{"id":9266,"date":"2017-10-28T00:46:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T14:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/?p=9266"},"modified":"2017-10-30T07:49:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T21:49:21","slug":"ninth-of-the-ninth-%e9%87%8d%e9%99%bd-double-brightness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaheritage.net\/journal\/ninth-of-the-ninth-%e9%87%8d%e9%99%bd-double-brightness\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth of the Ninth \u91cd\u967d Double Brightness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 28th of October 2017 is the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month in the traditional lunar calendar\u00a0\u8fb2\u66c6\u4e5d\u6708\u521d\u4e5d. It marks the Double Ninth or Double Brightness Festival \u91cd\u967d\u7bc0. The Double Ninth, which follows shortly after the Harvest or Mid Autumn Festival \u4e2d\u79cb\u7bc0<\/a>, is a celebration of the autumn, a season of late bounty, seasonal change, lingering beauty and finality.<\/p>\n

The Double Ninth is the autumnal counterpart to the Qingming Festival on the Eighth Day of the Third Month (see In the Shade \u5e87\u852d<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0New Sinology Jottings<\/a>) which, apart from the commemoration of ancestors and sweeping of family graves, is also a time for spring outings (called \u90ca\u904a or \u8e0f\u9752) to celebrate the season. Now, in the autumn once more it is time to climb a height to enjoy the spectacle of the season, to celebrate the passage of time with relatives and friends and to enjoy the fruits of the season, including dogwood berries \u8331\u8438 and chrysanthemums \u83ca\u82b1, the petals of which were traditionally macerated in wine to encourage longevity (or at least to help numb the pain of existence); moreover, \u2018nine\u2019 \u4e5d is a homophone for \u2018long\u2019 or \u2018continuous\u2019 \u4e45. This is why the day is related to long life and the ag\u00e8d; it is also known as the Chrysanthemum Festival \u83ca\u82b1\u7bc0.<\/p>\n

Yellow Flowers<\/b><\/h4>\n
\"\"
A painting by Bada Shanren (\u516b\u5927\u5c71\u4eba, \u6731\u8037, ca.1626-1705).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chrysanthemum has been cultivated in what is known today as Henan province \u6cb3\u5357\u7701 since the Song dynasty: the northern Song (960 to 1127 CE) had its capital at Bianliang \u6c74\u6881 or \u6c74\u4eac, modern-day Kaifeng. In 1983, the authorities in Kaifeng named the chrysanthemum the city flower and declared the Double Ninth to be the Chrysanthemum Cultural Festival. But the flower has older, and more ethereal, associations.<\/p>\n

The recluse-poet Tao Yuanming (\u9676\u6df5\u660e or \u9676\u6f5b, 365\u2013427 CE) has long been celebrated for his association with the chrysanthemum. A number of his poems are among the most often quoted, and over-interpreted, in the literary tradition. Famed for having given up service to the state for a life of leisure, writing, drinking, and occasional agricultural pursuits, Tao Yuanming is the archetype of a man who has rejected the onerous demands of the day to pursue instead the cultivation of the self. This quest for quietude, one also tinged with worldly concerns and fears, is recorded in poems that, for over 1600 years, have inspired artists and writers alike.<\/p>\n

Even today, some who are encumbered by the demands of work, family and a myriad of obligations may think they are but ‘recluses at court’ \u671d\u96b1, biding their time in onerous employment in the hope of one day seeking out greener pastures. Others sidelined by political fate may strike a superior pose and pretend regardless to be otherworldly aesthetes while all the time yearning for a place in the hierarchy of the state; it is a mindset summed up in the expression ‘although one may physically be in the mountains, the heart is obsessed with the court’\u00a0\u4eba\u5728\u5c71\u6797\u5fc3\u5728\u671d.<\/p>\n

In our commemoration of the Double Ninth Festival we recall Tao Yuanming, as well as the modern artist Feng Zikai (\u8c50\u5b50\u6137, 1897-1975) whose retreat from the chaotic world of 1930s was in part inspired by the ancient poet.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Double Ninth \u91cd\u967d, by the Tang calligrapher Liu Gongquan \u67f3\u516c\u6b0a. Source: Liu Gongquan, ‘Poems of the Orchid Pavilion’, \u67f3\u516c\u6b0a\u66f8\u862d\u4ead\u8a69, acquired for the Qing imperial collection during\u00a0the Qianlong reign. Palace Museum Calendar<\/em> \u6545\u5bae\u65e5\u66c6, 28 October 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Deathly Air<\/b><\/h4>\n

