Passing Fragrant Collection Temple by Wang Wei
Don't know Fragrant Collection Temple,
Several miles into the cloudy mist,
Old tree, no path for people,
Deep woods, from where comes the bell?
Editor's note: this poem has eight lines, I only presented four.
1913 - age 12
A half mile south of my hometown, across the river, is a town called Lusi Que (Missing Crane). A stone bridge connected my town to Lusique, a historical site, which most people around our area knew about. After crossing the bridge, a half mile more, was Wujia Wan (The Wu Family Oxbow), a big village. Between the Wu family and Qu family there were many marriage relations. There was a family Wu Guanggui that was quite wealthy, and that year, they had an only son whom they wanted to educate. So they spent a lot of money to invite Mr. Wu Renqin, who was from Huangmei, to come and open a school. They accepted a lot of kids in the area--so I could attend. My parents told me to go to this school. Mr. Wu was very well educated and had a nice character. He liked me and knew my family was poor, so he waived my tuition. I had more than ten classmates, they were all nice to me. Among them, Guo Weikai was especially nice to me. This school, because the teacher was nice and the schoolmates were harmonious, was well respected in the community. Teacher Wu had some business to take care of, he needed to build his house, so he invited another person, Mr Li Xiqiao, to help teach. Mr Li was also from Huangmei and graduated from Wu Chang (Huangmei's capital) Law School. Mr Li was an excellent teacher and taught us writing and poetry.
My grandmother was getting old. She needed people to take care of her. Because my mom had her own family here and could not go to Jioujiang, we moved grandmother to our house. My grandmother was very well liked by our town folk. She had a lot of friends and was very popular. Ever since she moved in, our extended relatives as well as our close family often came to visit her and pay her respects. She had a very pleasant end of life, these years. This winter, she died (wu ji er zhong 'ended without illness'--a blessing). My parents took good care of the funeral and were praised by all the people in the community for their proper mourning.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
1911: Alone and a pair
Bamboo Study by Wang Wei
Alone sitting amidst the quiet bamboo,
Playing the harp, with a long song,
Deep in the woods, nobody knows,
The moonlight comes, shine on each other.
1911 - age 10 (cont.)
On certain dates, we wrote essays. Our teacher gave us a subject and everyone needed to write a composition and give it to the teacher to correct and edit. On other dates, we learned to write poems. In the beginning, we wrote Five Character Lines then gradually advanced to Seven Character Lines, then more and more. There are given names to every level of certain periods of our studies.
Our teacher's name was Zhang Cuenxin. He retire because he was getting old and his strength lessened. After he retired, the parents held a conference and asked Zhang Wusen to be the teacher.
During a school break, I went to Jioujiang to visit my grandmother. On the way back, I passed a street called Foreign Street. In 1858, the Chinese and English warring parties formed a treaty, and Jioujiang became a port open to foreigners. Because it was a commercial port, foreigners could come and built streets and buildings. Jioujiang become quite modernized. There I saw a foreign woman riding a bicycle very fast. I was very puzzled because it only had two wheels: how could she balance without falling down? I thought, one of these days, if I can ride something like that, it would be so great. I didn't understand the principle of balance, there's no support.
1912 - age 11
Our new teacher Zhang was from a place very close to where I was born. He was young and talented. He interpreted all the Classics, poetry or literature, very well. He corrected our essays and inspired us to learn and develop. Once in a while, we wrote some good articles, and teacher Zhang would share them with the neighborhood for people to read and recite. Because of the recitation of the students' articles, the school became well known among the community.
In those times, when there were learned people in the community, they have some money at home and they have upright character and are highly respected by the community. When people had fights or quarrels, they would come to the learned people for judgment. There was a man called Wei Guojun and another man, Mr Dan. These two were important people in our village. One day, each man was riding a beautiful horse, they came to inspect our school and our writing. They tested us with questions, to write parallelisms. We did very well, so our school became even more popular. The good name spread afar. Because of our reputation, lots of the neighboring counties sent kids to our school. One regretful incident, that winter, teacher Zhang had to leave. Our parents couldn't find someone to take his place. Then our school declined in prominence.
