China Zoomers Zizzing (aka “lying flat”, 躺平, Tang Ping)

China’s Gen Z, aka Zoomers, born 1995-2010
Shanghai, Bund, looking at Pudong

“Lie flat”. 躺平. 

A growing number of China’s Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2010, are embracing a “laying flat” attitude about work and life as they throw in the towel in the face of tough competition and opt for a simple, frugal and lonely life. Article

The Zoomers version of Wu Wei, the venerable Taoist philosophy of “do nothing”. But in a productive way, Wu Wei, that is. I wrote something about this in re Zhuangzi.

Can’t help thinking it’s the kids of one-child families, since the One Child policy of 1980 raised millions of “princelings”.  Can the poor afford to “Lie Flat”? That’s what my mates in China tell me, anyway. Such as they know. They’re Boomers, ok? 

Also can’t help thinking that these Zoomers rather like some of the Zoomers elsewhere, eg, esp, the US. Deciding not to compete. To chill. To chillax. We used to call it “dropping out”, man. Is it so different?

By the way, the Chinese of “lie flat”, not in the article, is 躺平, or Tang Ping. And the English should be “lie” not “lay” as they have in the article. Lay is transitive. You lay a table. You lie down. 

Zhuangzi the Butterfly

My calligraphy practice, from Zhuangzi

This is the famous -- some say "annoying" -- meditation by Zhuangzi. He dreamt he was a butterfly. And then woke up. Didn't know if he was a man who had just dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming he was a man. 

I guess we could see it as kinda deep in that stoner, sixties, weed-soaked kind of way, like "deeep man".....

Then again, we could all be part of a simulation. And that's somewhere in mainstream science, these days. So Zhuanzi was, again, in front of the curve, 2,400 years ago.

Zhuangzi— “Do Nothing”

Zhuangzi “The normal course for Rulers 
And kings”. Article 11

My favourite philosophy from the Taoist school — “Wu Wei”, or do nothing. How many times have I solved a problem by doing nothing? How many political situations would have been better if politicians had done nothing?

Top to bottom right to left, in mandarin pinyin:

Wu wei ming hu; Wu wei mou fu 

Wu wei shi ren; Wu wei zhi ren

English:

Non-action makes you famous; non-action gives you a Full House of plans 

Non-action fits you for office;  non-action gives you wisdom

Zhuangzi on Confirmation Bias

My brush pen arrived. Above is my first go, writing out this bit of Zhuangzi.

From Zhuangzi "Metaphorical Language", Article 1. 

Men assent to views which agree with their own, and oppose those which do not so agree. Those which agree with their own they hold to be right, and those which do not so agree they hold to be wrong.

Surely the very definition of Confirmation Bias. From 1800 years ago...

How to read the above in modern Mandarin, top to bottom, right to left:

Yǔ jǐ tóng zé yīng, 

Bù yǔ jǐ tóng zé fǎn, 

Tóng yú jǐ wéi shì zhī, 

Yì yú jǐ wéi fēi zhī

[ADMISSION: the bottom right character (Ying) is incorrectly written. But you only get one go]

ADDED; I'm trying to write in what Chinese call "Cao Shu", which is more free-form than simple cursive, or Xing Shu.  Up until this very minute I'd always thought Cao Shu meant "grass script" on the basis that the character Cao (草) means "grass", and I'd taken it to mean that the writing is way more cursive than normal and is kind of like grass. But I read in wiktionary that it's a calque, meaning "careless, sloppy or hasty". Still, it might be pretty much the same. I'll continue to call it "grass script". (In fact, it opens it up to me: I can just call it my careless, sloppy or hasty go at it....)

I've just got a new Dictionary of Cao Shu, from the Jiangxi Art Publishing House. It's great. Multiple examples of famous calligraphers' Grass Script over the millenia. When there's a choice, I prefer that of the Jin Dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi. That's what I try above. 

Zhuangzi on Twitter

Starts with CD pen medium, runs out of ink, turns
to fine. Waiting for brush pens

凡事亦然。始乎諒，常卒乎鄙；其作始也簡，其將畢也必巨。夫言者，風波也；行者，實喪也

From Article 3 of "Man in the World, Associated with other men"

Pinyin. In my writing above, top to bottom right to left.

Fánshì yì rán. Shǐ hū liàng, cháng zú hū bǐ; 

qí zuò shǐ yě jiǎn, qí jiāng bì yě bì jù. 

Fū yán zhě, fēngbō yě; 

xíngzhě, shí sàng yě

Legge translation: In all things it is so. People are at first sincere, but always end with becoming rude; at the commencement things are treated as trivial, but as the end draws near, they assume great proportions. Words are (like) the waves acted on by the wind; the real point of the matters (discussed by them) is lost. The wind and waves are easily set in motion; the success of the matter of which the real point is lost is easily put in peril. Hence quarrels are occasioned by nothing so much as by artful words and one-sided speeches. The breath comes angrily, as when a beast, driven to death, wildly bellows forth its rage.

