Outlaws of The Marsh

Another Chinese Classic reading, borrowed from the state library. Listed among the best known, loved and timeless ancient Chinese Classic which some I have read - A Dream of Red Mansions (borrow from National Library) and Journey to the West (own), Romance of the Three Kingdoms (read only volume 1).

It has fascinated Chinese readers for 600 years, and adapted to stages and screens. Also, this has been adored worldwide, by having this translated into different languages (including English) though not all are to have direct equivalent meaning but only to possible approximations. (A Chinese buddy told sometime ago, reading in original language is a lot literature-ly interesting). Despite being a novel, it is well-mentioned in the preface that some of the characters do exist and some events actually occurred.

This Classic was written in the 13th century (AD) by Shi Nai'an and Luo Guan Zhong (he wrote the Three Kingdoms) and came in various versions. This one I am reading is an abridge version, and obviously most of the poems have been omitted while the full volumes have been reduced to only 458 pages.  

The story revolves around a group of people who abandon their lawful society (due to ill treatment by corrupted local government) and took refuge in Liangshan Marsh (now known as Shandong Province) to form a group of powerful bandits. Each of them has a life story to tell, an eventful details why and how each became one. Here's a shapshot of a poem that describes a character, Lu Da when he took a journey to flee.

Any food when you 're hungry
When you're cold rags save life
Any road when you're frightened
When you're poor, any wife.

(p.s: The last time is somewhat an interesting line to ponder :)

I once watched a scene from the 8tv Chinese classic drama, and noticed to read the same character of an ugly husband bun-selling peddler being poisoned by his pretty-and-having-a secret affair wife. Now I know where the drama is coming from. (Yes, 8.30pm 8tv plays classic Chinese drama)

I have another 150pages to finish and hope to soon reach the interesting parts - the "Robinhood" acts :) 

another interesting snapshot from the book

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The Body Language by Allan and Barbara Peace

The book - borrowed and not own

I have just finished reading another best selling title by Allan and Barbara Peace, a renowned Australian couple of body language expert and have produced 15 best sellers.  While writing this, I discovered that this book is available for free download at the following links:

www.psikiyatr.com/other/psychologybodylanguage.pdf

This book has being written in simple language, and has interestingly explained the different components of the "unspoken" languages that have been produced by our body daily, in different forms of gestures.

I have selected some interesting snapshots from the book, to give an overview what is this about

dont do this before the audience

Everybody loves her, why?

Anything crossed is negative (arms or legs)

classical case

Is this a good time to interrupt?

are they attracted to each other?

are you winning the employee heart the right way?

What you tell the interviewees about you?

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Dale Carnegie's Scrapbook - A Treasury of the Wisdom of the Ages

It didn't take long for me to finish reading the first round, then repeating for the second time. I made  a full page of notes in hand-writing, the selective quotes which have interest me. Luckily these old-times quotes by the famous people are easily googled, making it easy for me to cut and paste each of them into this compilation. I m pretty sure, will be re-read  these again during my spare time. Now I can return this book, back to the owner.

- - -

A collection of quotations that Dale Carnegie found inspirational, and of his own. Copyright 1959 by Dorothy Carnegie

Who is Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie was raised on a poverty-stricken farm in backwoods in Missouri, 12 miles from the nearest railroad. Yet this farm boy became one of the best-known men of our time – a success in business, teacher of millions, famous author. He died of Hodgkin's disease, complicated with uremia, on November 1, 1955

Who is Dorothy Carnegie
Dale Carnegie married Dorothy Price Vanderpool on 1944, both of them are divorcee.  Vanderpool had two daughters; Rosemary, from her first marriage, and Donna Dale from their marriage together.
Mrs. Carnegie took control of company operations after Mr. Carnegie's death in 1955 and developed the business into a multinational one with offices in 70 countries, 5 million graduates and $187 million in annual sales. She died in 1998 at age of 85.

The compilations are grouped into 5 sections,
1.    Self confidence
2.    Stop worrying and Start living, have Faith
3.    Friends and People
4.    Work
5.    You and own self

Of all the 240 pages, I am collecting those which interest me as follows:



1.    SELF-CONFIDENCE

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
~ Rudyard Kipling

------------------
If you have fears, stop to realize that others have had them too. Probably a fear haunting you at this moment; the fear of what someone is going to say about you; what the boss is going to do; what the neighbor are going to think. These a;; have to do u never fear the past, for you know what has happened and generally wasn’t so bad after all. But the future! Fortunately there is a simple way of fighting fear. Analyze your fear and it will lessen. You will know the worst that can happen and will not be so terrified by it. You will say to yourself, "Why I can stand that".
~ Dale Carnegie

------------------
He that loses money loses little, he that loses health loses much, but he that loses courage loses all.
~Anonymous

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“everything that is done in the world is done by hope”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

------------------
Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The “sure thing” boat never gets far from shore
~ Dale Carnegie

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 The way to defeat fear: decide on a course of conduct and follow it. Keep so busy and work so hard that you forget about being afraid.
~ Dale Carnegie

------------------
Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The men who try to do something and failed are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed
~LLyod Jones

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To love and win is the best thingl; to love and loose the next best
~William Make peace Thackeray

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If wrinkles must be written upon your brow,. let them not be written upon your heart. The spirit should not grow old.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“No man is really happy or safe without a hobby, and it makes precious little difference what the outside interest may be—botany, beetles or butterflies, roses, tulips or irises; fishing, mountaineering or antiquities—anything will do so long as he straddles a hobby and rides it hard.”
~ Sir William Osler

------------------
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. No other element can do so much for a man if he is willing to study tem and make capital out of them. Look backward. Can’t you see where your failures have helped you?”
- Dale Carnegie.

