Authors From China

"The whole establishment is surrounded by a brick wall, which encloses the entire convent from without. One gate opens into the great college, from which are separated eight other halls standing in the middle (of the Sangharama) [monasteries]. The richly adorned towers, and the fairy-like turrets, like pointed hill-tops are congregated together. The observatories seem to be lost in the vapours (of the morning), and the upper rooms tower above the clouds."

"He (Indian emperor Harsha) was indefatigable,” says Yuan Chwang, “and the day was too short for him; he forgot sleep in his devotion to good works."

"If any one here can find a single wrong argument and can refute it, I will let him cut off my head."

"He went from east to west subduing all who were not obedient; the elephants were not unharnessed, nor the soldiers unhelmeted."

"Even though China had a different belief system but Buddha has maintained his influence on China as well. Recently, I went to China and found that their government was introducing me to Buddhist elements of their culture with great pride. I got to know that China is making a film on Hiuen-Tsang. I took a pro-active role and wrote to those people saying that they should not forget the part about his stay in Gujarat. Hiuen-Tsang lived for a long time in the village where I was born. He has written about a hostel in that village where 1,000 student monks resided. After I became chief minister, I got the area excavated and found archeological evidence of things described by Hiuen-Tsang. This means Mahatma Buddha’s philosophy would have had some influence on my ancestors."

"In his diary, Hsuan Tsang has recorded that India was divided into five divisions or to use his language, there were ‘five Indies': (1) Northern India, (2) Western India, (3) Central India, (4) Eastern India and (5) Southern India and that these five divisions contained 80 kingdoms.... It is true that when Hsuan Tsang came, not only the Punjab but what is now Afghanistan was part of India and further, the people of the Punjab and Afghanistan were either Vedic or Buddhist by religion."

"'Whether their ladyships and the young ladies are enjoying themselves or not,' said Bao-yu, 'what concern is it of mine?' Aroma laughed. 'Seeing that they're all doing their best to be agreeable, couldn't you try to do likewise? Surely it's much better all round if everyone will give and take a bit?' 'What do you mean, "give and take a bit"? ... They can give and take a bit if they like. My destiny is a different one: naked and friendless through the world to roam.' A tear stole down his cheek as he recalled the line from the aria. He continued to ponder its words and to savour their meaning, and ended up by bursting into tears and crying outright."

"漫搵英雄淚，相離處士家。謝慈悲剃度在蓮台下。 沒緣法轉眼分離乍。赤條條來去無牽挂。 那里討煙蓑雨笠卷單行？一任俺芒鞋破缽隨緣化！"

"Mao Zedong was a great leader of the Chinese Revolution and as a result enjoyed an enormous amount of prestige among he ordinary Chinese people. However, Mao, as a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist, had always worked with and relied upon other Party leaders as well had always worked with and relied upon either Party leaders as well as the grass-roots Part members and masses to accomplish political, economic and social goals. Mao never relied upon and never believed in a command hierarchy imposed form above. Within the Chinese Communist Party, Mao had never gained that kind of absolute control that Stalin had over the Soviet Communist Party (and even Stalin could not simply impose his will without the cooperation of much of the Party and state bureaucracy). ON the contrary, on many historical occasions, Mao often found himself in the minority (as Lenin did within the Part leadership. If Mai's intention had eventually become the will of the Party, that took place only after patient and sustained persuasion, difficult and sometimes intense intra-Party struggle, criticism and self-criticisms, and most importantly, after the Party leaders and members had learnt from practice themselves."

"The Revolution is dead. Long Live the Revolution"

"China's dramatic rise as a global economic power is one of the most important developments at the current world-historical conjuncture. Many have wondered how the rise of China will shape the world-historical trajectory of the twenty-first century Will China become the next hegemonic power? If yes, what would the new China-centered global system look like? if not, what would be the implications for the existing world-system?"

"For the capitalist world-economy, the problem of China lies with its huge size. China has a labor force that is larger than the total labor force in all of the core states, or that in the entire historical well0to-do semi-periphery. As China competes with the well-to-do semi peripheral states in a wide range of global commodity chains, the competition eventually would lead to the convergence between China and the historical well-to-do semi-peripheral sates in profit races and wage rates. This convergence may take place in an upward manner or a downward manner."

