The Lotus Pool and the Moonlight
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
At 5:00a.m., on the Tsinghua campus, along the edges of the lotus pool, while the sun is still red, there is the whirring sound of a man fanning the sidewalks with his Xiao Zhu (a small home-made switch).
Kerplunk! goes someone’s fishing line into the pond. Behind the fisherman, an older couple practices their Tai-Chi; an exercise in balance, breathing, single-mindedness and flexibility. A woman jogs by in her work clothes, while others are pounding their thighs and stomachs as they walk, enhancing circulation.
By mid-morning, the scene is the same, except now there are thousands of people; fishing, pounding, stretching and staring out over the edge of the great pool.
Hundreds of rollicking elementary school students converge near a statue of Confucius in the center of the gardens. Rallying their enthusiasm around two kiosks selling ice cream and soda, off they went, bobbing their heads, licking and sipping their way down some cinder path in silence.
Today is an occassion for them. In China, all children with access to an education are taught to memorize, at an early age, a very special essay called, ”The Lotus Pond by Moonlight,” by, Zhu Zi Tsing. For most of these students, this will be their first visit to the actual pond which inspired its writing nearly 100 years ago.
Staring at it slack-jawed, they clung to their popsicle sticks as if they were holding tiny torches about to fizzle out, as huge clots of ice cream plopped down on their sneakers. Tugging at one another’s shirt, they pointed and fluttered, oooing and ahhhing, unaware of the greater meaning of this peculiar sensation that gripped them. That, through the windows of their own imaginations, they had discovered something authentic, and it had left them fascinated.
Soon, the gardens emptied, and were restored with fresh moonlight. Rising up to greet it, were the wilted blades of grass that had been stomped on all day. Sandy footprints dissolved, and the aching stones were all calmed, as evening breezes cooled their backs with its breath. The lotus pool and the moonlight were again, as Zhu Zi Tsing had left them.
Swallows depart, they will come back again; willows wither, they will be green again; peach flowers fade, they will bloom again. But, clever as you are, please tell me, why do our days pass never to come back again?
I don’t know how many days I have been given, but I do know that something is slipping from my grasp little by little…..like a drop of water from the point of a needle into the sea…my days are dripping into the river of time….-Swiftly by, Zhu Zi Tsing
As remnants of the last Chinese dynasty, the gardens at Tsinghua glowed this way at night for many men; for many centuries.
I am drinking deeply these days spent in China.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the campus at Tsinghua was created on the grounds surrounding the gardens in partnership with the United States, and paid for with the monies the U.S. received as part of war reparations subsequent to the defeat of the Chinese during the Boxer Rebellion. In 2011, Tsinghua will mark its 100th year anniversary.
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