My grandfather used to teach me math and Mandarin Chinese at home in a sort of home school supplemental curriculum, and to this day I think I learned some of my most important lessons from him, especially instilling in me a willingness to learn and be thirsty for knowledge. As I learn new languages now, I remember even back then I was curious about Chinese words and culture, asking questions and really getting into Chinese culture and Chinese history in particular, with different dynasties and ruling parties fighting over China through the centuries.
One of the more unique exercises I did with my grandpa was to learn famous Chinese poems by memorizing them, basically reciting them over and over again until it stuck. Nothing fancy. I'm not a big fan of poems and never was able to create any original works other than Roses are red, violets are blue, and Dr. Seuss was as far as I got to analyzing poems for their quality. The Chinese poems had a certain rhythm to them, some of them did rhyme but just the way that the words fit together in Chinese seem to create a different kind of intonation or music to them, or maybe it was just my younger self thinking it was cool.
Poems had different themes and tone depending on the poet, they varied from contemplating one's hometown will thinking during a silent night (by Li Bai, the most famous poem by the most famous poet in China) to reminiscing about a mother's love for her son, to warning people against wasting any food because the farmers in the fields have toiled many hours for just one grain of rice (I got that poem a LOT when I was a kid). The historical background of these poems is pretty cool, apparently one poem about a bean and a beanstalk both being in boiled in the same pot was created by a noble who was about to be executed by his brother, the king, out of jealousy and paranoia of people coming after his power, and the brother king summoned the poet brother to make a poem on the spot or be executed. The bean poem (we're all from the same beanstalk, why do you want to boil me so hastily?) really caught on with the king, who spared his brother's life, and historians, who loved the context.
My new favorite, though, after having revisited some of the poems with my grandpa this Christmas Eve, is the following:
生当作人杰，
死亦为鬼雄。
至今思项羽，
不肯过江东。
Basically a classic sentiment of heroes and romanticism of urging people to be great talents and aim to achieve great things, and even in death become a hero ghost. In the same breath it reminds people to think like a great ruler called Xiang Yu, who took his own life after a losing battle samurai-style to avoid the shame of going back to his people a loser, putting him on a pedestal like, look, die with honor and your name can go on for eternity. I think many of us want to do that, do something big and commit ourselves to the cause, even if our life depends on it, but in the me-me-me society nowadays nobody wants to commit their life to fighting a cause, because there's so much out there that we all want to experience and see, and we've been trained since birth to take care ourselves. Warriors like Xiang Yu didn't know anything else except being great warriors and fighting for their people, and other than that dedicated purpose they had nothing else. I love this poem because it brings me back to a simpler time and teaches us lessons from that time, and only in 20 kanji words! Beautiful in its simplicity.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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