"It is beyond dispute that, despite all the talks about “sustainable development” or “green growth”, the world continues to head relentlessly towards global ecological catastrophes. We know this as we observe that the global ecological deficit (the gap between ecological footprint and bio-capacity) continue to widen and the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases keeps rising year after year."

"Zhou Ruchang believes] that the famous commentator and editor of the novel, Zhiyan Zhai 脂砚斋, was Cao Xueqin's cousin and second wife, as well as the prototype for the character Shi Xiang-yun (who Zhou thinks is Bao-yu's true love, not Lin Dai-yu)."

"Autumn wind rises, white clouds fly. Grass and trees wither; geese go south."

"Though the drift of Red Inkstone's remarks does not amount to a total disavowal of Honglou meng as a work of fiction, Red Inkstone certainly tends to single out certain parts of the novel for praise because 'there was really such a person' or 'this was what actually happened.' The commentary, valuable as it is, thus also serves to convert fiction to history, and the modern student should use it with discretion."

"鴛鴦劍能斬鴛鴦，鴛鴦人能破鴛鴦。"

"一部大書起是夢，寶玉情是夢，賈瑞淫又是夢，秦之家計長策又是夢……餘今批評亦在夢中……"

"釵玉名雖兩個，人卻一身，此幻筆也。"

"所謂越不聰明越快活。"

"……此書之妙皆從詩詞句中翻出者……"

"自悟則自了，又何用人亦解哉？此正是猶未正覺大悟也。"

"又是一個有害無益者。作者一生為此所誤，批者一生亦為此所誤，於開卷凡見如此人，世人故為喜，余反抱恨，蓋四字誤人甚矣。被誤者深感此批。"

"作者今尚記金魁星之事乎？撫今思昔，腸斷心摧。"

"By resorting to illusions, the supreme expression of love is attained. Nothing can compare to it."

"知眼泪還債，大都作者一人耳。余亦知此意，但不能說得出。"

"能解者方有辛酸之泪，哭成此書。壬午除夕，書未成，芹爲泪盡而逝。余常哭芹，泪亦待盡。每思覓青埂峰再問石兄，奈不遇癩頭和尚何！悵悵！今而後惟願造化主再出一芹一脂，是書何幸，余二人亦大快遂心於九泉矣。甲午八日泪筆。"

"Persons whom I saw thirty years ago and with whom I was intimate now appear on the page, and this compels me to declare that The Story of the Stone is a book of the deepest feelings and the truest words. Unless, however, one has in fact experienced such events or been deluded by such feelings, reading it is like "chewing wax" absentmindedly, never understanding the miraculous wonders of what one has witnessed."

"若云雪芹披阅增删，然则开卷至此这一篇楔子又系谁撰？足见作者之笔狡猾之甚。后文如此者不少。这正是作者用画家烟云模糊处，观者万不可被作者瞒蔽了去，方是巨眼。"

"八字便是作者一生慚恨。"

"Hu Shi] argued that Zhiyanzhai was none other than the author, Cao Xueqin himself. He based this [...] theory on the notion that Honglou meng is Cao Xueqin's autobiography and Cao himself is represented by Baoyu. Baoyu liked to eat cosmetics [...] and the phrase Zhiyanzhai sounds very similar to the phrase 'eat rouge' (chi yanzhi)."

"字字看來皆是血，十年辛苦不尋常 。"

"The entire Story of the Stone is plausible and reasonable, and each event or each word is judiciously put down, but this sort of absurd talk now and then appears too. Is the author being deliberately playful and whimsical? Here he is having his good laugh, unlike [authors of] other books in which "ghostly talk" [kuei-hua] is undertaken in all seriousness."

"Later I came across the following in the "Final Listing [of the Characters' Feelings]": Baoyu is "feeling not-feeling," Daiyu is "feeling feeling." These epithets are naturally assessments of their perversity and obsessiveness. And these summary judgments too are illogical and paradoxical. Superb indeed!"

