SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT By T’ao Ch’ien Geschke/English IV "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit"

SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT

By

T’ao Ch’ien

Geschke/English IV "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit"

SUBSTANCE, SHADOW,& SPIRIT

• Introduction

– Begins with prose

• Explains purpose of poem

–Demonstrates flaws of Substance and Shadow

–Demonstrates how Spirit puts people on the right path



• Introduction

– Substance

• Body/materials

– Shadow

• Fame/reputation

– Spirit

• Soul?



• Introduction

– Message of T’ao Ch’ien

• It is a mistake to hoard up the moments of life

• Substance and Shadow result in bitterness

• Spirit eliminates that bitterness


Substance Speaks to Shadow:

• Substance to Shadow

– Premise

• Immortality of nature versus the mortality of humans

–“Fortuitously appearing for a moment in the World/ He suddenly departs, never to return” (9-10)



• Question– If we are mortal, how will we be remembered?

• Answer– The things we leave behind will remind people

of us; therefore we still exist in some manner• Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18

–“As long as men can breathe and eyes can see,/ So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”



• Advice

– “When you can get wine, be sure to drink it” (18)

• Carpe Diem

• “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will die”


Shadow Replies to Substance

• Premise

– “There is no way to preserve life” (19)

• Commonality of all three philosophies

• Death comes to us all

–The great equalizer



• Philosophy– “That when the body decays Fame should

also goIs a thought unendurable, burning

the heart. Let us strive and labor while yet we may To do some deed that men will praise. Wine may in truth dispel our sorrow, But how compare it with lasting Fame?”

(29-34)Geschke/English IV

"Substance, Shadow, and Spirit"


• Philosophy (continued)

– Do something by which we will be remembered (Fame)

– Drinking wine (Carpe Diem) is temporary

– Fame is forever


Spirit Expounds

• “God can only set in motion:/ He cannot control the things he has made” (35-36)

• Diction

• God=Tao=Life Force

• Whatever created us does not control us

• Similar to the concept of free will in western culture


Spirit Expounds

• “Though I am different from you,We were born involved in one another:Nor by any means can we escapeThe intimate sharing of good and ill.”

(39-42)• Duality?• Absence of Duality?• Paradox


Spirit Expounds• Three emperors

– All were famous and good men

– Where are they now?

– “And late or soon all go:/ Wise and simple have no reprieve” (47-48)

• Death is the great equalizer

•Hamlet

–A poor man can eat a king


Spirit Expounds• Critiques of other philosophies

• Substance

– “Wine may bring forgetfulness,/ But does it not hasten old age?” (49-50)

• Shadow

– “If you set your hearts on noble deeds,/ How do you know that any will praise you?” (51-52)


Spirit Expounds

• “By all this thinking you do Me injury” (53)

• Taoist belief concerning education

• Taoist belief concerning not encouraging the clever to act

• Taoist belief concerning simplicity


Spirit Expounds

• “You had better go where Fate leads--Drift on the Stream of Infinite Flux,Without joy, without fear:When you must go—then go,And make as little fuss as you can.”

(54-58)

• Introduction to a major theme

• Fate


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SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT By T’ao Ch’ien Geschke/English IV "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit"