关公 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page 关公.

Author's note

fora-mina 01 Apr 2023 19:45

A week ago when I was doing research for something else, I learned that Guan Yu, historical figure from the Three Kingdoms time period in China, became deified and worshipped after his death, and that both the police and criminals prayed to him.

At first, I wasn't sure how to pull this off as a story, but then this morning I had the great idea to put it in the form of a poem.

Re: Author's note

DreamerOfTheOpenEyes 02 Apr 2023 03:32

Well bravo. I really enjoyed this one.

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Have a nice day.

~Dreamer

Re: Author's note

fora-mina 02 Apr 2023 20:40

Thank you!

Lead up without payoff

StrangerSwing 06 Apr 2023 00:37

I get this is trying to be a titbit about Chinese tradition, but it doesn’t have the story to back that up. I was waiting for a strong punchline (the cop arrests the gangster, the gangster was talking up the cop in order to pickpocket him, etc) or something equally interesting, but nothing. -1.

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Pulling back, I tried to find the point of wasting precious time,
I sip and toast to normalcy, a fool's way into jealousy;
I mock and imitate goodbyes when I know that I can't deny,
That I'll be here forever-while.

UncannyClown276 06 Apr 2023 03:03

i disagree quite intensely with strangerswing's comment; i don't think that what this poem needs is any sort of punchline/subversion of its primary message. that said, this doesn't do much for me either. i appreciate the simplicity, but the straightforwardness of the delivery isn't compelling for me.

dingxiaoshu 18 Apr 2023 10:11

As a Chinese, I do not remember 关公 protect police or criminals, but let country keep safe and individuals be rich, or I have wrong memory, due to my lack of attention about history.

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Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime

fora-mina 04 Jun 2023 00:15

Yeah I didn't know it was a thing either, until I saw a South China post about him and did some reading on Wikipedia. Apparently he's really popular in Hong Kong and a lot of people put up shrines to him.

Stygian Blue 01 Jun 2023 17:16

Quick and delicious: a single chocolate chip cookie. A neat tidbit of history — it needs no subversion or ultimate plot, for it shows its worth in knowledge and simple structured contented storytelling. Quick and clean and leaves no crumbs, for I have licked them all up. This is the way to do this. The prose is an orderly bonsai with embellishments where its branches have been allowed to leaf out, and for what we see not just the structure but the whole and can appreciate it in all its finery as a living thing instead of an oddly stunted stick in a pot. Well done!

-Styg

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What is life if not the contrast between what has been and what will become?

Last edited on 02 Jun 2023 15:22 by Stygian Blue Show more

fora-mina 04 Jun 2023 00:17

omg thank you Styg!!