Book of the Month November 2012: 莫言's 生死疲劳

[EmilB]

Great work with the vocabulary list, thanks!

[c_redman]

Ok, I have read the parts I was missing

In chapter 2, there was a story where the local fengshui master Ma Zhibo warned Ximen Nao that if he broke the earth while the mother was "laying-in" (i.e., the first month of birth), Tai Sui 太岁 would disapprove. Ximen Nao then found a strange "meat jelly-like" kind of substance, and asked if it was the Tai Sui. Then came the a very odd quote from Mo Yan's fictional book "Tai Sui", which describes cooking and eating a "Tai Sui", becoming very healthy afterward.

From what I found on the internet, 太岁 means a few different things. Originally, it meant the planet Jupiter, and later it morphed into a star god, or in feng shui or Taoism a divine being who needed placating. However, if you search for images of 太岁, almost all the pictures of large, fleshy blobs. These are a kind of lingzhi/ling chih (灵芝) mushroom (yes, the same 芝 as in 芝麻 sesame), favored for its potency in Chinese medicine. The "taisui" mushroom is particularly rare.

You may remember recently a popular news story of a local TV reporter covering the discovery of such a rare taisui mushroom in a village near Xi'an. In fact, she, and the villagers, were horribly wrong.

[heifeng]

FYI, this novel is also on just regular old amazon: http://www.amazon.co...=I36OCCQOM0Y96L

I might join in....I had this one on my 'wish list' for a while but wanted to finish a different novel first, but maybe I'll switch it up though and try in participate in this one!

[c_redman]

Chapter 5

俺 an3 /I (northern dialects)/

梆 bang1 /watchman's rattle/

投胎 tou2 tai1 /to re-enter the womb (of departed spirit)/reincarnation/

劁 qiao1 /to neuter livestock/

釉 you4 /glaze (of porcelain)/

左轮手枪 zuo3 lun2 shou3 qiang1 /revolver/

瞄 miao2 /to aim/

只怕 zhi3 pa4 /I'm afraid that.../perhaps/maybe/very likely/

一概 yi1 gai4 /all/without any exceptions/categorically/

鞭子 bian1 zi5 /whip/CL:根[gen1]/

抽打 chou1 da3 /to whip/to flog/to thrash/

枪托 qiang1 tuo1 /butt of a gun/stock/

扳机 ban1 ji1 /trigger/

烈士 lie4 shi4 /martyr/

洞察 dong4 cha2 /to see clearly/

氤氲 yin1 yun1 /dense (of smoke, mist)/

闲事 xian2 shi4 /other people's business/

下酒 xia4 jiu3 /to be appropriate to have with alcohol/to down one's drink/

昂然 ang2 ran2 /upright and unafraid/

殃及 yang1 ji2 /to bring disaster to/

八仙桌 ba1 xian1 zhuo1 /old fashioned square table to seat eight people/

骚货 sao1 huo4 /a loose woman/a slut/

尥 liao4 /to give a backward kick (e.g. of a horse)/

横心 heng2 xin1 /determined (to do sth)/bent on/

辔头 pei4 tou2 /bridle/

憋 bie1 /to choke/to stifle/to restrain/to hold back/to hold in (urine)/to hold (one's breath)/

撅 jue1 /to protrude/to stick out/to pout (also written 噘)/to embarrass (people); to break off/to snap/

犟劲 jiang4 jin4 /obstinacy/tenacity/

毛骨悚然 mao2 gu3 song3 ran2 /absolutely horrified (idiom)/

一口咬定 yi1 kou3 yao3 ding4 /to arbitrarily assert/to allege/to stick to one's statement/to cling to one's view/

蓬头垢面 peng2 tou2 gou4 mian4 /messy hair and dirty face/bad appearance/

千载难逢 qian1 zai3 nan2 feng2 /lit. hard to meet in a thousand years (idiom); extremely rare opportunity/once in a blue moon/

稍纵即逝 shao1 zong4 ji2 shi4 /transient/fleeting/

传宗接代 chuan2 zong1 jie1 dai4 /to carry on one's ancestral line/

入不敷出 ru4 bu4 fu1 chu1 /income does not cover expenditure/unable to make ends meet/

文房四宝 wen2 fang2 si4 bao3 /Four Treasures of the Study, namely 筆|笔[bi3], 墨[mo4], 紙|纸[zhi3] and 硯|砚[yan4]/the essentials of calligraphy and scholarship (idiom)/

不共戴天 bu4 gong4 dai4 tian1 /(of enemies) cannot live under the same sky/absolutely irreconcilable/

* 苏秦背剑 Su1 Qin2 bei4 jian4 /a style of restraint in which the hands are tied behind the back, with one arm from above and one from below/

* 寄生瘤 ji4 sheng1 liu2 /parasitic tumor/

* 太师椅 tai4 shi1 yi3 /a kind of stately wooden armchair/

Regarding 苏秦背剑 (Su Qin bears the sword), it's alleged to derive from a famous stategist of the Warring States period, who carried a double-edged sword on his back, and unsheathed it by holding the scabbard with the left hand and pulling it out with the other. It's some kind of taijiquan or martial arts move as well as a method of prisoner restraint, using either handcuffs or rope. The arm positions are in contrast with the more common 五花绑, in which the arms are still behind the back but both below the shoulder. The 苏秦背剑 restraint is obviously meant to be uncomfortable as well as restraining.

[gougou]

Didn't get much reading done last week, but finished chapters 5 and 6 now.

