Sign In
Not register? Register Now!
Essay Available:
Pages:
4 pages/≈1100 words
Sources:
Check Instructions
Style:
MLA
Subject:
Literature & Language
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 14.4
Topic:

Literature & Language Essay: The Relationship between The New Year Sacrifice and The analects to Current Chinese Traditions and Culture

Essay Instructions:

Final Essay Guidelines
Instead of providing a list of specific questions for the final essay, you instead have a general question that is meant encompass the “foundations and transformations” theme of our class.

Choose any one of the texts from the modern period of our syllabus (starting from Lu Xun in Week 12) and discuss its relationship with “tradition” (as represented by the texts we’ve read this semester). Does the text make a total, definitive break with traditional philosophy and literature, or does it retain, return to, reinterpret, or reinvent certain elements of it?
The essay you write in response should adhere to the following guidelines:
In the introduction to your essay, please clearly indicate which modern text you will be examining, and what your general argument is in response to the question.
In your following analysis, before addressing the text’s relationship to tradition, please first discuss what you see as the modern significance of the text (as it pertains to your argument).
If you regard the text as completely breaking with tradition, please specifically indicate how this is the case by referencing earlier readings from our class. If, on the other hand, you see certain continuities or reinventions, please demonstrate this through specific examples. If the text happens to make explicit reference to a premodern work we’ve read, what particular role do you see this reference playing in the modern work itself?
Finally, remember to provide a conclusion that synthesizes and reiterates your previous discussion and analysis.
Like the midterm, these final essays should be around five double-spaced pages (~1,250 words) and submitted to your TA on or before Tuesday, December 15. Please keep in mind that next week’s readings by Pai Hsien-Yung and Mo Yan are also options for your final papers, so you might want to rea these sooner rather than later in case you might want to use them.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

The Relationship between The New Year Sacrifice and The analects to Current Chinese Traditions and Culture
Student’s name
Institution
Course
Course Code
Instructor
Submission Date
The Chinese traditional culture is one of the traditional cultures in the world that has so many myths, weird beliefs that are believed by the adherents and shunned by the non-adherents in equal measure. In this paper we look at Lu Xun’s scholarly work The New Year Sacrifice and The Analects and their relationship with Chinese tradition, while The sacrifice retains the old traditions, cultures and beliefs of the Chinese people, The Analects though an ancient text is grounded on self-discipline, love, care, responsibility and close relationship between a persons and his family and society.
To start with, of all the modern day Chinese scholars, Lu Xun is one of the few that fights for the enlightenment of people but has proven to be the most resolute and rebellious. His rebelliousness towards tradition does not imply that he has nothing to do with tradition. In fact, to fight against tradition, he shows a deep understanding and cognition of the tradition. According to Lu Xun’s philosophical proposition, “everything is an intermediate object”, and happens in this way. With the evocation of this philosophical thought, the “intermediate object” we notice Lu’s inseparable tie with Chinese tradition and culture, even as he fiercely fights it. The intermediate object that Lu talks about in his text is majorly the New Year’s sacrifice.
Lu Xun’s perceptions in The New Year Sacrifice are seen with how he deduces and develops the excellent while discarding certain worthless and mythical aspects of Chinese culture, having learnt from the advanced ideas of the west. Moreover, Lu’s philosophy of the “intermediate object” forms the ground of his story. His writing shows a step out of the inherent Chinese culture, to come to a middle ground where both Western and Chinese traditional cultures collide to cultivate a more logical and reasonable culture. Though Lu Xun does not subscribe to certain traditions and culture of the Chinese people, he agrees that the New Years’ Sacrifice is something good as it is meant to give thanks to the gods for a successful previous year into a prospective new year. According to him the end of the New Year in the calendar does not signify a physical end of year. To him it is okay for the Chinese people to mark the end of the year “with flashes from pallid on the sky, and rumbling crackers and gun powder to bid farewell to the Hearth God” (Lu, pp 181).
According to Xhu, The New Year Sacrifice though he is not into it so much, is not something that is celebrated by most Chinese people. No matter the age, virtually all Chinese celebrate The New Year Sacrifice. It is an end year ceremony that is done to welcome the God of Fortune so that he sends good luck for the coming year. Geese and chicken are killed; pork is bought and scoured by water until the water turns red. After the meat is cooked, chopsticks are used to thrust the meat and the sacrifice is given at dawn, accompanied by lit candles and incense then the God of Fortun...
Updated on
Get the Whole Paper!
Not exactly what you need?
Do you need a custom essay? Order right now:
Order

You Might Also Like Other Topics Related to language essays:

HIRE A WRITER FROM $11.95 / PAGE
ORDER WITH 15% DISCOUNT!
Order Now