I took a friend of mine on a trip to a small temple to get spring water for brewing tea. He then became intent on taking me to a temple which he had visited twice when he was young. We rode the bus into the hills of Yongjia County but my friend had forgotten exactly where the temple was. We made one false attempt when the ticket collector on the bus told us there was no other temple on the bus route. Finally, the terrain was recognized and we started for the path up the mountain.
The temple is on a lonely hill which juts out of a landscape of rice fields. Approaching from the east the visitor is met by a cliff with a round promontory resembling a Buddha's head slightly inclined which appears to stare down benevolently at all who approach. The cliff is bare rock with many verdant patches of vines and lillies in crevases. The path up to the temple is paved with rocks and fruit trees as well as tea bushes line the path as the temple grows nearer.
Things have changed since my friend last visited the temple twenty years ago. Not only has the main hall been renovated (aparently with donations from Wenzhou and someone from New York as well) The Calligraphy society has moved out. There was no one on the premises when we arrived, and no one appeared while we stayed. The garret was still there, and there were traces of the works which once graced every vertical surface. Some unsigned works were left by the artists, and many were ripped and hanging. There were few complete specimens, most of these had been written directly on the walls or jambs, or had been fixed in place with lots of glue.
This is an unsigned quick rendition of a famous saying by a Qing dynasty scholar of the Qianlong reign period named Zheng Banqiao (郑板桥). Its literal translation is 'confusion is hard to achieve.' What it means is that life makes a body serious and logical, and its hard to achieve the serenity of a madman. 难得糊涂
This last one is part of a couplet, the other half of which was no longer visible. It is very simple, "The light of the full moon shines through the gaps in the pines." 明月松间照
Last week CCTV10 ran a seven part series on the Seven Worthies (sometimes Sages) of the Bamboo Grove. This is a laudatory appellation for seven men1 who lived during the 3rd century of the common era. Unlike the Seven Masters of the Chien An period who served Ts'ao Ts'ao a generation earlier, the great majority of these men were at least as anxious to live the life of a recluse as their predecessors were to anxious to be of use to the Throne. These men are identified as a group because they all came to the Tien-tai mountains of Ho-nan province to escape from the vicissitudes of their age. They all resided in the mountains near the Myriad Clan cliff or Pai-chia-yan2 during the year 249 CE. During this year it is rumored that they would meet within groves of bamboo or other places of natural beauty to drink wine and enjoy each other's society.
This short volume is a reprint of a short travel diary of the famous Sinologist Wade Giles. He was employed by the British foreign services at the time, and was sent on the journey he describes to inspect the Yunnan Proclamation also known as the Margary Proclamation. On his 21 day journey through Guangdong province from Shantou (Swatow) to Guangzhou (Canton) he describes his experiences, the landscape and the sights.
This is a refreshing respite from the usual tone of contemporary travelogues written by visitors to China, mostly because Giles was an atheist, and treats Christianity with as much derision as the Local beliefs.
Giles faithfully recollects all of his experiences and did not fail to visit the sights along the road. He includes couplets and inscriptions from temples, monuments, and even a road sign. His observations are informative and humorous without condescension. His learning is obvious even through such a short text and he includes allusions in Latin and French, and even more in Chinese.
I will include only one quotation from the book, forgive the length, that was of particular interest to me. In the quotation below， Giles describes his entrance to the city of Jiaying Zhou （嘉鹰州）, the reaction of the onlookers and also his own feelings about the surfeit of attention he experienced in the Kingdom of the Great Qing.
The crowd seems lost in astonishment at a human being wearing a different dress from their own, and with facial lineaments of other than Mongolian type. They stared and stared as if their eyes would drop out, but there was no excitement and not a word of questionable civility. Behind the crowd on the bank, the upper windows of one and two storyed houses were crammed to overflowing. The owners, if they had only the wit to think of it, must have let them at a good figure, and cleared perhaps the quarter's rent. For our own part, we now began fully to realize one of the immense discomforts of royalty. To be a mark for every eye, a bull's eye for every well or ill directed piece of vulgar criticism -- "See! See! He's moving. He's shutting his eyes! He's folding his arms! He's blowing his nose!" -- is indeed a high price to pay even for the luxury of a throne. And it is needless to call attention to the fact that we were paying the price without the luxury of the throne. But the babies -- as the mandarins call them -- were evidently enjoying themselves. We were to them an object of deep wonder if not of admiration. Perhaps there were not ten amongst them who had ever seen a foreigner before, and it may be some time before they see another. We mean bona fide foreigner, dressed in the full height of barbarian fashion; for there are a few French missionaries scattered about the hills no great distance from here, but they wear Chinese clothes and shave the head a la queue de cochon. And the conversations that will be held over the rice bowl and pipe when the crowd before us has separated and gathered again , each individual member at his own individual hearth! How they will tell the unlucky absent ones that the red-haired barbarian was bearded like the pard, and wore a queer-looking hat. That at the moment he did not appear to be drunk or engaged in knocking anyone's brains out, as reputed to be the usual occupations of foreigners in China. But perhaps he was, cat-like, watching his opportunity, reluctant pour mieux sater, (or as the Chinese put it, 屈以求伸也), and spying around in search of a rich harvest of Chinamen's eyes and hearts.
It has always been a matter of great curiosity to me what it would have been like to be a foreigner in China over a century ago. Although times have Changed I believe "paying the price without the throne" is still a valid description today.
This short diary was published by Fudan University Press （复旦大学出版社）and was edited with notes by Huang Bingwei （黄秉炜.）There is a short introduction by the editor, and a reproduction of the title page of the original publication. There are also several photographs throughout the text used to illustrate landscapes and points of interest, although they are contemporary and of questionable value. The editor's endnotes are useful and provide a gloss on Giles' allusions in other European languages as well as some of his Chinese ones. At the end of the work is an appendix of five poems by Huang Zunxian （黄遵憲）which are referred to in the text. Also included behind the back cover is a folding English map of Canton Province from the 1870's. All of the Chinese language text throughout the entire volume is rendered in Traditional Graphs.
From the Preface: "This volume... constitutes part seven of a series of publications presenting the compiler's research on the works and renderings of Herbert A. Giles." I haven't seen any of the others, but would certainly like to. If anyone has, or has any questions or comments, please communicate through the comments section, or send electronic mail.
ISBN 9787309057683
