From the Annals of Yen-tzu (6^th century BC)

Lord Ching of Chi went out hunting. Climbing the mountains he saw a tiger, descending to the lake he saw a snake. On returning, he called Yen-tzu and asked him, saying, “Today we went out hunting; climbing the mountains we saw a tiger, descending to the lake we saw a snake. These are probably what are called bad omens?”

Yen-tzu answered, saying, “A nation may have three types of bad omens; those were not in these categories. If the nation has wise people who are not known to the government, that is one bad omen; if the wise people are known to the government but the government does not use them, that is the second bad omen; if the government uses them but does not entrust them with great responsibilities, that is the third bad omen. What are called bad omens, are of these three types. Today your majesty climbed the mountains and saw a tiger; the mountains are the tiger’s home. Descending to the lake your majesty saw a snake; the lake is the snake’s lair. If your majesty goes to the tiger’s home or the snake’s lair, and sees them, what is unlucky about that?”

晏子春秋

景 公 出 獵 ， 上 山 見 虎 ， 下 澤 見 蛇 ． 歸 ， 召 晏 子 而 問 之曰 ： 「 今 日 寡 人
出 獵 ， 上 山 則 見 虎 ， 下 澤 則 見 蛇 ， 殆 所謂 不 祥 也 ？ 」

晏 子 對 曰 ： 「 國 有 三 不 祥 ， 是 不 與 焉 ． 夫 有 賢 而 不 知， 一 不 祥 ； 知 而 不 用 ， 二 不 祥 ； 用 而 不 任 ， 三 不 祥 也 ．所 謂 不 祥 ， 乃 若 此 者 ． 今 上 山 見 虎 ， 虎 之 室 也 ； 下 澤 見蛇 ， 蛇 之 穴 也 ． 如 虎 之 室 ， 如 蛇 之 穴 ， 而 見 之 ， 曷 為 不祥 也 ！ 」

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson

讀書，十幾二十年在教室裏與攷卷奮鬥、在書堆中同將知識建積。我常問學生，你一生中，哪一個題目最重要？答案是，現在正在作的這題是終身最重要的一題。

我在教室裏，常看到一種學生，我講第一題，他瞄幾眼就看第二題；我講第二題，他不求甚解，鉤一鉤答案就看第三題；講到第三題，他赫然發覺第一題不懂，忙著回頭再看第一題，可是我已經講到第五題了。他就從來沒有把心定下來，全心全意作過一題。結果，沒有一題作好。

所以，我們講第三題，第二題已經過了，不重要了；第四題還沒來，也不重要；一生中，最重要題目，就是現在正在作的這一題。

我以前住臺北downtown，我的交通工具是腳踏車：沒有污染、好停車、好玩、而且會騎的話，在市區比計程車快。可是不能否認，皮包鐵，有它的危險在。從家到補習班，要過好幾個大馬路口；我常想，騎過去似乎是很平凡的事，不重要，可是車禍，往往決定于幾百分之幾秒，你哪一個路口沒過好，嗚呼哀哉媽媽的兒子變成肉餅了。

擇日仙看八字、測陰陽，求黃道吉日，其實，正如佛子所說，日日是好日。日日要好好過。很多人，從生到死，沒有真正地活過。

Funeral feasts, everybody has those. An interesting custom of the Tayal was the prasi. An old person might figure that his time was coming, and although he would be there for his funeral feast, he really wouldn’t be in much of a position to really enjoy it; he wouldn’t really be able to get his teeth into it, as it were. So before he died, he would ask his friends and relatives to hold the feast for him, so he could be part of the fun. This was called prasi.

I don’t know if this is done any more.

南懷瑾說，最難享的福是清福。

12PM Every Office Has Its Very Own Rainman

Employee #1: So, if it's 7:11 now, and I have a 30 minute break, what time do I have to be back?
Employee #2: Uh, 7:41.
Employee #1: How did you figure that out so fast?

Huron Road
Cleveland, Ohio

via Overheard in the Office, Jun 27, 2008

this cracks me up, but it also worries me a bit, when I consider that my niece Trin's kids are being educated in the Cleveland area.....

