User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 1:42 PMHi chiefmadapple
Thanks for an incisive analysis of the poem. I think you've made some excellent points.This is especially true when we take into account reincarnation-- as we discussed above, reincarnation means that the boundaries between people and other living things (animals, as well as various ghosts and so on) are much blurrier than we usually imagine.
You've pointed out another important aspect of Buddhism-- the notion that our worldly existence is suffering, which we can escape by becoming enlightened. When this happens, the thinking goes, we will be like drops of water falling into the sea.
I didn't go too deeply into the religious background. It is essential for a complete understanding of the poem in its context. But a lot of the concepts are very different from the Western traditions. For example, I was reluctant to talk about "saints" and "hell".The notions are just very different, and require a lot of explanation to do them justice.
This show is not the best place to come for a comprehensive explanation of Buddhist thinking. But, with help from thoughtful poddies like yourself, I will do my best to provide a launching point for further study and consideration.
Hi user28880
I'm so glad you enjoy the series. And your extracurricular reading is impressive. Not to be the guy who is always posting links to the NY Times, but you did remind me of a cute story from about a year ago.
Posted on: Drinking Alone Under the Moon 月下独酌
February 17, 2009 at 8:01 AMHi ilearnben and changye
Thank you both for your illuminating contributions to this discussion.
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 7:05 AMHi bababardwan
That would take things to a whole new level of gruesomeness.
With its principle of reincarnation, Buddhism holds that the pigs and other creatures of the world could once have been our friends and family. So from a certain point of view, eating meat is a form of cannibalism.
Of course, neither I nor CPod is trying to promote a religion or philosophy. These are just ideas that we must grapple with if we want to understand Chinese philosophy and culture.
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 5:52 AMHi mikeinewshot
They do in the horror movie Hannibal, which I haven't seen.
Follow this link for a video of a real life instance. I have not embedded it because it leaves nothing to the imagination. You have been warned.
I don't want to read too much into the poem. But if we see the pigs as the weak creatures of the universe, and humans as the strong, we see that pigs will gnaw on the body of a fallen human, whereas humans will actively slaughter pigs. We see this in the real world: powerful heads of companies and nations happily exploit the weak, while the paparrazzi and other assorted creatures make hay from these titans' short-comings or failures. Somehow, this reminds me of a pig nibbling on the body of a fallen person.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 8: Trimming the Fat at the Office
February 17, 2009 at 5:21 AMHi Nate,
Ah, the good old days of socialist bureaucracy. Of course there are still millions of people passing the day as you described. Workin' hard, or hardly workin'?
But the fact that the main characters in the series have English names indicates that Wang's office is probably a bit more internationalized and competitive. I have Chinese friends at companies where they definitely have performance evaluations, which are used in giving bonuses and in determining who to lay off.
Your comment might make a good future lesson though. Here's a funny article about the traditional "liquid lunch."
Posted on: Simple Electrical Stuff
February 17, 2009 at 5:15 AMHi sebire,
This is a a difficult topic for non-native learners. Jiaojie explains it this way:
In situations where you are talking about the ability to do something, people generally use "能 + a verb + the resultative complement." When you are not able to do something, you generally use the negative resultative complement. Here are two simple examples:
我能听懂中文。
我听不懂中文。
这个插头能插进去。
这个插头插不进去。
If this is not clear enough we will try to explain it differently.
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 4:43 AMHi chinkerfly
The title I chose is a bit sensationalist, I admit. The poem has no official Chinese title.
As they say in the news business, if it bleeds, it leads ;-)
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 3:40 AMHi habensie
Thank you for noticing this variation. The Han Shan poems are not as well recorded as some of the more orthodox works, and there are occasional inconsistencies. As Changye noted in an interesting comment last week, there are even sometimes discrepancies between versions of (much more famous) poems taught in China and elsewhere.
Hi zhenlijiang
This poem was really baffling to me at first. The Buddhist imagery would likely have been much clearer to a contemporary of Han Shan. Here is an English translation with brief commentary by Robert Henricks, for another perspective.
Hi ilearnben
I like your interpretation. The commentary I linked to above points out that the Chinese word for sausage is 香肠, "fragrant bowels," and that both words appear in the poem. I don't think this is a coincidence.
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 17, 2009 at 2:00 AMHi, all:
Here's today's poem.
猪吃死人肉, 人吃死猪肠.
zhū chī sǐrénròu , rén chī sǐzhūcháng
猪不嫌人臭, 人反道猪香.
zhūbùxián rén chòu , rén fǎn dào zhū xiāng
猪死投/抛*水内, 人死掘地藏.
zhūsǐ tóu/pāo* shuǐnèi , rénsǐ juédìcáng
彼此莫相啖, 莲花生沸汤.
bícǐ mò xiāng dàn , liánhuā shēng fèitāng
*Thanks to habensie for pointing out the alternate character.
Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟
February 17, 2009 at 1:49 PMHi abraham1988
That's just great. Thank you. I'm looking forward to introducing many more poems (including some that are often "below-the-radar.")