#chia yi

[ryujinwife]

Girls Planet 999 Chinese group—

Huang Xingqiao, Leung Cheukying, Zhang Luofei, Shen Xiaoting, Su Ruiqi, Wang Yale, Ma Yuling, Chia Yi, Chien Tzuling

[ryujinwife]

a vending machine full of charms, Chia Yi 🧃

[animus-inviolabilis]

“The Owl” by Chia Yi (201 - 169 B.C.) [Translated by Burton Watson]

In the year tan-o, Fourth month, first month of summer, The day kuei-tzu, when the sun was low in the west, An owl came to my lodge And perched on the corner of my mat, Phlegmatic and fearless. Secretly wondering the reason The strange thing had come to roost, I took out a book to divine it And the oracle told me its secret: “Wild bird enters the hall;  The master will soon depart.” I asked and importuned the owl, “Where is it I must go? Do you bring good luck? Then tell me! Misfortune? Relate what disaster! Must I depart so swiftly? And speak to me of the hour!” The owl breathed a sigh, Raised its head and beat its wings. Its beak could utter no word, But let me tell you what it sought to say: All things alter and change, Never a moment of ceasing, Revolving, whirling, and rolling away, Driven far off and returning again, Form and breath passing onward, Like the mutations of the cicada. Profound, subtle, and illimitable, Who can finish describing it? Good luck must be followed by bad, Bad in turn bow to good. Sorrow and joy throng the gate, Weal and woe in the same land. Wu was powerful and great; Under Fu-ch’a it sank in defeat. Yüeh was crushed at K’uai-chi, But Kou-chien made it an overlord. Li Ssu, who went forth to greatness, at last Suffered the five mutilations. Fu Yüeh was sent into bondage, Yet Wu Ting made him his aide. Thus fortune and disaster Entwine like the strands of a rope. Fate cannot be told of, For who shall know its ending? Water, troubled, runs wild; The arrow, quick-sped, flies far. All things, whirling and driving, Compelling and pushing each other, roll on. The clouds rise up, the rains come down, In confusion inextricably joined. The Great Potter fashions all creatures, Infinite, boundless, limit unknown. There is no reckoning Heaven, Nor divining beforehand the Tao. The span of life is fated; Man cannot guess its ending. Heaven and earth are the furnace, The workman, the Creator; His coal is the yin and the yang, His copper, all things of creation. Joining, scattering, ebbing and flowing, Where is there persistence or rule? A thousand, a myriad mutations, Lacking and end’s beginning. Suddenly they form a man: How is this worth taking thought of? They are transforming again in death: Should this perplex you? The witless take pride in his being, Scorning others, a lover of self. The man of wisdom sees vastly And knows what all things will do. The covetous run after riches, The impassioned pursue a fair name; The proud die struggling for power, While the people long only to live. Each drawn and driven onward, They hurry east and west. The great man is without bent; A million changes are as one to him. The stupid man chained by custom Suffers like a prisoner bound. The sage abandons things And joins himself to the Tao alone, While the multitudes in delusion With desire and hate load their hearts. Limpid and still, the true man Finds his peace in the Tao alone. Discarding wisdom, forgetful of form, Transcendent, destroying self, Vast and empty, swift and wild, He soars on wings of the Tao. Borne on the flood he sails forth; He rests on the river islets. Freeing his body to Fate, Unpartaking of self, His life is a floating, His death a rest. And stillness like the stillness of deep springs, Like an unmoored boat drifting aimlessly, Valuing not the breath of life, He embraces and drifts with Nothing. Comprehending Fate and free of sorrow, The man of virtue heads no bounds. Petty matters, weeds and thorns– What are they to me?

[callme-jojo]

Lucky for us, Shirley is documenting this summer with video footage. This one primarily features our incredibly cheesy skit during the opening ceremony at Hsing Hwa.

