The influence of the art of traditional warfare campaigns of Mao Zedong
Appeared in the early '70s, Chess Mao's original The protracted Gamble (The game lasted) written by researcher Scott A. Boorman, suddenly roused the attention of some Sinologists and many scholars of military strategy that dealt with the affairs of China, and the lovers of strategy games in general. The work had, in fact, raised the concerns of some and the enthusiasm of others, not only because an ancient strategy game, as the wei-ch'i, looks similar to our chess, would be to basic military strategy and politics of a modern country, but because this approach has traditionally been ascribed to who was considered one of the greatest revolutionaries and iconoclasts of the twentieth century: Chairman Mao Zedong.
On the other hand, many and circumstantial evidence brought by the author in support of its argument, seemed to leave no doubt that a careful analysis of the Maoist military strategy effectively allowed to find many points of contact between the approach of strategic play most aristocratic of the East and the strategy and tactics utilized by the Chinese Communist Party to deal with, ring, capture the enemy, to seize large areas of land and to control other remote, just like a game of wei-ch'i.
probably depended on the grounds were very surprised by the ignorance of most Western analysts, little versed in Chinese strategic thinking, and their inability to understand the characteristics of the Maoist revolution, rather than an abnormal behavior of the Great Helmsman and its military cadres.
would be sufficient to refer to some tactical and strategic behavior of the Chinese army, as they emerge from a few short steps removed from the works of Mao, to understand as it is not possible apart from models of strategic behavior deeply rooted in traditional thinking: think of the typical tactic of the Maoist insurgency, according to which the enemy had to be pushed on their land, then divided into small groups, only to be attacked by superior force , or to create impregnable bases, difficult to attack by large regular forces, and compare with some of the concepts expressed in the work of Sun Zi, The Art of War.
According to Sun Zi, when someone attacks, you need only resist, to wear down the opponent because the attacker is exposed to the possibility of defeat, while the ideal is to win without fighting. As a military option, we must act with subtlety and cunning, dividing the enemy forces so they can be tackled with ease: "The enemy must not know where I'm going to battle, because if I want to know where battle is forced to prepare in many places. And when it is prepared in many places, those I'll have to beat in one place will be few. " (2)
Speaking of the enemy, he also argues that "if its forces are inferior to yours, you have to resist the attack; If they are higher, you have to avoid it. " And again: "Resistance is a defect attack, an excess," "Experts in the art of resistance lie in the most remote folds of the land," "Experts in the art of combat is set up impregnable ground, never misses a chance to conquer the enemy. "
Next, as regards the relationship with the people, Sun Zi is very clear: "The way is nell'incitare people to share ideas of the rulers so that they can assist them in death and in life, so it will not fear danger. " Use of the resources of the enemy: "An intelligent commander tries to steal food from the enemy. One container of food the enemy is equivalent to twenty of us; a single container of forage, twenty of our (...). During a battle wagon, reward the man who first captures ten or more. Change the flags and insignia of the wagons and include them [in your army]. " Finally, with regard to prisoners, puts it thus: "Be nice to the soldiers and prisoners Feed them."
Let's read what some of the shows Mao in his famous ten operational postulates (1947): (1) "strike first isolated and dispersed forces; attacked only after the bulk of enemy forces", (2) "Take the first small and medium-sized cities and large rural areas, only then take over the big cities "(5)" Do not fight no battle unprepared and do not fight no battle you are not sure of winning, make every effort to assure the victory in the given conditions "(4)" In every battle, concentrate an absolutely superior force (two, three, four and even five or six times the force of the enemy), encircled enemy troops completely (...). Strive to avoid battles of attrition in which we lose more than they earn, or we even defeated "(9)" Replace your strength with all weapons and most of the captured enemy personnel. The main sources of supply in materials and are effective in the face. "
Selected Writings of Mao
In this note we also find on the prisoners, which underlines the same principle of Sun Zi: "To effectively implement these thoughts we must proceed with a fundamental attitude ... respect for the human dignity of prisoners of war once which have lowered weapons. Wrong those who see this as a matter of technique and not as a basic attitude, and should correct their way of thinking "(Mao Zedong, selected writings, vol. II, p. 246). In the same volume of Selected Writings, we find the position to be taken by the militants of the Party to the people: "Our work should not consist merely in reciting to the people our political program, because no one would hear our words, we should instead tie the developments of the war and the lives of soldiers and the people, transforming the political mobilization in a smooth motion. "
Reference wei-ch'i
In the works of Mao are indeed often explicit or indirect references to the game and the strategy of wei-ch'i. In May 1938, in his essay "Problems of Strategy in the guerrilla war against Japan," Mao wrote, for example: "There are two forms of encirclement by the forces of the enemy and two forms of encirclement by us, just as in game of wei-ch'i. The campaigns and battles fought by both sides look like the capture of pieces of each and the displacement of fortresses from the enemy bases and guerrilla warfare on our part similar to the moves used to dominate spaces on the board. E 'in the matter of "dominate space" that proves the great role of the guerrilla bases located behind enemy lines. " A typical observation
wei-ch'i is instead reported in the following passage, which the author mentions in chapter III: "We can make a major campaign of encirclement and annihilation initiated by the enemy against us in a number of small and divided encirclement campaigns undertaken by us against the enemy. "
An education at the same time, modern and traditional
deny the important role of traditional training Mao means to want to forget that he, born to a peasant family of small business, after an initial phase in which the education was added to the daily work with his father, had decided to continue studying on their own, assisted by two tutors private, preferring the love of learning any other task. In fact, after leaving school at the age of thirteen in 1907 and worked full time in his father until 1910, Mao left Shaoshan, Hunan rural village where he was born in 1893 and moved to Xiantang , county seat will be here in polite letters - we would say today - modern and topical issues from a law student, and instruct a senior scholar in the classics, that Mao was able to study carefully and with deep interest. Following will be the story to attract her curiosity, so that, upon graduation, teach this discipline for a time at a middle school. Later, you will pay for editorial and journalistic activities, remaining in both literary and in the more important for him to politics and sociology. Throughout his life, finally, do not stop to compose verses in classical style, that would seem ill-suited to the impending revolution that has contributed decisively to overthrow the system of traditional China at the time of the Cultural Revolution.
Among the most studied and is known by Mao in the first place, The King, the masterpiece of divination - the classic Chinese philosophical thinking that underlies most of the later works of Chinese literature. Secondly, surely, the work of Sun Zi, The Art of War, mastered by all educated Chinese, and in a piecemeal fashion and in the form of maxims, even from the great mass of Chinese people. Not Finally, the corpus of Confucian writings (as, perhaps, negative) and, especially for some remarkable connections between the concept of inactivity Taoist and Chinese military thinking, the Taoist writings.
To better understand the thinking behind the work King, which could form the basis of the first traditional Chinese thought to strategic military base that speculation because of the tradition of wei-ch'i, we see what are the characteristics of the work and his philosophy. The
The King, the foundation of all I
The King (or Book of Changes) is a collection of oracles and explanations on how to deal with different life events, especially in the development and came to us in the comments attributed (especially in the West) to Confucius. The attribution to Confucius is very doubtful, not only because, in any case, we have not signed pieces or definitely attributed to him (if one can speak of Confucian school, with its own version of I impostasi King for political reasons ), but also because other major schools, such as Taoist, were (and are) directly involved in the commentary and the transmission of the teachings of the I King.
The work itself is divided into two sections: in one of the oracles are real, with information on divination with three bundles of coins or yarrow stalks, in the other, are given short explanatory sentences. The origins of the section on oracles probably get lost in prehistory, and are to be found in the practice of response based on a double chance to answer yes or no, perhaps written on a piece of string with a knot or two nodes. The positive response was also indicated with a horizontal line whole, while the negative one with a broken horizontal line in the middle by a space, or approached by two short horizontal lines (as if to say yes a hit or a stretch, no knock or two two sections). Soon (as some claim, probably correctly, from the beginning) the minimum starting structure was that consists of eight trigrams. Subsequently, the complexity of the issues must have given rise to the need for other lines (whole or broken), until reaching the current system, very complex, consisting of three horizontal lines of 8 characters each. These are doubled (six lines each) and combined to form a total of 64 figures.
The Western tradition, especially modern, is based on the concept of substance as a fundamental starting point of all speculation. The vision underlying the eastern part of the divination of the I King instead a vision of the existence of a mainly dynamic: what matters is only what is happening and what is being transformed. All reality is seen as a continuous transformation of a situation to another, so you can not establish, once and for all, what a thing is absolute, but only what it is at a given when and if it is changing - or not. This approach is possible because the material dimension of existence is nothing but a projection, or rather, the translation of a series of transformations that occur in intangible: there is another reality, made up of principles spiritual which is the basis of everything that happens in our dimension. After all, this is, in this second case, a setting very close to that of the old traditional thinking of the West (think Plato's Timaeus) and medieval history, which sees the material world, the final structure of the principles of other (mathematical relationships, geometric figures), which directly influence. The symbols of I then the King would be more direct translation, geometrically and tangible of these spiritual principles, of which they form the photo at the exact moment the oracle. Translated into political and military terms, this world view leads to the following concepts:
1. there is no absolute victory or absolute defeat, everything is constantly changing so what is apparently a defeat can be turned into a win and vice versa;
2. in terms of space, the center and the periphery have relative value: if the goal is the conquest of territory, what is central, apparently more important (city, industrial centers) has less space what is peripheral (large areas of the border, the enormous campaigns) on the basis of the foregoing, what is peripheral can then become more important than what is central
3. since the Yin and Yang are in each other and their quantity can affect the dynamics of things, increase the amount of a principle in the other may lead to a significant transformation of the events and introduce unit operating in the enemy camp (for example, enemy in the rear) can create imbalances that eventually may lead to reverse the polarity of the situation;
From a historical perspective, the Book of Changes is associated with five Traditional Chinese characters: the mythical Fu Xi, King Wen, his son, the Duke of Ch'ou, Lau Tzu and Confucius. Probably, the award to Fu Xi of the first characters of the I King aims to survey the antiquity. Next, we recall two collections of oracles, composed, probably, from basic features already linked together by Lian Shan, the Xia dynasty, and K'ue Cang, the Shang Dynasty. The edition with 64 signs is probably due to the King Wen, the signs that would integrate with short sentences of comment. More extensive comments regarding individual signs would then be added by the son of Wen, the Duke of Ch'ou. The great Chinese thinker Confucius I would have the King directly from one of the greatest Chinese philosophers of all time, Lau Zi, and you would be interested in commenting on these ancient texts, as reported by the Confucian school, in this bitterly fought by other schools, a part. There are known several other comments of a later period, however, only partially preserved.
A thesis defensible?
The careful analysis of the work of Boorman leads us to ask a fundamental question: the arguments advanced are still viable in light of recent studies on the history of the conquest of power by the Chinese Communist Party? I would answer in a provocative way: today Is it possible to doubt some views of the author not so much according to recent studies on modern strategy of Communist China, but on the basis of a study of its most famous Chinese classics. Works such as The King and the Art of War by Sun Zi allow us to understand that the similarities found between the game of wei-ch'i and the conquest of power by the Chinese Communist Party are not the result of a direct influence of game strategy and military policy pursued since 1927 to end the civil war, but the result of a cultural common ground, starting from I King, has given rise to both strands, and the strategic operations - such as military that of Sun Zi, is the strategic game of wei-ch'i.
We will be able to see more than the text of the interview released by the Chinese scholar Nan Jin Xi, a scholar of traditional Chinese medicine, deep knowledge of the I King, whose father had served as minister in the government of Mao Zedong from which it clear that it is not so much (or only) the wei-ch'i to influence contemporary Chinese military strategic thinking, just as all the classical Chinese civilization that created the rules of personal conduct, social, military and are in wei-ch'i, the highest form Coding abstract.
On the other hand, the wei-ch'i has been completed in a period of continuous warfare, so the common elements of the entire philosophical tradition, social, merged in ancient Chinese military strategy game considered the pastime your favorite strategists and generals. In this regard, it is indicative that the list of disciplines practiced by the educated class Chinese wei-ch'i was only after the music (the most important disciplines, able to move the mind and soul) and was followed calligraphy (union of thought and representation) and painting (the most intuitive interface between these disciplines accessible to more people). Unlike chess, either in Chinese than in Western Europe, the wei-ch'i was not a job where he could engage the general public, lots of wei-ch'i lasted, in fact, even whole days, and were therefore the prerogative of a class of nobility or military might have the necessary time.
Breaking a spear but also in favor of the author's thesis, let me conclude by presenting a brief mention of the utmost importance for understanding how the wei-ch'i, in its Japanese form (Go) were cultivated and studied mainly by the military class in the Far East. In the bibliography, Boorman reported that Stewart Culin, in his work of the late nineteenth century (Korean Games, with Notes on Corresponding Games of China and Japan, Philadelphia, 1895, reprinted in 1958), wrote: "The game of Go is extremely popular in Japan nowadays, and it is played by the military by profession who see it as an exercise in military tactics and very instructive for the art of war. "
(...)
Interview with Nan Xi Jin (3)
What is the meaning and importance of the game of wei-ch'i in traditional thinking Chinese?
"The wei-ch'i game is considered a fairly high level, suitable for people of a certain culture. The traditional system of China, were the four major disciplines covered by the high end of Chinese society: first, the music, which is not only a discipline related to hearing, but to sophisticated processes that regulate the vibration it is the practice of internal Qi. Thus, the wei-ch'i, writing and painting. The order of importance is decreasing, so we see how the wei-ch'i has an important role, coming second behind the music. His value was essentially didactic. The wei-ch'i
is considered far superior to the art of painting because it was considered too subjective and direct, accessible to all. Writing, however, performed with the brush, as well as having a notional, such as painting, should have a soul, a spiritual dimension. The figurative dimension is always present in the characters, some of which are still easily recognizable objects are represented: for example, through the ideogram shui, which means the water. The wei-ch'i is considered one of the most important lessons in it because there are the basic concepts of traditional Chinese thought, as the opposition between yin and yang, represented by the black and white pieces, as well as all the events that occur on the board. It represents the entire universe, both in space and in time: for example, the 361 intersections of the board symbolize the 361 days of the Chinese, while the rounded, semi-spherical, individual pieces of the universe takes the time , as was originally intended, as seen from our dimension. For these reasons, those who study the wei-ch'i know the Chinese philosophy in its entirety. There is also a sociological dimension, interpersonal the game of wei-ch'i: two are the contenders and the moves of one, the counter-match the other: how will the other choices I made? The study of warfare is based on the analysis then the psychology of both sides. "
When was the wei-ch'i, and such occasions?
"The wei-ch'i was born in a very troubled, marked by constant wars, and is based in particular on the study of strategy.
From this analysis it was shown how wars are won not only by the number of its soldiers, but, for example, according to the location that you had. The fundamental principles were those consisting of five key points that will be defined by Sun Zi: The Way (Tao), weather (t'ien), soil (ti) General (chiang), the tactic (ago) .
The game dates from the end of the dynasty Ch'ou (lasting from about the eleventh century BC to 256 BC). Around 475 BC the first period of the dynasty ends and another begins. Between 770 BC and 475 BC are located some of the greatest thinkers of Chinese thought (as Lau Zi, Confucius, Sun Zi). The work of Sun Zi (Sun Authoritative) is actually divided into two parts: one composed by an ancestor, another by his nephew (five generations later). As we know from history, this troubled period was marked by 500 years of wars, during which the game theorists were able to refine it and bring it to high levels of strategy. The first source of the thought of wei-ch'i, who was of a philosophical, in particular related to the E King, turned around this time in an exercise in military strategy. On the other hand, as always with Chinese dates, it is difficult to trace to the source before the wei-ch'i: even if some say you can place it around 4000 years ago, its development dates back to typical about 2500 years ago. " You can
argue that this traditional view and, in particular, that relating to the wei-ch'i, it is kept up to date, or something has changed?
"Compared to the ancient times there was a big change. The game is a lot of people fell into account. We passed the second most important discipline of classical training in a game, similar to that of chess. In the ancient world the wei-ch'i was fundamental to fill the role of minister, as governor of a region, it was necessary to have an excellent knowledge of the game. Nowadays there is no longer, as before, a real examination of wei-ch'i, it is nevertheless thought that it embodied. In this way, who wants to study this traditional thinking, should study this game.
Formerly the wei-ch'i was not widespread among the people and was the prerogative only of intellectuals. After the last dynasty of China and the proclamation of the Republic (1912), had fallen completely the need of the official teachings of the wei-ch'i, and no longer required the student to understand so thoroughly the game. The consequence is that his practice has moved to amateur enthusiasts who study and practice games with purpose. Under Mao, finally, it was come to classify the game of wei-ch'i as a sport, with the organization of tournaments, but eliminating it features more closely Military Strategy. "
The poor dissemination of knowledge of wei-ch'i is linked to a number of reasons: first, it is not a compulsory subject (as was in the past), and second, it takes a long time (even days and days), something that even in the past could afford only the monks, the rich, or ministers of a certain level. "
Formerly this practice was practiced primarily by strategic commanders, generals, people who belong in any case the upper class of Chinese society. He met by chance strategists, generals, politicians Chinese who have dedicated themselves with passion to this game?
am the daughter of a politician who has served as minister in the government of Mao, and I met a Maoist general of the gun that was believed to be one of the greatest masters of wei-ch'i. This means that even during the Communist period, there were strategy (however few) aware of the typical strategies of wei-ch'i. On the other hand, the first generation of Communists had been born and lived more in touch with traditional knowledge.
