Sun-Tzu (About)

Sun-Tzu (About)

By Madison Nef

Sun-Tzu is a well-known and highly respected author. He wrote the book “The Art of War”, which many consider to be the best book written on the subject (war). If you wanted to just skim the surface on who he was, you could say that little was known about his birth, that he was a military specialist, general and author and that he died in 496 BC. However, to do so would be a great injustice to his name- while a lot of his life was shrouded in mystery, we do know more about him than just the basics. Digging through multiple sites, here is what I found out about “Sun-Tzu”:

The two oldest known records, The Spring and Autumn Annals and Records of the Grand Historian both have different accounts of Sun-Tzu’s birth. The Annals, which are a little bit older than the Records, have Tzu as being born in Qi, while the Records claim he was born in Wu. The name that Sun-Tzu is most recognized by is actually just a title meaning “Master Sun”. There is a lot of speculation surrounding his birth name, or if “he” was born at all. Two variants of the name are Sun-Wu and Wu-Tzu. Both sources agree that Sun-Tzu was born late in the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 BC), and that he served as a military general and strategist for king Helu of Wu in the late sixth century BC, beginning near 512 BC.

A well known story about Sun-Tzu, recorded by Sima Qian, illustrates Sun-Tzu as follows:
Before hiring Sun-Tzu, King Helu needed him to prove his skill. As a test, he ordered Sun-Tzu to train a harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Tzu divided them into two different groups, putting the two concubines most favored by Helu each in charge of a group. Tzu ordered the concubines to face right, and when ordered to do so they giggled. Tzu replied by telling them that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for making sure they knew the orders given to them. He then gave the same command and they giggled again.

Sun-Tzu got sick of the behavior and ordered that Helu’s two favorite concubines be executed, to the king’s protests. He explained to the king that if the soldiers the general was in charge of understood their commands but did not obey, that it was the fault of the officers. He went on to say that once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even IF the king protested. After the concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Both concubines listened to the orders directly and completed them without frivolity, seeing what the costs were.

Sima Qian then claimed that Sun-Tzu proved on the battlefield that his theories were effective at the Battle of Boju, that he had an extremely successful military career and that he wrote The Art of War BASED on his tested expertise. This is all well and good, HOWEVER, Zuo Zhuan, an earlier historical text that gives a much more detailed account of the Battle of Boju, doesn’t mention Tzu at all.

There has also been a great deal of speculation surrounding “The Art of War”. There are some who question if Sun-Tzu even existed due to lack of records, and many believe that a general by the name of Wu-Tzu wrote the Art of War under the pen name Sun-Tzu. Still others think that the book was co-written by many different generals of the era. I personally think that it was written by only one man, simply because of the TWO birth records. It’s common sense. I think that Wu-Tzu (or whoever he was) did use a pen name as Sun-Tzu (as mentioned above) means “Master Sun”. Not a typical name, even for that era.

Who do YOU think wrote “The Art of War”?