-----------

to be continued
-------------

 Every one should have a deep-seated intersest or hobby, to enrich his mind, add zest to living, and perhaps, depending upon what it is, result in a service to his country
- Dale Carnegie.

-------------

The world bestow its big prizes both in money and honors for but one thing. And that is initiative. And what is initiative? i'll tell you; it si doing the right thing without being told.

-------------

How can you make yourself become enthusiastic? By telling yourself waht you like about what youa re doing and pass on quickly from the part you don't like to the part you do like. Then act enthusiastic; tell someone about it; let them know why it interests you. 
- Dale Carnegie.
 -------------

Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet
-German proverb

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What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first stop to something better
 -Wendell Philips

2.    STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING, HAVE FAITH

If you have a worry problem, so these three things;
1. Ask yourself " what is the worst that can possibly happen?"
2. Prepare to accept it if you have to
3. Them calmlu proceed to improve on the worst
- Dale Carnegie.
 -------------

Why does such a simple thing as keeping busy help to drive out anxiety? Because of a law - one of the most fundamental laws ever revealed by psychology. And that law is: that it is utterly impossible tor any human mind , no matter how brilliant, to thinkof more than one thing at any given time.
 - Dale Carnegie.

 -------------
 By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interest, I forget to worry.
 -Jack Dempsey

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 Time cures sorrows and squabbles because we all change , and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended is the same

Blaise Pascal

 -------------
 The night shall be filled with music
and the cares that infest the day
shall fold their tents like the Arabs
ANd silently steal away

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 -------------
 Out fatigue us often cased not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment
 -Dale Carnegie

 -------------
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and whn you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleet in peace. God is awake
-Victor Hugo

 -------------

About 90% of the things in our lives are right and 10% are wrong. If we want to be happy, all we have to do is to concentrate  on the 90% that are right and ignore the 10% that are wrong. If we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcer. all we have to do is to concentrate on the `10% that are wrong and ignore the 90% that are right.

-Dale Canine
 -------------

We should never attempt to be more that one kind of trouble at once. Some people bear three-kinds - all they have had, all they have now and all they expect to have.

- Edward Everett Hale
 -------------

When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us; power our sleep, our appetites, our blood pressure, our health and our happiness.  Our enemies would dance with joy if only they kwe how they were worrying us, lacerating us, and getting even with us! Our hate is not hurting them at all, but our hate is turning our own days and nights into a hellish turmoil
- Dale Carnegie.

Put a big broad honest-to-God smile on your face; throw back your shoulders; take a good deep breath’ and sing a snatch of song. If you cant sing, whistle. If you can whistle, hum. You will discover that it is physically impossible to remain blue or depresses while you ate acting out of symptom of being radiantly happy!
- Dale Carnegie.

For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none;
if there be one, try to find it;
if there be none, never mind it.
-Mother Goose Rhyme

 When I am up against a tough situation, if I can do anything about it, I can do it. If I can’t, I just forget it. I never worry about the future because no man living can possible figure out what is going to happen in the future. There are so many forces that will affect the future. Nobody can tell what prompts those forces-or understand the,. So why worry abut them?
K.T.Keller

It is better to try to bear the ills we have than to anticipate those which may never come
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When we borrow trouble , and look forward into the future and see what storms are coming, and distress ourselves before they come as to how we shall avert them if they ever do come, we lose our prosper trustfulness in God. When we torment ourselves with imaginary dangers and trials or reverses, we have already parted with that perfect love which casteth out fear
Henry Ward Beecher

Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Dint you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn’t most of them turn out all right after all?
`Dale Carnegie

If you ahev worries, there is no better way to eliminate then than by walking them off. Just take them out for a walk. Thay may take wings and fly away!
`Dale Carnegie

I do not fear tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today
~Willaim Allen White

Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present – which seldom happens to us.
-Jean De La Bruyere   

If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time – not tomorrow, nor next year, nor some future life after we have died. The best preparations for a better life next year is a full, complete, harmononios, jpyous of life this year. Our beliefs in a rich future are of little importance unless we coun them into a rich present life. Today should always be our most wonderful day.
-Thomas Dreier

You wake up in the morning, and lo! Your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! Its yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.

