The Heart Sutra is actually a Show: Talking about the Poetry Tradition and Chanting Performance in Ancient China

Hello,

happy New Year! This is the first "reading day" in 2021. Nice to meet again.

You will find that today's program is a little longer than the previous episodes, close to an hour, with a lot of information and strong emotions. Because we have given ourselves and you an interesting challenge: which book to choose, what perspective to take, and how to organize the material to present a fascinating, noble, real China, or at least a silhouette of her?

In this episode, we will start with a short Buddhist classic, which is also a "world famous book" - "The Heart Sutra of Prajnaparamita", bypass its somewhat quaint but somewhat mysterious text, and talk about what it actually is how to be used. As we approach its presence as voice and performance, we come across the most important educational traditions and political ideals of ancient China. What is the mechanism that has given generations of literati and doctors a solid identity? Where do their shared emotions, aspirations, and writing styles come from?

Inadvertently, we strayed from the pre-Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, and Ming Dynasty according to the guide map quietly handed to us by a certain "Heart Sutra", and we can also glimpse the personality development of ancient Chinese intellectuals that make us fascinated or awe-inspiring. The secrets and details of everyday entertainment. I think by the time the show is over, you can probably pin down yourselves excitedly to this different picture we have for you.

Happy Readependence Day!

Click here to listen to the podcast and "Reading Ri Ri" emails on Substack. You can also search for "Reading Day" or "Readependence Day" on all generic platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify to listen to.

Important topic timeline

• 03:33 — The Heart Sutra should be read not only as a Buddhist scripture, but also as a classic of human culture.
• 06:38 — Sharing my experience with the Heart Sutra while practicing in a temple, how it completely changed my view of the Heart Sutra and Buddhism.
• 09:29 —— The real temple life: direct access to "Heart Sutra" morning class singing scene
• 15:52 – One-sided understanding of Buddhism comes from our confusion between Buddhist knowledge and Buddhism itself.
• 18:30 – Poetry as a modern reader: what are we missing? Visual poetry and auditory poetry.
• 21:11 - What are Chinese traditional poetry, music and style? How are they related?
• 26:10 - From Book of Songs to Folk Songs: The Charm of "Repetition"
• 32:14 - The Heart Sutra is originally a mantra: chanting and performing, is the true nature of the Heart Sutra.
• 35:10 – The Power of Recitation: Traditional Chanting vs. Modern Verification
• 38:44 - "Poems can be grouped": The impact of the group nature of singing on the human mind
• 41:04 —— Yuan Zaju vs. Ming Legend: Same Opera, Different Audience
• 44:37 —— Buddhist "Bianwen": a story of narration that combines rap and singing
• 47:04 - "1000 Readers, 1000 Hamlets": Different interpretations, different Heart Sutras.
• 49:02 – How religious scriptures embrace “repetition.”
• 50:22 - Enjoy this excerpt by reciting the Heart Sutra forty-nine times.

You'll hear these great things (the text you read in the show also covers them)

Although the Heart Sutra is a Buddhist scripture with the mission of preaching and propagating the Dharma, it is also a human classic: it is the most famous Buddhist scripture in the world and the most translated and multilingual Buddhist scriptures. All classics have a characteristic, that is, they transcend their original fields and become treasures shared by the human cultural world.

·

It was a big Buddhist temple. Everyone walked around the hall solemnly and swiftly with their hands together, singing the "Heart Sutra" verses eloquently in their mouths. The chanting speed is the same as your own pace, so it is actually quite fast. If the scriptures are not thoroughly understood, it is easy to fall behind.

·

Poetry is a song at first, it is to be sung with music.

·

"Wind is satire. Teaching is also. Wind moves it, and teaching changes it. Poets are where their aspirations are. The aspiration is in the heart, and the speech is poetry. The emotion is moved from the heart and the shape is in the words. Words are not enough, so sigh If you are happy, you are not enough to be happy, so singing is not enough, and you don't know how to dance with your hands and dance with your feet." (From "The Great Preface of Poetry")

·

"My son is in Qi Wenshao, and I don't know the taste of meat in March" (from "The Analects of Confucius, Shuer")

·

"The virtue of the gentleman, the virtue of the villain, the grass, the grass, the wind of the superior, must be swayed." (From "The Analects of Confucius, Yan Yuan")

·

"Peach"

Recipe, Shining.

The son is at home, and it is suitable for his house.

The peach is Yaoyao, and there is actually a lotus root.

The son is at home, suitable for his family.

Peach's Yaoyao, its Ye Zhenzhen.

The son is at home, suitable for his family.

·

"Fox"

Picking the buds, and thin words picking them.

Pick and choose florets, and have thin words.

Picking the buds, thin words.

Harvest the florets, and make thin words.

Pick up the buds, and make thin words.

Picking the buds, thin words.

·

The combination of poetry, music and singing plays a key role in humanistic education and national politics in Chinese society. This is an educational philosophy and method that has been recognized by the Chinese for thousands of years, but in the last hundred years, it has been gradually forgotten and discarded by people.

·

"Every day I cry and cry to guard the Wangxiang Terrace, anxiously wait for the enemy, walk slowly and faintly, and come in the whirlwind of rhythm and rhythm, I will be buried by this fog and cloud, and the ghost is fast." Excerpts from E Injustice)

·

"It's all up to me to share the marriage book with you? Who doesn't want to choose a satisfactory one? Every time he chooses a hundred thousand times, he wants to marry an honest one, but he is afraid that it will be difficult for the whole life to marry; when he wants to marry a smart and handsome, I was also afraid of being abandoned halfway through. Zhe Mo hid in the place where the dog drowned, Zhe Mo piled into the cow dung, and suddenly ate a slap on the ground. At that time, he opened his eyes and blamed him!" (Excerpt from "Save the Wind and Dust")

·

"It turns out that the purple and red blossoms have bloomed all over the place, and it seems that they are all paid to the broken well and the ruins. The beautiful scenery of the good time is in the sky, and who is the family who enjoys the pleasure? Morning and evening rolls, cloud clouds and green gardens, rainy winds, smoke and waves painting boats, people in Jinping see it. This time is cheap." (Excerpt from "The Peony Pavilion: A Dream")

·

Both are operas, whether they are written for singing performances, whether they are suitable for singing performances, where, to whom, and for what purpose, are the keys to distinguish these two important opera genres—Yuan Zaju and Ming legends.

·

We should realize that understanding them now as "scriptures", "collections of poems", "plays", "novels" is only one way of understanding, or the way we are used to as modern people.

music

Sidewalk Strut , written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed

Green Eyes of Chennai , written by Matthew Wigton, performed by Dresden

Cookies , written by Matthew Wigton, performed by Dresden

Thank you for listening to "Reading the Day" again. Of course, in 2021, our wish is to have more friends to meet us on Readependence Day! Although it's only the fourth episode of the first season, maybe it's because of the fact that it's a new year, I don't think it's a new show at all. I hope to gain the support of you Mathew and Martha this year, let more people know about the existence of "Reading Liri", and expand this precious community. We will always create with sincerity, enthusiasm and seriousness.

thank you all!