Marasmius Purpureostriatus

Marasmius purpureostriatus (紫条沟小皮伞).

Here seen amidst the wet decaying leaves on Yuelu Mountain last April: in one spot there were dozens of them one day, and soon after they had all disappeared.

Dying for a Literary Education

Εἰς δὴ τοῦτον ἄγουσι μὲν ἱεροὶ λόγοι, δι’ ἀποῤῥήτων ἡμᾶς ἐκπαιδεύοντες· ἕως γε μὴν ὑπὸ τῆς ἡλικίας ἐπακούειν τοῦ βάθους τῆς διανοίας αὐτῶν οὐχ οἷόν τε, ἐν ἑτέροις οὐ πάντη διεστηκόσιν, ὥσπερ ἐν σκιαῖς τισι καὶ κατόπτροις, τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμματι τέως προγυμναζόμεθα, τοὺς ἐν τοῖς τακτικοῖς τὰς μελέτας ποιουμένους μιμούμενοι· οἵ γε, ἐν χειρονομίαις καὶ ὀρχήσεσι τὴν ἐμπειρίαν κτησάμενοι, ἐπὶ τῶν ἀγώνων τοῦ ἐκ τῆς παιδιᾶς ἀπολαύουσι κέρδους. Καὶ ἡμῖν δὴ οὖν ἀγῶνα προκεῖσθαι πάντων ἀγώνων μέγιστον νομίζειν χρεὼν, ὑπὲρ οὗ πάντα ποιητέον ἡμῖν καὶ πονητέον εἰς δύναμιν ἐπὶ τὴν τούτου παρασκευὴν, καὶ ποιηταῖς, καὶ λογοποιοῖς καὶ ῥήτορσι καὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὁμιλητέον, ὅθεν ἂν μέλλῃ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπιμέλειαν ὠφέλειά τις ἔσεσθαι. Ὥσπερ οὖν οἱ δευσοποιοί, παρασκευάσαντες πρότερον θεραπείαις τισὶν ὅ τι ποτ´ ἂν ᾖ τὸ δεξόμενον τὴν βαφήν, οὕτω τὸ ἄνθος ἐπάγουσιν, ἄν τε ἁλουργόν, ἄν τέ τι ἕτερον ᾖ· τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς τρόπον, εἰ μέλλει ἀνέκπλυτος ἡμῖν ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ παραμένειν δόξα, τοῖς ἔξω δὴ τούτοις προτελεσθέντες, τηνικαῦτα τῶν ἱερῶν καὶ ἀπορρήτων ἐπακουσόμεθα παιδευμάτων· καὶ οἷον ἐν ὕδατι τὸν ἥλιον ὁρᾶν ἐθισθέντες οὕτως αὐτῷ προσβαλοῦμεν τῷ φωτὶ τὰς ὄψεις.

It is Holy Scriptures, by instructing us in sacred mysteries, that lead us into this other life. But as long as our age prevents us from penetrating the depths of their meaning, with the help of those books whose spirit is not entirely opposed to them, we exercise the eye of our soul as if on shadows and on mirrors; in this we imitate those who perform military exercises, and who having made themselves skilful at shadow-boxing and dancing, reap the profits of their training in battle. And so we also must believe that the greatest of all battles is set before us, and that in order to prepare ourselves for it we must do everything and endure everything to the extent of our power in preparation for it. We must associate with poets, historians, orators and all men who might be of some use to us in the cultivation of our souls. And so just as dyers, first prepare the cloth with certain treatments before it receives the dye, and then apply the colour, whether it be purple or some other shade, so we must first also in the same way, if we would preserve with us indelible for all time the splendour of the good, be instructed by these external means; and like those who have become used to seeing the sun’s reflection in the water, so we shall become able to turn our eyes upon the sun itself.

St. Basil of Caesarea, Ad adolescentes, de legendis libris Gentilium, II. My translation.

Sulzbacheromyces Sinensis

Sulzbacheromyces sinensis  (中华丽烛衣).

A basidiolichen with erect ochre fruiting bodies and a dark green crust which slowly turned grey. It was growing in several places on Yuelu Mountain last July.

Buying Books One Cannot Read

 WHAT the old French officer had delivered upon travelling, bringing Polonius’s advice to his son upon the same subject into my head, and that bringing in Hamlet; and Hamlet, the rest of Shakespeare’s works, I stopped at the Quai de Conti, in my return home, to purchase the whole set.
   The bookseller said he had not a set in the world. Comment! said I; taking one up out of a set which lay upon the counter betwixt us. He said, they were sent him only to be got bound, and were to be sent back to Versailles in the morning to the Count de B—.
   And does the Count de B—, said I, read Shakespeare? C’est un Esprit fort, replied the bookseller.

Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey & The Journal to Eliza (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1966; 1788), pp. 68-69.

Longhorn Beetle Frass

Longhorn beetle frass (I am unsure which species) on a willow tree at Taozi lake. These beetle larvae due a fair bit of damage in spite of the park workers vigilance. Curiously the ejected frass attracts a variety of butterflies: I observed many a polygonia c-aureum, vanessa indica, kaniska canace, and even one charaxes bernardus attracted to its sap.

Hero-worship

The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity. The omniscient historian would display the masterpieces, their causes and their inter-relation. The study of literature is hero-worship. It is a refinement, or, if you will, a perversion of that primitive religion.

Ezra Pound, The Spirit of Romance (Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, 1952; 1910), p. 7.

Asian Longhorned Beetle

Asian Longhorned Beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis, 光肩星天牛).

Similar to anoplophora glabripennis but possible to distinguish by the tubercles (little bumps), at the base of its elytra.

