s&p soiree

Some photos from our last evening. Thank you all!

Room 170 last call..

Just needed to share these..

icecream kisses

If I only

could recieve a kiss

so tender!

Lips warm, but still

feels like icecream on a very warm day.

July.

In the couch of the berries

sun made me blush

wind rubbed my newly, mistaken cut hair.

I was embarrassed.

The berries played last years summer record,

I loved it too!

Red and purple reflected the warmth of

summer.

Its breezy waves played

with the kisses

jiggeld and danced over

the warm lips

of blueberries' summer kisses

wanted to be icecream.

T'ang Yin

T'ang Yin
Secluded Fishermen on an Autumn River
Inscription by a friend dated 1523
Section of a handscroll
Ink and colors on silk (h. 11-1/2 inches)
Palace Museum Collection, Taichung

"His beginnings were brilliant; he took first place twice in provincial examinations, the first time when he was only fifteen years old. Su-chou scholarly society befriended and supported him, and at the age of twenty-eight he set off for the capital with high hopes, to take the state examination that was the entrance to a career as a government official. Again he passed in first place; but it was later disclosed that a playboy friend had bribed the servant of the examiner to get advance information of the essay subjects; T'ang Yin was involved in the ensuing scandal, and degraded. Finding himself thus barred from the standard vocation of the literatus, and, unlike Wen Cheng-ming and others, too poor to live in elegant retirement on private means, he settled into an in-between existence, selling paintings when he needed money, forgetting the bitterness of his disgrace in the taverns and pleasure quarters of Su-chou one day, transcending it through Ch'an Buddhism meditation the next. Throughout all this he kept the friendship of that paragon of virtue Wen Cheng-ming, who admonished him in vain for his profligacy."

James Cahill, Chinese Painting (Geneva: Albert Skira, 1960)

Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank

(from a Sung Dynasty painting)

In parallel with a guqin recording by

Mei Ri-qiang (b. 1929)
Guangling Qin Music (Volume 6)
(Hugo cd 7144-2)
Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank

These recordings are available in the US through Hugo Productions. Here are selections from the album notes, "A Descriptive Prose on Listening to Mei Ri-qiang's Qin Playing, by Dong Xin-bin (transcribed as translated and printed):

"Mei Ri-qiang, alternative name Nan Yi, is a hermit who withdrew from society and also a great Qin master of the refined style.

Mei never scrambled for power, but worked throughout his life. Although he faces a lot of narrow views and villains, he is wise and healthy in mind. He is a great man who lives among the common people. He is an unusual person--generous and open-minded--of the time.

Mei has a close friend--the Qin. For 60 years, he played it and reached the highest level of Qin study. His style of study is 'tolerant and gentle, and never discusses an insignificant problem. He could never be compared with those who want to please the people in power or those who ingratiate themselves.'

If sound is correct, music would be deep. If the music is deep, the notes would inevitably be harmonious. So good and harmonious music is originated by involving heaven and earth, it shows good sense and it conforms to the mystery of the universe."

Room 170 ch.2 - listening