Arthur W. Hummel Sr., notebooks, Fenchow, China 1914-1924

(Lockhart continued)

"If they chose the left, they might go to the left; or if the right to the right" such was the humanity of the T'ang to the beasts BC 1766 欲左左，欲右右

楚弓楚得 The Ch'u law will be found by a Ch'u man - his view was limited said Confucius. Prince Kung 共 of the state of Ch'u lost the Wu Hao 烏號 law, and refused to allow a search to be made saying that the ruler of Ch'u had lost a law and that a man of Ch'u would find it.

風馬牛不相及也．The Viscount of Ch'u sent a messenger to the (allied) army to say to the marquis "Your lordships place is by the southern sea and mine is by the northern; so remote are our boundaries that our cattle and horses, in the heat of their excitement, cannot affect one another.

The Ode called 相鼠 from the first two words 相鼠有皮，人而無儀，人而無儀 不死何為，相鼠有齒，人而無止 人而無止，不死何俟，相鼠有體 人而無禮，胡不遄死

See even a rat hath hide and hair and is a man of manners bare? Nay, sure, a man of manners bare more fitly dead than living were.

See in the rat how tooth fits tooth and shall a man appear uncouth? Nay, better than be thus uncouth to look for death, not life, forsooth!

See the rat's form from tail to head and shall a man appear ill-bred? Nay, if a man be so ill-bred, more soon the better were he dead

Jennings translation

Yü of Hing desired to open communication with the spirits of heaven and earth, and therefore cast large bells in the outer temple. 山海經 Bh 18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Buddhist priest in humility speaks of himself so "the son of a hollow mulberry" 空桑子 列子 said of 伊尹 I Yin that a woman of Shen 莘 was gathering mulberries and in the hollow of a mulberry tree found an infant which she reared and named I Yin. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

The Confucianist "world" is 世 The Buddhist "Kalpa" is 却 The Taoist "dust" is 塵 ch'en -------------------------------------------------------------------

閣下 = He under whose cabinet I am. --------------------------------------------------------------------

投刺 = to present a card, refering to the time when characters were pricked on bamboo. -----------------------------------------------------------------------

三河領袖 The Chief (lit. collar and cuff (a sleeve)) of the three rivers, was T'sui Hao's (Giles No. 2035, Mayer's No 789) (崔浩) prince of 裴駿 Pe'i Chün's pre-eminence to the multitude. The 三河 were 河東，河南，河內． See 北史裴駿傳 Bh 38 See 晉史，裴秀傳 --------------------------------------------------------------

月旦 The "monthly criticism" of neighbors and their conduct introduced at 汝南 by 許邵 Hsü Shao (Giles 796) and his cousin Ch'ien 靖 who lived in the time of Huan Ti 桓帝 of the Han dynasty. --------------------------------------------------------------

望開茅塞 Hoping that you will remove the weeds that obstruct (my mind) is to beg for instruction. cf. Mencius 今茅塞子之心矣． Now the wild grass fills up your mind.

Lockhart quotations (continued).

寒盟 the agreement is cold (from 左傳) 反汗 the perspiration goes in again (前漢書) Both above expressions mean to forget one's oath. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

巨擘 "big fingers" those who excell the multitude cf. Mencius 於齊國之士，以仲子為 巨擘 Among the scholars of Ch'i, I must regard Chung as the thumb among the fingers -------------------------------------------------------------------

徒讀父書 "only perusing one's father's books" - ie not knowing how to adapt oneself" said by Lin Hsiang-ju 藺相如 of 趙括 (Giles No 167). -------------------------------------------------------------------

崩 Peng (has fallen) = emperor's death. 薨 Kweng (has crashed) death of a feudal prince 卒 Tsu (has ended) death of a high officer. 不祿 (cessation of emolument) death of an officer 死 (is dead) death of an ordinary person. 殤 shang = death of a child. 孤子 a lonely child - refering humbly to father's death 哀子 "a sorrowing child" one's own mother being dead. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

嘗 ch'ang - originally a name for autumn sacrifice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the above is from Lockhart's Manual of Chinese Quotations, being a translation of the 成語考

The area of Shansi province is 81,830 sq. miles - like Kansas area of Kansas is 82,080 sq mi. [ditto marks] Minnesota [is] 83,365 [sq mi.] [ditto marks] Illinois [is] 56,650 [sq mi.]

At Tan-cho-szu temple in the Western Hills near Peking "are placed images of six Portuguese sailors, with iron cuirasses and broad-brimmed hats, in European fashion. Each of them kneels on one knee, and holds up with both hands an offering to Buddha. They are small iron figures, made in the time of the Ming dynasty, and are called 西洋人 - Edkins p 252

There are also Sanscrit inscriptions on "octagonal stones" (shï chuang) ..... They date from the Chin dynasty (about 400 AD). - Edkins Chinese Buddhism Note p 137

"The water before a tomb must be running water. Riches and rank (富貴) flow like water capriciously from one point to another. [Home?] riches and rank are supposed to depend on the undisturbed flow of the stream which pass under the bridge in front of the tomb..... Riches and rank are attached to flowing water - Ibid.

堪輿 a favorite name for grammer on the signboards of Peking. K'an represents "heaven", and yü "earth". K'an is the covering let down over an idol, as in the phrase Fo k'an, a shrine for Buddha (佛龕) and it here represents the sky as a canopy stretched over the world. Yü is the "chariot" in which man is borne. It is not so well known as it should be, that in China in the Han dynasty a gleam of true light shone on the minds of some of the literatis in regard to the system of the world. They accepted the noble idea..... that the earth moves, while the heavens are at rest. Pythagoras, if this be true, had disciples even so far away as China. It is possible that the phrase k'an yü was

hint at this idea. Hence the application of the Yü, "taoist" to geography and the earth. - Ibid.

To have a temple behind a house is a most favorable sign. To be on the east side is also lucky. But to be on the west is bad, and on the north worse - Ibid. ------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr Pye says that it was not until 1880 that the people of Scotland were finally induced to take away the manure piles in their front yards. A man by the name of Caldewood (whose biography Mr. Pye has) spent his whole life in getting this reform brought about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"All the ideas which the Chinese wish to cherish or indicate are contained in those records which have come down to them from the sages of antiquity. Excellence in composition consists in arranging anew orthodox phrase which is to be found in the ancient classics. - Hillier The Chinese language and how to speak it. Intro p. 12.

If we wish to remark that we did not require chicken we ought to say pu' yao3 chi! If we said instead pu' yao3 chi', it would mean "do not bite the chicken", pu' yao2 chi2 "do not be impatient", pu' yao4 chi3, "don't shove", pu' yao4 chi4, "don't want to make a note of" - Ibid p 20. above.

A fluent and correct speaker will play you these tones (in Chinese) as the fingers of a violinist play up and down the strings of his instrument, and a false tone, apart from conveying a false meaning, is like a false note in music - Ibid p 20

The Chinese language abounds in proverbial and idiomatic expressions. It is in the discovery of these, and the