Weekly Record Highlights:
- Sites of research: CHATSWORTH HOUSE
- Eastern Philosophy—— Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly
- Mu Xi– MYNA BIRD
Sites of research: CHATSWORTH HOUSE
The CHATSWORTH HOUSE was the setting for the film Pride and Prejudice, and I came here to try to get a sense of what Elizabeth saw and felt at Darcy’ Manor, combining literary content with artistic imagery. It is a way to understand the emotions of women in literature and to feel the outward manifestation of the writer Jane Austen’s thoughts.
I revisited Pride and Prejudice and the film Becoming Jane Austen and was surprised to find the very similarity of the heroine’s temperament and some of the plot points. Perhaps literature is a visual depiction of the pains, regrets or yearnings in every writer’s mind, or perhaps Jane is simply fulfilling the secular notion of a woman’s supposedly complete happy ending in literature, while living a unique and independent attitude in the real world .
After all, not every Elizabeth will meet Mr Darcy in her life.
Eastern Philosophy—— Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly
My relationship with butterflies was fulfilled in Zhuangzi, thousands of years ago. How is the relationship between the so-called “I” and the external bearer defined?
Art work By Xie Zhiliu-“Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly”Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the “Transformation of Things”.
Mu Xi– MYNA BIRD
I was reminded of the painting of the Southern Song monk Mu Xi, who was described by later generations as a man who was saddened for a thousand years and who, after being convicted for his words, went into hiding, practised meditation and recited Buddhism, and eventually became a monk of his generation. The black bird in the painting does not resemble a flock of magpies, but rather a solitary one, with a kind of transcendent isolation that corresponds to wabi refer’s a way of life, a spiritual path (Koren, 2008)