From: lix@thames.bu.edu (Xiaowen Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: FWD for Mr. H. Anonymous - Learn from Geshu (11)
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:00:04 GMT
Organization: Boston University

This is to James Ou. I'm glad James coming out to play my
"Lao Niang Jiu" role :-)

==============================================================
  Learn from Geshu (XI)

This note is for our dear Confucian scholar Jim Ou.

Dear Jim,

Thanks for your Miu4Jiang3 on my Ban1Men2Nong4Fu3.  As for my style on 
which you seem Po1You3Wei1Ci2, please allow me some explanation.

You seem to have followed this Geshu-fiasco from day one.  If true,
you must have seen that, though perhaps a far cry from your 
impeccable record of Confucian courtesy, my initial attitude IMHO 
was altogether unimpeachable.

First, before I even started any arguments in (I), I gave Sanyee 
a "friendly forewarning" on what he's getting himself into.  Secondly, 
I gave him quite some "benefit of the doubt" plus, as I pointed out, 
ample maneuvering room (TaiJie) for him to have a graceful and dignified 
retreat before it was too late.  Thirdly, I offered the truce at the end 
of (III) if Sanyee would call it quits.

The fact of the matter is that I have never said, nor will ever I say, a 
single sarcastic word toward you Jim, my respected Confucian scholar 
because unlike some latter-day regenerations or reincarnations of those 
Chang'An Qing1Bo2Shao4Nian2, you would never call our time-honored great 
heritage like Li Bai and Du Fu's work "junk".

Even when rebutting his rather outrageous "junk" comment in (IV), I 
still gave Sanyee quite a bit of Mian4zi as I stopped politely at the 
second verse of Han2 Yu4's famous poem in response to a similarly shallow 
and irresponsible instance of Ping2Tou2Pin3Zu2.  You can undoubtedly 
recite the whole poem and know what's in stock in the very next two
verses, not to mention the last ones which have since given rise to the 
idiom about some formic form of life that we'd better not say explicitly 
here.

Therefore, though I would not be so hypocritical as to say I had been
"Ren2Zhi4Yi4Jin4", at least I have followed strictly our traditional 
protocol of "Xian1Li3Hou4Bing1."  Of course, in retrospect those friends
who are truly capable of "turning-the-other-cheek" might have done even 
better.

Well, "Ren2Fei1Sheng4Xian2", I must own up to a mortal's weakness, 
particularly in view of my die-hard habit of leaning toward sarcasm or 
Jian1Suan1Ke4Bo2 as someone once called it, especially when "prompted" 
or "provoked."

Not to defend myself, I have to say I got my "basic training", or shall 
I say "sharpened my tones", on this business thanks to my "working 
class" background, however temporary, during those horrid Cultural
Revolution  years, when the best thing my blue-collar co-workers could
do and did was to constantly poking fun at each other, using methods and 
words as JSKB as one could possibly imagine.  However, another thing I 
also learned is to come out of being the laughing butt gracefully and 
graciously, by admitting one's imperfection and mistake in a timely
fashion, something now some of our "older chap" friends find very
hard to do.  I have to add that we did more than making fun of each other.   
When all China's "elite" intellectuals were Jin4Ruo4Han2Chan2, only my 
(permanent) working class friends could still, quoting our Great Helmsman:

  Fen4Tu3 DangNian2 Wan4Hu4Hou2

with all their almost uncanny knack for sarcasm.  I would even venture to 
say that the nation's self-esteem and self-confidence were nowhere more 
visible than amid their hearty laughters. Boy, how dearly I miss those 
good or bad old days.

Still, Jim, your advice is well taken.  However, (X) had been completed 
before I saw your post.  Therefore I'll try me best to heed that in my 
next post on, something that I'm now finding extremely difficult to do 
since Sanyee seems to have provided us with quite some irresistibly 
tempting fresh materials :-).

(Geshu Series to be continued, of course)

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