Paper #1, The Advice of the Sage

The ancient ones, when they died, took their words with them. Which is why I can state that what Your Lordship is reading is nothing more than rubbish left over from these ancient ones! (“Heaven’s Tao,” 115)

Are the worlds of the old ones truly dead? Can the ancient world no longer transmit its wisdom to us? Or more importantly, do we really have eyes to see and ears to listen? Though The Book of Chuang Tzu isn’t being completely serious in the quote above, it is suggesting that if we worship old books and old ideas too much, we lose both the books and the ideas. A book is only a ‘finger’ that points to a larger moon, so we can’t focus too much on the book or the person who wrote it. They’re dead; but what they put into words can live on in other people, whose ideas can be just as important as the sages who once lived.

For your first paper assignment, I want you to imagine that you’re in one of the following situations:

• Training a new employee at your job (or at your ideal job)
• Teaching a student just starting high school or college how to ‘make it’
• Giving parental advice to a child
• Advising a friend about to make their relationship/marriage work
• Helping someone get out of personal crisis (grief, depression, etc.)

In your letter of advice (it might help to address this to an actual person!), I want you to draw from the ancient knowledge of our two books—The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Stories and The Book of Chuang Tzu. How can you use the ideas, advice, and metaphors of these works to help teach, train, and guide your audience into wisdom and acceptance? Be sure to quote from the book, but then translate these terms and ideas into real-world situations.

For example, if I was explaining about the danger of taking rules too literally in The Book of Chuang Tzu, I would quote a relevant passage, and then explain that the job’s rules are meant as guidelines, and that sometimes, following the rules exactly might contradict doing a ‘good job.’ You have to know when to bend the rules and when they are meant to be followed exactly, which is difficult to teach and requires experience (and intuition).

REQUIREMENTS: At least 4 pages, double spaced; must quote from both books and use the books in a clear and relevant way to your situation; cite all quotations according to MLA format (we’ll discuss this) with a Works Cited page.

Due in two weeks, Monday, October 1^st by 5pm [no class that day]

For Monday: The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapter 12 and 13

NOTE: The “Egypt” group will answer these questions and report back to class.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 13, the book seems to satirize the point of writing books, as it claims, “This generation values words and puts them into books, yet what it values is perhaps mistaken, because what it values is not really all that valuable” (115). How can words—and books—not be valuable? Does this mean his words and his books? Or just what we’re supposed to be writing and reading about?

Q2: Chapters 12 and 13 seem to directly confront the teachings of Confucius, and in one instance, Confucius even debates with Lao Tzu, the founded of Taoism. What seems to be the biggest critique of Confucianism and those who follow it? What ‘truth’ are they missing or do they ignore the most?

Q3: In Chapter 12, the book claims that things lose their innate natures when one of five things happen. What are these things and how are they related? Why might these cause someone to pervert or impair the natural world?

Q4: These chapters are also more explicit in discussing the ‘Tao,’ which is the foundation of Taoism, and this book. What understanding about the Tao, or “the way” did you take away from this reading? How can we know what the Tao is or isn’t?

For Friday: Comprehension Exam #2

Remember that we have our second Comprehension Exam on Friday, over Chapters 1-3 and 8-10 of The Book of Chuang Tzu. Be sure to bring your book to class, since I will expect you to quote from it in support of your answer. Like last time, I will give you a short question to respond to in writing, and as long as you show me that you can bounce off of the class discussion and use the reading to help, you should get the full four points. 

If you want to get ahead, we'll be reading Chapters 12 and 13 for Monday (see the syllabus calendar for more details). 

See you on Friday! 

For Wednesday: The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapters 8, 9, and 10

NOTE: The "Africa" group will answer these questions and bring them to class.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 8, it states "what is long is not too long;/That which is short is not too short" (67). This makes sense, but how does it relate to other aspects of life, particularly in things like moral judgments, and ideas of beauty, etc.?

Q2: Chapter 9 blames the sage (the wise man) for spreading discontent and envy among the people? Does this contradict the work's earlier claim that "there is no boundary to knowledge"? If knowledge/learning is boundless, why would the sage spread evil by seeking to teach the masses?