~Arnold Bennett

I was full of worries in those days.
 When thunderstorms came, I worried for fear I would be killed by lightning. When hard times came, I worried for fear we wouldn’t have enough to eat. I worried for fear I would go to hell when I died. I was terrified for fear an older boy, Sam White, would cut off my big ears-as he threatened to do. I worried for fear girls would laugh at me if I tipped my hat to them. I worried for fear no girl would ever be willing to marry me. I worried about what I would say to my wife immediately after we were married. I imagined that we would be married in some country church, and then get in a surrey with fringe on the top and ride back to the farm … but how would I be able to keep the conversation going on that ride back to the farm? How? How? I pondered over that earth-shaking problem for many an hour as I walked behind the plough.
As the years went by, I gradually discovered that ninety-nine per cent of the things I worried about never happened.
-Dale Carnegie


Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!
-kalidasa

Suppose we are so discouraged that we feel there is no hope of our ever being able to turn our lemons into lemonade-then here are two reasons why we ought to try, anyway-two reasons why we have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
Reason one: We may succeed.
Reason two: Even if we don't succeed, the mere attempt to turn our minus into a plus will cause us to look forward instead of backward; it will replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts; it will release creative energy and spur us to get so busy that we won't have either the time or inclination to mourn over what is past and forever gone..
- Dale Carnegie


HATE BURNS UP more energy than anything else, more than hard work, illness or justifiable worry. So when hatred is entering our hearts, let's just pit it out, make room for pleasant thoughts instead, save our precious God-given energy for somthing worthy of it.
- Dale Carnegie

Just for today I will be happy. This assumes what Abraham Lincoln said is true: 'Most folks are about as happy as they make their mind up to be.' Happiness comes from within; it is not a matter of externals.
Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is; not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.
Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse or neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.
Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought, and concentration.
Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do someone a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two chores I don't want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.
Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, speak diplomatically, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything, and not try to regulate or improve anyone.
Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.
Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests: hurrying and indecision.
Just for today I will have a quiet half hour by myself and relax. In this half hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.
Just for today I will be unafraid. Particularly, I will be unafraid to be happy; to enjoy what is beautiful; to love; and to believe that those I love, love me.
- Sybyl F Partridge


Life's Mirror
There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true,
Then give the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.

Give love, and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need,
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your word and deed.

Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind;
And honor will honor meet;
And a smile that is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.

Give pity and sorrow to those who mourn,
You will gather in flowers again
The scattered seeds from your thoughts outborne,
Though the sowing seemed but vain.

For life is the mirror of king and slave,
'Tis just what we are and do;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.
~by Madeline Bridges

Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.
-Dale Carnegie

Many people think that if they were only in some other place, or had some other job, they would be happy. Well, that is doubtful. So get as much happiness out of what you are doing as you can and don't put off being happy until some future date.
-Dale Carnegie

Our lives are songs. God writes the words, / And we set them to music at pleasure; / And the song grows glad, or sweet, or sad, / As we choose to fashion the measure
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life truly is a boomerang. What you gove, you get
-Dale Carnegie

“The chief thing you are seeking in this world is happiness; and happiness does not depend upon good health or money or fame, though good health is a large factor. It depends, however, principally on one thing only: your thoughts. If you can’t have what you want, be grateful for what you have. Keep thinking constantly of all the big things you have to be thankful for instead of complaining about the little things that annoy you.”
-Dale Carnegie

A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens
-Michel Ayquem De Montaigne

The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do
-James M. Barrie

To look up and not down
To look forward and not back
To look out and not in, and
To lend a hand
-Edward Everett Hale

It is not the situation that makes the man, but the man who makes the stuation. The salve may be a freeman. The monarch may be salve. Situation are noble or ignoble, as we make them
-Frederick W Robertson

Do you know that you can be happy by just making up your mind-and sticking to it-that you are going to be happy?”
~Dale Carnegie

You and I are standing this very second at the meeting place of two eternities: the vast past that has endured forever, and the future that is plunging on to the last syllable of recorded time. We can’t possible live in either of those eternities – no, not even for a split second. But, by trying to do so, we can wreck both our bodies and our minds. So let’s be content to live the only time we can possible live: from now until bedtime.
~Dale Carnegie

Today is life – theonly life you are sure of. Make the most of the day. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto
~Dale Carnegie

3. PEOPLE AND FRIENDS

One kind word can warm three winter montahs
-japanese proverb

"What is the real good?"
I ask in a musing mood.
"Order," said the law court;
"Knowledge," said the school;
"Truth," said the wise man;
"Pleasure," said the fool;
"Love," said the maiden;
"Beauty," said the page;
"Freedom," said the dreamer;
"Home," said the sage;
"Fame," said the soldier;
"Equity," said the seer.
Spake my heart fully sad:
"The answer is not here."
Then within my bosom,
Softly this I heard:
"Each heart holds the secret:
'Kindness' is the word."

