\u2014 Geremie R. Barm\u00e9<\/i> <\/p>\n For every plain there is a slope,\u00a0\u7121\u5e73\u4e0d\u9642\uff0c \u2014 Hexagram XI, I Ching<\/a><\/i> \u5468\u6613 \u6cf0\u639b\u7e6b\u8fad<\/p>\n China Heritage<\/i> takes the word y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0and the hand-written grass-script character \u907a\u00a0as its theme and motif.<\/p>\n Y\u00ed<\/i>\u907a embraces various meanings that relate to that which is voluntarily left behind, is extant or remains in the world either by design or circumstance. It also indicates those practises and dispositions of the spirit and mind that tether the past to the present.<\/p>\n Y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a is used in many compound terms and expressions to indicate loss, the discarded, the overlooked and missed out, as well as the forgotten and remnant. Y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a also denotes the physical remains and material works left by the departed: the formal term for a corpse is y\u00edt\u01d0<\/i>\u00a0\u907a\u9ad4, that is ‘corporeal remains’ or, in the literary language, y\u00edh\u00e0i<\/i>\u00a0\u907a\u9ab8. The visage of the deceased, or corpse \u907a\u5c4d, is called an y\u00edr\u00f3ng<\/i>\u00a0\u907a\u5bb9; although over the past century votary images of ancestors \u907a\u50cf have been replaced by photographs of the dead \u907a\u7167.<\/p>\n The disposition of an estate, personal possessions and properties in a will \u907a\u56d1 or \u907a\u66f8, or the gift to the living of such intangible inheritances as respect for honoured practices and mores \u907a\u98a8, compliance with the last wishes of the dead \u907a\u5fd7\/\u907a\u9858, as well as the recollection of edifying instructions \u907a\u8a13 and teachings \u907a\u6559\/\u907a\u8a00 all contain the word y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a, as does the description of an idyllic past when ‘no one would pick up things lost by others on the roadside’ \u8def\u4e0d\u62fe\u907a.<\/p>\n Handwritten manuscripts \u907a\u7a3f and poems \u907a\u8a69, essays \u907a\u6587 or collectanea \u907a\u96c6 by the departed also feature y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a, and such works might well be included as an addendum \u88dc\u907a to a book, just as some collections could bring together recondite or little known stories of the past or people \u907a\u805e\u8efc(\u9038)\u4e8b. \u00a0It is in such works, and because of the fear of oblivion, that the living strive not to be forgotten \u907a\u5fd8.\u00a0Y\u00ed<\/i> \u907a is also the key element in the terms for bequests \u907a\u7522, physical objects and personal effects left behind \u907a\u7269, unfulfilled or, paradoxically, exemplary tasks \u907a\u4e8b, unresolved cases \u907a\u6848, legal or otherwise, historical sites and their ruins \u907a\u5740, as well as archaeological remains \u907a\u8de1: collectively they comprise a physical heritage \u907a\u5b58.<\/p>\n Illnesses or social ructions can produce\u00a0any number of after-effects \u5f8c\u907a\u75c7, just as history leaves in its wake problems for the present \u6b77\u53f2\u907a\u7559\u4e0b\u4f86\u7684\u554f\u984c. So too the DNA of the living transmits\u00a0a genetic imprint \u907a\u50b3 to future generations. Among them\u00a0are the descendants \u907a\u65cf of once mighty figures to whom are bequeathed unfulfilled dreams \u907a\u5922, sentiments of regret \u907a\u61be or the sense of loss \u907a\u5931 and sorrow \u907a\u6068. A dead man may leave behind a widow \u907a\u5b40 and, in some cases, even an unborn child \u907a\u8179\u5b50. In an obscure usage, people may waste away\u00a0\u907a\u77e2, or their names be omitted \u907a\u6f0f from the record. While rare individuals are celebrated for leaving to history a ‘fragrant name’ \u82b3\u540d, the odium of the notorious long outlives them \u907a\u81ed\u5343\u79cb.<\/p>\n The word y\u00ed<\/i> \u907a also relates to the giving of gifts and bestowal, in which case the character \u907a is read w\u00e8i<\/i>. In that sense, it can also mean ‘to bid farewell’. Generally, however, it connotes that which remains, either in positive or negative terms.<\/p>\n Y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a is also famously used in the twentieth century to deride the ‘remnants’ or anachronistic loyalists of China’s last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1912), men and women who were scorned for living beyond their time \u907a\u6c11. Others,\u00a0\u9806\u6c11,\u00a0would accommodate themselves to a cavalcade of regimes. The word y\u00ed<\/i> \u907a features in an expression that sums up modern contempt for those who remained steadfast in their devotion not only to the abdicated monarch and the former imperial Manchu ruling house, the Aisin Gioro \u611b\u65b0\u89ba\u7f85, but even to the literary achievements, cultural standards, civilised behaviours and personal integrity espoused by scholars trained in the tradition. These people were dismissed, most famously by the acerbic writer Lu Xun \u9b6f\u8fc5, as being ‘musty relics of a bygone age both young and old’ \u907a\u8001\u907a\u5c11.