A Catalogus Arborum

Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406), 'Conquestio Phillidis', 137-156:

gentibus optatam pacem sacra Palladis arbor
   nuntiet et populis omina leta ferat.
frondibus eternis Phebeia superbiat arbos,
   hacque triumphalis fronde sacretur honos;
altaque odoratis conis redimita cupressus
   perpetua fronde sidera celsa petat.
sacra Iovi quercus per secula multa superstes
   gaudeat aurata glande cibasse viros
luxurient Veneris myrtus in litore salso,
   atque comant semper fronde virente comas.
medica Caiete scopuloso in litore poma
   crescant. Iudeus balsama rara colat.
dactilus ex nudo procedat robore palme,
   ac humilem curvent grandia poma citrum.
Mura, nefas, pulcrum sub pectore servet Adona
   ac electra gemens det quasi parturiat.
flagret turifluis dives Pancaia virgis.
   pinus in Ydeis crescat amena iugis,
ac ebenum nulla lignum violabile flamma
   India producat, plurima monstra ferens.

The sacred tree of Pallas would announce the desired peace to the people and would bear deadly omens to the people. It would distain the Phoebeian trees with their everlasting greenery, and triumphant honour would be consecrated with this bough; and the tall cypress encircled with scented cones would seek the lofty stars with its everlasting foliage. Outliving the sacred oak of Jupiter through many ages, it would rejoice to have fed men with a gilded acorn, the myrtles of Venus would grow luxuriantly on the salty shore, and always adorn their tops with green foliage. The medicinal fruits of Gaëta would thrive on the rocky shore. Judea would cultivate rare balsam trees. The date of the palm-tree would appear on the naked oak, and massive fruits would bend the lowly lemon tree. The Mur (shocking!) would watch over the beauty inside its heart and the groaning Adona would bear forth amber as if in labour. Rich Pancaia would be inflamed with sweet-scented stalks. The delightful pine tree would thrive in peaks of Mount Ida. And India, which produces the greatest number of wonders, would produce ebony wood violable by no flame.

Richard C. Jensen, ‘Coluccio Salutati’s “Lament of Phyllis” ’, Studies in Philology, 65.2 (1968), 109-123, p. 120. My translation.

Citrus Longhorn Beetle

Citrus Longhorn Beetle (Anoplophora chinensis, 华星天牛).

The larvae are pests, and quite destructive to local trees, but the adults are large impressive beetles and have a conspicuous presence throughout the summer.

The Business of a Scholar

To talk in publick, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire, and answer inquiries, is the business of a scholar.  He wanders about the world without pomp or terror, and is neither known nor valued but by men like himself.

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988; 1759), p. 18.

Campsosternus Auratus

Campsosternus auratus (丽叩甲).

A large metallic click beetle, the adults are fairly common in the summer.

Nested Prose

 [...] and the prose is clotted with sentences like this one: “The elaboration of the demonstrative makes possible the comprehension of the singularity of the singular”. Linguists have a term for this kind of writing, where each abstraction is nested in another like so many Russian dolls: bad.

Stephen Brown, ‘Why so many notes?’, The Times Literary Supplement, 5672 (16 Dec 2011), p. 24.

A University Should Be Like a Poet's Garden

Mark Pattison,'Oxford Studies' in Essays, ed. by Henry Nettleship, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), I, 415-494 (p. 420):

A university should be situated, like the poet's garden, 'Not wholly in the busy world, nor quite beyond it.

Blushing Wood Mushrooms

Blushing Wood Mushroom (Agaricus sylvaticus, 林地蘑菇).

Beautiful pair of mushrooms growing last June on Yuelu Mountain. There were young, 2-3cm with white skirts still hiding their greyish gills, brown spores and the flesh turned slightly red when cut.

Canon

David Damrosch, We Scholars: Changing the Culture of the University (Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 109:

Too often both sides [progressives/’great tradition’ traditionalists] take absolutist positions, as though our intellectual traditions must either form an invariant and unquestionable unity or else be a specious fiction serving the corrupt self-interest of an elite few. Any canon is indeed a construct; particularly in the extremely selective form of a two-semester course, any representation of "the" tradition of Western literature or social thought is bound to leave out important texts, ideas, movements. Yet this does not mean that a necessarily artificial construction of the canon has no value. The real problem is that at the present time the core itself is largely hollow. Debates over particular inclusions or exclusions often amount to little more than the replacement of a few deck chairs as general education continues slowly, majestically, to sink out of sight.

Pyralid Snout Moth Caterpillar

Some species of pyralid snout moth caterpillar, though I could not discern the species. I found on Yuelu Mountain last July and I should have noted more carefully the plant it was on.

The Rape of the Lock in Latin Leonines

Thomas Parnell (1679-1718)
‘Part of the First Canto of the Rape of the Lock with a Translation in Leonine Verse, after the manner of the ancient monks.’

Et nunc dilectum speculum, pro more retectum,
Emicat in mensa, quae splendet pyxide densa:
Tum primum lympha, se purgat candida Nympha;
Jamque sine menda, coelestis imago videnda,
Nuda caput, bellos retinet, regit, implet ocellos.
Hac stupet explorans, seu cultus numen adorans:
Inferior claram Pythonissa apparet ad aram,
Fertque tibi caute, dicatque Superbia! laute,
Dona venusta; oris, quae cunctis, plena laboris,
Excerpta explorat, dominamque deamque decorat.
Pyxide devota, se pandit hic India tota,
Et tota ex ista transpirat Arabia cista;
Testudo hic flectit, dum se mea Lesbia pectit;
Atque elephas lente, te pectit Lesbia dente;
Hunc maculis noris, nivei jacet ille coloris.
Hic jacet et munde, mundus muliebrit abunde;
Spinula resplendens aeris longo ordine pendens,
Pulvis suavis odore, et epistola suavis amore.
Induit arma ergo, Veneris pulcherrima virgo;
Pulchrior in praesens tempus de tempore crescens;
Jam reparat rifus, jam furgit gratia visus,
Jam promit cultu, mirac[u]la latentia vultu;
Pigmina jam miscet, quo plus fua Purpura gliscet,
Et geminans bellis splendet mage fulgor ocellis.
Stant Lemures muti, Nymphae intentique saluti,
Hic figit Zonam, capiti locat ille Coronam,
Haec manicis formam, plicis dat et altera normam
Et tibi vel Betty, tibi vel nitidissima Letty!
Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum.

