The Shijing (詩經) are 305 poems reflecting the social, political, and religious life of ancient China during the Zhou dynasty, consisting of courtship, agriculture, warfare, family relationships, and ritual. These poems were recited and performed during ceremonies and were cited by scholars or officials to communicate criticism. Confucius (551-479 BCE) regarded the Shijing as essential …
Author Archives: saemiller
Dziga Vertov (1896–1954) Kino-Eye (1923)
More than a century after its publication, Vertov’s writing on the revolution in cinematography and the mechanical eye is more relevant than ever in the age of machine learning and data science. Excerpts and translation – …Я – киноглаз. Я строитель. Я посадил тебя, сегодня созданного мной, в не существовавшую до сего момента удивительнейшую комнату, …
On 300 Poems of the T’ong Dynasty
I recently completed reading Three Hundred Poems of the T’ong Dynasty (Taipei, 1965), the traditional anthology of Tang Dynasty poetry compiled by Sun Zhu (孫洙, 1711–1778), who wrote under the name Hengtang Tuishi (蘅塘退士). The English translations in this edition are those associated with Witter Bynner and Kiang Kang-hu, originally published as The Jade Mountain: …
Kitsch, Camp, and Ugliness
Ugliness can belong to judgments we make about people, periods, and other social classes. For example, a Gothic cathedral can be barbarous in one century and protected as a masterpiece in another. A body admired in one period can look strange in another, and the object remains while judgment changes. This extends the problem I …
Updates on the Class – Compressible Flow
I updated the YouTube playlists for Compressible flow. There are now two version of the class I taught for almost ten years. The first was recorded live in 2024 in front of an in person and online audience. YouTube Playlist – Fall 2024 Recording The original was recorded in one of my offices and edited …
Reading the Analects of Confucius (孔夫子)
I have completed reading the Analects of Confucius (Kong Qiu 孔丘, Zhongni 仲尼, Kongzi 孔子, Kong Fuzi 孔夫子) – English translation and commentary by an amazing scholar Annping Chin (2014). Analects means a collection of selected sayings or short passages, especially sayings attributed to an important person. The original Chinese title is Lúnyǔ (論語), usually …
Avant-Garde and Ugliness
The twentieth century avant-garde presents an interesting problem in the history of beauty. What happens when artists no longer simply represent ugly things, but deliberately try to make art that earlier generations judge as ugly? This is different than painting a battle, an old body, suffering, poverty, or some other unpleasant subject beautifully. Here, ugliness …
The Eiffel Tower and Industrial Beauty
The Eiffel Tower rises above Paris with such familiarity that it is difficult to imagine the city without it. Its lattice of iron has become part of the visual order of Paris, alongside the stone facades, the river, the bridges, and the great monuments created from earlier centuries. Yet, when the tower was proposed in …
Literature – Cheng Yaotian
Its (literature) influence can be more inspiring than being in the presence of a great man because it calls upon us to articulate our ideas and it beckons us to draw analogies. And so what literature offers is more than just something to rely on: it takes us by the hand and bolsters us up; …
United States 250 – July 4th ‘For the Nation’
For the Nation Twelve score and ten years ago,the British settlers of this abundant landtook matters into their own handsand demanded that King George leave them beand set them free. From the Massachusetts Bay to Georgia’s red clay,from Philadelphia’s philosophersto Virginia’s founding elites,cries of freedom were everywherelike a relentless drumbeat. Common sense and self-evident truthswere …
Continue reading “United States 250 – July 4th ‘For the Nation’”