Maddie

Air Currents

Air Currents
By Madison Nef
An air current is moving air, like a gust of wind. Wind is created because of uneven heating of the Earth’s surface. Since Earth is made of land and water, it absorbs the sun’s radiation unevenly as well. The wind is caused by hot and cold air interchanging places. This is caused because hot air is lighter than the cool air, and when the cold air moves in to the hot air, the wind blows. The different temperatures of air are caused by the different climates on Earth. Some places always have direct sunlight, while other places only get indirect light (causing the difference in air).
A gust front is a leading edge of cool air that rushes down from a thunderstorm. There are two reasons why air flows out of thunderstorms so quickly. The main reason is dry air in the lower atmosphere, which causes the rain falling through it to evaporating (in effect cooling the air). Being cool air sinks, it causes a downward gust of air that spreads out at the ground. The very edge of the “pool” of air is the gust front. The second reason is that the rain puts a drag on the air, which forces it downward. If the wind following the gust front is very strong, the windstorm is called a downburst.
Downbursts are created as soon as a strong wind hits the land or water and spreads out. Unlike tornados, downburst spread out immediately. Dry downbursts are generated from thunderstorms with very little precipitation while wet downbursts are generated from thunderstorms with heavy rainfall.
A derecho is a very widespread and strong windstorm that is usually found in fast moving and severe thunderstorms. Derechos can extremely damage property and are life-threatening if very strong, mainly because of the high downburst winds. To be classified as a derecho, the path of the storm must be at least 280 miles long. Widths of the storms vary usually from 50-300 miles. Derechos usually do not strike in the winter, but occur mainly in July, spreading into the early spring and summer months.
Another type of wind is a jet stream. Jet streams are a fast-flowing river of air often found in the atmosphere 12 km above the Earth’s surface. They often form at the edges of adjacent air masses with large differences in temperature- a good example being the polar region and the warmer air to the south. The streams always flow from west to east because of the rotation of the Earth- moving in a serpentine or wave-like manner at lower speeds than the wind within the flow.
While windstorms at high speeds can be extremely dangerous, wind is also very useful in the world. Not only is it the fastest growing source of electricity in the world, it is also one of the least expensive forms of renewable power. Experts actually say it can sometimes be the cheapest form of ANY kind of power. As if that isn’t great enough, generating power from wind leaves no dangerous waste behind- and its power supply is unlimited. To utilize the wind, windmills are used. The wind flows over the airfoil shaped blades causing lift, like the effect on airplane wings, causing them to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft which turns an electric generator, producing electricity.
Different regions have separate names for the wind. Here are some of the terms:
chinook-(westerly wind off the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains)
santa ana-(easterly towards Southern California )
scirocco-(southerly from North Africa to southern Europe)
mistral-(northwesterly from central France to Mediterranean)
marin-(southeasterly from Mediterranean to France)
bora-(northeasterly from eastern Europe to Italy)
gregale-(northeasterly from Greece)
etesian-(northwesterly from Greece)
libeccio-(southwesterly towards Italy)

Letters from the Earth (Mark Twain)

Mark Twain: Letters from the Earth (My Thoughts)
By Madison Nef
Letters from the Earth was collection of Twain’s writings that were published 50 or so years after his death in 1910. These letters seem to be more personal, and it has been questioned if he was writing the letters to be published or if they were private. The papers seem to be his thoughts and feelings about God, Heaven, and he questions his own religious beliefs. Reading the letters, I think Twain was using them almost as a diary or a journal for his thoughts as they seem to be sectioned off and each has its own opinion.
The first few letters talk about humans having an unrealistic view of heaven. Twain had an excellent point- here on Earth, humans hate to be in church for more than 30 minutes, but dream of endless sermons in Heaven. How we don’t want to sing on Earth, but say we will sing the praise of God forever in heaven. It’s true; we have painted a pretty unrealistic portrait of what we want. Naturally that isn’t how I picture heaven- I picture heaven a place made out of clouds where you can eat all you want and not get fat!
All joking aside, some of the other letters are downright bitter- speaking of an unforgiving God and how humans are still held accountable because God holds grudges. Writing from Satan’s perspective, Twain goes on to speak of Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the Tree of Life. He bashes God for holding it against us when it was only Adam and Eve’s mistake- and I can’t help but agree. Why should WE have to pay for THEIR mistake? At the point in life Twain wrote these letter, he happened to be going through a tough time himself.
His first-born daughter, Susy, got sick and died without him getting to say goodbye to her while he was away on a lecture workshop in Europe. Prior to her death, Susy had been a bit upset with her father because his fame as an author cut his time with her away. She also thought that he should get more recognition as a prestigious author than he did- at the time he was known to be a humorist more than anything in his speeches. Twain went away on a workshop, and Susy stayed behind because she had to recover from being seasick so she could study to become an opera singer.
She didn’t recover and got ill and passed away before Twain got back- before he could make amends. Perhaps Twain had began writing the letters before Susy died- and maybe he felt that God was holding him guilty for it and punishing him for it by not letting him have peace. I recently wrote a blog post about how the first step to forgiving someone is forgiving yourself- maybe Twain felt guilt over what he did (both writing crudely about God and about feeling like he didn’t have enough time with his daughter) and couldn’t forgive himself.
Just a few years after Susy died, Twain’s wife of 34 years, Olivia, died. Right after that a close friend of his died… and all the while he was in the middle of business struggles. I think that Twain may have struggled a religious crisis when all this happened. It must have hit him like a tidal wave, and it probably gave him a good reason to question God. I’ve met people who have been good Christians… and then a loved one dies and they start questioning everything. They begin to blame God for their own faults, and wonder if heaven exists… and these seem to be the themes of “Letters from the Earth”. Even the title makes sense somewhat- “Letters from Earth” being his opinions while here about life after death and what is away from Earth.
Years later, Twain is still a beloved literary figure whose works have never lost their touch. We’ll never know what REALLY inspired his personal letters- we can only ponder and guess. What do YOU think inspired them?
Maddie

