First class picture in front of Taipei101

"Love" -- an international language

 

Students arrived safely late in the evening of Saturday, Dec. 28 to start this culture-comparison course.

We had a short MRT (捷運) tour on Sunday to the City Hall  to visit the "Discovery of Taipei City" museum and an old military plant housing (眷村) about the history of the city. History of Taiwan is the theme of this week.

Despite being jet-lagged, students have been in high spirit to observe their environment. Their assignments of this course is to pick unfamiliar "practices" or "products", which are visible, to analyze the "perspective" of the culture behind it, which might not as easily be seen.

Students dresses up for the opening ceremony on Monday and took a picture in front of the painting of "Confucius meets Lao Tsu".

According to the legend, Confucius and Lao Tzu met at a crossroad one day. Each aware he was in the presence of a wise man. They sat and rested facing one another in the shade of a cypress tree by a brook. They discussed the difficulty of sharing their thoughts with the world, and the limitations of language in conveying meaning. They also spoke together of good government and proper relations between people. Lao Tzu said, "I have three treasures. The first is deep love, the second is frugality, and the third is not to be ahead of the world. Because of deep love, one is courageous. Because of frugality, one is generous. Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes leader of the world." （我有三寶,持而保之：一曰慈，二曰儉，三曰不敢為天下先。慈故能勇； 儉故能廣； 不敢為天下先，故能成器長。）

Confucius said, "The superior man extensively studies literature and restrains himself with the rules of propriety. Thus he will not violate the Way." （君子博學於文，約之以禮，亦可以弗畔矣夫！） Lao Tzu, facing opposite Confucius, replied, "Abandon learning and there will be no sorrow ... When the great Tao declined, the doctrines of humanity and righteousness arose. When knowledge and wisdom appeared, there emerged great hypocrisy. When the six family relationships are not in harmony, there will be advocacy of filial piety and deep love to children. When the country is in deep turbulence, there will be emerging of loyal officers."（大道廢，有仁義。智慧出，有大僞。六親不和有孝慈。國家昏亂有忠臣。）

And so, it seemed, Confucius advocated restraint and ritual to maintain the Way, while Lao Tzu blamed such doctrine as the product of the Tao's decline. How could such opposing views be integrated?

Confucius and Lao Tzu shared many ideas that day, and though travelers passing by thought the two men were often at odds and quarreling, Lao Tzu and Confucius knew they were each describing but opposite sides of the same circle. Confucius, as he continued down the dusty road chuckled. "I know that birds can fly and fish can swim and beasts can run. But dragons! I shall never know how they ride wind and cloud up into the sky. Today I saw Lao Tzu. What a dragon!" （鳥，吾知其能飛。魚，吾知其能游。獸，吾知其能走。走者可以為網；游者可以為綸；飛者可以為矰。至於龍，吾不能知其乘風雲而上天。吾今日見老子其猶龍邪!） Lao Tzu, sitting still, softly hummed and watched the brook flow by.

In the first culture class, each student picked one phenomenon  and talked about the familiar and unfamiliar characteristics of what they have observed. From the multi-angle point of view and the lengthy discussion, I know this class is well prepared for why they are here -- to be fully engaged and to adapt to a new culture!

Feel free to read students' blogs and follow their experiences by clicking their blog sites at the bottom of my first post.