When I was a boy, all over the US you saw red signs posted by the road with jingles written on them. A series of small red signs with white lettering, carrying a short jingle one line a sign: the final placard always said Burma Shave. I had no idea what Burma was, and only vague ideas about shaving, so I had no way of knowing that those signs were advertising shaving cream. The company has long since gone out of business, and the signs disappeared long ago. Last month, in Mesopotamia, Ohio, I saw a set someone had collected; the set could have been for sale, I don’t know. But seeing these brought back many memories of learning how to read and eagerly shouting out the lines with Steph and Peter as the signs whipped by along the roadsides of northern Illinois.

說東西南北

東，說文解字：東，動也。从木。官溥說，从日在木中。

西，說文解字：西，鳥在巢上。象形。日在西方而鳥棲，故因以為東西之西。

南，說文解字：南，艸木至南方而有枝任也。从屮，羋聲。

北，說文解字：北，乖也。从二人相背。

極案：方位名，東西明了有據，南北顯為無本字訓詁叚借。南，自古尤無定論，眾說紛紜，莫衷一是。南見金文，

于甲骨作

唐蘭釋南為「瓦製之樂器。」卜辭有

字，郭沫若釋：「象一手持槌以擊南。

小雅，谷風之什，鼓鍾：鼓鍾欽欽，鼓瑟鼓琴，笙磬同音，以雅以南，以籥不僭。

禮記，文王世子：胥鼓南。

可見「南」為一種敲打樂器。

國風有周南、召南，學者無攷。肊：或本以「南」伴奏為詩歌。

華夏上古只有東西，初民不認南北。東西，日出日入，易辨，至後世乃分南北。是以必借相背、南樂字為向。

直笛是我最喜歡的樂器。Baroque巴洛克直笛曲清淨有深度，明喨無染著：但因為直笛小聲、音域有限，所以十八世紀開始編制現代交響樂團，直笛被長笛取代，幾乎消聲匿跡；二十世紀初，愛好古音樂的人士發現直笛聲音幽雅，因而研究、復製、吹奏，並推廣。

推廣到二次大戰前的德國，德國人想要把指法簡化，因此直笛有巴洛克Baroque(English) fingering(英國)指法與德國German fingering之異，但德國指法不為直笛師所取，因為音色不好、比較難的曲子更難吹、而且吹到高音域，音準極差等等，因此一般認為，德國指法失敗，知者不取。全世界的直笛大師，沒有一個用(或推薦) 德國指法。

直笛推廣到臺灣，很可惜不受重視，只當作小朋友音樂課入門玩意兒，吹些康樂音樂、Disney曲、民謠，所以很少人了解巴洛克直笛多美，實在可惜。也因為直笛不受重視，據我所知，全臺灣的大學音樂系，沒有一系有直笛主修課程，因此教小朋友吹直笛的老師，絕大多數不了解這個樂器。真是錯失良機！更甚者，最近聽說有些音樂老師教小學生德國指法，這樣下來保證學生吹直笛吹不好、對直笛沒有好感。

我個人認為，直笛在十八世紀被淘汰，由于小聲，對今天臺灣人口密集的城市來說，正是它的優點：大廈林立，隔壁小毛頭練鋼琴，左鄰右舍披害；始練小提琴，狗吠貓哭鬼唳。直笛怎麼練，吵不到無辜的鄰居。我建議，臺灣的大學音樂系應速設直笛主修課程，並且鼓勵學生不要再學鋼琴、小提琴等，改專攻直笛。而且要用正統的巴洛克指法。

舞者許芳宜，不怕我和世界不一樣：「每年除夕夜，爸爸照例要對我們講述一遍「稻穗的故事」，愈是結實飽滿的稻穗愈是低垂，提醒我們做人要謙虛。」

Fang-Yi Sheu, former principal dancer of the Martha Graham dance troupe in New York, was born and raised in Taiwan. A childhood memory, she says: “Every year on Chinese New Year’s Eve, my father would always tell us the story of rice: the richer and fuller the head of rice, the lower down it bows. He always reminded us to be humble.”

Today’s post is for your poor people who don’t know Chinese.

