Category Archives: Literature

BOOKS: 孙子兵法 [Sunzi’s Art of War] by Sunzi

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孙子兵法白话全译孙子兵法白话全译 by 史哲 文
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online – YellowBridge

In thirteen short chapters, Sunzi lays out a masterclass in strategy. One sees in Sunzi’s work the mark of a Taoist mindset, seeing it in the book’s emphasis on engaging in warfare only when necessary, doing things the easy way whenever possible, and never letting one’s ego write checks one isn’t able to cash in lives.

There is good reason that this is one of the world’s most well-known (if not the most well-known) treatise on warfare. Far from being complicated and technical, this guide is full of pithy teachings such as: “War is the way of deception.” “No country ever benefited from a long war.” “Defeating the enemy without fighting is supreme excellence.” “To be undefeated lies in oneself, to be victorious lies in the enemy.” “Know the enemy and yourself and victory is assured; know heaven and earth and victory is complete.” (And these teachings are even more concise in the original Chinese.)

In addition to basics like leadership, maneuver, and terrain, the book devotes chapters to both the use of fire and spies in warfare. (One’s level of understanding is central to strategic victory throughout Sunzi’s teachings.)

I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in strategy, martial arts, or other strategic pursuits. The book may be ancient, but it’s not obsolete by any means.

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“Song of the Open Road” (5 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of 
   limits and imaginary lines,
 Going where I list, my own master total and
   absolute,
 Listening to others, considering well what 
   they say,
 Pausing, searching, receiving,
   contemplating,
 Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting
    myself of the holds that would hold me.
 I inhale great draughts of space,
 The east and the west are mine, and the 
   north and the south are mine.

I am larger, better than I thought,
 I did not know I held so much goodness.

All seems beautiful to me,
 I can repeat over to men and women You
   have done such good to me I would do 
   the same to you.
 I will recruit for myself and you as I go,
 I will scatter myself among men and women
   as I go,
 I will toss a new gladness and roughness
   among them,
 Whoever denies me it shall not trouble me,
 Whoever accepts me he or she shall be
    blessed and shall bless me.

“Song of the Open Road” (4 of 9) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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The earth expanding right hand and left
   hand,
 The picture alive, every part in its best light,
 The music falling in where it is wanted, and
   stopping where it is not wanted,
 The cheerful voice of the public road, the
   gay fresh sentiment of the road.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do
   not leave me?
 Do you say Venture not--if you leave me
   you are lost?
 Do you say I am already prepared, I am
   well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?

O public road, I say back I am not afraid to
   leave you, yet I love you,
 You express me better than I can express 
   myself,
 You shall be more to me than my poem.

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the
   open air, and all free poems also,
 I think I could stop here myself and do 
   miracles,
 I think whatever I shall meet on the road I
   shall like, and whoever beholds me shall
   like me,
 I think whoever I see must be happy.

“Song of the Open Road” (3 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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You air that serves me with breath to speak!
 You objects that call from diffusion my
   meanings and give them shape!
 You light that wraps me and all things in
   delicate equable showers!
 You paths worn in the irregular hollows by 
   the roadsides!
 I believe you are latent with unseen
   existences, you are so dear to me.

You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong
   curbs at the edges!
 You ferries! you planks and posts of wharves!
   you timber-lined sides! you distant ships!

You rows of houses! you window-pierc'd 
   façades! you roofs!
 You porches and entrances! you copings and
   iron guards!
 You windows whose transparent shells
   might expose so much!
 You doors and ascending steps! you arches!
 You gray stones of interminable pavements!
   you trodden crossings!
 From all that has touch'd you I believe you
   have imparted to yourselves, and now 
   would impart the same secretly to me,
 From the living and the dead you have
   peopled your impassive surfaces, and the
   spirits thereof would be evident and 
   amicable with me.

“Song of the Open Road” (2 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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You road I enter upon and look around, I
   believe you are not all that is here,
 I believe that much unseen is also here.

