Re:Answer to Todd about Gui

[Guest guest]

Dear Todd:

I do not have the software for Chinese characters. The part is, as you guessed,

" dou shi ling ren jian gui kuang zou. "

I guess you did not like my translation of " gui " " scavenger. " Me neither. We translate as we are, just like Unschuld translated Qi, " influence. " The word " scavenger " could have too much Buddhism influence, though. There is not a good English word for this character.

I could write one whole book on the subject of " gui " in the Orient. Don't you know anyone who sponsor me to do it?

Here, I quote from the oldest Chinese dictionary, Suo Wen Zi Jie, which was published in the first century.

" GUI: When human-being goes back (= dies), will become Gui. Gui is Yin Qi that harms and damages.

In Yang Shou-zhong's translation (p.148), he used " ghost. "

I translated that " gui " runs madly, but Yang Shou-zhong translates the person who sees the ghost runs frenetically. As you know, there would not be any " perfect " translation.

The most important thing is that Yang Shou-zhong translated " Ma Fen " as Herba Cannabis Sativae. In Ben Cao Gan Mu, Li Shi-zheng noted that " Ma fen " is husks of " Ma ren, " not Herba Cannabis Sativae, itself. What do you think?

Shinjiro

 

Acupuncturist Shinjiro

Shinjiro Kanazawa, L.Ac.

[Guest guest]

Shinjiro,

 

I know what you mean about being able

to...needing?...to write a whole book

about a single character. As to a sponsor,

well, good luck. From my limited experience

with such things, I tend to conclude that

this is the sort of undertaking in which

one engages because there just isn't any

choice. At least that's how it seems to

me.

 

All of this discussion has piqued my interest

in surveying the literature on the subject

of Da ma or whatever it's called. For those

of you who have expressed hopes that I find

something interesting and useful, don't

hold your breath. I work very slowly

and try to go even slower, at the constant

admonition of my friend Jason R. who,

apropos of absolutely nothing, is due

back in Beijing shortly.

 

Perhaps I can enlist his help in the

cannabis research.

 

Meanwhile, I would love to see your notes

on " gui " ...whenever you have the time

and the inclination.

 

Thanks,

 

Ken

[Guest guest]

, Shinjiro Kanazawa <

kanazawa@a...> wrote:

 

> I guess you did not like my translation of " gui " " scavenger. " Me neither.

 

Shinjiro

 

My apologies. It really is not a matter of liking or not liking on my part. I

have been taught things about the shen nong ben cao jing from teachers like

Heiner Fruehauf, who tends to put a somewhat taoist spin on everything. It

does seem likely to me that taoism had a large influence on shen nong ben cao

jing, but I have no idea if Heiner's spin is the right one. I translated the

characters one by one and looked at all the possible combinations of meaning.

But to be honest, I realize my lack of context and very bare grasp of modern

chinese grammar, much less classical, have left me merely speculating on

possibilities connoted by this sentence. I am actually mainly curious to see

how much " meaning " I can squeeze out of the wenlin software.

 

It was the influence of teachers like Heiner that causes me to look for a

" positive " spin on this sentence. I have been told that it means marijuana will

drive one insane or alternately that marijuana will enable shamanic powers of

spirit communication. Certainly the mainstream chinese connotation is the

former. And the latter might be just dead wrong. Huo ma was called the

liberator of sin by moralists in han china acording to Solomon (marijuana

papers, 1967, new american library). given the generally glowing reports in

the SNBCJ and the later complete rejection of this med by mainstream doctors

in china makes one wonder if the first war on drugs was not led by Nancy

Reagan, but by some ancient confucian bureaucrats instead. :-)

 

In any event, could you give a little more insight into the scavenger and/or the

practical meaning of your translation?