What is the summary of the plot of Seven Taoist Masters: A Folk Novel of China?

This book is a beautiful description of Taoism (and what it means to be a Taoist disciple) in novel form. The main character is the narrator: Wang Tieh-hsin. We follow Wang Tieh-hsin through all of his experiences. The simplest explanation of plot is that Wang Tieh-hsin becomes a Taoist Master and enlightens many others. The novel begins with Mother Wang and her unwillingness to serve the poor. Unfortunately for Mother Wang, the beggars are actually immortals who tell her the following, a key point of the Taoist philosophy:

If your compassion and charity are sincere, you will give without expecting anything in return. If you expect to get something out of what you give, then it is not true charity. All this time your charitable deeds have been either a show for others to see or an investment in the hope of obtaining long life and prosperity.

In a more general sense, Seven Taoist Masters is about one woman and six men who experience and overcome many hardships as they journey towards the self-mastery that defines Taoism. All of the characters, including the teacher Wang Ch'ung-yang, live in the Southern Sung (in the 11th century) during the Yuan dynasty. Another interesting story perfectly explains another key point of the book: hardship is necessary to gain enlightenment. This story is about Sun Bu-er, who explains her advancement over another disciple, Ma Tan-yang. Sun Bu-er is not afraid to bathe in boiling water because she has tempered herself through hardship. She explains that Ma Tan-yang is unable to do this because of his nice house, many servants, and comfortable life. At this point Ma Tan-yang decides to leave in order to experience these hardships. At the end of the story, all of the seven characters achieve mastery of the Tao.

There are precisely seven characters who learn more about the Tao through their experiences. Further, there are many chapters that involve Wang Ch’ung-yang giving a lecture on certain Taoist qualities, such as “the meaning of stillness.” As the story goes on, Wang Ch’ung-yang eventually describes the different vehicles of the Tao to each character in turn. Therefore, the principles behind Taoism are inserted throughout the story.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

Search This Blog