Scott A. Boorman, in his book Chess Mao says that the strategy followed by the Maoist revolution has been, in some way affected by the setting of strategic wei-ch'i. According to the author, not only there would be numerous references to the wei-ch'i in the writings of Chairman Mao, but there is also a practical translation of the strategy of wei-ch'i in numerous military campaigns and foreign policy in China at the . What is your opinion of them?
know the book but I have not had a chance to read it, so I can not give a specific opinion on it. But on this, just think that Mao had a classical education, then the game of wei-ch'i belonged to that type of teaching. Poetry and writing were considered by him - as well as the first generation of Communists - the best disciplines. As far as I know in my lifetime I can not confirm that the relationship between Mao and the wei-ch'i were very close. Even my grandfather, who was born in 1895 (two years after Mao) has never heard that Mao was a fan of this game or that he played with some minister who was very close to my father. The two arts he loved was his poetry and writing.
Regarding the strategies applied in its conquest of power, you can find many points of contact with The Art of War by Sun Zi. Thus, the common ground exists, but not directly, and there is no evidence that testify to a particular fondness for Mao's wei-ch'i, or the application of the typical strategies of the game for military operations. On the other hand, the best way to study the art of war is to practice the wei-ch'i: it is all over the battlefield, with rivers, mountains, soldiers, armies, movements, time, in great detail. I, however, confirm that Mao knew very well the King, and who knows The King has a thorough understanding of the art of war. The same Sun Zi has made use of the E King, and, because the King is the trunk of the whole Chinese culture, his work, The Art of War is only a branch of the same tree. In my opinion, for these reasons, Mao was much closer to the work of Sun Zi wei-ch'i, even if he knew the wei-ch'i and knew how to play. "
The last question I ask: apart from the works we have seen (The King, Sun Zi), what other important texts of the classical Chinese tradition continue to exert some influence on Chinese thought today, and how?
"All of these works, along with others, are now part of mainstream culture in China: for example, is typical of this culture also use the art of war in everyday things. The works do not are perhaps fully investigated or known by heart, but many proverbs, expressions of wisdom, everyday behavior, ultimately go back to this traditional knowledge. For example, "Who enjoys happy," is the translation of a thought right Lau Zi. Art of War by Sun Zi, usually, people do not know both the original text, believed to be difficult, but the content summary in so-called Thirty-six military strategies, often used in everyday life. Among these, the strategy I quote: "The flight is the best thing," something that was often practiced by Mao in the war while undermining opponents referring to concepts as diverse traditional Western art of war. The same thing happened to many Chinese general who had studied abroad (for example, in France, Belgium or the Netherlands) when they were in contact with the strategies of Mao remained completely baffled. It was not perhaps of profound strategic concepts, but of simple maxims military successfully applied in many theaters of war: China, Vietnam, Korea. Follow the course of your nature in that moment and in that space (typical traditional teaching), results in setting typical of traditional, often repeated by Mao: If we win, we fight, if you lose, retire. Another maximum derived from the Art of War di Sun Zi - e spesso utilizzata - è: vince chi conosce se stesso e chi conosce l'altro.
Oggi, il successo dell'Arte della Guerra (anche nel mondo occidentale) è dovuto soprattutto ai suoi risvolti in campo economico: molti economisti, finanzieri o commercianti, traggono non pochi insegnamenti dallo studio di alcune strategie dell'Arte della Guerra. Per esempio, come non è necessariamente vincente chi ha tanti soldati, ma chi sa usarli meglio, così nell'economia moderna non è vincente chi ha tanti soldi, ma chi li sa usare meglio. La formica può mangiare l'elefante, se sa giocare bene le proprie carte!". (4)
Notes 1) Introduction (apparent contradiction) work Scott A. Boorman, Chess Mao, Luni Editrice, Milano 2004 .
2) This and subsequent quotations are taken from the Art of War by: Sun Tzu, The Art of War, edited by Leonardo Vittorio Arena, BUR, Milano 1997.
3) Nan Jin Xi, born in Hebei (China) on 14.04.1948, married, two children. She has been trained in traditional Chinese medicine along with some of the leading exponents of traditional Chinese disciplines. Deep knowledge of the I King, operates as a popularizer of traditional Chinese thought in China and abroad. The father served as minister during the presidency of Mao Zedong.
4) Interview by Nan Jin Xi, with the participation of the child as a translator Jin, Milan, June 7, 2004.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Herpes Inside My Nose
The Kojiki and the mythological origins of Japan
We welcome the emergence of a new translation, directly from the Japanese text, a work of historical, literary and religious of the most important of Japan, completed in 712 AD (1) The author of translation, Paul Villani, is a researcher at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Catania and collaborates with the teaching of Japanese language and culture of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Naples "L'Orientale". He has written two important works, Shintoism. Variations on linguistic and religious themes (1990) and Introduction to the History of Thought in East Asia (1998).
The events narrated in the work
Perhaps the most fascinating part of this work on the origins of Japanese mythology is that which describes the origins of the archipelago and the first stories of gods and men. The last of a series Izanagi and Izanami are. Izanagi, the floating bridge of Heaven, plunges a spear into the water below, then lifts and drops that fall from an island is formed. The two gods descend on the island and, after performing a ritual dance around a sacred pole, merge, and generate the main islands of Japan. Izanami also generates the god of fire, born, burn and kill his mother, who descends into the underworld (Yomi). Izanagi then drops himself in the world of the dead to return to earth Izanami, but since it has already eaten the food of the dead, is horribly disfigured and his body eaten by worms hell-beings are born. Izanami became ashamed to be so horrible and out against the ex-lover, the demons of hell. Izanagi fled, unable to return to the world of the living and seal with a large stone entrance into the kingdom of the dead. Izanami kill every day a large number of living beings, Izanagi, but will try to make it rise to a greater number.
Back in the living world, Izanagi undergoes a cleansing ritual to purify the contamination of death, charged with this energy and water contaminant three gods are born. Amaterasu, the sun goddess, Susanoo, the god of storms, and Tsukiyomi, the moon god. Amaterasu and Susanoo are fighting over questions of power, and Susanoo performs acts which, according to the ancient Japanese code, actual sins, as contaminate certain environments break the dikes of rice fields, lay uncovered in the building of a horse skinned sister on the other hand .
Amaterasu, enraged, be contained within a cave, plunges the world into darkness. The gods are doing everything to get her out and eventually they succeed: Amaterasu peeking from the opening of the cave and is then blown out. Back light, Susanoo was exiled on earth. After a certain period of time, Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi on earth with the task of recovering the power exercised by Susanoo. Susanoo gives power, and Amaterasu Delivery Ninigi the three imperial symbols: the jewel Yasaka, Yata mirror, the sword Kusanagi, and Ninigi leads his clan to Kiushu Yamato. Jinmu descend His empire based in 660 BC
considerations
The stories told were written down in the eighth century, and are a key revision in imperial affairs and diverse histories, formed over the centuries in the various clan of ancient Japan. They point out the clear figure of the divine origin of the Tenno (emperor), indicating as before a deity was the goddess Amaterasu specification of the Yamato clan, while the deity Susanoo constituted perhaps the most important clans of Izumo. Ninigi symbolizes the alliance between Yamato, purchasing powers of command, and Izumo, which maintains a religious independence. The symbols of imperial power is transmitted to Ninigi, then by him to the legendary first emperor. It can be assumed that the transition from the native Jomon culture (fusion of Siberia, Pacific, Southeast Asia) to the subsequent Yayoi civilization coincided with the arrival of people from mainland Southeast Asia, that would be superimposed on the previous civilizations, including the introduction of agriculture as the primary means of subsistence. In both cases this would be peaceful civilization. In the first centuries AD C., Chinese sources speak of the population of the Wa, who have lived both sides of the Strait of Korea, in Japan there are many small states (clan?), Headed by men and women, and thereafter takes on particular importance and the empress state Yamata (Yamato?). We know that people around the fourth century from Korea arrived in Japan are knights, soldiers with a remarkable warrior culture, which overlap with the earlier civilizations, domination and merging with them. In 395 Japan made an expedition to Korea, occupying the territories in the south. From this "melting pot" will be born the basic structure on which it will build the next Japanese civilization.
The work, published in the series Letteratura universale Marsilio, is thus presented by the publisher:
"The Kojiki takes shape in the sphere of dynastic Japanese court between the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth In those key decades in the history of Japan, the centralization of political power is accompanied by critical changes in the dominant culture. The model of Chinese civilization tends to become dominant in all fields of knowledge and harness in their stylistic also the official written language. The Kojiki (literally "old things written ') deviates from this trend because it also approved his writing comes from orality. The work gives asylum to acting in fact likely, possibly mnemonic, made by a Yasumaro Are the draw, the revision of obsolete documents 'restored' to a design of the sovereign Tenmu. The result is a text in which we find, or already in germ in flower, form and content that have inspired great art, first literary archipelago. It is also the oldest existing documentation of Japanese culture, a mine from which it drew information philologists, historians, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, politicians .
Thanks to this translation, preceded by a brief but significant introduction, followed by an agile and footnotes, the Kojiki, until now only available in an old edition dated axes, intends to readers with renewed freshness and in a form very agile.
Notes
1) (ed.) Paul Villani, Kojiki. A tale of ancient events, Marsilio 2006. Review published in Arts of the Orient, 2007.
We welcome the emergence of a new translation, directly from the Japanese text, a work of historical, literary and religious of the most important of Japan, completed in 712 AD (1) The author of translation, Paul Villani, is a researcher at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Catania and collaborates with the teaching of Japanese language and culture of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Naples "L'Orientale". He has written two important works, Shintoism. Variations on linguistic and religious themes (1990) and Introduction to the History of Thought in East Asia (1998).
The events narrated in the work
Perhaps the most fascinating part of this work on the origins of Japanese mythology is that which describes the origins of the archipelago and the first stories of gods and men. The last of a series Izanagi and Izanami are. Izanagi, the floating bridge of Heaven, plunges a spear into the water below, then lifts and drops that fall from an island is formed. The two gods descend on the island and, after performing a ritual dance around a sacred pole, merge, and generate the main islands of Japan. Izanami also generates the god of fire, born, burn and kill his mother, who descends into the underworld (Yomi). Izanagi then drops himself in the world of the dead to return to earth Izanami, but since it has already eaten the food of the dead, is horribly disfigured and his body eaten by worms hell-beings are born. Izanami became ashamed to be so horrible and out against the ex-lover, the demons of hell. Izanagi fled, unable to return to the world of the living and seal with a large stone entrance into the kingdom of the dead. Izanami kill every day a large number of living beings, Izanagi, but will try to make it rise to a greater number.
Back in the living world, Izanagi undergoes a cleansing ritual to purify the contamination of death, charged with this energy and water contaminant three gods are born. Amaterasu, the sun goddess, Susanoo, the god of storms, and Tsukiyomi, the moon god. Amaterasu and Susanoo are fighting over questions of power, and Susanoo performs acts which, according to the ancient Japanese code, actual sins, as contaminate certain environments break the dikes of rice fields, lay uncovered in the building of a horse skinned sister on the other hand .
Amaterasu, enraged, be contained within a cave, plunges the world into darkness. The gods are doing everything to get her out and eventually they succeed: Amaterasu peeking from the opening of the cave and is then blown out. Back light, Susanoo was exiled on earth. After a certain period of time, Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi on earth with the task of recovering the power exercised by Susanoo. Susanoo gives power, and Amaterasu Delivery Ninigi the three imperial symbols: the jewel Yasaka, Yata mirror, the sword Kusanagi, and Ninigi leads his clan to Kiushu Yamato. Jinmu descend His empire based in 660 BC
considerations
The stories told were written down in the eighth century, and are a key revision in imperial affairs and diverse histories, formed over the centuries in the various clan of ancient Japan. They point out the clear figure of the divine origin of the Tenno (emperor), indicating as before a deity was the goddess Amaterasu specification of the Yamato clan, while the deity Susanoo constituted perhaps the most important clans of Izumo. Ninigi symbolizes the alliance between Yamato, purchasing powers of command, and Izumo, which maintains a religious independence. The symbols of imperial power is transmitted to Ninigi, then by him to the legendary first emperor. It can be assumed that the transition from the native Jomon culture (fusion of Siberia, Pacific, Southeast Asia) to the subsequent Yayoi civilization coincided with the arrival of people from mainland Southeast Asia, that would be superimposed on the previous civilizations, including the introduction of agriculture as the primary means of subsistence. In both cases this would be peaceful civilization. In the first centuries AD C., Chinese sources speak of the population of the Wa, who have lived both sides of the Strait of Korea, in Japan there are many small states (clan?), Headed by men and women, and thereafter takes on particular importance and the empress state Yamata (Yamato?). We know that people around the fourth century from Korea arrived in Japan are knights, soldiers with a remarkable warrior culture, which overlap with the earlier civilizations, domination and merging with them. In 395 Japan made an expedition to Korea, occupying the territories in the south. From this "melting pot" will be born the basic structure on which it will build the next Japanese civilization.
The work, published in the series Letteratura universale Marsilio, is thus presented by the publisher:
"The Kojiki takes shape in the sphere of dynastic Japanese court between the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth In those key decades in the history of Japan, the centralization of political power is accompanied by critical changes in the dominant culture. The model of Chinese civilization tends to become dominant in all fields of knowledge and harness in their stylistic also the official written language. The Kojiki (literally "old things written ') deviates from this trend because it also approved his writing comes from orality. The work gives asylum to acting in fact likely, possibly mnemonic, made by a Yasumaro Are the draw, the revision of obsolete documents 'restored' to a design of the sovereign Tenmu. The result is a text in which we find, or already in germ in flower, form and content that have inspired great art, first literary archipelago. It is also the oldest existing documentation of Japanese culture, a mine from which it drew information philologists, historians, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, politicians .
Thanks to this translation, preceded by a brief but significant introduction, followed by an agile and footnotes, the Kojiki, until now only available in an old edition dated axes, intends to readers with renewed freshness and in a form very agile.
Notes
1) (ed.) Paul Villani, Kojiki. A tale of ancient events, Marsilio 2006. Review published in Arts of the Orient, 2007.
Gallerias Melina Velba
The Jewish Kabbalah and the significance of the number
The term Kabbalah comes from the Semitic root QBL / KBL, already attested in Akkadian, and is connected to the concept of "receive" something. It 'also saw another aspect, this "reception" would be in a meeting, as attested by the same form in Arabic, where the verb Qabala means "encounter." This was therefore something that is received during a meeting, as was to between man, symbolized in the Jewish tradition, from Moses and the divinity, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on Mount Sinai.
What is given to man is the law, in its dual form, written, represented by the Tablets of the Law, and the oral instruction given to Moses directly by God, presumably to better interpret the Law written, and that they will pass by people chosen at initiation. This teaching, which is the esoteric tradition (meaning intended for a few select people), is the Kabbalah (Reception).
Ever since the most ancient Jewish tradition it has always known a double tradition of the Pentateuch (in Hebrew, Torah): one, written and oral, as attested by numerous passages of ancient works. In the Babylonian Talmud, for example, shows that the response of Rabbi Shammai, when asked by a pagan Torote how many (plural of Torah) were Jews, he replied: "Two, the written and oral Torah."
In a later period the term was to take a number of different meanings, though always characterized by some fundamental points in common: the oral tradition, transmitted to a limited number followers of the spiritual and psycho-physical characteristics of individual followers, the object of meditation and study (the written text of the Torah and a few other books of the Old Testament).
importance of the esoteric
A good example on the issue comes to us from some Jewish groups, for example, the early Christians, as it attests to the New Testament (Gospel of Mark), from which we take the steps that emphasize ' importance of oral tradition and esoteric approach: Jesus teaches, like other rabbis, starting from the texts of Scripture, but said the texts using at least two levels orally: an illustration in the form of parables, addressed to all, and a clarification esoteric applied only to selected people: "With many such parables proclaimed the word to them, according to what they were capable of understanding it, and without parables he did not speak to them, but to his disciples in private and explained everything "(Mark 4.33 to 34). "When he was alone, the disciples with the twelve asked him about the parables, and he replied:" To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside ( ekéinois de tois Éxo ), everything is in parables (...) "(Mark 4.10 to 12).
element esoteric therefore of fundamental importance: it is based on the fact that the Torah was originally written for the primordial Adam before the fall, and then when it would be in a condition is incomparably superior to that of modern man. This Torah of fire, after the fall (in the post-Eden) could not be communicated to man in its original form, otherwise it would have an imperfect being able to know the mysteries of the universe (assuming that these were not fully destroyed by its unbearable light) and had to be changed, adapted to the capacity of the new fallen creature. Only special people, choices among the most qualified in terms of age, moral rectitude, preparation, could, with an assiduous study, the help of the Oral Torah and the divine illumination of fire access this Torah, which is contained in the text of ' other Torah, and know well, the secrets of the world and the divine will.