First, please read these English words out loud:

jingle

jungle

jangle

jingo

jinx

The more perceptive among you will notice that ‘j’ is pronounced …. ‘j’. That shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Ok, that wasn’t too hard, was it? Now let’s try two of those again, with feeling!

jingle! jingo!

Please pay attention to how you pronounce those: jingle! jingo! J sounds like J, if you’re on the right track.

Now, keeping jingle! jingo! in mind, please consider what the reasonable pronunciation of “Beijing” should be.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, Bei is pronounced similar to the English word ‘bay,’ like the San Francisco ~. Now say ‘jing’ like part of jingle, jingo, and bingo! you have a pretty good approximation of the correct Chinese pronunciation of Beijing. If you can say ‘bay-jing’ with a do-mi tone, you are even closer.

Note for those who are unclear on the concept: 北京 Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China. You may have heard of the place? They will be hosting the Olympics, does that ring a bell? Note that it is in China, so logically speaking, the Chinese should have some say in the matter of how to pronounce the name of their capital.

Beijing is the Communist romanization; the Wade Giles romanization, technically the academic standard yet, is Peiching, spelled this way for reasons that wouldn’t interest you in the least; aspirated and unaspirated consonants, that sort of thing. Peking is the old British imperial postal spelling, using a k to reflect central and southern dialects, or maybe just British mangling: hard to speak rummy Chinese with a stiff upper lip, what?

But what flummoxes me, and the reason for this post, is that in recent years Americans have, through undoubtedly concentrated effort, managed to pronounce Beijing all wrong. Now you hear Americans authoritatively saying Beizzzhhhing, with a ‘zzhhhh’ that most assuredly does not even exist in Mandarin. (Of the top of my head, I can’t think of a single Chinese dialect that has the zzzhhh sound.)

Now, in pinyin (the PRC’s romanization), you do see words spelled with ‘zh’, such as Zhungguo, China, but that sound is similar to the English ‘j’, not at all like the Russian ‘zh’ of Dr Zhivago or Zhukov.

But ‘Beijing’ should be straightforward enough: bay-jing, do-mi. Where on earth did this Beizzzzhhhing nonsense come from? I suspect some meat-headed official or reporter wanted to sound like he (or she) really knew something you hoi polloi didn’t have an inkling of, and pronouncing a word like it looked like would be too obvious, and so ended up with the fat-head Beizzzhhing monstrosity. Or maybe it was a French big-wig who can’t pronounce ‘j’ properly. Whatever. Beizzhhing may sound authentic, if you don’t speak Chinese, but rest assured, it is wrong. Bay-jing, do-mi. Just try not to say 背景BAY!-jing, MI!-do, because that means ‘background.’

金剛經:

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有肉眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有肉眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有天眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有天眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有慧眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有慧眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有法眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有法眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有佛眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有佛眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？恒河中所有沙，佛說是沙不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來說是沙。’

糟糕，前幾天誦到此文，居然誦成：

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有肉眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有肉眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有天眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有天眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有慧眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有慧眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有法眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有法眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有佛眼不？’

‘如是，世尊，如來有佛眼。’

‘須菩提，于意云何？如來有沙眼不？’

造業！懺悔！

叩問諸山大德，懺悔時一直笑，懺悔有效嗎？

on the MRT (Taipei subway) I saw someone wearing a jacket that said

UNITED OBESE ASSOCIATION

Bet they could sell a bunch of those in the States!

Evidently Cuba is looking forward to Castro’s departure, so life can move forward. Castro always put his politics ahead of the people’s welfare: construction materials were dedicated to the military, so the people of Havana live in crumbling houses that fall apart around them, with inadequate electricity, and “plumbing” that pumps human waste undiluted into the sea. Hail to the revolution! Power to the people! Get the old dictator out so the people’s livelihood may be improved.

This brings to mind someone who contributed greatly to the misery of the Cuban people, Che, one of my least favorite celebrities. He happened to have a good photographer who took a sexy photo of him that has made him the idol of all those audacious revolutionaries who dare to express their individuality by purchasing mass-produced Che posters and T shirts, and, throwing caution to the winds, wear their baseball caps backwards! Oh, what creativity! Oh, the flagrant nonconformity of buying trendy consumer goods! I’ll even wager that some of these dangerous radicals ride Harley hogs!

