Civilizational Canons · LC2

Cosmos & Nature

Gazing up at the cosmos and observing all creation: the profound resonance between poetic sensibility and celestial movements.

Cosmos & Nature encompasses poetic inquires into the origin of the universe, cosmic cycles, and astronomical awe, featuring Qu Yuan's Heavenly Questions, Cao Cao's cosmic oceanic horizons, and classical moonlight rhapsodies.

Representative works

Zhou · Qu Yuan · Chu ElegiesQuestions to HeavenAt the primordial beginning of remote antiquity, who was there to transmit the account? When Heaven and Earth had not yet taken form, how could they be examined? When light and dark were merged in chaos, who could probe their origin? Whirling formless primordial mist—how can it be comprehended? Where are the sun and moon attached? How are the arrays of stars arranged?LR10483Three Kingdoms · Cao Cao · Yuefu BalladsGazing Across the Vast SeaThe journeys of sun and moon seem to issue from its depths; the brilliant galaxy appears to rise from within.LR10031Xia · Anonymous (Archaic Elders) · Four-Character VerseSong of Beating the EarthWork at sunrise, rest at sundown. Dig wells for drink, plow fields for food. What has the emperor's power to do with me!LR10485Xia · Emperor Shun · Four-Character VerseSong of the Southern WindThe balmy Southern wind soothes the sorrow of my people; the timely Southern breeze enriches their wealth.LR10486

Read by dynasty

Xia

2070–1600 BCE2 works
  1. Song of Beating the EarthAnonymous (Archaic Elders) · Four-Character VerseWork at sunrise, rest at sundown. Dig wells for drink, plow fields for food. What has the emperor's power to do with me!
  2. Song of the Southern WindEmperor Shun · Four-Character VerseThe balmy Southern wind soothes the sorrow of my people; the timely Southern breeze enriches their wealth.

Zhou

1046–256 BCE9 works
  1. Zhuangzi: Autumn FloodsZhuangzi · Pre-Qin MastersYou cannot speak of the ocean to a well frog, for it is confined by space; you cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, for it is bound by time; you cannot speak of the Dao to a narrow scholar, for he is shackled by doctrines.
  2. Dao De Jing: Essential Chapters on DaoLaozi · Pre-Qin MastersThe Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal Name. Highest good is like water. Water benefits all things yet contends not, settling in low places men despise, thus it nears the Dao.
  3. Xunzi: Discourse on NatureXunzi · Pre-Qin MastersNature operates with constant constancy: it exists not for Yao, nor perishes for Jie. Respond to it with sound governance and fortune ensues; respond with disorder and calamity results. Rather than exalting Heaven and longing for it, why not harness natural forces and master them!
  4. Classic of Poetry · Seventh MonthAnonymous (Bin Farmers) · Four-Character VerseIn the seventh month crickets in the fields, in the eighth under the eaves, in the ninth at the door, in the tenth under my bed. Alas for us farmers! Our crops gathered, we go up to serve in the ruler's halls.
  5. Classic of Poetry · Hymns of Zhou · The Mandate of HeavenAnonymous · Four-Character VerseThe Mandate of Heaven, ah, how endlessly profound and unceasing! Ah, how gloriously bright, how pure is the virtue of King Wen! Bestowing abundant favor upon us, we gratefully receive it; walking in the benevolence of King Wen, his distant descendants hold fast to it.
  6. Questions to HeavenQu Yuan · Chu ElegiesAt the primordial beginning of remote antiquity, who was there to transmit the account? When Heaven and Earth had not yet taken form, how could they be examined? When light and dark were merged in chaos, who could probe their origin? Whirling formless primordial mist—how can it be comprehended? Where are the sun and moon attached? How are the arrays of stars arranged?
  7. The Man of Qi Who Feared the Sky Would FallLie Yukou · Philosophers' FablesWorrying endlessly over what will not happen only torments yourself.
  8. The Way Follows NatureLaozi · IdiomsThe Dao takes what is natural as its model; follow things as they are rather than forcing them.
  9. The Man of Qi Fears the Sky Will FallLiezi · IdiomsNeedless or groundless worry.

Han

202 BCE – 220 CE4 works
  1. Rhapsody on the OwlJia Yi · Grand Han RhapsodiesHeaven and Earth are the great furnace, Nature the master smith; Yin and Yang the burning charcoal, and all myriad creatures the molten bronze. Assembling, dispersing, waning, waxing—where is there any rigid constant!
  2. Huainanzi · Surveying the Obscure (Excerpt)Liu An · Pre-Qin MastersThen Nüwa smelted stones of five colors to patch the azure sky.
  3. Nüwa Mends the SkyHuainanzi · IdiomsThe goddess Nüwa smelts five-colored stones to repair the broken sky; heroic effort to set a collapsing world right.
  4. The Cowherd and the Weaver GirlNineteen Old Poems · IdiomsLovers separated by the Milky Way who meet once a year; couples living apart who rarely reunite.

Three Kingdoms

220–2802 works
  1. Gazing Across the Vast SeaCao Cao · Yuefu BalladsThe journeys of sun and moon seem to issue from its depths; the brilliant galaxy appears to rise from within.
  2. Separating Heaven and EarthXu Zheng · IdiomsFrom the myth of Pangu splitting heaven from earth; since the dawn of time, or an unprecedented feat.

Tang

618–9071 works
  1. Heaven Answered · ExcerptLiu Zongyuan · Chu ElegiesOriginally all is One Primordial Qi, generating and transforming ceaselessly without prior design. Who governs it? Who rules it? What does Heaven say? The four seasons move, the hundred things are born.

Song

960–12793 works
  1. First Rhapsody on the Red CliffSu Shi · Prose RhapsodiesLodging like mayflies between heaven and earth, tiny as a single grain in the vast ocean. Lamenting the transience of our brief life, envying the unending flow of the Great Yangtze. Only the clear breeze over the river and the bright moon among mountains: when ear hears it, it becomes sound; when eye meets it, it becomes color. Taking without prohibition, using without exhaustion—this is the boundless inexhaustible treasury of the Creator.
  2. Rhapsody on the Sounds of AutumnOuyang Xiu · Prose RhapsodiesPlants have no feeling, yet shed in appointed seasons. Man is a sentient creature, the crown of all life; yet hundreds of anxieties stir his heart and myriad affairs toil his body—no wonder rosy cheeks wither like dried wood, and jet-black hair turns to scattered stars!
  3. Unity of Heaven and HumanityZhang Zai · IdiomsThe philosophical ideal that heaven and humankind form one whole; harmony between people and nature.