-John Boyle O’Reillly
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Little deeds of kindness
Little words of love
Make our world an Eden
Like the Heaven above
-Julia Carney

Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from your self ten years ago
-Horace man

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses
-Chinese Proverb

God himself sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days
-samuel Johnson

“Remember that the man you are talking to is a hundred times more interested in himself and his wants and his problems than he is in you and your problems.” “His toothache matters more to him than a famine in China that kills a million people. A boil on his neck interests him more than forty earthquakes in Africa. Think of that the next time you start a conversation”
-Dale Carnegie

Peace and rest at length have comeAll the day's long toil is past,And each heart is whispering, 'Home,Home at last."
-Thomas Hood

4. WORK
I am quite certain that the human being could not continue to exist if he had perfect security
-Dwight D Eisenhower

By thinking the right thoughts, you can make any job less distasteful. Of course, your boss wants you to be interested in your job so that he or she will make more money. But forget about your boss’s motivation and think only of what getting interested in your job will do for you. Remind yourself that it may double the amount of happiness you get out of life, for you spend about one half of your waking hours at your work, and if you don’t find happiness in your work, you may never find it anywhere.
Keep reminding yourself that getting interested in your job will take your mind off your worries, and in the long run, will probably bring promotion and increased pay. And even if it doesn’t do that, it will reduce fatigue to a minimum and help you enjoy your hours of leisure
- Dale Carnegie

Do the hard job first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves
-Dale Carnegie

Never believe that you are perfect. When a man imagines,even after years of striving that he has attained perfections, his declines begins
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all yur heart, live for it, die for it, and you’ll find a happiness that you had thought couldn’t never be yours
-Dale Carnegie

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves
-Dale Carnegie

A shockingly large number of our worries and our hidden tensions stem from the fact that millions of people have never found themselves, and never discovered the kind of work they could love and do well. Instead, the seeth with inner rebellion because they spend their lives doing work they despise
-Dale Carnegie

Many men who have achived success have had to try several things before they knew what they wanted to do
-Dale Carnegie

The three great essentials to  achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work, second, stick-to- itiveness, third common sense
-Thomas A Edison

If you are devastated by sorrow, by disaster or calamity, get busy doing something. Keep your mind and your hands occupied. To do this will help you as nothing as will. I have tried it
-Dale Carnegie

If we want more roses, we must plant more trees
-George Elliot

Pray to God, by keep rowing to the shore
-russian proverb

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all
-Dale Carnegie

Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration
-Thomas A Edison

The difference between a successful person and a failure often lies in the fact that the success man will profit by his mistakes and try again in a different way
-Dale carnegie

Every noble work is at first impossible
-Thomas Carlyle

5. YOU AND OWNSELF

Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you ll be criticized anyway. You ll be dammed if you do, and damned if you don’t
-Eleanor Roosevelt

Let’s not waste a second worrying because we are not like other people. You are something new in this world. Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will there ever be anybody exactly like you again. 
-Dale Carnegie

Nothing can being you peace but yourself
-Dale Carnegie

Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying ti impress other birds and horses
-Dale Carnegie

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend your tume trying to accomplish something they will admire
-Dale Carnegie

Do what you love, Know you bone, Gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it and gnaw it still
-Henry David Thoreau

Let us, then, learn how to accept ourselves--accept the truth that we are capable in some directions and limited in others, that genius is rare, that mediocrity is the portion of almost all of us, but that all of us can contribute from the storehouse of our skills to the enrichment of our common life. Let us accept our emotional frailties, knowing that every person has some phobia lurking within his mind and that the normal person is he who is willing to accept life with its limitations and its opportunities joyfully and courageously.
-Joshua Loth Liebman

If you can hold up your head and admit that you were in the wrong, the a wrong deed can benefit you. For to admit a strong will not only increase the respect of those about you, it will increase your own self-respect
-Dale Carnegie

If you want to be happy, set yourself a goal that commands your thoughts liberates your energy and inspires your hopes. Happiness is within you. It comes from doing some certain thing into which you can put all your thought and energy. If you want to be happy, get enthusiastic about something outside yourself.”
-Dale Carnegie

The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on a fallacy. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older
-William lyon phelps

Studious of Ease, and fond of humble Things,
Below the Smiles, below the Frowns of Kings:
Thanks to my Stars, I prize the Sweets of Life,
No sleepless Nights I count, no Days of Strife.
I rest, I wake, I drink, I sometimes love,
I read, I write, I settle, or I rove;
Content to live, content to die unknown,
Lord of myself, accountable to none.
- Benjamin Franklin

When the world trembles, I m unmoved
When cloudy, I m serene
When darkness covers all without
Im always bright within
-Daniel Defoe

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars
-Henry Van Dyke

It is beyond a doubt that everyone should have time for some special delight, if only five minutes each day to seek out a lovely flower or cloud or a star, or learn a verse or brighten another dull task. What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchange of smiles with Beauty and Joy to cling to some duties and relations? Unless they admit these fair, fresh, and eternal presences into their lives as they can they must needs shut themselves out of heaven, and a gray dust settles on all existence. That the sky is brighter than the earth means little unless the earth itself is appreciated and enjoyed. Its beauty loved gives the right to aspire to the radiance of the sunrise and the stars
-Helen Keller

A long life may not be good be enough, but a good life us long enough
-Benjamin franklin

Actions may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action
-benjamin Disraeli

