GHS208-05 Fall 2019 China and the Islamic Middle East

As I was reading poems from TAO, the poem on page 15 caught my eye. “Those who sustain TAO/ do not wish to be full/ Because they do not wish to be full/ They can fade away/ Without further effort.” It really stuck out to me because I feel the need to be full all the time. Whether it be filling my appetite for hungry, touch, love, or a good grade. In my opinion it almost seems like they are saying since when we die, we leave with nothing, if I try not to fill myself with earthly things I can die in peace.

I have read the Daodejing before. Three years ago my chosen (…assigned?) FYS course, titled “Yielding, Yin/Yang, and You” focused greatly on how principles from Chinese philosophy impacted ourselves, the community, and the world. Reading the Dao again I am met with difficulty, but also with great appreciation for its teachings. Learning about Chinese culture in a required course at a private university in middle America seems odd. The circumstances make it difficult to not compare their norms to everything we are accustomed to here in the States. But the Dao itself teaches against this. The Dao encourages us to leave behind all of our worldly desires, such as the very stereotypically American ones of superiority and entitlement; when we compare our situation to others we do not see things as they are, but rather we see the categories we divide the world into and we allow our lens to completely alter our view. When following the Dao (otherwise known as “The Way”), you can see things as they are rather than seeing things as you are.

So how does this fit into the course? What am I trying to say? To no surprise, I myself am not entirely sure, but with my current understanding I see the Dao teachings as highly relevant. They communicate that we cannot judge this culture that is different from ours, we cannot compare this government, economy, lifestyle, history, language, relationships, food, music, movies, and interests that are different from ours. In order to understand, in order to appreciate, and in order to apply the lessons we have to eliminate the labels and preconceptions of what we think it is like and instead we need to truly listen ––without adding our own information to the mix. It will be hard and uncomfortable, but to connect with Chinese Americans, and those in China, we need to see what they come from as they have experienced it. Like the FYS class I did not necessarily have a strong compulsion to take, this course, its readings, and all that we will learn about China, and Islam, will too have much to teach as long as we listen.

I look forward to learning about the culture, eating some Dim Sum, and hopefully learning how to write a blog post with embedded links without extensive copyright infringement.

I have attempted to insert one of my favorite readings about the Dao below. It is definitely in depth, but even skimming through it (read the bold words) you can achieve a better understanding of its principles. If for some reason you cannot see the PDF, I apologize in advance.

The Daodejing and Mysticism

 

 

Reading these pages in Change and Tradition was very interesting about learning more in depth about the Yin and Yang. Growing up we all have seen and know what this sign was, but myself probably like many have never truly known the origin for it. The emblem shows and tells us how everything in this world is connected, and it may not be in the most common way or easiest way, but that is why the curve is their to show us its always not has straight forward as it may seem. We can connect this philosophy to everyday life by seeing this while being college students and understanding that many things happen that are out of our control while in college, but its more about how we react and face these challenges. The Yin and Yang is very interesting and looking forward to learning more about it.

These readings really caused me to reflect on my own education about early China. I was really only taught about China in my World History class in high school, and even then China only got a cursory mention before we started to analyze the Renaissance. When we would talk about world religions, we were typically only taught about Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hindu. Confucianism or Daoism sometimes got a brief mention, but it was always one or the other. So in doing this reading I thought it was especially fascinating to actually go into depth in what those belief systems really meant, especially to the Chinese people. I also saw the themes from Confucius’ teachings especially in the poems from the Tao Te Ching book as well. I also found the bit about Legalism especially interesting since I had never learned about it before. I thought it was interesting especially when the book started talking about the integral way that Legalism remained within the laws of China for a while, and it made me more surprised that I hadn’t heard about it before.

Last year I took my physical well-being, and it ended up that I had enrolled in tai chi. Going into the class, I had not really know what tai chi was, but I learned more about the Chinese culture and movement than I had expected. Throughout the semester one of the topics we talked about was yin and yang and how it was related to the Chinese culture. In class we defined yin as being soft, yielding, and empty while yang was the more stressed and harder parts of life. Tai chi is spent mostly in the yin, being soft and empty, because in most of our day-to-day life we are in the yang, and are clenched or stressed out. My professor believed that if we learned how to be more in the yin side of life during class, it would help us to better balance our life when we were out of class. Tai chi can be described as a “‘meditation of motion’ and promotes serenity and inner peace”. In class we practiced this through meditation and slowing our breathing before each class began. If you would like to see an example of the forms of tai chi we did in class watch this video.

Confucianism, Daosim, and Legalism are three different historical Chinese philosophies. I found an article, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150325-confucius-china-asia-philosophy-communist-party-ngbooktalk/ ,that talks about how these philosophies affect China today. The Communist party uses Confucian’s teaching about “obeying the emperor” as the reason why the Chinese people need to respect the Chinese government now.

I found the reading in “Change and Tradition” about the Ying and Yang and what the meaning and significance of the Ying and Yang in the Chinese culture were quite interesting. I knew what the Ying and Yang were prior to reading this section, but I found it interesting to find out what their deeper meaning. When I thought about the Ying and Yang previously, I just thought of opposites. I knew that there is a white and black side representing two opposites that complete one another, but I never knew that there was a much deeper meaning. Learning that the Ying and Yang have true meanings as “receptive” and “active,” as well as learning that they both have different weather types attributed to them was interesting. I feel like as an American culture, we tend to water down things that we get from other cultures. I feel as if the American culture likes to take bits and pieces from cultures all around the world, and we tend not to get the real, deep meaning of things, just like the Ying and Yang. I wonder how many other things from the Chinese culture that I will learn the deeper meaning of, instead of just the meaning that I have picked up in American Culture. I hope that throughout the semester, I will find out the deeper meanings of things or ideas from the Chinese culture that I already had some knowledge on, but could expand upon.

When I read about Yin and Yang, it made me think of Mulan 2 and how Mulan and Shang are given and yin and yang necklace because even though they are both different, together they balance. Yin is dark, while yang is light. You can’t have one without the other and there is beauty in both. Reminds me of the beauty of the sun and the beauty of the moon.

While researching and writing a current events paper for one of my other courses, I stumbled upon this article. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us-to-leave-global-postal-union-next-month-barring-last-minute-action-exit-could-send-global-parcel-rates-soaring. This article is an interesting read about the United States (USPS) leaving the Universal Postal Union. There are a couple of reasons for why the USPS wants to leave the Union that has over 192 states in it, but one of the main reasons relates to China. The Union has a yearly due that is paid by every state within the Union. How much each state pays is dependent on if the state is developed economically or not. The rates for each state was made over 50 years ago when China was a developing state, so this means that China does not pay nearly the same amount as the United States in dues which leads to China making large amounts of profits by being able to cheaply ship items from China. China is now one of the largest economic states in the world, competing for directly with the United States with shipping goods. The United States is upset with the fact that China does not have to pay nearly as much, and because of this, the United States is leaving the Union. This article was an interesting read about something that I had no idea that was happening, and I highly recommend the article.