#and that means four days to revise and read and then write another critical commentary 😀 and then uni starts that next week sigh

[catguangcorner]

finished drafting my critical commentary for my poem ahhhhhhhh all i need to do it edit, cite and SUBMIT and then never think about this ever ever again (until i get my grade back that is)

[gurguliare]

eileen chang? (thanks for the rec btw)

She wrote a commentary on Dream of the Red Chamber, parts of which I’ve been gleefully forcing my mother to translate—from the introduction:

…Recent criticism of Dream of the Red Chamber has all “looked at it standing up,” and didn’t have time to sit down; as to do it oneself, my only qualification is, in truth, to have read the book so many times as to be truly familiar with it. In reading different [manuscript] versions, and without needing to be especially careful, characters that look a little novel to my eyes would jump right out. But because I’ve never written any theory before, of course I would tend to laugh at people who are very precise—and of course I may be laughably imprecise myself. I may have been poisoned by too much classic Chinese prose, as evidenced by the fact that the one sentence I remember most from Shakespeare is “brevity is the soul of wit”—but I don’t think that’s true just of witty conversation. Each character, to me, is as big as a bottle, so being able to do without even one would be good. And because I hate nagging, sometimes even simple reasoning isn’t clearly explained [in my work]. On top of that, I also abbreviated “the complete handcopied version” to just “the handcopied version.” The truth is all these versions were handcopied. No wonder, after “Early Encounter with Dream of the Red Mansion” was published, one of my friends told me they didn’t understand. Of course, their comments were gentler than that.

Another thing I remember now is that some critic said he didn’t understand the title “Zhang Kan [張看 / ‘Chang looks’].” So I’ll take this opportunity to explain. “Zhang Kan” is just borrowing a very common phrase which says “A look at _____,” and you can fill in any subject or person’s name. “Zhang Kan” is “Chang’s opinion”—or one might hear it as “Zhang wang [张望 / ‘peering inside’]”—a most shallow form of double entendre.

Before, the title of my memoir Liu Yan (流言 — rumor/malicious gossip; literally ‘flowing words’?) was borrowing from an English phrase—or poem? “Written on water” in English means the words won’t last, while also expressing the hope that they’ll spread as fast as rumor. I was often doubtful, wondering if people understood the intention behind that title; but I also never asked.

A unique characteristic of Dream of the Red Chamber is the length of time spent on revision—how could that labor have been limited to “revising five times in ten years”? To his death, the work occupied the whole of the author’s adult life. Cao Xueqin’s talent is unlike the goddess Athena, who sprang out from Zeus’s skull fully-grown. Through revision, you see his growth. Sometimes I think that’s the cross-section of his genius. And because he revised for over twenty years, it makes sense that not every major revision (even revisions made to multiple chapters) would incur a whole new copy, to conserve the effort required for copying it. Of course one would try to get the most out of the current version/the copy at hand. Early revisions, at different times, were already being lent out, and the author continued to revise afterward, which also means he couldn’t recover the distributed copies and revise those. This is why all the different versions have inconsistencies. You can’t just determine the timeline of individual chapters as a way to date the manuscripts. This is almost common sense, but it’s one very important aspect of my book, because a lot of other critics didn’t pay attention to this. There are a couple of other things which may make my comments look silly, or almost unbelievable to people. For example, I believe that a great deal of revision happened at the beginnings of chapters, or at the ends, for this reason: each chapter was a sewn booklet, so it was easier to replace the first page or the last page. Is this an indication that our author is very careless/lazy? No! The reason I think this is because sewing the books is Sheyue’s job—Zijuan and Sheyue were real people, and in the end only Sheyue was left by the author’s side—and you can see he’s very loving and considerate of her.

In this “broadcasting age,” it’s hard for us to imagine the very closed society of long ago; in chapter 23, it talks about how Baoyu has four poems, and opportunists saw that these were written by a rich young heir, so they spread the poems about and praised them. When one reads this chapter, it’s difficult not to think of the other side of that—the author himself was poor and living on the west side of Beijing; in the preface, Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan say “oh! it’s lucky that copies weren’t spread around,” so you can see that copies were only handed out in this small circle of family friends. Besides, in those early days, the novel didn’t have much place even in literary circles; it was only for entertainment—self-indulgence. Even compared to today’s underground writers in the Soviet Union, who can actually obtain gratification because the books are circulated widely, Cao Xueqin, in his very poor and lonely environment, really could only rely on the couple of soulmates within his own family circle to encourage him. He seems to have been a warm and emotional person. His popular song called “People need people” … for him to become attached to writing, and to this work, was understandable. Recently, some folks have said that this book was the product of group activity! You can only write Communist operas through group collaboration. He was completely alone.

