An OCBC's Recent Visit to Ancient China

My wife and I recently did a private tour of "Ancient China". Kindly access the above link if you are interested to read my "report" on the visit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UuKXLogLNWWEUyMlZTelJURVU/view?usp=sharing

指鹿为马 (zhǐ lù wéi mǎ)

With all the 1MDB hoo-hah, I can only think of one Chinese idiom to describe the character of many of those involved in the effort to contain the truth that is surrounding this “sovereign fund”: Zhǐ lù wéi mǎ (指鹿为马).

As one who has only spent six years in Chinese school, my command of the language is pretty poor. This handicap is compounded by the fact that I was actually learning the Hokkien (how the southern Fujianese call themselves) version of Mandarin Chinese, which is hardly useful when you try to use the pinyin converters to extract the right characters from the computer. As a case in point, I took quite a while to bring out this idiom from the computer.

And I love to blame!

Many versions of pinyin converters would appear before your eyes if you typed in Chinese idioms. Most are not useful. This idiom is a case in point. As a matter of fact, when I inputted “zhi lu we ma” into one of first sites that appeared – guess what? – it actually said no match found. But when I scrolled down one of the four lists that came under ‘zhi’ in various tonal forms, this idiom was there!

Sometimes, I just wonder what the scholars in Bei-dai or Tai-dai are doing. In UK, if you are in doubt, you consult a universal standard: Oxford Dictionary!

But with Chinese, we are happy to leave this very task to me-too experts! Time to learn from the Koreans!

Coming to my contention that we have a lunch of Zhǐ lù wéi mǎ jokers in 1MDB, can I leave it to you to judge to judgment after reading the following stuff that I have extracted from Wikipedia?

Calling a deer a horse

One Chinese idiom that is derived from an incident involving Zhao Gao is "calling a deer a horse" (指鹿为马; 指鹿為馬; zhǐ lù wéi mǎ), meaning "deliberate misrepresentation for ulterior purposes". The Records of the Grand Historian records that Zhao Gao, in an attempt to control the Qin government, devised a loyalty test for court officials using a deer and horse:

Zhao Gao was contemplating treason but was afraid the other officials would not heed his commands, so he decided to test them first. He brought a deer and presented it to the Second Emperor but called it a horse. The Second Emperor laughed and said, "Is the chancellor perhaps mistaken, calling a deer a horse?" Then the emperor questioned those around him. Some remained silent, while some, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Zhao Gao, said it was a horse, and others said it was a deer. Zhao Gao secretly arranged for all those who said it was a deer to be brought before the law and had them executed instantly. Thereafter the officials were all terrified of Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao gained military power as a result of that.

* * *

Zhao Gao (赵高, died 207 BC) was a Chinese politician of the Qin dynasty. Allegedly a eunuch, he served as a close aide to all three emperors of the Qin dynasty – Qin Shi Huang, Qin Er Shi and Ziying – and was regarded as having played an instrumental role in the downfall of the dynasty.

Zhao Gao started his career under Qin Shi Huang as a zhongche fuling (中車府令), an official in charge of managing the palace horse-drawn carriages. During this period of time, he also served as an attendant to Huhai, Qin Shi Huang's youngest son, and tutored him in the laws of the Qin Empire.

 In 210 BC, after Qin Shi Huang died in Shaqiu (沙丘; south of present-day Dapingtai Village, Guangzong County, Hebei), Zhao Gao and Li Si, the Chancellor, secretly changed the emperor's final edict, which named Fusu, the crown prince, the heir to the throne. In the falsified edict, Fusu was ordered to commit suicide while Huhai was named the new emperor. After Huhai was enthroned as Qin Er Shi, he promoted Zhao Gao to langzhongling (郎中令), an official post whose duties included managing the daily activities in the imperial palace. Zhao Gao, who was highly trusted by Qin Er Shi, instigated the emperor to exterminate his own siblings to consolidate power, and used the opportunity to eliminate his political opponents such as Meng Tian and Meng Yi. He also framed Li Si for treason and had Li and his entire family executed, after which he replaced Li as the Chancellor and monopolised state power. In 207 BC, when rebellions broke out in the lands east of Hangu Pass, Zhao Gao became worried that Qin Er Shi would blame him, so he launched a coup in Wangyi Palace (望夷宮; in Xianyang, near present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi) and assassinated the emperor. Following Qin Er Shi's death, Zhao Gao installed Ziying, Fusu's son, on the throne. Ziying sent Han Tan (韓談), a eunuch, to assassinate Zhao Gao.

