Start of Summer and Grain Full

I have been very busy at work all of May, and I have missed not one but two solar terms.

Start of Summer (pinyin lìxià), which is unconnected to summer solstice, began on May 6th.

立夏

 

 

The first character is a pictogram of a person standing up, and carries the general meaning of getting up, hence "getting up to do something", begin.

 

 

Grain Full (pinyin  xiǎomǎn) started on May 21st. 

 

小满

 

Although "grain full" is the usual translation, the literal meaning is more like "small full", which is a bit puzzling. Grain is not mentioned at all.

Memorial Day

Today, being Memorial Day, a US holiday devoted to the commemoration of those who died in war, seems like an appropriate time to post Milan Kundera's words on the topic of the eternal return, which are also a commentaries on the horrors of war and history in general. Here they are, from the opening chapter of L'insoutenable légèreté de l'être:


Le mythe de l'éternel retour affirme, par la négation, que la vie qui disparaît une fois pour toutes, qui ne revient pas, est semblable a une ombre, est sans poids, est morte d'avance, et fut-elle atroce, belle, splendide, cette atrocité, cette beauté, cette splendeur ne signifient rien. Il ne faut pas en tenir compte, pas plus que d'une guerre entre deux royaumes africains du XIVe siècle, qui n'a rien changé à la face du monde, bien que trois cent mille Noirs y aient trouvé la mort dans d'indescriptibles supplices.

Cela changera-t-il quelque chose à la guerre entre deux royaumes africains du XIVe siècle si elle se répète un nombre incalculable de fois dans l'éternel retour?

Oui: elle deviendra un bloc qui se dresse et perdure, et sa stupidité sera sans rémission.

Si la Révolution française devait éternellement se répéter, l’historiographie française serait moins fière de Robespierre. ….

Disons donc que l’idée de l’éternel retour désigne une perspective où les choses ne nous semblent pas telle que nous les connaissons : elles nous apparaissent sans la circonstance atténuante de leur fugacité. Cette circonstance atténuante nous empêche en effet de prononcer un quelconque verdict. Peut-on condamner ce qui est éphémère ?

… la profonde perversion morale inhérente à un monde fondé essentiellement sur l’inexistence du retour, car dans ce monde-là tout est d’avance pardonné et tout y est donc cyniquement permis.

My translation:

The myth of the eternal return states, in the negative, that life that disappears once and for all, that does not come back, is like a shadow, weightless, dead before its time; be it atrocious, beautiful, splendid, this atrocity, beauty, splendor do not mean anything. You do not need to take it into account any more than a war between two African kingdoms in the 14th century that did not change anything in the world, although three hundred thousand Black died among indescribable sufferings.

Would it change something if the war between the two African kingdoms of the 14th century repeated itself an incalculable number of times in the eternal return?

Yes: it would become a block that stands and lasts, and its stupidity would be inexcusable.

If the French revolution was to repeat itself in eternity, French historiography would be less proud of Robespierre. ....

Let us therefore say that the idea of the eternal return describes a view in which things do not appear such as we know them: they appear without the attenuating circumstance of their fugacity. This attenuating circumstance prevents us from returning any verdict. Can we condemn something that is ephemeral?

... the deep moral perversion inherent to a world essentially based on the absence of return, because in that world everything is excused beforehand, therefore everything is cynically allowed.