And it's a wrap, folks.....here's to books I read so far in 2022!!

Charles Darwin Quote

Aaaaah, the last two years have been quite a blur and we all faced so many personal challenges.....yet, we somehow survived!!The pandemic hit us all hard, at times, testing our ability's to seek the light at the end of the tunnel or rather question if there even was any light present. The future seemed grim, dark, oh so torturous...….would this virus ever end? Would we ever see any resemblance of what we knew as normalcy?

To keep my mind engaged, I enrolled in HUM 20-Asian Humanities class. Here, We had two required texts that I read for my books for the year 2022.

Patrick S. Bresnan. Awakening-An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. Sixth Edition. Routledge,2018

• This book focuses primarily on India, China and Japan while showing the relationships that exist between Eastern and Western traditions. He enlightens the readers with Buddha's "Four Noble Truths", explains the Vedanta Philosophy along with the Yoga Sutras. He describes, compares, and contrasts between Zen Buddhism and Chan Buddhism. Patrick Bresnan just a fabulous job with talking about Indus Valley Civilization. I would definitely recommend this book as an enriched read.

Jack Hawley. The Bhagavad Gita-A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library,2011

•  The Gita is a universal love song sung by God to his friend man. This book teaches us the very essence of life, of humility and devotion through service to the Divine, the Godhead, the Brahman! It is a statement of the truths at the core of what we all already believe, only it makes those truths clearer and help us utilize them in our daily lives. Conversations between Krishna and Arjuna are heartfelt, honest and outrageously brutal at times. Another book I would recommend as a read for mind, body and soul well being. 

This semester, I also worked on my final project with a theme of Religion. It started a little rough as I wasn't managing my time well and wasn't too invested initially. However, with a little self pep talk and fire under me, I spent a good 24-28 hours, starting all over from scratch and gave it my all. Was I impressed with my end product?? You bet so!! LOL.....I researched, reviewed my past content, reread my discussion notes and complied all together to have a fabulous presentation.

I began the semester with a clean slate, an open mind, a yearning for learning. After a first few weeks, I felt overwhelmed but told myself I got this....I could do this and my goal was to have nothing but an 'A' in my class. Did I know much about humanities or what it entailed? Nope, just that it had to do something with people and culture.

As this semester ends, I have learnt a lot. I feel confident in the knowledge gained and am pleasantly surprised with how much I have learnt about past civilizations and how they shaped today's world. I enjoyed reading and learning of conversations between Arjuna and Krishna, learning of the "Four Noble Truths", Shintoism, Confucianism, the Silk Road, Trade and Travels and most importantly, the presence of Islamic world values in such ancient past.

    I sign off with a huge huge sigh of breath....that breath of relief. I did it:)

 

My Visit to the National Museum of Asian Art.

Sheep and Goat
by Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322)
China, Yuan dynasty, early 14th century
Handscroll; ink on paper
25.2 x 48.4 cm (10 x 19 in.)
Purchase F1931.4

I began my virtual visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art this glorious evening. I must admit I am a tad bit tired after a hectic day at work but I'm keeping my spirits light knowing we are on the final stretch. 

Shall we begin now.....As I browsed through the many virtual museums, I somehow was pulled by the Chinese Arts of the Brush gallery. Chinese calligraphy has always fascinated me so I figure...hey, why not?? Entranced and enchanted, I was mesmerized instantly by the Zhao Mengfu's Sheep and Goat handscroll. The inscription caught my attention as it read "I have painted horses before, but have never painted sheep [or goats], so when Zhongxin requested a painting, I playfully drew these for him from life. Though I cannot get close to the ancient masters, I have managed somewhat to capture their essential spirit."

Zhao Mengfu (趙孟頫, 1254–1322), courtesy name Zi’ang (子昂), pseudonyms Songxue (松雪, “Pine Snow”), Oubo (鷗波, “Gull Waves”), and Shuijinggong Daoren (水精宮道人, “Daoist of the Crystal Palace”), was a prince and descendant of the Song Dynasty, and a Chinese scholar, painter, and calligrapher during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). He was a native of Wuxing (吳興, modern Huzhou 湖州, Zhejiang). Though occasionally condemned for having served in the foreign Mongol court as an official in the Hanlin Academy, Zhao Mengfu has been honored as an early master within the tradition of the literati painters, who sought personal expression rather than the representation of nature.

