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Conditioned intellectual structures:
how cultures limit creativity

Wayne Deeker

I will show that creativity is a nonintellectual process, naturally present in virtually everyone. This may seem counterintuitive, since clearly not everyone is creatively active. Examination of how and when creative insight typically occurs, and to whom, illustrates why; creativity can be best understood by examining the cultural and intellectual structures which restrict it. Once these are overcome, creativity is natural and spontaneous. This concept is easier to illustrate with an extreme example. I will show how contemporary Chinese society limits the creativity of its people, producing a relatively uncreative culture. China is an extreme example of how all cultures limit creativity. I will conclude with a discussion of how conditioned cultural limitations can be transcended and creativity achieved.

It is common experience that creative insight most occurs during moments of quietness and/or relaxation (Neilhart 1998, Metcalfe 1999, Britannica 2003a). Some people notice peak creative times, such as early morning or late at night (Phake-Potter 2002). Many experience creative flashes immediately before sleep, or upon waking (Brophy 1998, Winokur 1987). Others observe that creativity is enhanced during meditation or physical exercise (Phake-Potter 2002). Creative solutions to problems often occur when people suspend their efforts to solve those problems. Below I will propose reasons for these occurrences.

Pirsig (1974, 250) shows that the most creative people in society are uneducated people, culturally deprived people, and children. Gould (1981) says it is well documented that intelligent but uneducated people, or people uneducated in a specific field, usually make the greatest contributions to science. Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Da Vinci, Maxwell, Mendel -- none of these titans was formally trained in the fields they contributed most to (Gascoigne 1989). Thomas Edison, "foremost inventor in American history" (Hoff 1982, 122), received only three months of formal (primary) education. And this creative phenomenon is just as prevalent in modern times; it is nearly always outsiders who contribute most to any scientific field (Kuhn 1962). Also underprivileged communities are very creative compared to mainstream society. Capra (1982, 9) says the cultural mainstreams of decaying societies inevitably become petrified and stagnant, but that creative minorities usually emerge. Virtually all recent music forms arose in underprivileged communities. Jazz, blues, rock, reggae, soul and rap all evolved in poor African-American neighbourhoods, calypso evolved in poor African-Carribean communities, and country music evolved in poor white-American communities (Roach 1985). Also consider forms such as graffiti art, body art, car decoration, and so on: these are almost always expressions of underprivileged fringe groups, outside mainstream society (Chaffee 1993). Finally, Fulghum examines children:

Ask a kindergarten class, "How many of you can draw?" and all hands shoot up. Yes of course we can draw -- all of us. What can you draw? Anything! ... How many of you can sing? All hands. ... Do you like to act in plays? Yes! Do you play musical instruments? Yes! Do you write poetry? Yes! ... The children are confident in spirit, infinite in resources, and eager to learn. ... Ask those same questions of a college audience. ... The answer: No, none of the above. What went wrong between kindergarten and college? (Fulghum 1991, 226-227)

Thus children, fringe groups, and uneducated people are much more creative and insightful than mainstream society, but why?

Pirsig says it is a direct result of education: schools teach students to imitate.

The student's biggest problem was a slave mentality which had been built in by years of carrot-and-whip grading. (Pirsig 1974, 199)

This built-in, or trained, response is an aspect of psychology called conditioning; Ivan Pavlov first observed it in 1898 (Britannica 2003a). Conditioning is a system of behaviour modification using rewards and punishments; for a given stimulus, desired responses are rewarded, undesirable responses punished (Schmajuk & Holland 1998). Eventually responses become reflex and automatic: the organism produces the desired response even without the reward, while the punished non-standard responses no longer arise, so punishments become unnecessary. The behaviour is then a conditioned response (Britannica 2003a). This has been conclusively demonstrated in animal training; (Liu & Liu 1997) dismiss as irrelevant claims from cognitive- and developmental- theorists that conditioning does not apply to humans.(1) Of course it does; Morgan (2001) adds that conditioning explains much of human psychology, and virtually all educational and cultural settings involve it. Regarding school, Pirsig adds:

Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade. (Pirsig 1974, 196)

Pirsig says the mimicry in tertiary education is more sophisticated and less overt than in primary school, but the same principle applies:

One is supposed to imitate the teacher in such a way as to convince the teacher that you were not imitating, but taking the essence of the instruction and going ahead with it on your own. That got you As. Originality on the other hand could get you anything -- from A to E. The whole grading system counted against it.

