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Comment by Momogun 詩男 on May 5, 2023 at 8:53am

點萬盞心燈、浴佛、三步一拜　雪隆多地佛寺莊嚴慶衛塞節

（吉隆坡4日訊）雪隆各地佛寺今日莊嚴慶祝2023年衛塞節，其中近千名佛教徒今日清晨聚集在雪隆海南會館（天后宮）山腳參與「三步一拜，朝山拜願」活動，全程耗費2小時，一路從山腳三步一拜虔誠膜拜步行至天后宮，場面莊嚴！

衛塞節是佛教徒以三期同慶來紀念釋迦牟尼佛（佛陀）誕生、成道覺悟和涅槃的殊勝之日。

除了雪隆海南會館佛學會舉辦「三步一拜」活動外，雪隆多地的佛教寺院和信眾，也通過系列隆重的慶典活動慶祝衛塞節，感恩和憶念佛陀偉大的教誨和引導。

而因疫情停辦3年的吉隆坡衛塞節花車遊行，也將在今日傍晚6時在吉隆坡十五碑錫蘭佛寺舉辦，並邀請交通部長陸兆福前來主持推介禮。

此外，為了慶祝2023年衛塞節，靈市「修成林佛教寺院」今日也舉辦第42屆「萬盞心燈供佛陀」。

根據觀察，近千名佛教徒從今日清晨5時起，就在天后宮的山腳下聚集，並由常發法師在清晨6時帶領眾信徒，一路三步一跪拜朝天後宮前去。

據悉，「三步一拜，朝山拜願」活動是天后宮的常年活動，但因疫情的緣故曾停辦3年，今年的衛塞節則是首度復辦，因此吸引許多信徒參與。

另一方面，雪州行政議員許來賢和八打靈再也國會議員李健聰，今日也受邀到「修成林佛教寺院」參與浴佛及「萬盞心燈供佛陀」儀式。此外，武吉加星州議員拉吉夫也受邀出席此項活動。

「修成林佛教寺院」從早上9點開放至下午5點，迎來四面八方的信眾參與禮佛、浴佛、點燈、誦經禮懺、佛前大供、供花、供果、供齋、布施及做各種適時供養，鼓勵信眾廣種福田，並設有素食結緣與信眾廣結善緣。

信眾在浴佛時，以恭敬供養之心自我觀照，使自心離開塵垢及煩惱，培養佛陀慈悲心、智慧心、禪定及福報，使社會成為人間凈土。

此外，配合衛塞節而舉辦的慈善義賣會，也獲得大眾的熱烈響應支持，紛紛為非營利「修成林國際學校（特殊教育）」出一份力。

「修成林佛教寺院」住持長恒法師勉勵護法信眾能以馬來西亞佛教總會2023年的衛塞節主題「齊心啟力，國富民強」為向導，以佛法端正知見、凈化人心，以感恩之心將友愛、包容、互助和歡笑充溢每個每個人能的心房，以正念端正品行進而建造一個人民和諧和樂的社會，這些就是報答國土恩的具體表現。

信眾踴躍禮佛、浴佛、點燈及慶祝衛塞節，以愛國、愛教及感念國土恩來祝願國基永固、繁榮昌盛、人民康樂及國富民強，這些都是極為美好、殊勝且令人感動的願望。

在《般若經》、《法華經》、《菩薩本行經》、《華嚴經》等大乘經典中，佛陀宣講了「莊嚴國土，利樂有情」，許多菩薩也發願以種種殊勝德行，將建設人間凈土、實現成就莊嚴國土為己任，而這正是大乘菩薩自利利他的菩薩精神的具體展現。

佛教徒把佛法教義貫徹在日常生活中，用行動去感動更多人心存善念及多行慈善，與十方共成十方事，與萬人共結萬人善緣，就能讓社會處處充滿溫情、喜悅、正能量和團結共進的積極力量，國家發展也自然而然處於正道上。

