Yu Hsi (born Hung Ching Yu) (born March 16, 1951) is a Taiwanese

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

poet and scholar who has translated the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

and the poems of

Subramaniya Bharathi Subramania Bharati (Born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the title ''Bharati'' for hi ...

and poet

Bharathidasan Bharathidasan Birth name: K. Subburathinam, the person's given name: Subburathinam, father's given name: Kanagasabai. (K. Subburathinam by the prevalent patronymic initials as prefix naming system in Tamil Nadu and it is Subburathinam Kanag ...

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

. He is the founder and president of the

Tamil Sangam The Tamil Sangams (Tamil: சங்கம் ''caṅkam'', Old Tamil 𑀘𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀫𑁆, from Sanskrit ''saṅgha'') were three legendary gatherings of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in th ...

in Taiwan. He has received various awards, including awards from Seoul World Academy of Arts and Culture (2004),

Thiruvalluvar Award Thiruvalluvar Award is an annual award given by the Government of Tamil Nadu, State Government of Tamil Nadu, India, in memory of the ancient poet-philosopher Valluvar. It is given to those who have made an outstanding contribution towards the Kura ...

(2014), and a felicitation from former President of India

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam ( ; 15 October 193127 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the president of India from 2002 to 2007. Born and raised in a Muslim family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, Kala ...

Personal life

Yu Hsi was born Hung Ching Yu in

Fangyuan Fangyuan Township () is a rural Township (Taiwan), township in Changhua County, Taiwan. History People have been immigrated from Fujian to the area since around 1640 CE, where they practiced fishing and traded with people in Fujian. The area w ...

township, Taiwan, on 16 March 1951. He obtained a doctorate in letters. He has authored more than 60 books. In a unique literary style, he wrote his fifth long-form novel on tradition scrolls, which contained almost 600,000 words. He has also translated Tamil classic Thirukkural, poems of

Bharathiyar Subramania Bharati (Born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the title ''Bharati'' for hi ...

and

and Avvaiyar's "Aathichoodi" (containing morals) into Mandarin. He has been ordained a Buddhist monk as Dao Yi.

Indian religion and philosophy

Yu Hsi was very interested in

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and

Indian philosophy Indian philosophy consists of philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The philosophies are often called darśana meaning, "to see" or "looking at." Ānvīkṣikī means “critical inquiry” or “investigation." Unlike darśan ...

. According to him, great wisdom lay in the Indian religion and philosophy. He counted Hindu god

Ganesh Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

as his favorite for having scripted the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

as told by sage Vedavyas. According to Yu Hsi, Lord Ganesha typifies the journey of enlightenment, just like those of ancient Buddhist monks. He also considers the characters of

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

and

Arjuna Arjuna (, , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, �ɾd͡ʒun̪ə is one of the central characters of the ancient Hindu epic ''Mahabharata''. He is the third of the five Pandava brothers, and is widely regarded as the most important and renowned among them. ...

to have influenced him greatly.

Translating the Tirukkural

In May 2010, Yu Hsi had a chance meeting with former President of India

when the latter presented him with a copy of the

and a golden statue of Buddha. The Kural text reminded him of the Hindu mythologies of

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

and

and their virtuous characters, which he was fascinated about 30 years earlier. Yu Hsi then agreed to translate the Thirukkural into Chinese and completed it in about three months. He also installed a life-size statue of

Valluvar Thiruvalluvar commonly known as Valluvar, was a Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'', a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economic matters, and love. The text is considered an exc ...

, the author of the Kural text, in Taiwan.

Awards

In 2004, Yu Hsi was awarded the Poet Laureate, the highest honour awarded by Seoul World Academy of Arts and Culture. In praise of his translation of the

in Mandarin, the Tamil Nadu government awarded 540,000. Yu Hsi, however, donated the amount to

Tamil University The Tamil University is a public state university located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established to provide higher research in the Tamil language. Location The university is situated in a campus of about , granted by the State go ...

for setting up of an endowment to propagate Tirukkural. In 2008, Yu Hsi received the Jan Smrek Prize in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, for his poetry inspired by

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. On the occasion, his five long poems were published in Slovak translation under the title "Cesta" (Road). In 2014, he received the Thiruvalluvar award from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Yu Hsi is the first foreign scholar to receive the Thiruvalluvar award.

References

External links