The sun and stars that float in the open air
The apple shaped earth, and we upon it-
Surely the drifts of them is something grand!
I do not know what is, except that it is grand, and that
Is happiness
-Walt Whitman

Let’s not get so busy or live so fast that we can’t listen to the music or the meadow or the symphony that glorifies the forest. Something’s in the world are far more important that wealth; one of them is the ability to enjoy simple things
-Dale carnegie

The great thing in the world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving
-oliver wendell holmes

Keep you rmind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress
-dale Carnegie

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is a very simple and effective one; be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge
-elbert hubbard

Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them, but do not let them master you, let them teach you patience, sweetness insight. True education combines intellect, beauty, goodness and the greatest of these is goodness. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another
-hellen keller

When I look at the stars and realize that the light from some of these suns takes a million years to reach my eyes, I realized how tiny and insignificant this earth is, and how microscopic and evanescent are my own little troubles. I will pass on soon; but the sea stretching for a thousand miles in all directions and the stars and spiral nebulae swarming through illimitable space above, they will continue for thousands of millions of years. I marvel that any man looking up the stars can have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance.
-Dale carnegie

Read more...

My Life as Emperor, by Su Tong

Translated by Howard Goldblatt

Written on the front cover,

  "by the author of Raise the Red Lantern and Rice"

and another remark at the back flip,

 "the title story of which was made into Oscar-nominated film by Zhang Yimau"

WHO DOESN'T WANT TO READ THIS!!

"The sun, like a broken egg yolk, hung suspended behind the summit of Brass Rule Mountain on the frost-laden morning the Imperial father passed away."

What an opening!

I just borrow this book from the state library, found it from the biography section - the genre I used to read (and own) most. I am not a novel person, but used to read Chinese classic novel before, and loving it. I guess, this book shall serve both purpose - and an away from the (some people says a boring) -self-help genre I mainly read at all time

I will share interesting snapshots soon ;)

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7/4/2012:

PART ONE

Death of father

I despised the dead man, even though he is my father and has ruled the Xie Empire for 30 years. 

Duanbai - the new Emperor at age of 14

Suddenly I heard the Funerian speak my name, the gravity of his voice deepening~ Fifth son Duanbai, succeeds to the throne as Emperor of Xie.

Hostility 

The sons of my stepmother stood behind me, and when I turned to look at them, I was confronted by what seemed to be looks of hostility. Why were they always looking at me like that? 

Enemy

Who wants to see me dead?

~Your enemy

Who is my enemy?

~See for yourselves, whoever is hiding farthest from you is your enemy

Cricket Jar

The serving girls returned with my darling little cricket cage. and for many nights after that I fell asleep listening to the crisp cries of black-winged cricket. 

Juekong - Child Mentor

The smile on his face was as serene and beautic as ever. I watched as he took the copy of The Analects out of his sleeve.

You have not read these all way through, he said.

Juekong left

His hands shook as he handed me the book. I knew that the man was about to leave me, and I am powerless to stop him.

Where will you go? I shouted at this retreating back.

~ To Bitter Bamboo Monastery. 

Old Sun Xin - the spell

I knew he is a mad man, others wanted to drive him out of the palace but I stopped them. For not only I was fond of the man, I was equally fond of his repeating inauspicious incantation

- The fire is out, and calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire

Emperor's child dream - a Tightrope Walker

"Walking a tightrope is more impressive than being Emperor of Xie. Now that is a job for a true hero. I was struck by the vast differences between the tightrope walker and me. I don't want to be Emperor. I want to be a tightrope walker"

Swallow - Dutiful and obedient servant, buddy and lifetime friend. 

What is your name

~Swallow

How old are you

~12. I was born in the year of the ram

I wanted you to sleep by my bed, then whispered in his ears: we can be playmates

Kill is power

 Is there anyone you want killed Swallow?

~ I don't want anyone to die, then said " Your majesty, let's go play cat's cradle"

Duanwen and Duanwu - allianced brother

The great general Duanwen  reached the city gate , where he is greeted by an explosion of firecrackers and musical welcome. Doubtless, this has been arranged by his brother, Duanwu who leaped to the ground from his carriage, running toward the brother and shouting the whole way. The sight of them embracing amid loud wails at the city gate had people sighing tearfully for a very long time. In me it created a profound sense of loss. Duanwen is not my brother. I had ministers and subjects, but no brothers.

Madame Yang - a stepmother

You are not the rightful emperor of Xie, my son Duanwen is the true Emperor

Madame Huangfu -powerful grandmother, the master-mind

Her swaying head signified appreciation of the royal wedding she had engineered. Poor Duanwen, he's marring a cross-eyed girl .

PART TWO

Lady Hui - a concubine and true love

She was clever, intelligent and quick-witted. A women of ethereal beauty and celestial fragrance. The birds have flown away, I said, somewhat puzzled. Her arrival has frightened off all the palace birds.

Emperor Marriage

Even the common citizens of the empire Xie knew the political advantages to be had by my taking a girl from the empire of Peng as Empress. I received word that Princess Wanda was a young woman of mediocre look and eccentric behaviour, and that she was three years older. I spotted several eunuchs and palace girls chattering, their faces adorned with silly grins.