"She composes her verses effortlessly. Different from others, her mindset and talents do not come from book-learning."

"Once you have acquired the skills, you must test them on an opponent, but in no way should you consider victory or submission to be a cause for shame or pride. Rather, you ought to think, "By what means did I defeat him?" Or, "By what means could I have defeated him?" Then you exert and test yourself for a while."

"The fist methods do not seem to concern themselves with the arts of great warfare; nevertheless, to move the hands and feet actively and to work habitually the limbs and body constitutes the gateway to beginning study and entering the art."

"College education tends to make simple things complicated and hard to understand. What we should do is to teach our children the most essential and simple principles of life and ways to handle problems."

"The first work I published was a poem. That was one of my most exciting moments. Afterwards, I wrote many different types of articles, including prose, novels, and even science fiction. However, I found I wasn't very qualified, because I only had a four-year primary school education. So I turned to writing fairy tales."

"Even people who do cleaning work can write fairy tales. And they can even make better work than me. The problem is that no one encourages them to do so. The most essential thing that people seek is appreciation by others. That is what largely decides one's success or failure."

"Tai chi chuan (taìjíqúan) is a Taoist practice emphasizing cultivation of martial ethics."

"There are six methods of winding silk energy: inner, outer, upper, lower, forward and backward. They are applied from anywhere on the body: the arms. legs, hips and waist, with the body moving continuously, with endless circularity, wrapped together like intertwined filaments of silk."

"In tai chi chuan there is basic standing push hands, forward-backward push hands, dà lǜ and nine palace push hands, etc. In his later years, my older brother, Wu Kung-i (Wu Gongyi), created new techniques in applications. … The dà lǜ method of stepping is also called ‘eight gates and five steps’ (bā mén wǔ bù)."

"Push hands is practiced between two people: the intitiator and the one acted upon. Initiating is called ‘asking’. The person acted upon ‘answers’. When the opponent asks, listen first before answering."

"The body is divided into three parts and nine sections. The three parts are the spine, the two arms and the two legs.1. Spine: the head, thorax and abdomen. These three sections make up the main trunk of the body. 2. Arms: the hands, elbows and shoulders. These three sections constitute the upper limbs. 3. Legs: the hips, knees and feet. These three sections constitute the body’s lower limbs.So the body is divided into upper, middle and lower vessels. The upper is from the chest and arms upwards, the middle constitutes waist and hips, and the lower vessel is from the thighs and knees downwards."

"Tai chi (taìjí) is the universal principle behind birth and transformation. Though tai chi has no form, shape, sound nor colour; all forms, shapes sounds and colours are born and transformed through it. … And so tai chi simply refers to stillness and movement, while yīn and yáng refer to tai chi. ... In tai chi chuan, because the principles are based on the transformation of tai chi (taìjí) - movement and stillness, yīn and yáng as well as opening and closing - one seeks stillness in movement and movement in stillness. Movement is primarily a study of empty and full, which refer back to yīn and yáng. Students should first know about the principles of stillness and movement in yīn and yáng before proceeding with their studies."

"Those with hard temperaments like to win through struggle; they don't like to be defeated. Inferior hard temperaments are explosive and rash, fierce and violent. Soft temperaments are placid and earnest. Inferior soft temperaments are weak-willed and do not seek a thorough understanding of the skills. Tai chi chuan stresses that hardness and softness complement each other. Training teaches one to be hard, but not excessively so, soft, yet not weak. This is to truly absorb the teachings.Those with soft temperaments easily improve. Those with inferior hard temperaments always mistake slowness and lack of force for sluggishness and weakness. Actually, slowness and forcelessness are fundamental aspects of training. Just as steel is produced by applying heat to iron, tempering it, skills of tai chi chuan are refined gradually over a long time."

"Being misunderstood by someone is vexation. Being misunderstood by everyone is tragedy."

"The saws are sawing wood, But wood is also sawing the saws...The wood sawn into boards is fashioned into furniture. Saws just break and are discarded."