My Twitter-morphic translation: Everything turns to shit. 

Isn't Zhuangzi's observation just like things so often go on Twitter? What starts off as a simple discussion, very quickly devolves into name calling and nastyness. "Quarrels are occasioned". 

Zhuangzi on Capitalism vs Socialism

 

Writing is mine, with a CD marker; I'm going to improve, promise....

[I started looking at Zhuangzi here. A lot of what this Taoist says resonates today]

From Zhuangzi 365 BC - 286 BC. “Nourishing the Lord of Life” article 4. 

Mandarin pinyin, top to bottom right to left: 

Zé zhì shíbù yī zhuó, bǎibù yī yǐn

Bù qí chù hū fán zhōng

Shén suī wáng... bùshàn Yě

My translation: 

"Pheasants scrabble to find their own food and water. They’d be better off in a coop. But they prefer the freedom."

[Or check out Legge's translation Article 4]

Is it too much of a stretch to see the connection between Zhuangzi's ruminations on pheasants (a bit of inter-species mind reading?) and free markets vs socialism? People looking out for themselves, vs being fed and clothed by the state....

Zhuangzi on Woke-ism

I'm reading Zhuangzi. In the original, as in the original classical Chinese (humblebrag...). Classical Chinese which I have enjoyed studying since I first did in 1976, during studies of modern Mandarin. I love the compression of classical Chinese, the elegance. 

The translation is by James Legge (1815-1897). Not a great translation, according to me. But I'm not about to try my own... Also not a great edition, by Dragon Reader, a paperback which tends to fall apart, but it'll do. The Classical Chinese is followed by Legge's translation. 

Reading through, rather selectively -- because a lot of of Zhuangzi is tosh -- I found some bits of it that seemed to reflect the woke vs non-woke battles we have today. Zhuangzi lived in the Warring States period 475 BC to 9 AD (Western Han), so roughly 2,500 years ago. Plus ça change!

Example: From Tian Xia, (The World) Article 7.1. Talking of the then famous debater Hui Shi (惠施). This is Zhuangzi hammering Hu Shi; hammering what we would call today the SJW, the woke brigade, the "woke-erati"... This online version is also Legge's translation. Colours relate to the Chinese below.

Hui Shi had many ingenious notions. His writings would fill five carriages; but his doctrines were erroneous and contradictory, and his words were wide of their mark. Taking up one thing after another, he would say:

• 'That which is so great that there is nothing outside it may be called the Great One; and that which is so small that there is nothing inside it maybe called the Small One.'
• 'What has no thickness and will not admit of being repeated is 1000 li [miles] in size.' 'Heaven may be as low as the earth.' 'A mountain may be as level as a marsh.'
• ' The sun in the meridian may be the sun declining.' 'A creature may be born to life and may die at the same time.'

Hui Shi sounds rather like today's SJWs who claim that everything is relative, that there is no real Truth, that, indeed,  2 + 2 can equal 5? If he were on Twitter today, Zhuangzi would say: "Hu Shi: that guy's a woke dick"....

Bits I like, in the original, the classical Chinese, colours relating to the above: 

惠施多方，其書五車. Reads, in modern Mandarin: Huì shī duōfāng, Qí shū wǔ chē. Literal translation: Hui Shi Many Sides; His Books Five Carts. Less literally: "Hui Shi is all over the place, and churns out  enough to sink a ship"...

山與澤平: Reads:  Shān yǔ zé píng. Literal: Mountain and Marsh Level. Less literally: "There's really no difference between a mountain and a marsh; between the high and the low". This is part of a string of moral relativist nonsense Zhuangzi quotes in disparaging Hui Shi. "Po-mo bullshit" we'd say today, "we" anti-woke crowd.

Despite this nonsense from Hui Shi, Zhuangzi notes that he was very popular. Again, rather like today, SJW charlatans' popularity. In the very next verse, we learn:

Hui Shi by such sayings as these made himself very conspicuous [famous] throughout the kingdom, and was considered an able debater... And his acolytes went further with the woke-ness, all of 2,500 years ago: They vie to outdo one another in what today we'd call moral relativity.  Eg:  'There are feathers in an egg.' 'A fowl has three feet.' 'The kingdom belongs to Ying.' 'A dog might have been (called) a sheep.' 'A horse has eggs.' 'A tadpole has a tail.' 'Fire is not hot.' 'A mountain gives forth a voice.' 'A wheel does not tread on the ground.' 'The eye does not see.' 'The finger indicates, but needs not touch, (the object).' 'Where you come to may not be the end.' 'The tortoise is longer than the snake.' 'The carpenter's square is not square'... One I like: 犬可以為羊. Read as: Quǎn kěyǐ wéi yáng. Literal translation: Dog can be like sheep. Less literally: "Don't dogs -- especially creamy-coloured ones, ivory coloured ones --  sometimes look like sheep, especially when they've just had a bath? And even if they deny it vehemently?". That's our Basil:

When he's just been washed he's got fur like a sheep. He denies it. We love him still.