historians-from-china

"宁為太平犬，莫作亂离人！"

"His love is distant as the stars in Heaven, Yet the sunflower bends toward the sun."

"How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on earth is held so cheap."

"Contentment with poverty is Fortune's best gift: Riches and Honour are the handmaids of Disaster."

"一样是月明， 一样是隔山灯火， 满天的星 只使人不见， 梦似的挂起。"

"At the age of fourteen I was married and took up the dustpan and broom in the family of my husband. I feared always I might make my family ashamed and increase the difficulties of my husband's family. Day and night I was sick of heart but I worked without admitting my weariness. Now I know how to escape from such fears. But I grieve that you, my daughters, have not had the training which could have helped me. So I have written these chapters called "Lessons for Women." I wish that each of you would make a copy for yourself."

"Womanly appearance requires neither a pretty nor a perfect face or form."

"A woman (ought to) have four qualifications: (1) womanly virtue; (2) womanly words; (3) womanly bearing; and (4) womanly work. Now what is called womanly virtue need not be brilliant ability, exceptionally different from others. Womanly words need be neither clever in debate nor keen in conversation. Womanly appearance requires neither a pretty nor a perfect faceand form. Womanly work need not be work done more skillfully than that of others. To guard carefully her chastity; to control circumspectly her behavior; in every motion to exhibit modesty; and to model each act on the best usage, this is womanly virtue. To choose her words with care; to avoid vulgar language; to speak at appropriate times; and not to weary others(with much conversation), may be called the characteristics of womanly words. To wash and scrub filth away; to keep clothes and ornaments fresh and clean; to wash the head and bathe the body regularly, and to keep the person free from disgraceful filth, may be called the characteristics of womanly bearing. With whole-hearted devotion to sew and to weave; to love not gossip and silly laughter; in cleanliness and order (to prepare) the wine and food for serving guests, may be called the characteristics of womanly work. These four qualifications characterize the greatest virtue of a woman. No woman can affordto be without them. In fact they are very easy to possess if a woman only treasure them in her heart. The ancients had a saying: "Is Love afar off? If I desire love, then love is at hand!" So can it be said of these qualifications."

"The thing is, the regime makes it very hard for people to be interested. If you are dedicated to finding out the truth, you can. There are ways to climb the firewall. You can buy banned books in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is more… It is the risk associated with it that puts people off wanting to think about it."

"Wild Swans shows how life was different for each of the women – my grandmother, my mother, me. This book is also about very different lives, but because of political beliefs not generations. Big Sister [Soong Ai-ling] and Little Sister [Soong Mei-ling] were passionately anti-communist, whereas Red Sister [Soong Ching-ling] supported Mao. To start with, I didn’t want to write about the sisters; they were like fairytale [characters]. But while I was doing research, I realised how extraordinary they were, with all their mental agonies, moral dilemmas and heartbreaks."

"A large part. Woman rulers were always subject to condemnation. She never ruled in her own right and always had to be behind a screen. She ruled while the Emperor was a child but when the Emperor grew up she had to retire and go back to the Harem and the Emperor took over. It’s not immediately obvious which edicts came from her and which imperial decrees or ideas came from the Emperor so there is a prejudice but also a practical problem."

"I had always wanted to be a writer as a child but couldn’t spell out this dream to myself because during the Cultural Revolution all writers were condemned. To be a writer was the most dangerous profession. I wrote my first poem aged 16 and destroyed it."

"There’s no sense of heritage. Mao destroyed the culture and produced a generation of philistines who do not appreciate culture. Now, people are money-mad and property is the thing that makes money. The regime made a positive decision to channel people’s energy into money-making so they won’t be interested in politics."

"紅酥手，黃藤酒， 滿城春色宮墻柳。 東風惡，歡情薄， 一杯愁緒，幾年離索，錯，錯，錯。萅如舊，人空瘦， 淚痕紅浥鮫綃透。 桃花落，閒池閣， 山盟雖在，錦書難托，莫，莫，莫。"

""A student asked, “How can a person develop his sincerity and reverence and get rid of his desires?” Zhu Xi responded, “These are the end-points. Sincerity requires getting rid of all sorts of falseness. Reverence requires getting rid of all sorts of laziness. Desires should be blocked.” 13:246"

""A student asked, “What should I do about being confused by different theories when I read?” Zhu Xi answered, “Start with an open mind, then read one theory. Read one view before reading another. After you have read them again and again, what is right and wrong, useful and useless, will become apparent of itself. The process can be compared to trying to discover whether a person is good or bad. You observe him wherever he goes, notice what he says or does, and then know if he is good or bad.” He also said, “You simply must have an open mind,” and “Wash away your old opinions to let new ideas in.” 12:211"

""Zhengchun said, “I’d like to survey a great many books.” “Don’t do that,” Zhu Xi said. “Read one book thoroughly, then read another one. If you confusedly try to advance on several fronts, you will end up with difficulties. It’s like archery. If you are strong enough for a five-pint bow, use a four-pint one. You will be able to draw it all the way and still have strength left over. Students today do not measure their own strength when reading books. I worry that we cannot manage what we already have set ourselves.” 20:464"

"There is nothing difficult about becoming a sage, and nothing false about transcending the world of appearances."

