Hero: China versus Greece by IainDavie Lyrics
How would you characterise the Chinese hero? What is the essence of heroism? Drawing reference from the “The Basic Annals of Xiang Yu”, and related to examples in Western and Chinese Literature I've been thinking the following:
A Chinese hero is made up of three critical components of a man of virtue, a man of deeds, and a man of words.
This indeed is something different from the Greek notion in some respects, where "kleos" which required death in battle, in time, and on time [derived from "hora"], which trumped "nostos" a safe homecoming from battle, such as we read in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Interestingly Homer was in fact a book about a marriage of east and west. Furthermore the compound symbolism in many places throughout the work corresponds to the Chinese notion of art, such as we read about in the Mustard Seed Garden, and thus appears in many places to correspond to the Yijing trigram attributes and their compound references to specific chapters that seems to form a relevant complimentary commentary above and beyond the literal narrative, via a semiotic narrative of trigram pairs. Perhaps in fact that was what Socrates was referring to in Ion regarding the rules of art. In practical reality few seem to understand the formal rules of Chinese art. Perhaps the ancient rules of art in fact have a common source perhaps in China, perhaps Mesopotamia, perhaps a hybrid of the two, or the origin was Chinese and migrated west through elite circles.
The Chinese notion of hero is more civilized and thus more sophisticated. To achieve respect and thus virtue within Chinese society one was required to understand fully the works and implications of Confucius in relation to the nature of cause and effect such as documented in the Yijing, and the associated judgments of Confucius. Further one was required to master and practice the nature of human intervention such as summarized in the Tao Te Ching.
Thus, as with the sea and wind, the wood on fire, we find summer rain. Heaven illuminating, tranquil penetration, like the west sea.
In so doing one would be acting with virtue, and with appropriate deeds and selfless actions, achieve immortality through establishing and defining valid perspectives with brush and ink, thus allowing a free flow of such notions for future generations.
The combined nature of the correct understanding of cause and effect and human intervention, achieves wisdom. Xiang Yu may well have been courageous but he lacked wisdom, furthermore death by ones own hand does not constitute an heroic act, and thus he fails on virtue. I doubt Confucius would have seen Xiang Yu a hero.
By stark contrast in my view the man of the hour, on time, in time, was Sima Qian. He made a massive personal sacrifice to achieve his aims, firstly as a point of principle to which he was not willing to yield, which resulted in his castration, and then making a personal sacrifice to achieve his objective of leaving words for future societies so that we might understand the nature of things at that time. Thus Sima Qian on earth made thunder.
Whereas Xiang Yu's legacy was more akin to a sea of tranquility. He never held the celestial mandate, whilst tragic, he was in the wrong age, and thus not in time, and not on time, the two key requirements of a hero, thus he failed.
Whilst Xiang Yu looked physically like a hero, and he did rise fast, history is critical of his hubris. Where he is praised is in the much needed role of uniting China, albeit for a brief period of time. Thus in final retrospection we can say that unity was and is the most important and perhaps central theme of the Yijing, Tao and Chinese cultural identity. Xiang Yu pioneered and proved that something, up until then unthinkable, was possible.
Thus Xiang may perhaps be better credited as finding the way to achieving 豐 of 比 at least for a time. In so doing he showed the way, and the possibility. If that qualifies as hero it is perhaps a matter of 睽.
I think the notions put forward in the classics such as Yijing, and Tao Te Ching do not motivate the notion of hero, as is my understanding of hero based on my western bias of thinking. Rather they focus on the merits of a natural cycle and order of things. As with the Hebrew bible which advocates strategy, progeny, and survival there is no advocacy for merit in dying. Thus I hope we are not trying to place what may be more of a western label and notion, based on political motive, violence and killing, on to what was clearly an intellectually superior and more sophisticated culture in China in ancient times.
Despite the recent mainstream motives of western education regarding history, what is clearly the influence and bias of Victorian England, the influence of Chinese intellectuals may have penetrated the middle east and so onto the Mediterranean far earlier than what many scholars are willing to accept. Perhaps even the notions of Chinese thought and symbolism are embedded into the very cornerstones of western culture such as The Iliad and Odyssey themselves? I think they are for those with eyes that see.
Certainly the Zhou Dynasty promulgated books, possibly including the Yijing to outside barbarians in an attempt at intellectual colonization. I think the underlying notion being that giving up ones life is best avoided, and trumped by intelligent, civil, social intercourse, community, and unity. To that notion I think that both Confucius and Sima Qian would concur.
