The Tao of ancient Chinese philosophy
Updated: 2006-06-15 07:07
(HK Edition)
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Wun K.H. spent millions of Hong Kong dollars in the first year of his venture. But far from being deterred, he is all the more determined that abandoning his profitable IT company for his love project was the decision he was born to take.
What drives this man in his quest? Why is he prepared to lose more? And what is this love project of his all about? Let's hear it from the horse's mouth.
"We as a people have forgotten our classics, the gems of our culture, for more than 90 years now. It's a commonly known fact that language skills (Chinese and English alike) in Hong Kong have been falling at an alarming rate... (this was not the case even 20 or 30 years ago). But this is a symptom, not the root cause."
What exactly is he talking about? For an answer, we have to travel back in time, not through any H.G. Wells-type time machine though, for it's just a matter of a couple of years.
Wun set up a traditional Chinese literature training centre for children two years ago. His aim: to help kids memorize the works of Confucius (Kung-Fu Tzu) and Lao Tzu (or "Old Sage") and verses from other ancient Chinese texts.
But what does he intend to attain by just making children memorize the 6th century BC philosophers' works and the ancient poems? How can that help the kids?
"The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name. The nameless is the boundary of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of creation...." One hears three- to six-year-olds reciting from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing or The Way and Its Power) and Confucius's Analects in his 300-square-metre training centre in a commercial building in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island. Poems from the Tang Dynasty, writings of Confucius and Lao Tzu: they are all there.
"I don't really know what I said," says six-year-old Zoe Pang. "I only know that their meaning is profound, I will eventually understand it (when I grow up)."
That gives us an idea of what Wun's efforts are really aimed at. Preparing children for a meaningful future, a future in which they will understand the philosophy of ancient Chinese texts, a future that won't view the past in obscurity and ignorance.
"The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things...."
Pang's mother Grace Ng, a 47-year-old insurance agent, first read about Wun's "culture" classes in a newspaper and thought it was important to teach children to know about and understand their heritage. "Parents nowadays don't pay much attention to their children's education when it comes to traditional Chinese literature, but they are our precious culture and heritage and could be very helpful for kids during their formative years," Ng says.
"At first, my daughter thought it was boring. But thanks to the centre's teachers, she is gradually absorbing the essence of great works such as the Analects and Tao Te Ching that hopefully will pacify her temper. They (the teachers) have a great job."
Now chairman of International Classics Culture Association, Wun says: "These kids certainly will do well in each and every aspect of their life when they grow up. Why? Because through reading (the ancient texts), they become well acquainted with the foundations of Chinese classics that have shaped our souls. Tao Te Ching is probably the most influential Chinese book of all times."
Tao Te Ching was written about 2,500 years ago, around the same time that Buddha expounded the Dharma in India and Pythagoras taught in Greece. Its 81 chapters have been translated into English more times than any other Chinese text. Though ascetics and hermits such as Shen Tao (who advocated one to "abandon knowledge and discard the self") first wrote of the "Tao", it's with Lao Tzu that the philosophy of Taoism really began.
Some scholars believe Lao Tzu was a slightly older contemporary of Confucius. Other scholars feel Tao Te Ching is really a compilation of paradoxical poems written by several Taoists using the penname Lao Tzu. Whatever the truth, Taoism and Confucianism have to be seen side-by-side as two distinct responses to the social, political and philosophical conditions of life in China 2,500 years ago. Confucianism is greatly concerned with social relations, conduct and human society, while Taoism has a much more individualistic and mystical character, highly influenced by nature.
Taoism teaches that there is one undivided truth at the core of all things. It literally means: dao the way; de virtue; jing scripture.
The Analects are a record of the words and acts of Confucius and his disciples and the discussions they held. The Chinese title literally means "Discussion over Confucius's Words".
Rather than beginning his "course" with poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, Wun prefers to start with Lao Tzu's and Confucius's works.
"Ancient poems and verses do not represent the roots of our culture, they are the flowers and fruits. The roots of Chinese culture are in the three mainstreams: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Buddhism is an imported way of life that has since fully assimilated into Chinese society. Accordingly, we help the children learn the roots of the best in Chinese culture as early as possible."
Wun believes his programme helps because its targets are children because the human faculty is most profound in the early stages, and diminishes over time.
"The cross-over point is somewhere between 12 and 13 years, when the skills of comprehension, analysis, expression overtake the skills to absorb and retain. "See the world as yourself; have faith in the way things are. Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things," is the message of Lao Tzu. And that's exactly what Wun wants to achieve through his programme.
(HK Edition 06/15/2006 page4)