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Where centipedes dance, geese bow, incense burns
By Wang Yong |
August 11, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN encounter with centipedes usually gives me goose bumps, but that didn't happen when I met them in early July in a secluded house in the leafy hills near the West Lake.
I was paying my respects to the white-marble statute of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddha of mercy) at the gate of Ru Lu (Ru Cottage) when I spotted some centipedes creeping on the mossy wall. Fear and aversion struck and then quickly dissipated. The Buddha sculpture calmed my fears and reminded me that the creatures on the wall were living things, just like me, and no doubt equal in the eyes of Buddha.
I took out my xiao, a vertical bamboo flute, and carefully sounded a few notes before the wiggling arthropods. At once they "looked" up, seemed to "listen" and then moved with unexpected grace. The more I thought they "appreciated" my flute music, the more I believed they were not to be feared, but to be respected like any other creature under the sun.
At that moment it occurred to me that bias comes only from a dusty heart that fears anything it knows nothing about. That's why Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture prod people to cultivate a mind at one with nature, a mind capable of treating man and centipedes as equals.
Such was the first inspiration I got from my first trip to Ru Lu, a wood-and-brick residential compound built in the 1930s on the wooded slope of the north shore of the West Lake. It' named after its former owner, Lin Jiuru, once an entrepreneur in Shanghai.
As one of the protected heritage houses in Hangzhou, Ru Lu now has become a place for literati from Hangzhou and beyond who are dedicated to the life of the spirit.
They often gather at Ru Lu to enjoy the fragrance of incense and tea, and the beauty of ikebana, calligraphy and painting. Traditional Chinese music, especially that of the guqin (a seven-string zither-like instrument) and the xiao - always mild and reflective - is part of the literati gatherings at Ru Lu.
I do not know whether the guests have "communicated" with the centipedes on the wall as I did, but these men of letters are no doubt part of the Ru Lu culture that leaves these creatures undisturbed. Only a life of the spirit transcending differences in physical forms can breed a culture that gives each creature space.
A culture that has abandoned itself to the concrete world of urbanization and material pursuits removes itself from farmland and holds untamed nature at an uneasy distance.
A few steps up from the centipede wall is a pond where a couple of geese welcome guests. I waved to them and they waddled toward me in earnest as if to greet an old friend. They extended their long necks in a gesture to "kiss" my feet. In a rush to reciprocate the "etiquette," I bent down close to their faces so I could literally "eye talk" with them. They seemed to hum with pleasure.
It was not until I read an article titled "The Fragrance of Ru Lu" a few days ago that I realized that for years these two geese had welcomed all the guests to Ru Lu. The geese seem even more romantic when described by author Xu Jiang, president of the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art. To him, the geese are like "sentinels of silence surrounding an age-old idyllic house in wooded hills."
Indeed, the centipedes and geese endeared Ru Lu (and themselves) to my wife and me as we paid an uninvited visit to the legendary old house. Thanks to the generosity of the new "masters" of Ru Lu - a young enterprising couple who rent the house as a place of incense culture - we entered a tranquil world of nature and meditation, only a wall away from the traffic on Beishan Road. (In Chinese philosophy, a true hermit is one who can find solace in the midst of the urban fray. )
We were treated to incense and tea. We were even allowed to play on two beautiful pieces of guqin collected by the masters - as incense was burned. Lighting incense is not a way of showing off material luxury, but rather a way of meditating, of smelling and seeing nature.
The Chinese character xiang (meaning "incense" or "fragrance"), Xu Jiang explains, is composed of the characters for "wood" and "sun," thus meaning the natural smell of wood under the sun. The moment you light and smell the incense, you feel closer to nature, your heart is purer and you approach your true self.
To author Xu Jiang, burning incense and drinking tea are perhaps the shortest road to one's soul in Chinese classical life. Incense can be expensive, of course, but you don't have to burn expensive incense to be close to nature and your soul. "You don't have to burn much, all that matters is sincerity," Shi Guangquan, head of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, writes in an article titled "Buddhism and Incense."
Ru Lu wants to spread incense culture, long an integral part of the Chinese literati tradition that places spirit above body. Someday, Hangzhou may become China's capital of incense, as it was the capital of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) where incense culture contributed to the harmony between man and the earth.
