麻將與人生

河北麻將街

麻將在中國是老少咸宜,非常受歡迎的牌戲. 可說除了吃以外,沒有比麻將更 風行. 除了小小孩子以外,幾乎每個階層的人,都有大部分人對此好之不疲. 更有甚者,挑燈夜戰,不分晝夜. 還有病人昏倒,孕婦臨產在即,皆下不了桌,誠屬天下奇觀,嘆為觀止. 世上僅有一事可與此相媲美的是'賭博'. 賭雖比不上麻將規摸龐大,但卻是世界性的活動. 君不見 Las Vegas 的賭博人士,呼之即來,揮之不去. 舍南舍北皆牌局,但見賭棍日日來,永遠有數不完的好賭之士,在 slot machine 前,揮汗如雨,大幹一場. 但並不是每個人都有閒情逸緻去 Las Vegas 或 澳門,加上很多地方不准設賭場,於是 樂透 (Lotto) 滿天飛,滿足了大部分人的好賭天性. 三字經忘了'人之初,性好賭' 這一句,誠屬遺憾.

現在分析為什麼麻將和賭博會這麼普遍? 這是入門門檻極低. 不管博士或目不識丁之人皆能玩之且有可能贏的机會. 其他 games 如圍棋,象棋和西洋棋,高下立見,低手極少有可能勝的机會. 又如橋牌,雖有點像麻將,但是有兩個一組,是 team work, not everybody for himself. 難度相當高,低手勝的机會很少. 很少聽說有拉角子机器選手有八段高手,主要是因為幾乎不靠什麼技巧,全憑或然率也 ie randomness. 麻將雖然門檻比 slot machine or 21 點 高些,但其差距固不大矣. 加上自摸,全靠老天爺 (randomness),所以能夠吸引老少賢愚,仁人下士,趨之若騖. 君若問既然好賭乃人類天性,為什麼麻將獨風行中國而不在外國? 原因有不少,其中之一乃是好賭亦有程度之分. 中國人明顯好賭,喜好佔便宜,投机取巧,迷信好運比別的民族強烈. 搓麻將到某種程度,就像抽鴉片一樣, get hooked and addicted. 常聽說有人在颱風地震天災時,麻將照打不誤,挑燈不行,有電筒,蠟燭代之. 廢寢忘食,置生死於度外,莫此為甚.

清末民初中國有三害:鴉片,八股,小腳. 胡適認為應該是四害,加麻將也. 其他三害似已剷除,可是麻將儼然取代鴉片. 仔細想想,麻將和鴉片有些類似,它讓人處於閉室,坐臥終日,耽於一種不事生產且不健康的活動. 胡適對麻將有研究和考証. 他認為麻將是從明代一種叫馬吊的紙牌演變而來. 當時士大夫們整日整夜地打馬吊,把正事都荒廢了. 据史載明末崇禎皇帝在亡國前夕,開御前會議,居然找不到大臣,原來國難當前,這些國家重臣,皆下不了馬吊桌也. 馬吊牌乃麻將牌前身. 胡適是考証專家. He dug in and proposed '麻將亡國論',諄諄告誡國人,打衛生麻將可也,萬萬不可耽於賭博式麻將,誤已誤民誤國,罪莫大焉. 胡適痛心問道:'我們走遍世界,可曾看到那一個長進的民族,文明的國家肯這樣荒時廢業的? 麻將祗是愛閒愛蕩,不珍惜光陰的愚昧民族的專利品'.

胡先生也許言重了些,像打衛生麻將,處理得當,可能是讓麻將脫胎換骨的絕佳机會. 什麼是衛生麻將? 最好先定義,以免誤解和誤用. 衛生麻將必須至少具備下面幾個條件或限制:

1. 打麻將不超過一小時.

2. 不用錢做輸贏的標準,徹底和賭博分家.

3. 麻將牌子應該用好的軟質材料,搓起來絕不發出噪音,扰人安眠.

4. 說'碰'的聲音不得超過 65 db.

5. 對出牌慢的人不能抱怨, 更不得惡言相向.

6. 不能把輸贏看得太厲害,這是 randomness 相當高的 game.

7. 不能像大拜拜一樣,一下子開十桌,大打麻將,搓聲震天,此風不可長.

