the Doctrine of Disaster
Dec. 16th, 2002 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
incandescensI was reading this (again) over lunch, and felt the need to add in this quote before I forgot that it existed.
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"My boy, few disciplines are more dismal than theology, but it may be important to consider the Doctrine of Disaster, which is the Han dynasty's chief contribution to the subject. Both the I-ching and the Huai-nan-tzu assert that natural disasters are not caused by Heaven, but allowed by Heaven. If men willfully disrupt the natural order of things, the gods will refuse to intervene while nature purges itself of the toxin, usually violently, and if the innocent suffer along with the guilty -- well, the only way men learn anything is to have it smashed into their head with an axe." (Master Li)
-- Eight Skilled Gentlemen, Barry Hughart
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"My boy, few disciplines are more dismal than theology, but it may be important to consider the Doctrine of Disaster, which is the Han dynasty's chief contribution to the subject. Both the I-ching and the Huai-nan-tzu assert that natural disasters are not caused by Heaven, but allowed by Heaven. If men willfully disrupt the natural order of things, the gods will refuse to intervene while nature purges itself of the toxin, usually violently, and if the innocent suffer along with the guilty -- well, the only way men learn anything is to have it smashed into their head with an axe." (Master Li)
-- Eight Skilled Gentlemen, Barry Hughart
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 09:00 am (UTC)Just got "The Story of Stone" from the library--very amusing indeed . . .
cheers,
Eline
no subject
Date: 2002-12-16 01:02 pm (UTC)