Zhao Gao was distantly related to the royal family of the Zhao state of the Warring States period. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Zhao Gao's parents committed crimes and were punished. His brothers were castrated; it is unclear whether Zhao Gao himself was a eunuch or not. However, Qin Shi Huang valued Zhao Gao since he was learned in criminal law. This was very useful to Qin Shi Huang since he himself was always looking for ways to control the people by laws and punishments. Zhao Gao enjoyed a steady rise in position.

When Zhao was a minor official, he committed a crime punishable by death. Meng Yi was the official in charge of sentencing and he sentenced Zhao to death and removed him from the officials list as instructed by Qin Shi Huang.Zhao was later pardoned by Qin Shi Huang and returned to his official status.

At the end of the reign of Qin Shi Huang, Zhao Gao was involved in the death of Meng Tian and his younger brother, Meng Yi. Meng Tian, a reputable general and a supporter of Qin Shi Huang's eldest son, Fusu, was stationed at the northern border, commanding more than 200,000 troops for the inconclusive campaign against the Xiongnu. Following the sudden death of Qin Shi Huang at Shaqiu, Zhao Gao and Li Si, the Chancellor, persuaded the emperor's youngest son, Huhai, to falsify the emperor's will. The fake decree forced Fusu to commit suicide and stripped Meng Tian of his command. Harbouring hatred for the entire Meng family due to his prior sentencing by Meng Yi, Zhao Gao destroyed the Meng brothers by convincing Huhai to issue a decree that forced Meng Tian to commit suicide and execute Meng Yi.

Qin Er Shi, who viewed Zhao Gao as his tutor, became the next Qin emperor.

Two years later, Zhao Gao also killed Li Si, ironically executing him via the "Five Pains" method, Li's own invention. The method consisted of having the victim's nose cut off, cutting off a hand and a foot, then the victim was castrated and finally cut in half in line with the waist. He also had Li Si's entire family exterminated.

In 207 BC, rebellions broke out in the lands east of Hangu Pass. Zhao Gao was afraid that Qin Er Shi might make him responsible for the uprisings. To preempt this, he launched a coup and assassinated Qin Er Shi, and then installed Ziying, Fusu's son, as the new emperor.

Ziying, however, knew that Zhao Gao intended to kill him afterwards to appease the rebels, so he feigned illness on the day of the coronation, which forced Zhao to arrive at his residence to persuade him to attend. The moment Zhao Gao arrived, Ziying ordered a eunuch, Han Tan, to kill Zhao. Zhao Gao's entire clan was exterminated on Ziying's order.

Alternative viewpoints[edit]

There is a conspiracy theory that Zhao Gao was a descendant of the royal family of the Zhao state, which was destroyed by the Qin state, and Zhao Gao was seeking revenge on Qin. With Zhao Gao in charge of the Qin government, it was natural that the Qin Empire collapsed in such a short time. In fact, Zhao Gao killed all the sons and daughters of Qin Shi Huang, including the Second Emperor, Huhai. In revenge, Ziying killed Zhao Gao and all of his family members. Thus Zhao Gao or his brothers have no known descendants.

The historian Li Kaiyuan (李開元) believes Zhao Gao was not a eunuch at all. He bases this in part on the fact eunuchs were not allowed to serve as chancellors, which Zhao did.

Nine Emperors God

Ceremonial boat sets record…

People love to set records – longest, biggest, tallest and other what-have-you superlatives. How about “biggest lie” or “loudest fart”? I am pretty sure many of the political leaders in our beloved country would win these records hands-down. And the runners-up will not be far behind.

And what about silliest, dumbest, craziest, stupidest? Surely Guinness can also offer some form of records to make some of the fame seekers happy. 