Item 3 是魯迅先生反對麻將的最大原因,他一生不得安睡,全是鄰居搓麻將噪音所害,故對之深惡痛絕. 我碰到很多打麻將朋友,他/她們一聽到我打麻將不算錢時,馬上興趣全失,奪門而出. 賭博心態,昭然若揭. 最近聽說有人提出 '申請麻將為世界文明稀有遺產'. 這些人必須記住麻將還不會絕種,有這種遺產想法,實在不合邏輯. 最後有一個問題,值得我們深思. 如上所述,麻將門檻不高,故吸引中下層人士. 又因其 Randomness 成分很高,故 IQ 極低人士亦有贏的机會. 如是一般,老少咸宜,皆大歡喜. 但玄的是為什麼高 IQ 智識份子也樂此不彼,耽於此低挑戰性的遊戲 (low challenging game)?

Life, Random Event?

We sometime hear people say with strong will and perseverance, they achieve great feat and success. Yet there are a lot of events people just can't control and very often they don't expect or see they are coming. There are so many uncertainties in our life that make us wonder whether we can direct or control our life. The very first thing our existence in this world is a miracle and we just don't know how we hit it. It is a probability of 1 out of 100 million (sperms) that you got conceived by that particular sperm which represents you. In fact, we exist because we hit the jackpot. Ironically, after you hit this one, you probably will not hit another jackpot from lotto in your entire life. Think harder, the human activities depend on the environment and human interactions and these in turn depend on some historical event as all events may affect each particular event directly or indirectly. For instance, if 淝水之戰 didn't happen or the outcome was different, we might not exist at all as we might have another set of ancestors and you no longer are you, you might be someone else.

Since we hit the jackpot and exist, how about our spouse? Are we sure he/she is the one we destine to have? For many of us, if we didn't attend the particular university, we certainly would have married someone else. Human encounters are very random, 近水樓台先得月, 一見鍾情. If you never get the chance to see the person, it is highly possible you will never marry the person. Also you can't control which university you will get the admission. Trace a little bit further, you couldn't control which school/department to get in when you took 聯考. Does this mean that your career is also a result of some random event? If we carry this logic link by link, we reach the conclusion that our life is just a chain of random events. Of course we can control something minor such as whether to eat steak or fish for lunch. But something so major like our existence, our marriage, our career, depend on something so random. Aren't we surprised and feel scared? No wonder people pray when they don't know what to do or when they are out of control.

I remember an English lesson we learned in the first year of our high school. The story goes like this. A boy took a trip to nearby city on one hot summer day. While he reached midway and had to transfer to another bus, he found he got 1 hour time to kill. As the day was hot, he walked to a shady place, cool and nice square with a spring fountain and trees. He fell asleep. Meanwhile, something happened around him and random things cooked up. An old couple passed by thinking about inheriting him, a nice young women walked near him and adored him, a pair of bad guys tried to rob him but got scared by a mad dog nearby, etc, etc, etc. One hour almost passed and the boy waked up and hopped up the bus to continue the journey. But he has no idea what happened around him in that one hour, let alone to guess what would have happened if he waked up at the right time. In other words, his life may be a complete different one depending on when he wake up. The interesting thing is that he just has no idea what happen around him during that fateful one hour. Is Life really a chain of random events?

Poem, Music & Language

On Wings of Song

When in the course of our education, we were profoundly influenced by some books or music which etched and imprinted in our mind. They become part of us as we grow up. It is easy to communicate among people about a book and its influence. But it is harder to do the same for music. Language is a basic skill in education and our society. Music is not as it is not a prerequisite to enter a college. Yet music is so popular in our society, be it classical or non-classical music. Everybody sings and everybody listens to music. But if we want to dig in a little bit more, we usually encounter some difficulty. We used to have music books which can't sing for us and so it is hard to convey or describe the meaning or feeling of the music. When time goes by and technology advances, we gradually made some improvement in discussing music among people. First, movie and TV gives us a tool that combines music (audio) with video. If the lyrics is shown with the video while music is playing, people can follow the music easily. However, in most cases the lyrics is not provided on the video, people tend to get lost while music is in progress. With the advent of Internet, it ushers in a new breed of tools and some website like YouTube which behaves like a public library of music with video time line. Although this is some kind of evolution of the technology, it exerts a great influence to the way we listen to music and the way we appreciate music. Here is a good example that I'd like put it in practice. In the blog "Palo Alto Rock" (July, 2013), I provided the links of the music and its lyrics (German, English, Mandarin). If we open two windows on the laptop computer, one is the music on YouTube and the other is the Excel file of the lyrics with time line data. Now we can listen to the music in sync with the lyrics even without the lyrics shown on the video. It is a living music book, a big improvement over the good old silent music book.