The Torah, the genetic code of the Universe
Since the written Torah is the word of God, it is also something of the divine transcendence, flakes of divine light, which can be found by analyzing the text itself. If you also consider that the primordial Torah was seen, we would say today, as the genetic code of the universe, the matrix from which all things would arise, it is understandable that his study was felt to be the best way to penetrate the secrets of the world and at the same time, the most appropriate way to know God's will and the way forward of the divinity in creation. To better understand this concept we could imagine the creation of deities as a double movement: first, you have the creation of the Torah (the matrix of the Universe), and then, through the Torah, you create the entire Universe. Without fall into some form of emanationist, however, we see the Torah as a filter, matrix, through which pass the creative energies of the Godhead: as they are modulated according to the parameters of the Torah and take the shape of things known and unknown.
E 'evident from this simplification, because the world is nothing but the translation of spiritual divine material filtered from the Torah, will be fully justified in the dual approach to knowledge: that through the study of Torah, undoubtedly the main and the most fruitful, and that through the study of the world. In theory, it would conceivable, from the study of the world, going back to the matrix, the Torah, as well as, starting from the study of the Torah, it would be possible to know all of creation.
This array of fundamental importance for the understanding of numbers, the main topic of our article. Since the Torah is written in Hebrew letters, which also have a numeric value, the Torah can be seen as a set of numbers combined with each other: there are no differences between letter and number, the individual words (such as individual components of words) may be seen as sequences of numbers combined. Since Finally, in the words of Torah are the matrix of what exists, things will be represented by words or number sequences, you can even analyze things according to their numerical description, since it is not by chance but a consequence of the divine choice, should have a value that goes beyond description.
From this reasoning follows a tradition of numerical studies on the relationship of the verses, words, individual letters of a word, using methods of different combinations of them: Gematria, and the Notarikon Temurah
Gematria
The gematria (from the greek geometry) is a technique known since the Babylonians. It is based on the alphanumeric value of the letters, characteristic of many ancient languages, because each letter has a value both alphabetical and numeric values, you can switch from one to another to find similarities between words. It may be of different types: gematria of rank, and classical gematria gematria square. The gematria of the rank refers to the place occupied by the letters / numbers in the alphabet, 'alef 1, Bet 2, 3 and so on Ghimel. The classical gematria, to comply with this order number 10, then assigns the letters following decimal values: 20, 30, etc. .. The gematria square respects the basic values of classical gematria, but raised to: Bet (value 2) is 4; Ghimel (value 3), is 9. The system used is that of numerical identity: two different words, but with the same numerical value, can be considered similar and equivalent (if the direction straps). The gematria was probably introduced in Israel at the time of the Second Temple stood, and appears for the first time in the works of Tannaim the first centuries of our era. Of little importance in the halakhah (at least until the Hasidei Ashkenaz), it finds wide use in the Midrash, and is used by major authors such as Moses Ha-Darshan, Joseph Bekhor Shor, Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi.
deserve a special place the works of R. Eleazar of Worms, which use the method extensively, particularly for the use of ghematriot (plural of gematria) meditation on the words of the prayers (taking almost a mantra function ). Other users of gematria are authors as well HaKohen Jacon and Abraham Abulafia.
The Notarikon
The Notarikon is another method of reading the Bible is based on the transformation of entire Bible verses (or parts thereof) in acronyms, for example consisting in the initial letter of each word: the name of the Book of Zohar (in Hebrew typical transcription purely consonantal, ZHR can also be read as Ha-Zeh Reshit (This is the beginning ...) The
Temurah
The
Temurah is based on the permutation of individual letters, which lets you switch from one term to another, considered related to the first. The system used is that the so-called atbash For example, the first letter 'alef, you pay the least, Taw, the second, Bet, you pay the penultimate (Shin) and so below. The process can also be followed on the contrary: last in first and so on.
Interesting examples are also attested in the records, a fact which indicates that we are dealing with very old techniques of permutation: in Jeremiah 25.26: "The King of Sheshakh drink after them" (w-melek sheshak yishteh akhare'hem), "and in Jeremiah 51.41" How was taken Sheshakh (Ekh nilkdah Sheshak "the term Sheshak (SHSHK) is a permutation of BBL (Bavel, Babel), where Sh, penultimate letter of the alphabet is Beth, repeated twice, and Kapha (eleventh from 'alef) is Lamed (eleventh from Taw).
Conclusions
Kabbalistic insights on the value of the number are not isolated in ancient thought: indeed, we could say that, certainly, they may have been influenced by other traditions, as well as philosophers and scientists may have influenced other civilizations ;. And 'Just read the Timaeus to Plato's idea of how the universe conceived by him at the base there is a mathematical structure - Geometric, which precedes and constitutes the material world, or the The King, by Prince of ancient Chinese literature , which emphasizes that what is (not in an absolute sense, because this deals with the ancient Chinese thought, but at a given time), is nothing but the translation into the material world of geometric relationships in the spiritual dimension.
The Kabbalah has had the merit to saturate the operational value of this vision: it operates on the numbers and letters not only to manipulate reality, but above all to understand, to know better the will and the divine commandments, and then apply them in the world: the goal is the sanctification of the latter, to speed, so the redemption.
Bibliography
R. Tress, The Kabbalah, DVE, Milan 2004
The term Kabbalah comes from the Semitic root QBL / KBL, already attested in Akkadian, and is connected to the concept of "receive" something. It 'also saw another aspect, this "reception" would be in a meeting, as attested by the same form in Arabic, where the verb Qabala means "encounter." This was therefore something that is received during a meeting, as was to between man, symbolized in the Jewish tradition, from Moses and the divinity, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on Mount Sinai.
What is given to man is the law, in its dual form, written, represented by the Tablets of the Law, and the oral instruction given to Moses directly by God, presumably to better interpret the Law written, and that they will pass by people chosen at initiation. This teaching, which is the esoteric tradition (meaning intended for a few select people), is the Kabbalah (Reception).
Ever since the most ancient Jewish tradition it has always known a double tradition of the Pentateuch (in Hebrew, Torah): one, written and oral, as attested by numerous passages of ancient works. In the Babylonian Talmud, for example, shows that the response of Rabbi Shammai, when asked by a pagan Torote how many (plural of Torah) were Jews, he replied: "Two, the written and oral Torah."
In a later period the term was to take a number of different meanings, though always characterized by some fundamental points in common: the oral tradition, transmitted to a limited number followers of the spiritual and psycho-physical characteristics of individual followers, the object of meditation and study (the written text of the Torah and a few other books of the Old Testament).
importance of the esoteric
A good example on the issue comes to us from some Jewish groups, for example, the early Christians, as it attests to the New Testament (Gospel of Mark), from which we take the steps that emphasize ' importance of oral tradition and esoteric approach: Jesus teaches, like other rabbis, starting from the texts of Scripture, but said the texts using at least two levels orally: an illustration in the form of parables, addressed to all, and a clarification esoteric applied only to selected people: "With many such parables proclaimed the word to them, according to what they were capable of understanding it, and without parables he did not speak to them, but to his disciples in private and explained everything "(Mark 4.33 to 34). "When he was alone, the disciples with the twelve asked him about the parables, and he replied:" To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside ( ekéinois de tois Éxo ), everything is in parables (...) "(Mark 4.10 to 12).
element esoteric therefore of fundamental importance: it is based on the fact that the Torah was originally written for the primordial Adam before the fall, and then when it would be in a condition is incomparably superior to that of modern man. This Torah of fire, after the fall (in the post-Eden) could not be communicated to man in its original form, otherwise it would have an imperfect being able to know the mysteries of the universe (assuming that these were not fully destroyed by its unbearable light) and had to be changed, adapted to the capacity of the new fallen creature. Only special people, choices among the most qualified in terms of age, moral rectitude, preparation, could, with an assiduous study, the help of the Oral Torah and the divine illumination of fire access this Torah, which is contained in the text of ' other Torah, and know well, the secrets of the world and the divine will.
The Torah, the genetic code of the Universe
Since the written Torah is the word of God, it is also something of the divine transcendence, flakes of divine light, which can be found by analyzing the text itself. If you also consider that the primordial Torah was seen, we would say today, as the genetic code of the universe, the matrix from which all things would arise, it is understandable that his study was felt to be the best way to penetrate the secrets of the world and at the same time, the most appropriate way to know God's will and the way forward of the divinity in creation. To better understand this concept we could imagine the creation of deities as a double movement: first, you have the creation of the Torah (the matrix of the Universe), and then, through the Torah, you create the entire Universe. Without fall into some form of emanationist, however, we see the Torah as a filter, matrix, through which pass the creative energies of the Godhead: as they are modulated according to the parameters of the Torah and take the shape of things known and unknown.
E 'evident from this simplification, because the world is nothing but the translation of spiritual divine material filtered from the Torah, will be fully justified in the dual approach to knowledge: that through the study of Torah, undoubtedly the main and the most fruitful, and that through the study of the world. In theory, it would conceivable, from the study of the world, going back to the matrix, the Torah, as well as, starting from the study of the Torah, it would be possible to know all of creation.
This array of fundamental importance for the understanding of numbers, the main topic of our article. Since the Torah is written in Hebrew letters, which also have a numeric value, the Torah can be seen as a set of numbers combined with each other: there are no differences between letter and number, the individual words (such as individual components of words) may be seen as sequences of numbers combined. Since Finally, in the words of Torah are the matrix of what exists, things will be represented by words or number sequences, you can even analyze things according to their numerical description, since it is not by chance but a consequence of the divine choice, should have a value that goes beyond description.
From this reasoning follows a tradition of numerical studies on the relationship of the verses, words, individual letters of a word, using methods of different combinations of them: Gematria, and the Notarikon Temurah
Gematria
The gematria (from the greek geometry) is a technique known since the Babylonians. It is based on the alphanumeric value of the letters, characteristic of many ancient languages, because each letter has a value both alphabetical and numeric values, you can switch from one to another to find similarities between words. It may be of different types: gematria of rank, and classical gematria gematria square. The gematria of the rank refers to the place occupied by the letters / numbers in the alphabet, 'alef 1, Bet 2, 3 and so on Ghimel. The classical gematria, to comply with this order number 10, then assigns the letters following decimal values: 20, 30, etc. .. The gematria square respects the basic values of classical gematria, but raised to: Bet (value 2) is 4; Ghimel (value 3), is 9. The system used is that of numerical identity: two different words, but with the same numerical value, can be considered similar and equivalent (if the direction straps). The gematria was probably introduced in Israel at the time of the Second Temple stood, and appears for the first time in the works of Tannaim the first centuries of our era. Of little importance in the halakhah (at least until the Hasidei Ashkenaz), it finds wide use in the Midrash, and is used by major authors such as Moses Ha-Darshan, Joseph Bekhor Shor, Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi.
deserve a special place the works of R. Eleazar of Worms, which use the method extensively, particularly for the use of ghematriot (plural of gematria) meditation on the words of the prayers (taking almost a mantra function ). Other users of gematria are authors as well HaKohen Jacon and Abraham Abulafia.
The Notarikon
The Notarikon is another method of reading the Bible is based on the transformation of entire Bible verses (or parts thereof) in acronyms, for example consisting in the initial letter of each word: the name of the Book of Zohar (in Hebrew typical transcription purely consonantal, ZHR can also be read as Ha-Zeh Reshit (This is the beginning ...) The
Temurah
The
Temurah is based on the permutation of individual letters, which lets you switch from one term to another, considered related to the first. The system used is that the so-called atbash For example, the first letter 'alef, you pay the least, Taw, the second, Bet, you pay the penultimate (Shin) and so below. The process can also be followed on the contrary: last in first and so on.
Interesting examples are also attested in the records, a fact which indicates that we are dealing with very old techniques of permutation: in Jeremiah 25.26: "The King of Sheshakh drink after them" (w-melek sheshak yishteh akhare'hem), "and in Jeremiah 51.41" How was taken Sheshakh (Ekh nilkdah Sheshak "the term Sheshak (SHSHK) is a permutation of BBL (Bavel, Babel), where Sh, penultimate letter of the alphabet is Beth, repeated twice, and Kapha (eleventh from 'alef) is Lamed (eleventh from Taw).
Conclusions
Kabbalistic insights on the value of the number are not isolated in ancient thought: indeed, we could say that, certainly, they may have been influenced by other traditions, as well as philosophers and scientists may have influenced other civilizations ;. And 'Just read the Timaeus to Plato's idea of how the universe conceived by him at the base there is a mathematical structure - Geometric, which precedes and constitutes the material world, or the The King, by Prince of ancient Chinese literature , which emphasizes that what is (not in an absolute sense, because this deals with the ancient Chinese thought, but at a given time), is nothing but the translation into the material world of geometric relationships in the spiritual dimension.
The Kabbalah has had the merit to saturate the operational value of this vision: it operates on the numbers and letters not only to manipulate reality, but above all to understand, to know better the will and the divine commandments, and then apply them in the world: the goal is the sanctification of the latter, to speed, so the redemption.
Bibliography
R. Tress, The Kabbalah, DVE, Milan 2004
ساونا ابوظبى
The contribution of traditional Chinese medicine to pediatrics: the work of Luan Changy
The work Massotherapy pediatric (1) is perhaps the most significant contribution of a Chinese therapist conduct the ceremony at home, Dr. Luan Changyi, Division of Medicine traditional therapy center of Weihai, in Shandong province. The objective of the publication is to raise awareness of important theories and techniques of Chinese massage applied to children, as taught today in some of the major schools of traditional Chinese medicine. The text, which we report, except for some tables of correspondence, in its entirety, presents an important innovation compared to the editions translated into other languages to it are in fact some significant steps work side by side massage in early childhood, published in Beijing in the mid-'90s, the researchers and therapists Wenlong Jin, Lin Huifang, Wang Shucui, with the aim of integrating the above author with additional technical and further study of theoretical and practical. In particular, we report the observations (quotation marks in italics in the text) for the preparation of the massage, the management of the young child and those relating to the environment surroundings. Particularly valuable are the brief introductions, simple and clear, to diseases, clarifying some of the more technical steps Changyi, and the description of manipulation for some conditions not covered by the author, but of great use in pediatric massage.
The work of Luan Changy between tradition and modernity
Dr. Luan Changy is a specialist in massage therapy and exercises in the traditional medicine related to the treatment center of Weihai, Shandong. Born in 1937 in Gaixian in Liaoning Province, has devoted himself to the study of medicine Chinese at a very young age. After following the teachings of at least a dozen massage specialists, dedicated to theoretical research and clinical practice most of his life. The results of over thirty years of experience in this field are summarized in a number of relevant articles, published in the medical press, in some theoretical treatises of massage (Tuina from the pediatric massage therapy) and a series of pictorial .. The importance of
Changy lies mainly in the attempt, in our view able to present in a unified way and manipulation techniques originally very different from each other, and combine the traditional methods of massage traditional service with a series of observations the result of the modern practice of Chinese medicine, which does not hesitate, when appropriate, using the latest technology of the Western tradition, particularly in the diagnostic phase.
The author, in addition to managing a private school of massage, which he founded, he served as vice president of the Shandong Province of massage therapy, massage therapy for the President of the association of the city of Yantai and the Secretary-General Association study of manual treatments in traditional medicine in the city of Weihai.
Traditional Chinese Medicine: Evidence
medicine is practiced in China since ancient times: Some of acupuncture indicate how this discipline was in use in the Stone Age. The Chinese term bian is in fact defined in a dictionary of the Han period (206 BC - 220 AD) as a technique for using the stones for the cure of diseases. " It can therefore be assumed that they were sharp stones, applied to what we now call acupuncture points. Recent excavations at archaeological sites have brought to light substitutes for white stones of a later period, like needles made of different materials, the first bone and bamboo, then, from the Shang dynasty (sixteenth to eleventh century BC) bronze, finally, from the Han on, silver and gold. The work perhaps most important of Chinese medicine before our era is the Huangdi Nei Jing (Cannon of Internal Medicine), which deals in detail both the acupuncture and moxibustion. The Nej Jing, presumably composed in the late Warring States period (475-221 BC) already distinguishes nine different needles for different therapeutic results.
dynamic perception of the existence
Physiology Chinese studies the movement of energy in our body and the medicine is intended as an objective to act before the onset of the disease. It is based on the principle of qi (vital energy), the interpretation of existence in terms of double dynamic polarity (Yin - Yang) and the interaction between so-called Five Elements. The fundamental laws to consider are: 1. The change is continuous, 2. The various components are related.
Thus we see that it is only important what is happening and what is transformed: the reality is seen as a constant transformation of a situation to another, so you can determine just what one thing is at a given time, and whether or not it is changing, and not its absolute state.
Qi
Chinese medicine can not be understood without a definition of the concept of Qi. In modern language we define Qi as a field of highly ordered energy negative entropy is present everywhere in the universe and especially in more biological beings, capable of supporting the body's vital functions. Higher or lower concentrations of Qi, as well as his movements, according to Oriental medicine in general, can affect the health of biological beings. In a broad sense, the Qi is also the basic material of the universe, and each Everything that exists is the result of its transformations. You tried to approach the concept of Qi to that of dynamic ether, orgone energy (see Reich) or tachyonic field. The latter, in particular, currently at the level of scientific hypothesis, it would be a field consists of particles with velocities exceeding that of light and that would operate in one quadrant theory characterized by time and space to be negative and negative entropy: a field in practice where everything tries to compose himself in accordance with principles of order, to repair themselves, as is generally biological beings.
The traditional definition of Qi is very suggestive: vital warmth, nourishment life itself, moving between the earth and the sky. If you consider that the Chinese thought believes that man is in direct contact with the earth at the same time (on which lay the feet) and with the sky (which tends toward the head), it is not difficult to understand how energies of the cosmos, moving from heaven to earth and vice versa, pass through every person who thus becomes an integral part of various forms of energy.
This energy circulation, which occurs through specific channels (in particular, the main meridians and their collaterals) may be affected and influenced by appropriate techniques, such as, for example, the massage.
Polarities
Universe The universe is based on the interaction dynamics of two fundamental principles: the yin, or passive principle, female, negative polarity, and Yang, the active, masculine, positive polarity. The continuous movement of these two principles can be represented by the transition from day to night and vice versa: Yang gradually increases as the day progresses, and then decrease as the day falls; Yin, at the same time, it reduces more and more, and then increase again as the day goes down, resulting in a reduction of the Yang. The same goes for the season, switching from maximum period of rest (Yin) to a maximum of activity (Yang).
At the same time must be considered that nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang in the Yin Yang is a percentage, as well as in the Yang Yin is a percentage of these seeds and could be opposed, in each principle , to be the engine of the movement and transformation. The Chinese doctor aims to pay close attention to the relationships that exist between the two principles to be able to restore the balance between them using appropriate techniques. The characteristics that are evaluated by the therapist of Chinese medicine are, for the Yang Fire, Heat, dryness, hyperactivity, for the Yin Water, cold, humidity, hypoactivity. The disease occurs when the body creates an imbalance between the two principles in practice, when one consumes the other, as pointed out by the Nei Jing, "The excess of Yin Yang compromises, compromises the excess Yang Yin. Where "Yang, there will be demonstrations of heat, if it prevails the Yin, it highlights the Cold."
The theory of Five Elements
The ancient Chinese have traced precise correlation between the seasons of life and human life: how the life of nature is conditioned by the passing of the seasons, so man is conditioned by different states of his being, and called elements associated with particular elements of nature and the seasons themselves: Wood (Spring), Fire (summer), Earth (late summer ), Metal (autumn), water (winter). These phases are characterized by the dominance of Yang (Wood and Fire), by an intermediate situation (Earth, corresponding to the period of August and September), where the two principles are in balance, and the predominance of Yin (Metal and Water). The individual elements are constantly changing, transforming itself into one another, according to a cyclical pattern: this leads to a complete interdependence of an element second, that the following conditions and is conditioned by the former. The imbalance between the elements this produces an imbalance of Qi in the various levels of organization (physical, psychological, spiritual) with serious consequences for the health. It will thus be necessary, after an accurate diagnosis, to rebalance each element. The traditional Chinese massage, in its various forms, it is proposed to restore this balance right.
Notes (1) Luan Changyi, Massotherapy pediatric, Luni Editrice, Milano 2005.
The work Massotherapy pediatric (1) is perhaps the most significant contribution of a Chinese therapist conduct the ceremony at home, Dr. Luan Changyi, Division of Medicine traditional therapy center of Weihai, in Shandong province. The objective of the publication is to raise awareness of important theories and techniques of Chinese massage applied to children, as taught today in some of the major schools of traditional Chinese medicine. The text, which we report, except for some tables of correspondence, in its entirety, presents an important innovation compared to the editions translated into other languages to it are in fact some significant steps work side by side massage in early childhood, published in Beijing in the mid-'90s, the researchers and therapists Wenlong Jin, Lin Huifang, Wang Shucui, with the aim of integrating the above author with additional technical and further study of theoretical and practical. In particular, we report the observations (quotation marks in italics in the text) for the preparation of the massage, the management of the young child and those relating to the environment surroundings. Particularly valuable are the brief introductions, simple and clear, to diseases, clarifying some of the more technical steps Changyi, and the description of manipulation for some conditions not covered by the author, but of great use in pediatric massage.
The work of Luan Changy between tradition and modernity
Dr. Luan Changy is a specialist in massage therapy and exercises in the traditional medicine related to the treatment center of Weihai, Shandong. Born in 1937 in Gaixian in Liaoning Province, has devoted himself to the study of medicine Chinese at a very young age. After following the teachings of at least a dozen massage specialists, dedicated to theoretical research and clinical practice most of his life. The results of over thirty years of experience in this field are summarized in a number of relevant articles, published in the medical press, in some theoretical treatises of massage (Tuina from the pediatric massage therapy) and a series of pictorial .. The importance of
Changy lies mainly in the attempt, in our view able to present in a unified way and manipulation techniques originally very different from each other, and combine the traditional methods of massage traditional service with a series of observations the result of the modern practice of Chinese medicine, which does not hesitate, when appropriate, using the latest technology of the Western tradition, particularly in the diagnostic phase.
The author, in addition to managing a private school of massage, which he founded, he served as vice president of the Shandong Province of massage therapy, massage therapy for the President of the association of the city of Yantai and the Secretary-General Association study of manual treatments in traditional medicine in the city of Weihai.
Traditional Chinese Medicine: Evidence
medicine is practiced in China since ancient times: Some of acupuncture indicate how this discipline was in use in the Stone Age. The Chinese term bian is in fact defined in a dictionary of the Han period (206 BC - 220 AD) as a technique for using the stones for the cure of diseases. " It can therefore be assumed that they were sharp stones, applied to what we now call acupuncture points. Recent excavations at archaeological sites have brought to light substitutes for white stones of a later period, like needles made of different materials, the first bone and bamboo, then, from the Shang dynasty (sixteenth to eleventh century BC) bronze, finally, from the Han on, silver and gold. The work perhaps most important of Chinese medicine before our era is the Huangdi Nei Jing (Cannon of Internal Medicine), which deals in detail both the acupuncture and moxibustion. The Nej Jing, presumably composed in the late Warring States period (475-221 BC) already distinguishes nine different needles for different therapeutic results.
dynamic perception of the existence
Physiology Chinese studies the movement of energy in our body and the medicine is intended as an objective to act before the onset of the disease. It is based on the principle of qi (vital energy), the interpretation of existence in terms of double dynamic polarity (Yin - Yang) and the interaction between so-called Five Elements. The fundamental laws to consider are: 1. The change is continuous, 2. The various components are related.
Thus we see that it is only important what is happening and what is transformed: the reality is seen as a constant transformation of a situation to another, so you can determine just what one thing is at a given time, and whether or not it is changing, and not its absolute state.
Qi
Chinese medicine can not be understood without a definition of the concept of Qi. In modern language we define Qi as a field of highly ordered energy negative entropy is present everywhere in the universe and especially in more biological beings, capable of supporting the body's vital functions. Higher or lower concentrations of Qi, as well as his movements, according to Oriental medicine in general, can affect the health of biological beings. In a broad sense, the Qi is also the basic material of the universe, and each Everything that exists is the result of its transformations. You tried to approach the concept of Qi to that of dynamic ether, orgone energy (see Reich) or tachyonic field. The latter, in particular, currently at the level of scientific hypothesis, it would be a field consists of particles with velocities exceeding that of light and that would operate in one quadrant theory characterized by time and space to be negative and negative entropy: a field in practice where everything tries to compose himself in accordance with principles of order, to repair themselves, as is generally biological beings.
The traditional definition of Qi is very suggestive: vital warmth, nourishment life itself, moving between the earth and the sky. If you consider that the Chinese thought believes that man is in direct contact with the earth at the same time (on which lay the feet) and with the sky (which tends toward the head), it is not difficult to understand how energies of the cosmos, moving from heaven to earth and vice versa, pass through every person who thus becomes an integral part of various forms of energy.
This energy circulation, which occurs through specific channels (in particular, the main meridians and their collaterals) may be affected and influenced by appropriate techniques, such as, for example, the massage.
Polarities
Universe The universe is based on the interaction dynamics of two fundamental principles: the yin, or passive principle, female, negative polarity, and Yang, the active, masculine, positive polarity. The continuous movement of these two principles can be represented by the transition from day to night and vice versa: Yang gradually increases as the day progresses, and then decrease as the day falls; Yin, at the same time, it reduces more and more, and then increase again as the day goes down, resulting in a reduction of the Yang. The same goes for the season, switching from maximum period of rest (Yin) to a maximum of activity (Yang).
At the same time must be considered that nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang in the Yin Yang is a percentage, as well as in the Yang Yin is a percentage of these seeds and could be opposed, in each principle , to be the engine of the movement and transformation. The Chinese doctor aims to pay close attention to the relationships that exist between the two principles to be able to restore the balance between them using appropriate techniques. The characteristics that are evaluated by the therapist of Chinese medicine are, for the Yang Fire, Heat, dryness, hyperactivity, for the Yin Water, cold, humidity, hypoactivity. The disease occurs when the body creates an imbalance between the two principles in practice, when one consumes the other, as pointed out by the Nei Jing, "The excess of Yin Yang compromises, compromises the excess Yang Yin. Where "Yang, there will be demonstrations of heat, if it prevails the Yin, it highlights the Cold."
The theory of Five Elements
The ancient Chinese have traced precise correlation between the seasons of life and human life: how the life of nature is conditioned by the passing of the seasons, so man is conditioned by different states of his being, and called elements associated with particular elements of nature and the seasons themselves: Wood (Spring), Fire (summer), Earth (late summer ), Metal (autumn), water (winter). These phases are characterized by the dominance of Yang (Wood and Fire), by an intermediate situation (Earth, corresponding to the period of August and September), where the two principles are in balance, and the predominance of Yin (Metal and Water). The individual elements are constantly changing, transforming itself into one another, according to a cyclical pattern: this leads to a complete interdependence of an element second, that the following conditions and is conditioned by the former. The imbalance between the elements this produces an imbalance of Qi in the various levels of organization (physical, psychological, spiritual) with serious consequences for the health. It will thus be necessary, after an accurate diagnosis, to rebalance each element. The traditional Chinese massage, in its various forms, it is proposed to restore this balance right.
Notes (1) Luan Changyi, Massotherapy pediatric, Luni Editrice, Milano 2005.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Fix Broken Seam Couch Repair
Texts martial in Japan in the seventeenth century
early seventeenth century, a situation occurs in Japan, apparently, singular: at the exact moment when the art of the sword seems to have become less necessary to the survival of the old feudal system, now absorbed into the new form of government of the Tokugawa Shogunate, we are witnessing the emergence of some works of importance for the understanding of this' art noble, cultivated and loved to this day. The three works are, in chronological order, the Fudochi shinmyoroku (The testimony of the secret wisdom immutable) written in 1632 by monaco zen Takuan Soho, the Heiho Kadensho (The sword that gives life, also known as The Book of martial traditions of the clan), written by Yagyu Munemori since 1632 and Gorin-no-sho ("The Book of Five Rings "or" five elements ") by Miyamoto Musashi, written between 1643 and 1645.
These are three works that describe the traditional teachings (and those specific to individual teachers who wrote them), and deliver to posterity a legacy of important theories and techniques of the art of Japanese sword. The work of Takuan Soho is clearly the result of apprenticeship Zen master, and has a more philosophical, while that of Miyamoto Musashi is instead an eminently practical. The book we are dealing with today, the sword that gives life, but constitutes a very important combination of these two different approaches: Munemori, in fact, teach techniques, but do not step away from the Zen that permeates all the time. Among the reasons for this proliferation of sword masters and theoretical texts, there is a phenomenon that had already occurred in the Muromachi period (1336-1568), namely the formation of numerous martial arts schools, many of which arose according to their founders, for divine inspiration.
Munemori Yagyu's life (1571-1646)
Son of one of the greatest swordsmen of the sixteenth century, Yagyu Sekishusai Muneyoshi, Munemori sees a decided his fate day of 1594, when only twenty-three, during a meeting with the future shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, was asked by his father, whom Hideyoshi had applied to become a master of his sword, to substitute teaching. Munemori became the heir and the continuation of the tradition of his father, who had joined the teaching style of the traditional Shinto style of Tomita and also to learn from Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Hidetsuna and his pupils, Shinkage-Ryu style. Munemori perfected this style in Shinkage Yagyu-Ryu, taught to this day. A friend of Takuan Soho, a contemporary of Miyamoto Musashi, Munemori acts as a master swordsman of the Tokugawa for three generations, teaching the child Ieyasu, Hidetada, and his son, Iemitsu. The story passed down a story of the life of Munemori impressive: it took place in 1615, during the terrible battle of Osaka, during which one of the opponents of the Tokugawa, Toyotomi, asserragliatosi in the castle is protected by more than sixty thousand soldiers, sent a group of assailants in the opposing camp, which had managed to get almost to the tent of the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. The assailants killed the Shogun would probably have if they had not met a man of middle age, he tied the horse in front of the Shogun, confronted the soldiers and killed seven with expertise quickly than ever, while the others were attacked by Hidetada guards. The work
Munemori Yagyu, as we wrote, was the legacy of great masters such as, for example, Matsumoto, Ikoasai, Kamiizumi and Sekishusai, encoded in Shinkage Yagyu-ryu. The book The sword that gives life Munemori summarizes the thinking of the art of sword, presenting the style he brought to perfection. Munemori is found in the work of the great tradition of Zen masters, the result of the influence of Takuan Soho, who was sent to our author the concept of Zen Ichiyo ken (sword and uniqueness of Zen), so Soho as he had taught: "There are many occasions when martial arts and Buddhism are in harmony and where the martial arts can be understood through Zen. Both abhor in a particular attachment and fixation on things ... It does not matter what kind of secret tradition has been entrusted, or the technique used: if the mind is fixed on this technique, the defeat is certain martial arts. Regardless of the opponent's actions, which are affected to a cut or touched, is a fundamental exercise of self-discipline never fix your mind. " Should therefore rule out any type of attachment, and reach the condition of no-mind.
Thus, Munemori, we see that the objective of the exercise of the art is to transcend the technology itself: the continuous exercise must lead to internalize the technical aspects, as long as the mind is no longer able to interfere with practice, which becomes, at this point, our second nature. The author writes: "If you repeat endlessly the various practices and accumulate merits in your discipline, both in terms of practical training, action will be reflected in your body and your limbs, but not in your mind. Distancing from practice, do not opporrai to it, and make any technique necessary. At this point you will not know where is the mind, nor demons, neither the heresies will know where to find it .... " The
Henko Kadensho is divided into three chapters: The bridge of the shoe, where the present techniques; The sword that causes death, with a widening of the techniques and the introduction of school psychology; The sword Giver of Life, which continues as indicated in the previous chapter, and ends with the basic technique of the Yagyu-ryu Shinkage: the "Non-Sword."
The edition of the work published by Luni, as well as a rich introduction, edited by William Scott Wilson and the text dell'Henko Kadensho, also mentions important graphic work created by Yagyu Sekishusai and commented in 1707 by Matsudaira Nobusada, expert practitioner Yagyu Shinkage-ry, which shows the various techniques of the school. (1)
Note 1) Review the work Munemori Yagyu, The sword that gives life. The secret teachings of the House of Shogun, Luni Editrice, Milano 2004 (Arts in the East, 2005).
early seventeenth century, a situation occurs in Japan, apparently, singular: at the exact moment when the art of the sword seems to have become less necessary to the survival of the old feudal system, now absorbed into the new form of government of the Tokugawa Shogunate, we are witnessing the emergence of some works of importance for the understanding of this' art noble, cultivated and loved to this day. The three works are, in chronological order, the Fudochi shinmyoroku (The testimony of the secret wisdom immutable) written in 1632 by monaco zen Takuan Soho, the Heiho Kadensho (The sword that gives life, also known as The Book of martial traditions of the clan), written by Yagyu Munemori since 1632 and Gorin-no-sho ("The Book of Five Rings "or" five elements ") by Miyamoto Musashi, written between 1643 and 1645.
These are three works that describe the traditional teachings (and those specific to individual teachers who wrote them), and deliver to posterity a legacy of important theories and techniques of the art of Japanese sword. The work of Takuan Soho is clearly the result of apprenticeship Zen master, and has a more philosophical, while that of Miyamoto Musashi is instead an eminently practical. The book we are dealing with today, the sword that gives life, but constitutes a very important combination of these two different approaches: Munemori, in fact, teach techniques, but do not step away from the Zen that permeates all the time. Among the reasons for this proliferation of sword masters and theoretical texts, there is a phenomenon that had already occurred in the Muromachi period (1336-1568), namely the formation of numerous martial arts schools, many of which arose according to their founders, for divine inspiration.
