Loving Learning

Calligraphy
From The Eighteen Scholars, National Palace Museum, Taipei

Pauline T says ” When studying Chinese it might be helpful for people to remember this little phrase for forming  sentences :- ‘Somebody  Somewhere  Doing Something ‘ ( Or  think the phrase ‘ Some Thing Somewhere Doing Something )
For example,  in English we would say  “Mr Dong lives in China” but in Chinese it is “ Mr Dong  in China lives “.   ( Remembering  that the title  ‘ Mr’   comes after the surname in the Chinese language) .
An example for a  longer sentence in English  is : Mr Dong lives in China and he teaches us how to paint birds on Zoom.
In Chinese it becomes : Mr Dong in China lives and he on Zoom teaches us how to paint birds.
Happy Studying !”

And from Irene B “If you are interested in the ancient Chinese Classics, have a play on this website.  Example:

  • Click “Lun-Yu” The Analects of Confucius on the list of books at the “far left panel”
  • An Introduction of Lun-Yu:
  • http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Lunyu&no=0
  • Near the top of the screen, a list of “I” to “XX”, 20 books:
  • Click “I” to display book I
  • http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?l=Lunyu&no=1
  • There are 16 chapters in book I
  • Highlight each Chinese character to display the sound and meaning for each character.  Click each character to display further meaning and phrases.
  • Have a look at Yi-Jing.  I feel one needs quite deep knowledge and understanding of the Chinese language, culture and history to grasp the meaning of Yi-Jing.

Gresham lectures by Professor Craig Clunas :

The Met (New York) has an exhibition on a subject dear to our hearts – learning to paint in Premodern China.  You can see all the exhibits via the link.

Also in New York, China Institute Gallery has  and Exhibition of Chinese Flower-and-Bird Paintings .  If you saw the V&A Masterpeices in 2014, you will recognise at Bada Shanren’s handscroll.

Court Ladies in Chinese paintings.

Some Bada Shanren that you may not have seen before.