Happy birthday to Teacher. 孔子誕辰不放假，但萬世師表常在心中。

Today we were visited by a very small moth.

How small? That huge pink blob in the photo is my left index finger.

You learn something every day. 紅樓夢本為清朝禁書，由和珅勸乾隆解禁。

怎麼說呢？和珅是惡名昭彰的貪官；做官的動機就是要貪污；可是如果他沒有那麼貪，我們今天讀不到紅樓夢。

怎麼說呢？當時被他糟蹋的人一定不希罕甚麼賈寶玉林黛玉。可是現代人如果沒有紅樓夢，生活就是有那麼一點貧乏。(加上，臺大中文系的多少教授就得另謀飯碗。)

好比，If it were not for Mussolini, today we would probably not have the chance to enjoy Vivaldi. His music had been forgotten, but Mussolini, in his quest to inflate Italian pride, prompted musicians who dug out these almost extinct scores. The first people in the US to hear Vivaldi's music were FBI agents monitoring Fascist radio broadcasts.

塞翁失馬，焉知非福？禍兮福之所倚，福兮禍之所伏。

管它碳不碳，中秋烤肉有甚麼關係？請看:::

Hope everybody is having a wonderful moon festival. We've come in after an evening of admiring the moon, drinking tea, and eating moon cakes.

Just at dusk, the dogs sang out to alert us to moonrise.

What is the wind in a typhoon like? you may ask. The east coast got Force 17 gales, but in Wulai, the winds were much tamer. But not gentle.

A big wind blows down trees, as they discovered recently in New York. A typhoon wind snaps the little bamboo: much more impressive than toppling a tree.

For some preliminary gusts, please click here:::

We put a fitted tarp on our car and parked it in a protected place. The wind blew off the tarp, but luckily it wrapped around the mirror. Otherwise, they would have picked it up on the radar in Vladivostok.

Bawnay said, "Strange, it didn't rain in our village." Yeah, they're drying out there, they got only 90mm of rain yesterday.

They lost their electric power. Bawnay said, "有時候過沒有電的生活也很不錯！Sometimes it’s nice to spend some time without electricity."

一九一八

Please remember that today is the most sacred of holidays, Talk Like A Pirate Day, and be sprightly about it, matey, if you know what’s good for you.

We celebrated TLAPD by hunkering down as this typhoon poured water all over us. Then at around three in the afternoon, the wind came up to blow. That's when I really got into the spirit of TLAPD, because the wind blew down a clump of my 巨竹 giant bamboo, which was finally, after how many years? getting gigantic: AARRGGHH!

Fortunately it fell away from the house, but the stalks were crushing a couple trees, so I got out a good saw and my laraw (headhunting knife) and went out to hack them down a bit, singing

Blow you winds in the morning,

Blow you winds Hi Ho,

It's clear away your giant bamboo

And Blow, Boys, Blow!

all the while ruminating on the deep question, what does Talk Like a Pirate Day (TLAPD) have to do with the pirates on the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)? Worth considering.

An excellent essay on a subject I have wondered about, as I suppose most reading addicts do: why read so much when you forget so much?

In the NYTimes Book Review, The Plot Escapes Me, by James Collins.

Recording his journeys in Taiwan in 1869, Edward C Taintor wrote, "I had hitherto always held Keelung [基隆] to be the filthiest town in the universe, not deeming it within the bounds of possibility that a place could be worse than it; but a visit to Suao [蘇澳] forced me to confess my mistake. Suao thus far, in my experience, bears the palm, with little danger of losing it."

Not to be disrespectful, but if you look at the English language literature concerning Taiwan before 1945, whether written by explorers, scientists, or missionaries, the words that invariably pop up are 'dirty' and 'filthy.'