   And now, unveil’d, the Toilet stands display’d,
Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
First, rob’d in white, the nymph intent adores
With head uncover’d, the Cosmetic pow’rs.
A heav’nly image in the glass appears,
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Th’ inferior priestess, at her altar’s side,
Trembling, begins the sacred rites of pride.
Unnumber’d treasures ope at once, and here
The various off’rings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the Goddess with the glitt’ring spoil.
This casket India’s glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The Tortoise here and Elephant unite,
Transform’d to combs, the speckled and the white.
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billet-doux.
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms,
The fair each moment rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens ev’ry grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face;
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,
And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
The busy Sylphs surround their darling care;
These set the head, and those divide the hair,
Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the gown;
And Betty’s prais’d for labours not her own.

Thomas Parnell, The Works in Verse and Prose of Dr. Thomas Parnell (Glasgow: printed and sold by R. and A. Foulis, 1755), pp. 66-68.

Red Ring Skirt

Red Ring Skirt (Hestina assimilis, 黑脉蛱蝶).

Large East Asian butterfly, from Fuzhou last August. An aggressive and territorial insect, with wings battered from conflict.

The Fate of the Historian

Mark Pattison,'Gregory of Tours' in Essays, ed. by Henry Nettleship, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), I, 1-29 (p. 1):

The fate of the historian is like those of the dynasties he writes of; they spring up and flourish, and bear rule and seem established for ever; but time goes on, their strength passes away, and at last some young and vigorous usurper comes and pushes them from their throne. It is not because new facts are continually accumulating, because criticism is growing more rigid, or even because style varies; but because ideas change, the whole mode and manner of looking at things alters with every age; and so every generation requires facts to be recast in its own mould, demands that the history of its forefathers be rewritten from its own point of view.

Little Emerald

Little Emerald (Jodis lactearia, 青突尾尺蛾).

A common species across Europe and Asia An inept little flyer, spotted on Yuelu Mountain last July.

Rationalizing Evil

 The hour of the common man was dawning, Sheen declared. The Messiah walked this earth teaching children and fishermen. “If I wanted a good moral judgment about the war, I should a thousand times prefer to get it from a garage man, a filling station attendant, a WPA worker, a grocer’s clerk, or a delivery boy, than from twenty-three Ph.D. professors I know about in just one American University.” The reason was easy to find. “The educated know how to rationalize evil; the masses do not. Evil to them is still evil. . . . Their judgments are better because their moral sense is higher, for virtue does not increase in direct ratio with learning.” It was character, not learning, that made a nation great; and “character is in the will, not in the intellect.

Thomas C. Reeves, America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001), pp. 143-44.

Trichosanthes Laceribractea

Trichosanthes laceribractea (长萼栝楼).

Members of the cucumber family, there are several species of trichosanthes growing in Hunan. On Yuelu Mountain, its flowers can be observed every year around midsummer.

Civilian Immunity

Su-kyoung Hwang, Korea’s Grievous War (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), p. 69:

The debate over civilian immunity was the debate over liberal immunity in a different guise. The assumption that liberal democracies are less prone to target civilians is a longstanding myth. Incidents reported from some of the major battlefields of the past century have repeatedly contradicted this myth and revealed that democratic states are far from being able to claim moral superiority in their use of violence against civilians. What continue to be matters for dispute are questions of motive and whether the means justify the end. Insofar as the use of states of emergency and other forms of legal exceptions are concerned, liberal democracies share much in common with authoritarian and totalitarian states.

Jerusalem Cherry

Jerusalem Cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum, 珊瑚樱).

Another American plant, naturalized in parts of China. Sometimes I find them in the forests on the outskirts of Changsha and other cities.

Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception

Mary Modur of grace we cry to þe,
Moder of mercy and of pyte,
Put vs fro be Fendes fondyng,
And helpe vs at oure last endyng;
And to þi Sone oure pes þou make
þat He on vs no wreke take.
To ȝow I cri wyth mylde steuen,
All þe halowes þat are in Heuen,
Helpe or Criste my gylth forgyue,
And will Hym serue will I lyue.

Rossell Hope Robbins, ‘Popular Prayers in Middle English Verse’, Modern Philology, 36.4 (1939), 337-50 (p. 345) [Caius Camb. 71, fol. 17b].

Common Evening-Primrose

Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis, 月见草).

Naturalized in parts of Hunan: I saw it in bloom along the sides of every road and trail in the Huxingshan Yao Ethnic Township last July.

Yellow Coster Larva

Yellow Coster (Telchinia issoria, 苎麻珍蝶). Larva.

Cold weather is coming: it is the time of year to revisit some old pictures. This caterpillar was romping around Hengshan, mid-October 2023.

An Excess of Wonder

Umberto Eco, Interpretation and Overinterpretation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 50:

an excess of wonder leads to overestimating the importance of coincidences which are explainable in other ways

East Asian Eurya

East Asian Eurya (Eurya japonica, 柃木).

A fairly tall shrub, it blossoms in spring and early winter and has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to reduce dampness, swelling and bleeding. Growing here in Wangling Park.

