its not love, yet, .. just like.
for me, it is AMAZING and Humbling to realise lives in the past are not that different to now. since china's 1766bc shang dynasty, there were already magistrates, brothels, postal system, police, army, etc .. on an individual level, there are ppl writing about fillial piety, about loneliness, about existentialism, about romantic and sexual yearnings.
except for form, obviously, i dont see how different a 30 something ancient chinese guy is to me. he and i feel the same human emotions, live in structured society, enjoy the conveniences of a city, put up with its crowded streets, tempted by sultry courtesans, have nice and stupid neighbours, go merry drinking with friends, enjoy star-lit nights, write letters to distant relatives, he learns how to ride a horse, i learn how to drive, ..
and in qin dynasty (700bc?), there was a royal decree to standardise all roads to a cart's width, so that transportation from one corner of china to the other wld be unimpeded if not smooth. that's just like lta! isnt that humbling to know? the ancients are jsut as organised as us!
and dont just gloss over the chronological numbers .. really think abt it. how wld u treat a grandmother of over 100 years old? just think thru the events she had seen over 3 centuries (well, effectively 2). our 105 teresa was a journalist when soong mayling had a press conference urging for world assistance to fight japanese aggression. in ww2, she was no little kid like our parents, but a full fledging adult! and she is still here to talk abt it!! compare that to what u and i had manage to witness so far. we havent even seen a world war, but she went thru 2!
with that, run thru in yr mind how far back 1000bc is. i found it mind boggling, and humbling. i now dont think of the present as a linear progression from the past, but more or less a change of form, largely physical.
i hope i make sense. i have so much more i want to spew out. it is hard enough for me to verbalize this nascent reverence for the past, not to mention writing them, and persuasively.
there r many wonderful discoveries and enlightenment in history. the mongols, though not han chinese, but surely of the yellow stock, are predecessors of the iranian shahs and ruling elite. (i may make some factual inaccuracies, i read history like a novel, n pay less to no attention to details). the germanic race share the same genetic stock as nothern indians, ie. the aryan. the turks and central asians originate from the nomadic tribes of frontier ancient china. the word china came from the ancient european word chyna, referring to the khitan people. the khitans had for centuries tried to occupy central china. they finally gave up and moved westwards to central asia, and east europe. bcoz of the khitans appearance from the far east, europeans presumed the chinese empire as that of the khitans, hence chyna, hence china.
similarly, the mongols fierce invasion into east europe (up to poland) set the minds of europeans that the yellow race are dominated by the mongol variety. hence, the yellow race are named mongoloids. now, we of course know that the han chinese are the dominant variety. since young i had always wondered why chinese are of termed mongoloids.
ok, i spewed much.
why i make a calling here? some of my best dinner conversations are with a cosmopolitan bunch .. locals, germans, americans, yugoslavian, indian, french, english, mainland chinese, older men, younger women, etc .. it is interesting enough to hear the history and culture of other countries, but to hear the differing perspectives of different nationals adds a stimulating dimension.
i really shd stop.
belle, .. no, no response so far
. i dont expect many, just 3 will do.
