...the Hell of the West is a bit too simplistic, too naive, too dull, too low. Try Divina Commedia, it has a depiction of Hell. Dante wrote classic verses, but the same can not be said for his Hell. Its so unimaginative, so simple, so superfluous that one just couldnt help but feeling hilarious. On the other hand, the Hell of India is genuinely grandiose, and the Chinese further magnified it into a dazzling pagoda. Who read on the Chinese Hell wouldnt fall on his knees adorning the sea of fire, mountain of knives, human pot, great saw, and the angels with cow head and horse face depicted in those text? Casts, props, it misses nothing. You see how the wisdom of the East is beyond that of the West. I admire the peoples imagination, I admire their vision of Hell. I thought those fantasies and narrations were exhaustive enough and couldnt get any further. But after the Hovel, I awoke. The camps that Red Guards built on Chinas vast expanse in broad daylight, the way they run it, and the terrors they created, completely exceed the Indian original if put to compare with the Buddhist Hell, let alone the Western Hell. -- translation practice on Hovel Collection, Ji Xianlin (牛棚雜憶 季羡林) An autobiography about Jis experience as a reeducation camp inmate during the Cultural Revolution.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:31:35 +0000
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