In my family, my great-grandfather, Cijue, had three sons: Guangzhu, Guanglian, and Guangliang; my grandfather had three sons: Daxian, Dachien, Darong; in the Wen generation there were three sons: Wensuen, Wenhuan, Wenwei (myself). In April of that year, my brother was born, called Ciling, named Wenyin. He was called Ci for forth month (April) and ling means forest and is written with two tree characters together, as his fortune was lacking wood. This broke the record of one son per man, and everyone celebrated that Darong had two sons.
Alone sitting amidst the quiet bamboo,
Playing the harp, with a long song,
Deep in the woods, nobody knows,
The moonlight comes, shine on each other.
1911 - age 10 (cont.)
On certain dates, we wrote essays. Our teacher gave us a subject and everyone needed to write a composition and give it to the teacher to correct and edit. On other dates, we learned to write poems. In the beginning, we wrote Five Character Lines then gradually advanced to Seven Character Lines, then more and more. There are given names to every level of certain periods of our studies.
Our teacher's name was Zhang Cuenxin. He retire because he was getting old and his strength lessened. After he retired, the parents held a conference and asked Zhang Wusen to be the teacher.
During a school break, I went to Jioujiang to visit my grandmother. On the way back, I passed a street called Foreign Street. In 1858, the Chinese and English warring parties formed a treaty, and Jioujiang became a port open to foreigners. Because it was a commercial port, foreigners could come and built streets and buildings. Jioujiang become quite modernized. There I saw a foreign woman riding a bicycle very fast. I was very puzzled because it only had two wheels: how could she balance without falling down? I thought, one of these days, if I can ride something like that, it would be so great. I didn't understand the principle of balance, there's no support.
1912 - age 11
Our new teacher Zhang was from a place very close to where I was born. He was young and talented. He interpreted all the Classics, poetry or literature, very well. He corrected our essays and inspired us to learn and develop. Once in a while, we wrote some good articles, and teacher Zhang would share them with the neighborhood for people to read and recite. Because of the recitation of the students' articles, the school became well known among the community.
In those times, when there were learned people in the community, they have some money at home and they have upright character and are highly respected by the community. When people had fights or quarrels, they would come to the learned people for judgment. There was a man called Wei Guojun and another man, Mr Dan. These two were important people in our village. One day, each man was riding a beautiful horse, they came to inspect our school and our writing. They tested us with questions, to write parallelisms. We did very well, so our school became even more popular. The good name spread afar. Because of our reputation, lots of the neighboring counties sent kids to our school. One regretful incident, that winter, teacher Zhang had to leave. Our parents couldn't find someone to take his place. Then our school declined in prominence.
In my family, my great-grandfather, Cijue, had three sons: Guangzhu, Guanglian, and Guangliang; my grandfather had three sons: Daxian, Dachien, Darong; in the Wen generation there were three sons: Wensuen, Wenhuan, Wenwei (myself). In April of that year, my brother was born, called Ciling, named Wenyin. He was called Ci for forth month (April) and ling means forest and is written with two tree characters together, as his fortune was lacking wood. This broke the record of one son per man, and everyone celebrated that Darong had two sons.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
1911: Away
Deer Farm by Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei* (701-761)
Empty mountain, not a person to see,
But hear the sound of people talking,
Reflections of sunlight, deep into the forest,
Also shines on the green moss.
*called the Field and Garden poet
Editor's note: this shows you the feeling of a quiet, still place.
1911 - age 10
The fourth year I studied in the private school, we finished studying the Four Classics (Mongze) and began studying Wu Jing (5 Classics): Poems, Books, Logic, Rituals, Spring-Fall (One of Confucius' histories). According to the curriculum of that time, after the 5 Classics, you could start history. In the history: History, Fangangjie, Gangjianyizhilu. Then we could start Ancient Essays (gu wen). [list of reference books]. After history, the teacher taught us poetry. Among the poetry, we learned a Thousand Authors, and then 300 Tang poems, then The 18 Authors. Some scholars copied The 18 Authors. Then poems from the last six dynasties: Tang, Wu Dai, Song, Yuan, Ming, Ching.
Empty mountain, not a person to see,
But hear the sound of people talking,
Reflections of sunlight, deep into the forest,
Also shines on the green moss.
