89 - The Wisdom of the East 🐲
Hey there, !
History is a series of lessons passed down over the years, often attained through blood, sweat and tears. These lessons shape a people's culture and history, the stories they tell, and their core values.
As an Australian born Chinese, I'm privileged to have been able to absorb these lessons both from an Eastern and Western point of view. When you learn a language, you have to learn the stories and culture behind it as well (...as well as the WeChat and WhatsApp chain messages that define new Chinese culture :D).
I wanted to share a few proverbs that I love, and the stories behind them (where relevant) - just so you can attain that wisdom as well :)
三個和尚沒水喝 - "The Three Thirsty Monks"
- There was once a temple at a top of a mountain that had been abandoned - it was dirty, dilapidated, and the well was dry. A passing monk came through, and saw that it needed repair. He decided to stay, and clean up the place (note: Chinese people are conscientious).
- On his own, he had to go down the mountain, bring up water to drink in two big buckets, and to help fill the well. He spent his days praying, cleaning, and bringing water up the mountain. How bloody peaceful. (The story doesn't say whether he ate anything. Maybe he subsists on prayers?)
- One day, another monk came up the mountain in a daze, looking for something to eat, and something to drink. The first monk gladly shared what he had. When they ran out of water, they both went down to get it, sharing the load between them. (note: Chinese people are generous)
- A few days later, yet another monk came up the mountain looking for water (was there a water shortage? how come so many monks were thirsty??), and when he got to the temple, thirstily drank the rest of the water from the well. However, from then on, the three monks did not get any more water for the well - nobody wanted to let the other person just get it for free, and the responsibility fell by the wayside. (note: Chinese people are prideful and...uh...don't want others to take advantage of them)
- One night, the temple caught fire! The monks tried to get the water from the well to help put it out but alas - there was no water. They had to run down the mountain many times to get water to put the fire out for the whole night, slowly putting it out little by little. (note: Chinese people are stupid sometimes)
- From then on, the monks worked in harmony together and went and got the water together on a rotating roster (I assume).
- Moral: The closest proverb in English is something like 'Too many cooks spoil the broth'...but it has a bit of a different take. There are 3 people responsible here, but no-one's actually accountable - if it's not clear who needs to do what, no-one will do anything.
三人行，必有我師
- This one's not a story - but it IS from Confucius (literally, Confucius says...) - the translation is just "When you walk with three people, one will definitely be your teacher"
- This proverb is about humility - the fact that there are so many things to master in life, you'll always be able to learn from other people. I like this one a lot because it keeps arrogance in check - there's so much that other people can teach you. Try to find out what they know, and keep learning forever!
- There's a subsequent line which essentially says, '...also, just make sure you're copying the good stuff, not the bad stuff. Don't learn bad stuff.' Good save Confucius!
庖丁解牛 - "Pao Ding Carves an Ox"
- Lord Wen Hui was watching as his cook, Pao Ding, was carving up an ox for him to eat. He marveled at Pao Ding's mastery, and asked how he attained such a skill.
- Pao Ding replies: "It is the Way. When I first started cutting cows, I only saw a carcass. After 3 years, I no longer saw it as a whole. I used my intuition to work on where I should be cutting, and make sure I focus on the natural lines, the spaces between the slots of bones and ligaments."
- "A good cook changes knives every year from cutting. An ordinary one changes knives every month from hacking"
- "My knife has been used for 19 years and is just like new. In the joints are spaces, and my knife glides through. Where there is difficulty I pay a bit more attention, carefully move my hand, and then suddenly, the parts separate."
- Wen Hui: "Yo that's pretty sick dude do it again"
- Moral: I like this one on multiple levels - not only is it teaching you how to carve meat (go for the joints!), it also teaches the practicality on focussing on the exact weakest point to work on, using your intelligence and experience to understand what is required on a holistic level. Isolate the root cause, fix the system. Furthermore, it shows that the more experience you have, the better you will be able to find your Way (the Chinese concept of finding 'purpose' or what you are meant to do in life).
空城計 - "The Empty Fort Strategy"
- In the Three Kingdoms period, the Shu strategist Zhuge Liang was famed throughout the land for his strategies, tactics and intelligence.