(Pirsig 1974, 196)

Pirsig also illustrated with an example from his own writing classes the general principle of how this conditioned imitation blocks originality. A student approached him wanting to write a 500 word essay about the United States. He advised her to narrow the topic to just their town. She returned, upset at her inability to think of anything to say. Pirsig said narrow it down to just the main street. She returned again, even more upset, still unable to think of anything.

He told her angrily, "Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left hand brick." (Pirsig 1974, 196)

Next day she returned with a 5,000 word essay about the front of the Opera House, unable to explain her achievement. Pirsig does explain it: the student was blocked by trying to mimic what she had already heard or been taught. Since her education was a void regarding that town, the students' default skills of recall and repetition were of no use. Pirsig adds:

She was strangely unaware that she could look and see freshly for herself, as she wrote, without primary regard for what had been said before. The narrowing down to one brick destroyed the blockage because it was so obvious she had to do some original and direct seeing. (Pirsig 1974, 196)

Pirsig (1974) concluded that schooling conditions students towards mimicry and conformity, penalising originality.

Societies extend schools' conditioning of conformity and punishment of originality (Leslie 1996). My theory is that ruling elites reward resemblance to themselves and mimicry of their values. Those among the less privileged who do mimic these traits are rewarded with advancement and other status opportunities; those who do not are denied them. Withholding status opportunities is both punishment and incentive. More extreme punishments for nonconformity include ostracism, and in ultimate cases: prison, mental institutionalisation (Pirsig 1991), even death. It is no wonder middle classes are typically uncreative; it is consistent with my theory that attaining or maintaining higher status is direct evidence of successful conditioned conformity. Acceptance within mainstream society and creativity are almost mutually exclusive; conformity opposes creativity and creative types are inevitably marginalised (Pirsig 1991).

Furthermore, most people are unaware of their conditioned status. Society does not just condition behaviour, it also conditions thought. Psychiatrist Erich Fromm (1960) describes how this works: people generally relate to words and thoughts, not reality directly, so it is unlikely that any experience for which society has no word will enter awareness. Also languages evolve in cultures, so cultural limitations and attitudes are built into languages. Therefore languages filter and direct experience. Fromm (1960) adds:

the third aspect of the filter, aside from languages and logic, is the content of the experiences. Every society excludes certain thoughts and feelings from being thought, felt, and expressed. There are things which are "not done" but which are even "not thought". (Fromm 1960, 102)

Fromm says taboo concepts exist in all cultures, and violation always results in ostracism. Therefore acceptance in society requires not thinking the unthinkable; thinking that attracts a label of insanity (Fromm 1960). Pirsig (1991) proposed insanity is anything beyond the culture(2). According to Fromm:

unless he is to become insane, he has to relate himself in some way to others. To be completely unrelated brings him to the frontier of insanity. (Fromm 1960, 104)

Neilhart (1998) does not define her term "madness" but notes the very strong correlation of famous creators with it. Therefore to protect oneself from charges of insanity (ostracism), unthinkable thoughts are filtered from conscious awareness (repressed in psychological terms, Fromm 1960).

We come, then, to the conclusion that consciousness and unconsciousness are socially conditioned. I am aware of all my thoughts and feelings which are permitted to penetrate the threefold filter of (socially conditioned) language, logic, and taboos (social character). Experiences which cannot be filtered through remain outside of awareness; that is, they remain unconscious. (Fromm 1960, 104)

Thus society conditions people to the extent of restricting perception, through language and common values, and these limitations are expressed as a common cultural identity. Hence I claim cultural identity could be redefined as the specific ways in which creativity is restricted to acceptable levels and types.

