (27).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "Unlike his younger brother, Chen respected authority. It was a measure of his full acceptance of Confucian ideals" (31).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | " 'You don't emulate the Confucian ideal of a gentleman. You're disdainful, aloof, indifferent. You're terribly bad-mannered, and what is worse, you've never taken the trouble to know precisely when you're rude or thoughtless' " (37).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Mencius:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "When the farmer halted, Chen thanked him for the ride. 'I have no money,' Chen said apologetically. 'Never mind that. I am honored. I will tell my family you were in my cart, Flowering Talent' " (23).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | " 'And then there's the bribes.' Chen raised his eyebrows. 'What bribes?'...'I will bribe no one.' " (27).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Mohism:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "But he seemed not to comprehend the reality of power-of the status and experience and wealth that set one man above another. He treated everyone equally in a world of rigid social distinctions" (31).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "Two small cheap paintings of Shang Ti, the Supreme God, and Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, stood on either side of a copper bowl filled with sand and bristling with used joss sticks...Aside from three chairs lined up along one wall, there was nothing else in the room" (24).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | '''Importance of Poetry:'''
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "The final task of the day was to compose a poem in the old ku-shih style...Chen wrote a poem that imitated a ku-shih composed fifteen centuries before..." (39).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | "...only sometimes an essay about an historical event or the working of government was substituted for a poem" (39).
| + | |
| − | | + | |
| − | -Matthew Brown
| + | |