Music: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4QC35LfhU

Lyrics with time line data

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3Kwp81ksqfMaVBJbXVFQXo3dFk/edit?usp=sharing

In this example, the music is 'Auf Flügeln des Gesanges' ('On Wings of Song') by Mendelssohn. The lyrics is German accompanied with translation in English and Mandarin. In Excel the lyrics is listed in three columns with the text of lyrics in one-to-one correspondence. The original music was composed in German (Heine's poem). We can see the text is arranged in pair with rhyme just like traditional Chinese poem. For instance, Gesanges/Ganges, fort/Ort, Garten/erwarten, Oondenschein/Schwesterlein, kosen/Rosen, empor/Ohr, lauschen/rauschen/, Gazelin/Well'n, niedersinken/trinken, Palmenbaum/Traum are all paired in rhyme. It is the same for the text of English translation. Here we can see the similarity between German and English. As to the Mandarin translation, it is not in rhyme. Instead it is a direct translation of meaning of the poem with lucid and fluent Mandarin style without taking in consideration of rhyme. It is just as romantic, artistic and beautiful as the German and English poem. Here we can appreciate the nuance and shade of different language in conveying the same message. 

In Excel file, the C column is the music time line. The repeated German text is shown with * and listed in the Time Line as such. In the last line of the text, 'Und traumen seligen Traum' is repeated once and 'seligen Traum' is repeated one more time to end the song. 

PS: It is easier to access the blog twice with a browser (Google Chrome or AOL browser). With two windows on the screen (by click & drag the window tab outside of the browser), you can access the music (YouTube) in one window and then access the lyrics in other window. You can then arrange two windows in the screen to fit your taste and convenience. While you play the music, you can cross reference the lyric time line with the time line of the video. This is easy to do for most laptop computer. It may not be feasible for mobile device such as iPhone or iTouch. 

茵夢湖

初中國文老師李永華有次上課時,提到一本書, '茵夢湖'. 他說在大學裏人手一冊,很風行. 吾輩莘莘學子,聽得一愣一愣的,到底還太小了. 及至高中,在重慶南路一家書店,偶然看到這本'茵夢湖'. 大喜而買之,回家閱讀乃知是青春男女的愛情故事. 這書不長不短,一天可一氣讀完. 此小說是 Theodor Storm 的作品,他生長在德國北海附近,終年陰氣逼人,陽光稀少,不免養成他的寫作風格,淡淡的哀愁和悲戚總是徬徨不去,卻是呼之即來.

茵夢湖描寫一對男女, Reinhard and Elisabeth, 兩小無猜,天真浪漫,總以為一生都在一起. 可是那一天終於到了,他必須離開本城去受高等教育,他們不得不忍受到別離的哀傷. Reinhard 在學校裏寫了一些情詩,總是珍藏著. 當復活節來臨,他回家看到她時,她長高了,美麗又苗條. 可是不知怎的,她已經有點疏遠了. 他把那些詩 拿出來給她看. 他看見她臉上泛出一陣淺暈漸漸地展佈了她可愛的面龐. 他好想看她的眼睛,但是她卻不抬起頭來,祇把那冊子一聲不響地放在他面前. 離開的日子很快又到了,她送他到火車站,他依依不捨地離去. 匆匆兩年, Reinhard 一天收到一封信,他的朋友 Erich 承繼一份遺產和田莊. Erich 向 Elisabeth 求婚兩次被拒絕,但終於獲得她的同意. 又過了幾年, Reinhard 穿過樹林來到茵夢湖,原來 Erich 邀他來他的田莊,但卻沒告訴 Elisabeth. 這個逝去的愛情就在茵夢湖的這幾天,重新點燃,慢慢升溫,然後漸漸的消失. Reinhard 終於覺悟,這個初愛終於必須結束,他必須離開這裏,奔向自己的前程. Storm 在茵夢湖這段時日的描繪非常含蓄而溫馨,處處感染淡淡的哀愁,若即若離的深情,和永遠跨不過的婚姻鴻溝,讓人感動,誠屬佳作.

