One thing leads to another....

So you saw on the reading list The Life of Chairman Mao which I have now finished and passed along to a friend whom I thought would enjoy it....

... And so Chinese history is something I'm checking out today. I found a cool blog: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/culture/index.htm Which features really great translations from Chinese current events. So I'm reading along and I hit a piece about a libelous novel. I was so much better able to understand the issues covered in the novel because I now had a historic context in which to place the conflict. In this case, I knew Jiang Quing was Mao's wife and that in the begining of The Cultural Revolution she was parlaying her influence with Mao into power and influence over other areas- specifically universities and literature and culture. (The CR was originally intended to be confined to the intellectuals.) At any rate, it was cool, because before I wouldn't have understood the dynamic there. Nor would I have understood the Ultra-Leftist Vs Ultra-Right issues- which I now have a (somewhat) greater understanding of. (The meaning and assignation as ultra-left or Ultra -right is changeable and depends entirely on who is defining the terms. Just think of them in differing in who must be purged prior to achievement of a just Society.) Its kind of hard to comprehend this battle when one is raised from an American perspective. I have never actually had an argument over the relative leftness or rightness of Marxism v Leninism v Stalinism. Silly me, I thought they were all ultra-Left. In America, Socialism is either a) a stop on the road to Communism or b) the death knell to our independent spirit or c) Social Security- and what's wrong with the world today depending on whom you ask. (Kind of how I can't figure out why poor Americans will continue to vote for the Republican party.)

Which leads me to:

One piece of information leads you to comprehend something new in your perception of a scene you've studied before- and amazingly, the perspective you had before that you believed was proper and valid you now see to be incomplete and/or not as valid.

I have read about the Cultural Revolution before- but now that I have far more insight into what prompted Jiang Quing to begin her reforms that turned into the Cultural Revolution.

I think just as Americans have trouble understanding the psyche and motives of our Middle Eastern and Muslim counterparts we also have a great deal of trouble comprehending the Oriental mindset. The language constructs of Kanji, which are much more representative that English, train the brain to think differently- to perceive differently.

A good example from the book- Mao is speaking with...Some Westerner... And the person asks him how it feels to be him. The translator translates directly a phrase which meant that he felt like a lonely man standing by himself (I can't remember exactly.) The trasnlator did not have a classical education and so did not recognize that lines from a poem that he was quoting that implied a rather different picture- the lonely leader on the mountain top who must do that which must be done even if it made him unpopular and that was why his people needed him. The Connotation was soooo much greater than the denotation. This is the essence of the Chinese language- multiple meanings of words and phrases which are communicated through context and emphasis.

So, I guess this essay doesn't really have a point- except that comprehension leads to new perspectives and understanding. Knowledge begets knowledge.