In chapter 5 we have an attempt at public sex, which finally comes to fruition in chapter 6 (not without killing a few wolves in the process). Oh yeah, mind you, we're still talking about donkeys here.

So far, I'm thinking that the reincarnations are quite an apt metaphor for the upheavals the Chinese people's lives went through after the second world war, but I agree with rob07 that the donkey part gets a bit long (and I'm not even through with it). There's only so much you can write from the perspective of an animal without starting to resemble a children's book, I suppose.

[rob07]

I finished this weekend. Actually, most of the time I was reading it, I was comparing it unfavourably to Mo Yan's other book 酒国 (which I described on the other Mo Yan thread linked to in gougou's first post). As noted above, right at the start there is probably too much entirely from the perspective of an animal (with an oversized ego, strike 2).

However, I found the ending very satisfying. I think that I may have been underrating it all along due to some issues with the beginning and it is one of those books that gets better on reflection. Not sure if it is obvious to those reading online, but the first page of the book says only "佛说：生死疲劳，从贪欲起，少欲无为，身心自在。“. I've never really thought about Buddhism, but I suppose that if one did cycle through several reincarnations as an animal, one should eventually gain a sense of perspective that could be described as enlightenment. It is interesting to see it novelised. It is also interesting to see a man's mind in an animals body, particularly as the closer he gets to 身心自在 he seems more and more animal and less and less human.

The book also gives a good sense of history in the Chinese countryside from 1950 to 2005 and as such has the feel of a real epic. I enjoyed it.

[c_redman]

I'm in chapter 10, so close to the end of the donkey life. I bought the English translation, in case I get completely lost. I only glanced at it so far, but my impression was that it's a rather literal translation. The part about the Tai Sui god and the taisui mushroom was just translated as "Wandering God", with no additional text explaining why the Wandering God would be a mushroom.

Here is vocabulary for chapters 6 and 7.

缱绻 qian3 quan3 /in love and inseparable/

壕沟 hao2 gou1 /trench/moat/

嘚 de1 /onomat. for the sound of horsehoofs/

芦苇 lu2 wei3 /reed/

碧绿 bi4 lu:4 /dark green/

蜿蜒 wan1 yan2 /to wriggle/snaking/winding/to zigzag/to meander/

柳 Liu3; liu3 /surname Liu; willow/

簇 cu4 /crowded/framework for silkworms/gather foliage/bunch/classifier for bunched objects/

嘶鸣 si1 ming2 /to whinny (of a horse)/to neigh/

交配 jiao1 pei4 /mating/copulation (esp. of animals)/

窒息 zhi4 xi1 /to choke/to stifle/to suffocate/

瘫 tan1 /paralyzed/

绳套 sheng2 tao4 /noose/harness/

埋伏 mai2 fu2 /to ambush/to lie in wait for/to lie low/ambush/

烘 hong1 /to bake/to heat by fire/to set off by contrast/

瞅 chou3 /(dialect) to look at/

枪筒 qiang1 tong3 /gun cylinder/external barrel of a gun/

瞄准 miao2 zhun3 /to aim (a weapon at a target)/fig. to aim (for a higher standard)/

龇 zi1 /projecting teeth/to bare one's teeth/

报应 bao4 ying4 /retribution/judgment/

佳偶 jia1 ou3 /happily married couple/

肋骨 lei4 gu3 /rib/

余光 yu2 guang1 /out of the corner of one's eyes/

狼狈 lang2 bei4 /in a difficult situation/to cut a sorry figure/scoundrel! (derogatory)/

熄灭 xi1 mie4 /to stop burning/to go out (of fire)/to die out/extinguished/

童贞 tong2 zhen1 /virginity/chastity/

殉情 xun4 qing2 /to die together in the name of love/to sacrifice oneself for love/

梳理 shu1 li3 /to comb/fig. to sort out/

鬃毛 zong1 mao2 /mane/

谷草 gu3 cao3 /straw/

巡逻 xun2 luo2 /to patrol (police, army or navy)/

铁匠 tie3 jiang5 /blacksmith/ironworker/

绊 ban4 /to trip/to stumble/to hinder/

弹药 dan4 yao4 /ammunition/

噩梦 e4 meng4 /nightmare/

板牙 ban3 ya2 /incisor/molar/screw die/threading die/

不寒而栗 bu4 han2 er2 li4 /shiver all over though not cold/tremble with fear/shudder/

近在咫尺 jin4 zai4 zhi3 chi3 /to be almost within reach/to be close at hand/

荣华富贵 rong2 hua2 fu4 gui4 /glory, splendor, wealth and rank (idiom); high position and great wealth/

虚张声势 xu1 zhang1 sheng1 shi4 /(false) bravado/to bluff/

诡计多端 gui3 ji4 duo1 duan1 /deceitful in many ways (idiom); wily and mischievous/full of craft and cunning/

巧舌如簧 qiao3 she2 ru2 huang2 /lit. to have a tongue like a reed (idiom)/fig. to have a glib tongue/

[eslang]

Thank you c_redman for the vocabulary list. They are really helpful in many ways.

I think your research on the Tai Sui 太岁 is very interesting. Could it be that the people in those days don't know what to call it (i.e. the Tai Sui mushroom), perhaps they simply name "it" accordingly to the place where it was found, or maybe the shape of how it looked to them?

There is a similar kind of mushroom (fungi) in Japan which is known as サルノコシカケ (saru no koshikake) - literally it means the "monkey's seat or bench" - it is also available for auction and the rare types are expensive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyporaceae