quinta-feira, 29 de julho de 2010

Wuji-Taiji


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Wuji (Wu-chi) Taiji (T'ai-chi)

"1. Wuji: The open circle at the center has no divisions. It represents the great limitlessness that is our origin.
2. Yin and Yang: The solid line represents yang, and the broken line represents yin. Yin and yang are the first separation after limitlessness.
3. The Four Images: Yin and yang take on their first pairings with one another, forming four combinations.
4. The Early Heaven Eight Trigrams: This is Fu Xi's arrangement of the Eight Trigrams. The arrangement is read counter clockwise. Opposite trigrams are arranged across from one another.
5. The Early Heaven Sixty-Four Hexagrams: This arrangement is read from the top and center outward on either side. One begins from heaven (at the "top" of the circle) and meets the other side at the "bottom" on earth. One can begin from heaven, only to find all lines reversing themselves after passing the point marked by earth. A blank band between the fifth and sixth circle marks King Wen's revolutionary rearrangement of the Eight Trigrams and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams.
6. The Later Heaven Eight Trigrams: King Wen's Eight Trigrams pattern, expressing the cyclical, seasonal, and directional nature of change. This pattern unites the Five Phases and the Eight Trigrams. It is read clockwise.
7. The Later Heaven Sixty-Four Hexagrams: The sequence is read clockwise. Odd-numbered hexagrams generate the following evennumbered hexagram by reversing their lines in a yin-yang exchange. Thus, every other hexagram is the inverse of the preceding one. In turn, even-numbered hexagrams are linked to subsequent hexagrams. Each hexagram is built from six lines, and these lines symbolize time and position. The lowest line is early in a situation and subordinate in position. The highest line is late in a situation and retiring in position. By the logic of the Changes, that which is late in a cycle changes to its opposite, and generates a new cycle. Thus, each hexagram represents a cycle."
Deng Ming-Dao

quarta-feira, 28 de julho de 2010

Camel in a White Shade


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Photo by Sergei Reautov. You can find it alt National Geographic:
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/

terça-feira, 27 de julho de 2010

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove


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"The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese learned men from the third century CE. During a time of political upheaval, the group distanced themselves from governmental service, choosing instead to spend time engaged in Daoist-inspired discussions, poetry, and music, sometimes while inebriated. At least one member of the group abandoned his government position after becoming disheartened by corruption, and the group as a whole became associated with retreat from public life.

References to the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove are abundant in Chinese and Japanese art and literature. The earliest extant visual representations of the group date to the fifth century CE. Over time the theme gained popularity in Chinese painting and decorative arts, particularly from the late Ming (1368–1644) through the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). In Japan, the motif of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove was known as early as the ninth century. It was widely represented in Japanese art from the sixteenth century to the Edo period (1615–1868).

Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, featuring traditional works of art from China and Japan, has been organized to accompany and provide some cultural context for Asia Society’s exhibition of Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, the contemporary video work by Chinese artist Yang Fudong.

Who Were the Seven Sages?

Xi Kang (Ji Kang; 223–262) is identified through historical references and tomb inscriptions as a poet and musician, author, and Daoist philosopher and alchemist. His oeuvre includes compositions for a stringed instrument called the qin and writings on music theory, politics, ethics, and longevity. A critic of Confucianism, he is recorded as having challenged many of the social conventions. At a young age he retired from official life and a desire for fame and success, removing himself from the political corruption that he felt he could not endure, and became a proponent of wuwei (inaction). We know he was executed by the military general Zhong Hui, although the circumstances leading to this action remain unclear.

Shan Tao (205–285) was a good friend of Xi Kang. Shan Tao was an official who ultimately reached the rank of Director of Instruction (situ), one of the three highest offices in China. At one point Shan Tao put Xi Kang’s name forward as his successor. This recommendation only alienated the latter and irrevocably damaged their friendship, because the act suggested that Shan Tao did not fully understand Xi Kang’s character and his rejection of governmental service.

Xiang Xiu (228–281) was also a good friend of Xi Kang. He wrote a memoir of Xi Kang, as well as a refutation of Xi Kang’s essay Yangsheng lun (Essay on Nourishing Life). He is also said to have written a commentary on the major third-century BCE Daoist philosophical text the Zhuangzi.

Ruan Ji (210–263), the son of an official, was a member of a famous literary group and a talented writer and poet himself. He held the official position of Infantry Colonel (bubing xiaowei), but has gone down in history as being unrestrained and reckless, perhaps because of his excessive drinking habit. Correspondence also relates that he was an acquaintance of Xi Kang.

Ruan Xian (230–281) held office as Junior Chamberlain (sanji shilang) and Grand Warden (taishou), and is said to have possessed musical skill.

Liu Ling (ca. 221–ca. 300) wrote the poem Ode to the Virtues of Wine. There are a few anecdotes about him published after the fifth century. One of these notes:

On many occasions Liu Ling, under the influence of wine, would be completely free and uninhibited, sometimes taking off his clothes and sitting naked in his room. Once when some persons saw him and chided him for it, Ling retorted, “I take heaven and earth for my pillars and roof, and the rooms of my house for my pants and coat. What are you gentlemen doing in my pants?”

Wang Rong (234–305) remains largely an enigma, though we know that like Shan Tao he held the high ranking post of Director of Instruction."
Asia Society
©2009 Asia Society | 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street New York, NY 10021

sábado, 24 de julho de 2010

Mu



On the lost continent of Mû, you can read something if you click the word HERE
The twelve books of Corto:
1. 1904-1905: La Jeunesse (1983); 2. 1913-1915: La Ballade de la mer salée (1975); 1916-1917: 3. Sous le signe du Capricorne (1979); 4. 1917: Corto toujours un peu plus loin (1979); 5. 1917-1918: Les Celtiques (1980); 6. 1918: Les Éthiopiques (1978); 7. 1918-1920: Corto Maltese en Sibérie (1979); 8. 1921: Fable de Venise (Sirat al Bunduqyyiah) (1981); 9. 1921-1922: La Maison dorée de Samarkand (1986); 10. 1923: Tango (1987); 11. 1924: Les Helvétiques (1988); 12. 1925: Mû (1992).
We can also find books with short stories: 1. Suite Carïbéenne; 2. Sous le drapeau des pirates; 3. Lointaines îles du vent; 4. La Lagune des mystères.

terça-feira, 20 de julho de 2010

China - 中国

Last Painting

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

quinta-feira, 15 de julho de 2010

Blake & Mortimer


If you love the work of Blake & Mortimer and you know how to read French, you'll love this site. Please click HERE.

quinta-feira, 8 de julho de 2010

Van Dog


Click to read it (in Portuguese)

terça-feira, 6 de julho de 2010

Beckett


"Directed by Charles Sturridge, Ohio Impromptu, written in 1980,by Samuel Beckett opens with a figure clad in black with long white hair hiding his face and sitting on a white chair at a white table. There are two characters, the Reader and the Listener."