Still Meandering

LEAVE IT FOR IMAGINATION

China is the greatest mystifying fact of Modern World. She is the oldest living Nation with a continuous culture. She has the largest population. Once she was the greatest Empire in the World and conqueror. She gave the World some of its most important inventions. She has a literature, a philosophy, a wisdom of life entirely of her own; and in the realm of Art she soared where others merely made an effort to flap their wings. Now she is modernizing with open markets and one can not but have faith in her ability to do so when one remembers how she survived the Ages after the beauty that was Greece and the glory that was Rome are long vanished.

Now that she has reached Grand Old Age she is beyond bodily & spiritual sorrows and one would have thought at times, beyond hope and beyond redemption. Success & failure have ceased to touch her, calamities and death has lost their meaning; for she is greater than her wars & pestilence. Surrounded by her children and grand children Merry Old China quietly sips her tea and smiles on, and in her smile I see her real strength.

It is the lot of the great to be misunderstood. China has been greatly, magnificently, misunderstood. Greatness is often a term we confer upon what we do not understand and wish to have done with. Between being well understood, however, and being called great, China would have preferred the former; and it would have been better for everybody all around.

Indeed, for the business of trying to understand a foreign Nation and culture there is need for brotherly feeling, of a common bond of humanity & cheer of good fellowship. There is need also for some detachment from one’s self and one’s subconscious notions from one’s childhood; form those big words with capital letters like; Democracy, Capital, Success, Prosperity, Religion, Dividends et. al. above all, one needs ‘Simplicity of Mind’. As it is, it is not humanity but gold that has attracted westerners to this far eastern shore, with not a single spiritual tie among them and the Chinese. As it is, the Englishman did not bother to have himself understood to the Chinese; and the true Chinese bothers even less to make himself understood to the Englishman. Where can that unity of understanding be? How can we combine real appreciation with critical appraisal?  To see with the Mind and to feel with the Heart. To make the mind & heart one is no easy state of grace to attain to. It requires courage, and that rare thing, ‘honesty’; and that still rarer thing, ‘a constant questioning activity of the mind’. A mind free of all ‘conditioning’.

To my mind the rural ideal in art, philosophy & life, so deeply embedded in Chinese consciousness must be responsible for national and racial health today. Creators of Chinese pattern of life did more wisely than they knew in maintaining a balance between civilization and primitive habits of living. A sound instinct guided them to choose agricultural civilization, to hate mechanical ingenuity and love the simple ways of life; to invent comforts of life without being enslaved to them; and to preach from generation to generation in their poetry, painting & literature, ‘the return to the farm’. For, to be close to nature is to have physical & moral health. Man, in the country does not degenerate, only man in the city does. This aspect subtly but profoundly accounts for the long survival of Chinese civilization. By way of illustrating this, I would like to reproduce below, a letter from an elder brother to his younger brother. I feel it captures the essential spirit for the love of Nature & Family among Chinese.

“The house you bought is well enclosed and indeed suitable for residence, only I feel the courtyard is too small, and when you look at the sky, it is not big enough. With my unfettered nature I do not like it. Only a hundred steps from this house there is a Parrot Bridge and another thirty steps from the bridge is the Plum Tower, with vacant spaces all around. If you could spare fifty thousand cash, you could buy a big lot for me to build my cottage there for my later days. My intention is to build an earthen wall around it and plant lots of bamboo, & flowers, & trees. I am going to have a garden path of paved pebbles leading from the gate to the house door. There will be two rooms, one for the parlor, one for the study where I can keep books, paintings, brushes, ink slabs, wine kettle & tea service, and where I can discuss poetry & literature with some good friends and the younger generation. Behind this will be the family living rooms, all covered with grass sheds, three main rooms, two kitchens and one servant’s room. Altogether there will be eight rooms and I shall be quite content. Early in the morning, before sun rise, I shall look east and see the red glow of the morning clouds, and at sun set, the sun will shine from behind the trees. When one stands upon a high place in the courtyard one can already see the bridge and clouds & water in the distance; and when giving a party at night, one can see the lights of the neighbor outside the wall. On looking up there would be a bright moon and a sky full of beautiful stars. This will be only thirty steps on the South to your house and will be separated from the little garden on the East by a small creek. So it is quite ideal. Some may say, “This is indeed very comfortable, only there may be burglars..” They do not know that burglars are but poor people. I would open the door and invite them to come in, and discuss with them what they may share. Whatever there is, they can take away; and if nothing would really suit them, they can even take away the great Wong’s old carpet to pawn it for a hundred cash. Please, my younger brother; bear this in mind, for this is your brother’s provision for spending a happy old age. I wonder whether I may have what I so desire.”

