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我在工作。我很高兴在工作因为这里我能写中文。我的朋友家他的电脑不能写中文，不能看中文。在工作我写中文日记但是我不知道什么写。我没有的时候学习。我没有的时候看书。我很忙因为我两个星期去伦敦.
伦敦lun2dun1 london
伦敦lun2dun1 london
I'm finally finished with Three Kingdoms! I have to say I was more than underwhelmed with the last part. It took a severe effort of will to bother finishing it at all. All the cool deaths happened in volume 3, 4 just seemed to mostly be about people I didn't really care that much about. I was looking forward to reading "the ruse of the empty city", but found it to be only a very short description in the chapter which was quite disappointing. I guess Zhuge Liang's death was a little interesting but at that point I had grown kinda bored with him, despite his great strategies against Sima Yi all he seemed to managed to accomplish was a successful retreat every time. Not very impressive. On a brighter note though I did play Sima Yi tonight in "Dynasty Warriors 4" and that was lots of fun he got to shoot purple that matched my hair!
Hmmm, I seem to be incapable of a serious review, I blame the stress of moving. I did enjoy the series as a whole, I think the first half is by far the best. I loved the story of Lu Bu, the Yellow Turbans, Dong Zhou, and Cao Cao, and the early battles with Zhuge Liang plotting with the South were fun. Though I definitely felt like it lost some steam after everyone died. But I am glad I read it. My next excursion into Chinese literature in translation will be Creation of the Gods which I'm looking forward to a lot. But I should probably read the bibliogoth reading list book first.
Hmmm, I seem to be incapable of a serious review, I blame the stress of moving. I did enjoy the series as a whole, I think the first half is by far the best. I loved the story of Lu Bu, the Yellow Turbans, Dong Zhou, and Cao Cao, and the early battles with Zhuge Liang plotting with the South were fun. Though I definitely felt like it lost some steam after everyone died. But I am glad I read it. My next excursion into Chinese literature in translation will be Creation of the Gods which I'm looking forward to a lot. But I should probably read the bibliogoth reading list book first.
Religion In Chinese Society by C.K. Yang is a book I discovered on the recommended reading list for my course. I think I can honestly say it is the best book on Chinese religion that I've read so far. It's an older book having originally been published in 1961 but so much of what Yang writes is still relevant and hasn't been better explored in the past 40 years.
The book looks at the practical and functionality of religion in Chinese society. Rather than spending a lot of time discussing the theology of Daoism or Buddhism Yang looks at the way religion was actually practiced in the lives of Chinese people over time. He predominately draws on material from the late Qing and 20th century, however he also looks at the historical development of religion, how and why it came to be the way it was.
I found his analysis to be truly fascinating. I was somewhat distracted while reading this book and feel I will be going back to it time and again while taking my course as there were so many useful bits of information and so many great quotes and explanations of religious function.
After the introduction the book starts by looking at funeral rites and the rites for the dead. Taking ancestor worship as the starting point of Chinese religion. Yang then looks at the role of religion in economic and social settings. The religious aspects of secret societies and trade guilds I found very interesting to read about. However it was his writing about the political aspects of Chinese religion that I found to be the most informative. He looked closely at the control that the state had over religion, how this developed and what repercussions this had. He looked into the heresies and the link between religion and rebellion that was fascinating. I felt he clearly expressed the fears of the Chinese government and the reasons for the religions popularity among the people. All his arguments were very clear and logical.
Closely associated with this was Yang's look at the role of temples in Chinese religion in contrast with temples in the west, how they had very little holdings and no central organization. This led to them having much smaller influence and wealth. People were not required to tithe as they were in medieval England and so the temples had no steady income. Likewise religious practitioners, were few, sponsored by the state, and often looked down upon. Many priests were also laborers or farmers who preformed rites for the dead as needed. It was a very interesting contrast that was being drawn.
While mainly focusing on the popular religion of the people Yang also examined the strong ethical, and religious views of Confucianism and how this affected the people, the belief in the mandate of heaven and fate and how this was accepted into people's lives. He made the very interesting point that the few that man's fate controlled his destiny could be used to counter the argument that society was too corrupt.
Many of the ideas in this book have been addressed by more recent historians and scholars, but this book presents so many of these ideas in such a clear well thought out manner that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a good starting point to anyone who is interested in Chinese religion, or even as a good analysis for people already familiar with it. Yang himself was raised in China in the early 20th century, his father had passed the examinations, this definitely makes for an interesting perspective. Also the early look at how communism is developing, the subject of the last chapter, is interesting from a historical point of view for those interested in modern China.
A really great book all around, one I will definitely have to read again!
The book looks at the practical and functionality of religion in Chinese society. Rather than spending a lot of time discussing the theology of Daoism or Buddhism Yang looks at the way religion was actually practiced in the lives of Chinese people over time. He predominately draws on material from the late Qing and 20th century, however he also looks at the historical development of religion, how and why it came to be the way it was.
I found his analysis to be truly fascinating. I was somewhat distracted while reading this book and feel I will be going back to it time and again while taking my course as there were so many useful bits of information and so many great quotes and explanations of religious function.
After the introduction the book starts by looking at funeral rites and the rites for the dead. Taking ancestor worship as the starting point of Chinese religion. Yang then looks at the role of religion in economic and social settings. The religious aspects of secret societies and trade guilds I found very interesting to read about. However it was his writing about the political aspects of Chinese religion that I found to be the most informative. He looked closely at the control that the state had over religion, how this developed and what repercussions this had. He looked into the heresies and the link between religion and rebellion that was fascinating. I felt he clearly expressed the fears of the Chinese government and the reasons for the religions popularity among the people. All his arguments were very clear and logical.
Closely associated with this was Yang's look at the role of temples in Chinese religion in contrast with temples in the west, how they had very little holdings and no central organization. This led to them having much smaller influence and wealth. People were not required to tithe as they were in medieval England and so the temples had no steady income. Likewise religious practitioners, were few, sponsored by the state, and often looked down upon. Many priests were also laborers or farmers who preformed rites for the dead as needed. It was a very interesting contrast that was being drawn.
While mainly focusing on the popular religion of the people Yang also examined the strong ethical, and religious views of Confucianism and how this affected the people, the belief in the mandate of heaven and fate and how this was accepted into people's lives. He made the very interesting point that the few that man's fate controlled his destiny could be used to counter the argument that society was too corrupt.
Many of the ideas in this book have been addressed by more recent historians and scholars, but this book presents so many of these ideas in such a clear well thought out manner that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a good starting point to anyone who is interested in Chinese religion, or even as a good analysis for people already familiar with it. Yang himself was raised in China in the early 20th century, his father had passed the examinations, this definitely makes for an interesting perspective. Also the early look at how communism is developing, the subject of the last chapter, is interesting from a historical point of view for those interested in modern China.
A really great book all around, one I will definitely have to read again!
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