Post by Isaac Ho on Jan 24, 2012 15:30:21 GMT -5
A Golden Millet Dream
translated from the Chinese by Isaac Ho
Hello folks, this is the Second Day of the Chinese New Year of the Golden Dragon...KUNG XI FA ZHAI...
In Chinese communities throughout the world - from China to Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Phillipines, Indonesia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Luna New Year celebrations could go on for at least two weeks, especially under the powerful dragon influence.
There will be a baby boom this year among the Chinese people because a babe born under the powerful and significant influence of the Golden Dragon is bound to remain in prosperity throughout its life.
Be as it may, let me tell you a story from the pages of Ancient China. The author and editor of this collection of supernatural tales was the famed writer, Pu Songling, who had lived towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.). He was a native of Shandong Province. His supernatural tales of foxes, goblins, ghosts and fairies were put together in a book called Tales of Liaozhai.
The first edition of Liaoshai contained 431 stories, and was published in 1766. The English Sinologist Herbert A. Giles, while he was stationed in China, translated 164 original tales from Chinese into English. The stories were published in 1916 as The Strange Stories from A Chinese Studio. This translated is no longer available in print. But a second-hand copy will fetch a handsome price, if you can find one on sale!
Liaozhai means a thatched hut under the weeping willow trees. In the time of Pu Songling, scholars would build a thatched hut (or studio) of grass so that they might study in solitutde the classics, cannon desertations and dynastic histories. The scholar remain in reclusive study for up to 10 years until it came time to make the ardous journey to Beijing to sit for the imperial jinshi (Ph.D) examination, in which the questions were often set by the ruling monarch.
Fortunate scholars awarded the jinshi degree would get to be provincial judges and become guardians and protectors of the imperial laws for and on behalf of the people. Those who failed could resit the exam.
Pu Songling was already a successful scholar. He had completed his government career and had retired to his liaozhai studio among the willows to collect and edit the folklores and legends which were popular in his day. Those were tales told and retold, and dramatized by professional storytellers in the croweded tea taverns.
Needless to say, writing was a lonely undertaking and true labour of love. Pu Songling must have sat on a wooden bench with brush, ink and paper; writing profusely and intently under an unsteady flame of a bean oil lamp. His mind must have been deeply absorbed with the strange tales he heard, and which he put down with even steady strokes with his bamboo pen brush, thus setting his vivid thoughts on the rice paper
A Golden Millet Dream.
As the story goes, after the scholar named Lu Dong Bin failed the imperial state examination, he journeyed with his companion Zhong Li Quan to Mount Zhongnan to seek refuge in a Taoist temple. Tired out, Lu took a nap in the room that the abbot had offered to him and his friend Zhong for free.
Lu soon fell into a dream. In his dream, he passed the exam and became the Number One Scholar of the realm. He was made a county magistrate and subsequently promoted to be a high-ranking court official. Lu twice married beautiful girls from rich and influential families, and became immensely wealthy. Upon him, high honours were heaped!
Hence, forty materially rich years went by in the wink of an eye. But then Lu committed a serious crime and all his properties were confiscated. He was dismissed from office and he soon became penniless and alone in the world.
On his homeward journey in a blinding snowstorm, he was hotly pursued by troops. At this turn in ill fortune, Lu suddenly woke up with a start only to find his companion Zhong Li Quan cooking yellow millet in a clay pot. In the time Lu was lost in his dream, Zhong was cooking the yellow millet for dinner.
After they had both shared the meal, Lu related the dream to Zhong, referring to his subconscious journey as A Golden Millet Dream.
The parable of this tale is that fame and fortune are both fleeting and illusionary. Only contentment in one's life would bring real happiness and stability.
In other words, count your present blessings and be satisfied with what you already had.
The End...........................................................................................
Note: This translated version of mine first appeared in www.huaren.org , Huaren E Magazine, Issue # 7, January 2005.
translated from the Chinese by Isaac Ho
Hello folks, this is the Second Day of the Chinese New Year of the Golden Dragon...KUNG XI FA ZHAI...
In Chinese communities throughout the world - from China to Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Phillipines, Indonesia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Luna New Year celebrations could go on for at least two weeks, especially under the powerful dragon influence.
There will be a baby boom this year among the Chinese people because a babe born under the powerful and significant influence of the Golden Dragon is bound to remain in prosperity throughout its life.
Be as it may, let me tell you a story from the pages of Ancient China. The author and editor of this collection of supernatural tales was the famed writer, Pu Songling, who had lived towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.). He was a native of Shandong Province. His supernatural tales of foxes, goblins, ghosts and fairies were put together in a book called Tales of Liaozhai.
The first edition of Liaoshai contained 431 stories, and was published in 1766. The English Sinologist Herbert A. Giles, while he was stationed in China, translated 164 original tales from Chinese into English. The stories were published in 1916 as The Strange Stories from A Chinese Studio. This translated is no longer available in print. But a second-hand copy will fetch a handsome price, if you can find one on sale!
Liaozhai means a thatched hut under the weeping willow trees. In the time of Pu Songling, scholars would build a thatched hut (or studio) of grass so that they might study in solitutde the classics, cannon desertations and dynastic histories. The scholar remain in reclusive study for up to 10 years until it came time to make the ardous journey to Beijing to sit for the imperial jinshi (Ph.D) examination, in which the questions were often set by the ruling monarch.
Fortunate scholars awarded the jinshi degree would get to be provincial judges and become guardians and protectors of the imperial laws for and on behalf of the people. Those who failed could resit the exam.
Pu Songling was already a successful scholar. He had completed his government career and had retired to his liaozhai studio among the willows to collect and edit the folklores and legends which were popular in his day. Those were tales told and retold, and dramatized by professional storytellers in the croweded tea taverns.
Needless to say, writing was a lonely undertaking and true labour of love. Pu Songling must have sat on a wooden bench with brush, ink and paper; writing profusely and intently under an unsteady flame of a bean oil lamp. His mind must have been deeply absorbed with the strange tales he heard, and which he put down with even steady strokes with his bamboo pen brush, thus setting his vivid thoughts on the rice paper
A Golden Millet Dream.
As the story goes, after the scholar named Lu Dong Bin failed the imperial state examination, he journeyed with his companion Zhong Li Quan to Mount Zhongnan to seek refuge in a Taoist temple. Tired out, Lu took a nap in the room that the abbot had offered to him and his friend Zhong for free.
Lu soon fell into a dream. In his dream, he passed the exam and became the Number One Scholar of the realm. He was made a county magistrate and subsequently promoted to be a high-ranking court official. Lu twice married beautiful girls from rich and influential families, and became immensely wealthy. Upon him, high honours were heaped!
Hence, forty materially rich years went by in the wink of an eye. But then Lu committed a serious crime and all his properties were confiscated. He was dismissed from office and he soon became penniless and alone in the world.
On his homeward journey in a blinding snowstorm, he was hotly pursued by troops. At this turn in ill fortune, Lu suddenly woke up with a start only to find his companion Zhong Li Quan cooking yellow millet in a clay pot. In the time Lu was lost in his dream, Zhong was cooking the yellow millet for dinner.
After they had both shared the meal, Lu related the dream to Zhong, referring to his subconscious journey as A Golden Millet Dream.
The parable of this tale is that fame and fortune are both fleeting and illusionary. Only contentment in one's life would bring real happiness and stability.
In other words, count your present blessings and be satisfied with what you already had.
The End...........................................................................................
Note: This translated version of mine first appeared in www.huaren.org , Huaren E Magazine, Issue # 7, January 2005.