Overheard in the Museum of Prehistory 在臺東史前博物館
婦：「哇，妳看，死豬！妹妹，趕快過來跟死豬合照！」
Lady: "Wow, look, it's a dead pig! Sister, hurry over here and I'll take your picture with the dead pig!"

http://www.nmp.gov.tw/

學歷史最根本的錯誤，迺「以今律古」。古人有古人的時代、環境、想法，不能要求他們的想法跟我們一樣。
資治通鑑、晉紀、顯宗成皇帝咸康八年：(慕容皝征高句麗)『皝將還，韓壽曰：「高句麗之地，不可戍守。今其主亡民散，潛伏山谷；大軍既去，必復鳩聚，收其餘燼，猶足為患。請載其父屍、囚其生母而歸，俟其束身自歸，然後返之，撫以恩信，策之上也。』皝從之。發釗父乙弗利墓。載其屍，收其府庫累世之寶，虜男女五萬餘口，燒其宮室，毀丸都城而還。」
次年，顯宗成皇帝建元元年，『春，二月，高句麗王釗遣其弟稱臣入朝於燕，貢珍異以千數。燕王皝乃還其父屍，猶留其母為質。』
現在用這種外交手挽恐怕不行~~

"The past is a different country.” When you read history, you have to bear in mind that they had different ways of living and thinking, so you can't expect them to act like we might.

For example, this passage from the year 342 AD, when the King Huang (of the Mujung Hsienpei, or Bayan Siberians) quelled the kingdom of 高句麗 Goguryeo (Kokuryõ) / 고구려 in what is now central and northern Korea, and parts of Manchuria and Siberia. His advisor Han Shou said, "The land of Goguryeo is indefensible. We have chased their king and scattered their people, but they just hide in mountains and valleys. When our armies leave, they will gather again, blow life into the embers, and be another problem for us. We should take the king's father's corpse and capture his mother alive and bring them back with us. When the king ties himself up and surrenders, we will return them to him and pet him and soothe him and treat him faithfully. This is the best policy." Huang took this advise. They dug up the tomb of King Chao's father, Ifuli, and carried away his corpse. They took the accumulated treasure of generations, as well as over fifty thousand men and women, burned down the palaces, destroyed the capital, and went home."

In the spring of the next year, 343 AD, "King Chao of Goguryeo sent his little brother to vow allegiance, and offered thousands of extraordinary valuables. King Huang returned his father's corpse, but kept his mother as hostage."

To be honest, I am having some trouble envisioning this as a viable policy today: got a problem with a country, go to their capital, dig up their president's father's corpse, carry it home, and wait for results. Yup.

Actually, it probably would have worked about as well in Iraq as Bush's invasion.

PS: They returned the king's mother twelve years later, in 355AD, when the king displayed appropriate remorse and loaded them down with gifts. I can visualize the Bayan king saying, Well, she was getting old anyway.

東至過了，要想春聯。今天有一對，大概不能用：
日暮星出該入眠
狗吠蚊咬怎能睡

This is a very important point to be considered in the debate about gun control: click here::
The key words here are muscle memory.
If someone who has studied martial arts for a couple years gets in a tight situation, most likely they will just flail, and all their training goes out the window. You have to train your body until the only moves it knows are the ones you want.
So it is logical that the same thing holds true for guns. If you shoot your gun at a range, standing carefully, with ear protection and so forth, your gun is probably going to get tangled up in your shirt when you really need it.
Please remember that police do not advocate guns for everybody. They know what it's like to use a gun for protection.
The gun lobby does not care about public safety or the welfare of the nation. All they care about are their profits, and oh did you see how somebody in Pennsylvania shot up seven people just a week after the shooting in Connecticut? That's three victims killed, three police officers wounded, and the shooter killed by police, so let's say at least seven bullets were consumed (would have been seven hundred bullets if it had been LAPD). Okay, seven bullets, plus the profit from selling the gun, you know the old saying: a penny here, a penny there, it all adds up. No wonder the NRA wants police in every school: profit! profit! profit!

Overheard in Atolan
「世界滅亡那天一定要請假。」
"On the day the world ends, be sure to take the day off."

The sun rose this morning in direct alignment with the center of the Milky Way. That happens only once every 25,800 years, so I hope you saw it. If you didn't, you're in for a long wait.

我們剛從臺東回來，心得非常豐富，要慢慢整理，將會逐步寫出來。We've had a very rich week. Sunday afternoon I went to a class by the Tayal weaver Yuma Daru (although I spent the time taking care of her daughter Lungah Baunay and chatting with Baunay.) Then I went to a knife show and visited the bowyer Cho Hanching, after which I went to Pulima, the first annual aborigine art festival. Then I went to hear the great Puyuma/彪馬、卑南 singer, Sangpuy.

Monday morning we crawled out of bed before dawn and caught a train to Taitung on the southeastern coast, where Sawtoy, leader of the Amis Kakeng Ensemble, introduced us to artists from the Amis, Puyuma, and Paiwan tribes (renewing old friendships in some cases). Sawtoy taught us how to make the tipolo, traditional Amis bamboo flute. And so forth and so on. A lot to digest, a lot to write about. I will keep posting.

