#Chinese Philosopher

[a-contemplative-soul]

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme (height) of skill.”

Author: Sun Tzu

[wolfspaw]

[quotesandzensome]

"All men think that happiness lies at the top of the mountain, whereas it lies in the way you climb it." - Confucius

Mont Sainte-Odile, Ottrott, France

[lahilden]

[themonotonysyndrome]

A man falls asleep dreaming that he's a butterfly. That butterfly wakes up as a man.

Is he a man or a butterfly?

Let's backtrack a bit.

What if instead of a man, it's a caterpillar? Who dreams so sweetly that it doesn't even realise that it is in a cacoon, and it emerges as a butterfly, still dreaming.

Is it a machine? A man? A caterpillar? A butterfly?

Who the hell knows! Not the 'Asset' that's for sure.

The therapy bill is gonna be as long as the Nile River sdkjfnkjdsnfksjf

All in all, if this is the conclusion of Project Meridian, then I'm so happy with it.

(I know that 'it was all a dream' as a plot twist might not be for everybody but this one was executed well. So I'm squealing. The question now is, how the fuck does the 'Asset' know about the Sovereign?)

Also, I no longer hate James 😂 Now that was unexpected!

[lady-ethereall]

Is Ethereal your actual name or is that just a title you have do to the soulscape technology you've developed?

My real name is Fu Die. Originally Lady Ethereal was a funny nickname my dearest Xiaohe gave to me. Eventually it caught on and so it stuck. But only Eigong actually calls me Fu!

[barananduen-blog]

"GUARDIANS OF THE DAFENG" - EP.32

"What is the meaning of life?" "What is the meaning of love?" "What is the meaning of work?" "Wait right here. I'm dying again. We'll continue [our conversation] in my next life"

"hAvE yOu MaDe DoUyInS?"

[rrcraft-and-lore]

The Monkey King - Sun Wukong who first appears in Chinese stories (Journey to the West) during the Ming Dynasty period 1368 to 1644 CE, well after the introduction of Buddhism to China in about 206-220 CE.

But, was he inspired by another Monkey hero/character of myth?

The prevailing and dominant theory among Asian scholars is ...yeah, likely.

That character, Hanuman, king of the monkeys (the monkey people -Vanaras- of Vedic myth!).

The story follows a Buddhist monk who is accompanied by Sun Wukong and others to travel west to India to obtain sacred Buddhist sutras. Many of their powers and personality traits are similar as well.

We know that Vedic god such as Indra have made their way as far as Japan to take root and be worshipped because of the spread of Buddhism.

As I've talked about before and is shown in texts such as the journey's of Ibn Battuta / Ibn Fadlan, storytelling was a weapon and powerful tool for idea transfer--propagation. Philosophy was huge in the old world - and places such as Nalanda - the first residential university in the world - invited scholars from all over such as Greeks from the west, and the Japanese. Buddhism became a vehicle for trading things such as: martial arts information, medicine, sciences, and of course, myths and stories.

However, as with stories, people usually altered/coopted elements and molded them to better suit their cultures and fancy. That's a thing as old as time. I've shared how the panchatantra stories and jatka tales are thought to be the inspiration for nearly 30-50 percent of all nursery rhymes, ballads, "fairy tales".

Anyways back to this theory - Chinese Indologist Professor Liu Anwu of Peking University has dedicated chapters to the comparisons (in one of his works) to further break down this theory focusing on consistent and or similar depictions of beats in Journey to the West that of Rama's story in Ramayama and the Buddhist sutras.

Even though today the story of Sun Wukong is a wholly Chinese story - it's important to note the power of oral storytelling and how it travelled evolved over thousands of years, and, just as important, the vehicles it used to do so. Not just storytellers and philosophers and travelers but religion! Philosophy!

This is a theme heavily commented on and shown in Tales of Tremaine, which is my love letter and sort of self PhD. in comparative storytelling, mythology, and story foundry through an Asiatic lens (hence a silk road analog) stretching along a similar route the silk road did from damn near as far as you can east (complete with the oceanic routes) to as west as old venezia, portugal, and spain.

Also note: this is the most popular theory atm, but the operative word is theory. Experts likely far better than you, Internet, so chill before you comment, are still debating this. I know last week some of you were doctors in sociopolitical relations, the music industry before that, and then you were leading virologists before that. Spare us simpler folks from your mighty genius just now and sit down.

The point here is the beauty of stories and their ability to travel and morph and comment on themes/points ideologies important to cultures while being entertaining and showing that humans like certain universal moments, beats, archetypes, tropes, and progressions in tales.

Now, is that because we've naturally been predisposed liking them, or the opposite in that everyone went, yo, i dig this, took it home and someone else went, this is cool but needs to be more US (insert culture) and retold it. And thus...timemachine noises speed up. Here we are today?

You might not know that about 35,000 Chinese words ( I said this instead of Mandarin because they don't just show up in one language) are derived from Sanskrit as well as Pali (a Middle Indo-Aryan Liturgical Language -- meaning language of sacredness/religious use, in this case connected to sacred Buddhist texts). It is important to make the distinction, because, Internet!

Sanskrit did not SHAPE the Chinese languages. They evolved on their own. This is just a commentary on how words/stories shaped over travel in this case strongly through the spread of Buddhism.

Religion was the mover.

Back from quick bathroom break. Going to add again - INSPIRED is the keyword here.

INSPIRED.

Sun Wukong is his own mythos/character. Influence doesn't nor can claim dominion over everything in a later tale. Sun Wukong has gone on himself to inspire legends and characters Outside of China - re: most famously and legendary?

Son Goku - who is openly a Sun Wukong inspired character.

...hell, tbh, he might be the most famous monkey inspired super powered character now. Dude makes soccer stadiums air his fights. @_@.

[littleeyesofpallas]

when i'm stumbling around the wilderness of my multiversal purgatory and isekai'd classical philosophers start crawling out of the underbrush to pick fights with me

[philosophors]

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

— Confucius, “Analects”

[pinkrosealice]

Absolutely no personal hate, shade or harassment intended whatsoever, but...... have you ever seen a piece of media analysis/criticism/interpretation that you so vehemently disagree with that it makes you want to rip your own circulatory system out with rusty cutlery?!?!

[a-contemplative-soul]

“The usefulness of the cup is its emptiness”

Author: Lao Tzu

[stanwixbuster]

so today i was watching xiaoma videos (yeah i know hes a prat but i like massage videos and he moans like hes in a gay porn) but there was one video that really stood out to me

first off the people in the comments who are stunned by the concept that chinese people are just normal people who sit around and chat which is very funny, but what gets me is how casually this one guy brings up international politics, and how certain he is that trump will win. this was posted two months before the election. he doesn't even know kamalas name. he just knows her as "the vice president" and it takes him a second to even remember that

then his opinion of trump obviously isn't high, but "at least he didn't start any wars". his only opinion of biden is how much he absolutely shagged the middle east and palestine and keeps fumbling russia. fascinating shit

[neon-evangayion]

me, thinking to myself: damb idk how to flirt :/.

failed pickup artist tulpa: you must prove youre an alpha.

ancient chinese philosopher tulpa: you must be humble, that is the act of the wise man.

me, dming a girl: i fuck lots of beautiful women but im not very good at it.

[lahilden]

[snaileer]

It is better to be standing on stilts than to stand stable in a pit of vipers.