I'm blogging relatively early today because I'll be kinda busy tonight doing my notes, reading my lecture notes for tomorrow's class and discussing my IS presentation with my group mates.
So! I had my IS lecture today. We continued the lecture by talking about Taoism, Buddhism, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. I think Taoism plays a very important role in China history even till today. I can see a lot of Taoism temples around especially at the Wudang Mountains. The dean also emphasizes a lot on Taoism in his lecture as compared to Buddhism. I also learned from the dean that the difference between Confucianism and Taoism is that Confucianism tells people what to do, acting like a big 'burden' to the scholars and rich businessmen who follow it. However, Taoism tells people to pursue a spiritual life and be close to nature. This is why the Taoist temples are situated at Wudang Mountains as it is far from the city, where taoists monks there can be close with nature and be a part of it. Buddhism was not really mentioned very much but the dean did tell us about Shakyamuni Buddha's life and Xuan Zang's journey from China all the way to India to learn about Buddhism and get scriptures.
When talking about Lao Zi, the dean said that he feels that Lao Zi has even more wisdom and knowledge than Kong Fuzi. I feel the same way as well. His philosophy about "dao" is so profound but easy to comprehend at the same time. His famous "dao de jing" was written when he was about to leave China because he could not withstand the city life and the corruption.
About Zhuang Zi, I think he is a very witty person by rebutting his friend, Huizi, when he said that the fish were enjoying themselves darting in the Hao Waterfall. One sentence or phrase that really struck me was that "life is limited and knowledge to be gained is unlimited". I think that it is very true. We can only know so much knowledge and information when we are still alive. There are bound to be more things to be discovered and more things to know. One lifetime is never enough.
After the interesting and meaningful lecture, I went with my usual group of girls to have lunch at KFC. I finally managed to try their rice! It was actually quite nice. The salad and soup was nice as well.
We finished our lunch and we went back to have our forensic science lecture. Ms Tan taught us the procedures for quantifying DNA. It was really interesting. Even though some terms have been taught to me before, nonetheless there were other new terms and things that I learnt.
That's about it for today. Will blog tomorrow evening or night.
Although it's early, but have a good rest tonight and sweet dreams!
xoxo
Zayneeer
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