Happy Life

Stephen Paget and J.M.C. Crum, Francis Paget (London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1912), pp. 25-26 [From a letter from Francis Paget to his sister c. 1870-72]:

"I have come to the conclusion that old china & a good conscience are, after all, the chief requisites for a happy life."

Muskmelon

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo, 甜瓜).

Growing wild in the mud by the Xiang river. This plant has been widely cultivated from antiquity, but who knows how long ago its progenitor escaped some local garden to grow here.

Philosophy Retreating

Jonathan Haidt. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (New York : Pantheon Books, 2012), p. 141:

However, philosophy began retreating from observation and empathy in the nineteenth century, placing ever more emphasis on reasoning and systematic thought. As Western societies became more educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic, the minds of its intellectuals changed. They became more analytic and less holistic.

Slender Bracken

Slender Bracken (Pteris ensiformis, 剑叶凤尾蕨).

A species of bracken growing on Yuelu Mountain and a reminder that at some time I wish to look more closely at local ferns. It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to clear away heat and to promote diuresis.

The Sea

Richard Powers, Playground: A Novel (London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024):

No human being knew what life on Earth really looked like. How could they? They lived on the land, in the marginal kingdom of aberrant outliers. All the forests and savannas and wetlands and deserts and grasslands on all the continents were just afterthoughts, ancillaries to the Earth’s main stage.

Tropical Milkweed

Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica, 马利筋).

A plant that originates in the Americas; it has been naturalized in Jiangsu but this is from a spectacular late Autumn garden display in Xuanwu, Nanjing. The rose gardens were also splendid this time of year: one can only imagine Spring.

An Even More Sinister Analgesic

Zadie Smith White Teeth (London: Hamish Hamilton,  2000), p. 167.

If religion is the opium of the people, tradition is an even more sinister analgesic, simply because it rarely appears sinister. If religion is a tight band, a throbbing vein and a needle, tradition is a far homelier concoction: poppy seeds ground into tea; a sweet cocoa drink laced with cocaine; the kind of thing your grandmother might have made.

The Doctor's Art

non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger:
   interdum docta plus valet arte malum.

A doctor cannot always cure the ill:
   sickness, at times, is beyond all proven skill.

Ovid, Ex Ponto, I.iii.17-18. My translation.

Japanese Giant Gecko

Japanese Giant Gecko (Gekko japonicus, 多疣壁虎).

Although they are rare to see during the day on Yuelu Mountain, they are very active at night. In any of the open buildings scattered around the mountain, they can reliably be found after sunset, lying in wait for insects on the roofs and walls.

Courage and Artlessness

Claire Harman, Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography (London: Penguin Books, 2015; 1989), p. 185:

The naval war of the winter of 1939 may not have seemed too threatening to the population of West Dorset, but the events of early 1940 did. Hitler overran Denmark and Norway in April with alarming ease, and the Royal Navy had difficulty holding the position won at Narvik. By the summer, the governments of Poland and Belgium, the King and Queen of Norway and the Queen of the Netherlands were all in exile in London; the British Expeditionary Force, once so sure of hanging out its washing on the Siegfried Line, had been caught in a pincer movement, and was trapped at Dunkirk. France was within weeks of capitulation to Germany. Early measures taken at home to provide some protection for civilians now lost their air of pointless routine and were undertaken in earnest, and in the wake of earnestness came a deal of inefficiency. Sylvia wrote wearily of an ARP air-raid rehearsal in Maiden Newton: ‘It is like a knock-about farce film done in slow motion, and at intervals some member of the local gentry pipes up to say, “Well, let’s hope it will never be needed”, or “We can’t really get on with it without Mr Thompson”, or “Has it started yet, do you know?” The most melancholy thought is, that if there is a real raid they will all dauntlessly turn up to mismanage it, for their courage is as unquestionable as their artlessness.’

Gray-capped Pygmy Woodpecker

Gray-capped Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus canicapillus, 星头啄木鸟).

A small woodpecker, spotted in Xuanwu Lake Park in Nanjing during a morning walk (I was there for a conference).

Greek Poetry and Geography

Robin Lane Fox, Homer and His Iliad (London: Penguin Books, 2023), p. 54:

Throughout antiquity, Greek poetry and cult show a strong connection to particular sites and landscapes in the real world. The Iliad already exemplifies it. Homer had visited windy Troy on a clear day when distant Samothrace was visible. He had identified vantage points for the gods and visited them too on either side of the bay on whose shore he placed the Greek ships. I like to think he had walked south, like Chryses, beside the shore of the booming sea and come to the promontory called Chryse and to the sanctuary a little way inland where, for him, Chryses was the priest of Apollo. From there, I take him in my mind’s eye on an uphill walk for several hours on a crisp day in early spring, up through the crocuses which were carpeting the slopes with gold below Gargaron and on to the foot of its grey peak, where he stopped, checked the view back to Troy and made an offering to Zeus.

Chinese Thistle

Chinese Thistle (Cirsium chinense, 崂山蓟).

Found growing by a trail in Shibadong. The deeply lobed leaves are strikingly different than the thistles one more often comes across.

Gentlemen

Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall (Boston: Back Bay Books 1999; 1928), p. 54.

For generations the British bourgeoisie have spoken of themselves as gentlemen, and by that they have meant, among other things, a self-respecting scorn of irregular perquisites. It is the quality that distinguishes the gentleman from both the artist and the aristocrat.

Swan Goose

Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides, 鸿雁).

A migratory goose that winters in southern China, though truly wild ones are rare. More common are domesticated geese and there feral (having escaped from farms) cousins.

Civilization is Communication

 Civilization is communication. When that which should be expressed and transmitted is lost, civilization comes to an end. Click…OFF.

Haruku Murakami, Wind/Pinball: two novels, trans. by Ted Goossen (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015; 1979-1980), p. 19.

