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A better city where money isn't the king
By Wang Yong |
March 3, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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IT'S that time of a year again - legislators and political advisers are gathering in Beijing this week in their annual attempt to address, among other things, what has plagued us as a nation: corruption.
A Xinhua commentary published in Shanghai Daily on Monday ("'Cancer' of corruption tops lawmakers' agenda) said most Chinese people expected lawmakers and political advisers to tackle corruption first in their respective annual meetings that start this week.
I'm not a political theorist and never shall be, so I will not speak big and empty words. I will speak from common sense, from our daily life experience that may seem so trivial and yet is so revealing.
Common sense tells us people are usually more materialistic in a city abuzz with commercial talk and awash with money than in a place enlightened by moral meditation.
Our daily life experience shows one had better choose one's neighbors carefully. You don't want to live close to someone who aids and abets you in spending beyond your means and amusing yourself to death.
A city - a country for that matter - should cultivate a spirit antithetical to vulgar materialism if it means to weed out corruption. Corruption, after all, begins from a materialistic mind.
A trip to my wife's hometown last month made me love it all the more for its latest effort to reinforce a city spirit of altruism and sacrifice.
Long frustrated by a money worship culture in many cities, I found Yancheng, my wife's hometown, a land of spiritual enlightenment as well as economic progress.
Located in northern Jiangsu Province, it's famous for vast stretches of farmland and wetland, long coasts lined with deep-water ports, and rare birds (like red-crowned cranes), to name a few.
Like many other places in China, it's in a process of urbanization. Unlike them, where downtown areas have become a desert of skyscrapers and shopping malls, it has restored and expanded an ancient memorial temple dedicated to one of China's most beloved heroes right in the city center, about half an hour's walk from the home of my wife's parents.
On February 20, I rambled to the Memorial Temple of Lu Xiufu (1236-1279), first built in 1531 and last restored in 2008, where I found several junior high school students carefully reading the illustrated story of Lu's life.
Serve the people
One story shows that when he was a boy, Lu Xiufu wanted nothing more than a new reading lamp from his father as a new year's gift, while his brothers wanted new clothes. His family was so poor that Lu often had to read books by the faint lamp lights in a dilapidated Buddhist temple.
Another story is about why Lu Xiufu would study hard. In 1243, when he was only 6 years old, Lu and his elder brother went to visit two great scholars in hopes of studying with them. Asked why he wanted to study, Lu said, "Reading will make me wise and allow me to serve my country and my people."
He later become a prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) shortly before it was defeated and overthrown by Mongols. Rather than surrender, he placed the young emperor of Southern Song on his back and jumped into the sea, perishing in the waves.
Thanks to efforts of the Yancheng government, I was able to learn for the first time of the many heroic details - most with vivid illustrations - of the most heroic prime minister in Chinese history.
I feel happy for the students in Yancheng who have such a place for meditation, a place far from the materialistic crowd.
Compared to many other cities, Yancheng is not super rich, but it has invested about 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) - enough for a mega shopping mall even in a big city - to restore and expand the memorial temple in what it believes an effort to carry forward a spirit of righteousness, altruism and sacrifice.
Lu Xiufu was born in Yancheng and his memorial temple will be more than a tourist attraction (admission is free). It's the symbol of a city spirit that's a breed apart from materialism.
Incorruptible mind
Lu's spirit of sacrifice and righteousness trickles down to daily life. Everywhere you go in Yancheng, you see people ready to help each other. There's hardly a hint of selfishness or snobbery in the blood of Yancheng people.
A bus driver often gives candies to kids who board the bus. A traffic policeman often smiles and bows in respect when you ask for directions. A tricab driver often smiles, even when you decline his offer of a ride. There's hardly the honk of a horn, even in the most crowded streets.
And my mother-in-law observed, "Thanks to those able officials with clean hands, Yancheng people have been very lucky."
I'm not sure how many people in Yancheng have read the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, but long influenced by Lu's spirit, they would agree with the Roman emperor that all sensible things are worthless, contemptible, sordid, perishable and dead.
