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羅洪先狀元醒世詩
Luo Hong Xian's Poems Of Awakening To The World
https://youtu.be/wqUI5Ke-ukc
Foo Hong 符大煥(31-73)
Sun-Hoo Foo 符傳孝 (32-74-109) 1-2
March 19 2022
Dad went to Malaya in 1938 when he was 16. When dad first copied these poems Which were inscribed on a huge rock located in Kek Lok Si Temple (極樂寺), Penang, he was 24 in the year 1946, 8 years after fleeing warring China, only to be tortured during the Japanese invasion. Yet he persevered. During these times, when nothing was for granted, he educated himself, raised 6 of us and many others. He copied the poems again in 1996 ( age 72) and then calligraphed in 2000 ( age 78).All these year in the architect firm, he wrote and drafted with pen, he picked up Chinese brush himself after he retired. He finished the work on Christmas morning at home in Brunei. He showed me this third version and I have a digital copy. He copied the poems three times, he must have been deeply touched.
I know of these poems only after he copied them for the third time while mom, his wife/comrade throughout these difficult and challenging years, was withering in bed from sickness under the loving care of her children/my beloved siblings.
So why did Lo2 Zhuang4 Yuan2 羅狀元bother to write these poems, Xing3Shi4Shi1 醒世詩 in the year 1530 when he suddenly decided to leave the court and abandon the honor of scoring first in the imperial examination and let go of all the impending glory/success?
Following are examples of what he wrote:
As rich as Shi2 Chong2 ,He did not enjoy thousand years of wealth.石崇不享千年富
General Han2 Xin4,despite his ingenious 10 military strategies, did not escape his own miserable fate. 韓信空成十大謀
Riches and powers of mortals are like the dew on flowers人間富貴花間露
The honors and fames on paper are like the waves of the sea 紙上功名水上漚
And more:
When dealing with comings and goings, patience is indispensable abandon
Always toiling and laboring, when will there ever be free time?
Twisting and turning like a river, the mind works in this manner.
Layered and overlapping, mundane affairs pile into mountains.
有有無無且耐煩，勞勞碌碌幾時閒？人心曲曲彎彎水，世事重重疊疊山。
In the past and present, changes are always manifold.
The days of poverty and wealth come and go in a cycle.
Be content with what we already have, as it will help us get through life.
Sweet and bitter tastes of life, will leave the same feeling in the end
古古今今多改變，貧貧富富有循環；將將就就隨時過，苦苦甜甜命一般
In hurry and in haste, our painstaking pursuits continue,
Through warm and cold, springs and autumns come and go
Day and night, we manage household affairs.
Ignorant and confused, we are suddenly old.
急急忙忙苦追求，寒寒暖暖度春秋；朝朝暮暮營家計，昧昧昏昏白了頭。
All these quarrels over right and wrong, when will they ever stop?
So much worries and afflictions, when will they ever cease?
Clearly and consciously, we tread our chosen path.
Giving hundreds and thousands of reasons, we refuse to cultivate.
是是非非何日了,煩煩惱惱幾時休；明明白白一條路，萬萬千千不肯修。
English translation: Miao Guang
And why the authors of these 2 epic novels, Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三國演義 wrote the followings:
All mankind may fully know,
Still the heaping up of riches
They reluctantly forego.
世人都曉神仙好 只有金銀忘不了
Daily they lament their failure,
With their first and last breath,
When satiety arrives
Then their eyes are closed in death.
終朝只恨聚無多 及到多時眼閉了
紅樓夢 曹雪芹 〔清代〕
The gushing waters of the Yangzi River pour and disappear into the East, washing away past heroes: their triumphs and failures, all vanish into nothingness in an instant. Yet, the green hills stood as before, along with the perpetual rosy sunset.
translated by Vincent Poon
滾滾長江東逝水,浪花淘盡英雄。是非成敗轉頭空：青山依舊在, 幾度夕陽紅。 三國演義
With so much hardship he went through, I never heard him complaining of his frustration or showed any depression. The poems are all about the futility of life experiences and how should one be awakened and abandon these temptations . I interpreted that in 2009 and made a power point https://www.slideshare.net/sunhoofoo/xing-shi-shi-foo-hong-1
And if at the end ,every things is empty. What keep dad and others going and not sink into depression?
Maybe life is a process
Like a little man rolling a rock up the mountain,. Again, and again. It is the process that counts
Life is not a cup half empty but half full
生活的杯子並非半空, 都是半滿的
And like Contorta branch, life bends whichever way, but eventually it will surely go up
生活的榛枝 扭曲盤轉 最終還是向上的
If you find a reason to be depressed you can definitely also find a good reason to be happy
有理由憂鬱 就更有理由高興
If there is wind outside the window, then one has the reason to fly
窗外有風 我就有飛的理由
清波浮沈 今日秋葉 白浪淘盡 千古英雄
May be he saw through everything, keep the original intention, and do one thing to the end
看穿一切，保持初心，把一件事情做到了底
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYvRE4ksoic
https://www.ixigua.com/6949022092981436958
Kek Lok Si Temple (極樂寺)
極樂寺於1891年由第一代祖師妙蓮長老所創建，是東南亞最大的北傳佛教聖地。 / Established in 1891, Kek Lok Si Temple is the largest Mahayana temple complex in South East.還有一座“韜光亭"，亭中刻著明嘉靖六年(1527年)狀元羅洪先寫的《醒世歌》Luo Hongxian (羅洪先; 1504–1564) was a Ming dynasty Chinese cartographer
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