長恒法師也勉勵護法信眾秉持佛教的慈悲、智慧、平等觀念，以慈悲對待一切眾生，因為倡導「無緣大慈，同體大悲」的佛教和慈悲是無國界的，而佛教的「和合無諍」之理念乃基於「慈悲」精神，佛教教義更是與和諧、和平、和睦緊密相聯。

「一個內心慈悲、善良、柔軟的人，就能以溫和、柔軟的語言與行為，令自他歡喜，成就祥和無諍的世界，而社會和國家也自然能在此基礎上獲得健康、良性的發展，從而人人皆能齊心啟力，打造國富民強。祈願世界和平、國家繁榮安寧、風調雨順且全民安康。」（4.4.2023 東方日報）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on April 18, 2023 at 11:38am

新馬地區的媽祖信仰與移民社會

Ma-zu Faith and Emigrant Society in Singapore and Malaysia Area

姚政志(Cheng-Chih Yao)

政大史粹 ； 6期 (2004 / 06 / 01) ， P95 - 140

繁體中文 DOI： 10.30384/CHNCCU.200406_(6).0003 DOI

關鍵詞：媽祖 ； 天后 ； 會館 ； 方言 ； 道教 ；

媽祖信仰是華人民間信仰中相當重要的一支，幾乎有華人的地方就有媽祖廟。新馬地區有相當多的華人移民，新加坡更是一個以華人為主，由華人統治的國家和社會，因此，媽祖信仰在新馬地區也很盛行。新馬地區的媽祖信仰和華人的方言組織關係相當密切，幾乎每個幫都有自己的媽祖廟，如新加坡的福建幫擁有天福宮，潮州幫有粵海清廟，海南幫有瓊州天后宮。早期的媽祖信仰隨著華人移民的增多而變得興盛。但是，隨著時間的推移，道教信仰等華人民間信仰，逐漸失去教育水準較高的年輕一代的信徒。媽祖信仰屬於道教神祇的一支，難免也受到影響。近年來，由於政府單位及華人民間團體的重視，媽祖信仰又逐漸為人們所認識。經過政府單位和華人民間組織的努力，媽祖在新馬地區的華人社會中又有了新的意義。

Ma-zu(媽祖) faith is an important branch of Chinese's popular religions. Where Chinese is, where Ma-zu Temple is. There are many emigrants from China living in Singapore and Malaysia area, especially in Singapore which is governed by Chinese. Therefore, Ma-zu faith is in vogue in Singapore and Malaysia. Ma-zu faith in Singapore and Malaysia is quite related to Chinese's dialect organization, and almost each dialect organization has their own Ma-zu Temple such as Tian-Fu Temple(天福宮)of Fu-jian group(福建幫), Yue-hai-cing Temple(粵海清廟) of Chao-jhou group(潮州幫) and Cyong-jhou-tian-hou Temple(瓊州天后宮) of Hai-nan group(海南幫). In the early stage, Ma-zu faith becomes more and more popular by the increasingly Chinese emigrants. As time goes by, Chinese popular religions which are part of Taoism lose young followers who are in high educational level. Ma-zu faith is also effected by the tides step by step because Ma-zu is a branch of Taoism gods. Recently, Ma-zu faith is acknowledged by descendants of Chinese emigrants again gradually thanks to government and Chinese popular groups take it seriously. Ma-zu faith has new meaning in overseas Chinese society of Singapore and Malaysia through exerted by governments and Chinese popular organizations.