Munemori Yagyu's life (1571-1646)
Son of one of the greatest swordsmen of the sixteenth century, Yagyu Sekishusai Muneyoshi, Munemori sees a decided his fate day of 1594, when only twenty-three, during a meeting with the future shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, was asked by his father, whom Hideyoshi had applied to become a master of his sword, to substitute teaching. Munemori became the heir and the continuation of the tradition of his father, who had joined the teaching style of the traditional Shinto style of Tomita and also to learn from Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Hidetsuna and his pupils, Shinkage-Ryu style. Munemori perfected this style in Shinkage Yagyu-Ryu, taught to this day. A friend of Takuan Soho, a contemporary of Miyamoto Musashi, Munemori acts as a master swordsman of the Tokugawa for three generations, teaching the child Ieyasu, Hidetada, and his son, Iemitsu. The story passed down a story of the life of Munemori impressive: it took place in 1615, during the terrible battle of Osaka, during which one of the opponents of the Tokugawa, Toyotomi, asserragliatosi in the castle is protected by more than sixty thousand soldiers, sent a group of assailants in the opposing camp, which had managed to get almost to the tent of the Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada. The assailants killed the Shogun would probably have if they had not met a man of middle age, he tied the horse in front of the Shogun, confronted the soldiers and killed seven with expertise quickly than ever, while the others were attacked by Hidetada guards. The work
Munemori Yagyu, as we wrote, was the legacy of great masters such as, for example, Matsumoto, Ikoasai, Kamiizumi and Sekishusai, encoded in Shinkage Yagyu-ryu. The book The sword that gives life Munemori summarizes the thinking of the art of sword, presenting the style he brought to perfection. Munemori is found in the work of the great tradition of Zen masters, the result of the influence of Takuan Soho, who was sent to our author the concept of Zen Ichiyo ken (sword and uniqueness of Zen), so Soho as he had taught: "There are many occasions when martial arts and Buddhism are in harmony and where the martial arts can be understood through Zen. Both abhor in a particular attachment and fixation on things ... It does not matter what kind of secret tradition has been entrusted, or the technique used: if the mind is fixed on this technique, the defeat is certain martial arts. Regardless of the opponent's actions, which are affected to a cut or touched, is a fundamental exercise of self-discipline never fix your mind. " Should therefore rule out any type of attachment, and reach the condition of no-mind.
Thus, Munemori, we see that the objective of the exercise of the art is to transcend the technology itself: the continuous exercise must lead to internalize the technical aspects, as long as the mind is no longer able to interfere with practice, which becomes, at this point, our second nature. The author writes: "If you repeat endlessly the various practices and accumulate merits in your discipline, both in terms of practical training, action will be reflected in your body and your limbs, but not in your mind. Distancing from practice, do not opporrai to it, and make any technique necessary. At this point you will not know where is the mind, nor demons, neither the heresies will know where to find it .... " The
Henko Kadensho is divided into three chapters: The bridge of the shoe, where the present techniques; The sword that causes death, with a widening of the techniques and the introduction of school psychology; The sword Giver of Life, which continues as indicated in the previous chapter, and ends with the basic technique of the Yagyu-ryu Shinkage: the "Non-Sword."
The edition of the work published by Luni, as well as a rich introduction, edited by William Scott Wilson and the text dell'Henko Kadensho, also mentions important graphic work created by Yagyu Sekishusai and commented in 1707 by Matsudaira Nobusada, expert practitioner Yagyu Shinkage-ry, which shows the various techniques of the school. (1)
Note 1) Review the work Munemori Yagyu, The sword that gives life. The secret teachings of the House of Shogun, Luni Editrice, Milano 2004 (Arts in the East, 2005).
Pokemon Adult Pyjamas
The cosmogony of ancient civilizations: between magic and religion
The term cosmogony means a collection of poems, myths, traditional teachings that seek to interpret the origin of the universe. Various civilizations have given different answers to the mystery of creation, divided by Mircea Eliade, From Primitives to Zen in the work , a large anthology edited by the Romanian scholar, into four groups:
1. Creation from nothing (a higher being created the world in thought, word, warming etc.).
2. Reason for the swimmer (a God send water birds or animals or amphibians swim in person to the surface of the primordial ocean to bring a parcel of land from which then creates the earth)
3. Creating dividend two primordial unit (with three variants: the separation of Heaven and Earth that the parents of the world, the original separation of an amorphous mass, Chaos, a division into two cosmogonic egg).
4. Created by dismemberment of a primordial being (or a willing victim of a monster or anthropomorphic aquatic defeated after a terrible battle). In
ritual that repeats the creation of the world we have one of the cornerstones of understanding of magical thinking. To be able to act magically draw the size of the Gods, where space and time are sacred and the divine energy which is intercepted before it transformed in the multiplicity of things and events. In addition, the gods and heroes of the past to have excused the man superior knowledge, and divine magic, which is necessary to practice magic.
It 's only through a knowledge of the ethnological and cultural anthropological type that you can understand how and why the ancients felt that magical thinking he had a reason to exist and to function properly. The practice of magic is based on some of the concepts that we presented and, even when not directly dependent on them in the laboratory, it uses the symbolic language.
Tradition Scandinavian
The Scandinavians have left a very important document, called Völuspá. This is a text of ancient Norse literature: written in Old Norse (Old Norse, Icelandic is very similar to today), reported in the Edda, manual of prosody and metrics, full of valuable information on the ancient Norse religion. The work is attributed to Snorri Storluson, a major Scandinavian writers who lived between the twelfth and thirteenth century. The Völuspá was probably written in the transition from paganism to Christianity around the year 1000. It recounts the origins of the world according to Norse mythology.
Völuspá, second verse
"There was a time when nothing remotely
was, nor sand nor sea
or cold waves.
The earth and the sky was not even
, only
abyss,
and there was no grass. "
(trans. Robert Tresoldi )
(...)
The Mayan tradition
The population of the Quiché Maya Popol Vuh has handed down the work (literally written pages), commonly called the Bible of the Maya Quiché. Written a few years after colonization (the list of kings arrive until 1550), probably by a Quiché Maya of Guatemala that operated by the new rulers, reports myths, beliefs, histories of the religious world of the people of the Quiché Maya. Written in Quiché, but with Latin, was translated into English several times over the centuries. In the beginning there was only sky and sea, there was still the land of the living or anything. The characteristic of this size was the total lack of movement or noise, the total darkness. The only existing light that was emanating from the creation ancestors, gods and primordial Tepeu Gucumatz in deep water. The meeting of Tepeu Gucumatz springs and the first word, the result of the thoughts of the two deities, which are agreed to create life and man.
The Jewish and Christian tradition
The accounts of creation given in the Bible are known to all and are crucial in the evolution of the esoteric language of the Judeo-Christian civilization. Genesis 1, perhaps more significant is the text of the myth of creation. But, beyond theological interpretation that the synagogue and the Christian Churches can make these steps, it is important to emphasize that the action of the deity is represented here as a magician who could be presented using the power of the word, could be the things and relationships between them, and get a positive result which is well pleased. We have seen how the word has considerable significance in the myths of creation is found among the Quiche Maya in the Upanishads and India, as well as in other traditions. It 'important to remember the size of vibration of the word, so its physical feature: sound vibrations set in motion the air and are able to operate a variety of physical operations, such as resonance or interference. In societies in ethnological imitates the magician by appropriate rituals or religious ceremonies, the action of the gods, repeat this action and thereby creating primordial space / time where the sacred works of magic can take effect. Also, look through divination (for example through astrology) to know what the will of the gods, in order to operate them properly.
Greek tradition
The origin of the Greek text that is more commonly considered for its undoubted antiquity, is Hesiod's Theogony, written by the poet of Boeotia around the end of the eighth century BC The work, as the name implies, is the story of the origin of the gods and their ties of kinship. Hesiod probably drew a pre-existing rich mythology (in part, except that Homer), whose origin is perhaps the first to be found in some of the myths of the Near East, mediated by the Hittite civilization. Hesiod offers a view of the origin of which is also an interpretation of the origin of the world: the gods are in fact "hypostasis and personifications of reality" (G. Arrighetti introduction to the Theogony, Hesiod, Theogony , BUR). The later Greek tradition also recalls other cosmologies in different parts, a very ancient, according to which the reality was originally in a state of hazy, dark form of air and windy. From this time would originate in individual things. In Hesiod we have the story of Uranus and Gaia to prevent procreation, pushing the children within that generated: a powerful image of an original state at large in which heaven and earth were fused together and things were struggling to get home. The repetition (of an adequate representation of the sacred) the activities of the primordial will sanctify an event, the foundation of a city, the erection of a temple, placing them at the center of the story represented and giving them a dimension of space / sacred time.
The Babylonian tradition
The fundamental work of religious thought is the Babylonian Enuma Elish (literally: "When the top ..." from the beginning of the poem.) When you compose, in the first millennium BC, it replaces, as the holy book par excellence, in all previous Sumerian and Assyrian traditions, leading to a revolution: the replacement of the previous gods of the various major cities dominate the past (such as Enlil, Enki etc.) with the divine ruler of Babylon, Marduk. This, without changing the overall picture of the rich pantheon Sumerian / Assyrian-Babylonian and keeping alive the most ancient traditions and customs. The Enuma Elish, as we mentioned first, it was dramatized and played in full during the great festival of the New Year. The Enuma Elish begins with a description of the primordial waters before the heavens and the earth were to be given a name. The water, mixed together, represented Apsu and Tiamat, the goddess from whose breasts were born all the gods. Significant is the symbolic value of Apsu and Tiamat: one, in addition to being the consort of Tiamat, is also a place flooded with underground fresh water, Tiamat, the primeval goddess, as well as being identified with the salt water, is the primordial chaos. Tiamat is created by the killing of the world and killing of a deity's aide will formed man (consisting of land, from the blood of the gods killed and animated by the spit of all the gods). From the philosophical point of view we see that the original principle is a male, the other the original principle of women, who mix their waters to the origin, indicating that the two are different but linked together by a point of contact . Moreover, they are dynamic principles (water, in constant motion and can take many forms).
The Egyptian tradition
The Egyptian tradition is very important for the evolution of esoteric thought through time. This role of transmitting knowledge was already recognized in ancient greek as reported by the writer Plutarch: Isis and Osiris in the work, said that several Greek philosophers had traveled in Egypt and among them Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, and Lycurgus. The different cosmologies of ancient Egypt are related to their theogonies (generations of the gods): the most significant are those eliopolitana, Memphis and Hermopolis.
The enneade eliopolitana
The nine deities are divided into two groups: a primordial probably composed by the god Atum, Tefnut and Shut by his sons, and their children Geb and Nut and subsequent inclusion of a composed by the children of Nut and Geb: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Nut, Geb. The god Atum (total), the Sun-God, is the demiurge who created the world. Risen from the lotus flower that appeared along with the original mound of earth, nothing emerged from the waters of indistinct (the primordial waters, identifiable with the chaos of the origins or with a dimension of non-existence), Atum has inside, every thing, creature, or occurrence in power. Shu born from his seed (empty) the god of air, and Tefnut, moisture: facing the foundation mythology of dry and wet, two basic principles of ancient physics. As Shu the god of the air in this world, Tefnut is the air in the hereafter. Shu and Tefnut generated Geb and Nut. Geb, God of Earth, the male principle and Nut, Sky Goddess, the feminine principle (as opposed to what we have in other mythologies, where the Earth is the feminine passive principle and the sky and the masculine and positive). Nut is shown as a woman with long arms and legs, placed the body in time to represent the vault of heaven. On it are often painted the stars. Below it, on the ground, lying is her husband, Geb. After they have raised four children, is interposed between them Shu, which is represented holding up his daughter with the arms (the air between earth and sky and is a tangible principle, can help to sustain the cosmos). Beyond the sky from rappresnetato Nut, we have the primordial waters of chaos (Nu), which were only withdrawn after the creation but have not gone away and always incumbent on it. During the day, the Sun God sails under the body of Nut, while at night he enters the body of the Goddess of Heaven, the crosses to be borne ALLB again later. It is to be a system of balance that can repeat the cycle of life and death and can at the same time combat the chaos and disorder to maintain the cosmic balance. To this end, from the Fifth Dynasty, makes its appearance in the god Osiris, with his brothers, which is to be associated with pre-existing deity. The god Ptah. Ptah is the god of Memphis, the ancient capital of ancient Egypt. In this city, during the New Kingdom, EIST a temple, called the Palace of the Ka of Ptah (the same name in the region of Memphis), from which the Greeks had derived the name of Egypt (from Aiguptos Hewet-Ka-Ptah). Unlike Eliopolitana theology, Ptah the Memphite sees the source of all creation, God put into effect by the understanding and speech. We have two key principles, the spiritual and intellectual that is the basis of creation, and a material, consisting of the divinity Ta-Tenen (Earth distinguishable's breakaway from the primordial waters of chaos symbolized by Nu), with which the god is to identify from the thirteenth Ta-Tenen century BC is the first mound of earth, born from the waters. We see it as a god Ptah is mixed (creative principle and basic material from which to proceed to the creation). He is at the root of all other gods and of all things, which she created with the sole power of the word.
Theology Hermopolis
The city of Ermopolis, so called by the Greeks because it is associated to the god Thoth, whom they identified with Hermes, it is now called Al-Ashmunein and is located in Middle Egypt. Formerly called Khemnu, a term that means eight cities. The number eight is very important because it is related to the eight primordial deities from which everything arose. According to the theology of Hermopolis, in principle there was a subtle matter in which cosmic operated eight principles: four pairs of deities (males and females were frogs snakes), which interacted with each other in a balanced way: they were with his wife Nu Haunet, Heh and his wife Hauhet, Keke and his wife with his wife and Amon Kauket Amaunet. At some point, you create an energy imbalance between the gods, who interact giving rise to a huge explosion. In the course of the explosion creates a mound of earth and with it the Sun, for which the land is called the Island of Flame (later identified with Hermopolis). According to this theology, the eight gods (Ogoade) would be above all'enneade of Heliopolis, and would by their action that would be built on the same universe and Atum. Later, the god Amon and his wife will migrate to Memphis, while the other gods, perhaps not accepting new universe had been created, will remain on the sidelines. (1)
(1) Roberto Tresoldi, Encyclopedia of esotericism, DVE, Milano 2002.
The term cosmogony means a collection of poems, myths, traditional teachings that seek to interpret the origin of the universe. Various civilizations have given different answers to the mystery of creation, divided by Mircea Eliade, From Primitives to Zen in the work , a large anthology edited by the Romanian scholar, into four groups:
1. Creation from nothing (a higher being created the world in thought, word, warming etc.).
2. Reason for the swimmer (a God send water birds or animals or amphibians swim in person to the surface of the primordial ocean to bring a parcel of land from which then creates the earth)
3. Creating dividend two primordial unit (with three variants: the separation of Heaven and Earth that the parents of the world, the original separation of an amorphous mass, Chaos, a division into two cosmogonic egg).
4. Created by dismemberment of a primordial being (or a willing victim of a monster or anthropomorphic aquatic defeated after a terrible battle). In
ritual that repeats the creation of the world we have one of the cornerstones of understanding of magical thinking. To be able to act magically draw the size of the Gods, where space and time are sacred and the divine energy which is intercepted before it transformed in the multiplicity of things and events. In addition, the gods and heroes of the past to have excused the man superior knowledge, and divine magic, which is necessary to practice magic.
It 's only through a knowledge of the ethnological and cultural anthropological type that you can understand how and why the ancients felt that magical thinking he had a reason to exist and to function properly. The practice of magic is based on some of the concepts that we presented and, even when not directly dependent on them in the laboratory, it uses the symbolic language.
Tradition Scandinavian
The Scandinavians have left a very important document, called Völuspá. This is a text of ancient Norse literature: written in Old Norse (Old Norse, Icelandic is very similar to today), reported in the Edda, manual of prosody and metrics, full of valuable information on the ancient Norse religion. The work is attributed to Snorri Storluson, a major Scandinavian writers who lived between the twelfth and thirteenth century. The Völuspá was probably written in the transition from paganism to Christianity around the year 1000. It recounts the origins of the world according to Norse mythology.
Völuspá, second verse
"There was a time when nothing remotely
was, nor sand nor sea
or cold waves.
The earth and the sky was not even
, only
abyss,
and there was no grass. "
(trans. Robert Tresoldi )
(...)
The Mayan tradition
The population of the Quiché Maya Popol Vuh has handed down the work (literally written pages), commonly called the Bible of the Maya Quiché. Written a few years after colonization (the list of kings arrive until 1550), probably by a Quiché Maya of Guatemala that operated by the new rulers, reports myths, beliefs, histories of the religious world of the people of the Quiché Maya. Written in Quiché, but with Latin, was translated into English several times over the centuries. In the beginning there was only sky and sea, there was still the land of the living or anything. The characteristic of this size was the total lack of movement or noise, the total darkness. The only existing light that was emanating from the creation ancestors, gods and primordial Tepeu Gucumatz in deep water. The meeting of Tepeu Gucumatz springs and the first word, the result of the thoughts of the two deities, which are agreed to create life and man.
