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July 26 - July 31, 2025
He never spoke to me about it, but he was old, old almost beyond belief, and I think he was afraid he’d drop dead before something interesting turned up.
“My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character,”
He bent back over the cadaver, and his knives moved angrily.
“His name is Ku K’ai-chih, but he’s called Three Incomparables because of his boast that he’s incomparable in painting, in genius, and in stupidity.
“It gets worse,” he said. “Ts’un strokes, for example, are broken down into the exact lines suitable for individual rocks: curling cloud strokes, axe cut, split hemp, loose rope, ghost face, skull-like, woodpile, sesame seed, golden blue, jade powder, spear hole, pebbles, and boneless. An artist who uses ghost face for painting granite instead of the officially approved axe cut faces six years in the Mongolian desert.”
Even I knew that a dragon has 36 evil scales and 117 good ones, which used to add up to 153 when I was in school.
“Upper garment: sun, moon, stars, mountain, dragon, and the flowery fowl. Lower garment: temple cup, aquatic grass, flames, rice, hatchet, and symbol of distinction. Only the emperor of China is allowed to wear all twelve ornaments, and the Laughing Prince added a thirteenth: the peacock eye, which symbolizes the Second Lord of Heaven. One assumes he was preparing to place his throne beside the August Personage of Jade.”
Five is a sacred number to many weird cults, ancient and modern alike.
“Ox, at an early age a Chinese genius gazes at the path that lies ahead and reaches for a wine jar,” Master Li said. “Is it any wonder that our greatest men have lurched rather than walked across the landscape as they hiccuped their way into history?”
Green hills are reflected in water which borrows its color from the hills. Good wine produces poetry which borrows its beauty from the wine.”
“Ox, try to keep your paws off the young lady while we’re traveling. Grief of Dawn, hit him over the head with a log every now and then. He will be grateful for the attention.”
“A fool will study for twenty or thirty years and learn how to do something, but a wise man will study for twenty or thirty minutes and become an expert. In this world it isn’t ability that counts, but authority.”
“Your Majesty, my surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character,” Master Li said politely.
“I’ve never been much for hopping into bed with boys, but if I could be ninety again, I’d be delighted to make an exception with him. Buddha, what a creature! Has he agreed?”
Barbarian readers, no matter how illustrious, will have but a rudimentary concept of Hell. This is not their fault but the fault of ignorant priests and sages who cling to two incredible fallacies: that Hell is reserved for the damned, and that the world is flat.
What is a great official without a peasant to lash?
You, on the other hand, waste your time with unimportant puzzles, which is the occupation of a child!”
“To cherish perfection is to commit creative suicide, and every true artist knows that a masterpiece is an accident that should be burned.
