15.1.08

Another Spoon-feeding Story

It seems like our Internal Security Ministry is spoon-feeding our mainstream media.

According to Merdeka Review’s exclusive report today, the ministry has recently sent a letter dated 11th Jan to mainstream media, instructing them not to quote contents of “uncyclopedia” as it wrongly describes Malaysia, while making fun of and humiliating the country.

The letter was signed by Che Din bin Yusoh on behalf of Ketua Setiausaha of the ministry Andul Aziz Mohd Yusof. The letter (which in my opinion serves as a spoon) says, Uncyclopedia contains offensive information, stirred with seditious, incorrect and false information. For instances, history of Malaysia, cultures, name, flag, national leaders etc of Malaysia.

This is really funny. Anyone surfs Uncyclopedia would know its descriptions about Malaysia is meant to make fun of Malaysia (sadly the jokes are based on certain ugly facts which are not officially recognized). I thought not a single person in this world would take it seriously until I read this news. This is really unbelievable, really really unbelievable, until Merdeka Review mistook Uncyclopedia/wiki as Wikipedia earlier today.

No, I do not think Internal Security Ministry is that stupid to pass such a stupid instruction. There must be an interesting reason behind…. Mm… tell me, is it a creative way of humiliating people working in mainstream media?

9.1.08

Chuang Tzu's notion of God

Taoists accepted the naturalistic conception of the universe, but in their system, by a peculiar combination, there is still place for God, immortality, and freedom; man is still one with the universe, if only he can “see things under the form of eternity”

(1975: 5). Yu-Lan Fung. 1975. Chuang Tzu: A new selected translation with an exposition of the philosophy of Kuo Hsiang. New York: Gordon Press

—————————————————————————————

The term “God” or “Heaven” is commonly found in Chuang Tzu’s works. However I think his notion of God is different with religious God as in Christianity, Islam and other religions, which generally means the Creator. “God” termed by Chuang Tzu is not explicit in meaning. However it bears the meaning of the unseen force that governs the nature by a set of eternal and absolute law. The following passages found in Chuang Tzu’s works hint us on this:

The Tao of God operates ceaselessly; and all things are produced… (126: 157)

…your life is not your own. It is the delegated harmony of God; your individuality is not your individuality is not your own, It is the delegated adaptability of God; your posterity is not your own. It is the delegated exuviae of God; you move, but know not how. You are at rest, but know not how. You are at rest, but know not why. You taste, but know not the cause. These are the operation of God’s laws. How then should you get Tao as to have it for your own? (1926: 282)

…what is it to be embraced in the obliterating unity of God? It is this. With reference to positive and negative, to that which is so and that which is not so, ---- if the positive is really positive, it must necessarily be different from its negative: there is no room for argument. And if that which is so really is so, it must necessarily be different from that which is not so: there is no room for argument. (1926: 31)

However God in Chuang Tzu’s sense is not the Creator of the universe that created all the beings, nor image of the Creator who passes divine passages he wants to produce. For Chuang Tzu, beings spontaneously produce themselves and natural means everything spontaneously becomes what it is. As Chuang Tzu’s great commentator Kuo Tsiang puts it, “everything is as it is by nature, not made to be so. Therefore, when Chuang Tzu spoke of heaven (t’ien,天, also translated as God by other translators,like Giles from Cambridge University), he meant the natural, not the blue sky… T’ien is the general name of all things. There is nothing that can be specifically called t’ien. Who can be the Lord that commands things? Everything produces itself and it not created by others. This is the way of nature.” (1975: 45)

Chuang Tzu’s notion of God is not religious nor it sacred. Perhaps this is the reason why Chinese prominent philosopher Yu-lan Fung tends not to translate the Chinese term “天” as God but heaven and nature (1975: 44). Meanwhile another translator Burton Watson translates the character as “heaven” or “heavenly” in most cases (1968: 25). Chuang Tzu’s notion of God or heaven is definitely very different with Francis Bacon’s notion of God. Bacon was a Christian who believed in Christian God. For Bacon, God is the Creator of the universe who set the law of na 天, pronounced as “tian” (t’ien)in Chinese. 天道is translated as “the Tao of God” by Herbert A. Giles in Chuang Tzu: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer (1926: 157). However the word 天is also translated as heaven and nature, see 1975: 44.