Molipteryx Lunata

Molipteryx lunata (月肩莫缘蝽).

A squash bug with a crescent-moon shape, they are found throughout southern China. This one was on the exterior wall of a building in Shibadong.

Chinese Books

Duarte de Sande, Diálogo sobre a missão dos embaixadores japoneses à Cúria Romana, ed. by Américo da Costa Ramalho & Sebastião Tavares de Pinho, 2 vols (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2009; 1590) , II, pp. 719-21:

Veniamus nunc ad eam artem quam Sinae summopere profitentur, eamque merito litteraturam possumus appellare. Quamuis enim uulgata fama sit, a Sinis multas ingenuas artes coli, praesertimque utramque philosophiam, quae de rerum natura et moribus agit, et apud eos esse Academias, ubi huiusmodi artes traduntur haec tamen opinio magna ex parte popularis potius, quam uera censenda est.
   Dicam tamen quid huic opinioni occasionem dederit. In primis ergo Sinae litterariam artem praecipue profitentur, eamque diligentissime ediscunt, longum tempus totamque fere aetatem ea in re consumentes. Eam ob causam in omnibus urbibus et oppidis, immo et in exiguis pagis sunt magistri, mercede conducti, qui pueros litteras docent. Cumque illae iuxta nostrum etiam communiorem morem sint infinitae, ab ineunte aetate, tenerisque unguiculis pueri libros in manus sumunt, quos tantum illi deponunt qui parum habiles ad hoc munus iudicantur, et ad mercaturam, uel artes quae manibus exercentur, animum applicant. Reliqui uero tanto studio ad litteras incumbunt, ut mirabiliter in praecipuis libris sint uersati, et in quauis pagina quot sint litterae, et in quo situ rogati, facile respondeant.

Let us now to that art in which the Chinese cultivate the most, and which we may rightly call literature. For although it is popularly known that the Chinese cultivate many ingenuous arts, and especially the two branches of philosophy, which deal with the nature of things and manners, and that there are academies among them, where such arts are taught, yet this opinion is by and large more commonplace than it is true.
   However, I will comment on, what gave rise to this opinion. Firstly, therefore, the Chinese especially profess the art of letters and learn it with the greatest diligence, spending a long time and almost and almost their entire lives in study. For this reason, in all cities and towns, even in small villages, there are hired teachers who teach characters to children. And since their characters are infinite compared to our alphabet, from the earliest age children carry books in their hands, and only those who are considered inept put them down and apply their minds to trade or the manual arts. As for the rest, they devote themselves so ardently to letters that they become marvellously versed in the canonical books, and when asked how many letters there are and where on each page, they easily answer.

My translation.

Oedaleus Manjius

Oedaleus manjius (红胫小车蝗).

Spotted by the forest in Shibadong: the first time and only time I have encountered this bandwing grasshopper.

Sparrow False Pimpernel

Sparrow False Pimpernel (Bonnaya antipoda, 泥花草).

A perennial plant distributed from subtropical Asia to Australia, where it blooms in April. Here in the Xiang mudflats, is a November Autumn flower.

The Snail

 'The Snail'

See the sick and wounded snail,
   Sick in mind and body both,
   Travelling through the undergrowth
Or asparagus and kale,
Exiled from the herd (or horde)
Where he once was overlord.

See him as his eyeballs glaze;
   Nasty sorts of flies and things,
   Such as every poet brings
Into poems nowadays,
Buzz about the eyes and tail
Of this old unhappy snail.

Ants arise to greet the dawn,
   Beetles burnish up their mail,
   But the old unhappy snail
Creeps towards the croquet lawn,
Where the loathly blackbird jumps,
Looking out for slithery lumps.

He recalls the moment when
   Long ago, a thing uncouth,
   He arrived without a tooth,
Youngest of a batch of ten.
(Snails recall their infancy
For more brightly than do we.)

How he gambolled round about,
   Always at his mother’s side
   Filled with lustihood and pride,
Feeding upon Brussels-spout,
Turnip-tops and cauliflower.
(Pity him in his lone-hour!)

Oft in those remembered morns
   With his tiny friends at play
   He would butt, and so would they,
Making trial of his horns,
Butt until he felt unwell
And retired to his shell.

Till at last his hour occurred;
   Fiercely then, and roaring loud,
   He attacked the leader proud,
Chieftain of the hornéd herd,
Whilst the lady snails looked on,
Smiling at their paragon.

Foaming at the lips with slime,
   Each the hated foe assails
   (Battles between rival snails
Occupy no end of time);
Butting hard but butting slow,
These went on two weeks or so.

See him victor at the last;
   See the victim creep away,
   Tameless even in decay,
From the treacherous herd outcast,
Whilst the hero of our plot
Stands the head-snail of the lot.

Stands resplendent in his pride
   Waving to and fro his horns;
   Not a beetle but he scorns,
Not an earthworm far and wide
But he tosses from his path,
Bellowing in berserk wrath.

How he altered! Now he’s been
   Broken like the one before;
   All his face is smeared with gore;
Showing undisguised chagrin
He is crawling, as I said,
Through the vegetable bed.

Soon to meet the blackbird grim
   Perching on the fateful tree,
   While the last snail (Number Three),
Having now defeated him,
Lords it, till in turn he fails,  
And a fourth——
                       Oh! —— these snails!

Evoe [E.V. Knox], Parodies Regained (London: Methuen , 1921), pp.  95-98.

This edition contains some fun illustrations by George Morrow. Originally published for Punch magazine.

Scotland

 “Scotland,” said Cunningham, “is too cold, a country for locusts, and too poor a country for thieves.”

Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward (London: Thomas Nelson and sons, n.d.; 1823, p. 91.