故事的第一章和最後一章都是'老人'. 故事是倒敘法,從老人入室休息,看見一道月光從窗戶照進,這老人柔聲喚著 Elisabeth,時間將他拉回到童年時代. 當月光慢慢地轉朱閣,低綺戶,室內變得黑暗時,也就是回憶茵夢湖愛情的終結. 從這裡我想起了 悲愴交響曲來. Tchaikovsky 這首交響由的第一和第二樂章幾乎可以音繪整個 茵夢湖 的故事. 第一樂章的開頭和結尾部分是'老人'的回憶和嘆息. 中間的開展部是他們在茵夢湖的邂逅,千迴萬轉的恩愛深情和無限悵惘的離去. 第二樂章五拍子的民謠風旋律是他們兩小無猜的少時情景. 五拍子的每一小節,是前兩拍和後三拍的巧妙結合,歡欣愉悅但具有不安定的飄搖之感.

Tchaikovsky Symphony #6, Pathetique (悲愴交響曲)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHAfvUFtCIY

1st Movement
5:30---老人 main theme (beginning, 回憶)
10:26---茵夢湖 (音畫)
15:00---老人 main theme (ending, 悲嘆)

2nd Movement
19:26-28:07---兩小無猜, 少時情景

Esther Williams

Have you ever noticed that most of our favorite movie stars faded away quickly these days, William Holden, James Stewart, John Wayne, Stewart Granger, Burt Lancaster just to name a few. The latest one is Esther Williams. She was one of my favorite stars when I was a kid in primary school. She was a marvelous swimmer and starred in many swimming related movies. She was truly a mermaid of the time. She single-handed created a niche movie (water drama) just like Shirley Temple created her own (child drama) movies.

I used to mix Esther Williams up with another movie star, Doris Day. Somehow they got similar body build and the look of all American healthy women. I was most impressed by her movie "Bathing Beauty" (出水芙蓉). She admitted she couldn't act, dance or sing. But she can swim and swim like mermaid. She died on June 6, 2013. Every once in a while, PBS TV station ran some program like 'That's Entertainment' and it always shows some beautiful and graceful swimming routines by Esther Williams. This kind of movie is unique and never duplicated for another actresses. Indeed, there is one and only one mermaid, Esther Williams in our world. I sort of miss something profound that I know I can't get it back. Fortunately we have high tech to the rescue, I can still rent many DVDs to see Esther Williams and her lovely smiles. But mostly, I will always remember her wonderful swimming style, beautiful,elegant and graceful to the eyes.

Esther Williams published her autobiography in 1999. I found it interesting that she went through some kind of LSD (under doctor's supervision) experience. She got information and advice from Cary Grant that LSD somehow got some psychic energizer that dug into her inner soul. She said she was in a state of emotional and financial ruins when this LSD session re-energized her life. She realized that she actually tried to replace her older brother after he died at 16 years old. She worked so hard and moved so fast to support her family as her parents were in despair. In fact, she saw herself as half her brother and half herself. I have never tried LSD, maybe I miss something I don't know. 

Esther Williams influences me since she shows me there is something so beautiful and so graceful in this world. It is the swimming in such an aesthetic form that is beyond the description of any speech. Here is one video clip that captures her beauty and some of her swimming skill. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jUjhrDhFuM