Here the profound lesson of reception, nor
   preference nor denial,
 The black with his wooly head, the felon,
   the diseas'd, the illiterate person, are not
   denied;
 The birth, the hasting after the physician,
   the beggar's tramp, the drunkard's stagger,
   the laughing party of mechanics,
 The escaped youth, the rich person's 
   carriage, the fop, the eloping couple,

The early market-man, the hearse, the
   moving of furniture into the town, the
   return back from the town,
 They pass, I also pass, any thing passes,
   none can be interdicted,
 None but are accepted, none but shall be
   dear to me.

“Song of the Open Road” (1 of 15) by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open 
   road,
 Healthy, free, the world before me,
 The long brown path before me leading 
   wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself
   am good-fortune,
 Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone
   no more, need nothing,
 Done with indoor complaints, libraries,
   querulous criticisms,
 Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
 I do not want the constellations any nearer,
 I know they are very well where they are,
 I know they suffice for those who belong to 
   them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
 I carry them, men and women, I carry them
   with me wherever I go,
 I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of 
   them,
 I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in
   return.)

“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –” (236) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
   I keep it, staying at Home --
 With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
   And an Orchard, for a Dome --

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
   I, just wear my Wings --
 And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
   Our little Sexton -- sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
   And the sermon is never long,
 So instead of getting to Heaven, at last -- 
   I'm going, all along.

“The Joy of Words” by Lu Ji [w/ Audio]

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Writing is joy --
   so saints and scholars all pursue it.

A writer makes new life in the void,
   knocks on silence to make a sound,
   binds space and time on a sheet of silk
   and pours out a river from an inch-sized heart.

As words give birth to words
   and thoughts arouse deeper thoughts,
   they smell like flowers giving off scent,
   spread like green leaves in spring;
   a long wind comes, whirls into a tornado of ideas,
   and clouds rise from the writing-brush forest.

Translation by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping in The Art of Writing (1996) Boston: Shambhala.

BOOKS: “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” by Luo Guanzhong

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Three Kingdoms (4-Volume Boxed Set)Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Website – Penguin

The edition that I read was the Penguin abridged version that fits this sprawling epic into a single volume of a little over 600 pages. This is one of the four Great Classics of Chinese literature (along with Journey to the West, Water Margin, and Dream of the Red Chamber.) It offers a fictionalized telling of a period of Chinese history featuring a three-way civil war, especially centered upon the Han attempt to maintain its Imperial line against challengers, a fight that would ultimately end in the reunification under the Jin.

I’ve loved reading the Chinese classics. While this book and Water Margin feature massive ensembles of characters and could become clunky and cumbersome to read, they don’t because stories are told in intense battle-sized chunks and with a profound capacity to build character hooks that maintain clarity despite so many characters.

I would break this book up into three parts. The first (and by far the bulk of the story) focuses on a trio of great warriors that form a kind of blood-brother pact: Xuande, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. Under Xuande’s leadership, these men fight to keep the Han imperial line intact. (It’s fair to say it could also be seen as focusing on the opposition to these men, notably Cao Cao.) The next bit continues the action as the masterful strategist, Kong Ming, tries to keep the wheels rolling on Xuande’s army after the dramatic deaths of the aforementioned trio, and finally there is a section in which it is as though all the great warriors are gone, resulting in an inevitable reunification as there are no longer those who can fight insurmountable odds. As I describe it, it might seem anticlimactic, but it is far so, but I would count it a tragedy.

To me, this book read more like historical fiction than did Water Margin, the latter (also excellent) is almost like fantasy: its characters are so much larger than life as to be veritably superhuman. That said, this novel does feature some magic, but the characters feel much more life-sized — if not without a measure of grandiosity.

I’d highly recommend this book for readers of historical fiction. It’s highly engaging and readable, despite being long and of epic of proportions.

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“Ebb” by Edna St. Vincent Millay [w/ Audio]

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I know what my heart is like
   Since your love died:
 It is like a hollow ledge
 Holding a little pool
   Left there by the tide,
   A little tepid pool,
 Drying inward from the edge.