Fragrant Flatsedge

Fragrant Flatsedge (Cyperus odoratus, 断节莎).

Growing in the mudflats of the Xiang river. This plant has a global distribution, though future research might reveal that there is more than species, collected together under this classification.

Benefits Falling to the Lot of the Emigrant Scholar

It is one of the benefits falling to the lot of the emigrant scholar that, however much his outward activity may be curtailed in the new country in comparison with his former situation, his inner activity is bound to be immensely enhanced and intensified: instead of writing as he pleases,  after the usual fashion of the German scholar in particular (who is so well satisfied to live in the paradise of his ideas, whether this be accessible to his fellow men or not), he must, while trying to preserve his own idea of scholarship, continually count with his new audience, bearing in mind not only the conventional requirements but also those innermost strivings of the nation (inasmuch as it is given him to feel them) which, opposed to his nature as they may have seemed to him in the beginning, tend imperceptibly to become a second nature in him-indeed, to make shine by contrast his first nature in the clearest light. And, by so doing, he comes to feel enriched and to find that he has attained peace and happiness.

Leo Spitzer, Linguistics and Literary History: Essays in Stylistics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1948), p. v.

Phtheirospermum Japonicum

Phtheirospermum japonicum (松蒿).

Another flower from Shibadong. The genus phtheirospermum is monotypic, and japonicum is misleading as it grows throughout the 'far east'.

Emancipating Translation

On Sir John Denham (1615-1669):

He appears to have been one of the first that understood the necessity of emancipating translation from the drudgery of counting lines, and interpreting single words. How much this servile practice obscured the clearest, and deformed the most beautiful parts of the ancient authors, may be discovered by a perusal of our earlier versions; some of them are the works of men well qualified, not only by critical knowledge, but by poetical genius, who yet, by a mistaken ambition of exactness, degraded, at once, their originals and themselves.

Samuel Johnson, Lives of the English Poets, 2 vols (London: Oxford University Press, 1959; 1779–81), I, p. 59.

Hubei Anemone

Hubei Anemone (Eriocapitella hupehensis, 打破碗花花).

Widely cultivated, but in some places still wild. Early November in Shibadong, these fragile flowers were abundant throughout the forests, clinging to rocky outcrops or wherever else they could find a little sun.

Uphill

Christina Rossetti
‘Uphill’

  Does the road wind uphill all the way?
   Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?
   From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place?
  A roof for when the slow, dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
  You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
  Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
  They will not keep you waiting at that door.
 
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
  Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
  Yea, beds for all who come.

Clematis Lasiandra

Clematis lasiandra (毛蕊铁线莲).

A very striking wild clematis, growing wild in Shibadong in early November. I only found it growing in one spot but there, there were dozens of small flowers.

White Mugwort

White Mugwort (Artemisia lactiflora, 白苞蒿).

Fairly uncommon on Yuelu Mountain (but abundant in other regions), one solitary plant was in bloom near a local stream.

A Diet of Coffee and Cigarettes

Claire Harman, Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography (London: Penguin Books, 2015; 1989), p. 55.

It also seemed to Bea that Sylvia lived off cups of black coffee and cigarettes, as indeed she did, bar a few winkles and the odd scrambled egg.

Strange Ugly Caterpillar

An usual fleshy-coloured larva: the species eludes me now but hopefully one day I will be able to identity this interesting insect.

Idleness

Bertrand Russell, ‘In Praise of Idleness’ In In Praise of Idleness: and Other Essays (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1935),  pp. 9-29 (p. 14):

Much that we take for granted about the desirability of work is derived from this system and, being pre-industrial, is not adapted to the modern world. Modern technic has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.

Aster Ageratoides

Aster ageratoides (三脉紫菀).

I took this picture in Shibadong, but this aster is very in the mountains during Autumn, both along the roads and trails and deeper with the forests.

Presbyopia and the Invention of Modern Handwriting

B.L. Ullman, Origin and Development of Humanistic Script (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1960), pp. 14-15:

Why so much attention to the complaints of two aging men of the fourteenth century? Because they explain what happened. It may at first sight seem strange that it was the clear script of the fourteenth-century humanists like Petrarch and Coluccio rather than the crabbed Gothic of France, Germany, and England that was the first to be reformed. It is not always the institution or individual most in need of reforming that actually gets reformed first. At any rate, it would seem that the difficulties of Coluccio in particular had something to do with the reform, as we shall see. Eyeglasses had been invented, it is true, but they were neither widely used nor very satisfactory. So we may say that presbyopia started the reform of handwriting. Thanks to the improvement of eyeglasses in modern times, we determine or need for them and their strength by the ability to read the telephone book. In 1400 it was easier to change handwriting than to change glasses.

Blushing Rosette

Blushing Rosette (Abortiporus biennis, 二年残孔菌).

This colourful fungus was hiding by a small stream on Yuelu Mountain. It has otherwise been a very dry season, and lacking in fungi.

What Ruskin Said

How true it was what Ruskin said, that evil communications corrupt good manners. But did Ruskin say it? On second thoughts she was not sure, but it was just the sort of thing he would have said if he had said it, and in any case it was true.

Elizabeth Arnim, The Enchanted April (London: Penguin Books, 2012; 1922), p. 162.

Chusan Palm

Chusan Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei, 棕榈).

A fan palm that has been cultivated for thousands of years. This one is growing high up on Yuelu Mountain, along with many other trees, some native, others also introduced over the course of human history.