This is now a compelling model for how schooling and society conditions people to conformity and uncreativity. People only see what they are trained or allowed to see; going beyond this is to flirt with insanity; most people avoid that, willingly staying within the boundaries. Excessive creativity either pushes one into the fringes of society, or, for those already there, further ostracism is no deterrent, therefore creativity flourishes. Schools teach and reward imitation and conformity, suppressing creativity in most adults, and often the more education people have, the less creative and more conforming they are. So those without much schooling, children and uneducated people, have not yet been conditioned towards uncreativity. Similarly, social conditioning continues throughout life, so the less exposure people have to mainstream culture, the less they are conditioned and limited by it, and the more creative they are. Several other authors also note the limitations cultures and environments place on creativity (Smith et al. 2000, Jin & Gardner 1993). Cultural conditioning and cultural identity is the means by which this conformity is achieved.

If I add to this to the above observations about when creative insight most commonly occurs, the picture is complete. I suggest creativity occurs most in the absence of normal conditioned thought patterns; creativity occurs in the empty spaces between thoughts. Larkin (1988) experimentally confirmed this: a rare form of dementia attacking the anterior temporal lobe caused extremely enhanced creativity. The times of day individuals find most creative are so because conditioned patterns are weakest at those times. Soon after waking, conditioned thought patterns are not fully established, and with tiredness before sleep, they begin breaking down. Models attributing creativity to cognitive processes (such as Cropley 1999) are inconsistent with these observations. The greater the absence of standard thought structures, the greater the creative insight.

Conversely, re-expressing conditioned cultural assumptions in standard acceptable ways is not very creative. Creativity requires embracing unconventionality. Fromm (1960) said the creative limitation in western culture has probably never been worse, while Saul (1992) says it has definitely never been worse.(3) Both support my claim that conditioned thought patterns(4) are the reason.

This argument becomes more obvious with an extreme example: contemporary China. Chinese intellectual conditioning is particularly strict, but more obvious than in other cultures; conformity is strongly enforced with severe punishments for nonconformity, meaning that people are afraid of difference; plus Chinese language is exceptionally inexpressive and limited by English standards. All this makes creativity more difficult and less likely. China is an extreme example of how all cultures restrict creativity through dominant power structures.

I observe that contemporary China is a relatively uncreative society proportional to its population(5), and relative to more dynamic societies. China has numerous traditional art forms (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 187), but these cannot be called creative at all because they specifically emphasise tradition and sameness; new interpretations are not permitted and not attempted (Britannica 2003c). This also applies to China's many cultural events, they emphasise tradition not creativity (Anon. 2001a). Relative to its long history, new Chinese art forms have been extremely rare, and even when they do arise, such as the popular Shanghai painting style of the nineteenth century, they immediately become repetitive and traditional.(6) The Chinese recognise their own conservatism: commentator Lu Xun, writing in the 1920s, described China as a "huge antique" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 268). Reforming the culture's stagnant and limiting traditions was a motivator in the Cultural Revolution (Britannica 2003e), but even this attempt at innovation mimicked the Soviet model (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 308). China's book output is relatively small; China currently publishes 64.7 books per million of population per year, compared to 230 for the United States and 500 for Australia (Table 1)(7). Furthermore, non-Chinese residents contribute much of the creative output attributed to Chinese culture. Many popular Chinese songs actually originate in Taiwan.(8) The majority of Chinese writers do not live in China and published their works abroad (Sung-Sheng Chang, 1993). The most famous Chinese writers do not live there plus wrote directly in English; Amy Tan is an American and native English speaker (Britannica 2003d), and Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans, lives in London and wrote that book in English (Jung 1991). China's creative output is small relative to its population size, indigenous art forms emphasise tradition over creativity, and such creativity that does appear often comes from abroad.