The autumn also signifies decline and the approach of winter, the end of the year. In dynastic China executions \u2014 referred to in the expression ‘beheadings following autumn’ \u79cb\u5f8c\u554f\u65ac \u2014 were carried out as the season came to an end and winter approached; it was literally a time suffused with death \u8085\u6bba\u4e4b\u6c23. In North China, with only one growing season that concluded with the autumn harvest, it was time to settle debts, or to seek a reckoning for perceived slights and injustices. The practice is neatly summed up in the expression \u79cb\u5f8c\u7b97\u8cec, ‘to settle scores after autumn [harvest]’. Settling scores has also been a major feature of Chinese revolutionary life. It was the case with the violent failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising \u79cb\u6536\u8d77\u7fa9 in 1927 when landlords and local officials were murdered, and, in recent times, since Communist Party congresses are convened in October, it remains so today. Each congress sees byzantine behind-the-scenes maneuvering and cloaked political payback.<\/p>\n

A Place for the Old<\/b><\/h4>\n

In the past, the Double Nine was also a time when parents and the elderly were to be accorded particular respect. In 1988, the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month was officially gazetted as ‘China Seniors’ Festival’\u00a0\u4e2d\u570b\u8001\u5e74\u7bc0; the commemoration of the day was formally included in the new ‘Law for the\u00a0Protection of the Rights and Interests of Elderly People’\u00a0\u8001\u5e74\u4eba\u6b0a\u76ca\u4fdd\u969c\u6cd5, which went into effect on 1 July 2013.<\/p>\n

On the Double Ninth Festival of 2016, as the Communist Party-engineered groundswell of adulation for Xi Jinping, China’s primus inter pares<\/em>, heaved upward, the state media extolled Xi’s ethos of ‘respecting the old’ \u5c0a\u8001. It was reported that the first article<\/a> the leader published in the People’s Daily<\/em> under his own name in December 1984 called for younger Party cadres to respect and support their seniors. One year later, on the eve of the Double Ninth Festival in 2017, Xi Jinping Thought now overshadowed the contributions of his elderly predecessors, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Few people familiar with the machinations of Xi and his entitled generation of Red Successors will have been surprised by these developments. As for the Chairman of Everything, over thirty years ago he had expressed himself, and given voice to his ambition, in no uncertain terms:<\/p>\n

Of course, when we promote ‘respect for the old’ among young and middle-aged cadres it does not mean that we are encouraging people simply to copy what the elders have done, or to be hesitate in finding new work methods and styles, or indeed be fearful of breaking new ground. \u7576\u7136\uff0c\u63d0\u5021\u300c\u5c0a\u8001\u300d\u6c7a\u4e0d\u662f\u8981\u4e2d\u9752\u5e74\u5e79\u90e8\u53ea\u80fd\u5c0d\u8001\u5e79\u90e8\u4e00\u5473\u6548\u6cd5\uff0c\u5168\u76e4\u7167\u642c\uff0c\u751a\u81f3\u6bd4\u8c93\u756b\u864e\uff0c\u53bb\u9069\u61c9\u4e00\u4e9b\u5df2\u7d93\u9673\u820a\u7684\u5de5\u4f5c\u5f62\u5f0f\u548c\u65b9\u6cd5\uff0c\u4e0d\u6562\u8d8a\u96f7\u6c60\u4e00\u6b65\u3002<\/p>\n

