Hi Andre, 'Chung Guo' means Middle Kingdom which was how Chinese civilisation viewed itself. China takes its name from the Qin Kingdom which overcome its neighbours to become the Chinese Empire over 2000 years ago and Shih Huang Ti, the first Emperor. Qin means gold in Mandarin. But you probably know this already.
To properly appreciate the "centre of the universe" cosmology of the chinese, let me see if I can explain Chinese geomancy as its basis. As you also know, the Emperor is the Son of Heaven, as he would have everyone believe, so as to establish the divine authority for his rule. A key instrument was the Calendar or the Almanac and it was his function as intermediary between Heaven and Earth to provide his subjects with the Calendar or Almanac so they can go about their daily lives and business. So the Imperial astrologers came up with Chinese Almanac, still in use today, binding chinese in china and all over the world. The Chinese Almanac is both solar and lunar based and reconciles the differences in days by the addition of a 13th month every so many years. There is a major 60 year cycle made up of five 12 year cycles, each year named after an animal and the stems of each year represented by the five elements of wood, metal, fire, water and earth. Each year is made up of 12 months represented by each animal sign and every 12 days is also represented by each animal sign. Each day is also designated into 12 two hour blocks representing the 12 animal signs. The animals signs follow this order - rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. These animal signs may seem like 'myths and superstition' to some, purely social level stuff that has no intellectual or Quality significance. However I believe (that just me) that the animals and their positions in the Almanac were chosen based on their characteristics and how they correlated to the world and events around them. For instance - the significance of a Fire Tiger - could be that of a major upheaval of war and strife. How this came to be correlated with the stars and the heavens and the major events on earth - well this is the work of the Emperor. Having to issue every year a document of such cosmic importance, the Emperor (or his astrologers) had to calculate the Almanac from Beijing as the centre of the universe. All time was measured in Beijing time. The next part of Chinese geomancy is space and if you superimpose a geomantic clockface upon a compass, with the Rat as the eleventh hour to the first hour, it faces the northly direction. Of course the horse which is at the six o'oclock position faces South and is its diametrical opposite. Chinese cosmology is one of a space time continuum worked out combining and reconciling the collective and the individual at the same time. This is the map; navigate it as you will. In this sense, the Chinese world view is alliterative, in that the chinese language and its 'reasoning' is very much in dealt with in relation to the universe than based on subject object reductionism. Luck for instance is the pictogram of a girl under a house. Fortune is the pictogram of a hat over what is land. What is experienced is what is represented. Best Khoo Hock Aun On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 5:08 PM, Andre Broersen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Hi Bovar, Mel' > > Interesting stuff here. > > Mel: > > It would seem that the resident of Japan would spend > considerable time using reason in 'encoding/decoding' > the meaning of their own and other's actions. It is > a cognitively demanding culture. > American culture is more likely to allow a person to > just ask. "What did you mean by that?" , then after > they get an answer, it's off to tune-up the motorcycle. > American Culture frees one up from the complex > calculus required by some cultures and we don't > waste time (from our perspective), freeing us to > apply reason to other pursuits. > That would be one example of an unclean cleavage of > social versus intellect when it comes to reason. Not > surprising since intellect rises from and is dependent > on the social matrix. > Oh the tangles, kinks and weaving-together-of that we > are going to find... > > Andre: > > I find this very same thing here in China, Mel which is , as you know, a > very complex society of around 5000 years old. > It does appear that the Chinese in terms of your 'cleavage of social versus > intellect' are much more 'together' than Westerners. Perhaps they are more > sensitive to social patterns of value, recognising their complexity and > effort of making 'cleavage' at the social level possible. > They are very, very socially conscious and proud and perhaps because of > this > are not inclined to build intellectual castles in the air, so to speak. > Or rather...they have been there and done that. > > They have had their Lao Tsu, creating a lasting philosophy of life within > the whole (to which it is useless to add and from which it is silly to > detract) and of course Confucius, (a younger contemporary of the former) > having laid the foundation of how society is to be organised so that it > will > last, i.e.strict moral rules for individual conduct. > These rules lead to (and I refer to ZMM p290, Corgi paperback because they > are identical to Confucian thought and teaching) '...right values, right > values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and > right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others > to > see of the serenity at the center of it all'. > Traditional Chinese architecture captures this spirit beautifully.There is > an unmistakable serenity there. > Remember that 'China' means 'middle land'. In their minds it has come to > represent 'centre of the universe' (a leader told me this). They think they > are superior to other nations. In the West this has of course very nasty > connotations but here?????? the leader just smiled and turned away. > > The thoughts and teachings of these 2 people (assuming Lao Tsu did actually > exist) are still very much a part of Chinese culture to this day. > Socially they are very tight, friendly, helpful considerate etc. and (to > generalise a bit) their intellectual patterns of value aim to keep it that > way. > > For what it is worth, > Andre > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6016-301 4079 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