One of the reasons for this is that China's is a repressive authority culture, which directly interferes with creative expression. The dominant Chinese philosophy is Confucianism and has been since Confucius' death c.497 BCE (Buckley-Ebrey 1996). Subsequent generations of followers extended Confucius' ideas, notably Mencius (c.370-c.300 BCE) and Xunzi (c.310-c.220 BCE). Confucius was China's first "... moral philosopher. He linked moral behaviour to traditional roles and hierarchies ..." (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 42). He tried to protect the populace from "wanton thoughts" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 50) and "uncouthness" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 57). But Confucius had no time for individual interpretations in his moral utopia because diversity "leads to weakness and disorder" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 52). Confucius expected everyone to "wholeheartedly accept the parts assigned to them and devote themselves to their responsibilities to others" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 42). Central to his ideas were strict duty and filial piety, and he considered duty to the state an extension of filial duty. Confucius' ideal world was also one where "conventions governed actions and hierarchical differentiation resulted in harmonious co-ordination" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 42). Xunzi later claimed: "... rites are valuable because they provide an orderly way to express feelings and satisfy desires while maintaining distinctions of rank, title and honour" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 43). This clearly means unquestioningly obey authority. Whereas Confucius himself thought morality was something humans should be "inspired" towards (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 42), Mencius claimed humans must be "led" towards it (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 44), and finally Xunzi said morality "does not come naturally and must be taught" (Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 45). This is not very far from "forced". Finally force did come with the Legalists, a more extreme variant of Confucianism.(9) Buckley-Ebrey also notes: "The opinions of people other than rulers thus had no place in this system ..." (1996, 53). Confucianist conventions of moral behaviour became entrenched rituals, then rules governing every part of life, then law. By the time China was unified in 221 BCE, it had become a moral and political dictatorship.(10) Despite occasional intervening moderate periods, the situation is no different today; Confucianist concepts of authority still define Chinese thought(11), and China continued the suppression of individuality and creativity in the recent past(12) and now (Hung-Yok Ip 1997). Throughout China's modern history it has been very dangerous to express anything except conventional ideas; risk-taking, which Eisenman (2001) says is an important part of creativity, has been discouraged in China in favour of conventionality. For writers and artists, the danger has been even greater. Since before the thirteenth century, Chinese society actively discouraged performing artists(13), and today Chinese writers still resident in China, such as Wei Hui (author of Shanghai Baby), remain subject to state oppression. The inside cover of Shanghai Baby says that book was "... banned by the authorities in April 2000 and 40,000 copies were publicly burned" (Wei 2001); this tame book was perceived as decadent and pornographic. Gao (in his book published outside China) exposes typical restrictions.(14) Clearly this society does not encourage creativity, actually creativity is extremely dangerous. So the fact that Chinese culture is relatively uncreative should not be surprising. Furthermore, the creative minorities which Capra (1982, 9) says normally account for the greatest creativity in conservative societies hardly exist in China: they are either exterminated or assimilated (Buckley-Ebrey 1996). China takes normal cultural conditioning against creativity to extreme and obvious levels.

The Chinese language deters creativity even more. Mandarin has even more complexity, difficulty, and irregularity than English, but without English's expressive power. Mandarin is a tone language (Kan 1999), and since tone is committed to specifying meaning, tonal variation is less available for expressing emotional subtext. Mandarin also has a coarse capacity for discriminating concepts which in English are totally different.(15)

For example, tenses do not exist in Chinese unless other words clarify time (Kan 1999). Worse, word meanings are not literal; virtually every word has multiple different meanings depending on context (Kan 1999), reaching 215 separate meanings at maximum (Bryson 1990). This is why the language is so formalised, with extensive use of stock phrases, cliches, and set responses; recombining words in new ways destroys established contexts, and thus meaning. This means the language and culture are locked together; the meaning of the language is contained in the culture and not literally in the language. Thus neither the language nor culture can easily change. Even if the spoken language could accommodate change, the character-based writing system greatly adds to the expressive difficulty. Kan states:

The total number of Chinese characters is estimated at more than 50,000, of which only 5,000-8,000 are in common use. And only 3,000 of them are used for everyday purposes. (Kan 1999, 11)

Even at maximum, this is much less even than the vocabularies of small languages (ie. French: 100,000 words, German: 184,000, Bryson 1990). And Chinese does not compare to English at all, the most expressive language in history, with over 200,000 words in common use, and millions more uncommon, technical and specialist terms (Bryson 1990). Even the advanced Chinese vocabulary compares to the 10,000 word lexicon of average English-speaking 6 year-olds (Long 2001). Even if English words were used in multiple contexts to the same degree as Chinese(16), the creative potential of such a language would still be extremely limited. Furthermore, Chinese is an abstract logographic language (iconic, Britannica 2003b), so again the meaning is contained in the culture, and not literally in the language itself. Plus no wonder Chinese people routinely use only 3,000 characters; I imagine it would be difficult to remember more than that, considering how few resemble what they represent. Finally, the phonetic capacity of Chinese script is very limited, making it difficult to accommodate useful new foreign words. Mao Zedong, frustrated with the script's clumsiness and difficulty, ordered it be simplified (Britannica 2003b), but his efforts made little difference. Unlike English, which has experienced multiple complete transformations (Bryson 1990), modern Chinese language and script are virtually the same as those used 2,000 years ago. Chinese is a particularly inexpressive and stagnant language; it is difficult to express a new idea using it; therefore, creative thoughts are much less likely to arise without the tools to express them.

The Chinese language and strict culture limit the expression and formation of new ideas to a great extent, explaining China's relative uncreativity. However, Chinese society only differs from other cultures by degree. All cultures and cultural identities limit creativity in the same ways, by imposing conditioned intellectual structures through language and restrictions. These principles I have demonstrated are simply more obvious in the Chinese case.

Finally, as confirmation, it is worthwhile examining the one element of Chinese society known for its exceptional and prolific creativity (Cleary 1996). Taoists were responsible for all of China's historic inventions (Cleary 1994). Taoism is a sophisticated philosophical system (not a religion) based on naturalness, balance and simplicity (Cleary 1994). Taoist writings cover a vast range of topics, including political commentaries; unlike Confucianism, Taoism describes forced control of the population as harmful and futile (Cleary 1994). Non-forcing and non-seeking are recurrent themes in Taoism. Taoism is most explicit about the process of personal cultivation as a means to enlightenment. This specifically includes freedom from social conditioning (Cleary 1994).(17) Taoism considers rampant intellectualism, especially culturally conditioned reflex responses of which most people are unaware, the root of all problems. Taoism confirms Fromm's point (1960) that most people relate to thoughts instead of reality; reality is perceived pre-intellectually, before thoughts arise, so thoughts are always subsequent to reality and therefore unreal (Cleary 1994, Pirsig 1974). Taoism says the busy mind's thoughts and attachment to them are precisely what blocks direct perception of dynamic reality and thus creativity.(18) Quieting the mind of habitual thoughts, combined with other practices, eliminates the blockage and reality becomes apparent.(19) Taoism says thinking is not harmful in itself, provided it does not interfere with direct perception as it usually does; the problem is conditioned thinking (Cleary 1996). Taoism illustrates how conditioned intellectual activity, particularly language(20), interferes with perception.

Taoism also specifies that the primary reality of the universe is holistic and creative (Cleary 1994); creativity comes from the universe. The universe is constantly recreating itself out of nothingness and nothingness is itself the source of the creativity (Cleary 1994). Far from being a creation myth, this is a literal and precise summary of the best contemporary descriptions of quantum mechanics (Capra 1975, Goswami 1993). Humans need do nothing to experience this reality except let go of their conditioning and quieten the mind. The concept is similar to the Taoist idea of health. Health in Taoist terms is naturally within us, we do not need to seek it externally, and we achieve it only by subtracting all the detracting factors (Cleary 1994). Creativity also; we achieve creativity by removing all the factors which obscure it (mainly conditioned mental activity, Cleary 1996). The same mental quietness that produces creativity is also responsible for all the other mental achievements of Taoism. Taoism provides the complete answer to the question of creativity and how to achieve it: eliminate culturally conditioned intellectual filtering and creativity flows naturally, spontaneously.

