Value judgment

Post 33 Leaving money behind after having eaten the dates

During the Song dynasty, there was a man by the name of Cha Dao (查道) who was on the way to visit his relatives at a distant place. During lunch time he and his servant were hungry and there was no eating place around. His servant then suggested that some food brought along by them to be given to the relatives be taken out to be eaten.

However Cha Dao objected and said, “How can we do that since the food is meant to be given as gifts to others? We must be trustworthy.”

When the hungry duo finally reached a date orchard, they wasted no time picking some of the dates to fill their stomach. After they had had their fill, Cha Dao took out a string of money and hung it on the tree from which they had picked the dates.

The servant then asked his master, “Why are you doing this? After all the owner is not here and nobody would have seen us.”

Cha Dao then said to his servant, “Though the owner may not be here and no one could have seen us, it is our moral obligation to be trustworthy. Now that we have eaten the dates, we ought to pay for them.”

Nevertheless, the action of Cha Dao picking the dates without permission may still be questionable.

16 February 2010

A straight line and a circle

Post 32 Encouraging learning

Xunzi was an ancient philosopher and educationist whose essay on Encourage Learning written 2000 years ago is still applicable today. A small part of its contents is discussed here for our mutual encouragement.

A piece of wood can become perfectly straight if it is planed according to the line marked by the inked measuring string. When the same piece of wood is treated with heat to make it look like a wheel, then its roundness should befit that of a circle drawn by a pair of compasses.

If the same piece of wood were to be heated again or be dried under the scorching sun, it will never become straight again. This is so because that piece of wood has been processed to make it round.

Xunzi was trying to put forward his view that the environmental factor is important in making a person to be knowledgeable. Just like a knife and a sword can only become sharp when they are grinded on stones, one must therefore be steadfast in one’s learning and go through countless difficulties and hardships to excel in life.

Knowledge is accumulated day by day in lifelong learning.

9 February 2010

An amusing play on words

Post 31 The ability to express oneself in a humorous way

During the Tang Dynasty ( 618 - 907 ), there was a child prodigy by the name of Liu Yan (刘晏). When he was eight years old, he was summoned to have an audience with the then Emperor Tang Xuan Zong (唐玄宗). The emperor was so impressed with the talent of Liu Yan that he appointed the boy genius to the post of what we call ‘editor’ today.

Once when the ten-year-old Liu Yan was summoned to the palace, he was asked by the emperor, “In regular writings, how many words can be written neatly and correctly?”

Liu Yan then answered," All the words under heaven can be written well, except for the word 'friends’ (朋 ) which can never be written properly.”

There is punning on the word ‘friends’ which has a double meaning here. When Liu Yan specifically mentioned the word ‘friends’, he was insinuating that when cronies or close friends were given special privileges at the expense of justice and fair play, the word ‘friends’ could never be written correctly and rightly. It will look crooked no matter how it is written.

By manifesting a keen insight into matters like corruption and favouritism at the age of ten, Liu Yan had shown himself to be a child of extraordinary charm and wit.

2 February 2010

Hamlet's glass

Post 30 Speaking out from a sense of justice

William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, has this famous dialogue where Prince Hamlet chastised his unfaithful mother, Gertrude:

Hamlet: Come, Come, and sit you down; you shall not budge.
You go not until I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. (Act III, scene iv)

A glass is a mirror here. Prince Hamlet wanted to avenge on behalf of his father who was murdered by his uncle who then married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. The mirror Hamlet forces his mother to see reflects, "such black and grained spots as will not leave their tinct" (Act III, scene iv). Hamlet wanted his mother to look in the glass to see how she had betrayed her husband, his father.

The ‘Hamlet mirror’ enabled Gertrude to see how sinful and cruel she had been. In this case it was Prince Hamlet who listed out the sins of his mother. He did not harbour her mother, an evildoer and cover up her evil deeds.

Hamlet was speaking out from a sense of justice and to his mother who seemed to have no compunction (remorse, guilt or regret) about betraying her husband.

26 January 2010

How to remove the blind spots in us?

Post 29 Using human as a mirror

A blind spot has two meanings. It can refer to either an area a motorist cannot see or a lack of understanding of a subject or matter. To remove the blind spots in us is to remove our weaknesses which we cannot see, and our ignorance which reflects badly on our personality.

There is an old Chinese saying regarding ‘mirrors’, of which its literal translation is as follows:

Using bronze as a mirror, one is able to adjust one’s attire;
Using history as a mirror, one is able to know the rise and fall of an empire;
Using human as a mirror, one is able to see the success and failure of a person.

Take time to also ponder on this ancient wisdom:

A man of noble character does not use water as a mirror but uses human as a mirror. When water is used as a mirror, what can be seen is appearance; whereas ‘human mirror’ enables one to differentiate right from wrong.

Read widely, socialise wisely, and learn from others humbly, and one will know where one’s blind spots are.

19 January 2010

A blind spot

Post 28 Counting the number of buffaloes while riding on one

When I was in the primary school in the 1950s, there was one lesson which was unforgettable. It had to do with the counting of buffaloes. A buffalo is a large Asian and African animal of the cattle family, with long flattish curved horns.

There was this boy who herded ten buffaloes for the first time. After some time out in the field, he was counting the number of buffaloes while riding on one. The boy counted that there were only nine in the field and thought that there was one missing. He panicked and alighted from the buffalo he was riding and counted again. Much to his relief, there were exactly ten buffaloes.

Just before the boy left for home, he counted the number of buffaloes again. However, he was puzzled that there were again only nine left in the field. He then quickly alighted from his buffalo to count again. This time the number of buffaloes became ten instead of nine. He scratched his head and said, “Why were there only nine buffaloes in the field when I counted them while riding on a buffalo? And when I alighted and counted, there were ten.” The boy had the lack of understanding on how to count correctly. He had a blind spot about Arithmetic.

Widen your horizon in life and more blind spots will depart from you.

12 January 2010

Have you heard of 'Timbuktu'?

Post 27 ‘From here to Timbuktu’

I first heard of the word ‘Timbuktu’ when I was just a primary school boy. To me it sounded exactly like ‘throwing stones’ as spoken in the Chinese Hokkien dialect in my hometown. It was only during one Geography lesson in the secondary school that the word ‘Timbuktu’ began to ring a bell. It is a city in the West African nation of Mali, and has been deemed to be the birth place of one of the first universities in the world.

In the West it has been for long that ‘from here to Timbuktu’ represents a metaphor for forsaken places or distant lands. When one is told to go to Timbuktu, one is asked to go to a far away and deserted place. It will be interesting to know whether the younger generation is familiar with the word ‘Timbuktu’ or is that a word which is far off and alien to them. With the ease of air travel and the availability of the internet, nowhere in this globalised world is remote any more.

In life one cannot expect to understand everything that is known. No single person can master the sum of human knowledge because it is humanly impossible. However, through much reading and travelling, one is able to gain a good general knowledge. The time and effort spent in acquiring knowledge give the best returns in terms of intrinsic values because knowledge makes a man.

Be a learned person who is conversant with things past and present.

5 January 2010