Chinese is not that easy, and the 文言文 (wen yan wen) the classical Chinese, that stuff is a whole other order of magnitude in challenge to the modern Western mind.

And yet if we are going to practice this medicine with deep roots into a long gone time and culture, we need access to the stepping stones that have been handed down to us over centuries through books and writing.

Translating language is one thing. But translating culture, bringing something of the mind and perception from another time, that is a whole other task.

It helps if you can understand the poetry, the stories, the world view and beliefs of the time. And it helps if you can track the changes in the meaning of words and ideas across the centuries of commentary.

In this episode we are sitting down for tea with a self described “lover of dead languages,” for a discussion of Resonance from chapter five of the Simple Questions.