Not that everything was cleaned up immediately after the Japanese warlords surrendered. In the summer of 1973, Josh came for a visit. One day when we were coming out of the mountains, we reached Suao, which in those days was as far as the train from Taipei went. Near the train station, a lady by the road was selling sugar cane, which is delightful, delicious, and refreshing, so I asked Josh if he’d like some. Sure. We ordered a cane, and the lady began peeling it for us. She broke off one section a bit too vigorously, and it fell to the ground, almost landing in the putrid open sewer by her stand; the sewer was fed in part by a broken pipe flowing out of a 騎樓的柱子 pillar next to her.

Before the sugar cane had bounced, Josh said, "No, ask her to wash it." So I asked her to wash it. She was completely befuddled. "Wash it? What for?" "It fell on the ground." "So? Is there something wrong with that?" "But it’s dirty." "Dirty??" "Yes, it fell on the ground so it’s dirty." You could see she had no idea what I was complaining about, and kept on peeling the cane. I said, "Look, if you don't wash that piece, we aren't buying the sugar cane." She gave me a look that said, What won't these crazy foreigners come up with next, and washed the sugar cane for us… in the grey sewage flowing out of the pipe. Josh immediately lost his appetite for sugar cane.

So you see, progress has been made!

三十九年

念無常
Originally uploaded by Yugan Dali

和尚珍藏祖師傳的古瓷缽。一天，師不在，小沙彌玩缽，一不小心，落地碎了。正好師歸，小沙彌拾碎片入懷中，問師，「師父，為甚麼有生有死？」師父說，「因緣際會。因緣具，則生；因緣散，則亡。」小沙彌從懷中拿出缽的碎片給師父看，說，「師父的缽的因緣散了。」

我今天一個景德鎮蓋盌因緣散了；民國七十二年老友唐斯芳給我的。蓋子八十九年破了。
庚寅白露

Today when I was cleaning this tea bowl, it slipped and broke. My old friend Tang Sefang gave me this in 1983. The cap broke in 1999. Sic transit gloria mundi

After yesterday's somber commemoration, today we will commemorate the day, September 12, 1940, seventy years ago exactly, that four French teenage boys, some refugees from the Nazi occupation, went for a ramble on a hillside. Their dog Robot popped down a hole left when a tree fell over, and in searching for Robot, the boys discovered the glorious painted cave called Lascaux, with paintings 17,000 years old.

Shortly after its discovery, Picasso visited the cave, and said concerning modern art, "We have invented nothing."

There’s a virtual tour here::: Look on the left for Visite de la grotte.

This is also worth reading.

Capt. Tom Daniel, a retired career Navy man who teaches the Navy JROTC program at W.P. Davidson High School in Mobile, Ala., will share with his students his own experience evacuating from the Pentagon on 9/11. He and his colleagues had seen the news about the New York attacks on television, but when the Pentagon was hit, they thought it was a crash of a VIP helicopter, so many of them left their keys and purses on their desks.

On the anniversary, Captain Daniel says, "the most important lesson is pretty much what we emphasize every day – and that’s being good citizens," not necessarily by joining the military but by doing their best in whatever profession they choose. "That's how you pay back society for the privileges that you have as an American citizen."

for the complete article, read here::

The meter reader comes every two months to read the electric meter. The last time he came, Yumin, as usual, roared and howled ferociously as he approached. I rushed out to call down Yumin. The meter reader came in very cautiously, keeping his eye on Yumin. I told him not to worry. When he turned his back on Yumin to read the meter, Yumin tiptoed up silently and lightly touched the back of the guy's knee with his nose. He practically jumped out of his skin.

I hope he comes back again.

In his brilliant Categories of Medieval Culture, A I Gurevich (Арон _ Гуревич) points out that during the Middle Ages, "value belonged exclusively to what was old."

In Beowulf as well as in Viking sagas, the hero's sword is extolled because it was passed down from his grandfather or generations before. Imagine today's Rambo or Terminator appearing on the scene with an old single shot .303 Lee Enfield rifle.

