SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT

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SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT

• By
• Tao Chien

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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

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SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, SPIRIT

• Introduction
• Substance
• Body/materials
• Shadow
• Fame/reputation
• Spirit
• Soul?

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SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, SPIRIT

• Introduction
• Message of Tao Chien
• It is a mistake to hoard up the moments of life
• Substance and Shadow result in bitterness
• Spirit eliminates that bitterness

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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)

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Substance Speaks to Shadow

• 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
• Shakespeares Sonnet 18
• As long as men can breathe and eyes can see,/ So
  long lives this and this gives life to thee.

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Substance Speaks to Shadow

• Advice
• When you can get wine, be sure to drink it (18)
• Carpe Diem
• Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will
  die

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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

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Shadow Replies to Substance

• Philosophy
• That when the body decays Fame should also
  go Is 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)

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Shadow Replies to Substance

• Philosophy (continued)
• Do something by which we will be remembered
  (Fame)
• Drinking wine (Carpe Diem) is temporary
• Fame is forever

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Spirit Expounds

• God can only set in motion/ He cannot control
  the things he has made (35-36)
• Diction
• GodTaoLife Force
• Whatever created us does not control us
• Similar to the concept of free will in western
  culture

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Spirit Expounds

• Though I am different from you, We were born
  involved in one another Nor by any means can we
  escape The intimate sharing of good and
  ill. (39-42)
• Duality?
• Absence of Duality?
• Paradox

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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

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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)

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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

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Spirit Expounds

• You had better go where Fate leads-- Drift on
  the Stream of Infinite Flux, Without joy,
  without fear When you must gothen go, And
  make as little fuss as you can. (54-58)
• Introduction to a major theme
• Fate