I don’t care much for political parties, I don’t care much for ideologies. If the people prosper and live comfortably, that is good government. 漢武帝擴展版圖，百姓苦不堪言，為誰爭「光」？書‧太甲下：惟天無親、克敬惟親；民罔常懷、惟于有仁。Glory? The greatest glory a government can aspire to is to have contented people who don’t give much thought to their rulers.

Overheard on the Taipei Subway

“我那天回去以後，一直在想痔瘡。”

“After I went home that day, I kept thinking about hemorrhoids.”

Sir Jeremy Bowes served as Queen Elizabeth’s ambassador at the court of the Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible, who bellowed, “I do not think Elizabeth is my equal. There are those who are greater than she.”

Sir Jeremy would not hear his queen disparaged. Standing firm in the face of Ivan’s insane rage, he retorted, “The Queen, my mistress, is as great as a prince as any in Christendom, and wants not the means to withstand any she has cause to be enemy to.”

Ivan asked, “Yes? What do you say to the French King? And the King of Spain?”

“Marry, I hold my mistress to be as great as either of them.”

”What do you say to the Holy Roman Emperor?”

“The King, my mistress’s father, once hold that Emperor in his pay.”

Ivan’s rage increased. He screamed at Sir Jeremy, “If you were not an ambassador, I would throw you out the door!”

Sir Jeremy calmly replied, “You could, but my mistress will avenge any harm done to me, her ambassador.”

Ivan screeched, “Get out.” After Sir Jeremy left, Ivan berated his own chancellor and nobles. “Did you hear? He would not have a word spoken against his mistress! If I could have servants like that!” Then he started beating his chancellor with his staff.

I have always wondered that Tsar Ivan did not consider that the reason he did not have servants like Sir Jeremy Bowes was that Queen Elizabeth never made a habit of beating her counselors with a staff.

Sometimes I really don’t know what to make of the news. Here is an article that came out several months ago:

An Irishman blinded by an explosion two years ago has had his sight restored after doctors inserted his son's tooth in his eye, he said on Wednesday.

You couldn’t make something so surreal up.

壇經記，惠能身不幸，父早亡，老母孤遺，移來南海；艱辛貧乏，於市賣柴。

時，有一客買柴，使令送至客店；客收去，惠能得錢，卻出門外，

見一客誦經。惠能一聞經語，心即開悟，遂問：「客誦何經？」

客曰：「金剛經。」

案：惠能「是嶺南人，又是獦獠」，且「惠能不識字」，
卻聞客誦金鋼經即開悟。客誦惠能聽，不視文字，
亦不識文字，可見經文華譯于時為白話文。
今人聽經倘不視文，聽不懂；
今所謂文言文，于唐朝仍可為口語文學。

又：經文熟誦則速。客誦經，
惠能一聞經語，心即開悟，應誦慢板。
肊，客誦經，見賣柴惠能駐足聞經，
或識為大根器，或欲種善根，
故放慢誦讀，企其能會。

 又：能為六祖惠能誦經，多大的因緣！多大的福氣！

Just listen, there's nothing to see. This is a bird that calls at night. I understand it lives close to the ground on the edges of fields, and is about the size of a chicken or quail. Can anybody identify this fellow?

Many thanks to Mr 賴鵬智 Bird Lai, who identified the call as a 黃嘴角鴞 Mountain Scops Owl, or Spotted Scops Owl, Otus spilocephalus.

二二八公園靠襄陽路的工程圍籬拆下了，新面貌真好！從前門禁森嚴的黑籬不見了，取而代之以開放、寬敞的彎曲、活潑步行空間，又大方又方便；彷彿從以前的壓迫限制中解放了。設計師應該頒個獎吧！

Those of you readers (assuming such exist) who have not been to Taiwan may not appreciate how good a subway can be. Taipei’s MRT is clean, reliable, and comfortable, a pleasure to ride.

Boston is proud of having the world’s first subway, but it’s really not much to be proud of. The trains are uncomfortable and dirty, filled with litter, and service is bad. My last night in Boston (May 21), we were taking the Red Line outbound around dinnertime, approaching Central, when the train stopped. It was uncomfortably crowded, but the passengers stoically waited. The train didn’t move for about ten minutes. Finally, the driver made some sort of announcement, but it was mumbled and inaudible. Nobody could hear what she was saying, and people started grumbling. Over the next ten minutes, we were treated to a few more inaudible mutterings. Finally the train lurched forward a few steps, and we were in the station! The train had stopped just short of the station. But even though we drew up to the platform, the doors didn’t open. People inside the train and people outside the train stared at each other for several minutes before the doors opened.

In Taiwan, you could get reimbursement for any such delay and inconvenience, but the Boston commuters seemed used to such miserable treatment. No audible or explicable explanation was offered for this mismanagement; you’re at their mercy when you take Boston’s T.

When we got back to Taiwan, and walked into the subway station the first time, when we saw the train our first reaction was, “Wow, it’s a new train!” Then we laughed, because we knew it wasn’t. After Boston, we just weren’t used to sparkling clean stations, spotless trains, reliable service, and comfortable rides.

Here is something Chao and I were considering on our flight from LA to Tokyo. Two of 403 passengers on the eleven hour flight, we sat as comfortably as contortionally possible as our 747 zipped us across the sky at nearly one thousand km an hour, jostling lightly with infrequent turbulence.

Then we considered the USS Constitution, which we finally succeeded in visiting in Boston. The ship, with roughly the same indoor space as the 747, carried 450 sailors on voyages lasting weeks and months, rolling and pitching slowly up and down the waves. The sailors were allowed to sleep in their hammocks four hours every day. When weather permitted, ventilation was provided by portholes, such as shown in the photo below, and through the open hatch. With all those unwashed bodies, it must have been suffocating below decks, where, BTW, I had to watch my head when standing upright.

We decided that eleven hours on the 747 wasn’t so bad after all.

原來臺灣的形象如此.....

10AM Tonight's Movie: Guess Who's Going to Hell?
IT guy to IT manager: Nice shoes, are they new?
IT manager: Yeah, but they're too clean and white. They need to be scuffed up more.
IT guy: You know what they should do? They should make the seven-year old Taiwanese kids who sew these wear them for a few days first.
IT manager: Yeah, that's perfect. Pre-scuffed shoes. They'd be flopping around in shoes way too big, but at least they'd have shoes for a few days.

Good Hope Road
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
via Overheard in the Office, Jun 2, 2008

Wenhui文慧 lived in 木柵溝子口 on the outskirts of Taipei. One summer night her brother Wenta 文達 and their father were sitting in the living room swatting mosquitoes.

“Pa,” Wenta said, “The living room is full of mosquitoes. Let’s open the windows so they can fly out.”

Their father agreed, and they opened all the windows. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

An interesting thought:

John Kellerman:

Therapists become therapists because deep down they feel that people are really good and have the capacity to change for the better. The notion that there exist individuals who are simply evil – bad people – and that such evil cannot be explained by any existing combination of nature or nurture is an assault upon a therapist’s sensitivities. The psychopath is to the psychologist and the psychiatrist what the terminal cancer patient is to the physician: walking, breathing evidence of hopelessness and failure.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave no trail.

Talovich

When I was a kid, Americans didn’t hug much. Lovers hugged when nobody was watching, spouses hugged from time to time, and kids dutifully hugged Grandmother when she went back home after a visit.

Now it seems that American etiquette requires dozens of hugs every day. The way things are going, in a few years you will be obligated to hug the cashier at the supermarket when she has run up your order and told you to have a good day.

The problem is, in my observation, very few of these hugs are heartfelt. Americans hugs are rigid formalities, the huggers trying to hold each other as far away as seemly while feigning sincerity.

On the one hand, Americans feel duty-bound to show that they are affectionate and really care (Have a good day!), but on the other hand, Americans do not lightly tolerate invasions of their space.

During my three weeks in Boston, Cleveland, and LA, I observed at least a hundred hugs, of which almost none were warm or joyful. I seriously doubt that many Americans enjoy those hugs. Why bother?