The Memories of Lu Chao-lin

As YEARS LENGTHEN, grows. Knowledge accrues--and wisdom, if we are fortunate; memories deepen, whether we will it or not. And without material cause of memory's ordered store, wisdom makes no appearance. Thus cultivation of was, in most pre-computerized societies, fundament of education. For words, lessons, texts learned heart become a part of oneself, are incorporated within one, far more durably than those encountered only glancingly.' Holding image, we may thereby reconfirm Aristotle's conviction that is a sort of imprint physically stamped into soul.2 Memory, the warder of brain, stands behind all song, verse, dance, drama, history. As every schoolboy used know, Mnemosyne mated with Zeus and brought forth Muses. Genetrix of arts, she was one of original twelve Titans, counted among first offspring of Gaea and Uranus, primal Earth and Sky. high pedigree is worth remarking, as is evident meaning of myth: lacking power of Memory, mind's inventive faculties cannot be quickened. This centrality of for all mental endeavor is indicated as well by close connection in most Indo-European languages between words for memory; and words for mind; think.3 words most commonly used in Classical Chinese for to likewise show semantic extension comprising ideational activity in general. most usual, for instance, huai 1M (O.C. *g'wer, M.C. *ghwai), primarily to hold heart, embrace mentally, also connotes in appropriate contexts to reminisce, be nostalgic for; yearn for; be mentally occupied with, concerned about; heartsore. Only somewhat less common is i tE (O.C. * idg, M.C. *i-), primarily to keep in mind but also to call mind, remember (but not necessarily with more tender overtones of A), which is obviously cognate indeed, originally identical with i , (O.C. *-idg, M.C. *i-), to think; thought, intention, habit of mind. Neither of these words, however, nor several others that occasionally connote different types of remembering (e.g., +, s, t ) is as restricted in normal usage memory; (as a discrete activity of mind) as are its Indo-European counterparts. That is say, memory in Classical Chinese is seen as an essential component of mental process, not as something be separated out for special analysis. Thus, although memorizing, usually by recitation, of canonical texts was always first precondition of learning and scholarship, there developed in China no formal, detached system of mnemonics resembling ars memoriae of Simonides and his successors in classical and medieval West.4 In his essay The Distribution of Discourse, George Steiner has written incisively of historical importance of memory, a shared canon, and inner rhetoric of individual. See his On Difficulty and Other Essays (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1978), 60-94, esp. 88-91. Steiner's words were penned before current public (too often political) debate on cultural literacy in American education, but adherents of both camps may be well informed by his learned and compelling remarks. 2 De memoria et reminiscentia, 450a30-blO. A good modern study is Richard Sorabji's Aristotle on (London: Duckworth, 1972). image of seal-impress was not original with Aristotle. Cf. Plato Theaetetus, 191 C-D. By first century A.D., this was, as remarked by Quintilian, prevailing notion; see Institutio oratoria, XI, ii, 4. 3 See group 17.31, pp. 1228ff. in Carl Darling Buck's Dictionary of Synonyms in Principal Indo-European Languages (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1949). Buck also notes connection with words for care; be anxious, which too will be relevant our subject. 4 Various feats of are recorded desultorily in Liberal Learning and Tenacious Memory (t4 6 x) section of eighteenth-century Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng t,714143LI%5 ; Ws'e 606 (Hstieh hsing tien, ch. 112), 30b37a; with which cf. well-known vignettes in Pliny Historia

Chinese history and philosophy · History

• Reflections on Recent Anthologies of Chinese Literature in Translation

  Open Access•Paul W Kroll•The Journal of Asian Studies•2002

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