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Ling-yan-si (sculptured heads of the Saints): *
The Four Heavenly Kings are said to currently live in the Cāturmahārājika heaven on the lower slopes of Mount Sumeru, the lowest of the 6 worlds of the devas of the Kāmadhātu. They are the protectors of the world and fighters of evil, each able to command a legion of supernatural creatures to protect the Dharma. Their faces are very reflective and each has a distinctive personality.
LEFT: chief of the four kings (he who hears everything) and protector of the north. (Not from Ling-yan-si)
RIGHT: Dhritarashtra, the pipa-playing Heavenly King watching for the East and the wind
The 4 reliefs BELOW illustrate the distinctive facial features & personalities of the 4 Heavenly Kings. These reliefs are NOT from Ling-yan-si.
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Nietzsche (on Classical tendency): *
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887) Nietzsche defines the master morality (as against the slave morality). Master morality values open-mindedness, courage, truthfulness, trust & an accurate sense of one's self-worth. The strong-willed man (of the master morality) will value things as good because they aid him in a life-long process of self-actualization through the will to power. Individuals define good based on whether it benefits them & their pursuit of self-defined personal excellence. The antithesis to the master morality is the "slave morality", which originates in Judaism, the bridge that led to the slave revolt by Christian morality of the alienated, oppressed masses of the Roman Empire. Those nobles endowed with the master morality are the “Blond Beasts”.
“At the centre of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid blond beast avidly prowling around for spoil and victory; this hidden centre needs release from time to time, the beast must out again, must return to the wild – Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility, Homeric heroes, Scandinavian Vikings….”
The Homeric Greeks, the Romans, by extension the Classical Civilization, are represented by the Blond Beasts, with their master morality. He goes on the directly identify the Greeks:
"These Greeks, for most of the time, used their gods expressly to keep ‘bad conscience’ at bay so that they could carry on enjoying their freedom of soul: therefore, the opposite of the way Christendom made use of its God. They went very far in this, these marvellous, lion-hearted children."
Spengler objects to this characterization of the Greek (or Apollonian), which seems to tell against his own characterization based on his Prime Symbol, the nude statue, & all that is inferred by this Symbol (Euclidean, locality, ahistorical, corporal).