延續閱讀：

10月投产需大量专才旗滨200员工赴华培训

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on April 4, 2023 at 11:06am

古達媽祖像計劃若落實，沙可建海上絲路文化基地

延續閱讀：古達柏柏石碼頭媽祖廟

沙巴中國總商會支持政府重新矗立古達媽祖像的計劃，為本地建立「海上絲綢之路」文化基地，提升沙巴在一帶一路的地位及重要性，也打造成為沙巴的文化旅遊項目。

沙中總商會長拿督劉順泰，是針對沙巴副首席部長拿督佐津昆沙南，日前巡視並支持古達繼續興建媽祖像的言論這麽表示。他坦言，媽祖像過去因為各種因素而被迫擱置，將近20年平躺在古達沙灘上，是讓人深表遺憾和莫名其妙的事。

「副首長說得非常對，媽祖像可以成為旅遊景點，為古達人民帶來利益，為本州旅遊業增值。」

據悉，州旅遊、文化及環境部長拿督劉靜芝早前巡視古達燈火樓參觀媽祖像，表示將把該課題帶回內閣商量，以要求繼續完成矗立媽祖像的工程。

拿督劉順泰相信新任政府是實事求是的開明政權，一定願意聆聽民意民聲，讓古達媽祖像建立起來，發揮其經濟、文化效益，讓全民各族受惠。他也強調，媽祖是中國與南洋各國海洋文化的代表，近千年來一直與諸多和平外交活動、海上交通貿易，都有著密切關聯，成為海內外華人千年文化圖騰和精神。

「全世界共擁有媽祖宮廟5000多座，媽祖信眾有兩億多人，其中以海上絲綢之路沿線國家為甚。2009年『媽祖信俗』被聯合國科教文組織列入《人類非物質文化遺產代表作名錄》，媽祖文化更是成為了全人類尤其是21世紀海上絲綢之路沿線國家共屬的精神財富。」

拿督也強調，古達媽祖神像也可以成為沙巴多元種族宗教和平共處，各自發展的重要宣言，讓外資和對沙巴有強大的投資信心，無形中也促進和發揮海上絲綢之路沿線國家地區民眾的凝聚力和創造力。

「一旦古達媽祖神像建立起來，將能夠為沙巴打造一帶一路的文化品牌，讓沙巴成為海上絲綢之路上重要的一個基地。」（2023年4月3日 詩華日報）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on February 6, 2023 at 10:42pm

Packing in Meaning: Applying Jakobson’s Model of Communication to Packaging Design by M. Lemon

From the level of the sign to culture, the practice of semiotic analysis concerns the construction and description of models. Within commercial semiotics, a few of these models (notably Greimas‘s semiotic square and Raymond Williams’s concept of residual, dominant, and emergent), have proven particularly useful due to their ability to summarise cultural phenomena in a form readily digested and applied by marketing professionals to their brands. Packaging design is a frequent subject of commercial semiotic inquiry and draws on a wide array of semiotic phenomena ranging from visuals, to textures, and the lived experience of interacting with the package. How can we approach a comprehensive understanding of the potential of packaging design to communicate meaning? In what ways can we say that a package can 『mean』, and how as semioticians can we help analyze and create novel packaging solutions that further brand meaning? Roman Jakobson‘s general model of linguistic communication proposes a diverse array of cross cultural communicative functions for language, but is not currently a key model in the commercial semiotician’s toolkit. This paper proposes that this linguistic model has the potential to be translated into the multisensory realm of general semiotics and applied to packaging design. It will particularly consider how Jakobson’s six communicative functions (emotive, referential, poetic, conative, metalingual, and phatic) are relevant to the numerous non-linguistic sign systems (colour, texture, shape, typography, imagery, material etc.) employed in packaging. In so doing, this paper proposes a system for understanding the meaning potential of packaging design as not only an aesthetic vehicle but also a strategic tool for the cross-cultural development and communication of brand identity. （DOI:10.5840 / AJS201931448Corpus ID: 168165629；Published 2018 in Art，The American Journal of Semiotics）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on February 6, 2023 at 11:49am

Roman Jakobson (1892-1982)

Roman Jakobson was a literary theorist and critic, greatly influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure, the founder of structuralism and of semiology, the connection between signs as signifiers and the signified concepts. Before Saussure, linguistics was the historical ("diachronic") study of language, primarily grammars, over time. Structuralism looks to the "synchronic" study of structure alone to discover the functions of language.