The Jewish and Christian tradition
The accounts of creation given in the Bible are known to all and are crucial in the evolution of the esoteric language of the Judeo-Christian civilization. Genesis 1, perhaps more significant is the text of the myth of creation. But, beyond theological interpretation that the synagogue and the Christian Churches can make these steps, it is important to emphasize that the action of the deity is represented here as a magician who could be presented using the power of the word, could be the things and relationships between them, and get a positive result which is well pleased. We have seen how the word has considerable significance in the myths of creation is found among the Quiche Maya in the Upanishads and India, as well as in other traditions. It 'important to remember the size of vibration of the word, so its physical feature: sound vibrations set in motion the air and are able to operate a variety of physical operations, such as resonance or interference. In societies in ethnological imitates the magician by appropriate rituals or religious ceremonies, the action of the gods, repeat this action and thereby creating primordial space / time where the sacred works of magic can take effect. Also, look through divination (for example through astrology) to know what the will of the gods, in order to operate them properly.
Greek tradition
The origin of the Greek text that is more commonly considered for its undoubted antiquity, is Hesiod's Theogony, written by the poet of Boeotia around the end of the eighth century BC The work, as the name implies, is the story of the origin of the gods and their ties of kinship. Hesiod probably drew a pre-existing rich mythology (in part, except that Homer), whose origin is perhaps the first to be found in some of the myths of the Near East, mediated by the Hittite civilization. Hesiod offers a view of the origin of which is also an interpretation of the origin of the world: the gods are in fact "hypostasis and personifications of reality" (G. Arrighetti introduction to the Theogony, Hesiod, Theogony , BUR). The later Greek tradition also recalls other cosmologies in different parts, a very ancient, according to which the reality was originally in a state of hazy, dark form of air and windy. From this time would originate in individual things. In Hesiod we have the story of Uranus and Gaia to prevent procreation, pushing the children within that generated: a powerful image of an original state at large in which heaven and earth were fused together and things were struggling to get home. The repetition (of an adequate representation of the sacred) the activities of the primordial will sanctify an event, the foundation of a city, the erection of a temple, placing them at the center of the story represented and giving them a dimension of space / sacred time.
The Babylonian tradition
The fundamental work of religious thought is the Babylonian Enuma Elish (literally: "When the top ..." from the beginning of the poem.) When you compose, in the first millennium BC, it replaces, as the holy book par excellence, in all previous Sumerian and Assyrian traditions, leading to a revolution: the replacement of the previous gods of the various major cities dominate the past (such as Enlil, Enki etc.) with the divine ruler of Babylon, Marduk. This, without changing the overall picture of the rich pantheon Sumerian / Assyrian-Babylonian and keeping alive the most ancient traditions and customs. The Enuma Elish, as we mentioned first, it was dramatized and played in full during the great festival of the New Year. The Enuma Elish begins with a description of the primordial waters before the heavens and the earth were to be given a name. The water, mixed together, represented Apsu and Tiamat, the goddess from whose breasts were born all the gods. Significant is the symbolic value of Apsu and Tiamat: one, in addition to being the consort of Tiamat, is also a place flooded with underground fresh water, Tiamat, the primeval goddess, as well as being identified with the salt water, is the primordial chaos. Tiamat is created by the killing of the world and killing of a deity's aide will formed man (consisting of land, from the blood of the gods killed and animated by the spit of all the gods). From the philosophical point of view we see that the original principle is a male, the other the original principle of women, who mix their waters to the origin, indicating that the two are different but linked together by a point of contact . Moreover, they are dynamic principles (water, in constant motion and can take many forms).
The Egyptian tradition
The Egyptian tradition is very important for the evolution of esoteric thought through time. This role of transmitting knowledge was already recognized in ancient greek as reported by the writer Plutarch: Isis and Osiris in the work, said that several Greek philosophers had traveled in Egypt and among them Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, and Lycurgus. The different cosmologies of ancient Egypt are related to their theogonies (generations of the gods): the most significant are those eliopolitana, Memphis and Hermopolis.
The enneade eliopolitana
The nine deities are divided into two groups: a primordial probably composed by the god Atum, Tefnut and Shut by his sons, and their children Geb and Nut and subsequent inclusion of a composed by the children of Nut and Geb: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Nut, Geb. The god Atum (total), the Sun-God, is the demiurge who created the world. Risen from the lotus flower that appeared along with the original mound of earth, nothing emerged from the waters of indistinct (the primordial waters, identifiable with the chaos of the origins or with a dimension of non-existence), Atum has inside, every thing, creature, or occurrence in power. Shu born from his seed (empty) the god of air, and Tefnut, moisture: facing the foundation mythology of dry and wet, two basic principles of ancient physics. As Shu the god of the air in this world, Tefnut is the air in the hereafter. Shu and Tefnut generated Geb and Nut. Geb, God of Earth, the male principle and Nut, Sky Goddess, the feminine principle (as opposed to what we have in other mythologies, where the Earth is the feminine passive principle and the sky and the masculine and positive). Nut is shown as a woman with long arms and legs, placed the body in time to represent the vault of heaven. On it are often painted the stars. Below it, on the ground, lying is her husband, Geb. After they have raised four children, is interposed between them Shu, which is represented holding up his daughter with the arms (the air between earth and sky and is a tangible principle, can help to sustain the cosmos). Beyond the sky from rappresnetato Nut, we have the primordial waters of chaos (Nu), which were only withdrawn after the creation but have not gone away and always incumbent on it. During the day, the Sun God sails under the body of Nut, while at night he enters the body of the Goddess of Heaven, the crosses to be borne ALLB again later. It is to be a system of balance that can repeat the cycle of life and death and can at the same time combat the chaos and disorder to maintain the cosmic balance. To this end, from the Fifth Dynasty, makes its appearance in the god Osiris, with his brothers, which is to be associated with pre-existing deity. The god Ptah. Ptah is the god of Memphis, the ancient capital of ancient Egypt. In this city, during the New Kingdom, EIST a temple, called the Palace of the Ka of Ptah (the same name in the region of Memphis), from which the Greeks had derived the name of Egypt (from Aiguptos Hewet-Ka-Ptah). Unlike Eliopolitana theology, Ptah the Memphite sees the source of all creation, God put into effect by the understanding and speech. We have two key principles, the spiritual and intellectual that is the basis of creation, and a material, consisting of the divinity Ta-Tenen (Earth distinguishable's breakaway from the primordial waters of chaos symbolized by Nu), with which the god is to identify from the thirteenth Ta-Tenen century BC is the first mound of earth, born from the waters. We see it as a god Ptah is mixed (creative principle and basic material from which to proceed to the creation). He is at the root of all other gods and of all things, which she created with the sole power of the word.
Theology Hermopolis
The city of Ermopolis, so called by the Greeks because it is associated to the god Thoth, whom they identified with Hermes, it is now called Al-Ashmunein and is located in Middle Egypt. Formerly called Khemnu, a term that means eight cities. The number eight is very important because it is related to the eight primordial deities from which everything arose. According to the theology of Hermopolis, in principle there was a subtle matter in which cosmic operated eight principles: four pairs of deities (males and females were frogs snakes), which interacted with each other in a balanced way: they were with his wife Nu Haunet, Heh and his wife Hauhet, Keke and his wife with his wife and Amon Kauket Amaunet. At some point, you create an energy imbalance between the gods, who interact giving rise to a huge explosion. In the course of the explosion creates a mound of earth and with it the Sun, for which the land is called the Island of Flame (later identified with Hermopolis). According to this theology, the eight gods (Ogoade) would be above all'enneade of Heliopolis, and would by their action that would be built on the same universe and Atum. Later, the god Amon and his wife will migrate to Memphis, while the other gods, perhaps not accepting new universe had been created, will remain on the sidelines. (1)
(1) Roberto Tresoldi, Encyclopedia of esotericism, DVE, Milano 2002.
How Do Calculators Calculate
Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit in Ming China
The life and work of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci Macerata undoubtedly an interesting example of interaction between different civilizations.
arrived in China in 1582, was among the first to obtain permission to settle in the country then dominated by the Ming dynasty. Thanks to its great culture, open minded and love for the traditions of this vast country, was able to win the favor of the emperor, as evidenced by the burial ground in China, the first ever granted to a foreigner.
After an oblivion that lasted centuries, due to the problems arising with his co-religionists because of the unorthodox methods of evangelization that would use the plagiarism and some of his works by scholars of the time, some years the great scholar is back at the center of attention of researchers and the general public .
After the intervention on his behalf from Pope John Paul I and a renewed interest in the history of relations with the East, in recent years, two major exhibitions have brought to the attention of the public figure of this extraordinary scholar and evangelizing. The first was held in Macerata in 2003, the second, which is also of great importance, both for setting the exposure time, and the number of objects presented, has just ended in Rome. Almost concurrently with the exhibition was published a book of considerable thickness, called Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit at the Ming Court, the journalist and researcher Michael Fontana, in addition to another significant transaction, Matteo Ricci. The kiosk of the Phoenix (The editorial work, Ancona 2004), written by Philip Mignini, director of the Ricci of Macerata.
The life of Matteo Ricci
We believe it is of particular importance in the initial phase of the existence of rich, because it will include the reasons and Reasons for the transaction after the great scholar. The exhibition in Rome was occupied, so, especially the period of formation of the European missionary, reconstructing the cultural soil and material culture of those years, the basis of subsequent developments.
Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 into a family of minor nobility Macerata. After attending the Jesuit college, opened in those years in Macerata, went to Rome in 1568, where he continued his studies at the University School of Law. But his interests are spiritual type and decides to enter the Society of Jesus In 1572 is admitted to the Collegio Romano (now the Pontifical Gregorian University), where, in addition to traditional teachings, as follows, which will prove very important in his work of mission, mathematics and astronomy, and is also interested in geography and cartography . After the first five years of study (two and three years of rhetoric of philosophy), Ricci asked to become a missionary, which is granted before the end of the last year of theology. Between 1577 and 1582 the young missionary went first in Lisbon, and Coimbra, Goa, Cochin and then to Macao, the seat of the Jesuit College of St. Paul. Already here demonstrates Ricci its modernity and its independence, since the authorities had banned the Jesuit teaching philosophy and theology to the Indians who became priests, the young missionary takes a position in their favor, emphasizing that the result of such a tax would be only ' hatred of local populations and low conversions motivated.
The cultural adjustment to the basic mission of the works of
Ricci's views are explained in the light of a new trend that was spreading among the Jesuits, introduced and supported by Alexander Valignano, Chieti jurist who had entered the Society of Jesus and that was coordinator of the missions in Asia. According to the Valignano, missionaries, unlike what they did throughout the colonizers, they had to first learn the local language, study, and also adopt local customs and respect the traditions of the people, unless they were clearly contrary to the moral Christian. One of the objectives of the policy of Valignano was to finally be able to enter China, a country that for years he had always denied access to missionaries of all kinds. He believed that to be able to create a mission, it was necessary to "become Chinese in China." Once you open China to Christianity, all other countries in the area has always been deeply influenced by Chinese culture and customs, they would open their borders to the work of the mission.
The beginnings of the mission of Ricci, Macao, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing
meet again in Macau Ricci Michele Ruggieri, who was his traveling companion during the long months of traveling to India, with whom she shares ideas and method : after discovering that the Chinese dignitaries were particularly fascinated by the extraordinary gifts of objects (for example, mechanical devices like clocks spring, unknown in China) and positively affected by the use of Chinese language and the strict observance of rituals and etiquette , with fellow mission begins to adapt to this behavior, acting really as he had recommended Valignano, from "Chinese in China." Ricci is passionately dedicated to the study of Mandarin Chinese, encountering great difficulties, as he himself acknowledges: "It 'the most unambiguous language and the letter you find yourself." Thanks to rapid progress in learning language, the missionary is able to read, although often with the help of translators, many works of Chinese culture, especially traditional medicine (especially herbal) and geography.
Ricci, Ruggieri and others can finally to obtain approval to reside in China, though after several bureaucratic problems. In 1583 settled in the city of Zhaoqing, a ten-day trip to Canton, the only trading post that was partially opened to Western traders. Dressed as Buddhist monks, with shaven heads, the Jesuits win the attention and protection of local authorities through their precious gifts (prisms and mechanical clocks, globes) and their friendly demeanor. The missionaries built a home in European style, and they get more and more visits by dignitaries and curious, home-style Chinese. It 'started the great adventure of the Western presence in China.
The next work of Ricci
After further study of the geography of China, Ricci public in 1584 the first Chinese world map (will be followed by several others): here again we see respect for local custom. A country that considered itself the center of the World (Zhong Guo) could not be represented as a large but partial territory lost in a boundless world: he had the foresight to place it in the center of the globe, with lands on the left and right. Many Chinese people laughed, however, of this representation: for they were accustomed to seeing all the land covered by China, with little land around it. Others, however, began to be interested for other countries, whose dimensions were considerable. Shortly after (I'm now two years old) the same rich, first called by the locals with the phonetic spelling of the name (in fact becomes Matteo Ricci Li Madou), then with the honorary name of Xitai (Far West), one realizes that the effort to be Chinese among the Chinese has turned significantly: writing to a colleague in Europe would like to apologize for the language and style not very precise, because of its adaptation to the Chinese language and thought. In the following years he began his work as a translator and writer. In 1597 he was appointed superior of the mission and in 1599, after trying in vain to stay in Beijing, with the aim of converting the emperor to Christianity, he moved to Nanjing, where he founded the fourth missionary residence. Finally, in 1601, is authorized to enter the Emperor Wanli in Beijing, a city where lived until his death, and is elevated to the rank of Mandarin. His wrath will be unable to meet the emperor that he had honored his protection: the hearing to which he had participated in March of 1601 was in fact just a staged, to which the emperor was not involved. He died in 1610, the emperor grants ground to build the funeral mound, the first such case against a foreigner.
The cultural mediation of the missionary maceratese
Ricci From the beginning he realized that it was necessary to master the language, rather than the spoken, had written one, in which to read texts written in Mandarin Chinese and in which translate important works of a spiritual, technical and scientific. He had in fact realized that the way forward was for the dissemination of knowledge is poorly understood in China, by adapting to the thought and the local mentality, taking advantage of the wide diffusion of the press. Importantly capital were his globes, updated from time to adapt to the new geographical knowledge, designed according to modern cartographic techniques: many nobles were proud to hang on the wall a few birds. The translation of fundamental texts of Western science, such as Euclid's Elements in Chinese or writing of original works on geometry, mathematics, trigonometry, Ricci made of one of the most respected scholars in the country.
The missionary, however, never forgot the purpose of his mission and is dedicated to the dissemination of their faith through the publication of several works of contents spiritual twenty years after the publication of a first Catechism (written and revised by Ruggieri Ricci himself, but not much appreciated by Valignano because of frequent references to Buddhism), was published in 1603 his Catechism, the result of a long period of study of Christian doctrine and adaptation to Chinese culture and mentality. The work had been deeply influenced by the work of translation of the Confucian texts, to which the missionary had expected in the years between 1591 and 1594. Still waiting dell'imprimatur inquisitor of Goa, the Catechism was published at his own expense by my Feng Yingjing, with the title Tianzhu Shiyi (Vera doctrine the Lord of Heaven).
The work in its own way revolutionary, tried to present Catholic doctrine with the traditional categories of thought and Chinese philosophy is divided into eight chapters, was a literary dialogue between a European and a Chinese man of letters. Explanations of the first, followed questions and comments from the second. In order to make inroads in the Chinese literati, the work presented arguments that could only be accepted with pure reasoning, leaving aside issues that had to be accepted by faith alone. The goal was to convince the Chinese that the philosophy of Confucius and Christianity were not in conflict, the latter would have translated in practice the best Confucian teachings. Work, as you might guess, certainly commendable, but very difficult to accept today, because the constant use of Confucian writings was almost always one-sided and reflected the positions of the rich and not the original author. The opposition, of course, did not fail, but they were almost always in the philosophical dispute.
To further educate the new converts, Ricci public in 1605 the Christian Doctrine (jiaoyao Tianzhu), containing prayers, the presentation of the Ten Commandments and that of the seven sacraments. August 1605 public instead work very pleasing to the Chinese literati, the twenty-five judgments (Ershiwu yan), Chinese translation of the Enchiridion of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who better than other texts reflect concepts very similar to Confucian ethics. This work had a big spread, similar to what had long ago another treaty, the Treaty on Friendship (1595) or a text mnemonics,
Along with Ricci, also contribute to this work of local writers disclosure of Western knowledge in China. Among these perhaps the most important thing is Zhizao Li, a senior who had notable worked in Nanjing and was then summoned to Beijing. Helped by Ricci, Li Zhizao results in important works of Chinese astronomy and mathematics.
conclude stressing that Matteo Ricci has played a key role in the understanding of the culture and Chinese customs and traditions in the West, mainly by means of its important historical work, the entries of the Society of Jesu and Christianity into China, which will translated into Latin and published, with additions by Nicolas Trigault in 1615. The Italian edition was published in 1622. (1)
Bibliography
Michela Fontana, Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit at the court of Ming, Mondadori, Milano 2005.
F. Mignini, Matteo Ricci. The kiosk of the Phoenicians, the editorial work, Ancona 2004
M. Ricci, Friendship, edited by F. Mignini, Quodlibet, Macerata 2005 (the third volume of the Collected Works)
Notes 1. Published by the magazine Arts of the East, July-August 2005.