[teamdumpling-blog]

What do you mean we don't have a Makita power drill? Sooo...any chance we can find out if this is level?

The days are counting down towards the Park Carnival (this Saturday) preparation is going well and Steph…well Steph is still counting green beans :P Steph has counted one by one, somewhere above the 8000 mark last time I dared to ask. Thankfully she is past half way. This is going to be one of the activities happening on Saturday. The participant who guesses the closest to the exact amount of green beans wins a prize! (once we find a jar to fit them all in..)

Below you can see that Lachlan and Adam are hard at work carving up some plywood to make a lion for tossing bean bags down its throat.

Working on the lion has made me appreciate the fact that pretty much any Aussie bloke will have his garage full of all the tools you need to make just about anything on this scale. Here, in Taiwan, we were calling on contacts and friends to see if they had any equipment to borrow, scrounging around the OMF centre for some glue or a hammer, getting the guys at the wood shop to help cut our ply sheet and timber strips to size on their homemade circular saw bench (one of the more dangerously scary, but nonetheless impressive feats I've seen).They were also wearing safety sandals...So far we are doing okay without a jigsaw and spirit-level. Here's to hoping we can borrow a power drill tomorrow. Oooh for the want of a nail gun!

Today we spent some time roaming the streets observing all around us asking God to highlight things to our notice so that we could pray for the people around us.

Every face I saw, I could see no sign of happiness. These people, all they ever have on their minds is money, can they ever have enough of it, can they make some more of it (sounds like another country, one that I live in). In many cases they work long hours every day.

I see charms everywhere, lying on the dashboard of a car, hanging off the rearview mirror, jangling in the doorway of shops, flapping in the wind as a scooter goes by as it dangles off the handlebar. There are red signs for good health, fortune and wealth plastered on the door frames and walls on the shops. All these bits of paper, in the hope of safety and getting rich.

We also got to meet an Idol Craftsman (wooden). I hear he's the best in town.

It takes him about 6 months to finish 3 of these working at the same time. So the process goes that first the block of wood gets carved into shape then a cavity is made in the back where precious stones are placed. Then a ritual/ceremony of some sort is performed to pull the essence of a "god" into the chunk of wood to make it an idol. We also got to meet his brother who was working on maintenance at a near by temple. He works with clay/cement.

It saddens me by just watching their futility in thinking that some decorated bits of paper, stone and bits of wood, no matter how intrinsically made, can have power in any way, shape or form. That something dug out of the earth or cut down by man, fashioned and dressed by man, has the supernatural ability to affect man and "gods"?

I pray that God will reveal his truth to these people, that they can have the Joy knowing the one and only true Lord and Creator of the universe, and realising that the relationship so personally close and that everything pales in comparison. God who cannot be captured (or even his likeness) by a useless lump of stone or wood, substances of this world which wear away and constantly need repair. He is almighty and loving, he doesn't need to be goaded or bargained with!  He is all powerful that aside from sustaining all of Creation so that the universe keeps on running and the earth keeps spinning, he has time to look after and teach me, and gives my every breath!

Please pray that we would be envious for God's glory and be passionate for the lost. That we would be humble and that God would work mightily.

Kerstin, one of the missionaries, has hopes, that his place/shop may one day become a house church, as she continues to share the gospel with him. He is quite influential in the area, and if he trusts in Christ and calls him Lord, Kerstin also hopes many men will follow.

As time goes by, one painfully obvious change is occurring…our chinglish is getting worse and worse. We've had to take some measures to keep our sanity in check. The following are some of the shots of what we found interesting or amusing in Chiayi

Harry Potter-esque?

...if that really is the motto of the po-po...

a bear on the mona lisa...honestly...

We saw this in a restaurant that we had dessert at. It was literally all over the walls of the 2nd floor of the shop. Exhibit A of the after effects of cram schooling

...so we added our mark to the walls as well...

I woke up from a siesta and saw this (o.0!)

~Ell