Even if there was contact with foreign lands at the time, there were no books to be used as reference. The Russian novels hadn’t been written yet. The Chinese novel, at this point, was “early to rise, but late to market.” At the very moment when the development of the Chinese novel approached a summit, it was pushed back. Novels at the end of Qing and in the early years of the Republic were often indebted to The Scholars, which was written before Dream of the Red Chamber. It’s not just that Dream of the Red Chamber was not finished or complete; what’s worse, someone added a dog’s tail to it, and it became like a cancer attached to the bone. Please excuse my mixed metaphor. Dream of the Red Chamber has been made vulgar, and everyone knows about it, just like the Bible in the West. This impacted readers’ perceptions of the book. A hundred years after Dream of the Red Chamber was written, a book called The Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai faintly evoked it… but was twice rejected by readers, down to the edition published in the early 30s of this century. On the one hand, readers are changing, and that’s often influenced by external factors/foreign literature; they have formed a kind of prejudice against old Chinese novels. But also—because the old Chinese novels tended to follow a certain stylized pattern—in the West, to talk to people about Chinese classic novels, we should make analogies to poetry and painting. But the people who understand Chinese poetry in the West are very few. And if they know you are also someone who writes novels, then there’s even more of a sense of “the melon-seller selling melons: he sells it himself, he praises it himself.”

THEN THERE WAS A REALLY MEAN ANECDOTE ABOUT ONE OF HER FORMER LITERATURE STUDENTS which I didn’t take down but. anyway. the thing I like about Eileen Chang is that she’s history’s handsomest monster. glad you enjoyed the rec

[jmyers104]

Calvin and Edwards as Educators

John Calvin

Student

John Calvin’s parents placed a high premium on education. “Calvin received education through his father’s efforts to secure aristocratic patronage.” As a young boy (around 11 or 12), Calvin was sent to College la Marche, where he was greatly influenced by humanist Mathurin Cordier, who stressed to Calvin the importance of learning to read and write proficiently. However. because he desired a more conservative education, Calvin soon transferred to College de Montaigu – “a place that combined rigorous academics with an austere lifestyle.” Every morning, Calvin would wake up at four and commence with a day full of prayer and rigorous study. This became a habit that he would follow for the rest of his life. Calvin would eventually find himself studying at College Royal, where Calvin would immerse himself in the study of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages.

           Though Calvin was demonstrating that he was gifted with a great mind, he was not at this time using it for God’s glory. That would change quite suddenly in 1533. In Calvin’s own words, “God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame…Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that although I did not leave off other studies, I pursued them with less ardour.” The following year, Calvin moved to Basel, where he continued his rigorous study of the languages, but his focus was now on God’s kingdom.

Pastor

Calvin desired to live a quiet life as a scholar, but God had other plans for him – and so did a man named Guillaume Farel. While Calvin was traveling through Geneva one night, Farel found him and strongly urged him to stay in Geneva to help with the reformation cause. Calvin declined the offer, but Farel was not willing to accept “no” for an answer. In no uncertain terms, Farel cursed Calvin’s studies, which troubled Calvin to the point that he conceded and moved to Geneva. He became a preacher, and under the tutelage of Farel and Pierre Vinet, Calvin learned to do the work of a pastor. Unfortunately, he was forced out of the church after two years there, though they would ask for him to return three years later. Those three years away from Geneva proved to be a great time of spiritual formation for Calvin. He stayed in Strasbourg and was mentored by a man named Martin Bucer. Calvin did not return with hard feelings toward his congregation. In fact, rather than dwell on the situation, he picked up where he left off, preaching from the passage of Scripture where he had left off three years prior.

           Given that this was the time of the Reformation, the church was still in theological and doctrinal darkness. Calvin’s solution was to centralize God’s Word in the life of the church and emphasize the teaching of Scripture as the foundation of theological education. The church, as Calvin viewed it, was the “school of Christ,” and Christianity is a religion founded on the knowledge of God.

Author

           Throughout his life Calvin would write several books. Prior to his conversion, he wrote “a critical edition with commentary of Seneca’s De Clementia.” Though it was an impressive work (especially for a 23 year-old), it was not as successful as he had hoped. Still, God certainly used this time to shape and prepare Calvin to write his most notable work, Institutes of the Christian Religion. In 1536, the first edition of Institutes was published. It provided “an overview of biblical doctrine for French protestants” that proved to be rather popular. It would see eight Latin revisions before its final edition was published in 1559. What started as something of a catechism ended up representing “a sum of religion in all its parts.”

           Though comprehensive, Institutes was not written to replace biblical exposition, but rather to supplement it. Calvin thus wrote a series of commentaries that was “Meant to work hand in hand with his Institutes.” Like his Institutes, these commentaries are thorough without forsaking brevity. An important note on these commentaries is that Calvin steered clear of unnecessarily allegorizing the biblical text, but rather sought to interpret Scripture in a natural, literal sense.

Teacher

           Towards the end of his life, Calvin became involved with the Geneva Academy, a school opened by a friend of his. Here, Calvin would give lectures on various books of the Bible three times a week. Unfortunately, Calvin passed away not too long after he began working with the Geneva Academy, but his legacy as an educator has far outlasted many of his contemporaries.

Jonathan Edwards

Student

           It seems that there was never a time when Christian education was not a part of Jonathan Edwards’ life. His father Timothy was a pastor, as well as a schoolmaster who headed up a college preparatory school in the church parsonage. His mother Esther was the daughter of prominent pastor Solomon Stoddard. Before he even went to college he could read Latin and Greek. Edwards went on to be a student at what is now Yale University, where he graduated at the top of his class. Three years later, he graduated with an M.A. 

Pastor and Teacher

           Following the completion of his formal education, Edwards began pastoring the church at Northampton. The people in his area were spiritually malnourished. Edwards’ remedy was to preach a series on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He affirmed that justification is “the way of the gospel…the true and only way.” This is a doctrine that was critical in transforming the hearts and lives of people during Reformation times. Now, with an ocean and two centuries between Edwards and the Reformation, God was once again using this crucial doctrine to spiritually awaken people. His teachings on justification served as a catalyst for both spiritual and numerical growth for years to come. This gospel transformation was not confined within the four walls of the Northampton church. Just like in Philippians 1:12-18, where an imprisoned Paul was crucial in spreading the gospel, so God used this one man to minister to one congregation who served as a witness to the surrounding communities. As a result, revival would soon break out in the surrounding areas.

           Edwards would certainly not take all the credit for this growth. He viewed education as critical, but he also knew it has its limitations. Edwards depended on the Holy Spirit to change the hearts of men. He observed how the Spirit would use his sermons as a vehicle to work “wonderfully” and “suddenly” among the congregation. Thus, education was not discounted just because the Holy Spirit was at work, but was rather viewed as the means through which He would work. According to Edwards, “Reason can demonstrate that something is true, but only the Spirit of God can create an affectionate desire or delight to it.” With this foundation in place – Edwards’ devotion to Christian and his dependence on the Holy Spirit – the stage was set for the Great Awakening. Edwards became pastor of the Northampton church in 1729. In 1734, a great revival broke out in his church and the surrounding areas. In 1740, a more widespread revival took place that is now known as the Great Awakening, and at the center of that movement was a man devoted to theology and dependent on the Holy Spirit.

           Shortly after the Great Awakening, Edwards had to leave the church due to a doctrinal disagreement. He moved to Stockbridge, MA, where he pastored a church and ministered to Mohawk, Mohican, and Iroquois Indians. Contrary to what some believed in his day, Edwards was convinced that the Indians had the “right to a proper education by qualified teachers” and fought to make this a reality. About seven years later, he accepted a position as the president of what is now Princeton University, where he remained until his death.

Author

           While it is undeniable that the Holy Spirit was transforming lives during the Great Awakening, there were also many false works; where true conversion is taking place, Satan will seek to produce counterfeits. Thus, it was important for Edwards to educate people on how to differentiate between a work of the Spirit and a work of false spirits. He therefore penned The Distinguishing Marks of the Spirit of God, which centered around 1 John 4:1. This book contained three parts: First, Edwards discussed nine “negative signs” to look for concerning false spirits. Second, he described five “positive evidences” of the true Spirit’s work. Third, he made a contemporary application based on the text.

           Another one of Edwards’ most notable works is A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. It is rather easy to fall into one of two theological ditches. The first is that one can become consumed with the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake and become rather cold in their disposition. There other is that one can become consumed with emotionalism, forsaking theology and advocating what “feels good.” Edwards shows that there is not to be such a divorcing of head and heart. “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections,” and our affections are informed by sound theology.

Teacher

           Edwards employed a method of teaching that worked for children just as well as it did for college students. This method stemmed from a problem that Edwards recognized: children were memorizing facts, but they were not learning. Put another way, they were not internalizing the information. Therefore, Edwards employed a dialogical approach: he would ask questions, and the students were encouraged to ask questions in return. For the child, learning would “cease to be a dull, wearisome task, without any suitable pleasure or benefit.” Edwards also saw positive results at the collegiate level using this method. Edwards also realized that the children were seeing the biblical narrative as a series of disconnected stories and sought to remedy this problem by exposing them to the larger narrative. This would ensure that they would not lose the forest through the trees.

Comparison

           There are many striking similarities between Calvin and Edwards. Both men were taught the value of education from an early age. Both men spent a great deal of time learning other languages. Both were wounded and sent away by their congregations. Both had careers in academia that were, from a human standpoint, cut short. However, the similarities go much deeper. These were men who were profoundly dedicated to Christian education, and sought to expose them to the glory of God through preaching, teaching, and writing. God blessed their ministries with spiritual and numerical growth, and even today God is using their publications to bless His people. Though Edwards was not a reformer in the sense that Calvin was, he nevertheless carried on in the spirit of reformation as he educated the people under the sound of his voice. In his own words, the “easiest way of reforming a people in the world is by education.”

           Interestingly, it was not until after Edwards completed his undergraduate studies that he got saved. During his undergraduate studies, he would have been exposed to the theological writings of John Calvin and the like. Perhaps God used those writings to work in the heart of Edwards and move him towards conversion. Christian education is never complete. God raised up Calvin to do His work, and he used Calvin’s work to bless Edwards and shape his thinking. As we continue to study men like Calvin and Edwards, may our affections for the knowledge of God be stirred, and may we continue their dual work of reformation and education.