When The Star reported a couple days ago that the devotees of the Nine Emperors God in a town in Kedah had built a ceremonial boat and they were touting it to be the largest in Malaysia, the first thought that came to my mind is that how could they do this to their great deity! 

Wouldn't the Nine Emperors God feel insulted? 

It is a junk, no matter how big the boat is! 

China already has an aircraft carrier; it is believed to be building more. Why are these people still building a junk for the Nine Emperors God. Surely, the great deity doesn't want, or indeed need, to be propelled by monsoonal winds to go places! The great deity certainly deserves a flag ship hat befits his status. If it is not an aircraft carrier, than it has to be at least a cruiser!

Each time I turned up to join my siblings to pay respect to our forebears’ graves during Qin-ming or All Souls Day, I could see people burning paper houses, cars, credit cards, the latest smart phones and even passports. How filial these people are! 

Hopefully, traffic jams in the netherworld are not as bad as ours here. And I just wonder whether if it is wise for all these filial souls to give their long departed loved ones credit cards. Debt is the last thing you want them to incur in the other world - unless, of course, you burn sufficient paper money each month to take of it. With the amount of paper gold and silver and "Hell" money you see burnt in every of these occasions, inflation there must be pretty bad. And why burn "Hell" money, when your loved ones may actually be in nirvana, or heaven, or paradise now?. 

Many of these practices are said to be the legacy of Daoism (or Taoism). I do read Lao-tze and his teachings from time to time. I always think he is the greatest philosopher China has ever produced. But in nowhere did I see Lao-tze propagate these superstitions.

Maybe I am kurang ajar - just how my late father thought I always had been when I was young! And still am!

Treadmill

Despite my many attempts to turn the pictures 90 degrees anti-clockwise, they remain in this silly orientation. So much about Google's Blogger capability! I suppose you have to tilt your head 90 degree clock-wise to figure our I am trying to show then. It is the treadmill in my condo!

I hate treadmills! My wife loves them, but she is happy to oblige me by going with me for long walks around our neighbourhoods (Toorak in Melbourne and Saujana Resort in Subang) in the morning and evening instead. She is more disciplined; I always pray for rain!

We usually return to Malaysia for extended stay during two periods, when we don't have to play taxi drivers to our two grand-kids in Melbourne. The last quarter of the year is one of these windows. But this time the haze is simply impossible in the Klang Valley. It has been weeks, yet you don't see any sign of abatement. I suppose Malaysians and Singaporeans have just had to deal with an apathetic Indonesia. President Jokowi says he needs three years to fix the problem. I thought the problem had been recurring almost every year; it was only a question of the degree of the denseness of the haze we were seeing. I bet in another month's time, when the burning and smoldering is over, everything will be forgotten again. I am pretty sure if their kneah-su style, Singapore would already have figured out how much the latest bout of non-stop haze had, or would, cost their economy and the impact on health there. Many of us in Malaysia of course have the usual syiok-sendiri mentality and are content to brush this more-or-less yearly occurrence off as a "what-to-do" nuisance.

I had great admiration for Jokowi - until he had shown himself to be another Obama! Both were refreshingly solid in many ways before they got elected. Unfortunately, they just couldn't manage bureaucratic and institutional inertia and resistance or persistent opposition onslaught once they found themselves sitting behind their huge presidential desks! Obviously the neo-Conservative forces in the States are simply too formidable for Obama to tackle. As for Jokowi, it is the country's civil service, which is largely filled by zombies and self-serving bureaucrats, and the inept newbies in his cabinet that are giving him the strong head wind.  

We can criticize others, but what about our own country? Our political and economic landscape is also being clouded - by a haze of a different kind, though. All of us know what it is; but how many of us are brave enough to speak out? Before I stray farther afield and end up as a hunted, I better return to what I want to say about treadmills.

With such a high reading of haze around, I have no choice but to count on the treadmills in my condo. But I dread using the treadmills!

I bought a treadmill in the 1980s; it was made in Taiwan and not as sophisticated as the one shown in the pictures. I could count the number of times I used it with the fingers of my two hands. I soon decided to get rid of it - for a simple reason: I just couldn't bring myself to tread on it for more than 10 minutes each time! We gave it to Bee, our sister-in-law. 