*called the Field and Garden poet
Editor's note: this shows you the feeling of a quiet, still place.
1911 - age 10
The fourth year I studied in the private school, we finished studying the Four Classics (Mongze) and began studying Wu Jing (5 Classics): Poems, Books, Logic, Rituals, Spring-Fall (One of Confucius' histories). According to the curriculum of that time, after the 5 Classics, you could start history. In the history: History, Fangangjie, Gangjianyizhilu. Then we could start Ancient Essays (gu wen). [list of reference books]. After history, the teacher taught us poetry. Among the poetry, we learned a Thousand Authors, and then 300 Tang poems, then The 18 Authors. Some scholars copied The 18 Authors. Then poems from the last six dynasties: Tang, Wu Dai, Song, Yuan, Ming, Ching.
Sunday, March 04, 2018
1910: Hometowns
Down to Jiangling by Li Bai
Morning goodbye to Baidi* amidst the colorful clouds,
In one day, cross a thousand miles to Jiangling.
On both banks, monkeys call without ceasing,
Swift boat passed ten-thousand mountain ranges.
Jiangling was Li Bai's hometown.
Usually when you say goodbye to something, you feel sad. Plus the monkeys calling would make one sad. He doesn't mind because he's going home.
*Baidi was an important historical city, Liou Bei asked Zu Geliang to take care of his son before he died. The Yangze River dam flooded this valley town.
1910 - age 9
This was the third year of private neighborhood tutoring. Our teacher started Confucius' sayings, Four Classics, and the four tones of words for poetry. Most kids are very interested in learning this. In the second half of the year, our teacher asked us to write sentences and short articles. The short articles had a format to compose them in: beginning, middle, end. After we learned the four tones, we could start to compose parallel lines. This year, we made a lot of progress in learning the classics of Chinese.
When we had breaks, I still went to Jioujiang to visit my grandmother. Like I stated earlier, she was a Buddhist and many of the same Buddhist disciples talked about a temple called Ci Yun Ge (Kindness to Maternal Family Cloud Temple). My grandmother heard the other Buddhists talk about the temple in Huangmei, Xinkaizhen. Everyone said this temple's location was very nice, quiet, and beautiful--a good place for Buddhist service. So, she wanted to pay a visit and brought me along. We rode in a boat from Jioujiang to Ci Yun Ge. When we arrived, it was exactly as described. There are 36 boroughs within Huangmei district. Xinkaizhen was one of the 36 towns. I'm from Xinkaizhen and this was the first time I went there.
Morning goodbye to Baidi* amidst the colorful clouds,
In one day, cross a thousand miles to Jiangling.
On both banks, monkeys call without ceasing,
Swift boat passed ten-thousand mountain ranges.
Jiangling was Li Bai's hometown.
Usually when you say goodbye to something, you feel sad. Plus the monkeys calling would make one sad. He doesn't mind because he's going home.
*Baidi was an important historical city, Liou Bei asked Zu Geliang to take care of his son before he died. The Yangze River dam flooded this valley town.
1910 - age 9
This was the third year of private neighborhood tutoring. Our teacher started Confucius' sayings, Four Classics, and the four tones of words for poetry. Most kids are very interested in learning this. In the second half of the year, our teacher asked us to write sentences and short articles. The short articles had a format to compose them in: beginning, middle, end. After we learned the four tones, we could start to compose parallel lines. This year, we made a lot of progress in learning the classics of Chinese.
When we had breaks, I still went to Jioujiang to visit my grandmother. Like I stated earlier, she was a Buddhist and many of the same Buddhist disciples talked about a temple called Ci Yun Ge (Kindness to Maternal Family Cloud Temple). My grandmother heard the other Buddhists talk about the temple in Huangmei, Xinkaizhen. Everyone said this temple's location was very nice, quiet, and beautiful--a good place for Buddhist service. So, she wanted to pay a visit and brought me along. We rode in a boat from Jioujiang to Ci Yun Ge. When we arrived, it was exactly as described. There are 36 boroughs within Huangmei district. Xinkaizhen was one of the 36 towns. I'm from Xinkaizhen and this was the first time I went there.
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