       In calligraphy, Zhao Mengfu rejected the gentle brushwork of his era in favor of the cruder style of the Jin and Tang dynasties. In his early years, Zhao Mengfu studied the style of the Song dynasty emperor Gaozong, but later turned to the styles of Wang Xizhi (王羲之) and Wang Xianzhi (王獻之), in the end studying that of Li Yong (李邕). His Regular Script is considered one of the top four in the Chinese history. The other three Regular Script masters are Yan Zhenqing (顏真卿), Liu Gongquan (柳公權), and Ouyang Xun (歐陽詢).

       Zhao Mengfu’s paintings were among the first after the collapse of the Song dynasty and its academy of painting to show an interest derived from subjects and styles of ancient masters. Zhao Mengfu is popularly remembered as a painter of horses in the manner of the Tang dynasty (618–907) master Han Gan (韓幹), but he also painted other animal groups, landscapes, and bamboos. Referring to the antique, he generally avoided superficial beauty by utilizing deliberately simplified color and compositions and a schematic, even childlike, rendering of forms and scale. His works often display a great variety of brushwork. Among his most famous landscape paintings are Autumn Colors on the Que and Hua Mountains [National Palace Museum, Taipei], Twin Pines, Level Distance [The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York], and Water Village [The Palace Museum, Beijing]. Zhao Mengfu’s wife, Guan Daosheng (管道升, 1262–1319), and his son, Zhao Yong (趙雍, 1289–1360), were both painters of note.

Autumn Colors on the Que and Hua Mountains
National Palace Museum, Teipei

 As I research Zhou Mengfu using JSTOR database, I found the article "Recent Studies on Zhou Mengfu's Painting in China by Chu-Tsing Li. The article was published by Artibus Asiae Publishers, Vol. 53, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 195-210 (16 pages) Chu-Tsing Li talks in detail about Zhou Mengfu and how he was shunned as an artist during 1950's and 1960's.

It is also important to note "in the history of Chinese art, Zhao Mengfu (I254-1322) has been a figure that is rather difficult to understand. Up to more recent times, he was known and respected as a great calligrapher; generations of Chinese have practiced his style of writing and developed from it. But as a painter,  Zhao Mengfu was not well understood and sometimes even regarded as having been overly praised." (Chu-Tsing Li: Recent Studies on Zhou Mengfu's Paintings in China -195)

"In theory, Zhao emphasized two major ideas: "antique spirit" (guyi) and "not seeking form-likeness" (buqiu xingsi). In technique, Zhao advocated the application of calligraphic brushwork to painting and specially introduced dry brushwork on paper as the chief means of expression for literati painters. Fu Xinian feels that Zhao was most influential on later artists in landscape painting, and was equally important in figure, bird and flower, and bamboo and orchid types. Again this treatment of Zhao Mengfu fully recognizes his important position in Yuan painting."(Chu-Tsing Li: Recent Studies on Zhou Mengfu's Paintings in China -197)

Works Cited

 

“Gallery Guide: Chinese Arts of the Brush.” Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, 25 Mar. 2020, https://asia.si.edu/exhibition/gallery-guide-chinese-arts-of-the-brush/.

Li, Chu-Tsing. “Recent Studies on Zhao Mengfu’s Painting in China.” Artibus Asiae, vol. 53, no. 1/2, 1993, pp. 195–210, https://doi.org/10.2307/3250514. Accessed 11 May 2022.

“Zhao Mengfu.” China Online Museum, 27 Feb. 2015, https://www.comuseum.com/painting/masters/zhao-mengfu/.

Zen Buddhism in Japan; an explosion of information!!

Sakura Blooms in Japan

Japan ~ Land of the Rising Sun; we all are pretty familiar with that phrase, right!! I can say when I hear people talk about Japan, I immediately tend to associate it with sushi, oh those oh so gorgeous "Sakuras" or cherry blossoms and then, there are just lots and lots of people. But let's look at Japan through a different lens today....let's get to the nitty gritty of its religious teachings and practices and how these things came about to be.

