Texts selected by Lin Chi-Wei and revised by Alex Geddie.
( p34-p37, Field Notes, Gruenrekorder, 2009 )

Da-Tong Monk’s Words [1]

A disciple: How does a Guching[2] sound without a single string?

Master Da-Tong: The stringless Guching is wonderful.

Disciple: Could Master play it for us? Master Da-Tong: There is no sound.

[1] Gu-Zuen-Su-Yu-Lu. Editor: Zhe Zang (around 12th and 13th Century).
[2] Guching – an ancient chinese instrument.

Second Talk

A disciple: What is the song which it’s own creation has never happened?[3]

Master Da-Tong: Nobody can sing it.

Disciple: What if somebody actually sings it?

Master Da-Tong: It is created.

[3] Word-for-word: What is the song of Ajati?

Tian Zi-Fang[4]

Confucius once came to pay a visit to a hermit, Wen-Bo- Zue-Zi, without even saying a word to him. A disciple of Confucius, Zi-Lu, apparently confused, asked his master: “I know you’ve been waiting to see Wen-Bo-Zue-Zi for a long time. Now that you see him, you have not a single word to say to him. Why is that?” Confucius said: “This man – when I see him with my own eyes and realize that he exists with Dao, there is no place for me to utter a sound.”

[4]Author: Chuang Zhou (369–286 BC).

Meat Made Orchestra[5]

Lee Kwang-Yuen, a senior officer of the late Zhou dynasty[6], had an extremely difficult and intolerant nature. In his official life, he could not do without extorting confessions from criminals using a diverse set of tortures he designed himself.
A single day without torture would simply depress the officer. Finally, he moved his personal office next to
the grindhouse in order to be close to the flogging and screaming sound that he adored, once calling it “a meat made orchestra[7].”

[5]The Times of Ten Kingdoms. Author: Wu Ren-Chen (1631–1684).
[6]10th century BC.
[7]Word-for-word: A whole set of percussion and wind instruments.

Pan Jin-Lien’s Invitation of Mid-Day Love-Making in the Orchid Bath[8]

Man and woman leave their embroidery frame for the orchid bath to enjoy the pleasure of fish in the water.[9]
After a while in the bath, Shimen Chin is excited and lowers the woman’s body to the bath board. Holding the woman’s foot in his hand, then raising it high, bouncing up and down like boiling water, two or three thousand thrusts, impossible to count, the sound is like crab feet marching over the muddy land. Afraid of the descending top-knot of her dressed hair, the woman supports the cloud of her hair with one hand, the other hand holding the bath rail, the cry of swallows and orioles emanating from her indescribable tongue.

[8]From Jin Ping Mei. Autor: Shao-Shao-Shen (um 1547–1596).
[9]Sexual pleasure – a Chinese expression.

Lin Chi-Wei (* 1971 in Taipei), works and lives in Beijing/ Taipei since 2008.

Original pdf version in English and Germany : https://gruenrekorder.de/fieldnotes/?lang=en&p=download