Younger cadres must utlise their strengths to pursue reform, to dare to innovate and\u00a0rely on their devotion to the cause and the sweat of their brow to forge a path forward. \u4e2d\u9752\u5e74\u5e79\u90e8\u8981\u6562\u65bc\u767c\u63ee\u81ea\u5df1\u7684\u512a\u52e2\uff0c\u92b3\u610f\u6539\u9769\uff0c\u5927\u81bd\u5275\u65b0\uff0c\u7528\u5fc3\u8840\u548c\u6c57\u6c34\uff0c\u53bb\u958b\u62d3\u65b0\u5c40\u9762\uff0c\u95d6\u51fa\u6210\u529f\u8def\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With no successor in sight, the not-so-young Chairman of Everything Xi, as head of the Communist Party is now also Chairman of Everyone (\u9ee8\u653f\u8ecd\u6c11\u5b78), as well as Chairman of Everywhere (\u6771\u5357\u897f\u5317\u4e2d). His omnivalence was formalised in the 2017 Party Constitution, revised on the eve of the Double Brightness Festival.<\/p>\n

The Burden of Memory<\/strong><\/h4>\n

New Sinology Jottings introduce readers to aspects of culture, history and politics that resonate with the modern world; at the same time, they (re)introduce works integral to the mytho-poetic realm of China. For some, such musings are fustian and irrelevant, an affront to today’s neophilia, a drag on the relentless urge to escape from the past. However, as Lu Xun observed in his habitually scathing manner: ‘you can’t leave the earth by simply tugging at your own hair’ \u4eba\u4e0d\u80fd\u62fd\u8457\u81ea\u5df1\u7684\u982d\u9aee\u96e2\u958b\u5730\u7403. Our terrestrial musings point to more eternal moments.<\/p>\n

In New Sinology Jottings we feature well-know works not to replicate the clich\u00e9-festooned echo chamber either of Chinese state culture or its mass media; rather, we do so in a way that may help readers contemplate the old with new eyes. The following poetic meditation on the Double Ninth offers our perspective on what A.R. Davis, a noted translator of Tao Yuanming, called \u2018the burden of memory\u2019 in Chinese culture.<\/p>\n

As Official China continues a decades-long enterprise to delineate, codify and interpret the totality of Chinese cultural expression in terms of its dialectical materialist analysis of humanity, the sensibility of New Sinology \u2014 one that complicates and lauds the diversity of China\u2019s multiverse \u2014 is more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Geremie R. Barm\u00e9, Editor, China Heritage
\n<\/i>Ninth\u00a0Day of the\u00a0Ninth\u00a0Month of the
\nDingyou Year of the Rooster 2017
\n\u4e01\u9149\u96de\u5e74\u4e5d\u6708\u521d\u4e5d\u91cd\u967d\u7bc0
\nGramercy Park, NYC<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"\"
‘Chrysanthemum’ \u97a0, now commonly written \u83ca.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our thanks to John Minford for permission to quote from David Hawkes’ The Songs of the South<\/em>, as well as from The Story of the Stone<\/em>. We are also grateful to John for translating two poems from the Tang dynasty on the theme of this festival, and for providing his version of Li Qingzhao’s Double Ninth ci<\/i>-lyric.<\/p>\n

Annie Ren has contributed to these reflections in many ways, in particular with the Crab-Flower Club\u2019s chrysanthemum poems from\u00a0The Story of the Stone<\/em>; she has\u00a0selected and translated material from Cai Yijiang on the novel, as well as having located A.R. Davis\u2019 essay on poetry and the Double Ninth.\u00a0Christina Sanderson suggested one of the passages from Wanggiyan Lincing’s\u00a0Tracks in the Snow<\/em> which she edited on the basis of the translation by Yang Tsung-han \u694a\u5b97\u7ff0, and Callum Smith helped with the layout.<\/p>\n

Lois Conner introduced me to the Chrysanthemum Festival at the Longwood Gardens<\/a> in Pennsylvania, and has allowed us to reproduce some of the work she made there, as well as providing an earlier photograph made at Lu Shan, Jiangxi province. Lois was also my host at Gramercy Park in New York, where I worked on this latest New Sinology Jotting.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

In the mornings I drank the dew that fell from the magnolia:
\nAt evening ate the petals that dropped from chrysanthemums.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u671d\u98f2\u6728\u862d\u4e4b\u589c\u9732\u516e\uff0c
\n\u5915\u9910\u79cb\u4e4b\u843d\u82f1\u3002<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014 Qu Yuan, ‘Encountering Sorrow’<\/a>,<\/em>
\n translated by David Hawkes<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Contents<\/strong><\/h2>\n