- In one particular battle against Wei, Zhuge Liang had sent his main force to attack the Wei Army, but instead, the Wei Army had taken a shortcut, passing by the attack force, meaning the garrison at one of their key locations (Xi Cheng) was in danger. Only a very small garrison had been kept, and a massive Wei army was coming to attack.
- Zhuge Liang, knowing that his counterpart Sima Yi (another famous strategist) was leading the charge, decided to open up the gates of the town, have his soldiers dress in peasant clothes and start sweeping the town, while he would sit at the top of the entrance and play his guqin (a kind of lute).
- When Sima Yi saw this, he became incredibly suspicious and ordered a retreat, believing that Zhuge Liang would never be so freakin' stupid as to leave his fort open - it MUST be an ambush.
- Moral: Have the balls to know when you can bluff, and hope luck sees you through. More of a military strategem than a proverb but broadly applicable to life :D Also, learn the guqin since it apparently has great bluffing powers.
愚公移山 - "The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains"
- The Foolish Old Man of 90 years was annoyed by the two mountains that he lived behind (apparently the Taihang and Wangwu mountains in Yu Province), as it would take him months to get to the nearest town.
- He decided that he would try and move the mountain, each day spending the little effort he could to dig in to the rocks, and move them out of the way.
- When the townspeople saw what he was trying to do, they laughed and said "You'll never move those mountains - it's impossible, you Foolish Old Man!"
- He angrily replied, "Though I might not finish this in my lifetime, my children, and their children, and their children's children will finish my work through the many generations- one day, these mountains will be removed if I persevere" (In some stories, the man gets his sons and daughters and grandchildren to pitch in as well - making everyone part of the effort).
- In a literal deus ex machina, a god heard this, was impressed by this Foolish Man's determination, and ordered his heavenly generals to separate the mountains.
- Moral: Say you're gonna work real hard, and then get other people to do it for you ;) JOKES but actually - it's supposed to be a fable about hard work, determination and perseverance beyond your years. It's about taking the long view, rather than the short view, and knowing that if you persevere, your efforts will not be in vain.
- Note: apparently Mao ZeDong used this as one of the key stories in the Little Red Book to tell people how collective action would be really cool and awesome. Oops.
Chat soon :)
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✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Buy Me The Sky - I haven't actually finished this book yet, but I've read enough to know that it's excellent and well worth a recommend. It's a collection of stories about the children of the One Child Policy in China - essentially, their trials and tribulations of parents who didn't let them grow, or spoiled them too much, or didn't set them up to be independent for themselves. There's a lot of really personal sharing from the author as well (XinRan) who is a female journalist that helped a number of these kids assimilate with Western society. The pain that these now-20/30 year olds now feel based on their upbringing is raw and confronting - a girl who doesn't want to call her parents after moving away, a guy who used the wrong side of a knife to try and cut potatoes, a female researcher who got conned into a 'Chinese sex arts' cult-ish research. Really interesting stuff - highly recommended!
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Hot Chicken Project - in Geelong, where I went out to over the weekend. Honestly very good fried chicken - they have wings and drumstick buckets (amazing) and the brine/batter is really really well done. The spice was just a normal paprika-based blend (for the Medium heat level) but was extremely tasty. I was impressed by the chicken itself as well - usually people put a lot of effort into the breading (even Gami for example) but the chicken itself here was juicy and flavorsome. Highly recommend if you're ever down that way!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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The gambler who cracked the horse-racing code - a relatively longer piece telling the story of a guy who built a model to better predict the odds at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, absolutely RAKING it in because he had an edge.
Benter conceded that his operations have probably made close to a billion dollars overall, but that some of the money has gone to partners in Hong Kong and the U.S. “Unfortunately,” he said, “I’m not a billionaire.”
What a problem to have...
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Daisugi - the ancient Japanese art of growing trees on trees. Sound weird?
Imagine the innovation and wisdom needed to work this out, and then pass it on down the years just for me to read it on a web article and think...that's very cool.
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Enigma - can you work out which of these scientific papers is real, and which one was made up by an AI? Spoiler alert: it's really fricken hard.