Ultimately, Taoism is about transcending all limitations and illusions, including perhaps the biggest: cultural identity. Membership of a cultural identity means subscribing to a particular set of creative limitations. The only way to achieve real creativity is to transcend all cultures, identities and other illusory structures.(21) The concepts and processes of ego, identity and cultural identity are major limitations to creativity.

I have shown that creative insight occurs most during nonintellectual moments, so creativity is nonintellectual. Creativity is most common in uneducated people, socially marginalised groups, and children. Schooling conditions people towards conformity and mimicry, and social structures and group identities extend the conditioning. Social conditioning limits people's perception to that acceptable to the group, making creativity difficult. Creativity is most apparent in those who have been least exposed to, or have overcome, social and intellectual conditioning. Since most people cannot perceive their own cultural conditioning, an obvious example from another culture helps illustrate these points. Contemporary Chinese society is an extreme example of how all cultures limit creativity. China is relatively uncreative proportional to its population size; its overt cultural conditioning and compulsory conformity results in creativity being limited to certain acceptable forms, with severe punishments for any who go beyond acceptable limits. Furthermore, China's main language and the Chinese character writing system are particularly inexpressive and stagnant, making it difficult to express new ideas, further impeding creativity. Finally, Taoism confirms that conditioned intellectual activity, particularly language, interferes with perception of reality. Reality (the universe) is fundamentally creative, so perception of reality and creativity are directly related; achieving both involves eliminating culturally conditioned intellectual filtering. Then creativity flows naturally. Two of the biggest conditioned creativity blocks are the concepts of identity and cultural identity. Conditioned theoretical structures, including identities, do not help creativity, they kill it.






Notes

1. It was simply an article faith among behaviourists that animal learning could be seamlessly translated to human behaviour ... [yet] Cognitivists have dismissed force of habit from consideration. ... We cannot see why information on the origins and effects of habit should be discarded.

(Liu & Liu 1997, 164)

2. The culture in which we live hands us a set of intellectual glasses to interpret experience with ... If someone sees things through a somewhat different set of glasses, or, God help him, takes his glasses off, the natural tendency of those who still have their glasses on is to regard his statements as somewhat weird, if not actually crazy.

(Pirsig 1991, 120)

3. This is an age of great conformity. It is difficult to find another period of such absolute conformism in the history of western civilisation. The citizens are so completely locked inside their boxes of expertise that they are effectively excluded from open public debate. We have disguised this truth by redefining individualism as an agreeable devotion to style and personal emotions.

(Saul 1992, 497)

4. This general process of cerebration is more widespread and intense in modern culture that it probably was at any time before in history. Just because of the increasing emphasis on intellectual knowledge which is a condition for scientific and technical achievements, and in connection with it on literacy and education, words more and more take the place of experience. Yet the person concerned is unaware of this. He thinks he sees something; he thinks he feels something; yet there is no experience except memory and thought.

(Fromm 1960, 109)

5. I could never claim China is totally uncreative, since even one instance of creativity would refute that argument. Instead I claim Chinese society demonstrates some creativity, though proportional to its population, it is much less than in other societies.

6. Xu Peiheng (1893-1953) went to Europe to learn realistic, academic painting techniques, seeing in them an antidote to the repetition and imitation he disliked in Chinese painting.

(Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 293)

7.

Table 1: Total books published per year, relative to population. China, USA, Australia.

Country Total books published Population (millions) 4 Books per million of population per year.
China 83095 1 1284 64.7
USA 64711 2 280.5 230
Australia 9755 3 19.5 500


Original research data compiled for this essay.