This is typical of a Tao soul. ‘Choose the lighter happiness’, said a scholar at the end of Ming Dynasties, and somehow, there was an echo of consent in the Chinese breast. Happiness is so precarious that retreat to Nature & simplicity are the best safeguards for it. This is a different philosophy of life. Compared with this view of life, the whole fabric of Western Civilization seems raw & immature. All this bustle and restlessness of the spirit of ‘young man’ – where will it all lead to? And all this enthusiasm, self assertion and struggle; war & hot headed nationalism – where will it all end; and what is it all for? In myriad forms spirit of Lao-tse finds expression in literature, painting, poetry & proverb. At its worst, this highest product of Chinese intelligence works against idealism & action. It shatters all desire for reform, laughs at the futility of all human effort and renders people incapable of all idealism & action. It has a way of reducing all human activities to the level of alimentary canal and other simple biologic needs. Elimination & reproduction. This nonchalant and materialistic attitude is based on a very shrewd view of life to which only old people and Old Nations can attain. It would be futile for young men under thirty and young nations of the West to try to understand, even appreciate it. Perhaps it is no mere accident that “Laotse” means “The Old Boy”. All Chinese literature that is worthwhile, that is readable and that pleases human mind and sooths human heart is imbued with Tao-istic spirit. Tao-ism & Confusion-ism are negative & positive poles of Chinese thought which make life possible in China. In sum, one recognizes the necessity of human effort but one also admits the futility of it; and human life moves on, on the level of least resistance. This develops a certain calmness of mind which enables one to swallow insults and find oneself in harmony with the Universe.

Chinese culture is one of the truly indigenous cultures of the World. Culture is a product of leisure and Chinese have had immense leisure of over three thousand years to cultivate it. In these three thousand un-interrupted years they have had plenty of time to drink tea and look at life quietly over their tea cups; and from gossip over tea cups they have boiled life down to its essence. And from this gossip & pondering came a great meaning. It came to be spoken of as ‘the Mirror’ which reflects human experience for the benefit of the present; which is like a gathering stream, un-interrupted, continuous. In this they crossed the threshold of all arts and entered the hall of the Art of Life itself; and Art & Life became one. They achieved that crown of culture, the art of living, which is the end of all human wisdom.

The Chinese are a nation of individualists. They are family minded and social minded; and the family mind is only a form of magnified selfishness. The word ‘society’ does not exist in Chinese thought. The family system and the village system, which is a family raised to a higher exponent, accounts for all there is to explain in Chinese social life. Modern readers of our ‘global village’ can take this in the sense of ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’. ‘Public Spirit’ is a new term, so is ‘Civic Consciousness’ & so is ‘social service’. They do not indulge in ‘Sport, Politics & Religion’; which bind human beings together, the essence of English & American social life. Chinese games do not divide players into two parties as in cricket, with one team playing against the other. Team work is unknown. They like poker and do not like bridge. To a Chinese social work always looks like, “mingling in other people’s business”. The persuasive argument is, “The illiterate are not interfering with you, why must you interfere with them? What do you mean by going out of your way to do all this “work”? Were you invited in the first place? Are you courting publicity? Why are you not loyal to your family?”

The best, modern educated Chinese, still can not understand why western women should organize a “Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”. Why bother about dogs and why do they not stay at home and nurse their babies? They reason that these women have no children and therefore have nothing better to do, which, probably, often is the truth. The conflict is between the Family mind and the Social mind. It may be interesting to study how Man behaves as a social being in the absence of a social mind.

From the love of Family there grew a love for Clan, and there developed an attachment to Land where one was born. Thus, a sentiment arose which may be called, ‘Provincialism’. This idea of being from the same native place binds people of the same village, district or province together and is responsible for the existence of schools, public granaries, orphanage and other public foundations. It is the enlarged family mind that makes civic co-operation and public governance possible at village level. As regards law & justice, people were & are shy of the Law Court; ninety five percent of village disputes being settled by village elders. The absence of lawyers makes justice possible. And where there is justice, there is peace in human heart. If the ‘thing’ called Government can leave them alone, people are always willing to leave the Government alone. A housewife would still like to sweep her house clean and throw rubbish in front of neighbor’s house while the other housewife would throw her garbage in front of this one’s house when she is not looking.

