Hello one and all for the 9th installment of the weekly report. This week we had a readings based on mythological creatures along with groups working in tandem to fix the rushed quarantine book of 2020, lets get into it.
Tuesday Reading(s)- The first reading involved the tale of Shanxiao: Mountain Goblins. In the beginning they were seen as petty demon class of creatures who “reflected the fundamental human fears of the hidden dangers of the unknown wilderness.” With tall tales surrounding these demons passed down from generation to generation, they became questioned more regarding the truth of shanxiao goblins, with the first example coming from that of a trader who gave wood and goods to a muke(a kind of ghoul) in trade for knives and axes with no cheats. even these muke mourn their dead and give the same burial as we do to our passed kin. The documentation concluded with another trader coming across a similar situation with a female shanxiao who protected the trader in their sleep and happily traded for powder and rouge the following morning. The other reading was a short explanation on exorcists. Exorcists were considered skilled in their organization for each and every step during an exorcism. Their process involves usually the help of good spirits quelling the chaos-creating ones, giving the presence of control and security when it came to these threats.
Tuesday Reading thoughts- The first reading of the goblins had many different details that were interesting as well including tales of a drum shaped creature running on one leg that I thought was amusing on the read through. I also do love a good redemption story and its nice to see it happen with creatures that can be considered only chaotic creatures akin to fictional influences like Gollum from lord of the rings being a good parallel. The exorcist description was a short decent read however the things it was lacking was I feel more detail on exactly what kind of spirits did what, kind of like list of priority, similar in concept to the buddha reincarnation steps from a hell resident to a place of enlightenment.
Thursday Group work- As part of the fact checker group, I did what I could to help in the fixing of the chapter Introduction of Buddhism in Early China. However, my group members had more historical ties to the religion so they had a lot to complain and fix about and I had my gripes to but most if not all was mutually agreed on by the rest of the group too. My main contribution in my eyes was connecting to the proofreaders group in our thoughts based around the chapter( many things including formality was very wrong in our eyes.) and the illustration group, asking for assistance in finding pictures to make a more cohesive whole art style through out the textbook itself.
