Confucius’ Delight
Sometimes I wonder whether it is a curse for Chinese literati to have Zhuang Zi and Tang Yuanming sitting in the middle of the long river of history and culture drinking wine and talking about butterfly. And even if you can not choose your parents and ancestor, whether it is a collective choice of educated Chinese to marginalize Li Bai ’s unconstrained and romantic romantic and Du Fu’s forever concerns about the country and people.
Maybe there are hidden reasons why Li Bai and Du Fu are praised as the Immortal of Poetry and Sage of Poetry, as once you raise the memorial tablets of the ancestors high in the temple, all what you need to do is once a while mention their names to indicate that you have not forget about your root, then you can just forget about them.
Zhuang Zi on the other hand will be really delighted to know that we have all learned to live as Cook Ding’s cleaver, shuttling through the creases and fissures, with the lightest touch possible to any ligament or tendon, and no confrontation to any bone or hard reality. Just as Zhuang Zi said, I depend on things as they are. When the setback is unavoidable, Tao Yuanming is conveniently there chanting “From the eastern hedge, I pluck chrysanthemum flowers, And idly look towards the southern hills”. Since even Tao Yuanming looked for his reclusion in his beans and chickens and dogs, why shouldn’t the posterities follow his lead to the utopia of Peach Blossom Spring?
I think I am in love with Su Dongpo, outspoken, open-minded as any immortal and sage should be, yet childlike, guileless at the toughest time of his life. When exiled in Guangdong, he learned to make wine and cook lamb spine. “Confucius did not deceive me when he said that one could get along very well even in a country of barbarians”, he wrote to his friend. I believe Confucius is delighted to have a disciple as Su Dongpo, even if he had to share with Zhuangzi, Liu Ling and Tao Yunming!
Praise of Strong Wine
Su Dong-Po
Translated by Lin Yutang
In men, one should prefer a mild temperament, but in wine, one need not avoid strong potency. For through such wine, one forgets one’s sorrow as yesternight’s dream, and arrives at an understanding of the truth of the universe …. For wine is like a second life to man. It is often in that state of blissful comfort and luxurious ease after a drink that one finds one’s own soul. True enough, rice and yeast are ordinary insensate things, and one would not expect that they would be instrumental in tapping the divine afflatus. But the mysterious power of this magic potion seems to rival the mysteries of the universe. It increases one’s joy in times of success and keeps one from harm in times of sorrow. It is cool like the autumn dew and caressing like the spring wind. One’s spirit flushes and flutters like the glow of the morning sun after the night’s clouds have melted away. One’s pores open and one’s eyes become bright …. He sits there oblivious of the material world, his spirit becoming expansive and co-extensive with the universe. Completely at ease, he revels in the material well-being; fully aware of what is going around him, yet his mind is idle and free. When the room is full of guests, his only worry is that the barrels may run out; careless of all posthumous fame, the only weighty object seems to be that precious cup. You cannot make nightshirts out of pearls, nor subsist upon jades thatglow in the night. The best food fills your belly, but cannot stimulateyour spirit; the best dress gives you warmth, but cannot delight your sou1. Of all things in the universe, only This One enables you to transcend the material world. Truly, it is something that one cannot go without for a day. What is this intoxicating potion which intoxicates you and yet clarifies your mind, which sets you at ease with yourself and enables you to perceive the ultimate truths of life?
“酒頌”
濁酵有妙理賦
酒勿嫌濁，人當取醇。失憂心于昨夢，信妙理之疑神……伊人之生，以酒為命。常因既醉之适，方識此心之正。稻米無知，豈解窮理？翰英有毒，安能發性？乃如神物之自然，蓋与天工而相并。得時行道，我則師齊相之飲醇；遠害全身，我則學徐公之中圣。湛若秋露，穆如春風。疑宿云之解駁，漏朝日之域紅。初体粟之失去，旋眼花之掃空……兀爾坐忘，浩然天縱。如如不動而体無礙，了了常知而；心不用。座中客滿，惟憂百磕之空。身后名輕，但覺一杯之重。今夫明月之珠，不可以儒，夜光之壁，不可以舖。芻豢飽我而不我覺，布帛懊我而不我娛。惟此君獨游万物之表，蓋天下不可一日而無。在醉常醒，孰是狂人之樂；得意忘味，始知至道之腴。