I forbid them to laugh, I said to Swallow. Slap the face of anyone who laughs. No one is to laugh for three days.

Swallow did as I commanded, reporting more than seventy laughing palace denizens were slapped. So many that his arm was sore.

Lady Hui is alone

The Empress and concubines formed alliances almost immediately, all of them except Lady Hui. I afraid she is a bird that has landed on the wrong perch, and sooner or later she will be knocked down into the mud

 Lady Hui is pregnant

You are 3 months pregnant. Why did not you tell me

~Your lowly servant is afraid. They have never approved me, so how could they let me be the first to carry a dragon child? 

Lady Hui miscarriage plot

A shocking news emerged: Lady Hui pregnant all these while had miscarriage in the night, and the dead foetus was a snowy white fox.

~They have been planning for a long time, she said.

Lady Hui escape

And it was early that same morning that Lady Hui, in the disguise of a palace eunuch, slipped out to the outside world. I am going to a Buddhist convent.

Did she really take nothing with her?

~Only a gilded makeup box that held sheets of poems. I assume they were the poem your Majesty wrote to her. 

Madame Huangfu on deathbed

Madame Huangfu raised her hand slowly to caress my forehead and cheeks. Then pulled back and began tugging at a sachet at her waist.

I have worn this sachet these past 8 years, she said in smile. The time has come to give it to you. cut it open and see what it holds.

The edict, in the late emperor's own hand, read:

My eldest son Duanwen is to succeed me as ruler of the Xie Empire.

Calamity befall the Xie Empire

Now the empire has undergone great changes, chaos reigns among the populace, and it's too late to do anything about it.

I don't have to be told that a sword aimed at my neck is inching, and All I can do is sit around and sign. Tell me Swallow, just what kind of dog-shit Xie Emperor I am?

Duanwen forehead spells "Xie Emperor"

An unanticipated indecent has occurred near the marketplace. An old beggar known for roaming the cities streets in tattered materialised in front of Duanwen's horse, reach out with a cane he used to ward off dogs, and flicked the black cloth off Duanwen;s face. It happened so fast that it caught everyone by surprise. People discovered 2 words has been tattooed on his pale forehead, which was exposed in the sunlight:

Xie Emperor

Duanwen on the run

..search the cities for 2 days and 2 nights , without finding the trace of Duanwen. Two guards entered the tunnel with torches. The torn of the sleeve hung from a branch of a tree, they saw 2 lines of writing in blood:

The day Duanwen returns to the capital will mark the extinction of Duanbai

Tightrope walker and a Log Balancer

Swallow stood in the darkness, i could hear his sobs like those of a weeping women. I knew he understood my fear and sadness. 

If I could somehow leave the Xie Palace alive, Swallow guess what I'd do out there

~ you would go looking for the Pinzhou circus and become a tight roper walker.

Yes

~If Your majesty become a tightrope walker, your slave would become a log balancer

I threw my arms around Swallow's shoulder and held him tight. On that inauspiciously stormy night, a eunuch of low birth and I held each other in our arms and cried in sorrowful anticipation of the end of 8 years as Emperor, even before it occurred.

Calamity befall the Xie Empire

My favorite general Ji Zhang was knocked from his horse of Duanwen's Thunder Lance. My mother Madame Meng carry strips of white silks. There is no need to explain the ritual of of presenting hanging silks to women by the Emperor. Madame Meng personally watched as Ladies Lan and Yun hanged themselves from the rafters.

Duanwen, you are the Xie Emperor

I met my half brother Duanwen once more under the palace walls after the passage of eight years. 

You are the Xie Emperor, I said

Duanwen laughed loudly and knowingly.

Can you see what is written on my forehead. So now you are the last to see it. So who is the true Emperor of Xie Emperor

You are the Xie Emperor, I said

Emperor says good bye to Xie Empire

I stood on Swallow's soft shoulder, rose up like a torn and tattered flag and slowly distancing myself from the place where I'd lived for 20 years. Grass growing wild atop the palace wall covered my hands, its sharp edges cutting into skin.

PART THREE

Emperor - the commoner

In that hot, muggy summer I began life as a commoner. No one recognised me. Who could have imagined that a young  merchant wearing a conical bamboo hat was in fact the deposed Xie Emperor? When we reached a hill five li north, I turned to look back at the Xie Palace - The majestic imposing home of emperors was nothing but an empty yellow shell, blurry as a mirage, calling forth illusory memories

Heading Swallow's parents hometown

Nameless lumps appear on my arms and legs itched horribly. Everyday Swallow applied a liquefied solution of plantain seed to the affected areas.

All parts of heavens plan, even the fleas are joining forces to humiliate me. 

Swallow said nothing.

You know, you can humiliate me if you wanted to, I said as I grabbed his hand and fixed him with hard stare. So why don't you?

Still he said nothing

Highwayman took everything except the Analects

To me the trauma of the robbery was like adding frost to snow, no more than that. But to Swallow, it was an attack of mortal dimensions.