An Egg-Shaped Poem

Pierio Valeriano (1477-1558)

      Danieli Barbaro.P.V. Ouum Dactylicum.
                           θεοκρατικῶς

                                  Sacrā
                                 Barbari
                              Thespiades
                           Cingite frontem
                          Floribus  omnibus
                        OEbaliis,      Paphiis,
                       Laurigerisque  coronis.
                   Nam ferit hic bene Barbyton
                  Suauisonis      modulaminibus:
                Egregius adeò  ,      vt data vobis
               Huic  rear  aurea plectra  sororibus:
                Aoniumve  dedit   puero   melos
                Et citharā bonus addit Apollo,
                  Indole   captus  ,  & ingenio,
                   Hunc hederis igitur sacris
                      Cingite protinus almæ
                           Pierides nouum
                                  Poëtam.

Pierio Valeriano, Hieroglyphica; [opuscula uaria] (Cologne: apud Ioannem Wilhemum Friessem, 1685), p. 123. My translation:

'To Daniel Barbaro, VenetianPatriarch: A Dactylic Egg (In a divine manner)'.

Thespiades, surround the barbarian’s sacred brow with all the flowers of Oebalia, Paphos and laurel-bearing crowns. For he strikes the barbiton well with sweet-sounding melodies. So eloquent, that I think golden picks were given to you by the sister Muses: Or good Apollo imparts Aeonian melodies and a lyre. Captive to genius and wit, surround this new poet, o nourishing Pierdes, with sacred ivy.

Ourapteryx Yerburii

Ourapteryx yerburii (淡黄双斑尾尺蛾).

A medium-sized geometer moth. There were many of them out during our nocturnal searches on Hengshan last October 28th.

Unpunctuality

Leszek Kolakowski, 'In Praise of Unpunctuality' in Is God Happy?: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 2013), pp. 219-223 (p .219):

Unpunctuality is the ingrained habit of regularly failing to fulfil people’s expectations regarding the specific time at which certain of our actions will take place, these expectations being the result of assurances on our part, tacit or explicit, regarding that specific time.

Touch-me-not Balsam

Touch-me-not Balsam (Impatiens noli-tangere, 水金凤).

A flower that can be found throughout the Northern hemisphere, its flowers are very common on Hengshan in late October. The fruit of this balsam explore when ripe, thereby scattering seeds over a distance.

Biography

Biography is the White Man's Graveyard for a working writer. The work expands to fill as much time and energy as one will give it.

Michael Swanwick, Hope-in-the-mist: the Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees (Upper Montclair, NJ: Temporary Culture, 2009), p. 52.

Geisha Distinctissima

Geisha distinctissima (碧蛾蜡蝉).

Another nocturnal insect from Hengshan. This one a handsome flatid planthopper, resting on the lichen-covered bark of a tree.

Grammatical Training

Ohne sichere grammatische Schulung und weitausgreifende Lektüre ist nichts zu erreichen . Germanistik , Romanistik , Anglistik entbehren alter Tradition . Sie fallen darum den Moden und Irrungen des « Zeitgeistes » leicht zum Opfer.

Without solid grammatical training and extensive reading, nothing can be achieved. German studies, Romance studies, English studies lack ancient tradition. They therefore easily fall victim to the fashions and aberrations of the ’spirit of the times'.

E.R. Curtius, Europäische Literatur Und Lateinisches Mittelalter (Bern: A. Francke AG, 1948), p. 386. My translation.

Auzata Semipavonaria

Auzata semipavonaria (半豆斑钩蛾).

A rare moth, discovered during a night-time search for nocturnal insects at Hengshan. We mostly encountered common species, so this was a highlight of the evening.

The Norman Conquest

Kyril Bonfiglioli, The Mortdecai Trilogy (London: Black Spring Press, 1979), p. 79:

‘England isn’t like the Continent, you see, nor even like Scotland in this respect. The seize quartiers “noble in all his branches” thing is something we don’t like to talk about and there aren’t half a dozen families with straight descent from a knight of the Conquest, I should think – and they aren’t titled. Anyway,’ I rambled on, ‘no one in his senses would want to be descended from one of that lot: the Conquest was something between a joint-stock company and a Yukon gold-rush; William the Conk himself was a sort of primitive Cecil Roberts and his followers were bums, chancers, queers and comic singers.’

Metagentiana Rhodantha

Metagentiana rhodantha (红花龙胆).

Spotted by the roadside in Shibadong Village, west Hunan on November 3. It was clearly some species of gentian though it took me some research to narrow it down to the species.

Churchill's Wiriting Process

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), p. 429:

The charge in its most literal sense is irrefutable. From at least this stage onwards Churchill never wrote out a book de novo. He depended on having his factual material not merely checked after he had written it, but as carefully prepared for him in advance as was the laying out of the instruments for a famous surgeon. When he transformed the basic material, by adding insights, comparisons, metaphors and flights of oratorical fancy, he mostly did so by dictation, normally the enemy of succinctness, and not by pen. Sometimes, as with many articles and with My Early Life, he would dictate the whole draft out of his head, and then very carefully correct it. He also acquired the odd habit of being unable to envisage the shape of a book without having it set up in printed proof at an early stage, and then hacking it about in a way that a modern publisher would regard as intolerably inflating his printing budget. Thus when, in February 1930, he was proposing to add about 40,000 new words to the 50,000 or more of My Early Life which he had already written (the number of literary balls he had in the air at that stage is staggering), he insisted that, at his own expense if necessary, the already written text must be set up in print – ‘until I see the existing material in type I cannot make progress’.13 Associated with this was his increasing desire to work standing up, for which purpose he acquired a sloping desk of appropriate height at the side of his Chartwell study. He needed the feel and look of printed proofs for his literary teeth, but he rarely worked at them seated at a writing table. It was nearly all done either upright or in bed.

