The Chinese Text Project

There are countless Classical Chinese trans-panning a history of thousands of years. The Tao Te Ching, the Zhuangzi, the Analytics of Confucius, the I Ching, The Art of War, the 24 Histories, Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, etc. May aspiring Sinologists want to study these texts to help understand Chinese philosophy and literature. How ever it can be expensive and inconvenient to order these books through amazon. Thats were the Chinese text project comes in. Since these texts are thousands of years old and therefore in the public domain, the Chinese Text Project has published every Chinese classic ever written for free in a massive, organized online library. Complete with annotations, Chinese transliteration and more. If you ever want a quick read and a taste of a Chinese classic, go here. Also, I urge you to donate to the project to preserve this resource for future generations.

The Joy Luck Club

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Anyone who loves things China needs to read this book. Written by Chinese American author Amy Tan, it is the story of four women who emigrated from China to give their daughters a better life. Each month the four women get together to talk and play Mahjong. They describe in detail each of their lives and hardships they faced as they grew up in China and eventually make their way to the US. It then tells the story of each of their daughter’s lives and the much different struggles they endure. The first one of the women was sold to a family as a bride at the age of fifteen, the second was forced to see her mother suffer and kill herself, dying before her eyes, the third was terribly abused by a man she thought she loved. She killed their infant son because it was the only thing she could take from him and cause him pain. She kept this horrible secret to herself. The fourth mother was forced to abandon her twin babies, unable to endure the burden of carrying them all the way south to safety as she fled the escalating violence of the Sino-Japanese war. The daughters had different issues. The first one wanted to please her husband, but lost her self in doing so. The second daughter’s family did not like her fiancé. The third daughter had the opposite problem; her fiancé’s family did not accept her. And finally, the fourth daughter who is the half-sister of the two babies abandoned by their mother must go to China to inform her sisters of their mother’s death. The hard lives of the mothers influenced how they raised their daughters. They all shared a common wish to give their daughters more opportunity and a better life in America. The relationships between the mothers and daughters are complicated, often strained; old ways verses new. The daughters struggling to balance their American lives while respecting the culture of old so desperately being kept alive by their mothers.

The book was also made into a film in 1993 and honestly, it is the only film that has ever brought tears to my eyes.

I can think of no better film to describe the life and hardships of Chinese American Immigrants in the early 20^th century. It is a film that I believe every Chinese American should see. Generations old and new. This is one of very few films that has touched my heart, and I hope it touches yours as well.

When the Chinese discovered America

You may have learned in elementary school that Christopher Columbus discovered America.

LIES!!!

Four things:

1. He landed in Cuba or the Bahamas, not the modern day US
2. The Native Americans were already there
3. He didn’t discover America, he brought it to Europe’s attention. Historian’s agree that Leif Ericson and his viking pillagers landed in Newfoundland in 1000 AD. 500 years before Columbus.
4. All of that is irrelevant, as it may have been China to first see the shores of America

In 499 AD, a Buddhist missionary by the name of Hui Shen sought the land of Fusang. In Chinese mythology, Fusang is a divine tree on the eastern horizon where the sun rises. At this tree is supposedly the elixir of life.

Hui wanted to bring new converts into Buddhism in this land, so he sailed off on a journey east to find it. He sailed over 20,000 li before reaching land. Li is an imperial Chinese form of measurement equal to about 415 metres. Therefore, 20,000 li is equal to approximately 8,316 km. The distance between China and America is more or less 8,600 km, depending where he left and how on course he was. This would plant Hui in the pacific northwest of the modern US. His descriptions of the land were recorded in the Book of Liang, and only provides more evidence that were he landed was indeed America:

"Fusang (land of Jade Mulberry trees) is 20,000 li to the East of the country of Dàhàn (lit. 'Great Han'), and located to the east of China."

"On that land, there are many Fusang plants (perhaps red mulberry, native to North America) that produce oval-shaped leaves similar to paulownia and edible purplish-red fruits like pears. The place was rich in copper and traces of gold and silver but no iron. The native tribes in Fusang were civilized, living in well-organized communities. They produced paper from the bark of the Fusang plants for writing and produced cloth from the fibers of the bark, which they used for robes or wadding. Their houses or cabins were constructed with red mulberry wood. The fruits and young shoots of the plants were one of their food sources. They raised deer for meat and milk, just as the Chinese raised cattle at home, and produced cheese with deer milk. They traveled on horseback and transported their goods with carts or sledges pulled by horses, buffalo, or deer."

He describes the government of the lands peoples:

"An emperor, or a main chief, with the help of several officials, governed the country. The majority of people were law-abiding citizens. The country had no army or military defense but two jails, one in north and the other in south of the country. Those who had committed serious crimes were sent to the north and they stayed there for their entire lives. These inmates, however, could get married. If they got married and produced children, their sons became slaves and daughters remained as maids"

Their society:

"The marriage arrangement was relatively simple. If a boy wanted to marry a girl, he had to build a cabin next to the home of the girl and stay there for a year. If the girl liked him they would get married; otherwise he would be asked to go away…when a person died in the community his body would be cremated. The mourning period varied from seven days for the death of a parent to five days for a grandparent and three days for a brother or sister. During their mourning period they were not supposed to consume food, only water. They had no religion."

These descriptions seem to accurately portray Native American’s and the geography of North America. The story does have flaws though. Hui describes them as traveling on horseback, despite the fact horses are not native to the America’s and were not brought over until the European’s arrived. Also, it seems far fetched that one man could survive a sea voyage that long and far. Still, this is far more believable than other Chinese exploration theories.

According to the book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies, Chinese explorer Zheng He discovered America on one of his famous voyages. He also claims Zheng He found Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the Northeast Passage, but most records of these voyages were lost. Menzies wrote a second book, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance claiming Chinese influences started the renaissance.

Menzies bases these theories mostly on an 18^th century map that is thought to be a copy of an earlier map from 1418. This map clearly shows the America’s and is labeled as such.

If the Chinese did discover America, weather it be Zheng He or Hui Shen, the world today may be a different place if they decided to stay.