Jakobson extended linguistics beyond syntax, semantics, and morphology, with a careful analysis of the sounds of language, which often convey a great deal of meaning beyond the text. He extended his new critical tools beyond his new phonology to syntax and morphology, and even semantics.

He studied communications theory (Claude Shannon), cybernetics (Norbert Wiener), and the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, using them all to study poetry, music, and films (especially the emergence of sound in films).

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on February 6, 2023 at 11:49am

Jakobson's influential essay on linguistics and poetics distinguished six communication functions, each associated with a dimension or factor of the communication process. With two diagrams similar to Claude Shannon's sender-message-receiver diagram in the theory of the communication of information, Jakobson presented his theory of the poetic function of language:

Language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions. Before discussing the poetic function we must define its place among the other functions of language. An outline of these functions demands a concise survey of the constitutive factors in any speech event, in any act of verbal communication. The ADDRESSER sends a MESSAGE to the ADDRESSEE. To be operative the message requires a CONTEXT referred to (the "referent" in another, somewhat ambiguous, nomenclature), graspable by the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized; a CODE fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee (or in other words, to the encoder and decoder of the message); and, finally, a CONTACT, a physical channel and psychological connection between the addresser and the addressee, enabling both of them to enter and stay in communication. All these factors inalienably involved in verbal communication may be schematized as follows :

Each of these six factors determines a different function of language. Although we distinguish six basic aspects of language, we could, however, hardly find verbal messages that would fulfill only one function. The diversity lies not in a monopoly of some one of these several functions but in a different hierarchical orders of functions. The verbal structure of a message depends primarily on the predominant function. But even though a set (Einstellung) toward the referent, an orientation toward the context — briefly, the so-called REFERENTIAL, "denotative," "cognitive" function — is the leading task of numerous messages, the accessory participation of the other functions in such messages must be taken into account by the observant linguist.

The so-called EMOTIVE or "expressive" function, focused on the addresser, aims at a direct expression of the speaker's attitude toward what he is speaking about. It tends to produce an impression of a certain emotion, whether true or feigned...

Orientation toward the addressee, the CONATIVE function, finds its purest grammatical expression in the vocative and imperative, which syntactically, morphologically, and often even phonemically deviate from other nominal and verbal categories.

There are messages primarily serving to establish, to prolong, or to discontinue communication, to check whether the channel works ("Hello, do you hear me?"), to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention ("Are you listening?" or in Shakespearean diction, "Lend me your ears!" — and on the other end of the wire "Um-hum!"). This set for contact, or in Malinowski's terms PHATIC function, may be displayed by a profuse exchange of ritualized formulas, by entire dialogues with the mere purport of prolonging communication. Dorothy Parker caught eloquent examples: "'Well!' the young man said. 'Well!' she said. 'Well, here we are' he said. 'Here we are' she said, 'Aren't we?' 'I should say we were' he said, 'Eeyop! Here we are.' 'Well!' she said. 'Well!' he said, 'well.' " The endeavor to start and sustain communication is typical of talking birds; thus the phatic function of language is the only one they share with human beings.

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on February 6, 2023 at 11:48am

 It is also the first verbal function acquired by infants; they are prone to communicate before being able to send or receive informative communication. A distinction has been made in modern logic between two levels of language: "object language" speaking of objects and "metalanguage" speaking of language. But metalanguage is not only a necessary scientific tool utilized by logicians and linguists; it plays also an important role in our everyday language... Whenever the addresser and/or the addressee need to check up whether they use the same code, speech is focused on the code: it performs a METALINGUAL (i.e., glossing) function. "I don't follow you — what do you mean?"