What am I supposed to give my parents as a sign of filial respect? what am I suppose to use to buy a house and land? How am I going to take care of you Your Majesty?

The Analects

I slowly retrieved the pages, knowing it could serve no practical purpose in my life as commoner, but Heaven had made it know to me that I must carry it with me whenever my exile took me

Father it's me, Swallow

Father, your Swallow has come home.
You are not my Swallow. My son is serving the Emperor in the Xie Palace. Everyone said you would return home in fancy clothes, buy some land and built a house, repair the family grave sites and erect a temple. How come someone in rages and covered in dirt be my son Swallow?

Swallow womanish suicide attempt.

Who are you anyway? the old blacksmith said. My son isn't your woman, is he? The way you two together disgusts me.

A fortune teller detect the air of an emperor

I walked up and down the street, looking for a pawnshop, but a fortune teller informed that there isn't any in the country. I showed him the panther-shape pendant I wore around my neck.

Where did you come across such a rare and precious jade ornament, Sir?How much do you want for it sir?

Not much, enough to cover my travelling expenses.

Where are you going?

I am looking for a travelling circus from down south. Have you seen anyone pass through here?

You are no circus performer. How is it that from what i see, I detect the air of an emperor?

.

.

I know who you are, he said. You are the deposed Xie Emperor.

Emperor continues journey on own to Pinzhou to reach his dream to be a tightrope walker

I had no experience dealing with ordinary people. It was going to be a problem, since I have abandoned my loyal swallow back at the blacksmith shop

Calamity befall the Xie Empire

I dimly heard some out-of-towners that Duanwen has  beheaded Zhoayang the very day he ascended the throne - he cannot share the crown with Zhoayang, as I predicted. The battle had raged in town for eleven days, between the forces of the new Xie Emperor and those of the sons of Duke Zhoayang. The bodies of thousands of dead soldiers were simply stacked up in the streets. 

Reunion with Lady Hui

I heard a door crack open behind me and was a lovely, heavily made-up prostitute poke her head out and fix me with unblinking eyes.

Do you recognise me your Majesty. I am not a ghost. Come she said let me serve you as i did in the Xie Palace. I don't want your money.

It was Lady Hui the girl whose soul is linked to mine, the one who had filled my dreams. 

.

.

When i left the palace i cried until I had no more tears to shed. Your majesty, now should do nothing to bring me sorrow anew.

 It was this enmity that would spur me to depart without saying good-bye, to quietly leave Lady Hui, now a prostitute, and the folded airs of the Charming Phoenix

Emperor has nowhere to go; Pinzhou hit by plague

The bodies decomposed and began to stink, and the towns flies  and rats made playground out of the exposed bellies. Birds began flocking into tow, the plague broke out.

Why didn't you leave when you had a chance?

The young man bit his lips and said.

My mother wouldn't let me. She said, if we re all to die, we die as a family

This time Fate had stopped me from visiting Pinzhou and now, after travelling all summer, I had no where to go. 

Emperor found sign of travelling circus

I stumbled upon signs that a travelling circus had been there. I walked up to a fruit peddler. He then pointed south and said

" they said they had to head south"

Do you like tightrope walkers?

Remember this: One day I will be the most famous tightrope walker in the world. 

Reunion with Swallow

My loyal slave Swallow appeared before me along with the light of early dawn. 

How did you find me

By the smell of your majesty's body. Does you Majesty think I am some sort of dogs. 

I took Swallow in my arms. His clothes were rags and he was wet from head to toe. The master-slave relationship between us had vanished onto thin air. Now we were like a pair of brothers in difficult straits, our fates bound up together

Making Tightrope walker and a Log balancer into reality

Do you see those trees. Heaven has bestowed then on me as the nest tightrope anchors. All you need to do is to find a length of rope the thickness of my thumb, and tomorrow my practise will begin

.

.

I climbed the jujube tree and take my first step out onto the swaying rope, stretched high up in the air. I promptly thudded to the ground. A sleepy eyed little girl, Jade locket stood in the doorway watching my earliest attempts. She clapped her hands and giggled. She turned and ran inside,

"daddy what he is doing out there?"

Emperor is now a tightrope walker

I knew only up there could i confidently scorn all living things below me once again; only then was I the master of my own fate. 

One drizzly morning, I walked effortlessly from one end of the rope to the other. Finally i could fly like a bird. 

Watch me all of you, watch me I shouted at the people below. Who I am? I am not the Xie Emperor. I am a tight rope walker. Emperor of the tightrope walker.

Jade Locket.

Jade locket turned 8 that year. She looked like a red lotus flower about to open its petal as it flated on the surface of a pond. Whenever I began to sway back and forth on my tight rope, I could hear Jade Locket's thin shriek. She reminded me of Lady Hui when she first entered the palace.

Jade locket seemed to draw to Swallow and began pestering him to teach her log balancing, when no one is looking. The girl had natural talent and light as feather.

Emperor bought Jade Locket.

All right, I ll get your fifty taels of silver, I said as I walked over and picked up Jade Locket. I dried her tears and handed her to Swallow.

