Chinese literature Unit 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chinese literature Unit 3 - set about Exampleus Praying For rain down,1 from the Chou period, and the poem Sitting and Forgetting,2 from the Nine Songs, from the dying mentioned Chu period, and examine how each portray and think about ritual. The first shows a more straightforward near to ritualas in a kind of rain dance which is a means to an end. The befriend show ritual and its relation to nature as being potentially personally interpretative.In Praying for Rain the poet describes the rituals or etiquette that surrounds rainfall, the glean, and agriculture. Back then there was no agricultural science. Most farmers believed that a good gather came because the gods were happy. The harvest was hugely important for everyone because the population relied on it for nourishments. It therefore made sense that rituals and prayers that poets and priests believed would help the harvest would be of huge importance and would frequently be refined and added to in order to ensure the t ake up possible harvest. Poetry and ritual at the time were in some sense a field of life and death. Ku Liang Shu describes the correct time to pray for rain to improve the crops.3 He says that petitioners must wait until the last minute, until it becomes clear that the rain is absolutely necessary, before engaging in the ritual prayer. By praying, man is petition for a favour the poet rights. These things must not be taken lightly. The power the gods have over slew is one of life and death.There is an additional hearty aspect to this view of rituals favours are important things and should be frivolously asked for. Ask only for what you need. We see in this work that rituals are taken very gravely and are mostly a way of communing with the gods, rather than with people (although there can be social implications to these rituals).The Sitting and Forgetting, one of the Nine Song, focuses much more on an abstraction of the ritual and its power to transform the world or the poets p erspective of the world.