Nowadays we do not value what is old. Yesterday I took an on-line survey rating a product from 1 to 10, hard to use 1, easy to use 10; unreliable 1, reliable 10; ugly 1, beautiful 10; old 1, young 10. This is how modern society values the old.

Experience is not esteemed in an age where tools do all your work for you. A 毛筆 Chinese writing brush takes years of practice to control, as does a quill pen. You can change fonts with the click of a mouse, and use WordArt and other programs to modify your words. If you don't know how to use WordArt, fiddle with it, you can master it within five or ten minutes.

The phrase 功夫 kung-fu, or gungfu, is often mistakenly used in English to refer to Chinese martial arts, but actually it means the skill developed through time and effort, and does not necessarily have anything to do with a martial art. Martial arts necessarily require years of practice, but any skill requires kung fu, be it sweeping the floor or playing a guitar.

When you have shot a stickbow long enough to wear out several bowstrings, your arrows begin to go where you want them to, more or less. A beginner with a well-tuned compound bow and zero pin gap fiber optic bubble level sight can group arrows within half an hour, and a sighted crossbow practically shoots itself. Our tools are so efficient that they allow for no sense of achievement.

Small wonder that we place little value on what is old. By the time you get your newly purchased software up and running, it is obsolete. Who has time to devote to making your own clothes when they will be out of fashion by the time you finish? The key here is that once you have paid the purchase price for a product, you need to feel dissatisfied, in order for the producer to make further profits on your next purchase. Out with the old, in with the new!

Fashionable modern life is a marionette show. People proudly strut and posture, yanked back and forth by the irresistible demands of advertising.

九十九年九月九日

A stunning display of synchronization, teamwork, and pure skill from 青森大学Aomori University in Japan:

October 2009

Mark Twain said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." (although it appears his collaborator on The Gilded Age, Charles Dudley Warner, actually wrote the statement). Okay, now I'm doing something about it: I'm posting another piece of cheerful blather about it on my blog.

North of Taiwan is one typhoon; south of typhoon is another typhoon; flat on top of northern Taiwan is a third. Fortunately, they seem to be canceling each other out, for although we have had rain, they have not been torrential (by Taiwan's standards, at least; if this were Louisiana, New Orleans would be long gone). But please compare these rain maps, one for August 30 and the other for September 1^st. Note how they complement each other; places that got drenched on the 30^th were dry on the 1^st, and vice versa.

Okay, now, everybody, repeat after me in your best American accent: amAAAAzing!!

兩個補習界有名的老師最近常上新聞，反正這兩年補習班生意不好，要想辦法宣傳一下。

聽說有一位名師課堂上講一句，You have nothing but beautiful，電視新聞大作文章，找另一位名師說那個老師講錯，應該是You have nothing but beauty。這句文法是比較健全，但是對不起，兩位都講錯，應該是You are nothing but beautiful。不過，這種冷僻的英文，只存活在非英語系地區的教材裏。現代人，除非念過一些幾百年前的古書，恐怕也不懂這種英文。教這些，沒用。

Three Days in a Reform School

師大生的悲痛：不管到哪一所大學院校參觀校園，一定目瞪口呆，「哇~~~比我們師大校園漂亮多了！」

大學院校就罷了。這幾天到桃園少年輔育院當義工輔導員，參加為期三天的成長營，主題是：禮義廉恥。進了鐵門，校園走一段，就目瞪口呆，「哇~~~比我們師大校園漂亮多了！」寬敞、齊整、到處都是老樹，房舍雖舊但是維護很好，還有大籠子裏養的孔雀、雉雞。多數警員年輕，有書卷味。

沒看過那麼樣多刺青的少年。平頭、白汗衫、天藍色短褲、黑襪、黑布鞋。戶外活動很多，所以每一個曬的黝黑，看不到臺北街頭越來越越常見的肥胖慵懶身材。晚上九點睡，五點半起。規矩森嚴：跟老師說話要蹲著、敬禮，老師說「坐下來」回「謝坐」，說「站起來」回「謝站。」這麼多衝動小鬼集在一處，不嚴不行。

