Teachings of Confucianism and Buddhism

There is a considerable difference between the Romantic Era and the emergence of the Confucianism. The literature works, art pieces and musical compositions of this era are totally in contrast with the works of the previous periods. I would like to ponder about the message from the prominent chinese literature ‘Monkey King’. There were several aspects about this works that caught my attention. For example, one should not be desiring Nirvana to attain it. In fact, he/she should cease to desire Nirvana in order to attain that salvation. The period trait expressed in this piece is the ‘Value of Way’ as it explains that one should stop desiring Nirvana (the Way) to achieve salvation. Also, I do have certain doubts and questions in this work in reference to Tripitaka’s credibility. I am still not sure why he is a suitable candidate for achieving Nirvana. It is also important to point out some similarities that Buddhism shares with another major religion of this day – Hinduism. One similarity is that Buddhism preaches everyone to do the right thing and to do it for the right reason. They should do their karma with the right intentions to others such as showing love, compassion etc. As for the art piece, the painting revealed the sort of emptiness that existed during this period in chinese history. It provoked a calm and tranquil experience in the viewers much like the art works of the Romanticism period. As a reult, it expressed the period trait of ‘the value of emptiness’ in the piece. As for the last discipline of the chinese history, the music was very different in its compositon compared to the music of the previous periods. I think the reason for this difference is because of the types of instruments that were used in the musical pieces. The sample piece played in class expressed a sense of emptiness in it as it relates to the period trait of this era. (325)

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEMPLATION

For the upcoming interdisciplinary essay exam, I intend to discuss the following three pieces from the baroque era covering all the three disciplines of this course. They are Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe’, Caravaggio’s ‘Conversion of St Paul’ and Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aleneas’. For the literature section, I am going to pick the period traits of ecstatic emotions and dramatic contrasts. And these periods are going to speak to the theme of reason vs emotion. Tartuffe’s ability to act as a religious person but indeed posess secular urges within himself would prove the point of dramatic contrasts. Orgon’s act of completely giving in to the words of Tartuffe would exemplify the theme of ecstatic emotions. The same period traits are going to be used to tie in the art work to the theme of the era. As far as music, I would like to emphasize Dido’s unconditional love for Aleneas and his focus on carrying his duty as the explanation for the theme of reason vs emotion. The last paragraph would be a compare and contrast between the baroque era and romanticism era. For the second essay, I am going to discuss the Classical era with power and authority as the theme. Rousseau’s ‘Confessions’ would be exemplifying that theme with directness/accessibilty and clarity of form as period traits. Since Rousseau is very direct in recounting his personal experiences, it can bring the directness trait and also speak to the theme of power and authority as he believes that power and authority found in our society corrupts the individual. For the art piece, I would like to expound on ‘ Death of Marat’ as he spoke against people with power and authority which in turn led to his murder. For the music piece, I am going to use Mozart’s ‘Klein Nachtmusik’ with period traits of clarity of form and directness to explain the theme of power and authority. As far as the midterm exam, it was beneficial in preparing me for the essay exam but it would be really helpful to have a word bank for the fill ins for the final exam. Also some quotations from the readings were a little too difficult to recognize when taking the exam. (366)