When you read the horrible news from Newtown, Connecticut, remember that somebody made a profit from those dead children and teachers. Somebody made money by selling the guns and the ammunition. This is why the NRA is so rabidly opposed to gun control: better that innocents die than profits suffer. Amitabha.

臺北市政府舉辦「原住民文史特色采風研習班」，請Amis旮亙樂團的少多宜團長講阿美文化、音樂。托團長與周家平助教之福，我們也參加了。Amis旮亙樂團的少多宜團長示範阿美族樂器，如鼻笛、竹筒琴、膜笛。下午教我們做弓琴。

At a workshop hosted by the Taipei City Government, Sawtoy, the leader of the Amis Kakeng Ensemble, demonstrated several aboriginal instruments, including the infamous nose flute (ngusut tipolo, click here::), the bamboo kazoo, and the tiftif, a sort of jew's harp that sounds like a didgeridoo. In the afternoon he taught us how to make and play the bow harp.

gimme a dozen

Now is 12.12.12;12:12.12. Those of you who cannot stand the excitement may be seated.

This will be the last in a remarkably inane series of posts celebrating such events as 08.08.08;08:08:08 and, for example, 050505. The reason this is the last post is not that I believe the world is ending this year, but rather that there aren't thirteen months in 2013, so I'm sort of stuck. The next good series begins in 2101, and I, for one, have no intention of hanging around until then.

In the highly unlikely event that the world does end on solstice of this year, we will be spared several days of X'ma$ carols. Look forward to it!

Kids like to play in puddles. It's human nature. I think that parents who don't let their kids get all muddy or play in puddles should be charged with child abuse.

扗少輔院當志工一件很榮幸的事是，可以給小受刑人介紹偉大藝術：他們日常生活中完全遇不到。昨天介紹「布藍詩歌」的「命運女神」~~誰聽懂拉丁文？我印了拉丁文歌詞，中文對照，一句一句帶他們唸。我還帶他們唸拉丁文。我說，「跟我唸，以後你可以跟人說你念過拉丁文的詩。」他們反應不錯，一句一句念；命運的擺佈，他們體認極其深刻，看到兩位偷偷擦淚。
但我唸到一半時，我突然想到：我這一生有些比較特殊的經驗，而帶一群少年囚讀誦中世紀拉丁詩，應該可以排前幾名。

A great privilege of doing volunteer work at the Reformatory is that I have the chance to introduce these young men to great art. Most had never even heard of Bach or Guernica, but they respond avidly.

This week I played O Fortuna from Carmina Burana for them. First I introduced the manuscript and poems, then played the piece once without explaining it. I asked their reactions, which were vivid and right on target. Then we passed out a handout, with the lyrics in Latin and Chinese. With these kids, you have to keep a tight hold on their attention, so I had them read along with me line by line, Latin and Chinese. Who understands Latin? But we struggled along word by word, and before the poem was finished, I noticed two of them surreptitiously wiping away tears: the vagaries of fortune is something they know far more about than people their age should.
But halfway through the poem, it struck me: I have had some unusual experiences in my life, but leading a group of teenage prisoners in reciting a medieval Latin poem has got to rank pretty near the top.

O Fortuna 命運啊
velut luna 像月亮一樣
statu variabilis, 變化無常；
semper crescis 月盈、
aut decrescis; 月虧。
vita detestabilis 可惡的人生！
nunc obdurat 有時給苦難
et tunc curat 有時給幸福，
ludo mentis aciem, 隨命運捉弄人！
egestatem, 無論貧窮
potestatem 與權貴
dissolvit ut glaciem. 都像冰雪融化消亡。

Sors immanis 可怕
et inanis, 虛無愚癡的
rota tu volubilis, 命運之旋轉輪，
status malus, 你無情地轉動，
vana salus 你惡毒兇殘，
semper dissolubilis, 搗毀所有的幸福，
obumbrata 陰影籠罩
et velata 撲朔迷離
michi quoque niteris; 你也把我打敗了；
nunc per ludum 你開心，你邪惡，
dorsum nudum 我赤裸的背脊給你，
fero tui sceleris. 無情折磨我。

Sors salutis 一帆風順時、
et virtutis 美侖美奐時、
michi nunc contraria, 命運跟我作對。
est affectus 在感情中、
et defectus 或虛弱時，
semper in angaria. 我永遠不能自主。
Hac in hora 在此刻
sine mora 一定不要遲疑，
corde pulsum tangite; 好好彈琴弦，
quod per sortem 因為命運
sternit fortem, 會擊敗最無畏的勇士，
mecum omnes plangite! 大家跟我一起悲歌哭泣！

Oops…. A construction company hired to help renovate an 18th French chateau was supposed to knock down a small building on the estate. They got a little detail wrong, and bulldozed the chateau instead.
Click

東晉郭璞為古今卜卦高人，嘗遇光祿顏含，欲為之筮。含曰，年扗天、為扗人、修己而天不與者，命也。守道而人不知者，性也。自有性命，無勞蓍龜。

含年九十三而卒。(約卒于西元三六零年左右。)

This December has 5 Saturdays, 5 Sundays, and 5 Mondays. This happens only once ever 824 years. Enjoy it, because we aren't going to see the next one!