聽說其中單親、家暴的孩子很多。不用說，單親家庭或家暴受害者後來有燦爛的成就，大有人在，可是難免認為這群孩子輸在起跑點上。

卓老師、涂老師設計一系列精彩的演講、活動，讓他們了解禮義廉恥的意義與重要。一班學生分十小隊，我們這一隊五個學生。不只是活動，廚務組還提供三天健康、可口的素食午餐、點心，孩子最愛。

一個活動叫他們計算他們平常(在外面)的開銷，讓他們看看錢怎麼花。我們小隊裏一位平常不太發表意見的同學一開始計算，儼然一副天生會計師的架勢展現。我問他喜歡數學嗎？他說喜歡，可是只會加減乘，除法還沒學過。

另外一位觀察敏銳、深刻，成熟穩重，可是幾乎沒有能力寫國字。跟筆掙扎一番，勉強寫下一兩句，像鬼畫符。

另外一位體能極佳，彈力、柔軟度異常，又聰明靈俐；沒讓他去念體育學院，是讓臺灣少一個國手級的運動員。

跟這班五十個受刑人相處三天，我的感受是，真是浪費人才！裏面很多極聰明的孩子、有各方面專長與興趣的小孩，不讓他們發揮潛力，實在太可惜。

少輔院給他們規律的生活，但是這樣不夠，因為這群小受刑人問題的確很多。他們的問題能不能解決？我覺得，把他們關起來的前提是他們確實可以造就；假使不能造就，全部鎗斃就解決了，也幫國庫省了一大筆錢。

但是他們的情形特殊，需要進一步的心理輔導、建設。卓老師帶進去的團體四五十個人，全部義工；其它班的同學也希望能為他們辦類似的活動，但是卓老師、涂老師時間、精力有限，只能針對這一班。

我認為，應該安排治療師一對一給這群孩子輔導，讓他們改邪歸正、成為有貢獻的國民、發揮他們的潛力。可是沒那麼多輔導師、治療師，因為沒有經費。

沒有經費？國家沒錢嗎？幾年前，烏來鄉公所花了幾億做一條棧道，因為設計不好，沒人走，過了幾年又花了幾千萬把它拆除。做很多沒有用、反而有害的工程，國家就大把大把將錢扎下去。可是花小錢讓一群可造就的人成長、進步、學習，國家沒錢。

This week Sabiy and I spent three days in a reform school. We volunteered to act as counselors for a workshop on four vital concepts: 禮義廉恥, which translates roughly as manners, doing the right thing, honesty, and shame. The workshop included lectures and activities designed not only to wear them out but also to teach them about these concepts. Fifty teenage boys attended.

I had never seen so many tattoos on teenagers; tattoos being a sign of gang membership. They all have crew cuts, and wear white tee shirts, sky blue shorts, black socks, and black tennies. They spend a lot of time outdoors working and playing sports, so they are all very well tanned. Discipline is necessarily strict. They squat when talking to a teacher, and salute.

The police, or wardens, are mostly young, and seem well educated. They are definitely not a bunch of thugs. The campus is actually very nice, certainly much nicer than my alma mater, National Taiwan Normal University. It is located on a slight slope, with plenty of space, and lots of large trees and carefully arranged greenery. The buildings are old but well maintained. They even have a large cage with peacocks and pheasants!

I understand that a very high proportion come from single parent homes, or have suffered from domestic violence. This does not excuse them, but it does explain a lot.

I was impressed by how intelligent and talented so many of these students are. I couldn’t help but wonder, isn't this a massive waste of talent? Couldn't these students be achieving more? But they also have more problems than your average student, so they need counseling and therapy. But certainly that would be a wise investment. Remember the old saying "A stitch in time saves nine"? A dollar spent on counseling now would save nine dollars on prisons and trials ten years down the line.

