Went on a walkabout in the turkey filled hills with a friend nicknamed ‘French Boat’
Yes I know that is a kinda weird name, and does not come off the tongue easy
Nevertheless it fits, anyhow
He asked me
Why do you write so many native American stories?
How about a Chinese tale?
Well okay, here it is
I’ve entitled it an ‘Explanation’ etc . . .
But some folks might end up more confused than clarified at the end of it
So for those who cannot do without their logic and rational thinking
Have a difficult time with negative space, washed out blurs of gray ink,
And loosey goosey gobble gobble mindsets
There is another explanation that follows the set of drawings
Written in plain straightforward English, more like a set of notes and annotations
So that you might venture further, and not be left with wtf?!
1 So the classic old timer phrase is
In the dark there is light, and in the light there is dark
And the spheres are constantly moving and shifting
dynamic equilibrium some would say
2-3 There you have it, the yin and the yang
opposite principles derived from the observation of nature
5- 14 We launch here into the mahjong tiles,
For those of you not familiar with the game
It is kinda like this card game called gin rummy
You play by making sets of three tiles
Either three of a kind like 777, or three in a row like 123 456
And to win, you also need a pair of two identical tiles
So sets of 3, and a 2, more or less
Theres a lot of variations too
Instead of spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, and a couple of jokers
The mahjong set has winds, numbers, coins, bamboos, and fundamentals
Instead of jokers, theres these ‘extra’ optional tiles that are seasons and plants
4-5 The winds align with the four cardinal directions of play
Here we usually say north east south west
In Chinese it goes east south west and north
Probably because it starts with the rising of the sun
The north wind is shown as it evolved from bone script times to present day
The winds were coming from the arctic recently, really cold and on my mind
6-8 The fundamentals are kinda odd
They have to be used in the game as triplets of three identical tiles
Since they are each their own thing
And cannot be used in a sequence or linked with one another
Each character speaks for itself
They exemplify the qualities or values considered good and noble
In order to be grounded in society, nature and ritual
They play off of one another
9-14 These pages show examples of the three linear ‘suits’
Numbers, coins, and bamboos
After a while of playing this game, you start to see sets of three everywhere
Whether that be 234 456 or 222 and 999
Anyhow, when you want to make that pair, the set of two of the same tile
The pair you have to have in order to win
Oftentimes you want to try and make that a 22 or a 55 or an 88
2’s, 5’s and 8’s
Not 1’s, 4’s, 7’s, nor 3’s, 6’s, 9’s
The simple reason is that you get more points for a pair of 2, 5, or 8’s
The more complicated reason is that
You want to be in the middle, not at the ends
123 – the middle is 2
456 – the middle is 5
789 – the middle is 8
Thus 147 258 369, the sequence in the middle is…
In farming times its probably a practical thing like the ends of cordage being weak
Or the bottom of the barrel being gunky and such
In imperial times you would want to be fair and hence in the middle, and so on
So a pair of twos, or a pair of fives, or eights
12 Think the drawings 9 -14 are pretty clear in and of themselves
But this one needs just a little touch
The particular ‘suit’ is coins
The coins in the old times had a square hole in the middle
The word for coin is similar to a cylinder or a ‘sleeve’
Colloquially we will also call this suit pancakes because of the round shape
Cookies are pretty close too
Yummy starchy dough products that are baked or fried savory or sweet
15 -18 Mahjong has a couple of different names in the north and the south
In the south it is the game of sparrows
Something to do with all the chit chat sounds of the tiles being washed and jettisoned
And the fluttering of small birds Chinese used to loved to hunt or keep in cages
In the north, the second character sounds more like the jong of Mahjong
How the character came to be linked with the game
May be lost to history
But if you play Chinese chess, the general or the ‘king’ for one side of the game
Has the same character
In the old times, it is doubtful that the ‘king’ ( emperor) would be on the battle field at all
For sure the all powerful queen is not roaming around the trenches
Launching rockets and crossing rivers
Western chess is similar to, but different from, eastern chess
Anyhow, this is yin and yang embodied as play
A social game loved by kids and addicted gamblers alike
19 This is the silly page before the more peaceful and contemplative ending
Followers of the tao who adopted the yin yang symbol
Love to quote old man Laozi
Going on about ‘if you know the way, you don’t know the way’
On the one hand, its kinda true
In the sense that any ol kinda dogma or institution or binding
(Materialized as ropes, words, boxes, data sheets and the like)
That tries to strap down and stop the movement of the dynamic state-changing equilibrium
Is gonna fail
On the other hand, you also get these folks that just make stuff up
Turn night into day and day into night, like none of it matters
Don’t know which direction the sun comes up
Operate in a magic bubble not grounded in nature at all
I kinda prefer what my uncle Tito Grabiel says
The way or the path is forward, tira adelante
Yes linear
Or is that circular?
Ugghhhh
20 So there you have it
Ancient Chinese philosophy based on a lunar calendar
Farming in riverine valleys and fishing by a still pond
Cutting firewood in the forest, and harvesting medicinal herbs on a sunlit ridge
Mission Azul 