Early Japanese society was organized by clans. The clans were unified within a sort of confederacy with their being an 'Emperor'. Upon the passing of the 'Emperor', the courts would be moved to a new location and a new palace would be constructed to house the new successor. This practice was probably derived from the traditional religious rites of purification. The Japanese borrowed the Chinese style grid patterns of streets along with adopting the Chinese system of writing , hence the keeping of written records.  This knowledge blew my mind as I always thought the Japanese were far too superior and way too smarter 😐😐 Anyhow, this already goes on to solidify the fact there was a great deal of Chinese influence already in existence in Japan.

Though most of the Japanese people practice Shinto- which is very much connected with nature worship and also the belief in traditional souls of the ancient Japanese, Buddhism was slowly creeping up onto the scene. Let's just say Chinese Buddhism was strictly transplanted onto Japanese soil. (Bresnan 486) 

In 805 CE, a Japanese monk named Saicho was received at the courts by the Shogun- a hereditary post that controlled military power. Saicho was now ready to weave together the various strands of Buddhism along with some aspects of Shinto to create a new wave of Buddhism, called Tendai (the Japanese rendering of the name of the Chinese Monastery, Tiantai.) While the power and prestige of Tendai Buddhism grew rapidly, a rival school of Buddhism called Shingon Buddhism emerged. 

It was during the time of the Kamakura Shogunate that Japan was nearly invaded and conquered by the huge Mongol armies of Kublai Khan. Luckily, with the fortunate timing of a typhoon, Japan was able to beat back the invasion and survive. "Naturally, the Japanese interpreted the typhoon as a heaven-sent answer to their prayers; it was kami-kaze, a "divine wind." (Bresnan 488)

 

What this led to, though, is the formation of three new schools of Buddhism; Nichiren Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. Closest to the traditional Tendai Buddhism was Nicheran Buddhism, named after the monk who began the movement in the thirteenth century. At odds with the usually tolerant attitude of Buddhism, he argued that all other Buddhist sects were heretical: he alone held the key to the truth of Buddha's teachings.

Unlike Nichiren, Pure Land Buddhism was founded by the monk, Honen who preached a very simple, unsophisticated doctrine. Honen taught that one can achieve salvation simply through the ceaseless invocation of the name of the loving and compassionate Buddha Amida. Let's take note that Pure Land Buddhism is also known as the most "religious" of Buddhist sects.

The seeds of Zen would reproduce two great schools; Caodao, which would be pronounced "Soto" in Japanese and Linji, which would be pronounced "Rinzai". Zen Buddhism, with its emphasis on simple virtues, self discipline, and self-reliance spoke to the heart of the warrior. A Samurai warrior was expected to always accept death before dishonor; the sword a symbol of the samurai. "The code of bushido maintained that great gentleness is evidence of great strength." (Bresnan 492) Rinzai Zen became the Buddhism of the aristocracy. Soto Zen, on the contrary, focused on sitting meditation. Dogen emphasized that "seeing into one's nature" is the very essence of Buddhism. One's nature is the Buddha-nature.

While both Soto and Rinzai were solidly grounded in the fundamentals of Zen Buddhism, they both were also different. Their difference in style was expressed in three primary ways; First was the matter of social class. Rinzai was the Zen of the aristocratic class while Soto was favored by the common people. The second concerns the place of meditation. While Rinzai and Soto held zazen in high regard, Soto emphasized the practice of zazen to a far greater degree, thus resulting in mockery by the Rinzai Zen masters for their "excessive love of sitting meditation." The favor was well returned with Soto masters chastising Rinzai for its attachment to the koan exercise: "wall-gazing" versus "koan-gazing"; "quiet illumination" versus "dynamic enlightenment." Finally, the third difference exists in the approaches to Zen; Rinzai took a dynamic, energetic approach to community for a short period while Soto monastery was more likely to attract the dedicated person who wished to make the way of the monk his own life's work.

Buddha in its natural state of meditation

 Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. Routledge, 2022.

Cartwright, Mark. “The Mongol Invasions of Japan, 1274 & 1281 CE.” World History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, 1 May 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1415/the-mongol-invasions-of-japan-1274--1281-ce/.

“Japanese Zen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Feb. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Zen.

Mongols: Invasions of Japan 1274 and 1281 Documentary - Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FxBjEbEPX0.

“PC Wallpapers HD 1080p (59+ Images).” (59+ Images), https://getwallpapers.com/collection/pc-wallpapers-hd-1080p.

“Sakura.” Encyclopedia of Japan, https://doyouknowjapan.com/sakura/.