Many can deal with monotony but me 1,800 seconds each time, since that's the minimum my wife says I have to do each time? Very torturing, lah! To kill time with the count-down or the count-up - depending on setting - can make me go crazy!

Don't the manufacturers of treadmills know this boredom issue, especially with older people like me?

I have a suggestion for them: All they have to do is to provide a well-positioned pocket on the panel of their treadmills to hold an iPad. This will allow me to kill time with BBC, CNN, Malaysiakini, the Malaysian Insider, and what have you. As for my wife, she can continue to enjoy her Korean dramas even in the gym.

And I don't have to pray for the rain to fall! 

我爱发明 (I love to invent!)

I asked my good friend Rocky Wong, who is an expert in power plants, why was that Chinese plants were so badly reviewed each time they were commissioned. I was alluding to a recent article I read in a pretty well-regarded magazine about the one China had built near Jakarta. (I took more than a casual interest in its development for a reason: I used to a director of the Malaysian arm of this Chinese manufacturer, which is the public listed Dongfeng Electric based in Chengdu, China. The company was trying to bid for an IPP project in the 1990s, but the pursuit came to nothing, thanks to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.) Apparently, the Indonesians are fed up with the whole project. Rocky has designed, or been involved in the preparation of, some of the biggest IPP (Independent Power Producer) projects in the region. He used to speak well of China’s power plant technology.

He gave out a hearty laugh. “It’s simple really,” he said, “the Chinese are indeed good in those 300MW or so plants; they can churn them out like sausages. They will work well in China, but not outside China.”

He continued, “While their plants are good, their basic instrumentation is really second-world. This stuff of theirs is crude. And their operating instructions – they are really a joke.”

“To make the plant work well, one must be able to help prepare he local parties for these two basic needs. As a consultant, I helped them source modern, but appropriate, instrumentation and translate all the operating manuals into good English or the local language, as the case may be, not the Mickey Mouse English we so often see in Chinese product brochures.”

Rocky is so spot on!

These power plants cost hundreds of millions – in whatever good hard currency terms – yet these Chinese manufacturers can compromise on basic instrumentation and are oblivious to the need of good English to sell their wares!

Rocky’s wisdom reminds me of a visit I made to the Three Gorges Dam some years ago. The engineering was indeed impressive, until you visit the control room. The façade is so third-world in terms of housekeeping. The walls and doors are rusting away in so many places! Yet this is the showpiece of the day in China those days!

Three Gorges Dam, China

Didn’t I hear that the “ultra-modern” trains that are being sold to Malaysia are still struggling to get the necessary certification to commence operation? How can this be, when these China’s Prides are already crisscrossing the country for years?

In a social occasion, an acquaintance in Sydney confided to me that his daughter was suffering from a rare disease that inflicts endless, excruciating pains to her limbs. Apparently, her only remaining useful arm is also failing. She has seen all the top medical professors and specialists in Sydney; none seemed to be able to help. I suggested that alternative medicines might help. He said he was prepared to be open-minded; however, the very mention of traditional Chinese medicine dampens any enthusiasm from him. As an intellect, he is too discerning to believe all the panaceas offered in traditional Chinese medicine, especially with the English that is written on the labels and the instruction sheet inside?  

Wisdom is a rare commodity, even with Confucian Chinese!

I tune in to CCTV’s 我爱发明 (I love to invent) programme from time to time. You can see Chinese love of inventiveness. But the way some of them went about it was really silly. Much of the process was done in a trial and error manner, totally devoid of scientific understanding. And the crudeness behind their engineering is shocking, worse than the workshops you see in the Chan Sow Lin area in the 1970s!

Despite what we saw in those mighty armoury and other military displays in the parade to commemorate its victory in the war against Japan, we really have to hold back our pride somewhat. Unless Chinese can come to grips with the finer points of engineering, everything will remain NICE FROM FAR, BUT FAR FROM NICE.

I am a basher (if there is such a word) of many things Chinese, not because I am banana, but because I think we need to get our ABCs right.