Hold her I said to Swallow. Shes a member of our circus troupe. This poor child now has a proper future.

Tightrope Emperor Travelling Circus.

We struck out ahead  of schedule onto the path of circus performances, the three of us - me, Swallow and the 8 years old Jade Locket, carried a rope, two logs and headed for the country's heartland as the beginning of what later to known far and wide as the Tightrope Emperor Travelling Circus.

It was unexpectedly successful. The crowd kept shouting its approval. When I performed the crane stance on the tight rope, the roar is like thunder and pounding rains.  By the spring of the following year, our troupe had expanded to include 18 performers with 20 separate skills.

I was the Emperor of tightrope

I was a bird

Emperor looking for Lady Hui

I asked if he knew where Lady Hui has gone

she has gone to the capital , where she earns more money than she ever could here. Everyone says she making a killing with her body. Do you know, she mastered secrets skills known only in the palace in order to serve the Emperor

 That was my deepest wishes. My beautiful unlucky Lady Hui  had already transformed into a free flying white bird. We had reached the same goal by different routes. 

Back to the capital of Xie

We have seen that the the black panther banner of Xie had been torn down, replaced by the blue double eagle flag of the Peng empire. 

Don't you know that the peng soldiers has occupied the city?

do you know why peng soldiers let us into the city?

They probably saw us a travelling circus and want us to put on a show for them

No, it is an invitation to death.

Last Word from Swallow

I recall Swallow pushed me into a haystack.

Don't be afraid jade locket, I ll hide you in this big vat.

Those were the last worked I heard from swallow. 

Swallow and Jade locket and 15 members of troupe are dead

I was unable to pick swallow's death screams out of others. I had finally lost the loyal slave that Heaven had sent down for me.  I recalled he had said

I will die for you your majesty..

Why had the invitation to death excluded me and me alone?

Calamity befall the Xie Empire

The Peng soldier has torched the Xie Palace.The sea of fire engulfed the place I was born and grew up.Xie empire is no longer exist and the name of capital has changed by the Peng ruler to Changzhou.

The sixth Xie Emperor, Duanwen died in flames that consumed the palace. He had sat on the throne for only seven months, the shortest reign in the history of the line and the unluckiest. It was his aloof arrogance, his imperiousness and unshakable self confidence threat consigned a beautiful empire to history;s graveyard. Hundred members of the imperial family and their offspring were slaughtered .

The sole survivor, the fifth emperor Duanbai who had fallen to the degraded status of commoner,and who made his living as an itinerant tightrope walker.

Prince Duanwe also died in the conflagration of the Xie Palace. 

Cricket jar

I wondered amid the ruins of the Xie Palace like an orphaned spirit. I saw a boy squatting on the ground, digging in the ground for something. 

what have you found after this digging

~a cricket jar

what else

~birdcages.who are you, why aren't you digging

 I am the one who hid those things i replied softly

The burial

 I buried Swallow and Locket Jade together in the deepest and largest hole. By the time the last spadeful of wet earth covered Swallow's ashen face and the balancing log in Jade Locke's hands, I collapsed like a toppled Wall, totally spent. With Swallow dead, I was truly a man alone. I lay down on Swallow and Jade Lockets grave and slept. The sky and I were so close that I had one dream after another about birds. The sky I dreamt about was transparent and boundless. All the birds I dreamt about flew into that sky. I dream of a new world.

The Analects

In all the years had passed I don't interest in studying the Analects. my feeling was so ling as it didn't end my life with this rope around my neck. I d fine some time one day to finish reading the Analects. 

Lady Hui

The last time i saw lady hui was in the changzhou secondhand market. Ratty hair, grimy face,muttering constantly - was a sign of madness or not. She is selling some colourful finely trimmed slips of papers with poems written to the passersby.

Authentic love poems written by the fifth emperor of Xie. Odour seemed to float above the street on that afternoon, and i knew that could have come from the peotry slips she was tring to sell, not from the body of that ill-fated prostitute. That was the last day I spent on the city The next day I joined a line of salt porters on my way out of the city of sadness.

Bitter Bamboo Monastery on bitter bamboo mountain

By the time i made roundabout way to bitter bamboo mountain, Joukong had already passed from this realm. Jeukong arrived here 8 years before me, he planted a rice paddy and a vegetable gardens and had spent 3 years slowly building the so called bitter bamboo monastery He left me an empty mountain monastery and a weed-infested vegetable garden.

I found a wolf-hair writing brush with which i had practise calligraphy as a boy in the palace. All this indicated that Jue kong had waited for me those 8 years.

Bitter bamboo mountain gradually became a site of bustling activity.

late arrivals built houses at the foot of the mountain, and on clear morning they have clear view of bitter bamboo monastery midway up the mountain. They can see strange monk standing on a rope strung between 2 pine trees. either walking rapidly or striking a one-legged crane pose.

The Analects

Many nights I have been studying the Analects. sometimes i feel that this sagely book holds all the wisdom of the world; sometimes i don't get anything at all out  of it.

---

The (sad) End

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