Poetry has given the Chinese a view of life and taught them compassion, an overflowing love for Nature. Poetry cleanses the heart through artistic reflection of sorrow. It teaches them to listen with enjoyment to the sound of raindrops on banana leaves and wind rustling through a clump of bamboo grove. To admire smoke rising & mingling with clouds in evening sun light, to be tender to white lilies on country foot paths. Above all, it teaches them a pantheistic union with Nature; to awaken & rejoice with Spring, to doze off & hear Time visibly flying away with droning cicadas in Summer, to feel sad with falling Autumn leaves and to ‘look for lines of poetry in snow’ during Winter.

The striking thing about poetry is plastic imagination & kinship of technique with painting. This is most evident in handling perspective. The art lies in selection of an object in foreground and to set it off against objects in the distance. Then paint them together on a flat surface. Poet’s eye is painter’s eye & painting & poetry become one.

“First we look at the hills in the painting;

Then we look at the painting in the hills”

Worship of Pastoral Life has colored whole of Chinese culture. Today, officials & scholars speak of, ‘going back to the farm’ as the most elegant, the most refined and the most sophisticated ambition in life that they can think of. Behind that flat yellow face is concealed deep emotionalism, behind sullen, decorous appearance resides a carefree, vagabond soul. Those rough, yellow fingers fashion objects of pleasing design and from almond eyes behind high cheek bones shines a tender light that dwells fondly upon forms of exquisite beauty. Calm & harmony distinguish Chinese Art. The Chinese Artist is a man who is at peace with Nature, who is free from shackles of society & from temptations of gold. Above all, his breast must brood no ill passion for a good artist must be a good man. He ‘chastens his heart’ and ‘broadens his spirit’ chiefly by travel & contemplation. The Chinese artist does not learn painting by going into a room and stripping a woman naked. It is strange that spiritual evolution goes with physical elevation upon this planet & life always looks different from an altitude of five thousand feet. Thus, from the god-like heights the artist surveys the world with a calm expansion of spirit and this Spirit goes into his painting. Like ‘the fool on the hill’ who sees ‘the world going by’.

It is this spirit of calm & harmony, this flavor of mountain air, always tinged with recluse’s passion for leisure & solitude which is seen in all forms of Chinese Art. It is not supremacy over nature but harmony with her that Calligraphy, Painting, Poetry & architecture all have in common with a way of life. And through it all pervades The Spirit of Man, happy with himself and his Universe; poor in possessions but rich in sentiments, discriminating in taste, experienced and full of worldly wisdom; and yet simple hearted, contented & wisely idle. In China, man knows a great deal about the Art of all arts, The Art of Living. A younger civilization may be keen on making progress, but an old civilization must have a different standard of values for it alone knows ‘the durable pleasures of life’ which are merely matters of senses; food, drink, house, garden, women & friendship. That is what life comes to in the end, in essence. Any Nation, therefore, that does not know how to eat and enjoy living is uncouth and un-civilized.

In the works of Li Liweng there is an important section devoted to pleasures of life. I would like to close by reproducing below what he said about “willows” and the art of enjoying them.

“The important thing about willows is that their branches hang down, for if they did not hang down, they would not be willows. It is important that the branches be long for otherwise they cannot sway gracefully in the wind. What then would be the use of them hanging down? This tree is the place where cicadas love to rest, as well as other birds. It is to the credit of this tree that we often hear music in the air and do not feel lonely in summer. Especially is this the case with tall willow trees. In short, planting trees is not only to please the eye but also to please the ear as well. The pleasure of the eye is sometimes limited because we are lying down on the bed. On the other hand the ear can take in pleasures all the time. The most lovely notes of birds are not heard when we are sitting, but when we are lying down. Everyone knows that the bird’s song should be heard at dawn, but do not know why they should be heard at dawn, as people do not think about it. The birds are continually afraid of the shooting gun and after seven o’clock in the morning all people are up and birds no longer feel at ease. Once they are on their guard, they can no longer sing whole heartedly; and even if they sing, their song can not be beautiful. That is why day time is not a proper time for listening to the birds. At dawn, people are not up yet, with the exception of a few early risers; since the birds are then free from worry, naturally, they can finish their song at their ease. Besides, their tongues have been lying idle for the whole night and are now itching to try their skill. Consequently when they sing, they sing with full gladness of their heart all singing birds should regard me as their bosom friend.

There are many points about planting trees, but there is one point which is an annoyance to the cultivated. When the tree leaves are too thick, they shut out the moon light, like shutting off a beauty from our view. The tree can not be held guilty for this, because it is the men who are at fault. If we could spend a thought at the time of planting trees and allow a corner of the sky to be shown behind them in order to wait for the rising and setting of the moon, we could then receive its benefits both at night & day.”

Cacareadings#3102