                         

Who are really the shallow ones?

The organisers of Bersih 4 have been labelled as "shallow" by some of those who want everybody to believe everything is well and good in Malaysia now. 

I suppose they mean these activists are shallow in terms of intellect, or attitude, or knowledge, or patriotism, or the likes. Who are really shallow, the Bersih 4 organisers or these critics? I think all of us know the answer; there is therefore no point in my labouring over the matter.

However, this type of sweeping accusation does remind me of an incident I encountered some years ago while I was prospecting for land in Indonesia for large scale cultivation of oil palms for the IMC group. One of the provinces I was working on was East Kalimantan; its capital is Sararinda. I usually put up in Bumi Senyiur, hitherto the the top hotel there. One day, I saw that a mainland Chinese was having difficulty in trying to make himself understood to the reception, thanks to his Mickey-Mouse English! (Of course he couldn't speak a word of Indonesian.) I asked him in Mandarin what was his problem and offered my help. 

He was asking for a discount! 

I explained to him that such a hotel would not offer discounts in the manner he wanted. I remember because the rate was rate was quite stiff, he decided to try somewhere else. My local manager Alay Yuanda was kind enough to help him find a hotel nearby that suited his budget. 

Alay became a trusted friend of xiao-Yang, which he wanted to be called. He also bought me dinner one evening. Xiao-Yang hails from Wuhan and was trying to buy coal from Kalimantan to ship to China. He became so successful that soon he opened up mines! He even married a local woman; of course he had to become a Muslim. I believed he was already married in China, though.

Xiao-Yang remarked to me one day that although I spoke fluent English, the type of English I spoke was actually less that biao-jun (标准 or 標準), or not up to "standard". 

Whose standard??? He said his was the standard! How ironical!!! Or funny? Ignorance is bliss I suppose? And to the half-baked politicians I mentioned earlier, where everybody is shallow to them, I suppose stupidity is bliss???

If you do not attempt to see beyond the tip of your nose, you just cannot learn. Try turn on CCTV to listen to news in English; I bet you get irritated by the English spoken by their homegrown presenters. They speak English like the way they speak Mandarin! Don't blame them, though. They simply would not know that their English is bad. I suppose their teachers also taught them to speak English that way in schools and universities! And their teachers had also been taught that way by their teachers! The process thus becomes self-perpetuating (or incestuous?).And Chinglish is born!

I was watching CCTV' English Channel's live coverage on the 70th anniversary of China's victory against Japan the other day. The parade was certainly impressive. But before the anchors took over, it was covered by a number of local reporters. Again, I couldn't help remarking to my wife that Chinese are so very good in shooting themselves in the foot. The channel is meant for international audience, but which part of international audience would tune in to watch this parade - with the English they can hardly bear to listen???

What Al Jazeera does is different. Poach the best from BBC or CNN or CNBC; in no time you are as authoritative as these channels. 

If you are too self-centred, you will never know what has slipped past you!!! 

Lack of Tolerance?

I thought I had learned to be more tolerant - until an evening recently, when I invited a couple of long-lost friends to share a meal at Sydney Chinatown's East Ocean Restaurant!

Having been involved, albeit on a peripheral basis, in the hospitality industry for many years, I am most particular about etiquette of waiters and waitresses in restaurants. I find there is a great deal many serving in Chinese restaurants can learn from their counteracts in the western settings.

The decor of to the restaurant was quite impressive by any standard. But the moment you went into the restaurant proper, you could see that the people there were really a sloppy lot - in terms of room orderliness and reception. But never mine, they are all like that, so I said to myself.

After our meal, we ordered some pancakes. I immediately lost my cool when they were served! Three pieces for ten people??? When we asked for them to be cut so that we could share, the "dumb blonde" cut each into half. Six for 10 people??? I couldn't help asking her if she had forgotten to bring her head to work. I was a little little curt in my tone. it was just me

 

But I suddenly notice the disapproval looks of some friends. How could I be so patronising!!!

I certainly still have a long way to go in terms of xiu-yang (休养)!

But again, why are we Chinese generally so incapable of exercising common sense? And thoughtfulness? And social etiquette?