At Ru Lu, you don't have to be rich to be a guest. Bring your love for centipedes, geese and whatever creature might pop up from the ground, and you are welcome.
I was paying my respects to the white-marble statute of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddha of mercy) at the gate of Ru Lu (Ru Cottage) when I spotted some centipedes creeping on the mossy wall. Fear and aversion struck and then quickly dissipated. The Buddha sculpture calmed my fears and reminded me that the creatures on the wall were living things, just like me, and no doubt equal in the eyes of Buddha.
I took out my xiao, a vertical bamboo flute, and carefully sounded a few notes before the wiggling arthropods. At once they "looked" up, seemed to "listen" and then moved with unexpected grace. The more I thought they "appreciated" my flute music, the more I believed they were not to be feared, but to be respected like any other creature under the sun.
At that moment it occurred to me that bias comes only from a dusty heart that fears anything it knows nothing about. That's why Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture prod people to cultivate a mind at one with nature, a mind capable of treating man and centipedes as equals.
Such was the first inspiration I got from my first trip to Ru Lu, a wood-and-brick residential compound built in the 1930s on the wooded slope of the north shore of the West Lake. It' named after its former owner, Lin Jiuru, once an entrepreneur in Shanghai.
As one of the protected heritage houses in Hangzhou, Ru Lu now has become a place for literati from Hangzhou and beyond who are dedicated to the life of the spirit.
They often gather at Ru Lu to enjoy the fragrance of incense and tea, and the beauty of ikebana, calligraphy and painting. Traditional Chinese music, especially that of the guqin (a seven-string zither-like instrument) and the xiao - always mild and reflective - is part of the literati gatherings at Ru Lu.
I do not know whether the guests have "communicated" with the centipedes on the wall as I did, but these men of letters are no doubt part of the Ru Lu culture that leaves these creatures undisturbed. Only a life of the spirit transcending differences in physical forms can breed a culture that gives each creature space.
A culture that has abandoned itself to the concrete world of urbanization and material pursuits removes itself from farmland and holds untamed nature at an uneasy distance.
A few steps up from the centipede wall is a pond where a couple of geese welcome guests. I waved to them and they waddled toward me in earnest as if to greet an old friend. They extended their long necks in a gesture to "kiss" my feet. In a rush to reciprocate the "etiquette," I bent down close to their faces so I could literally "eye talk" with them. They seemed to hum with pleasure.
It was not until I read an article titled "The Fragrance of Ru Lu" a few days ago that I realized that for years these two geese had welcomed all the guests to Ru Lu. The geese seem even more romantic when described by author Xu Jiang, president of the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art. To him, the geese are like "sentinels of silence surrounding an age-old idyllic house in wooded hills."
Indeed, the centipedes and geese endeared Ru Lu (and themselves) to my wife and me as we paid an uninvited visit to the legendary old house. Thanks to the generosity of the new "masters" of Ru Lu - a young enterprising couple who rent the house as a place of incense culture - we entered a tranquil world of nature and meditation, only a wall away from the traffic on Beishan Road. (In Chinese philosophy, a true hermit is one who can find solace in the midst of the urban fray. )
We were treated to incense and tea. We were even allowed to play on two beautiful pieces of guqin collected by the masters - as incense was burned. Lighting incense is not a way of showing off material luxury, but rather a way of meditating, of smelling and seeing nature.
The Chinese character xiang (meaning "incense" or "fragrance"), Xu Jiang explains, is composed of the characters for "wood" and "sun," thus meaning the natural smell of wood under the sun. The moment you light and smell the incense, you feel closer to nature, your heart is purer and you approach your true self.
To author Xu Jiang, burning incense and drinking tea are perhaps the shortest road to one's soul in Chinese classical life. Incense can be expensive, of course, but you don't have to burn expensive incense to be close to nature and your soul. "You don't have to burn much, all that matters is sincerity," Shi Guangquan, head of Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, writes in an article titled "Buddhism and Incense."
Ru Lu wants to spread incense culture, long an integral part of the Chinese literati tradition that places spirit above body. Someday, Hangzhou may become China's capital of incense, as it was the capital of Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) where incense culture contributed to the harmony between man and the earth.
At Ru Lu, you don't have to be rich to be a guest. Bring your love for centipedes, geese and whatever creature might pop up from the ground, and you are welcome.
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