<\/p>\n The widespread odium attached to these ‘remnants’ has persisted since the abdication of the last emperor in 1912. For a time early last century there was good reason to be wary of such figures and to fear that the deadening hand of the past would strangle hope for the future. But, along with the heady iconoclasm of China’s revolutionary era (1912-1992), many positive mores of the previous ages, alternative traditions to state Confucianism and authoritarian thinking were also attacked. While much of the physical legacy of the past, historical sites and monuments, and ineffable practices and language have been swept aside by successive waves of zeal, the imperial mindset of dynastic China survives to this day in various guises.<\/p>\n Scholars of a certain generation, be they in China or elsewhere, are carelessly derided by the regnant academocrats and managerial nomenklatura for harbouring a nostalgia for the practices of yesteryear, for the pre-vocational university and educational ideas which, although far from ideal, put a\u00a0premium on broad-based scholarship, reading and non-mercantile education.<\/p>\n China Heritage<\/i> is a refuge for just such \u907a\u8001\u907a\u5c11: fogeys, old and young alike.<\/p>\n In recent times, as the perennial discussion of China’s unique history, civilisation, political disposition and place in the world is promoted as part of the Official China Story \u4e2d\u570b\u7684\u6545\u4e8b<\/a>,[1] another hoary expression has regained currency. Some claim that because of its unique approach to politics and culture China ‘exists apart from the world’ \u907a\u4e16\u7368\u7acb; it flourishes in a realm of its own, partaking of the global order yet all the while remaining above it. The expression originally meant ‘to cast aside worldly cares’ or ‘to leave behind the mundane world’ \u907a\u4e16.<\/p>\n In his celebrated ‘Rhapsody on the Red Cliffs’ \u8d64\u58c1\u8ce6 the eleventh-century Song-dynasty scholar-official Su Dongpo \u8607\u6771\u5761 describes an autumn evening spent boating and drinking with friends. ‘We floated high on the water as if airborne,’ he wrote, ‘leaving the world behind transformed into heavenly immortals’ \u98c4\u98c4\u4e4e\uff0c\u5982\u907a\u4e16\u7368\u7acb\uff0c\u7fbd\u5316\u5152\u767b\u4ed9. The four-character expression also features in an essay by China’s great twentieth-century ‘artistic exile’, Feng Zikai \u8c50\u5b50\u6137: ‘Although I was physically sitting in a train,’ he wrote in 1935, ‘my spirit was free of worldly thoughts and remained as though sequestered in my study at home’ \u90a3\u6642\u6211\u5728\u5f62\u5f0f\u4e0a\u4e58\u706b\u8eca\uff0c\u800c\u5728\u7cbe\u795e\u4e0a\u5f77\u5f7f\u907a\u4e16\u7368\u7acb\uff0c\u4f9d\u820a\u7c60\u9589\u5728\u81ea\u5df1\u7684\u66f8\u9f4b\u4e2d. (\u898b\u8c50\u5b50\u6137\u300a\u8eca\u5ec2\u793e\u6703\u300b).[2] Throughout the ages many have chosen to abandon the secular world and renounce its blandishments \u9041\u4e16\u907a\u69ae; and, for those who identify with alternative Chinese traditions that question or disavow the ‘dusty world’ \u5875\u4e16, the expression y\u00edsh\u00ec<\/i> \u907a\u4e16 resonates still.<\/p>\n The character y\u00ed<\/i> \u907a used here as our leitmotif is taken from the calligraphy \u907a\u58a8 of the Tang-dynasty artist Li Huailin \u674e\u61f7\u7433. It occurs in Li’s grass-script \u8349\u66f8 version of a ‘Letter to Shan Tao’ \u8207\u5c71\u5de8\u6e90\u7d55\u4ea4\u66f8<\/a>, a famous epistle by Xi Kang \u5d47\u5eb7 (also pronounced Ji Kang), one of the celebrated\u00a0Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove \u7af9\u6797\u4e03\u8ce2, in which Xi ends his friendship with another member of the group.<\/p>\n Etienne Balazs remarks that:<\/p>\n In this letter, written shortly before his death, Xi Kang broke off relations with his former friend Shan Tao, who had not kept his vow of uncompromising integrity, and who, after accepting a high post, had even dared to suggest that Xi Kang should become his assistant. Xi Kang, full of violent indignation, threw the offer back in his face, saying abruptly that his aspirations were not of this world, and explaining with such eloquence what Flaubert somewhere in his letters has expressed in the lapidary formula: Les honneurs d\u00e9shonorent, le titre d\u00e9grade, la fonction abrutit<\/i>.