Certainly there's no perfect city, but Yancheng is going in the right direction, taking a fundamental path leading to an incorruptible mind.
A Xinhua commentary published in Shanghai Daily on Monday ("'Cancer' of corruption tops lawmakers' agenda) said most Chinese people expected lawmakers and political advisers to tackle corruption first in their respective annual meetings that start this week.
I'm not a political theorist and never shall be, so I will not speak big and empty words. I will speak from common sense, from our daily life experience that may seem so trivial and yet is so revealing.
Common sense tells us people are usually more materialistic in a city abuzz with commercial talk and awash with money than in a place enlightened by moral meditation.
Our daily life experience shows one had better choose one's neighbors carefully. You don't want to live close to someone who aids and abets you in spending beyond your means and amusing yourself to death.
A city - a country for that matter - should cultivate a spirit antithetical to vulgar materialism if it means to weed out corruption. Corruption, after all, begins from a materialistic mind.
A trip to my wife's hometown last month made me love it all the more for its latest effort to reinforce a city spirit of altruism and sacrifice.
Long frustrated by a money worship culture in many cities, I found Yancheng, my wife's hometown, a land of spiritual enlightenment as well as economic progress.
Located in northern Jiangsu Province, it's famous for vast stretches of farmland and wetland, long coasts lined with deep-water ports, and rare birds (like red-crowned cranes), to name a few.
Like many other places in China, it's in a process of urbanization. Unlike them, where downtown areas have become a desert of skyscrapers and shopping malls, it has restored and expanded an ancient memorial temple dedicated to one of China's most beloved heroes right in the city center, about half an hour's walk from the home of my wife's parents.
On February 20, I rambled to the Memorial Temple of Lu Xiufu (1236-1279), first built in 1531 and last restored in 2008, where I found several junior high school students carefully reading the illustrated story of Lu's life.
Serve the people
One story shows that when he was a boy, Lu Xiufu wanted nothing more than a new reading lamp from his father as a new year's gift, while his brothers wanted new clothes. His family was so poor that Lu often had to read books by the faint lamp lights in a dilapidated Buddhist temple.
Another story is about why Lu Xiufu would study hard. In 1243, when he was only 6 years old, Lu and his elder brother went to visit two great scholars in hopes of studying with them. Asked why he wanted to study, Lu said, "Reading will make me wise and allow me to serve my country and my people."
He later become a prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) shortly before it was defeated and overthrown by Mongols. Rather than surrender, he placed the young emperor of Southern Song on his back and jumped into the sea, perishing in the waves.
Thanks to efforts of the Yancheng government, I was able to learn for the first time of the many heroic details - most with vivid illustrations - of the most heroic prime minister in Chinese history.
I feel happy for the students in Yancheng who have such a place for meditation, a place far from the materialistic crowd.
Compared to many other cities, Yancheng is not super rich, but it has invested about 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) - enough for a mega shopping mall even in a big city - to restore and expand the memorial temple in what it believes an effort to carry forward a spirit of righteousness, altruism and sacrifice.
Lu Xiufu was born in Yancheng and his memorial temple will be more than a tourist attraction (admission is free). It's the symbol of a city spirit that's a breed apart from materialism.
Incorruptible mind
Lu's spirit of sacrifice and righteousness trickles down to daily life. Everywhere you go in Yancheng, you see people ready to help each other. There's hardly a hint of selfishness or snobbery in the blood of Yancheng people.
A bus driver often gives candies to kids who board the bus. A traffic policeman often smiles and bows in respect when you ask for directions. A tricab driver often smiles, even when you decline his offer of a ride. There's hardly the honk of a horn, even in the most crowded streets.
And my mother-in-law observed, "Thanks to those able officials with clean hands, Yancheng people have been very lucky."
I'm not sure how many people in Yancheng have read the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, but long influenced by Lu's spirit, they would agree with the Roman emperor that all sensible things are worthless, contemptible, sordid, perishable and dead.
Certainly there's no perfect city, but Yancheng is going in the right direction, taking a fundamental path leading to an incorruptible mind.
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