Any process of language learning, in particular child acquisition of the mother tongue, makes wide use of such metalingual operations; and aphasia may often be defined as a loss of ability for metalingual operations. I have brought up all the six factors involved in verbal communication except the message itself. The set (Einstellung) toward the message as such, focus on the message for its own sake, is the POETIC function of language. This function cannot be productively studied out of touch with the general problems of language, and, on the other hand, the scrutiny of language requires a thorough consideration of its poetic function. Any attempt to reduce the sphere of the poetic function to poetry or to confine poetry to the poetic function would be a delusive oversimplification. The poetic function is not the sole function of verbal art but only its dominant, determining function, whereas in all other verbal activities it acts as a subsidiary, accessory constituent. This function, by promoting the palpability of signs, deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and objects. Hence, when dealing with the poetic function, linguistics cannot limit itself to the field of poetry...

As I said, the linguistic study of the poetic function must overstep the limits of poetry, and, on the other hand, the linguistic scrutiny of poetry cannot limit itself to the poetic function. The particularities of diverse poetic genres imply a differently ranked participation of the other verbal functions along with the dominant poetic function. Epic poetry, focused on the third person, strongly involves the referential function of language; the lyric, oriented toward the first person, is intimately linked with the emotive function; poetry of the second person is imbued with the conative function and is either supplicatory or exhortative, depending on whether the first person is subordinated to the second one or the second to the first. Now that our cursory description of the six basic functions of verbal communication is more or less complete, we may complement our scheme of the fundamental factors with a corresponding scheme of the functions :

What is the empirical linguistic criterion of the poetic function? In particular, what is the indispensable feature inherent in any piece of poetry? To answer this question we must recall the two basic modes of arrangement used in verbal behavior, selection and combination. If "child" is the topic of the message, the speaker selects one among the extant, more or less similar nouns like child, kid, youngster, tot, all of them equivalent in a certain respect, and then, to comment on this topic, he may select one of the semantically cognate verbs — sleeps, dozes, nods, naps. Both chosen words combine in the speech chain.

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on February 6, 2023 at 11:47am

The selection is produced on the basis of equivalence, similarity and dissimilarity, synonymy and antonymy, while the combination, the build-up of the sequence, is based on contiguity. The poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination. Equivalence is promoted to the constitutive device of the sequence. In poetry one syllable is equalized with any other syllable of the same sequence; word stress is assumed to equal word stress, as unstress equals unstress; prosodic long is matched with long, and short with short; word boundary equals word boundary, no boundary equals no boundary; syntactic pause equals syntactic pause, no pause equals no pause. Syllables are converted into units of measure, and so are morae or stresses

("Linguistics and Poetics," in Style in Language, ed. Thomas Sebeok, 1960, p.350)

We can combine Jakobson's two schemas into a single diagram

Context was perhaps Jakobson's most important addition to semiotics. Adding context gives us the difference between semantics (the standard dictionary meaning of a word according to the normal "rules" of the language) versus pragmatics, the meaning that may be intended by the sender, or should be inferred by the receiver/interpreter because of the current situation. Jakobson calls this contextual information "denotative," "cognitive," "referential," the "leading task" of a message. Context-dependence alters the "meaning" to suit the purpose of a communication.

Notes:

1. referential (: the denotative or connotative "aboutness," contextual information, the "third person," someone or something the message is about)
2. aesthetic/poetic (: information )
3. emotive (: the addressee's self-expression, attitude, intention, first person)
4. conative (: vocative or imperative addressing of receiver, second person)
5. phatic (: no information, checking channel working, are you still there?)
6. metalingual (: checking code working, agreement on the meanings of words)

Jakobson's famous but mysterious dictum "the poetic function projects the principle of equivalence from the axis of selection to the axis of combination" presages the fall of Saussure's synchronic, time-independent structuralism to the post-structuralist and post-modernist diachronic view, notably Jacques Derrida's "différance" whose meaning of deferral can only be seen and not heard, to displace the Platonic privileging of voice over text.