Sources:

1: China Contact (2002).

2, 3: ISBN data (Anon. 2001b), USA 1997, Australia 2002.

4: CIA (2003)

Acknowledgement: Hugh Malcolm, Liaison Librarian for Business, Law and Information Sciences, University of Canberra.

8.  pers. comm. 2001

9. The Confucian notion that government should be based on virtue and ritual Han Feizi [student of Xunzi, died 233 BC] viewed as unworkable in his day. Hierarchical relations had to be based on the power to reward and punish; affectation or example were not adequate.

(Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 52)

10. Criticism of the government was not tolerated by the First Emperor, who wanted the government to control knowledge. Education was to be provided only by officials and solely for the purpose of training future officials. ... Recalcitrant scholars were also suppressed -- tradition holds that 460 were buried alive in a common grave as a warning against defiance of the Emperor's orders.

(Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 63)

11. [the Confucianist books] came to play an enormous role in shaping the development of Chinese culture. Chinese education until modern times involved deep immersion in texts from this period. ... It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these books in providing a common set of understandings about the world and the people who live in it. ... The most basic elements in these cultural orientations came to be widely shared and thus to constitute a large part of what is meant by 'Chinese' culture.

(Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 58)

12. ie. the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 (Britannica 2003e).

13. Singers and actors were classed with prostitutes as a demeaned category of people, forbidden to marry ordinary commoners. Nor could their sons or grandsons take the civil service examinations.

(Buckley-Ebrey 1996, 187)

14. ... he thought it was well written but that the author had gone too far -- the leadership would certainly not approve so the work was therefore unpublishable.

(Gao 1990, 384)

15.

Examples of single words in Mandarin meaning the same as multiple English words:

1. search / seek

2. chance / opportunity

3. happy / happiness

4. force / power

5. flat / apartment

6. lavatory / toilet / washroom

7. pretty / beautiful

8. teeth / tooth

9. him/he & her/she (all one word)

Examples of single words in Mandarin meaning the same as different tenses in English :

1. eat / ate / eaten

2. teach / taught

3. buy / bought

4. go / went

5. hide / hidden

6. cry / cried

7. drink / drank

8. swim / swam

Source: Anon. (2003) http://www.tigernt.com/dict.shtml

Acknowledgement: Ms Wai Kei Cheung for providing these examples and this reference.

16. Averaging 5-10, pers. comm. 2001.

17. As to the roaming of sages, they move in utter emptiness, let their minds meander in the great nothingness; they run beyond convention and go through where there is no gateway. They listen to the soundless and look at the formless; they are not constrained by society and not bound to its customs.

(Wen Tzu: Cleary 1994, 174)

18. The discriminating mind refers to conceptualization. This is regarded as a characteristic of the human mind, conditioned by personal and collective history; it is useful for everyday affairs but ultimately limited and limiting. ... without the balancing factor of direct perception of organic unity, it is prone to fragmentary awareness and bias. Furthermore, as the patterns according to which the discriminating mind organises and rationalises its activities are associated with and influenced by social and cultural identity, they tend to become intimately bound up with emotion, which then increases the tendency to narrowness and prejudice.

(Cleary 1996, 21)

19. Abandoning intellectualism, [sages] return to utter simplicity; resting their vital spirit, they detach from knowledge. Therefore they have no likes or dislikes. This is called great attainment.

(Wen Tzu: Cleary 1994, 182)

20. Language is a form of conditioning which is both potentially useful and potentially debilitating. The usefulness of language is a matter of common experience and so needs no further comment. If one is so conditioned by language, on the other hand, that one's whole experience is molded by fixed labels and categories, compelled by associations and structures afforded by a particular language, or by language in general, then this habit has become restrictive, like a prison of the mind.

(Cleary 1996, 13)

21. See Daya (2000) for a thorough explanation of how the self-illusion arises and is sustained, and why it is illusory.

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