A Chinese hero is made up of three critical components of a man of virtue, a man of deeds, and a man of words.
This indeed is something different from the Greek notion in some respects, where "kleos" which required death in battle, in time, and on time [derived from "hora"], which trumped "nostos" a safe homecoming from battle, such as we read in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Interestingly Homer was in fact a book about a marriage of east and west. Furthermore the compound symbolism in many places throughout the work corresponds to the Chinese notion of art, such as we read about in the Mustard Seed Garden, and thus appears in many places to correspond to the Yijing trigram attributes and their compound references to specific chapters that seems to form a relevant complimentary commentary above and beyond the literal narrative, via a semiotic narrative of trigram pairs. Perhaps in fact that was what Socrates was referring to in Ion regarding the rules of art. In practical reality few seem to understand the formal rules of Chinese art. Perhaps the ancient rules of art in fact have a common source perhaps in China, perhaps Mesopotamia, perhaps a hybrid of the two, or the origin was Chinese and migrated west through elite circles.
The Chinese notion of hero is more civilized and thus more sophisticated. To achieve respect and thus virtue within Chinese society one was required to understand fully the works and implications of Confucius in relation to the nature of cause and effect such as documented in the Yijing, and the associated judgments of Confucius. Further one was required to master and practice the nature of human intervention such as summarized in the Tao Te Ching.
Thus, as with the sea and wind, the wood on fire, we find summer rain. Heaven illuminating, tranquil penetration, like the west sea.
In so doing one would be acting with virtue, and with appropriate deeds and selfless actions, achieve immortality through establishing and defining valid perspectives with brush and ink, thus allowing a free flow of such notions for future generations.
The combined nature of the correct understanding of cause and effect and human intervention, achieves wisdom. Xiang Yu may well have been courageous but he lacked wisdom, furthermore death by ones own hand does not constitute an heroic act, and thus he fails on virtue. I doubt Confucius would have seen Xiang Yu a hero.
By stark contrast in my view the man of the hour, on time, in time, was Sima Qian. He made a massive personal sacrifice to achieve his aims, firstly as a point of principle to which he was not willing to yield, which resulted in his castration, and then making a personal sacrifice to achieve his objective of leaving words for future societies so that we might understand the nature of things at that time. Thus Sima Qian on earth made thunder.
Whereas Xiang Yu's legacy was more akin to a sea of tranquility. He never held the celestial mandate, whilst tragic, he was in the wrong age, and thus not in time, and not on time, the two key requirements of a hero, thus he failed.
Whilst Xiang Yu looked physically like a hero, and he did rise fast, history is critical of his hubris. Where he is praised is in the much needed role of uniting China, albeit for a brief period of time. Thus in final retrospection we can say that unity was and is the most important and perhaps central theme of the Yijing, Tao and Chinese cultural identity. Xiang Yu pioneered and proved that something, up until then unthinkable, was possible.
Thus Xiang may perhaps be better credited as finding the way to achieving 豐 of 比 at least for a time. In so doing he showed the way, and the possibility. If that qualifies as hero it is perhaps a matter of 睽.
I think the notions put forward in the classics such as Yijing, and Tao Te Ching do not motivate the notion of hero, as is my understanding of hero based on my western bias of thinking. Rather they focus on the merits of a natural cycle and order of things. As with the Hebrew bible which advocates strategy, progeny, and survival there is no advocacy for merit in dying. Thus I hope we are not trying to place what may be more of a western label and notion, based on political motive, violence and killing, on to what was clearly an intellectually superior and more sophisticated culture in China in ancient times.
Despite the recent mainstream motives of western education regarding history, what is clearly the influence and bias of Victorian England, the influence of Chinese intellectuals may have penetrated the middle east and so onto the Mediterranean far earlier than what many scholars are willing to accept. Perhaps even the notions of Chinese thought and symbolism are embedded into the very cornerstones of western culture such as The Iliad and Odyssey themselves? I think they are for those with eyes that see.
Certainly the Zhou Dynasty promulgated books, possibly including the Yijing to outside barbarians in an attempt at intellectual colonization. I think the underlying notion being that giving up ones life is best avoided, and trumped by intelligent, civil, social intercourse, community, and unity. To that notion I think that both Confucius and Sima Qian would concur.