Derrida showed that meaning is deferred, disseminated, that Saussure's claim that meaning is "différence" is not the whole story. And Roland Barthes showed the dyadic Saussurean s/S becomes the "circle of signifiers" s/Z if one is trapped in Jakobson's "selection axis" of looking up words in a dictionary of dead (non-evolving) languages. （Source: https://www.informationphilosopher.com）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on October 17, 2022 at 9:16pm

何幸真〈明代的建文朝歷史記憶〉

靖難戰爭後，明成祖掌握了歷史的解釋權，嘗試將「過去」形塑為能支持其政權合法性的樣貌。但日後相關記憶的發展走向，卻使其成為政治力量操控集體記憶的一個失敗例證。這不僅是因為儒家忠君思想在明代被以空前的力度強調，當時政治、社會與文化等層面，也都存在支持原有記憶存續，甚至創造新記憶的機制。

明代的建文朝歷史記憶主要是由官方論述和民間記憶，在彼此競爭又相互影響的互動中形成，其發展又涉及靖難戰後朝廷的相關寬赦、弛禁與崇陞。文人群體──特別是南方文人──掌握了許多延續該段歷史記憶之媒介的生產與運作，使相關記憶在形塑過程中，有不少與文人文化結合的情況。建文諸臣的忠烈事蹟、建文帝的出亡傳說，是此類記憶中最受矚目且最豐富的。

前者發展的動力，主要來自諸臣原鄉標榜故里人物的需求，以及士人激發忠義、裨益世教的願望；後者則反映了明人面對殘酷的歷史發展和不完全的政治弛禁，渴望替建文帝討回公道的心態。然而永樂一系政權的合法性問題，以及明人對成祖的尊崇，又與懷念建文政權、認同建文君臣的記憶與情感有所衝突。為了消除此類衝突、撫平歷史傷痕和促進政治弛禁，調和成祖與建文君臣的論述也應運而生，構成明代建文朝歷史記憶最重要的特色。(何幸真，31Mar2020，殤魂何歸: 明代的建文朝歷史記憶，秀威出版, 原题：明代的建文朝歷史記憶，國立臺灣師範大學歷史研究所碩士班學位論文，本段摘自原論文摘要。）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on March 19, 2022 at 6:11pm

文本《龍舟三十六拍》前言（續）

《龍舟演義》的原唱，韻腳夾雜而元神充沛，平仄隨意而抑揚自如,我限於歷練，雖亦步亦趨，但鄉野之氣，歌吟處仍滄桑各異。為了文氣的一以貫之，原已襲用舊句的末段龍舟十拍，因而潛光隱曜,酌代今詞。龍舟是先唱一段唱詞或旁述，文中寫的本事，只是的是先唱一段，跟着以道白講述本事，或自述或旁述，文中寫的本事，只是故事大意，比原述簡略多了。

在寫作本事的過程中，也曾翻書閲案，檢視舆圖簡编，為「海上江南」的人物和故事，在歷史與傳說之間定位。傳說起自民間，耳聞口授，說的人多了，時間久了，地方遠了，難免通同轉借，博雜不純，種種鄉野傳聞，似屬不經之談，實則舊卷之中，新天早在,蛛絲馬跡，俱在古書。史事與傳說，中國與南洋，宋代與明朗，在資料的互相比照下，仿佛目睹移民先祖在海上篳路藍縷的艱辛,也感受他們開啟山林的快樂。昔者日已遠，千載有餘情，寫了三十多段考據的按語，附在本事的後面，聊備查證。

上面寫的說的，都是三十多年前的事、三十多年前的話了，三十多年的人生行旅，多少茅店雞聲，多少名城燈火，我漸漸發覺，龍舟德說唱「海上江南」其實是為天涯漂泊的移民畫夢。夢裏誰能著意尋? 那沈默在墨色裏的青山嫵媚，那飄浮在風中的倡歌輾轉，是那麼實在而又不可觸摸。當年未念及此，在演義的歷史與傳說之間妄加解說，如今看來，濩落千章，難减寸心, 那累累贅贅的經經典典，也不過是僧伽龍溯的痴人說夢了。（二十世紀六十年代初礦,二零零五年清明修訂）（白垚《縷雲起于綠草》）

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