The life and work of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci Macerata undoubtedly an interesting example of interaction between different civilizations.
arrived in China in 1582, was among the first to obtain permission to settle in the country then dominated by the Ming dynasty. Thanks to its great culture, open minded and love for the traditions of this vast country, was able to win the favor of the emperor, as evidenced by the burial ground in China, the first ever granted to a foreigner.
After an oblivion that lasted centuries, due to the problems arising with his co-religionists because of the unorthodox methods of evangelization that would use the plagiarism and some of his works by scholars of the time, some years the great scholar is back at the center of attention of researchers and the general public .
After the intervention on his behalf from Pope John Paul I and a renewed interest in the history of relations with the East, in recent years, two major exhibitions have brought to the attention of the public figure of this extraordinary scholar and evangelizing. The first was held in Macerata in 2003, the second, which is also of great importance, both for setting the exposure time, and the number of objects presented, has just ended in Rome. Almost concurrently with the exhibition was published a book of considerable thickness, called Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit at the Ming Court, the journalist and researcher Michael Fontana, in addition to another significant transaction, Matteo Ricci. The kiosk of the Phoenix (The editorial work, Ancona 2004), written by Philip Mignini, director of the Ricci of Macerata.
The life of Matteo Ricci
We believe it is of particular importance in the initial phase of the existence of rich, because it will include the reasons and Reasons for the transaction after the great scholar. The exhibition in Rome was occupied, so, especially the period of formation of the European missionary, reconstructing the cultural soil and material culture of those years, the basis of subsequent developments.
Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 into a family of minor nobility Macerata. After attending the Jesuit college, opened in those years in Macerata, went to Rome in 1568, where he continued his studies at the University School of Law. But his interests are spiritual type and decides to enter the Society of Jesus In 1572 is admitted to the Collegio Romano (now the Pontifical Gregorian University), where, in addition to traditional teachings, as follows, which will prove very important in his work of mission, mathematics and astronomy, and is also interested in geography and cartography . After the first five years of study (two and three years of rhetoric of philosophy), Ricci asked to become a missionary, which is granted before the end of the last year of theology. Between 1577 and 1582 the young missionary went first in Lisbon, and Coimbra, Goa, Cochin and then to Macao, the seat of the Jesuit College of St. Paul. Already here demonstrates Ricci its modernity and its independence, since the authorities had banned the Jesuit teaching philosophy and theology to the Indians who became priests, the young missionary takes a position in their favor, emphasizing that the result of such a tax would be only ' hatred of local populations and low conversions motivated.
The cultural adjustment to the basic mission of the works of
Ricci's views are explained in the light of a new trend that was spreading among the Jesuits, introduced and supported by Alexander Valignano, Chieti jurist who had entered the Society of Jesus and that was coordinator of the missions in Asia. According to the Valignano, missionaries, unlike what they did throughout the colonizers, they had to first learn the local language, study, and also adopt local customs and respect the traditions of the people, unless they were clearly contrary to the moral Christian. One of the objectives of the policy of Valignano was to finally be able to enter China, a country that for years he had always denied access to missionaries of all kinds. He believed that to be able to create a mission, it was necessary to "become Chinese in China." Once you open China to Christianity, all other countries in the area has always been deeply influenced by Chinese culture and customs, they would open their borders to the work of the mission.
The beginnings of the mission of Ricci, Macao, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing
meet again in Macau Ricci Michele Ruggieri, who was his traveling companion during the long months of traveling to India, with whom she shares ideas and method : after discovering that the Chinese dignitaries were particularly fascinated by the extraordinary gifts of objects (for example, mechanical devices like clocks spring, unknown in China) and positively affected by the use of Chinese language and the strict observance of rituals and etiquette , with fellow mission begins to adapt to this behavior, acting really as he had recommended Valignano, from "Chinese in China." Ricci is passionately dedicated to the study of Mandarin Chinese, encountering great difficulties, as he himself acknowledges: "It 'the most unambiguous language and the letter you find yourself." Thanks to rapid progress in learning language, the missionary is able to read, although often with the help of translators, many works of Chinese culture, especially traditional medicine (especially herbal) and geography.
Ricci, Ruggieri and others can finally to obtain approval to reside in China, though after several bureaucratic problems. In 1583 settled in the city of Zhaoqing, a ten-day trip to Canton, the only trading post that was partially opened to Western traders. Dressed as Buddhist monks, with shaven heads, the Jesuits win the attention and protection of local authorities through their precious gifts (prisms and mechanical clocks, globes) and their friendly demeanor. The missionaries built a home in European style, and they get more and more visits by dignitaries and curious, home-style Chinese. It 'started the great adventure of the Western presence in China.
The next work of Ricci
After further study of the geography of China, Ricci public in 1584 the first Chinese world map (will be followed by several others): here again we see respect for local custom. A country that considered itself the center of the World (Zhong Guo) could not be represented as a large but partial territory lost in a boundless world: he had the foresight to place it in the center of the globe, with lands on the left and right. Many Chinese people laughed, however, of this representation: for they were accustomed to seeing all the land covered by China, with little land around it. Others, however, began to be interested for other countries, whose dimensions were considerable. Shortly after (I'm now two years old) the same rich, first called by the locals with the phonetic spelling of the name (in fact becomes Matteo Ricci Li Madou), then with the honorary name of Xitai (Far West), one realizes that the effort to be Chinese among the Chinese has turned significantly: writing to a colleague in Europe would like to apologize for the language and style not very precise, because of its adaptation to the Chinese language and thought. In the following years he began his work as a translator and writer. In 1597 he was appointed superior of the mission and in 1599, after trying in vain to stay in Beijing, with the aim of converting the emperor to Christianity, he moved to Nanjing, where he founded the fourth missionary residence. Finally, in 1601, is authorized to enter the Emperor Wanli in Beijing, a city where lived until his death, and is elevated to the rank of Mandarin. His wrath will be unable to meet the emperor that he had honored his protection: the hearing to which he had participated in March of 1601 was in fact just a staged, to which the emperor was not involved. He died in 1610, the emperor grants ground to build the funeral mound, the first such case against a foreigner.
The cultural mediation of the missionary maceratese
Ricci From the beginning he realized that it was necessary to master the language, rather than the spoken, had written one, in which to read texts written in Mandarin Chinese and in which translate important works of a spiritual, technical and scientific. He had in fact realized that the way forward was for the dissemination of knowledge is poorly understood in China, by adapting to the thought and the local mentality, taking advantage of the wide diffusion of the press. Importantly capital were his globes, updated from time to adapt to the new geographical knowledge, designed according to modern cartographic techniques: many nobles were proud to hang on the wall a few birds. The translation of fundamental texts of Western science, such as Euclid's Elements in Chinese or writing of original works on geometry, mathematics, trigonometry, Ricci made of one of the most respected scholars in the country.
The missionary, however, never forgot the purpose of his mission and is dedicated to the dissemination of their faith through the publication of several works of contents spiritual twenty years after the publication of a first Catechism (written and revised by Ruggieri Ricci himself, but not much appreciated by Valignano because of frequent references to Buddhism), was published in 1603 his Catechism, the result of a long period of study of Christian doctrine and adaptation to Chinese culture and mentality. The work had been deeply influenced by the work of translation of the Confucian texts, to which the missionary had expected in the years between 1591 and 1594. Still waiting dell'imprimatur inquisitor of Goa, the Catechism was published at his own expense by my Feng Yingjing, with the title Tianzhu Shiyi (Vera doctrine the Lord of Heaven).
The work in its own way revolutionary, tried to present Catholic doctrine with the traditional categories of thought and Chinese philosophy is divided into eight chapters, was a literary dialogue between a European and a Chinese man of letters. Explanations of the first, followed questions and comments from the second. In order to make inroads in the Chinese literati, the work presented arguments that could only be accepted with pure reasoning, leaving aside issues that had to be accepted by faith alone. The goal was to convince the Chinese that the philosophy of Confucius and Christianity were not in conflict, the latter would have translated in practice the best Confucian teachings. Work, as you might guess, certainly commendable, but very difficult to accept today, because the constant use of Confucian writings was almost always one-sided and reflected the positions of the rich and not the original author. The opposition, of course, did not fail, but they were almost always in the philosophical dispute.
To further educate the new converts, Ricci public in 1605 the Christian Doctrine (jiaoyao Tianzhu), containing prayers, the presentation of the Ten Commandments and that of the seven sacraments. August 1605 public instead work very pleasing to the Chinese literati, the twenty-five judgments (Ershiwu yan), Chinese translation of the Enchiridion of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who better than other texts reflect concepts very similar to Confucian ethics. This work had a big spread, similar to what had long ago another treaty, the Treaty on Friendship (1595) or a text mnemonics,
Along with Ricci, also contribute to this work of local writers disclosure of Western knowledge in China. Among these perhaps the most important thing is Zhizao Li, a senior who had notable worked in Nanjing and was then summoned to Beijing. Helped by Ricci, Li Zhizao results in important works of Chinese astronomy and mathematics.
conclude stressing that Matteo Ricci has played a key role in the understanding of the culture and Chinese customs and traditions in the West, mainly by means of its important historical work, the entries of the Society of Jesu and Christianity into China, which will translated into Latin and published, with additions by Nicolas Trigault in 1615. The Italian edition was published in 1622. (1)
Bibliography
Michela Fontana, Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit at the court of Ming, Mondadori, Milano 2005.
F. Mignini, Matteo Ricci. The kiosk of the Phoenicians, the editorial work, Ancona 2004
M. Ricci, Friendship, edited by F. Mignini, Quodlibet, Macerata 2005 (the third volume of the Collected Works)
Notes 1. Published by the magazine Arts of the East, July-August 2005.
Why Do I Like Smelly Nylon Feet
Alexis Carrel and Man, the unknown Japan
"The Man the Unknown" (in English Man, the Unknown), was published in 1935, twenty-three years after the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for its author, Alexis Carrel. It 'hard to explain who he was and what now represented the most advanced scientific community and the general public in those years Carrel: famous at home and abroad, was considered by many to be one of the greatest scientists of the modern era. Scholar, philosopher, biologist, physician, surgeon, professor of anatomy, inventor of methods and instruments for the preservation of organs and tissues outside the body, had been a member of major foundations, and American and European universities. Thanks to his research and technologies designed and produced in collaboration with Charles Lindbergh fly across the Atlantic, medical science could make great strides, opening the way for the modern technique of transplantation.
A doctor uncomfortable
Despite great successes in medicine, Carrel is far from being an advocate of progress at any cost and, after analyzing the evolution of knowledge and the development of human society recent centuries, comes to unexpected conclusions: the modern knowledge is a knowledge not only unnecessary but also harmful, because it is not based on the human reality, but on an ideal construction, an abstraction, the result of our mind, that with reality very little to do.
On this basis, the author makes a scathing examination of modern society and today's man, verging, in some passages, the cynicism, but that is the result of a profound philosopher of the revolt against a world of errors , falsehoods and contradictions. For example, after witnessing a miracle at Lourdes, and having studied the case, comes to challenge the science academic disciplines and welcomed some of the border. And yet he understands, among the first, the close link between physical and mental condition of the individual and the surrounding environment, providing the negative consequences of industrialization and urbanization wild on physical and moral integrity.
The great merit of Carrel was that he wanted to find a way to unite all the human sciences in a higher synthesis, represented by a medicine renewed, whose interest was not a single disease, or a single organ, but man as an individual, in all its complex features and functions, and as a social being, integrated into a society based on their real needs. To do this he supports the analysis of biological nature and its laws: in them, in their relentlessness, Carrel identifies some key issues for the survival of human biological every level, and then apply them to our species. It 'clear that this approach has serious risks: to extend the laws of nature and human behavior, without any necessary corrective measures, means not wanting to give due weight to morality as a system of values that can make interaction between humans them on a higher level than the laws of nature. The consequences can be dramatic: according to this approach, we could say that, like antibodies expel harmful bacteria or viruses, or how the body tends to expel or remove potentially dangerous foreign bodies, so the company could expel from your body who is a danger to society, even physically deleting it. This will be overly focused on the applicability of biological laws to man and society to create the biggest problem of the thinking of Carrel, to eugenics.
Lights and shadows
Many are willing to forgive the Carrel operated under the Vichy French government (in charge of a scientific foundation created especially for him by the collaborationist government), or his admiration for non-democratic regimes, which seemed to best embody the system of biological laws which he believed should be extended to the whole society. But one thing surely can not pass over in silence some of his positions today do not struggle to define reactionary or racist, as in the case of eugenics. Eugenics (or Eugene), the discipline that studies the improvement of the race through genetic tools (play through the selection of human or animal), at the time was considered the best way to build a human race without disease resistant and intelligent. We now know how these beliefs are nothing but illusions, as confirmed by the disappointing results of the application of eugenics in Germany before and during the Second World War. The positions of Carrel in this regard are particularly strong: convinced of the need to apply eugenics to the development of the human species comes to speculate on the possibility of procreation exclusion of individuals with hereditary, infectious diseases, mental illness or severe propensity to crime, some of which, he believes, may even be eliminated, at the same time points out, usually (though with some exceptions) it is easier to obtain an improvement of the breed by the descendants of families of high lineage, both for a genetic component, is for a different approach on education, compared to the situation in people of obscure origin.
Such beliefs are only partially true because while it is true that heredity plays a key role in the transmission of many characteristics of individuals, which can obtain in this way more or less pronounced tendencies toward certain behaviors, it is equally true that the family environment, social and cultural context in which the individual is developed to determine the size or pusillanimity: the children of rich and powerful families, but with a tendency to theft and dishonesty, not necessarily grow better educated young people in poor environments, but marked the rule of law and a sound moral code. A work by
know
"Man, this stranger," is definitely a work in any case unique, even if controversial, and fascinating place analysis: in an attempt to create a higher science of man, it brings the reader to think carefully about what we are, in all our dimension (physical, biological, psychological, social and religious), and tries to give men a picture as possible complete, innovative, updated to current scientific knowledge. The result is a lengthy process, full of information and insights that are still useful in part, to the point that, despite many decades have passed since its writing, he feels the author's thought the lack of a single important scientific knowledge , to which the scientific community would come many years later: that of DNA and its mechanisms. It would have allowed Carrel in a new way to interpret the data in its possession and to explain what attracted him, appearing at every point of his research, and still could not grasp: the mechanism that determines the organism's development and coding. This work also constitutes a significant moment in the development of scientific thought and social history of the early decades of the twentieth century, and its widespread success indicates that the critical view of the modern world that was presented widely shared.
This translation was carried out on the new French edition edited by Librairie Plon in 1997, taking over the one published in 1935. (1)
Notes 1) Introduction to: Alexis Carrel, Man, the unknown, Luni Editrice, Milano 2008.
"The Man the Unknown" (in English Man, the Unknown), was published in 1935, twenty-three years after the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for its author, Alexis Carrel. It 'hard to explain who he was and what now represented the most advanced scientific community and the general public in those years Carrel: famous at home and abroad, was considered by many to be one of the greatest scientists of the modern era. Scholar, philosopher, biologist, physician, surgeon, professor of anatomy, inventor of methods and instruments for the preservation of organs and tissues outside the body, had been a member of major foundations, and American and European universities. Thanks to his research and technologies designed and produced in collaboration with Charles Lindbergh fly across the Atlantic, medical science could make great strides, opening the way for the modern technique of transplantation.
A doctor uncomfortable
Despite great successes in medicine, Carrel is far from being an advocate of progress at any cost and, after analyzing the evolution of knowledge and the development of human society recent centuries, comes to unexpected conclusions: the modern knowledge is a knowledge not only unnecessary but also harmful, because it is not based on the human reality, but on an ideal construction, an abstraction, the result of our mind, that with reality very little to do.
On this basis, the author makes a scathing examination of modern society and today's man, verging, in some passages, the cynicism, but that is the result of a profound philosopher of the revolt against a world of errors , falsehoods and contradictions. For example, after witnessing a miracle at Lourdes, and having studied the case, comes to challenge the science academic disciplines and welcomed some of the border. And yet he understands, among the first, the close link between physical and mental condition of the individual and the surrounding environment, providing the negative consequences of industrialization and urbanization wild on physical and moral integrity.
The great merit of Carrel was that he wanted to find a way to unite all the human sciences in a higher synthesis, represented by a medicine renewed, whose interest was not a single disease, or a single organ, but man as an individual, in all its complex features and functions, and as a social being, integrated into a society based on their real needs. To do this he supports the analysis of biological nature and its laws: in them, in their relentlessness, Carrel identifies some key issues for the survival of human biological every level, and then apply them to our species. It 'clear that this approach has serious risks: to extend the laws of nature and human behavior, without any necessary corrective measures, means not wanting to give due weight to morality as a system of values that can make interaction between humans them on a higher level than the laws of nature. The consequences can be dramatic: according to this approach, we could say that, like antibodies expel harmful bacteria or viruses, or how the body tends to expel or remove potentially dangerous foreign bodies, so the company could expel from your body who is a danger to society, even physically deleting it. This will be overly focused on the applicability of biological laws to man and society to create the biggest problem of the thinking of Carrel, to eugenics.
