Posts Tagged ‘Arts’

Martial Arts and Chinese Literature

Monday, January 11th, 2010

The wuxia novel is a genre of Chinese literature, which features martial arts heroes, for example, swordsmen and those related to them, with the plot dedicating to the intricate relationships of honor, loyalty, love and hatred between individuals in the world of martial arts. There’s usually a thread of martial arts practice and demonstration running through the plot.

In most cases, wuxia novels are set in ancient China. And these novels have their unique cultural background with martial arts at the core, involving ancient Chinese medicine, Buddhism, Taoism, Yishu which is the art of living with changes and various types of occultism etc. So, the concepts of values held by the characters in wuxia novels as well as the main spirit of the whole work are based on the basic ideas of martial arts. “Martial arts” means “to stop fighting” in ancient Chinese, in other words, to end conflicts with force. This means that the aim of martial arts practicing is to stop oppressing the weak by sheer strength. Guided by this thought, wuxia novels are created in a way that justice and evil are clear and definite.

The earliest literature work on the martial art or chivalrous characters was Records of the Grand Historian, a masterpiece from Sima Qian, the great historian in Western Han Dynasty. In the book, the sections such as Biographies of Knights-errant and Biographies of Assassins recorded the legendary characters including Jing Ke, Zhu Jia and Guo Jie in the form of historical biography.

It was not until the emergence of romantic novel in Tang Dynasty when the literature of martial arts came into being. The characters recorded in legends of Tang Dynasty were widespread in both government and the public, such as those in The Bearded Warrior, Nie Yin Niang and The Kunlun Slave.

Besides the Tang legends, the Wushu-related contents are also commonly seen in other styles, such as the poem A Song of Dagger-Dancing to a Girl Pupil of Lady Gongsun by Du Fu in Tang Dynasty. The “Legendary Weapons of China” is also frequently mentioned in Yuan drama, and the martial art described in the famous classical novels Outlaws of the Marsh, Romance of Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West should be familiar to the ears of the readers.

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Chess In The Arts And Literature

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Chess is a board game that has been played for many centuries. It originated in Europe and is a very popular game still today. There are national tournaments held all over the world for all age groups from young children to adults. It is also a popular game to be played in nursing homes or elderly care communities as it offers mind stimulation for the elderly.
Chess is a game that is also very popular in arts and literature. It can be seen in books, magazines, articles, newspapers, arts, ballets, or music. There have been many very well known books that are sometimes based around the game of chess or that use the game at some point in the literature. It also can be used as a metaphor for something else.
There are various chess magazines and publications that you can find in bookstores, libraries or online. Some offers subscriptions to chess enthusiasts, while others do not. Chess can also be found in many online venues.
For the chess enthusiast, there are books that are centered on chess. Sometimes this can include the actual game being some sort of central part of the book. Other times authors may be less obvious and use the chess game as metaphors, chapter titles or other various ways of intertwining the chess game into the book without the actual game being the main focus.
Chess is a game of critical thinking and strategy so many avid chess players find these types of books and articles very interesting as it is clear the author has had to use some thought to strategically position the chess analogies.
Chess can also be used in literature to dictate how the book or publications course goes. For example, a story may be based around a person and different “chess moves” they make in their life and how it affects their surroundings. It is a great way to depict struggles or battles that may be going on in a book or publication.
Chess is also found in arts, most commonly in paintings where the game of chess if being depicted being played by a group of individuals. Usually chess is played with two people. They have a board that they place the chess pieces on to. The pieces are two colors, usually black and white, and have varying shapes mostly based on medieval times. This includes kings, queens, knights, bishops and pawns.
Each player is allowed to make one move of their pieces before the other player gets to move again. The king piece is being protected by all the other chess pieces. The object of the game is to checkmate, or block the other player’s king so that he has nowhere to move the king.
Also, in arts you actually see the game of chess depicted through ballet, musicals or interpretive dance moves. Again, the chess game may be more literal or the dancers may be recreating the battle or games being played as chess pieces are moved up and across a board.

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