Q3: If the "Tao" is the way of truth, enlightenment, etc., what do you think it means in Chapter 10 when it states, "Is there a Tao for the thief? Chih replied, "What profession is there without its Tao?"" (77). How can thieves and other criminals have--and follow--their own Tao, or truth?

Q4: One of the great paradoxes of the work occurs at the end of Chapter 10: "Everything in the world knows how to seek for knowledge that they do not hav, but do not know how to find what they already know" (80). What do you think this means, and why is the pursuit of knowledge potentially dangerous to both the wise man and his students? 

For Monday: The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapters 1-3

The “India” group should answer these questions and prepare to answer a few of them in class.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: The poems of the Daodejing (which we discussed in class on Friday) are often opposed to the ideals of Confucianism, which tells you exactly how to act, what to say, and what to think. According to these chapters, what does it mean to be a wise man or a sage? What does “right action” consist of?

Q2: Why is the butterfly story at the end of Chapter Two an important way to understand the ideas in all three chapters? How might it also be another way of explaining the “finger and the moon” story?

Q3: This book delights in the idea of paradoxes, which are statements that seem to cancel each other out, such as this statement: “How can I know that what I said I know is not actually what I don’t know?” (17). Why might paradoxical thinking be vital to the practice of Daoism or of looking beyond names and actions?

Q4: The image of the Yin/Yang hovers over the entire book, especially in this passage from Chapter Two: “Nothing exists which is not ‘that,’ nothing exists which is not ‘this.’” (12). What do you think it means that everything we see is also its opposite? For example, everything beautiful is also ugly; or everything difficult is also easy? How might these chapters attempt to explain this yin/yang concept in the world?

For Friday: Intro to Taoism and The Book of Chuang Tzu (Schedule Change--See Below)

For Friday, I'm changing the schedule slighlty so that the next few weeks look like this:

M 3      Labor Day

W 5     Sinuhe, “The Dialogue of a Man and his Soul”

F 7       Context: Taoism and Lao Tzu

M 10   The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapters 1-3

W 12   The Book of Chuang Tzu, Chapters 8-10

F 14     Comprehension Exam #2

M 17    Chuang Tzi, Chapters 12-13

W 19   Chuang Tzu, Chapters 17-19

F 21     Comprehension Exam #3

After this, the schedule will be pretty much the same. If you are in the "India" or "Africa" groups, that means you will present on Monday (India) and Wednesday (Africa) instead. If you consult the syllabus, you'll see that I want you to do at least one set of questions for each reading. I know this is confusing if you were preparing to do Friday's reading, when I suddenly cut it. Don't worry about it this time. In the future, just keep track of whether or not your group will present on a given work, and if not, be sure to do at least ONE set of questions for that book. 

Remember, the presentation schedule is: EGYPT--CHINA--JAPAN--INDIA--AFRICA. So if we're on India for Wednesday, it will cycle back to Egypt on Monday, the 17th (see schedule above).

Let me know if you have any questions! See you on Friday. 

For Wednesday: "The Dialogue of a Man and His Soul" (pp.155-160)

NOTE: I can't find this poem on-line: I'll put a few copies in the box on my door over the weekend--come get them on Tuesday.

The "Japan" group will answer these questions and begin our discussion on Wednesday. 

 Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What disagreement is the man having with his soul? Why does he feel his soul "misleading me...dragging me to death"?  Is this the argument we imagine a man would have with his soul today?
 
Q2: The soul says "Look, it is good to listen to people! Be happy and forget all cares!" This sounds like the servant's words to his master in "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor." Does this suggest that the soul is right? Or is the soul the one not listening?  

Q3: In the long passage on page158, the Man repeats over and over, "Look, my name reeks..." What do  you think he means by this? How does he explain how his name could "reek" and  what does he compare his situation to? Why might these be very serious conflicts in Egyptian society?
 
Q4: How does the dialogue end? Who wins? What point of view? What might this say about the Egyptian perspective on life and death? Did they have the same doubts/concerns as we do?