Caigentan
Sign in to saveAlso known as Vegetable Root Discourse, Musings of a Chinese Vegetarian, Discourses on Vegetable Roots, The Roots of Wisdom, Discourses on a Simple Life, Tending the Roots of Wisdom, Zen of Vegetable Roots, Vegetable Roots Discourse
thumb|Painting in the Hsinchu Tian Hong Temple, featuring a quote from Caigentan. The Caigentan () is a circa 1590 text written by the Ming Dynasty scholar and philosopher Hong Zicheng (). This compilation of aphorisms eclectically combines elements from the Three teachings (Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism), and is comparable with Marcus Aurelius' Meditations or La Rochefoucauld's Maximes.
Key facts
- Chinese.t
- 菜根譚
- Chinese.s
- 菜根谭
- Chinese.p
- Càigēntán
- Chinese.w
- Ts'ai-ken t'an
- Chinese.l
- Vegetable Root Discourse
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- literary work
- Author
- Hong Zicheng
Show 1 more fact
- Commons category
- 菜根譚
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Title
- Textual history
- Contents
- Translations
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|Painting in the Hsinchu Tian Hong Temple, featuring a quote from Caigentan. The Caigentan () is a circa 1590 text written by the Ming Dynasty scholar and philosopher Hong Zicheng (). This compilation of aphorisms eclectically combines elements from the Three teachings (Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism), and is comparable with Marcus Aurelius' Meditations or La Rochefoucauld's Maximes.
==Title== Chinese Caigentan combines , , and . This compound is a literary metaphor meaning "bare subsistence" (originating in Zhu Xi's ). The Chinese proverb literally means " chewed vegetable roots can accomplish anything", or figuratively "One who has gone through hardships can do anything". "By vegetable roots, food such as turnips, radish, carrots and sweet potatoes is meant", says Vos.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Caigentan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.