Hooked on classics

Every Saturday afternoon, a dozen students meet at the canteen of Renmin University of China in Beijing. They do not come for food or tea as others do. Instead, they gather for a Chinese classic, called The Book of Odes. Undistracted by noise and the smell of food, they spend four hours reading, debating and sharing views on the ancient poetry, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). The students are pursuing their major, Chinese Classics, a two-year labor of love.

Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University, says the rediscovery of Chinese Classics has become "necessary to restoring China's cultural confidence".

The school set up a four-year bachelor's degree and two-year master's degree in 2005, and has enrolled around 130 undergraduates and 30 graduates to date.

"As opposed to Chinese language learning, the Chinese Classics is a combination of Chinese literature, history and philosophy as an integrated whole,"

says Chen Junchan, a senior student at the school.

When she was young, Liu Fang's parents asked her to recite Chinese classical poems. By primary school, she had already read A Dream of the Red Chamber, the most popular Chinese classic novel, almost 20 times. At secondary school, Liu started to compose her own poems.

Like Liu, many of the students in the school were nurtured on Chinese literature or traditional art.

One of the features of the course is a series of reading courses analyzing about 20 traditional classics, including Lao-Ztu, Chuang-Ztu, Mencius, The Odes of Chu, Yimutology, The History of the Han Dynasty and poetry of different dynasties, all of which were written by China's most distinguished writers, philosophers or historians. In the past, they were the required reading for Chinese scholars.

"The students must be patient and know the original readings by heart," says Deputy Dean Sun Jiazhou.

However, it is not easy to either teach or learn these works. Liang Tao, an associate professor of the history of ideology, considers it a long-term mission. "Every classic book deserves lifelong digestion and can be increasingly internalized into one's personal wisdom."

The students also come up with different methods to digest the classics. Wu Qinli, a senior, for instance, joined Yi Dan Xue Tang, a Beijing-based organization dedicated to the sharing and spreading of traditional Chinese culture. One of its modes is reading classics aloud in the morning. "Breathing fresh air and learning through reading is a wonderful experience," says Wu.

The school emphasizes self-study. For the History of China's Historiography, the class divides into groups, and each is asked to prepare a group presentation.

Chen Junchan's group was responsible for introducing three types of historical works. For a whole week, they spent hours each night reading the materials sentence by sentence and discussing every detail. "We seemed to act like the ancient scholars, the only difference was that we did not put on long gowns," she says.

The students also leave the classroom to walk. This year the school initiated a program called "learning by traveling", as there is a Chinese saying, "Knowledge comes from thousands of books and ten thousands of miles".

In June and July, the senior students visited the provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang, Hunan and Jiangxi, traditional places of culture where scholars studied or lived, like Qufu, the home of Confucius.

Students regard it as an effective combination of knowledge and practice. "I couldn't help pondering philosophical questions in places where ancient scholars had stood. It was fantastic," says 21-year-old Chen Chanzhi.

They also composed a host of poems and essays based on their reflections during the journey.

No matter what they do after graduation, the lessons of Chinese Classics have already influenced on their personal development. As Yuan Lei, a senior student, says: "What we actually harvest is sincerity, goodness and tolerance."

Source: People's Daily Online, December 04, 2007.

Anthology of Chinese Literature: Volume I: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century (Anthology of Chinese Literature)

Legendary prophetess never afraid of death

One winter night a knight in shining armor appeared in a village. He entered a house and uttered:

“The world is on the threshold of disaster. Millions of people will die. And you will stand here and prophesy. Do not be afraid! I’ll tell you what you should say.”

This phantom visited 30-year-old Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova in January, 1941.

Just like this Vanga started making predictions.

Vanga was known in Bulgaria and abroad, she helped many people from different countries. Her house in Rupite at the joint border of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece is believed to be a source of incredible cosmic energy. This energy must have fed the human phenomenon of Vanga.

Her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died when Vanga was quite young. The family was living a hard life after the war. Her father had an animal farm, and Vanga had to drive the milk-can.

A terrible storm occurred one day. The sky was dark and strong wind blew. Lumps of mud, leaves and branches created an enormous vortex. The storm lifted 12-year-old Vanga up and threw her in the field. She was found after a long search. Her eyes were covered with sand. Afterwards, she began to lose sight. No healing gave results. Vanga prayed to God. Soon she became blind but acquired another vision.

Vanga started making predictions when she was 16. She helped her father to find a sheep stolen from his flock. She provided a detailed description of a yard where the animal was being hidden by the thieves.

Vanga had dreamed about some distressing events even before the knight appeared. All these events unfortunately came true.

During World War II Vanga attracted more believers — a number of people visiting her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives are alive, or seeking for the place where they died. She advised people how to protect themselves on the battlefields, how to cure themselves with herbs, clay and beeswax, where to find lost things.

Long before world-wide fame Vanga was put in prison because she predicted Stalin’s death. But in a year set at liberty – Stalin died. Though, she entrusted such important data as leaders’ obits and global disasters only to a limited group of people. She did not want to scare anyone.

When her brother Vasil joined a partisan party, Vanga cried and begged him not to go, telling him that he would be cruelly killed at the age of 23. But Vasil did not believe her. In October of the same year he surrendered. He was terribly tortured and then shot down. It was very difficult for her to know the destiny and have no means to resist it.

Vanga was not afraid of death. She said that there is no death:

"I have told you that after death the body decomposes like anything living, but a part of the body – the soul, or something I don’t know how to call, does not decompose. But what remains from a man is his soul. It does not decompose and continues to develop to reach higher states. This is the eternity of soul.”

Vanga believed that people are born for good works. Bad works never escape punishment. She always tried to do good for people.

© 2007 «PRAVDA.Ru», translated by Ksenia Sedyakina.

Predicting the Future