The Age of the Sage Kings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Age of the Sage Kings - Essay Example If one is to keenly observe, there were quite a number of things, which the Japanese civilization was able to adopt from the Chinese, like the writing system, which, according to tradition, was introduced through Korea, around 405 CE. It was said that Buddhism was also introduced to Japan through Korea around the sixth century. Historical accounts also showed that in both countries, the emperor held the highest position in the land. With a closer look, one will notice, however, the differences between the two civilizations; the Chinese being the more advanced of the two, as based on historical accounts, provided a pattern for Japan in shaping up its culture and its people's way of life. But though it was the case, the Japanese system of ruling those times greatly differed from that of the Chinese, since the Japanese emperor of the ancient days only played as a figure head, meaning he assumed the throne but he did not hold the power to rule, and some other high-ranking officials, in the person of court nobles, regents or even the retired seniors of the dynasty performed the task for him. The Chinese tradition has it that the predecessors of modern-day China were five mythical emperors who ruled the country in the ancient days. The first was known as Fu Xi who, according to tradition, reigned from 2852 - 2737 BC; then there was Shu, the emperor of the Northern Sea, Hu, the emperor of the Southern Sea, and Hun Dun (also known as Chaos), emperor of the Center. According to the legends, when Emperors Shu and Hu went to the land of Emperor Hun Dun, the ruler received them with great hospitality. And in return, as an expression of gratitude to their host, they put seven orifices in his body, one orifice a day for seven days, only to realize after their task was through that they had killed the emperor in the process. It was said that only after Hun Dun's death did the orderly universe came to existence. The last of the five emperors was Huang-Ti, or otherwise known as the Yellow Emperor. He was believed to have reigned from 2697 - 2597 BC, and was the one to have been suc ceeded by the first dynasty known as Xia, that was said to have reigned from 2205() - 1570(). But since there were no archeological proofs for the existence of the Xia Dynasty, it was considered as legendary like the five rulers who preceded it. The first Chinese dynasty that was archeologically proven to have existed during the ancient days was the Shang Dynasty (1570() - 1045() BC). Based on archeological discoveries and through depicting the Late Shang oracle-bone inscriptions, it was found out that the Shang was an aristocratic society that was ruled by a king who had control over military nobility. It was further discovered that he appointed territorial rulers to govern the different parts of his kingdom and required them to support him in all his military undertakings. Although there were no written accounts found relating to the final defeat of the Shang, later texts indicate that Zhou ruler King Wu defeated Shang ruler Di Xin over the Battle of Muye in the northern Henan Province around 1045 BC. Comparisons were made between the downfalls of the

Fitzgeralds Translation of Omar Khayyam Coursework

Fitzgeralds Translation of Omar Khayyam - Coursework Example The best part of his poems was composed during his youth in the quiet and beautiful landscape of Nishpur. The translated version of his famous Rubaiyat (Quatrains) was first published by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859, which made him famous throughout the Western world. "If the mood expressed in the famous Quatrains", says Gibbs, "is not the most heroic or exalted, none-the-less they caught the exact tone of the age, and voiced it as perfectly as eight centuries earlier they had voiced the published hedonism of the cultured society of Isfahan". "Postcolonialism" is the revaluation of Western culture's conception of itself in the light of the repressed history of exploitation of "other" peoples on which Western economic well-being and distribution of wealth is based (Robert 2003, p. 1). Postcolonial criticism is characterized by a skepticism concerning those liberal notions of moral and political justice which historically co-existed happily with iniquitous colonial practices. Consistent with this critique, it also tries to reformulate more plausible concepts for understanding what actually took place under colonialism, redeeming past events from colonial ideologies of improvement from liberation, and evolving new categories for mapping a resistant world from the colonized point of view. In discussing historical work of Omar Khayyam it becomes more and more natural to equate historical differences with cultural differences. The problems faced by the Edward Fitzgerald crossing historical boundaries are so similar to those of the cultural anthropologist that no apology for this conflation looks necessary. Both hermeneutical acts are so closely allied in procedure and intent that we easily forget their differences, or that one must, in some sense, be a metaphor for the other. Or perhaps 'metonym' for the other is more accurate, if assumption of that continuity with the past enabling dialogue is extended or reinforced by the parallel of interpreting Omar Khayyam's cultures. Since cultures are frequently contemporaneous with out own, they can, if allowed, talk back in a more straightforward manner than the past. Equally, interpreters of historical difference (like Fitzgerald) maintain the parallel at their end by understanding as a king of translation the effort by which they try to register the Omar's voice in which the past replies to their questions, a translation which may involve alterations to the language into which the translation passes. When Edward Fitzgerald entered the altered landscape of another culture, he chose not only to translate classical meanings into English meanings but also to "transpose"1 certain alien habits of speech and thought. He did this because, like all great poets, he cared about language and form, and knew that the language of English poetry itself would be strengthened and enriched by the minor violations to which he was willing to subject it. He also found the ancient world itself was far from being a uniform field. Edward Fitzgerald risks distorting the English language under the pressure of translating into it an alien form. But the deterrent of confronting difficulty is a strengthening and enriching of the poet's language. This