出河洛、横江楚。 一种乡情南北土。 几番危渡，几番惊顾，阵上终生许。 春秋岁月何须数？ 人字行行贯千古。 见尽君王骄挽弩； 射民民反，射天天怒，射雁忘鵰虎。 江灵飏词 谱据龙榆生《青玉案》定格 韵从《词林正韵》第四部上声 The Wisdom of Wild Geese What if humans are inferior to birds (可以人而不如鸟乎)? Confucius asked rhetorically. With all due respect to the sage, it is okay to acknowledge the fact that birds are superior to humans in some critical aspects of life. That being said, humans are still at the top of the food chain, as they were in Confucius’s time. Avian evolution has done wild geese, for example, a huge favor in terms of their magneto-receptors, which take advantage of quantum mechanics conducive to seasonal migration. While humans may be on a wild-goose chase, wild geese rarely, if ever, lose their way. Social science-wise, wild geese demonstrate in nature what C.Wright Mills theorizes in his book (The Sociological Imagination). Mills laments that people poorly nurture their sociological imagination, thus often unable to match their private troubles with public issues. That’s why, in his view, people so easily let politicians divide and rule them. For birds of a feather, if and when an individual is in trouble, a collective defense mechanism will kick in at once. Come hell or high water, wild geese will stick together through thick and thin. Viva wild geese! Author: Lingyang Jiang Image: Google
天涯客旅如归旅，
出河洛、横江楚。 一种乡情南北土。 几番危渡，几番惊顾，阵上终生许。 春秋岁月何须数？ 人字行行贯千古。 见尽君王骄挽弩； 射民民反，射天天怒，射雁忘鵰虎。 江灵飏词 谱据龙榆生《青玉案》定格 韵从《词林正韵》第四部上声 The Wisdom of Wild Geese What if humans are inferior to birds (可以人而不如鸟乎)? Confucius asked rhetorically. With all due respect to the sage, it is okay to acknowledge the fact that birds are superior to humans in some critical aspects of life. That being said, humans are still at the top of the food chain, as they were in Confucius’s time. Avian evolution has done wild geese, for example, a huge favor in terms of their magneto-receptors, which take advantage of quantum mechanics conducive to seasonal migration. While humans may be on a wild-goose chase, wild geese rarely, if ever, lose their way. Social science-wise, wild geese demonstrate in nature what C.Wright Mills theorizes in his book (The Sociological Imagination). Mills laments that people poorly nurture their sociological imagination, thus often unable to match their private troubles with public issues. That’s why, in his view, people so easily let politicians divide and rule them. For birds of a feather, if and when an individual is in trouble, a collective defense mechanism will kick in at once. Come hell or high water, wild geese will stick together through thick and thin. Viva wild geese! Author: Lingyang JiangThank you for such a beautiful Chinese poem, and a thought-provoking English essay!
It's so true, that "people poorly nurture their sociological imagination, thus often unable to match their private troubles with public issues."
Viva wild geese! In some aspects, birds are superior to humans. They can fly and have a better view.:)
have keenly observed the rise and fall of emperors and their empires. I hardly minced my words. Haha!
chance to enjoy a beautiful poem! :)
I bet wild geese witnessed a lot of the rises and falls of the human civilizations. How much I wish they could write!
https://bbs.wenxuecity.com/ktv/2248406.html
How r u old friend-:)),,
George Lam is still singing on stage,
This time,again,in Shanghai-:,,
His mom lives in Shanghai while he lives in Hong Kong..
The duo seems to the auidence ,grandpa and grandson-:)),,
My favorite childhood fantasy has been to bring my grandparents, my dad's parents,
Back to Shanghai,
The city where they got married, and had two children,
My dad and my uncle,,-"))-^-^,
Like the wild geese that fly south,
To bring my grandparents home,,....,
One of my grand dad's younger sister was brought back to Shanghai ,after her departure from this world,,..
Her daughter,my aunts,brought her ashes back to Shanghai a few years ago,
My grandaunt passed away In Hong Kong more than 10 years ago,and my aunts brought her ashes back to Shanghai, about two years ago..
My grandparents were buried in Taiwan.