What I have said here applies to the United States, which has the world's highest proportion of its citizenship behind bars. The United States today incarcerates a higher proportion of its citizens than Stalin did. Isn't that something to be proud of? But then, I recall reading that Barbara Bush has invested heavily in building and operating prisons, and hey, its mostly Hispanics and African-Americans who get locked up, so what's your gripe?

Sure, some are monsters and should be shot. But I can't help wondering how much talent is being wasted, how many lives are being drained of any meaning, how much better lives those people could be living.

Something I wrote last Friday may need some clarification. I said that as far as I have been able to find out, Tayal does not express the term lonely. This is not to infer that the Tayal were anti-social and never felt the need for human company. Far from it. The tribe is so closely knit that even if a Tayal was far away from friends and relatives, community ties held him close. Solitary behavior was the exception. Usually kith and kin were always nearby, so loneliness was not a factor.

As to the lack of words for 'be careful' or 'danger,' suffice it to say that Tayal are brave to the point that they literally do not know the meaning of the word 'danger.'

A continuation on the preceding post, concerning the continuity of languages and ways of thinking. I do not know how pedantically we have to define 'language influences behavior,' or 'language influences perception,' but I do think behavior and perception are shaped, at least in part, by language.

Translators quake at the mere thought of translating Confucianism and Buddhism into English, because the vocabulary just isn't there. Even if you do manage to contrive rough English equivalents, they are not commonly used in English speech, because people do not think along those terms. And if they do not think along those terms, their actions are bound to be different, as are the ways they view life and its meaning.

孝 is often translated filial piety, but first, filial piety is hardly a common term in English speech. Second, the idea of a child's duty to his parents is quite different; of course the concept of 孝 is not entirely static in Chinese, and different eras, different families have different standards. In the early 1970s, when I went hiking all over the mountains of Taiwan, something I heard quite often from young people was that they would not go deep into the mountains because it would not be 孝. Even though times have changed, the concept has much greater weight, and much greater consequence than Western ideas, such as they may be, about a child's duty to elders and home.

君子 and 仁 vital ideas in Confucianism. The 君子 is a thoroughly alive person who understands his own actions and motives, and lives with tolerance, acceptance, dignity, calm, and elegance. 仁 is how a psychologically healthy person lives as part of a community. Now, Mr Chomsky, please give me the English vocabulary that has the same influence and emotional import.

We won't even go into 禮義廉恥…. 禮, ahh, ritual, sort of, manners, etiquette, humility, or a gift, a present; 義 doing the most appropriate act in ever-changing conditions; 廉, honesty, integrity, sort of, and 恥 is usually translated shame, but there has been precious little evidence of that in modern society.

And that's a sampling of common Confucian terms. Buddhism carries a double whammy, because so many of the words were translated into Chinese from Sanskrit. It took me some years to realize that where in English they say, "When you are ready, your teacher will be there," where they say "when you are ready," they are making a valiant attempt to render 緣 into English. Good luck. 緣 literally means a decorated hem, but is often translated as a predestined relationship. Predestined relationship is a clunky translation that is not at all common in English speech, but 緣 is an everyday term in Chinese, even among Chinese Christians. I once translated 緣 as links, but nobody paid me the least attention. 緣 is also translated as 'affinity,' but that is like playing Handel's Fireworks Music on a harmonica. Even if the tune may be reminiscent, it looses the original's oomph. Now tell me how to say佛渡有緣人in English…. yes? Ah, the Buddha ferries people with decorated hems?

Of course I do not have a PhD in Linguistics (thank heavens) and I am not a professor at either Harvard or MIT (thank heavens), but I do have the temerity to suggest that Pinker and Chomsky are straining fact through the very fine mesh of their theory, and have lost touch with the way languages actually live and function.

Now tell me if you think P and C give a tinker's dam.