"Writings such as commentaries and annotations exist to assist people in becoming sages, but in fact they close the doors to sagehood."

"He had no penchant for beauty of style, but aimed merely to make his record complete... We shall find none of the brilliance of Taine in the pages of Szuma Ch’ien, no charming gossip and anecdotes in the style of Herodotus, no sober concatenation of cause and effect as in Thucydides, no continental vision pictured in music as in Gibbon; for history seldom rises, in China, from an industry to an art. From Szuma Ch’ien to his namesake Szuma Kuang, who, eleven hundred years later, attempted again a universal history of China, the Chinese historians have labored to record faithfully—sometimes at the cost of their income or their lives—the events of a dynasty or a reign; they have spent their energies upon truth, and have left nothing for beauty. Perhaps they were right, and history should be a science rather than an art; perhaps the facts of the past are obscured when they come to us in the purple of Gibbon or the sermons of Carlyle. But we, too, have dull historians, and can match any nation in volumes dedicated to record—and gather—dust."

"There is no fixed road to wealth, and money has no permanent master."

"余嘗西至空峒，北過涿鹿，東漸於海，南浮江淮矣，至長老皆各往往稱黃帝、堯、舜之處，風教固殊焉，總之不離古文者近是。"

"吳王曰：「將軍罷休就舍，寡人不願下觀。」孫子曰：「王徒好其言，不能用其實。」於是闔廬知孫子能用兵，卒以為將。西破彊楚，入郢，北威齊晉，顯名諸侯，孫子與有力焉。"

"(Prince Duan and others) with the support of Empress Dowager took control of the Manchu Imperial Court. Using the most ignorant mind, by the most despicable means, with the most selfish goal, using Yihetuan, which was the most prone to rioting social underclass, to "support the Qing, eliminate the foreigners", and to takeover the regime. This coup d'etat was repeated 66 years later, by those aggressive Red Guards (China). History repeated itself, in minute details."

"【第一章】子曰、爲政以德、譬如北辰、居其所、而眾星共之。"

"見賢思齊焉；見不賢而內自省也。"

"里仁為美、擇不處仁、焉得知。"

"君子不重則不威，學則不固。主忠信。無友不如己者。過則勿憚改。"

"父在，觀其志；父殁，觀其行；三年无改於父之道，可謂孝矣。"

"君子欲訥於言而敏於行。"

"Follow the seasons of Ha, Ride in the state carriage of Yau, Wear the ceremonial cap of Chan, Let the music be the Shiu with its pantomimes."

"殷因於夏禮，所損益，可知也；周因於殷禮，所損益，可知也。其或繼周者，雖百世，可知也。"

"君子無所爭、必也射乎、揖譲而升下、而飲、其爭也君子。"

"不患人之不己知，患不知人也。"

"人而不仁、如禮何。人而不仁、如樂何。"

"非其鬼而祭之，諂也。見義不為，無勇也。"

"君子食無求飽，居無求安，敏於事而慎於言，就有道而正焉，可謂好學也已。"

"The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large."

"Man has three ways of acting wisely. First, on meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, on imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, on experience; that is the bitterest."

"多聞闕疑，慎言其餘，則寡尤。多見闕殆，慎行其餘，則寡悔。言寡無，行寡悔，祿在其中矣。"

"三人行，必有我師焉：擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。"

"不憤不啟；不悱不發。擧一隅，不以三隅反，則不復也。"

"視其所以，觀其所由，察其所安。人焉叟哉？人焉叟哉？"

"道千乘之國，敬事而信，節用而愛人，使民以時。"

"君子坦蕩蕩，小人長戚戚。"

"德之不修，學之不講，聞義不能徒，不善不能改，是吾憂也。"

"默而識之，學而不厭，誨人不倦，何有於我哉？"

"邦有道貧且賤焉恥也，邦無道富且貴焉恥也。"

"A man's character is formed by the Odes, developed by the Rites and perfected by music."

"Cornered vessel without corners, strange cornered vessel, strange cornered vessel."