Coleridge Poem Interpretation

Coleridge Poem Interpretation (Fragment)
By Madison Nef
The poem I chose is proof that a poem does not have to be long to have a deep meaning. The poem “Fragment” has only 3 lines, but a very deep meaning that pulled me in almost immediately. Breaking it down line by line, here is what I came up with:
“The body, Eternal Shadow of the finite soul”
The first “line” of the poem is just two words: “the body”. This can either be read as just one piece of the poem, or you could put it in front of each sentence to give the poem a whole different meaning. When using it as only one piece, the poem seems to talk about the connection between our bodies and souls. The “Eternal Shadow” is described as a piece of the soul- but Coleridge describes the soul as finite. I think the “eternal shadow” may refer to our bodies. While our bodies do decompose, they will ALWAYS be on Earth and be a part of Earth- functioning or not. Even after your body is reduced to ash, you are still a part of the world- even if just an imprint within the ground. A shadow is a form of imprint.

(The body) the Soul’s self-symbol, it’s image of itself.
(Meaning 1, with “the body”) If our souls are conscious of themselves, then their self image would technically be of our “body”, which contains them for our time here on Earth. A snail’s shell serves as its home for its life- the shell is very important. A self-symbol. Without our bodies, our souls wouldn’t be able to survive on Earth.
 
(Meaning 2, without “the body”) Tying in with the first part of the poem, this meaning pretty much ties in with our souls residing WITHIN our bodies, controlling us like (more or less) puppets. If you don’t put “the body” in front of the line, it pretty much says that the Eternal Shadow of the soul is it’s self-symbol. This makes sense, being the “Eternal Shadow” (as deciphered in the last part) represents the demise of the human body. Leaving its mortal body behind would allow the soul to leave and be able to have its own freedom with no restrictions.

(The body) it’s own yet not itself.”
(Meaning 1, with “the body”) This ties in beautifully with the last part. The body is technically its own being; HOWEVER it is not “itself” because the soul is in control of the body. The soul is also its own being, but with more power than the body (which is why the soul has more control over it).

(Meaning 2, without “the body”) This is more from the soul’s perspective. Without putting “the body” in front of the line, you still have the soul talking about its image of itself. However, this line goes against that and says that while it is the soul’s own image; it is not how the soul sees itself. Perhaps the soul looks different from us, but being trapped in our body sees it as us. That would explain the misperception of the look: the soul WANTS to see itself but is almost trapped by our body. Going right back to the title, “Fragment”- the soul is only seeing a fragment of itself within us… but our body and soul is just a fragment of us… and we in total are just a fragment of this world.
There are many different views to be taken on this poem- everyone sees something different. This is just my perspective- a FRAGMENT of what the poem likely means. Maybe I over-thought the poem- maybe it is just a basic no-brainer. On the other hand, maybe I’m just scratching the surface of a truly deeper meaning. Let me know what YOU think.
Maddie