[3]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In his ‘Letter to Shan Tao’, Xi Kang (223-262CE) says that the ‘wayward’ ideas of Taoist sages had long influenced his predisposition to reject worldly office:<\/p>\n … My taste for independence was aggravated by my reading of Zhuangzi and Laozi; as a result any desire for fame or success grew daily weaker, and my commitment to freedom increasingly firmer. In this I am like the wild deer, which captured young and reared in captivity will be docile and obedient. But if it be caught when full-grown, it will stare wildly and butt against its bonds, dashing into boiling water or fire to escape. You may dress it up with a golden bridle and feed it delicacies, and it will but long the more for its native woods and yearn for rich pasture. \u53c8\u8b80\u838a\u8001\uff0c\u91cd\u589e\u5176\u653e\u3002\u6545\u4f7f\u69ae\u9032\u4e4b\u5fc3\u65e5\u7a68\uff0c\u4efb\u5be6\u4e4b\u60c5\u8f49\u7be4\u3002\u6b64\u7531\u79bd\u9e7f\u5c11\u898b\u99b4\u80b2\uff0c\u5247\u670d\u5f9e\u6559\u5236\uff0c\u9577\u800c\u898b\u7f88\uff0c\u5247\u72c2\u9867\u9813\u7e93\uff0c\u8d74\u8e48\u6e6f\u706b\uff0c\u96d6\u98fe\u4ee5\u91d1\u9463\uff0c\u9957\u4ee5\u5609\u80b4\uff0c\u903e\u601d\u9577\u6797\uff0c\u800c\u5fd7\u5728\u8c50\u8349\u4e5f\u3002[4]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Like Xi Kang eighteen hundred years ago, our taste for independence was also aggravated early on by reading Laozi and Zhuangzi, among others; since then, the allure of golden bridles and delicacies has been but slight. We believe that through China Heritage<\/i> and The Wairarapa Academy for New Sinology, and after long years spent in tertiary bonds, rather than seek release in boiling water or fire, it is time to return to native woods and rich pasture.<\/p>\n Over the last century China’s power-holders have been tireless in their efforts to order life according to mutating political priorities and by enumerating and imposing social and ethical norms. The Chinese language is littered with the numbered slogans and exhortations imposed on the people, be they devised by the Nationalists or the Communists.<\/p>\n Xi Kang had a list of his own that he used to explain how unsuited he was to bureaucratic service. There were, he declared, ‘seven things I could never stand and two things which would never be condoned’ \u6709\u5fc5\u4e0d\u582a\u8005\u4e03\uff0c\u751a\u4e0d\u53ef\u8005\u4e8c:<\/p>\n ‘Further’, Xi Kang continued, there were two reasons why his views and behaviour would not be tolerated:<\/p>\n Fearful of the prestige Xi Kang enjoyed among the learned men of his time the ruler Sima Zhao \u53f8\u99ac\u662d had him executed. He is said to have been only forty years old.<\/p>\n Xi Kang declared he was influenced by ‘the heritage of teachings of the Taoist masters’ \u53c8\u805e\u9053\u58eb\u907a\u8a00 (or, in Hightower’s translation: ‘I have studied in the esoteric lore of the Taoist masters’) about prolonging life and nurturing the pleasure of ‘wandering among the hills and streams, observing fish and birds’ \u904a\u5c71\u6fa4\uff0c\u89c0\u9ce5\u9b5a\uff0c\u5fc3\u751a\u6a02\u4e4b. It is from this passage in his letter that we take the word y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a in the hand of Li Huailin for China Heritage<\/i> (see the image above).<\/p>\n It is just such a sentiment, an inspiration that draws on those other traditions of China, that guides our lifelong engagement with the vast Chinese heritage. It is what led to Wairarapa.<\/p>\n It is the leisure of mind afforded by such a disposition and what we call New Sinology<\/a> that can best equip those who would delve into the Chinese world as they embark on their own venture.<\/p>\n
\nJanuary 2016<\/p>\n
\nOn Heritage \u907a<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Geremie R. Barm\u00e9<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nFor every going there is a return.\u00a0\u7121\u5f80\u4e0d\u5fa9\u3002<\/p>\nThe Gifts of Y\u00ed<\/i>\u00a0\u907a<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Another World\u00a0\u907a\u4e16<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Native Woods and Rich Pasture\u00a0\u5fd7\u5728\u8c50\u8349<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Unbearable and The Unconscionable\u00a0\u5fc5\u4e0d\u582a\u8005\uff0c\u751a\u4e0d\u53ef\u8005<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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A Heritage of Teachings\u00a0\u907a\u8a00<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Xxxxxxxxxx\"](\"https:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/image-309x1024.jpeg\")