Lights and shadows
Many are willing to forgive the Carrel operated under the Vichy French government (in charge of a scientific foundation created especially for him by the collaborationist government), or his admiration for non-democratic regimes, which seemed to best embody the system of biological laws which he believed should be extended to the whole society. But one thing surely can not pass over in silence some of his positions today do not struggle to define reactionary or racist, as in the case of eugenics. Eugenics (or Eugene), the discipline that studies the improvement of the race through genetic tools (play through the selection of human or animal), at the time was considered the best way to build a human race without disease resistant and intelligent. We now know how these beliefs are nothing but illusions, as confirmed by the disappointing results of the application of eugenics in Germany before and during the Second World War. The positions of Carrel in this regard are particularly strong: convinced of the need to apply eugenics to the development of the human species comes to speculate on the possibility of procreation exclusion of individuals with hereditary, infectious diseases, mental illness or severe propensity to crime, some of which, he believes, may even be eliminated, at the same time points out, usually (though with some exceptions) it is easier to obtain an improvement of the breed by the descendants of families of high lineage, both for a genetic component, is for a different approach on education, compared to the situation in people of obscure origin.
Such beliefs are only partially true because while it is true that heredity plays a key role in the transmission of many characteristics of individuals, which can obtain in this way more or less pronounced tendencies toward certain behaviors, it is equally true that the family environment, social and cultural context in which the individual is developed to determine the size or pusillanimity: the children of rich and powerful families, but with a tendency to theft and dishonesty, not necessarily grow better educated young people in poor environments, but marked the rule of law and a sound moral code. A work by
know
"Man, this stranger," is definitely a work in any case unique, even if controversial, and fascinating place analysis: in an attempt to create a higher science of man, it brings the reader to think carefully about what we are, in all our dimension (physical, biological, psychological, social and religious), and tries to give men a picture as possible complete, innovative, updated to current scientific knowledge. The result is a lengthy process, full of information and insights that are still useful in part, to the point that, despite many decades have passed since its writing, he feels the author's thought the lack of a single important scientific knowledge , to which the scientific community would come many years later: that of DNA and its mechanisms. It would have allowed Carrel in a new way to interpret the data in its possession and to explain what attracted him, appearing at every point of his research, and still could not grasp: the mechanism that determines the organism's development and coding. This work also constitutes a significant moment in the development of scientific thought and social history of the early decades of the twentieth century, and its widespread success indicates that the critical view of the modern world that was presented widely shared.
This translation was carried out on the new French edition edited by Librairie Plon in 1997, taking over the one published in 1935. (1)
Notes 1) Introduction to: Alexis Carrel, Man, the unknown, Luni Editrice, Milano 2008.
Head Engaged Diagrams
On the seventeenth century and the spirit of Saikaku A tale of an era
The phrase "everyone is the son of his time", as abused, always retains its validity, especially when referring to people as unique as the writer Ihara Saikaku. Rich merchant from Osaka, a frequent visitor of the pleasure quarters of the city, a skilled writer of verse, first, and popular novelist, then (do not stop the practice of poetry), Saikaku is a prime example of perfect correspondence between the emerging class of research its own specific cultural environment and man of culture, precisely because of that class is a part, is able to respond very well to this need.
The world of the imperial court and nobility, is far more confined in the novels and stories of the past, city and everyday life, the heroic of the powerful lords, children and grandchildren of the endless wars between feudal, is now finished; the proud daimyo are now subservient to the power of the Tokugawa, who try by all means to weaken the power and monitor their movements. So even the brave samurai, now devoid of land and turned into employees on the payroll of their masters, no wars to fight, just watch a representation of their master.
The emergence of a new class
the traditional division of society into classes, the merchants have always occupied the lowest role: they had no land that produces rice, did not produce artifacts, not fighting ... in front of a samurai no category could be more despicable, and this attitude was haughty and aloof characterized the behavior of these men of war against those who wielded no sword, but the money. However, the new historical situation, the result of the unification of the country under the Tokugawa, had created a very special, very different from that of tradition, characterized three fundamental aspects: first, the conditions of peace, that would guarantee farmers, fishermen, artisans and merchants the ability to attend to their duties unhindered, then, after requiring that the daimyo to reside in the capital for long periods each year, and still leave their families as hostages when they returned to their lands, the formation of many small town courts, composed by thousands of servants, soldiers, family members, resulting in enormous demand for manufactured goods and services and, finally, the rather spartan existence of many samurai, paid to smile, no other income, increasing their debt in against those who, having been a long time looking, began to raise their heads: the merchants, and with them the artisans.
The new situation, focusing sull'inurbamento of thousands of people demanded more and more goods and services, with a tendency to buy ever more sophisticated and costly, took the class of artisans and merchants in large cities ( chōnin) to enrich and transform more and more wealth obtained from using the trade and money - in the past rather than something out of the feeling of nobility and military - in a real ideal to be pursued.
A typical feature of the new classes (or social groups oppressed in the past, and they find more freedom at the end) is the desire to carve out a social and cultural world, reflecting the ideals, aspirations, lifestyle , allows to saturate the valences of self-esteem and personal growth inherent in every person. What is the highest aspiration for those who has always been considered the lowest rung of society? No doubt the chance to live like the ones at the top of the social ladder ... or as the nobles and feudal lords. But since this was not possible in politics, social, administrative (the laws of the Tokugawa were very clear about it), then here is the dual tendency to seek, by some (few, indeed, than the bulk, because it was very complicated), to "ennobled" (by buying securities from battered samurai, for example, people marry their offspring to higher-lineage), or to recreate an artificial world that somehow reflects the gilded life (or alleged) of the lords or military nobles. This is how new institutions and new forms of culture, more in line with the sensitivity of the new merchant class which belong to several wealthy families who live in the city, and which have as their object the two major interests cultivated by these people: the sensuality in its various forms, and money.
The pleasure quarters
must be framed in this context the so-called pleasure quarters (kuruwa) who wanted to recreate, on a different scale, the relaxing, stimulating and culturally rich pleasures of the world of the gentry. ; Inside the pleasure quarters ceased (at least in part) the differences in social type: the only discriminator was the money, so it was a wealthy merchant, in the eyes of those who lived in this world, far more than estimated a samurai without means. In these environments, the merchants had the illusion of being able to live like lords, you can create small courts, where, especially at the highest levels, women of good cultural education could entertain them with music, dance, poetry, and so on. The climate of these places of pleasure was far more tolerant than the life outside, and perhaps for this reason, they became a meeting place for many intellectuals.
Life and Works of Ihara Saikaku
There is little information about the life of Ihara Saikaku. Probably identifiable with Hirayama Togo, belonged to a wealthy family in chōnin Osaka, born perhaps in 1642, around thirty-five would have lost his wife and, later, his daughter. After entrusting the care of their business in person of confidence, he traveled long distances in Japan, touching on several occasions Edo. You know the date of a major poetic race, won by the writer in 1681, during which he managed to beat opponents with the composition of 4000 verses (ku), published the following year under the title Ōyakazu. Probably changed his name in time Saikaku in which he had begun to be known as a composer of verses. In his later years he wrote several works which are currently divided into three groups: novels about sexual life of men and women (or same sex), the genus kōshokumono ("things related to loving love") , including some of her best known novels such as The Life of a libertine (1682), Five Women love (1686), The great mirror of male (1687); novels on the lives of chōnin (so-called chōninmono) focused on problems related to money, as the stock ever in Japan (1692) or calculations of people of this world (1692). The third group includes diverse works, some of which related to martial arts and samurai. The style of Saikaku, not prone to introspection psychological well described, with veins of irony and, at times, comedy, a sensual world, facing all the facts, not very sensitive to the moral, whether Buddhist or Confucian. Just as in the paintings of the time, we witness the unfolding of events (seen as "bird's eye") at some point, attention is drawn to a particular a specific situation, which are then described in detail.
the duty of warriors
Published in 1688, the duty of the Warriors is certainly an unusual, because it reveals the clash of two cultures: the traditional warriors, with their code and hard, often cruel, and that of chōnin that, in part appreciating values antithetical to those of the warrior, perhaps still suffering from this world so different, which fascinates them, but that leaves them at the same time, astonished. Then they are better than disavowing the actual value, the original meaning and emphasizing quality very little martial, more close to those of the same world of chōnin, as if the apparent heroic conduct celassero is very different desires and passions. It is not clear why, almost suddenly, Saikaku would begin to write about this subject (which should not, however, be his unknown, if only because, as suggested by some, traded in swords and weapons) and some have argued that he had done to respond to the warning launched by the government in 1686 against the writer of erotic things, but it is more likely that the reason was to broaden the topics addressed in order to deepen the customs and traditions of different types, and demonstrate know how to write on the other, thus attracting the attention of many bushi in the city as Edo. The work follows a year of publication (1687) of Nanshoku Ōkagami (The great mirror of pederasty), where it is, in the first part, stories of love between warriors, and second, stories of kabuki actors. A second work, published shortly after Nanshoku Ōkagami, is the theme of the terrible vengeance of the samurai, which is described in an aseptic way, even if we become aware of the presence of a strong satirical vein. The Duty of the warriors (Buke laps monogatari) is the last of the three to deal with the world of Bush, and explores the 27 stories, the theme of giri (duty) of the warrior. In this case, the aspects that are analyzed are the duty of obedience towards their master, even if it means going against his own interest and their pride, and duty to oneself (Iji). This is a complex system, which has been treated elsewhere, and which has been extensively analyzed for the modern Japan, the scholar Ruth Benedict.
The Duty of the warriors is undoubtedly an important work, however, sometimes baffling, how should appear, at least in the popular imagination, the world of Bush at the end of the seventeenth century, analyzed by a chōnin of culture, able to detect, beneath the hard rind of duty, passion, pride, ill-repressed, the desire for revenge (even at the expense of obedience to their Lord), even cowardice, of a world that was perceived differently than described in the works that dealt with the Samuri Bushido.
(1)
Notes (1) Published in the magazine Arts of the East
The phrase "everyone is the son of his time", as abused, always retains its validity, especially when referring to people as unique as the writer Ihara Saikaku. Rich merchant from Osaka, a frequent visitor of the pleasure quarters of the city, a skilled writer of verse, first, and popular novelist, then (do not stop the practice of poetry), Saikaku is a prime example of perfect correspondence between the emerging class of research its own specific cultural environment and man of culture, precisely because of that class is a part, is able to respond very well to this need.
The world of the imperial court and nobility, is far more confined in the novels and stories of the past, city and everyday life, the heroic of the powerful lords, children and grandchildren of the endless wars between feudal, is now finished; the proud daimyo are now subservient to the power of the Tokugawa, who try by all means to weaken the power and monitor their movements. So even the brave samurai, now devoid of land and turned into employees on the payroll of their masters, no wars to fight, just watch a representation of their master.
The emergence of a new class
the traditional division of society into classes, the merchants have always occupied the lowest role: they had no land that produces rice, did not produce artifacts, not fighting ... in front of a samurai no category could be more despicable, and this attitude was haughty and aloof characterized the behavior of these men of war against those who wielded no sword, but the money. However, the new historical situation, the result of the unification of the country under the Tokugawa, had created a very special, very different from that of tradition, characterized three fundamental aspects: first, the conditions of peace, that would guarantee farmers, fishermen, artisans and merchants the ability to attend to their duties unhindered, then, after requiring that the daimyo to reside in the capital for long periods each year, and still leave their families as hostages when they returned to their lands, the formation of many small town courts, composed by thousands of servants, soldiers, family members, resulting in enormous demand for manufactured goods and services and, finally, the rather spartan existence of many samurai, paid to smile, no other income, increasing their debt in against those who, having been a long time looking, began to raise their heads: the merchants, and with them the artisans.
The new situation, focusing sull'inurbamento of thousands of people demanded more and more goods and services, with a tendency to buy ever more sophisticated and costly, took the class of artisans and merchants in large cities ( chōnin) to enrich and transform more and more wealth obtained from using the trade and money - in the past rather than something out of the feeling of nobility and military - in a real ideal to be pursued.
A typical feature of the new classes (or social groups oppressed in the past, and they find more freedom at the end) is the desire to carve out a social and cultural world, reflecting the ideals, aspirations, lifestyle , allows to saturate the valences of self-esteem and personal growth inherent in every person. What is the highest aspiration for those who has always been considered the lowest rung of society? No doubt the chance to live like the ones at the top of the social ladder ... or as the nobles and feudal lords. But since this was not possible in politics, social, administrative (the laws of the Tokugawa were very clear about it), then here is the dual tendency to seek, by some (few, indeed, than the bulk, because it was very complicated), to "ennobled" (by buying securities from battered samurai, for example, people marry their offspring to higher-lineage), or to recreate an artificial world that somehow reflects the gilded life (or alleged) of the lords or military nobles. This is how new institutions and new forms of culture, more in line with the sensitivity of the new merchant class which belong to several wealthy families who live in the city, and which have as their object the two major interests cultivated by these people: the sensuality in its various forms, and money.
The pleasure quarters
must be framed in this context the so-called pleasure quarters (kuruwa) who wanted to recreate, on a different scale, the relaxing, stimulating and culturally rich pleasures of the world of the gentry. ; Inside the pleasure quarters ceased (at least in part) the differences in social type: the only discriminator was the money, so it was a wealthy merchant, in the eyes of those who lived in this world, far more than estimated a samurai without means. In these environments, the merchants had the illusion of being able to live like lords, you can create small courts, where, especially at the highest levels, women of good cultural education could entertain them with music, dance, poetry, and so on. The climate of these places of pleasure was far more tolerant than the life outside, and perhaps for this reason, they became a meeting place for many intellectuals.
Life and Works of Ihara Saikaku
There is little information about the life of Ihara Saikaku. Probably identifiable with Hirayama Togo, belonged to a wealthy family in chōnin Osaka, born perhaps in 1642, around thirty-five would have lost his wife and, later, his daughter. After entrusting the care of their business in person of confidence, he traveled long distances in Japan, touching on several occasions Edo. You know the date of a major poetic race, won by the writer in 1681, during which he managed to beat opponents with the composition of 4000 verses (ku), published the following year under the title Ōyakazu. Probably changed his name in time Saikaku in which he had begun to be known as a composer of verses. In his later years he wrote several works which are currently divided into three groups: novels about sexual life of men and women (or same sex), the genus kōshokumono ("things related to loving love") , including some of her best known novels such as The Life of a libertine (1682), Five Women love (1686), The great mirror of male (1687); novels on the lives of chōnin (so-called chōninmono) focused on problems related to money, as the stock ever in Japan (1692) or calculations of people of this world (1692). The third group includes diverse works, some of which related to martial arts and samurai. The style of Saikaku, not prone to introspection psychological well described, with veins of irony and, at times, comedy, a sensual world, facing all the facts, not very sensitive to the moral, whether Buddhist or Confucian. Just as in the paintings of the time, we witness the unfolding of events (seen as "bird's eye") at some point, attention is drawn to a particular a specific situation, which are then described in detail.
the duty of warriors
Published in 1688, the duty of the Warriors is certainly an unusual, because it reveals the clash of two cultures: the traditional warriors, with their code and hard, often cruel, and that of chōnin that, in part appreciating values antithetical to those of the warrior, perhaps still suffering from this world so different, which fascinates them, but that leaves them at the same time, astonished. Then they are better than disavowing the actual value, the original meaning and emphasizing quality very little martial, more close to those of the same world of chōnin, as if the apparent heroic conduct celassero is very different desires and passions. It is not clear why, almost suddenly, Saikaku would begin to write about this subject (which should not, however, be his unknown, if only because, as suggested by some, traded in swords and weapons) and some have argued that he had done to respond to the warning launched by the government in 1686 against the writer of erotic things, but it is more likely that the reason was to broaden the topics addressed in order to deepen the customs and traditions of different types, and demonstrate know how to write on the other, thus attracting the attention of many bushi in the city as Edo. The work follows a year of publication (1687) of Nanshoku Ōkagami (The great mirror of pederasty), where it is, in the first part, stories of love between warriors, and second, stories of kabuki actors. A second work, published shortly after Nanshoku Ōkagami, is the theme of the terrible vengeance of the samurai, which is described in an aseptic way, even if we become aware of the presence of a strong satirical vein. The Duty of the warriors (Buke laps monogatari) is the last of the three to deal with the world of Bush, and explores the 27 stories, the theme of giri (duty) of the warrior. In this case, the aspects that are analyzed are the duty of obedience towards their master, even if it means going against his own interest and their pride, and duty to oneself (Iji). This is a complex system, which has been treated elsewhere, and which has been extensively analyzed for the modern Japan, the scholar Ruth Benedict.
The Duty of the warriors is undoubtedly an important work, however, sometimes baffling, how should appear, at least in the popular imagination, the world of Bush at the end of the seventeenth century, analyzed by a chōnin of culture, able to detect, beneath the hard rind of duty, passion, pride, ill-repressed, the desire for revenge (even at the expense of obedience to their Lord), even cowardice, of a world that was perceived differently than described in the works that dealt with the Samuri Bushido.
(1)
Notes (1) Published in the magazine Arts of the East
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