Mountain Retreat

ἐντὶ δάφναι τηνεί, ἐντὶ ῥαδιναὶ κυπάρισσοι,
ἔστι μέλας κισσός, ἔστ᾽ ἄμπελος ἁ γλυκύκαρπος,
ἔστι ψυχρὸν ὕδωρ, τό μοι ἁ πολυδένδρεος Αἴτνα
λευκᾶς ἐκ χιόνος ποτὸν ἀμβρόσιον προΐητι.
τίς κα τῶνδε θάλασσαν ἔχειν καὶ κύμαθ᾽ ἕλοιτο;

There are laurel trees, and slender cypresses,
there is dark ivy, and the sweet-fruited vine,
there is cool water, which tree-abounding Aetna
sends forth as an ambrosial draught from her snowy heights.
Who would choose the sea and its waves over these?

Theocritus, Idyl. XI.45-49. My translation.

Zhurong Peak

Zhurong Peak, the highest point on Hengshan, one of the Five Great Mountains of China. Many pilgrims carry incense to be burned in the adjacent fire god temple. We walked up in the Autumn sun, and travelled down enveloped in heavy mists.

Reading, Rambling and Education

    In intellectual matters things were no better with me. I have before me a small paper book containing a ‘Diary’ for parts of the years 1830, 1831, 1832. Its childishness is astonishing. I had read much more than most boys of my age, but I did not seem to understand anything. This was the want of companionship; I had no one except the sons of the village cottagers to play with. We had a man-servant indoors, and a farming- man out of doors; I was much with them, and learnt much from them; but there was nothing to replace the collision of wit with wit, which takes place between boys. One of these men was a dalesman, native of Hawes, and from him I had stories of the old wild life of the dales, mixed largely with the supernatural, which germinated afterwards into a strong turn for county history, and walks of exploration. I read enormously. Constable’s Miscellany, Murray’s Family Library, the publications of the Useful Knowledge Society, were coming out at that time; we took them all, and I read them. I read ten times as much as I remembered; what is more odd, I read far more than I ever took in the sense of as I read it. I think the mechanical act of perusal must have given me a sort of pleasure. Books, as books, irrespective of their contents, were my delight. The arrival of a new book in the house was the event of the week. I took in the Magazine of Natural History; the anticipation of the first of the month, and the reception of the parcel from the Richmond bookseller, were an excitement that I can remember to this day. I walked up and down in the lane waiting for the butcher's cart, which acted as carrier for the village, to come, snatched up Bell’s parcel, and rushed in with it. I was already marked out for the life of a student, yet little that was in the books I read seemed to find its way into my mind. There was no mind there! My outdoor life, long solitary days’ fishing, and long rides across country – in 1831 I had a pony and went hunting – rambles over the moor, were doing more for my education than my incessant reading.

Mark Pattison, Memoirs of an Oxford Don (London: Cassell, 1988; 1885), pp. 32-33.

Saffron Milkcap

Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus, 松乳菇).

I was at a conference at Shibadong Village in West Hunan, which has been vaunted as exemplary model in China's poverty reduction campaign over the past ten years. I had a chance to explore a little, and met an elderly Miao man on the roadside who was selling these mushrooms that he had picked on the mountain earlier that morning. They are very popular in rural Hunan, and usually cooked with pork.

All of Greece

Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (New York: The New York Review of Books, 2006; 1958), p. 10:

All of Greece is absorbing and rewarding. There is hardly a rock or a stream without a battle or a myth, a miracle or a peasant anecdote or a superstition; and talk and incident, nearly all of it odd or memorable, thicken round the traveller’s path at every step.

A Magpie Moth From Hengshan

Magpie Moth (Complex Abraxas Amicula-illuminata, 金星尺蛾属).

Still one of the most fascinating local moths. This individual was a lighter grey and a different pattern than I have seen before.

Science Fiction Writers

  Not for the first time in my writing career, however, I found myself losing interest in something just as I gained access to its inner circle. Fortunately, the London science-fiction community had no shortage of burned-out cases and perennially promising talents, and since I was as keen a collector of science-fiction first editions as ever, the writers and fans accepted me amiably enough, though my tendency, noted by Kingsley Amis, to linger all night over half of a lager meant I was always looked on a little askance.
   This cut both ways, since science-fiction and fantasy writers don’t make the best company. Those who aren’t scholarly and dull are usually in some way psychologically maimed. ‘All the great fantasies, I suppose, have been written by emotionally crippled men,’ wrote Damon Knight, the doyen of science-fiction critics. ‘[Robert E.] Howard [author of the stories about Conan the Cimmerian] was a recluse and a man so morbidly attached to his mother that when she died he committed suicide. [H.P.] Lovecraft had enough phobias and eccentricities for nine: [A.B.] Merritt was chinless, bald and shaped like a shmoo. The trouble with Conan is that the human race never produced and never could produce such a man, and sane writers know it; therefore the sick writers have a monopoly of him.’
   None of the writers I met qualified for the description ‘sick’, but, for many, a career on the margins of literature had taken its toll. In his long career, Harry Harrison, for instance, had dabbled in just about every form of fiction from comic-book dialogue balloons to a ‘Saint’ novel ghosted for Leslie Charteris. The result was evident in his books. His novel The Stainless Steel Rat and its sequels squirmed with his cynicism, as did his Deathworld trilogy. ‘Slippery’ Jim diGriz of The Stainless Steel Rat is a cosmic con man whose larcenous skills are co-oped to help govern the galaxy, while, in the Deathworld books, colonists land on a planet where every plant and animal is bent on their destruction. Only in the third book do they discover that both flora and fauna can sense the emotions of the invaders; registering Man’s innate hostility, they return it with interest. The message of both series is clear: everyone in authority is a crook, and everything is out to get you.

John Baxter, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005), pp. 210-211.

Ginkgo

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, 银杏).

I love ginko, a unique and ancient tree. They have been around for hundreds of millions of years and I hope they are around for hundreds of millions more.