I finally have a chance to post today because my Shakespeare class was cancelled. Well, let's see. What's been happening since the last post? Here's the rundown:
I have been reading a lot for classes. I have also had sort of a revival of my interest in East Asian culture for a couple of reasons: My East Asian history class and Kung Fu movies. The history class has been very interesting. We've covered most of early Chinese culture, which is cool by itself - knowing the names of the dynasties and where they fit into history, and all of the spooky superstitions of the first Emperor of China (Terra cotta warriors, lakes of mercury in his tomb, and the like). This week, however, we've moved into Japan, which is very near and dear to my heart. I studied Japanese for two years in high school and one year in college and I got to visit Japan in 1996. Yesterday we were discussing a lot of the Buddhist and Shinto temples that were built around Kyoto during the reign of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) and I realized that I've been to many of the ones we were talking about. Here's a picture of my group in front of one of the most famous ones:
The temple in the background is called Kinkakuji. It is covered in gold leaf. It's pretty spectacular to see in real life - especially when you realize (like so many other things in Japan) that the structure is about three times older than your country. By the way, I'm the dork with the hat and sunglasses in the front holding the bamboo stick.
This picture makes me a bit nostalgic. I miss Japan, even though I was only there for two weeks. I would very much like to go back there someday.
I also mentioned Kung Fu movies. My wife just recently bought us a new HD LCD TV as an early birthday present for me, and I've been just enthralled with this thing. I've been going through all of the movies I have and marveling at how amazing they look on our new TV. I started watching martial arts epics like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," and something really cool happened. I realized that I had a new understanding of these movies because of all of the history I've been learning in class! Another offshoot of this is that I remembered how much I love practicing martial arts. For those of you who don't know, I earned a red belt in the Korean martial art Tang Soo Do. I was about three tests away from getting a black belt when I blew out my knee the last time. I haven't practiced since, but I really wish I could go back and get my black belt. Maybe someday soon I'll get to go do it.
There's another thing I wanted to mention about East Asian culture that I wanted to mention because it pertains to my theme of railing against The Man. One of the books that I had to read for the East Asian history class was the basic writings of Han Fei Tzu. Han Fei Tzu was a philosopher in China around 300 BCE. He was a nobleman by birth and developed his philosophy in stark contrast to the widely accepted teachings of Confucius. His philosophy, contrary to Confucian thought, was not about how to live virtuously, but rather simply how to attain and keep power. Reading it was almost offensive to me. The teachings of Han Fei are like an instruction manual for The Man. I'm almost positive that the majority of our politicians and business leaders have read this book or been taught by someone who has. It has not an ounce of morality or ethics to it, but rather focuses on how to manipulate those below you in order to keep your power. It even goes so far as to label those who strive to achieve the virtue that Confucius held in such high esteem as "Vermin." I am just bringing this up to illustrate the fact that our current system, which seems so corrupt, is not new. It is being operated by men and women who adhere to principals that are at least 2300 years old. It's a pretty simple and familiar formula: Play your cards to your chest. Don't let anyone know what your real intentions are. Reward generously those who do exactly what you tell them to do, and severely punish those who do anything less or even anything more than what you tell them to do. Be on guard for anyone who might try to take your power and destroy them. Eliminate anyone who publicly disagrees with you.
It certainly seems like many of our leaders have adopted these principles, doesn't it? Luckily, history has shown that though this formula works for a little while, eventually the tide turns and the people come to their senses. Let's just hope that we can start to learn to do it peacefully.
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4 comments:
One word. Book.
Indeed. 本
Are you going to be learning anything about Korea in your class? One thing I've noticed is that they always seem to skip over Korea even though most of Japanese culture (aside from the Ainu) was borrowed from China and Korea. :)
Also, I don't know if you've read Machiavelli, The Prince, but it's very similar. He argues that war stems from political aspirations, and outlines what a prince must do to hold his power at all costs.
Yeah, we're studying Korea in the next week or two, although I don't know how in depth we'll get. The professor's wife is Chinese, so he's a little biased toward China. ;o)
Also, I've heard about the connection to Machiavelli. I haven't read "The Prince," but it seems to be the same concepts. The amazing thing is that Han Fei's writings were published about 1800 years before Machiavelli! That's one thing that continues to amaze me about the Asian cultures: Just how advanced they were.
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