Marion Bartoli

Marion Bartoli

It is interesting to see the second time in history a woman with both two-handed forehand and backhand wins the champion in Wimbledon.  She is Marion Bartoli of France.  She has been around for several years but never won a grand slam until today (7/6/2013).  Watching her play, I was impressed on her hitting balls with pace and deep to base line with precision.  Since mid 1970's many players adopted two-hand backhand and achieved a lot of success.  But we haven't seen many players trying two-handed forehand.  I have played tennis since 1967.  I started with single-handed backhand with some success.  I was able to hit the ball where I wanted with slice backhand.  The problem was the weak pace when I hit it with backhand slice or under spin.  Even later I tried top-spin backhand, the pace of the ball is way too weak comparing to the forehand drive.  After a few years, I started to develop tennis elbow mainly due to the short backhand slice.  I can hit the ball with precision and near the net.  Since I have to stop the stroke in the middle of the swing, it exerts more pressure to the tendon and muscle of my right elbow.  Anyway the combination of them creates a syndrome of tennis elbow.  I like the tennis, fun and low cost.  I can also get much more exercise than playing golf within shorter time frame.  As I get older, I think hard and decide to adopt two-handed stroke so I may be able to continue playing tennis till very old age.  So since two years ago, I bought a tennis ball machine and practiced hitting balls with both hands.  I started with two-handed backhand.  It took me a while to get used to it.  In fact it took me longer than I expected.  After about six months, I was able to hit the balls comfortably and felt that I could swing racket naturally.  I also found that it is quite easy and natural to hit the ball with both top-spin and under-spin.  It is also quite easy to hit the ball on the rise.  The only drawback is the length of the swing and the shorter reach when chasing the ball.  Eventually I found that the best way to play is to use two-handed stroke most of the time and use one-handed way when chasing balls.  After I mastered the two-handed backhand, I started the same thing for the forehand.  It is quite unusual to see professionals adopt the two-handed forehand as most of them have very strong muscle on forehand side and there is no need to use two-handed stroke.  But I found that my forehand got weaker when I got older.  This gave me the incentive to try earnest on two-handed forehand.  After several months practice, I have gained confidence in hitting balls with pace.  I feel very happy these days as I enjoy playing tennis more and get my weekly needed exercise.  I am very glad to see Marion Bartoli won the trophy, a Venus Rosewater Dish in Wimbledon.  Why?  She is the first person wins a tennis grand slam with both two-handed backhand and forehand just as I do now.

謝淑薇 and 彭帥

PS: Su-Wei Hsieh (謝淑薇) of Taiwan and Shuai Peng (彭帥)  of China won the Women's Doubles Championship in Wimbledon.  This is a historical first for Taiwan and China to win a grand slam doubles in tennis.  Both of them also play two-handed shots on both sides like Marion Bartoli.

Rosetta Stone & Palo Alto Rock

Inscription of
Palo Alto Rock

Rosetta Stone

如果你有机會參觀大英博物館,你一定不會錯過一塊黑色的石頭,它是有名的 Rosetta Stone. 這石頭是在 Napoleon 遠征埃及時,一位法國軍士發現的,時年 AD 1799. 這塊石頭上面刻有三種不同的文字,其中有古埃及文和希臘文. 當時已無人能識古埃及文,所以這次的發現,堪稱是劃時代的. 它使當代學者能以利用希臘文重新銓釋和解讀古埃及文化. 我 1982 年時在倫敦看到Rosetta Stone,砰然心動,見証這有厂史性的珍貴文物. 

前些日子同學討論到一些語文的功用和表達方式的效能,見仁見智,尤其是中文和英文的不同和高下. 大家大抵同意在詩詞方面,中文精簡卻有很多含義,比英文高明不少. 可是在法律和科學方面,英文準確度的確勝出. 不過在文學,詩歌領域裡,也涉及主觀問題,因為英文詩有不同的表現法,硬要比高下,未免強人所難. 比較合理的評語應該是'各有千秋,相得益彰'. 

有一天我們的文明也許會毀於一旦,在這洪荒宇宙,比較能夠留下來的是石頭. 所以我想這也許是個好想法,就像 Rosetta Stone 一樣,我們選一種人類的文化遺產,以三种不同的語言,同時刻在一塊石頭上,藏諸名山,善加保存, (served as a Time Capsule). 我暫稱這塊石頭叫 Palo Alto Rock, 別號 NTUEE64 Stone or '人類文明之石'.

在我欣賞中外文學,詩詞,歌謠中,發現有很多診貴的材料可選. 以下是其中之一,冶音樂,文學,詩詞於一爐,極富文明價值. 這是海涅 (Heinrich Heine) 的詩 'Auf Flügeln des Gesanges' ('On Wings of Song'), Mendelssohn 把它譜成一曲, 極富盛名. 我用 Excel ,並排列出三种語言,可以互相翻譯和銓釋,並且可欣賞不同語言的視覺感受及衡量其精簡程度. 音樂是看不出來,祗能用現今科技, DVD光碟一張, inserted in the rock. 也許有一天,外太空的高度文明物種可以 decipher 我們的音樂. 

音樂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc4QC35LfhU

彫刻文

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3Kwp81ksqfMRlJiQW9qZUhiQ00/edit?usp=sharing