Just came back from a talk organised by the Star. Datuk Ong Ka Ting was there... posting tough questions.
"Let Confucius Speak: What is it that we call Confucianism?" by Dr Lo, of National Uni of Spore. A humorous speaker, can stand his ground in Q&A, a scholar in command of his subject is a marvellous sight to behold.
He challenged us to read the Analects in the original Chinese.
Comments and questions from the floor are most interesting.
An Uncle spoke of his aversion to ABC (American born Chinese), about his discovery of Chinese philosophy in the classics and how that has changed his whole life, and gave insights into how he thinks and interacts... He was into self-help books last time, now they are like superficial primary school stuffs compared to the ancient masters.
The speaker commented aptly, "So now you are a born-again Chinese! (BAC)" to the applause of the crowd.
The Prof. addressed some issues about the 'internal evidence' of the Analects, how certain disciples of Confucius took notes and compiled them, abt the essence of ancestor worship (remembering our connection with them) and perform some obligatory apologetics on some hard sayings that seem to belittle women - reminds me very much of a New Testament scholar in action!
Anyway the forum reminded me how much of a banana (yellow outside, white inside) I could be sometimes... and how much work I need to do before I can be more 'mango' (yellow inside and outside)
So I have tentatively purposed in my heart not to learn koine Greek or Hebrew before I master my Mandarin and some written Chinese... It'd open up a whole universe of avenue for ministry and career development heheh!
"Let Confucius Speak: What is it that we call Confucianism?" by Dr Lo, of National Uni of Spore. A humorous speaker, can stand his ground in Q&A, a scholar in command of his subject is a marvellous sight to behold.
He challenged us to read the Analects in the original Chinese.
Comments and questions from the floor are most interesting.
An Uncle spoke of his aversion to ABC (American born Chinese), about his discovery of Chinese philosophy in the classics and how that has changed his whole life, and gave insights into how he thinks and interacts... He was into self-help books last time, now they are like superficial primary school stuffs compared to the ancient masters.
The speaker commented aptly, "So now you are a born-again Chinese! (BAC)" to the applause of the crowd.
The Prof. addressed some issues about the 'internal evidence' of the Analects, how certain disciples of Confucius took notes and compiled them, abt the essence of ancestor worship (remembering our connection with them) and perform some obligatory apologetics on some hard sayings that seem to belittle women - reminds me very much of a New Testament scholar in action!
Anyway the forum reminded me how much of a banana (yellow outside, white inside) I could be sometimes... and how much work I need to do before I can be more 'mango' (yellow inside and outside)
So I have tentatively purposed in my heart not to learn koine Greek or Hebrew before I master my Mandarin and some written Chinese... It'd open up a whole universe of avenue for ministry and career development heheh!
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